FINDING YOUR MID-LIFE PURPOSE With Art Blanchford

Record. Hello. It's Howard Brown. It's the

Shining Brightly Show. I hope it's shining brightly wherever

you are in the world today, I have an amazing guest. Art,

Blanchard art, welcome. How are you?

Thank you so much, Howard. I'm feeling great

this morning. Thank you so much for having me on your show.

Well, I have to tell you, art's got a tremendous

story. Okay, I'm not gonna, you know, bury the lead, but he's

got something to tell you here, and he's climbed a mountain, and

he is helping others, lifting up others, and that's what this

show is all about. Let me tell you a little bit about art,

because he's a cool adult. All right. Art Blanchford is the

founder and the host and the coach of life in transition

podcast, and he's a midlife transition mastery coach. He

helps people and organizations through the changes that life

gives them after having a profound transformation, like he

did himself in his 40s and his 50s, called kind of the second

act in life. And he actually is the founder and general manager

of Pinnacle leadership, and he's a strategic advisor, and He

guides companies through leadership strategy and mergers

and acquisitions. He's a best selling author of a recently

published book called purposeful living. It's the wisdom of

coming of age in complex times. And prior to that, in 2021 he

was an executive vice president of North America, China and

Korea, for the automotive business company called vioneer.

And they were Premier and active in safety and self driving

company, and they got bought out. So he had the lived

experience there for that. But before that, art, tell me how

you shine brightly every day.

Yeah, there's two things that really bring me

forward into every day. And the first is my quiet time, so

meditation and journaling and prayer that I do every morning

first thing, and then getting out in the world to exercise

while the sun's coming up, you know, whether I'm running or

biking, but those are the two foundations that I have found

that really helped me keep shining brightly every day, and

then the end of the day, I end with my wife doing gratitudes

and what we appreciate about each other right before we go to

sleep.

I love that. That's That's incredible. All

right, we got to dig in help, because it's fascinating your

upbringing. You got to share, you know, a bit about your

upbringing and and tell people what you had to endure. Yeah.

I mean, I was raised in a religious cult. It

was really a tough environment where I saw a lot of stuff and

learned to be very independent and learn to please the man,

please the one in charge. And that I, you know, was I felt

very different, but it served me very well in business, because

if you could answer the questions the boss had before he

could ask him, you climb the ladder really fast. So it gave

me a lot of compassion for others, but a lot of insecurity

in myself, quite frankly, a lot of lack of worthiness and shame.

But I used it to be very, very successful in business. I didn't

even realize that's what was driving me until I sort of

crashed and burned at 49

years old. Wow. And so I mean, that was the

influence of growing up in that just had tremendous, profound

impact on you, and you had to carry that with you. And so we

all carry stuff, and I actually call that darkness, and in my

book, I use that I carry that darkness, and we have to learn

from that. And sometimes we actually don't have that self

actualization or realization. For many, many years. I know

people that have held it in and again, me with, you know, my

cancer, you know, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. I

carried that with me always, but I've learned from the lessons of

the darkness, and I know that that light is within us, and

some people's light is very dim, and they need to be shining, and

we all help them that way. So absolutely, tell us how you got

through and then tell us a little bit about your starting

your business career and and how you did succeed.

Yeah. I mean, I think I was, I was really lucky

to be, to be, you know, I was very capable growing up, and I

did a lot of things, but, you know, we lived on our homestead,

so I learned I could do a lot of things, and I started doing work

on myself Institute for self actualization when I was only

17. So I did a ton of stuff when I was a young young man, toward

functioning well in the world, and helping them easy to

succeed, helping me to work with others, which was very useful.

And then I treated people right. Like that was one thing I got

from the very beginning. You know, I treat people right. I

treat my employees like family. And that was how I attracted

great employees. And with great employees or team members, you

can, you can rise up. I mean, I was running a 10,000 person

company in China, multi billion dollar company, when I was in my

30s, and there's really about treating people right, right?

And I always, I always felt in business, it's, you know, happy

happy employees or happy team members, make happy customers,

make happy shareholders or owners. And that was the way I

focused in business, and was very successful at that. But I

also didn't realize I drove myself so. Hard because I felt I

was my work, like how I performed at work was equal to

my identity, which is makes you a workaholic in that case. And

so I burned out at 49 when I and I also had the realization of

what was driving me and started on this magnificent spiritual

journey four years ago with workaholics anonymous and really

building my connection with with God, and driving my life in a

very different way to serve others and to be healthy in the

second half and take much better care of myself and my family.

