Cultivating Miracles, Overcoming Trauma, and Achieving Dreams | with Tim Storey

Michael: What's up, Unbroken Nation! Hope that you're doing well wherever you are in the world today. I'm very excited to be back with you with another episode and my guest, super superstar – Tim Storey. Tim, my friend how are you today? What is going on in your world?

Tim: I'm doing good. I'm just loving the whole black and white thing you got going on, with the shirt the white background. Bam! You're looking good.

Michael:  I appreciate that man. You know, a lot of people have said that recently and I think I'm gonna keep it the same. There is a quote I've been contemplating putting behind here from Jay-z says, ‘people around you saying that you changed well, I didn't do all this work to stay the same.’

And so, the white background might have a quote on it I'm undecided on it. Tim, I wanna start I spent years researching you and learning about you and so first and foremost it's an honor to have you on this show.

We share many mutual friends and they all of course speak very highly of you and this opportunity felt like a great way for us to help give your knowledge, your information to the Unbroken Nation; these incredible groups of people who are trying to change their world and putting in massive action every day. And the question I wanna start off here is very simple, how does a little boy from Compton with several siblings and a massive loss at such a young age who goes to seminary, become one of the most prolific leaders in the world?

Tim: Hey! Thanks for the compliment. So, I think that it's really like one step at a time, it's like growing up with innocence and creativity and loving motown music and loving the dance and loving soul train. But then later finding out like we don't got that much money, so, it's almost like you want Levi's but you get pivis, you want converse but you got something else. So, I think that I had the fantasy that had the reality of how our lives were, right? But truly from education, conversation and observation we get Tim Storey. So, people help me with education, help me with conversation, I had observation of certain people I want to be like and I just started to grow and then here I am now.

Michael: In that one of the things, I see happen all the time so little context since we don't know each other that well I work with adult survivors of childhood trauma. And that myself is my story, at four years old my mother cut off my right index finger, she was a drug addict alcoholic, I was homeless as a kid drug addict at twelve, you name it.

How do you leverage those people who speak into you to become you? Because I think so often, we have these people they're like right there and maybe it's a cart before the horse but how do you actually leverage that and entertain it and bring it in and sit with it and allow it to be absorbed?

Tim: I think your challenges were more intense than mine because I feel that you know even though I was raised with a father who struggled with many things and my parents were very volatile, it wasn't to the point of like a mother inflict pain on me, right? So, it's not just the surroundings that you faced but it was also like the abuse that was physical I never had that, so sorry that you went through that. But I think it's difficult and I think that's why most people are overcome by it and it gets within the fabric of them. It's almost like this if somebody smokes in your house one or two times, it'll only penetrate your furniture so much but if they live in your house for thirty days and smoked every day it's gonna penetrate the fabric of every part of your house. And so, Michael that's what's happened to people are that the negativity has penetrated them we have to be real about that, to dog on it that stuff got in me and maybe that's why I'm triggered, maybe that's why I respond this way, maybe that's what I have these actions. So, how do I now reverse the curse that's in my life and that's what I'm good at. I teach people how to turn their setbacks in the comeback.

Michael: I think that's everything but how do you do that? And what I wanna do is approach this from a practical way because so many people are stuck, right? And they're like, I can't, I shouldn't, I don't know if I can. What is Tim bringing to the table to help create that reframing for people?

Tim: What I bring to the table is what I learned from my therapist to start with Doctor Helen Mendez who taught at USC, she's now deceased but she literally changed my life. First time I saw her I was thirty years of age and she really took me to a process that me and her ended up creating together. The number one you have to become awake and the hog is sometimes we sleep walk through life and you have to become awake and then secondly you have to take inventory. But this is like, this is from one of the top psychologists in the world saying, this it's not just some motivator saying like, gotta take inventory but you know she had some depth to what she was saying. So, you have to become awake second, take inventory of like where are you really. So, you like to go by Michael is that when you go by?

Michael: Yes, please.

Tim: Okay. So, Michael with your life when you were going to what you're were going to you had to go like, whoa that was pretty whack like she injured me, that was pretty whack look what she did to me, look what she said to me. So, that's like taking inventory being realistic about where we're where at, right? So, become awake, take inventory.

