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The Smoke Trail, hosted by Smoke Wallin, is a journey into awakening consciousness, weaving authentic stories and deep discussions with inspiring guests to unlock high performance and perfect health. Each episode delves into spirituality, leadership, and transformation, offering tools to transcend trauma and find your bliss along the way. It’s a reflective space for achieving peak potential and inner peace in a distraction-filled world.
Seth Streeter, welcome to the Smoke Trail.
Seth:Thanks so much, Smoke. Happy to be with you.
Smoke:My guest today is an awesome resource. I think we're going to have a great conversation. Seth's a renowned facilitator and visionary purpose coach who helps high performing leaders and their spouse partners design deeply fulfilling purpose driven lives beyond traditional success metrics. Seth is a very accomplished businessman. He's got a wealth management business that's very successful, but he's dedicated a lot of his effort and energy to helping others, you know, on their path.
Smoke:So I thought it would be awesome to have a great conversation with Seth. And more importantly, that all of Seth's accolades, Seth's a good friend. We've been in YPO together for a number of years, and we've done a bunch of events together. And I'm super excited to have you here today, Seth.
Seth:Great. Let's jump in.
Smoke:Awesome. Well, I'd love to start with look, here you were a already successful guy. You had a wealth management business. You were things were going fine. You you had I know you had gone through some tough times, the divorce and stuff, but you, like, you were your business was doing well.
Smoke:And then and then something started calling you away from the business in some ways, and and it was like your higher self was, like, saying, knocking on the door going, hey, dude. There's something else here. Can you tell us a little about that journey and your story, how you got kind of into this journey and path? Sure.
Seth:Yeah, I think it always starts as like a whisper and then it works its way up to being a shout and then you have to pick up the phone, you have to pick up the call. Yeah, for me, I was following the success script that I was taught at a young age, work really hard, do well in school, get a good job, work your way up, start a business, grow the business, bigger is better. And I applied that in my life and I had traditional success. Know, I got the money, I built the company, I've got, you know, the ego felt very fueled. But there really came a time when I felt empty in other ways.
Seth:So my fulfillment wasn't really sustained because I was always chasing the next Ironman, the next achievement. And I started to question, what is it all about? And a catalyst like a divorce, like a financial crisis can be blessings in disguise at the time they don't feel that way. But I I went into my own personal growth journey, really trying to figure that out, and I started with, you know, Eckhart Tolle, who started reading, you know, New Earth and Power of Now, then I went to Pemushodran, then I did a Tony Robbins retreat, then I went to India, started a meditation group. It just kind of took its own flow, and I did that very secretly because I was a buttoned up financial CEO by day, and I didn't want to, you know, change that persona that I thought I had to be living, which is conservative, serious, I'm managing people's money.
Seth:You can't be some woo guy and do that simultaneously. So, I really did it in a quiet way personally. And then it started to become more public. I started a community group called Inspire Santa Barbara, which was about awareness, gratitude, and growth. I would bring in speakers from positive psychologists to people who had near death experiences to yogis.
Seth:And so I started this community group because I was just curious about these things. And I thought, well, if I'm curious about it, my friends and community members are too. And that gave me exposures even beyond the personal growth retreats and books and podcasts and things I had done. And again, I was still trying to keep that pretty quiet, but it started to grow more and more. And it turned into an opportunity that was another catalyst.
Seth:I had a major panic attack on stage at a financial conference. And that was really humbling because I had always been a strong communicator and I was like debilitated. I was even so afraid it was gonna happen again. I thought, gosh, I'll never public speak again. And so I wrote in my journal as I I kinda did personal coaching around it, did some therapy around it.
Seth:I'm like, I'm gonna turn this into a positive. I'm gonna face my biggest fear, which is speaking on a big stage, and one day I will do a TED Talk. So I put that in my journal. Well, four years later, as fate will have it, I got an invite to do a TED Talk. I'm like, Oh, crap, I gotta make this thing happen.
Seth:And I pushed my way through it. It wasn't easy. It was a lot of fear to be on that red carpet in front of that huge audience. But it also made it more public what I was talking about. And what I was talking about was really my journey from the outside in.
Seth:I was talking about success is a lot more than money. Success is all these different dimensions. I have these 12 dimensions of wealth I talk about, only one of which is money. And that opened up an amazing stream of doors that turned into me being That was in 2016, I did my TED Talk. In 2017, I was asked to speak at the YPO Global Leadership Conference in Vancouver, and they said there'd be like twenty, thirty people.
