Ask the Expert: The Seven Deadly Thoughts, which ones do you have? with Travis Hall

This is amplify you the podcast about you discovering your message and broadcasting to the world. If you're a coach, author or speaker, you'll want to tune in. If you're looking for the best return on your time investment, to get your message out to the world in a bigger way, we're giving you full access behind the scenes look of how we're running our podcasts, how our clients have found success, and what you can do to launch your podcast today. The world needs your message. I'm Michelle Abraham, the host join my family as we unleash your unique genius and find the connections you need to launch your venture today. Join us and let's get amplified. Hello, hello amplify you Michelle Abraham, your host here today. And I'm very excited to bring you pastor Travis Hollis. Today we're going to talk about behind the mic interview with his podcast transformational truth. And we're also going to dive into and ask the expert interview as well. So it's a combo episode today. And Travis, first of all, let's just say hi, how are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic. Michelle, I'm excited for the interview honored to be here and looking forward to it.

Yeah, so I'm looking forward to achieve. I am excited to interview you you. Let's tell our audience a little bit more about you. So Travis, you have been in the ministry since 2001. And you are the lead pastor of the Life Church International, and which is a congregation in metro Atlanta. And so you've been in as to 16 years of ministry experience and four years of serving as a youth pastor. So that's amazing. And so what's great about Travis, you're traveling around, and you're also conference speaker, so you get to be on stage a lot. And you are just passionate about helping people invest in leaders and bring in helping people discover and develop and protect their God given purpose, which I love. Because it's very much aligned with what we do at amplify you as well. And you are also a new author this year, you have a book that's just come out. That's the seven deadly thoughts. And and I'm glad I said this right this time, because you're in it just before we press record, I say like seven deadly sins on like this. All right. And I you said that means it's working. So that's right. So let's dive into your book first. But tell us a little bit about the book. And obviously, that was a great title.

Yeah, thank you. That means it's working. I knew the title would resonate. Well, honestly, Michelle, the vision behind the book was born out of countless coaching and counseling moments with incredible people, gifted people who probably didn't see themselves as gifted, who probably didn't see themselves as people with potential, and they were stuck. But it was amazing to me that they saw themselves as being stuck. And as I continued to interview, talk, and coach these these amazing people, I discovered that their limitations, none of them were external. They were all wrestling with limiting beliefs that at some point, usually early on in their lives, they had adopted beliefs that weren't true about themselves. And so they were settling into a mode of life. That really wasn't what they were created for. There was so much more buried inside of them. And I thought to myself, how can I help more people because I keep running into people who have the same set of limiting beliefs. And I narrowed it down to seven limiting beliefs. And it was amazing to me, Michelle, how many people I talked to this at Oh, my goodness, they bought the book, they've already worked through the book you released in February. How did you know this about me? It was like you were living in my house? How did you know this? And and the truth is the truth of the matter, Michelle? It was it was twofold. I knew it number one because I had to wrestle with these limiting beliefs. And I had coach and counsel with so many gifted people that did as well. So how can I get this message into people's hands the quickest? And so I wrote the book, and so far, so good.

That's amazing. Do you also have a training program that goes along with it that people can also like, you know, like, I love what you're saying in the book here. Travis? Can I can? How can we work together with you?

Yeah, I'm working on the training program right now actually, the request for deeper dives. To be quite honest with you caught me off guard, I really thought if I wrote the book, the book would be enough to help people get through it. And I'm finding out that the book is just beginning to sort of open the wound, if we can say it that way. Like, okay, we've identified why this resonates so deeply within me. Can we take some next steps and so we began to quickly realize, okay, we need to create something else is going to help people live this out to really help them assimilate these truths and lift these lids.

That's great. And in your blog is called the fame my purpose calm. So tell us a little bit about the blog about you getting over there.