Number three and this is what you're doing on Unbroken you have to partner with the right people and this is where people miss it. You have to partner with somebody who's stronger than you, more knowledgeable than you in this particular area that you're trying to turn your setback and you'll come back, makes sense? So, a lot of people in the past they didn't have the right people to partner with. In today's world man, we can go to a Ted Talk, we can get somebody's book, when get somebody's book on tape, we can listen to the Unbroken Podcast, we can listen to Tim Storey10X, so our lives can be changed in a different way is all like attainable much more than it was let's say in the sixty seventies and even eighties.

Michael: Yeah, I think that's very true. I think about my life in my trajectory going and hitting this massive rock bottom at twenty-five years old without personal development, I cannot imagine I would be where I am right now. And so, I have so much gratitude for people like you and Oprah and Tom Bilyeu and John Lee Dumas who have put together of these this knowledge, this wealth of information for us but something came to mind as you were speaking that I recall that you've mentioned before that I wanna dive into because I believe that (A) you're spot on and I totally agree with you but I think that people felt to nourish that. And you said something that has held true in my life for a very long time he who works his land shall have abundance. Can you talk about the parlay in that experience and that growth?

Tim: Yeah, and it really goes with these points. So, you have to become awake to give inventory partner with like people. But your land is what's in front of you, okay? So, like with Michael's land as a twenty-five-year-old who found out you were in a setback, in order to get out you had to become awake take inventory and partner with people. So, let's say people then gave you advice okay you're struggling with addiction, this is what you need to do. You're struggling with self-esteem, self-worth this is what you need to do, so, your land is what's in front of you. Now little than I know did this Proverb that I got for the bible would echo all over the world through the voice of Tim Storey because this is what I'm really known for and now I’ve been the seventy-six countries of the world and soon it'll be seventy-nine within the next four months. And he works his land is Proverbs 12:11 ‘Shall have abundant but whoever chase his fantasies lacks wisdom that's problem.’ To work land means you gotta plow the ground, you gotta a plant the right seed, you got a water the seed, then you'll get the harvest. Michael everybody wants a harvest without the plow, plow, plow, plant, plant, plant, water, water, water then you get the harvest. How powerful is that you gotta a plow your plant your water then you harvest.

Michael: What would you say to those who hear this and they look out their door and they say well, my land is barren and burned?

Tim: Well, I would say number one that I understand that because it could be they were abused, it could be they lost everything because of a setback, it could be they have cancer, it could be they're struggling with anxiety, mental illness. So, I'm not giving quick solutions here, I mean I'm the guy that gets in the trenches with the biggest celebrities in the world and when I'm with these people male and female, I'm not always trying to give fancy answers. I'm just like, sitting in the crap with people that's my strength but when they're ready to hear then I do believe this, I believe that life will make way whether it seems there is no way. And you look at where Oprah Winfrey started abuse, early pregnancy by her, losing a child, feeling an orthodox, trying to find a way and she is one of the most well-known persons on the planet from Mississippi; she was hurting in Mississippi now one of the most well-known people in the planet. So, you never know what's gonna happen if you're willing to cooperate and plow the ground, plant the seed, water the seed and reap the harvest. Sometimes you gotta see things that are not there yet by faith.

Michael: With that said and I'm hearing this, I'm absorbing it and that's why just have this moment I was like that's so true. I look at all these experiences of my life and would have led me to this moment and even the thousands of people that I've coached them like this took patience, took grace, it took empathy, it took so many things and you said something you've gotta to be ready to hear it. What do you think is the transitional moment that people have in common in which they're ready to hear, is if there even as one?

Tim: No. I think that there it's different thing for different people. So, rock bottom to you they a different rock bottom to me. Somebody get a DUI is rock bottom and to other some somebody else is not it's like, oh, I'll get through that, I'll just keep rolling. So, I think you could either learn from the rocks or learn from the rudder and so, I would rather be led by the rudder on a ship and continue to hit the rocks. So, for me seen my family hit rocks, hit rocks, hit rocks, hit rocks, hit rocks for generations I decided to start walking in wisdom and lead my family through the rudder. And so, I think it's just like, an aha moment where you just like, I love rap so it's like Kanye West (wake up mister west, mister west, mister west everybody's best) you gotta wake up, you gotta wake up and so whatever you wake up is that's it, then you gotta just say what I'm doing is not working I just heard Tim Storey on Unbroken Podcast, he was dope, Michael's dope and then gonna pay attention. Plow, plant, water, harvest. Nobody feels like plowing; you think farmers feel like going out there plowing? No, they do it because they walk by faith and they look for the harvest in their mindset, you walk by faith.