Seth:There's 240 people because the topic really resonated. It was this Life three point o concept, and that just opened up a door. The next year, I did my first ever retreat, a three day retreat, and that was in 2018. And that won the most impactful learning event for all of YPO in 2018. So all of sudden now I'm like this retreat facilitator guy, and I thought I was on this quiet journey.
Seth:So it went from being very private to pretty public, and now it's just, you know, been a whole journey ever since then.
Smoke:That's awesome. Funny funny side story. When I started on mine, which is much later than you, I was starting to discover all these books and things and reading things. And and I found this great book, and I was like, oh, man. Well, this is awesome.
Smoke:I'm reading it and everything. And I brought it downstairs, and I said, Anitra, look at this is a really good book. You you should check it out. And it was Eckhart Tolle, and she's like, come here. She took me over to the bookshelf.
Smoke:She pointed to the that she had, like, you know, three of his books, and she said, I've been trying to get you to read this for twenty years. So
Seth:The student wasn't ready.
Smoke:The student was not ready. We we realize now that she was holding space for me for a couple decades, apparently, you know, but it it all worked out. It really is amazing how these things just unfold. And if you just say yes, you know, you you started with, like, there's something not right, and I need to learn figure out something. You didn't know what it was, but that just snowballs.
Smoke:Right? It just builds momentum, and and I can totally appreciate the under the radar approach, you know, especially when you started. You know? I think it's become much more mainstream in the last decade than than it was when you were really getting going. And and so people would really look at you.
Smoke:I would be one of them. Like, what is Seth going? Like, he's gone off the deep end, but now we're all off the deep end.
Seth:Exactly. We're all walking each other home, finally.
Smoke:Yeah, exactly. It's really an amazing process. So did you have any specific experiences where it was really hard, like it was traumatic for you, or was it pretty smooth sailing?
Seth:As I started to kinda go into my heart more? Yeah. Oh, plenty of bumps on that road. Yeah. I mean, I love the quote, which is the furthest distance many of us travel in our lifetimes are the 13 inches from our head to our hearts.
Seth:It's not an easy trip. So yeah, I was wanting to be true to this new calling, this new identity, this new truth I was feeling, and I have conservative partners in a business that are like, we're a financial firm, this is what we do, and we're not gonna be so woo. But I felt really dedicated to it, so I started to push more initiatives, We now call it an inspired living service at Mission Wealth. But I started pushing more initiatives that were definitely out of the standard. I started speaking at conferences differently.
Seth:And I remember, like, I would speak at these conferences and there would be like 20% of the room that'd be just like, you know, what's this guy talking about? And there'd be maybe 20% of the room that's like, oh yeah, I love thinking about wealth in this holistic way. And then there'd be in the middle that's a split. And I felt like I was making a difference doing that, but it often felt like I was pushing a rock uphill. I I didn't feel seen.
Seth:I didn't feel understood. I felt like I was always this like outsider in a way in my own industry. And that's why I started to lean into these retreats and setting up my own groups because I could create programs that people would self select in who already had an appetite and awareness and appreciation for going into our hearts, you know? So now, I've had 2,000 people go through my in person programs. I'm taking two groups of 25 to Bhutan in two weeks, and we're gonna be contemplating purpose in the Himalayas, staying overnight at monasteries.
Seth:And so now I'm doing exactly what I was meant to do. But while I was just staying in my swim lane of my financial career, it did feel bumpy and it didn't feel congruent with who I was evolving to be.
Smoke:Yeah. That's beautiful. I think it's it's one of the things, you know, that I've certainly observed is, you know, as as we go down the path, as I've gone I'll I'll speak from the firsthand. As I've kind of learned more and expanded and and and gotten really in a really good inner place, you know, part part of me wanted to really share it. Right?
Smoke:Like, hey. You know, there's so much more. Like, this is so great. Everything's I know. And I was in this phase for a little while where I was just, like, running around in bliss, and and I I wanted other people to experience that, but they have to be ready.
Smoke:And I think that self selecting approach, you know, with the retreats makes so much sense because, you know, if you're signing up for a retreat, a three point o life retreat, you know what you're doing. You're going in it with intention. So those are people who can really go to the next level with what you've learned. But knocking on the door of someone who's not ready, like when I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready to read the power of now or whatever his other books are, you know, at the time, and it just it didn't resonate. You know?