Well, I just believe that everyone's created with purpose. And I think one of my primary I believe their streams of purpose. I think we're always looking for the thing. I think that's one of the confusing things about purpose. We're looking for one thing, I really don't think we have the One thing, I think we have multiple streams of purpose, or I call them expressions of your purpose, I do think our purpose will always be tied to our dominant gift. But I think there's multiple expressions of that. And so I think that's part of what I'm created to do is just help people discover what that is get outside of those limiting beliefs get outside of the, the the untruths, we believed about ourselves so that we can honestly step into what we were put on this planet to do, because I don't think we're going to be truly fulfilled until we can do that.

Absolutely. I agree with that. Do you think like, there's some people that come across that, like, know exactly what their purpose is, like, it's been ingrained in them, they know it, they like they live by they, they've known for a long time that this is what they're meant to do. And then there's others that like, it takes a while for it to come out and figure out what that is. Any suggestions for those people that are maybe struggling with trying to figure out what that is?

Yeah, absolutely. I, I think I would begin just by asking yourself some questions that will help you get outside of your own headspace a little bit. So there are some strategic questions. The most common one that I did not come up with this has been around forever. In fact, I think it was Stephen Covey that came up with a question, what would you do with your life if you knew you couldn't fail? I think that's a powerful question. I think because I honestly think one of the obstacles of purpose is fear. We wrestle with fear. It's not always that we don't know what we're supposed to be doing. It's the fear of what will happen if we fail at doing it. That will often keep us stuck in in life. Another question I was encouraged people ask themselves is, what would you do if money weren't a problem? What would you do if you knew you wouldn't have to sift through pain from your past in order to fulfill your purpose? A lot of times, the thing that holds us back is old pain that we just haven't dealt with yet. Sometimes we went through divorce, sometimes we went through some really painful rejection. And dealing with that pain is scary to us. And so we don't, but we don't realize that the old pain is actually inhibiting us from stepping into what we're created to do. And now we're right back full circle to fear, aren't we? So practically speaking as yourself some of those questions to get get outside of your own headspace? Otherwise, just go to my website, cultivate my purpose, I've actually got some really good blog articles that I released. I know a lot of people you know, they tell you, when you when you write a blog, don't give people the answers, make them pay you for the answers. I decided to give people the answers. And I think if they find value in that, they'll reach out. And so I didn't hold back. I just put it all out there. I put 10 questions on the blog that will help you one day, I'm gonna write a book and put the 10 questions in the book. If you don't want to pay for the book, go to the blog.

Yeah. Yeah, I feel I feel the same way with content, you know, like he give, give as much as the value that you have. And then people will pay for the implementation and accountability. Right. So it's not usually, you're absolutely right. I agree. 100%? Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting how that how that goes. And some people are so, so, so close, and want to hold their content so close.

And I think and I think that gets back to one of my pet peeves. I think it's a scarcity mindset. I think we have this tendency to believe, you know, like, Oh, no, if I give them the information, what's left? And I really think the problem is, we don't believe enough in the gift that's inside of us. And what we have to offer to help other people. So I would rather just be generous with the content and give people what they need. And then they can take the next step. So you know, what, can you help me implement this? Can you help me? Can you coach me along and apply some of this? And then we can bring some of this wisdom and experience to help them take the next steps. But yeah, it drives me crazy, especially if if you're in this world of helping people, you know, when you're getting God's, you know, so. So, you know, like, oh, man, I just signed up for this. And I just got God like, you know, just I was hoping you give me a little more information. I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that can help you on the front end. So yeah,

yeah. And over delivering is always giving. I mean, that's our goal, right, is to give everyone as much value as we can. So Travis, can you give us a couple of like, the deadly thoughts and just as an idea, as a community, some of them are a couple of them a little sneak peek into them, so that we can help get our audience on the set on the right foot with at least one?

Yeah, absolutely. I think a couple of deadly thoughts that probably stick out is number one, I don't have what it takes. That's a limiting belief that we are introduced to very early in life. Oftentimes, unintentionally, I don't think people that care about us intend to help us adopt limiting beliefs, but we're often told to play it safe. We're often told, you know, be careful. And I get that I'm a parent. I've got five kids, I get all of that.