All right, it's so funny because, you know, as

we've talked and got to know each other, I did the same

thing. I got better from cancer twice, and I got on the

workaholics truck, and just the speed lane, you know, with

startups in Silicon Valley. And, you know, work became my

identity. And I actually had to, my wife had to kind of sit me

down and say, you know, you want to have a family. You can't just

be, you know, Howard workaholic. It's not going to work in

raising a child. And it's funny. And I was doing a lot of

community service too, and I just blended it. I just blended

it too. And I now coming out of the, you know, my cancer

survivorship, and thank God, I'm blessed, lucky and grateful that

I've had that realization, you know, that who I really am and I

am Mr. Shining brightly, that's who I really am. And I found it,

and it took me a while to get there, right? So as you tell me,

so you burned out. And then I want to know kind of how you

came to that, and also the outdoors and nature and what

that means to you, because I know it's a big part of your

identity, too. Now,

yeah, that is, I'll take the first one about

how I burned out. I'll take that one first. I mean, basically I

just worked myself into the ground. You know, I was

traveling around the world twice a month, most months, every

month, at least once. And, you know, had offices on three

continents, two in the US. And you know, was just running like

crazy and pretending jet lag didn't matter, pretending sleep

didn't matter, and still maintaining a very high training

you know, I was doing endurance races and Iron Man and ultra

marathons during this time as well. So I was just running my

body. I wasn't listening to my body, and I was running it into

the ground. And Emotionally, I was still completely identified

with work and really afraid, like, if I made one mistake, I'd

be fired and then I would starve. Like that was how fast

my mind was, even though I was, I was saving good money and

saving for retirement and so forth. But I was, my mind was

that fast to to want to shut off so or, you know, to freak out.

But I, I got to a point in 2020, right as covid hit, where my

body shut down. I got back from Asia. I couldn't go to China

because covid was raging there, but I was in Japan and Korea.

And then I got home, and then my body shut down. And my first

thought was, they're going to find out I'm I'm broken, and

then I'm gonna be fired and starve like that was my first

thought. But my company was much, much better than that. And

said, hey, you need to get well, and, you know, we'll reduce your

job until you get well and take care of yourself and get

healthy. But I realized I had been thinking for a while, I

need to change something, but I didn't. I couldn't, I couldn't

separate myself from my identity of work, and so I didn't know

what to change. And my wife suggested that I check out

workaholics, anonymous 12 step recovery program for

workaholics. And that really started me on this wonderful

spiritual journey, I shouldn't say started I've been on, I've

been, you know, a spiritual journey my whole life, and been

very active in church and so forth. But it, you know,

exponentially increased my spiritual journey to really

surrender and let go and let God became my my theme. And with

that, I let go of my job right at the peak. And it was very

prayerful consideration about it, and but I know I needed them

to get myself healthy. And it coincided very, I was very

blessed that it coincided with the sale to I helped get the

company sold to Qualcomm, and I had a few shares, so that gave

me some breathing room to figure out what's next in my life, and

not have to just feel like I have to stay on the treadmill.

And that's, that's the journey I've been on. Started my

company, done a bunch of consulting, started my podcast,

wrote my book, and really working with people in midlife

transition now, like what I've been through and really learned

a lot about so that's it's been an amazing journey. My 18 year

old. My youngest is 18, a girl adopted from China, and she's

she talks now because she gets to see both dads, really,

because she was still at home after I came home in 2020 and

she talks about, yeah, that was when you were a bad dad, and

this is when you're a good dad. Like, those are two

differentiate. I mean, which I wasn't really a bad dad, but I

was gone half the time, right? So, yeah, it's early. Life is

very different than it was five years ago for me.

So I speak in my book about finding your happy

place, your stress free zone, and to go there and schedule it

in. Tell me about your affinity with nature and the outdoors.

Yeah,

so that is, and thank you, Howard, because that

is you see this picture over my shoulder? Oh yes, 12 of my

family members that I led into the Bob Marshall National

Wilderness in northwestern Montana for six days last year,

and I planned and prepared and took them out there. And that's

ah, was like. Like being in the mountains for me, being in

nature generally, being in the mountains specifically, is my

happy place, like you talk about as your basketball court. I mean

that was living in community together, like the way that we

were meant to be. I feel like for it was for those six days

being with my all five siblings, plus one brave sister in law and

a bunch of nieces and nephews, was really amazing. And, you

know, I do a lot of hikes and backpacking like that and that,

it just grounds me and connects me and brings me all kinds of

joy. Being in the mountains and I and I'm going, next month,

I'll be out in the Rockies again, hiking and then doing the

rim to rim to rim 50 mile race through the Grand Canyon in

October. But being out in nature by myself, I love it. And being

out in nature with other people and building that community, I

also just absolutely love it. It's just, it just nourishes my

soul, absolutely. Yeah,

so for those that are listening and not watching,

I gotta tell you, there's a picture in the mountains with

the group, but the expression of joy on your face right now is

just contagious. I'm just like, I want to go hiking with you

right now. I want to, let's, let's do it. Let's hit the

trails. Oh my god, I really appreciate that. So you spoke

earlier about what you're doing now, and you have life in

transition podcast. You have a coaching mastery group, and you

have a book. Can you share? Share what's going on there?