Smoke:She would try she would do meditations regularly and try to get me to do it, and I I would do it, but it was like going through the motions. I didn't know what I would I didn't like, I what what is this for? Yeah. Now I meditate, like, a lot a lot a lot. And then when I'm not meditating, I'm in a contemplative state even when I'm, you know, even when we're here.
Smoke:I'm I'm both centered, contemplative. I'm aware of the mountains behind me, the beauty here, and our conversation. I'm present for the conversation, but I'm also aware of all the other things, which is just a real shift for the way I see the world.
Seth:I'm so grateful you are where you are. I mean, that allows you to show up differently as a father, as a husband, as a leader with that expanded awareness because there's a contagious effect that has to others. Even if they aren't fully ready to embrace that same level of awareness, it still has a resonance with them. It changes the field when we can bring presence to any conversation, you know, and I always think like, you know, listening is the highest form of loving. When we become a really good listener, we're really present and then we're able to connect with people in different ways that prior we couldn't because we were listening to reply or we're just listening to kind of understand and then make our point.
Seth:No, we're listening for what's not being said now. We're listening with our whole body trying to really capture the essence of this person in their field and what's going on, and that allows for a much deeper connection. And you can make a much greater impact when you have that level of connection.
Smoke:100%. And for me, that was like dropping the judgment. Right? So for I became able to be a very different listener when I approach every conversation with, no. I don't know I don't know the everything about this person.
Smoke:I don't know what they're gonna say. I don't have a preconceived notion of what's gonna come. I'm here. I'm present, and I'm I'm engaged. I'll respond, but I I I'm not here, like, already knowing, like, what I wanted out of the conversation.
Seth:Yeah. You know? You you you dropped the agenda. I mean, it's kinda like the surrender experiment if you've read that book, the same author, Michael Singer, who wrote The Untethered Soul. The Swender Experiment's kind of about just like truly allowing things to unfold.
Seth:It's interesting because I actually reflected on this in my journal recently. Most of my career as an entrepreneur, I had a lot of push energy, right? So as leaders, we get the vision, we build the team, we charge the hill, quarterly OKRs, let's do this. Push, push, push. And I was coaching my kids' sports teams that way, I was running non profits that way, I was running businesses that way.
Seth:And now, I've learned to embrace more of a pull energy. So, like for instance, all my coaching and retreat work, I don't have an agenda. I don't have a business plan. I'm just making myself available to opportunities And there's just beautiful things that have happened. Like, you know, last year, I was asked to speak in Malibu at a small little gathering.
Seth:It was four women and me. There's like 25, 30 people. I was in Santa Barbara at the time. I'm like, okay. Could do that.
Seth:It's close. There I met a woman from Finland who said, have you ever wanted to go to Davos? I was like, well, I thought it'd be pretty cool, but I was never invited. She goes, well, I think I can get you in. So I said, okay.
Seth:And so then she fought up and said, I think I can get you a speaking slot. Would you like to speak at Davos? I'm like, yeah. I don't know what I'll speak about. She goes, Well, I'll just no promises.
Seth:So then I just said, Yes, I would be there. Didn't know if I'd get a speaking spot. And then she let me know a couple months later, Well, we have a speaking spot, but you're gonna have to share the window. It's a two hour window. You'll share with someone, we don't know who.
Seth:I'm like, okay, I'll wait and tell me who it is. And then two months before the program, they said, you're gonna be sharing a two hour window with Deepak Chopra. And you're gonna be speaking about, yeah, conscious leadership with Deepak Chopra. I could have never cold called my way into that opportunity to speak with Deepak at Davos. But by just being available and allowing the yeses to kind of pull me, beautiful things are unfolding that Seth, the achiever, the pusher, the grinder, never would have been able to experience.
Smoke:Yeah. That that really resonates. I I I I share that, you know, and I think a lot of a lot of our peer group, a lot of our friends, you know, run run companies, are very successful, you know, in whatever their field is
Seth:Yeah.
Smoke:Got successful by pushing and by driving. And there's something beautiful about that. There's something important about going through that. I I, you know, I don't I don't often, like, you know, think about, like, well, I should have done this two decades ago or whatever. You know, there's people like Ramana Maharshi who became enlightened at 16.
Smoke:Right? But he didn't live a full modern life and do all those things and have the failures and the successes and all the things that go with that material world. It's not like saying anything bad about him, but the reality is I think having lived fully in the material world and then having some realization, it's a different path. And I appreciate that a lot.
Seth:And I think it allows us to be a bridge for others. That's why I feel called to the work I do because some people will go to Esalen and Spirit Rock on their own. Like, oh, they're ready for that. A lot of people are in their lane. They're following that first mountain of success.