You say that word, careful. But if you tie

a lot in, here's the problem with that. Oftentimes, what we're doing subconsciously is we're teaching our kids, be careful, be careful, be careful. What they're learning is I don't have what it takes to not get hurt. I don't have what it takes to not fail. But failure is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. In fact, I've learned far more from my failures and my successes. Can I say was more dangerous. then then then failure, Michel, it's becoming successful at the wrong thing. If I become successful at the wrong thing, I can spend the rest of my life doing stuff that's below my god given purpose. And I will be frustrated. And I'll get to the end wondering what if so addressing the thought, you know, man, I don't have what it takes, let's go ahead and address that thought. Because the truth of the matter is, I really believe that we're created with potential, I think there's treasure buried in every single one of us. And unearthing that treasure is the key to stepping into our purpose. Another another deadly thought I think we all wrestle with is this one, it's too late. It's funny, you can be young and still feel like it's too late. You know, especially in this crazy culture we live in is driven, striving culture, where you know, everyone says you should, you should make your first million dollars by the time you're 27. And then you should, you know, have your first business by the time you're 30. And the three more in the future, you know, everyone's like, I'm too late. I'm too behind the ball. And it's just not true. If you've got breath in your lungs, if you've got the desire to take some steps of faith, listen to me, you can still fulfill your greatest purpose. Listen to Michelle, I've talked to people who said, Listen, they had their greatest successes, they have been more effective in business after the age of 65, than any time before that I've talked to two or three people just this month. I think the one guy who said I have I have seen more success after 65 than any time before then. So I just hope that encourages somebody, because listen to me, it is not too late.

Absolutely, I see so many of our podcasters. And so proud of them coming in to try to do a new business and a podcast at 65 and older. And it's like yes, like, great, because they're finally doing like, what they're meant their purpose like, doing absolutely. I'd love like love all these, these deadly thoughts, because they're actually like very aligned with the things that prevent people from getting their podcast started. And actually, you know, wanting to be the saw becoming the best kept secret and starting and getting more visible out there is very much aligned with the things that are holding people back, do you find that there's a common thread between all this and the seven deadly thoughts that are holding people back from from the all all of them together, holding people back by each individually also hold people back from doing what they're meant to be doing?

Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the common threads that you'll see in all of the seven thoughts is they all carry within them. You know, always the thought itself is not the most dangerous thing. It's what's hidden behind it, it's the thought is just the Trojan horse, so to speak, you know, inside it is the real poison. And the real poison, the one thread you'll find in all seven is that they'll all produce a sense of doubt, every single one of them will produce a sense of self doubt. And, you know, obviously, I'm a pastor. And so what I've discovered is, is people either doubt something about God or doubt something about themselves. And it is that doubt that will keep us from taking a step of faith, taking a leap of faith. Fearing that we're going to fail, I always use the example of Peter. In the Bible, Peter took this crazy step of faith out of the boat onto the water. But halfway through, he started to look at the winds and the waves in the storm. And he said, Oh, wait a minute, you know, which comes back to my first deadly thought, which is Did God really say? We begin to doubt? Is this really His will for my life? Can I really accomplish something great with my life? Is there more for me? And then we begin to sink under the storm that we should have been walking on? Quite frankly, because we have the gifts within us to do so.

Wow, that's interesting. Do you find that it's, um, that people are not? So into your story, I was thinking of thinking of my question, and then I've lost it. But I think the you know, I think that's it. People are afraid to want to find their purpose. Like, do you think people are afraid to find their purpose? Or do you think it's just they have so many things that are preventing them from finding their purpose? Yes.