Yeah,

absolutely. I'll start with a quick one, the book

I wrote for my kids, and I wrote it over the last 15 years, and

it's called purposeful living wisdom for coming of age in

complex times, but it's appropriate for everybody. It's

the lessons that I have learned that I packaged up in a way. And

a lot of the research I've done, I've read 1000s of books, I've

attended hundreds of personal growth seminars and spiritual

retreats and silent retreats and monasteries and ashrams and

everything in between. And I just packaged that wisdom up,

focused on really two people in that book, if you will, two

audiences, people coming of age and people raising people coming

of age, and I wanted to make that available to my kids and

for other people. So that's the book. It's, it's not incredibly

smooth, but there's a lot of great wisdom in it. Let me put

it that way, and I like it quite a bit. So that the things I'm

really pouring into right now is my midlife transition business

and support for folks, I have a midlife mastery. I've written

the eight steps to mastering midlife transition, and we have

monthly calls to support that community. Very exciting, very

beneficial for folks, getting clarity, getting clear about the

purpose, building authentic community, and then having the

action to overcome the fear to move forward to what it is that

really juices them for their second half. And that's, you

know, what I've done in the last four years, and now sharing that

and sharing the wisdom from the guests of my podcast, hundreds

of interviews that I've done as well with that with that

audience. And then I love doing the podcast I love, as Timothy

Ferris said, the main reason for doing a podcast is to connect

with people you actually want to connect with and are curious

about, and the people I've met like you, and then people you've

introduced me to. But it's just really enriching my life and

helping me learn and really making a difference for our

listeners as well. So those are the main things that I have

going on right now. And you know, of course, doing my

adventure athlete and raising kids. I'm off next week to take

my daughter to start university in Scotland. Really looking

forward to that, and then be meeting some friends from my

midlife mastery group in London for dinner afterwards. So, yeah,

really, really, a great life right now, very different than

what it was five, six years ago. I

and rightfully so. And you know, you've kind of

corrected the ship, and now you teach others how to do that, and

we are very aligned. I mean, I talk about walking in the

darkness, getting knocked down in life and in business and in

health, in my case, a couple times, and also in

relationships. And even even the most successful people of what

to do next, they get stuck, and you have this beautiful story

that be able to figure that out. And I believe I figured it out

too, but it's always a work in progress. Absolutely always just

a work in progress. But I love that getting the help to get

that clarity that is really important, because we all have

blind spots, and people like you help, you know, see what you're

not seeing or don't want to admit to. We just did a little

bit about that in the green room with me. So I was, you know, you

helped me out a little bit there, in talking through some

stuff. So I appreciate that very much. And so right now, what are

the priorities for you in life? Yeah,

I mean, I think my number one priority is my

connection with God, right? And that's that. And I and I

actually just this morning, I recommitted to increasing my

prayer time in the evenings and my meditation time, because I'm

only doing the mornings regularly. Yeah, and I feel like

that's because to me, that's the connection, like I can do all

kinds of action, but if it's not what I call inspired action, it

may be taking me in actually, the wrong direction completely.

So that's my number one priority. And then from that,

it's taking care of myself, because if I'm not healthy and

rested and clear, I can't be of use to anybody else. And after

that, it's then taking care of my immediate family, both my

children and my wife, as well as, you know, brothers and

sisters and cousins. I have a lot of extended family, and then

serving serving others right and which is right now, primarily

through people going through transition, people that have got

to midlife and are successful and then going. But now what? I

still feel empty. I still feel hollow. What do I What's or

maybe I'm sick, or maybe I'm getting divorced, like things

are starting to blow up. When I did everything I thought I was

supposed to do everything society taught me, my parents

taught me to do. I checked all the boxes, and yet life still

isn't what I imagined. I still don't feel inside the way I

imagined I would helping those folks find their true north,

find their what Joseph Campbell calls saying a hearty yes to

their adventure, right? To help them identify what their

adventure is, and then to work toward that and to do things

that really juice them, like I never would have had time to do

that hike in Montana while I was a corporate executive, right?

Yeah,

that's so true. I will tell you, there's a lot of

empty nesters. I'm in that phase now. My daughter's launched.

She's a TV reporter in Missoula, Montana, and my wife, and we're

trying to figure it out, right? We're trying to get that clarity

to move forward, and we're going to change things up and get to

California and, you know, experience new people, new new

things to to kind of get that clarity. And I'm really looking

forward to embracing that. Plus, it's really cold here in

Michigan.