Michael: Yeah. For those who feel so disillusioned by faith because all they felt as failure, all they felt as the world on top of them, all they felt is the world saying you're not good enough, you're not strong enough, you're not capable enough, you don't deserve it, you'll never have it.

For those people who've have just been so obliterated by the world that we live in unfortunately. How do they find faith? Probably first and foremost with themselves but in the world?

Tim: So, I would say, again I'm not the guy I got all this currency here from different countries because I did something on finances recently.

So, I got all this currency that's from Singapore, there's a queen from England, South African rand, this is the Peso, this is the crown from Norway, this is an Indonesian currency. The reason I did all that, I'm not just trying to give you out currency and say this will change your life with just as exchange, no. What some people are going through, your people that are listening me, your crap is deep man, it's deep rooted and that's one reason your grandma never got free, some of your parents never got free but you gotta get to the point where just say man, I’m sick and tired of this cycle, I'm gonna find a way up and out, I'm gonna find a way up and out and if there's a way, I'm gonna find that way Michael some people are not willing to do it. So, some people are gonna just stay dormant and is gonna get most likely the next generation but for me I decided to stop the insanity in my family, it's a choice and this Helen Mendez man even though I was already successful at that age when she got me at thirty, she like ship me up and that lady used to irritate me, she's to shake greatness and she irritated me and she was like, I mean she really got to me and she made me wanna rise to the standard the live crave me to rise, so, it's a choice.

Michael: Yeah, I agree. And I think unfortunately it's a hard reality for people to sit in is the truth of it. Like, Tim, I quit smoking three thousand times you know what I mean? It was like, I not yet made the choice, I've been contemplating it, I've been like, oh I'm gonna quit today and the next thing, boom, I'm smoking or I'm drinking or whatever that thing is and it was when I came to this place in my life and I don't know if you'll resonate with this in any way at all. I stop negotiating with myself, I literally looked at my life and said I'm gonna do this anyway whether it hurts, whether they're suffering, whether it's painful, I'm going to push myself through as hard.

Tim: I think that's smart but it has to be coupled with an accountability partner. So, in everything that I do, I partner with power dude because we're gonna talk ourselves in and out of situations so, like for instance like bang greenfield is super good with health like, one of the best in the world so it's nice that I get access to people like that so I have been helped me and certain things about health and nutrition so, I felt accountable Tim, so that makes me not wanna go through the Mcdonald's drive-thru, does that makes sense?

So, people need to get you in the ear as far as like being somebody who's resilient, gets back up, gets moving, gets thing done but yeah, you gotta have you and the willpower but you need the accountability partner, no doubt about it.

Michael: Yeah. It's what one of our very mutual friends Brandon and Dawson talks about collaboration as the new currency.

Tim: Hi, Brandon!

Michael: Yeah, I love him too, he's incredible mentor in my life.

One of the things that actually just triggered for me as you were going through this is I remember you once saying, I don't chase dreams, I cooperate with them.

Tim: I don't chase anything. You know, because of being in Beverly Hills for so many years, I've been rocking and rolling in Beverly Hills it since 1990 with the biggest stars in the world and I would get offered stuff, I been even get offered movie roles like, big movies not small and if I wasn't in the mood, I wouldn't do it. I get off from this, I get off of that did say if you go here, you're gonna meet and I go, I’m good, you mean you're good, I go – no, I'm good, no, I'm working my land, I'm plowing, I'm planting, I'm watering, my harvest is coming.

Here's what I believe, I'm about to blow your audience away, okay?

Here's the good stuff guys this is why you paid ninety-nine ninety-five for this podcast today. I believe this, “you build your spot and God will put the spotlight on your spot.” I try to put this spotlight light on my own spot, I'm just building my spot. I became so good at some people need to come and get me, just catch that.