I think it's apps. I think it's absolutely both. I think our journeys are as unique as our personalities. I think there are people that genuinely are afraid of success. I've met people who their biggest obstacle was not the fear of failure, they were afraid of succeeding. And that became their limiting belief. And so they'll sabotage their success, just before they're about to have a breakthrough. And then I found people that they're really just genuinely afraid of failing. And then I've found people who really are searching for purpose, but they have these layers of limiting beliefs that are preventing them from believing something about themselves. I always tell people, here's one of the greatest signs that you're dealing with a limiting belief. You're always frustrated. You're always frustrated. Here's why. Because in your heart, you know what you're supposed to be doing. But there's a ceiling in your mind. In every time, what you're supposed to be doing starts to creep up, it'll hit that ceiling and you'll always end up frustrated, you walk around frustrated, I'm supposed to be doing something else. But we won't take that step of faith just because we believe we can So that's why I wrote the book. And that's why I write the blog. And that's why I want to help people because man Life is too short to be doing something other than what you're created to do.

And being that frustration all the time to that will be god awful. I mean, I'm big believer of taking that leap and failing fast. And I think there's so many hidden treasures in that failing. It's so interesting that you know, what the seven deadly thoughts that you've come up with Travis is very similar to all the things that we're seeing in people that want to get started in their podcasts as well. And that bridge between the two. So it's almost in so many, it affects every every area of your life when you're when you're dealing with one of these limiting beliefs. And, you know, it's just to see people what's the what's been your experience in seeing people break through these these limiting beliefs?

Well, it's amazing once they become aware of these realities, and they'll just begin to take a step of faith and to your point, they find out a couple of things. Number one, they found out that there was more inside of them than they gave themselves credit for. That's the first thing people find out. And I would encourage those listening, take the step of faith, the first thing you're going to find out, there's more inside of you than you knew that you had. Your story really is powerful, people are waiting to hear it. And the second thing people find out is that fear is a liar. It's amazing. The minute they challenge their fears, and they lean into instead of away from it. They're like, wait a minute, you got to be kidding me. This whole time, I was afraid to take this step because I thought this was going to happen. Watch it. Even Michelle even the people that experienced failure, you know what they find out? Fear was lying to them about what failure could do to them. And they're like, all this is all I thought something worse was gonna happen. The worst thing that happened was I learned how not to do it. You know, I grew through it. I love what you just said, Michelle. I absolutely love it. Let's go ahead and take the leap and fail fast.

Yeah, her like, you can imagine like, you know, I think he bows something for so long and having a fear around something so long. Then you finally you built up this mountain? And then finally you to it. You're like, why did I waste all that? Yeah, I think about that around my taxes, right? I think so much are not doing them not doing they're not doing them. And then when you finally dealing you're like, Well, that was so by by today. We so what do you see?

That's right, exactly. Now, that's a great point, I think in which takes me to I'll throw one last one out at you I my last deadly thought number seven is if it were God's will, it would be easy. Now, not everyone on listening may be people of faith. So listen to me. But let me just say to everyone listening, Destiny does not equal easy. And if we automatically assume that destiny is easy, we will quit at the first sign of adversity. I think a lot of purpose and destiny that we were created to fulfill goes dormant Michelle, because we stopped pursuing it at the first sign of difficulty. We were convinced that hey, you know what, if this is God's Will from Allah, then it should just be easy, like doors should just open and sometimes we quit so short. I recently talked to some people who said, Man, I lost a podcast, but then I stopped doing it. And I said, Well, why? And they said, because we did two episodes, and we didn't get any traction. So we quit. Yeah. And I said, Oh, well, I you know, let me help you. Listen, if you're only going to, to to do two episodes, you to get attraction. Of course, you know, you're not going to last you've got to stay committed for the long haul and believe in the vision that's in your heart, Chase and go after it with everything. You've got sort of the end. There's no question marks. You're like, man, I lived it out. I discovered my purpose. I walked it out. I lived a full life.

Yeah. And it's for those bumps and speed bumps and adversity that you come across and lonely. That's where those gems in those lessons and that growth comes from is going through some of those experiences can match How boring your life would be if it was just easy peasy all the way through.

Absolutely no growth. No, I know, I was just sharing with some some leaders yesterday and I said, Listen to me, the number one thing that's going to produce the most creativity, the most sense of fulfillment and growth in your life is going to be making one decision, I'm going to lean into the discomfort rather than away from it, I'm going to lean into my insecurity rather than away from it, I'm going to lean into the conflict rather than away from it. Because the thing that you're avoiding is usually the thing that's going to provide the breakthrough you've been waiting for.