Seth:And they have some nudges, some callings, but they just stay on that mountain because they're making money, they're known for it, they rinse and repeat. And then they hear about a program that smokes doing or says doing, someone who they respect, who they think of as a peer, like a leader peer. And then they can come to these programs and then I can help them drop into their heart. I can help them connect to the parts of themselves that have been deferred, the parts of themselves that haven't been fully expressed, to start thinking about their second mountain, to think about their purpose. And that bridge role that we can play because we've been in the grinder path, the achiever path, is super valuable for a segment of the population that's not ready to go full woo on their own.
Smoke:Yeah, no, it's great. I mean, that's really the purpose of the Smoke Trail. I mean, it's conversations with people who are at some along the journey of some in some way that can be helpful to people. I I I really I think about it as what would I have benefited from when I was at the very beginning of my journey? Not not before, not when I wasn't ready, but when I when I started down the path, I found it a bewildering array of material and, you know, there's nonstop books and YouTube and retreats and all kinds of stuff.
Smoke:And it can be quite overwhelming, especially if, you know, you didn't grow up in one of these traditions, which I didn't. In some ways, it was a benefit because because I I didn't grow up in a religious or spiritual environment. When I turned to that, I was super motivated to learn everything about it. So, you know, I went to source material and read the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and, you know, a whole host Maestro Aircard and, you know, just a wide range of stuff, and it was really just me filling in gaps. It was like, I need a framework.
Smoke:I need to understand what is it I'm even thinking about here. But there was a lot of stuff, and and so part of this is is about helping direct people who are thinking about this stuff and, like, help them, you know, sort the the the the true from the, you know, simply there's a carnival atmosphere in spiritual community that can be off putting and can especially for people who are kind of in that lane of success. And they're like, well, those are those people are not my people. They're they're they're out there. You know, it doesn't make any sense to me.
Smoke:You know? So being a bridge is, I think, a really important role that you're playing and I think we're doing together.
Seth:100%. Yeah, I really agree.
Smoke:That's awesome. What are you thinking about you know, I I know you've got a bunch of retreats coming up. You know, is there anything you want you'd like to highlight, like, something that's, like, particularly exciting for you that The baton thing looks amazing, obviously. I mean, that's incredible. I may do next year's version of it.
Seth:Yeah, it's been interesting because my first program I ever did, the one in Vancouver, was a two hour program, and then it turned into a half day, then one day, then my three day, then I've been doing six day programs at the Modern Elder Academy down in Baja with Chip Conley, and I'm part of that community. Now I'm doing these nine day programs. So I keep finding like the deeper you go, more magic happens. And there's just, there's something about traveling on a bumpy dirt road away from your normal life to show up with a peer group of open individuals who are ready to also have transformation with some, you know, great teachers, great programming, a beautiful venue that allows people to just really come alive in ways that they haven't before.
Smoke:Yeah.
Seth:And it just feels like my work in the world right now. I'm loving it. Last week, was in Canada. I led two programs. One for a 122 women, a program called Dare to Thrive.
Smoke:So I
Seth:was the only man in the room with 122 women. I was like, okay. My daughter's like, dad, you got this. Don't mess it up. And then I did an 80 person leadership group three days later.
Seth:So I've been really loving getting into different audiences and in different venues and seeing how we can really curate a program around what's there, like what's specific, and you're in Sedona, I'm in Austin, I was just in Canada, like what's unique to that space that has indigenous wisdom or teachings or lessons that can help people just come alive in the ways that they're waiting to come alive? So I now lead the purpose community for YPO. I'm doing programs for EO and Vistage and Tiger twenty one, and there's a lot of groups that have an appetite for this now. Yeah. So I'm just excited to be able to show up and share.
Seth:The best part is, I don't have all the answers, but I'm living in the same space they are. So I'm just a guy who also has the questions. And I create a safe space for people to contemplate and to then start to really reflect and then redirect. Who do they wanna be on this next chapter? You know?
Seth:And and and the thing that's interesting is a lot of these achievers who've hit success on the first mountain, they're like, okay. I'm ready for my second mountain. And what they don't realize is in order to get from the first mountain to the second mountain, you have to go into a valley. You don't go from one to the other. You go into a valley, and that that's a valley of of reflection and values work and contemplation, re identification because so much of our identity gets caught up in being a leader or a parent or you know, whatever role.