Michael: That makes me think of be so good they can't ignore you.

Tim: Hey, Michael. If it's a hundred and three degrees and your air conditioner goes out who are you looking for?

Michael: Calling the Hvac guy.

Tim: Boom!  If we're in a pandemic and you come back…

Michael: Tim Storey.

Tim: If you're a celebrity and all your friends got help by one man who you can call?

Michael: Tim Storey, he's the guy, right?

Tim: It was the cool though because wanna like that but I just would like, I was flowing but I guess dope is that I never said our thought that I'm more Grant than the next guy. I just created my own little secret sauce again if it's hot a hundred and three air conditioning goes out you gotta get that guy in, you gotta create something that we need.

Michael: Two things come to mind in that (one) is this idea that I've been sitting with I'm wondering if this hold is true for you that you only build confidence through consistently doing incredibly uncomfortable things and (two) that those uncomfortable things will lead to failure. And so, what I'm curious about is as you're navigating building not only your confidence in what you've done but navigating the failure how do you reconcile that with who you are as a person?

Tim: Yeah. So, I would add to a lego what you said. You know, what lego is?

Michael: Hundred percent.

Tim: What happens they attach. So, you build confidence not just by doing uncomfortable things, you build confidence also by doing comfortable things over and over and over and over over and over again and tell they become an amazing routine and that's why you have his book Atomic Habits. So, you build that freaking habit, that's what I've done in speaking. The reason I'm such a good speaker is because I created habits like, people always come up to me like oh, my god, like how do you speak like that? I wanna speak like you. Yo! I've been reading out loud three to five times a week since I was in high school, I read out loud in my room, I get a book, this is a book somebody else's book and I read out loud like this Michael, I read, so my diction pops (Watch in most Tim Storey speeches you hardly hear me miss a word.) That is me working a discipline over, over, that's not uncomfortable for me to do, it's something I wanna do, right? But there are a lot of things that I do that are very, very, very, very uncomfortable. Like, continue to eat correctly or continue to have a trainer that's making me do things I don't feel like doing on certain days, right? So, I think it's a comfortable and the uncomfortable lego together and you just create those atomic disciplines in those atomic habits. So, it's added all to your brilliant that's what I did.

Michael: Yeah, I love that, I've never contemplated that before and in real time I'm thinking myself, you know, there was a lot of open mic nights that have led to this moment there was a lot of speaking to four people in twelve before I spoke in front ten thousand of Grant Cardone, there was a lot all of that building the confidence and the comfortability and I've never thought about that before, and I think you're so right.

In that, I wanna go back to the site about failure though because I think people get caught in this so often. You talk about the idea of never wasting a failure, what does that mean?

Tim: Well, I think that the quote ford from the Ford automobile – Henry Ford he says, failure gives me the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. So, I agree with Henry. Good going Henry, I agree with that. So, if I fail it something whatever, I'm not tripping, I'm not good at everything.

Michael: But why aren't you tripping?

Tim: I'm not tripping. I remember coming into the Russell Simmons office like, twenty years ago and I was trying to do a project with him and he was telling me because he was just like blowing up you know and he goes, Tim, I throw ten things against the wall in three stick and he says, I would miss three things at stuck if I start worrying about the seven things that did not stick. So, I do my best of things, I got best-selling books, I got a new TV show and all the airports, I'm in ninety airports of the world nobody else has that, I got two new TV shows coming out this year, big ones, big ones, I’m working on a Broadway play, I get to do all these fun things but y'all all don't know about the five things that have not worked in the last three years? I got like five mega things that have not worked, I've lost a lot of money over the last twenty years but I made a lot of money as well. So, I'm not tripping on those things because failure gives me the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. So, I'm a lot smarter than I was in my let's say twenties or thirties.

Michael: Yeah, it's funny I sit and I think sometimes when I’m sixteen, I'm gonna like man when I was thirty-six, I was a complete dummy. So, I love learning, I love continuing to grow. I wanna go in a direction, I don't know if people take you very often and if you're uncomfortable with it, I understand. Talk about the power of money in life, just in general and what it means and the importance of it? Us coming from ten and being a Miami just a couple of weeks ago is such this beautiful precedent of looking at money is not this bad thing but people who I come from being in poverty, being in the hood like money is just kinda evil in the sense of life but what role has it played for you and why does it matter?