That's interesting, I guess back to my story that some of our listeners may know this, but some Don't worry as I took me so long to actually launched my podcast. And it's it's all those fears that came up of what would it be like to do that and all this kind of thing. But, you know, now now after doing it and leaning into it, and in launching it and going through is like I've gotten very comfortable being uncomfortable in that keynote that uncomfortableness has now been comfortable. So now that's in the in that area of growth. They're able to You know, now, you know, I'm so glad I did. And I wish I had done it. Again, that same sort of thing. It's like, you know, she just got busted through those fears right from the beginning. But yeah, the magic that comes from being going through something that's uncomfortable to the the comfortableness in that now, like, so comfortable doing podcasts now. It's like, I'm on them several times a day. And it's not something that's a scary anymore. And it's not something that's, you know, being seen and being visible. And it's not, it's not a scary thing anymore. So

yeah, I wish I just said Actually, yeah, that's an excellent point. You just dropped some gold there. I hope I hope all of your listeners go back and listen to that. You just dropped some gold get comfortable being uncomfortable. Goodness.

Yeah. And then if you just get comfortable with that, uncomfortableness, nothing seems to be impossible anymore, right? It seems to me you could do anything, do anything you can, you can be anything you can you have the power within and knowing that you have the power within to do anything is such a freeing thought, right? It's such a freeing mindset to be in in your youth doesn't stop you from, you know, going out and living your best life and doing all the fun adventures that you've done. Just so cool. Charles, I bet this book is helping so many people. I really wanted to share with our audience where because this is a lot of the things that are stopping those people that are listening, have not watched their podcast yet. These are a lot of the things that are in their way of getting going and getting getting started. So where can we find your book to buy?

Well, I mean, you can find it on Amazon. But I have created a bunch of free resources for people. If they go to my website, first, they can go to my website at cultivate my purpose, comm forward slash book. And if you go over there, you can get access to a free five part course called discovering the purpose in your pain, I put this video course together, I put a lot into the course just like we talked at the beginning of the interview, I didn't hold anything, gave it all, I gave it all. And it was it's a powerful course you can get that for free. I also put together my five top interviews from my podcast that you can just download, you can get a study guide along with it and the first chapter for free if you go over there, or you just go to Amazon and buy the book, but I prefer to put more resources and tools into the hands of people.

Awesome. So let's cultivate my purpose comm forward slash book forward slash book is where you can go find out all that information, guys. So highly recommend the I will put it in the show notes as well. And Travis, I want to talk about your podcast for many transformational truths podcast. So yeah, how long is it? How long have you had your podcast for?

We launched October 16 of 2020.

Great. And what's your experience been as a podcaster? So far,

you know what it has been great. In fact, I was just telling my team how much fun I'm having. My podcast is just one of those things. When I look at my you know, the things that I do the things that I'm responsible for. I love the podcast, just having a good time that the vision behind the podcast was similar to the book in that I saw a lot of people in positions of leadership not having fun, they're not enjoying the journey. And I'm like, okay, it doesn't have to be this way. I really believe there's paradigms of leadership that will restore the joy to the journey of leading whatever you're leading. I don't care if it's your family, I don't care if you're leading a business, I don't care if you're leading a podcast or a nonprofit. And I think we've adopted a lot of models of leadership in our culture that are toxic, and they're they're hurting our relationships, our families, our marriages, etc. That was the vision of the podcast, we want to restore the joy to Life and Leadership. And so I bring guests on to tackle issues that are going to do that very thing. let's eliminate those obstacles and get people back to enjoying life.

That's awesome. I love it. And whenever one of my friends Cheryl Brewster her acronym for choice, just open yourself. And I love that because it's just that is like when you're open, you're joyfully No, I think that's really just wanted to share that one with you. I think it's really awesome. So you're interviewing leaders, leaders on your podcast, and when it leaders of all kinds that you're interviewing?