I'll share that. I'll share that eight steps

master midlife transition with you as well. These are the eight

steps that I have found for me to overcome fear and to get

clarity. It's on my website, but I'll share that with you as

well. Howard really, really been useful for me and and getting

clarity and having the courage to overcome the fear and all the

all the patterns and programs I had in my head based on how I

was raised.

Are you going to share right now?

I'll send it to you. No, I'm not going to go. I

mean, I could, but I'm not going to go through it right now.

I'll send out. Okay, well, I want people to be

able to get access, yeah, so

they can pick it up on Artblanchford.com or life

in transition podcast.com

Perfect, perfect, perfect. Alright, so tell me now

differently. You know when you were, you know, thick in the

thick of business. You know, who are some of your role models

in business? No, just well in life, yeah, so one

is right behind me on the head. People can't see it, but that's

Stephen Covey behind me. Okay, so I really had so when I think

of heroes right for myself and in general, in life, I feel like

I've had three heroes or role models that I've really looked

up to. One was Stephen Covey, author of seven habits and the

eighth habit. And just what someone who I've had the

pleasure to work with him and meet him and talk with him, and

someone who really walked the talk right? Amazing, amazing man

that I had so much respect for another was og mandino, this

author of many, many, many, many books, also had a chance to meet

him and hang out with him before his passing, and just talking

about a better way to live and how to have you know how? You

know, he also has an amazing story, but he has probably 25

books, and started life over in his 40s after losing his family

and wanted to commit suicide. You know, he was going to shoot

himself, but it was so cold and wet outside, he went into the

library for a minute to wait for this rain to stop, and found a

book and started reading it, and turned his life around, and then

became this best selling author. And, you know, married again and

started a new family and and helped millions of people, and

really inspiration to me. And then the third one was Tony

Robbins. You know, did a ton of work with Tony Robbins when I

was younger and very geared toward action and creation, but

really helped me tremendously. And when I see his story and

what he overcame, and how much value he's adding in the world

right now, those, those are folks that have really, I've

really looked up to. There's other business mentors and

things that I had in business as well, but those are the three

sort of that I would put in the in the hero category for me that

I've tracked for the last, you know, 30 years plus,

I love it. Thank you for sharing that. I'm going

to ask you to put on your sunglasses. I know you got some

cool, cool shades here. So this is the time of the show that we

call the shining brightly spotlight. And we are shining

brightly on each other, but I'm shining it on you to share how

the best way to get a hold of you. I know you mentioned it,

but mentioned it again, and then please leave me with some

inspirational quota story, and then we'll wrap up the show.

Absolutely.

Thanks. Howard, yeah, you can best way to reach

me. I mean, I'm LinkedIn, art Blanchford. I'm actually the

only one out there. And then Art blanchford.com, life in

transition podcast.com, really look forward to interacting. I'm

also on all the socials and art blanchford, or life in trans.

Position, so I really appreciate that and look forward to

interacting. I have two quotes that I want to share. Howard, if

it's okay, sure. The first one is one that actually came to me

early in the morning, about three o'clock in the morning, is

that life is not a monument to be built. It is an unfolding

adventure to be experienced. And the second one, and I don't know

who said this one, it's not for me, but it's a happy life is

merely a succession of happy moments, but most people forego

the happy moments in pursuit of a happy life. Go for the

moments, and the happy life will take care of itself.

Wow, I love it. Thank you so much for that, just

taking it in because it's profound, and I'm glad it came

to you, and I'm glad you shared. Well, this has been incredible.

I hope people will reach out to you and buy your book and take

your class as well as invite you to speak. And I just, I really

appreciate you. Know, we just over the last few months,

developed a really nice friendship, and we I appreciate

you, and I wanted to let you know that that I appreciate your

friendship and also the knowledge that you you bestowed

with me, and then now the audience. So this has been the

shining brightly podcast show you can reach me, Howard Brown,

Mr. Shiny@shiny.com where you can learn about, you know, my

book and my life memoir and the lessons learned to lead a

resilient life with hope. But also, if you'd like to hire me

to speak and come make your event shine, a fundraiser panel,

please contact me, and also, let's This podcast is their

stream there as well, and we've got a huge audience out there.

But the most important part of my website, absolutely, is my

advocacy and the cancer world for survivorship, for screening

and to support those in their time of need and

entrepreneurship mentorship with Babson College as well. And so I

just want to give a quick shout out to front edge publishing,

who makes me look great. Read the spirit magazine, also of the

amplify network, my podcast, finishing house makes me look

great. And also the diamond moments magazine, who are

sponsors, I got a few others coming on board here, and just

remember, if you choose to shine brightly just a little bit each

day for yourself, and then lift up others with that beautiful

light in your communities, in your neighborhoods, yes, the

world would become a better place. Thanks, art amazing.

Thank you. Howard, such a pleasure to be

with you and thanks for all the support that you've given me as

well. Thank you. My pleasure. Bye.