Tim: I think, the money has given me leverage it's a beautiful thing.

And I come from more of a poverty mindset or as one great writer rights a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. So, I had to change my mentality via the book, right there, miracle mentality is what I wrote and I write a section about money and miracle mentality in that book.

And so, to me we had a fixed mindset in the Storey family but when I started seeing other families that did not have a fixed mindset that was an observation and I said, I wanna start doing what they're doing, I wanna start living like, their living. I like this idea that they were taking vacations, that they can afford things, they could do things, that money set aside. So, I made money my friend in my twenties and then I started making millions of dollars in my twenties, in my twenties, in my twenties and so money is a friend of mine, I don't push it away, I'm not grabbing with it, I'm willing to give it, it's my friend. Money likes me, that's pretty cool.

Michael: Yeah. I'm thinking about that I'm like money likes me, they're like a book I called red called happy money and there's this idea about being gracious and having gratitude for money in every transaction and just simply taking a moment to say thank you money. And that's for purchases or delivery, right? And in that like, you, I've had to have this massive shift in my mindset about it and recognizing like it's okay. Was there something pivotal that really kinda solidified that shift for you into accepting what you were observing?

Tim: Yeah, because I had to see how money can work in somebody that I respect it, it wasn't the show off, it was the person that was like because I come up the Christian side that was a good steward of their money. So, I would see these families that like, they gave in the church, they help people but yet they got boom, that's what same I never seen a boat, these people got a boat and these people are dressed nice. So, I started say that man money's is not all bad these folks don't show off but yet they have this kind of leverage. So, to me I like having currency because like for instance I had to go into this place the other day and the lady held the shop open because she knew who I was, so there were three people that help me so I tip the shop owner fifty dollars, I tipped the one person helped me fifty, they helped the other people fifty. Now I've only got like thirty three dollars’ worth of stuff but I done tip a hundred fifty on a thirty three dollar purchase, why? Because I felt like it, because I can. What you were you showing off not at all I was grateful, so, I like having money because if my cousin comes to me and says man my tooth is hurting, if I'm in the mood I could say, you should probably go over to a dentist or what dentist, well I have a dentist that's what I did, then they go to the dentist and the dentist tells me they need all kinds of stuff done it's gonna cause all this money then I go, okay, let's go and do it, that's a good feeling because that's my cousin, makes sense? So, I like surplus, I like more than enough because it gives me ability to maneuver.

Michael: Do you think anyone is possible and capable of being able to step into that in their own life?

Tim: One hundred percent. Some people that have so much money are silly, some of these rappers are silly, some of these athletes are silly, some of these people that go to these big conferences even speaker or silly, so yeah, I think a lot of it is a discipline of finding the avenue on how people started to bring in wealth like come on some of these crypto guys they need bodyguard, these crypto bitcoin guys, NFT’s guys, lot don't need bodyguard, they're rolling deep and some of them they're kinda semi smart, some of them are very smart. Anybody can learn how to make money no doubt about it, but you gotta change of mentality, you gotta get a miracle mentality.

Michael: Do you think stepping that miracle mentality is first?

Tim: One hundred a percent. You have to get to the point again look at me with my phone foreign currency. This stuff is my friend look, this stuff my friend, I am scared, I gave a hundred thousand dollars away when I was only twenty-eight years of age. It only hurt for twelve minutes; I gave a hundred thousand dollars away when I was twenty-eight. Now someone may get mad because I told in truth because I gave about thousand dollars away, what’s my point? I don't want money to own me, I wanted to give to this missions’ thing so I did but I believe you reap yourself, it's not by accident that I keep getting all these big deals. I think you reap what you saw.

Michael: What role is patients playing this for you?

Tim: I think that I'm a very patient person you know even the way I talk is very Barack Obama is. I think about every word I'm gonna say, so I'm a very patient person, maybe somebody the battles with being patient, maybe it's harder but to me I'm very methodical it comes down, I got a plow, I got a plant, I got a water and then someday I'm gonna harvest.