Yeah, you're no no, I'm all kinds of leaders. We, you know, I've interviewed obviously, ministry leaders, but I've also interviewed business leaders and I've interviewed people in the the the the law side of leadership, I've interviewed I mean, all kinds of thought leaders and leaders from every walk of life. And so I really wanted to be something that helped people not just in the the minister. Well, I mean, I do interview those leaders, but I got a few leaders from all walks of life, because I just want to see people thrive and do well, I don't, again, Michelle, life is way too short. So let's enjoy this journey. And it has

some fun where you're at. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that because, you know, we have so much seriousness in our life and they're so, so serious and pressure and it feels very heavy responsibility and stuff. But I think that you know, it should be more joyful. Absolutely, I agree. Yeah. If you can learn anything learning from your kids that are outside just having fun laughing like that, that would be awesome. Yeah. So Travis, what's your goals with your podcast?

Well, my goal with the podcast is I want to help people learn how to simply be, we're so focused on doing, we've lost. To your point, to your point, just get back to being like, watch your kids play. You know why? Because there's so much fun to watch, because they haven't caught on to this doing thing, like, you know, like, I have to have value, I've got to do something. Kids still are just enjoying being a kid. I don't think that has to stop. I think we're human beings, not human doings. If we can get back to learning how to be, you know, shoring up our identity, getting back to finding our value, not not tied, not tying our value to our activity, or identity to our activity, because that is a roller coaster of misery.

Oh, that is what I see so many of our entrepreneurs doing too. And I, myself included for a long time tied my value to how my business is doing, right.

Yeah, and it is the absolute, in fact, I would say, Michelle, you just hit on probably the number one joy killer, in any realm of leadership today is falling into the trap of tying value, worth and identity to what we do. When we do that we ensure that at best, our sense of happiness, our sense of joy is going to be extremely temporary and extremely temperamental. Right. Yeah. The people that care about us the most will never know what to expect from us. Our joy on any given day will be based upon how our performance went at work.

Yeah. Which I can remember that like, especially in the sales in this being in sales at the beginning of my career was there was a lot of up and down. Here you we lose. Holy moly, it was like a roller coaster is so yeah, I can see how valuable that is to really separate those. Yeah. That's awesome. So as you said, like so many of our clients that amplify, you said that the podcasting is your most favorite thing to do. You're having so much fun with that. So I am so happy to hear like because it's so also one of my favorite things to do in my business. And it's one of the most enjoyable things I get to do during during the week and connecting with other people. And amazing leaders like yourself are so, so great, because not only you know, I do it selfishly because I like the personal development I get out of being the host of the show. I'm learning something from all of our amazing guests. So I think it's like one of the best personal development things that you can do. I

agree. I agree. I'm like, Man, I'm just having way too much fun. I'm learning way too much. Sometimes I wonder, should it be this fun? Am I doing it right?

You are doing it right? Yeah, that's right. That's awesome. Well, Pastor Travis, thank you so much for being with us and ever for you today. It's been a joy, to get to know you and to hear all the amazing things that you're up to. I'm really excited to dive into your book the seven deadly thoughts and also check out your podcast transformational truths. So for all of our podcast listeners out there who are thinking about starting a podcast, definitely pastor Travis's job, some amazing nuggets in this episode, that will maybe inspire you to go and look at his blog, go to cultivate my purpose comm check out the blog, check out his podcast. And hopefully that will inspire you to get past some of those limiting beliefs that maybe are holding you back from living the life that you've always wanted to. And also beginning other and amplifying yourself into the world as a leader because we need more of you out there. So please, please, please go check out of pastor Travis's material out there. So, Travis, thank you so much for being with us today.

Michelle, thank you for having me. It's been great.

Any last words before we let you go?

Yeah, my I would tell people don't settle for anything less than what you were created to do. Discover your purpose. go after it. take steps of faith. Don't be afraid to fail. There's more out there for you.