Seth:So, that valley work is really important. It's kind of like the three stages of a butterfly. You know, first year caterpillar, then, there's the the chrysalis which is the messy middle where things get tossed and turned but then, we emerge as the butterfly. A lot of these people from first to second mountain need that chrysalis phase to really think about what on their deathbed will they regret if they don't do try or become? And how am I gonna make a plan to do it and have the guts to lead with curiosity and allow fear be my guide because it's uncomfortable to leave everything that you're known for, to leave what's familiar, to leave where you're getting paid, to go into this unknown space that feels more true to your heart but isn't defined in any traditional ways.
Smoke:Yeah, that's beautiful. Think one of the great things about getting into a group like that who are all coming open with some intention is the energy feeds on itself. It's like, you know, when when in form, when we go deep Yeah. Whoever goes deep first, like, really deep, everybody else, okay, it's the next level. And I think that works in these groups also, like, As people have breakthroughs, even someone who maybe is early in their path could have a big leap and it helps everyone else in the group.
Seth:Yeah. I just had this program. It was actually in Switzerland, and we're doing a purpose exercise. I call it your inspired life purpose. And we take your innate gifts, four circles, your innate gifts with your skills that you acquire through education and experience, your passion, what you love to do with what you think the world needs most.
Seth:So you take your gifts, your skills, your passion, what the world needs most, and you start to think about your unique contribution in the middle of those four circles. And so I had this group exercise and this one gentleman from Germany said, I don't understand what you talk about purpose. Like, my purpose is my software company. Like, that's my life. Why do I think about purpose?
Seth:And I said, well, just do the exercise and he was in a a group with four other women. So, it's one man and four women and it takes about an hour for them to do this exercise. So afterward I said, hey, did anyone have any ahas they'd like to share? And someone shared something, and then a woman from that guy's group raised his hand for him. He's like, oh, okay, he was kind of sheepish.
Seth:I will tell you, because I was doing the exercise and then as I was doing it, I thought about my childhood. And I realized in my childhood in Germany, I absolutely loved, I loved thinking about cats and different animals, and I specifically love the snow leopard. I love the snow leopard. I had snow leopard calendar, snow leopard stuffed animals. And then I quickly researched and I thought, gosh, I can't believe it.
Seth:There is no snow leopard sanctuary in the part of Germany where he lived. And so then he got this He goes, I'm going to have my software company sponsor the first snow leopard sanctuary in this part of Germany. I'm going to save the snow leopards and my company's going to get behind it. He got so excited, had tears. The woman was rubbing his back from his group.
Seth:And like, he had no idea an hour before that he had any purpose beyond his software company. One hour later in this environment, all of a sudden he got reconnected to his childhood and his love of snow leopards. It's like a little thing, but for him, he came more alive. Yeah, I know it's beautiful. In
Smoke:my case, I had a lot of childhood and early memories that were blocked out. So I had a lot of trauma that was not in my awareness. Like, didn't I had I had left that. It talk about compartmentalizing. It literally was not in my memory.
Smoke:And as I opened that stuff up, I'm like, well, it was obviously, it was it was a deep valley and there was a lot of work, but it just opened up everything as I got through it once I remembered it. And and it I keep getting even now, like, I mean, it my journey, you know, I'm only three, four years into the into this, but it's every it seems like every day, every week,
Seth:I get
Smoke:more more memory, more remembering, more connecting to that inner child, that early days that that I had forgotten. Yeah. And and, you know, now that's that inner child is with us at all times but ignored. Right? And so I I got to where, like, hey.
Smoke:What do you need? And what what did I leave out? What did I forget? What did I not resolve for that inner child? Part of my GLC talk that you know, when I did the lab in Miami and Istanbul was was really that.
Smoke:It was you know, I I I actually have a memory, Seth, of in a very traumatic situation saying someday I'm gonna tell I'm gonna tell someone who can stop this. Some someday I'm gonna tell someone who can do something about this, but I I had no voice. And doing that, I didn't realize it when I said yes and until after, right, until I processed it. But that was actually something I said in the motion as a as a four or five year old. And I realized it later, oh, I just stood up on stage and talked about this this whole experience and this trauma.
Smoke:And it was like a resolution of something that was unresolved.
Seth:That's beautiful. Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up, Smoke, because in my retreats, one of the themes I've seen as people start to really live into what their three point zero phase of life is. So one point zero is when we're younger, we get our sense of identity. Are we an athlete? Are we an academic?