There are some things I have not harvested but I've been planting those seeds since I was twenty and I still have not got a harvest but I'm patient and I just keep flowing. Patient is that knowing even before it happens man, you just know, that you know, that you know, you know even before it happens, you just know and you just keep walking like you know.

Michael: Does that knowing come from like visualization, meditation, journaling like where do you create knowing from in your life?

Tim: My knowing comes from God. I just feel that for me that God has a plan for my life and that there's a God idea if I follow that God idea the good things will happen. So, I'm very like elementary in this but look at all the stuff that's happening for my life and I've taught a lot of really famous power people to live this way it is working for them too. So, I think that you have a God idea, follow your God idea, keep working your land and I think things start to fall into place, not overnight but sometimes overnight but over a period time you'll find your way.

Michael: Do you think that there a level of imagination that helps you step into that like, I think, Tim, I'll give you context, I imagined you being on this show and here we are I've sold this land for four years for this moment.

Tim: Yeah. I imagined me being great friends with Oprah and I imagined it. I used to watch her and I would say me and her that on laugh, I’m gonna tell her jokes and I do and she laughs and I laugh at hers and we even able dance together. You know, how cool is to dance with Oprah?

Michael: I don't but I wanna find out to Tim.

Tim: But for real like she gets to go to her party, she has parties and but I saw it, I never chased it, I saw it. And what had happened it was like that deja vu kind of thing that happens where I had these moments with people that I envisioned like, you're having a little bit of it now like here's Tim Storey coming from his house, you think something cool, he thinks I got a cool background, he thinks they got a cool shirt, he's proud of me that I'm only in my thirties and I'm making things happen dude, I'm busy, I'm sitting here right here because you're important. So, visualization is so much a key, that's why little kids do it, little kids visualize things, little kids see those things that are not yet as though they are already. Go let anybody take that away from you man, I visualize every day.

Michael: That's beautiful, and I sit that and also thank you it means the world to me, that you're here like truly does, I sit here, I look at my life and I go, I imagine all these things all the time and I put myself in the position time and time and time again and then it's like, I have deja vu day and I think that is just so much from the willingness to imagine the possibility and not let the limiting beliefs or the fixed mindset or the background or all the things that have led to this moment in which I should be unsuccessful be deterrent from my success and to some extent Tim I just refuse it. And I wonder how much it is that you just have to refuse the negative activity to be able to step into that future?

Tim: Yeah. I think you have to but also think that you know like anybody it's around me they always hear me saying, step by step, like, I'm trying to do this, I would say step by step, just step by step. So, to me even though it looks like I'm accomplishing a lot, I just see myself as like a human being that needs to function, that needs coaches in my life, need spiritual direction, needs therapist to make sure, you know, don't ever do anything too crazy and I am grateful for what I'm doing more than I could even verbal mobilize like please come on somebody. But I'm just as regular as anybody else and so are all these amazing humans I get.

I work with the greatest human’s mindset in the world, you know seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven countries deep and I get to be around all these uber creative from scientists to tech nerves, to artist and Michael the normal people like us but they decide to get up and get out.

Michael: Get up and get out. Very well said my friend there's been a phenomenal conversation before I ask you my last question, can you tell everyone where they can find you?

Tim: Yes. So, number one Michael great job on this interview. Interviewing somebody is not always easy, you're very, very good at this and thank you for having me on, with all the other great guests you've had on in the past. The best way to find me is just timstorey.com I have this new course called How to Speak like a Master if you wanna be a better speaker look that and then I live coaching that I have all these coaches and coach people for very affordable price.

Michael: Brilliant and of course we'll put that link in the show notes for the Unbroken Nation. Tim, my last question for you my friend what does it mean to you to be unbroken?

Tim: To be unbroken to me means not to sit, settle or submit yourself in the setback. To be broken is to sit settle and submit. To be unbroken is to have guts to leave the rights to quote Robert. So, you have guts to leave the runs and you say, I'm not gonna set, I'm not gonna settle and I'm not gonna submit myself, I'm gonna have guts to leave my rut, I'm gonna get up and get out and not be broken, I'm gonna be unbroken.

Michael: Goosebumps! Brilliant said, thank you for being here.

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