Seth:Are we the funny guy? Two point zero is a phase of responsibility. We're just in it growing our careers, growing our family, paying the mortgage. And then three point zero is a phase of freedom when we start to think about that bucket list trip to Bhutan, writing the book, starting the podcast, learning to play guitar. And a lot of these folks get stuck at 2.8 or 2.9 because so much of their identity is in the achiever, the doer, the parent.
Seth:But as people start to think about their three point zero, one of the themes is they actually want to become more childlike. They want to get back to when they were a kid, and if you have trauma, that's one dimension, but they want to have more play, they want to be less self critical, they want to be more open. Like, you know, like as a kid, someone said, you wanna dance? Do you sing? I'll sing.
Seth:And now it's like, oh, I can't sing. I I don't dance. Like, you know, we we learn these limiting beliefs, And that's the theme. In three point zero, people want to be more like a kid. They want to play, they want to be less critical, they want to set aside those limiting beliefs and start to have a growth mindset to try new things, to be more open, to be more connected, to have more levity.
Seth:And so it's like, if we could just channel the healthy part of our childhood around any traumas that there were, that could be a great guide for who we can become in the next chapter.
Smoke:Yeah, that's great. I resonate with that fully. And look, there's lots of people with trauma and big and small, not everybody has the saga that I could tell, but that's okay. Even simple things, your mom was down and she wasn't an enlightened being and she didn't give you the attention you needed when you were two, and you took that really hard. And every time we had these experiences, we fracture a little away from our wholeness.
Smoke:Right? So at some point, the fractures, you get separation and they grow. And then you have another trauma or another difficulty or another challenge. And it adds almost like scar tissue on top of the original fracture. And my experience was unwinding that scar tissue, peeling it away, kind of bit by bit.
Smoke:And that wasn't all fun. But what's on the other side is extraordinary. It's just an amazing experience, and and I you know, it's it's worth it. No matter I I always say, like, you know, the the fear of digging into your shadows, the fear of, you know, going there is much worse than doing it. And and on the other side, you have bliss.
Smoke:You have just pure joy. And but you've gotta there's no shortcut. Right? There's no there may be techniques. There may be things we can do to kind of accelerate or help Gotta go through it.
Smoke:Away, but you got to go through it. It's something experiential that you can describe, you know, that you know, certainly in my in my view.
Seth:I'll just touch on that, that I think a lot of people when they go through it, sometimes arrive at a conclusion that they need to just drastically change their life. I need to move, I need to end my marriage, I need to like become a yogi or whatever it is they're into, they find their new version of themself. And what I would invite people to think about is that you can also stay in all your existing roles and just learn how to integrate this new part of yourself into, you know, your existing roles and responsibilities. So like in my retreats, one of the things I've done is I'll have a a concert pianist come in and play a beautiful classical piece of piano, And then I'll have them play the exact same song, the same notes in a different way. Different pacing, different tonation.
Seth:And I'll use that as a metaphor to say like, this is how we can take this opening that we've now realized is in us into our board meetings, into our families, into our companies, and bring more grace, bring more softness, bring more playfulness. And so, that's, I think, the invitation is you don't have to go into the cave in the Himalayas as you become more awake. You can bring that into your daily life and still, you know, be a member of society without the robe and the shaved head, but mine happen naturally, and be able to be of this world and yet still be walking the path.
Smoke:Yeah, I think that resonates a lot in that the challenge of our time and the opportunity is to do that, is to integrate it into our lives. See a lot of people, a growing number of people who are kind of waking up and heading down this direction. And it is about how do we do that in the marketplace? How do we do it in life and not necessarily go to Cape? Although I did move to Sedona.
Smoke:So, yeah, that was a big change. But but I you know, I'm still doing m and a. I still sell companies. I was in Germany last week, I think, you know, but but when I when I'm there, I had an opportunity to go to the Cathedral Of Of Cologne and and take a tour. They have three of the Magi relics there, which was incredible.
Smoke:And they have they had I I asked them. I said, do you have anything from Meister Erichardt here in the cathedral? Because I I'm a big fan of his. I've studied a lot of his sermons, and and he that she said, yeah, I think there's a his hat is in the window on the outside of the back of the cathedral. So we went around.
Smoke:I had my client and one of two of my clients with me, and we went around the back and found the window where the hat was from Maestro Ehrecart. So they were building that cathedral when during his lifetime. Like, so he was he was living in Cologne. He was doing sermons, and they were in the midst of building that. So I was like, surely there's something.
Smoke:But she looked at me like, how do you even know about Maestro Aircard?
Seth:Yeah, it's like an adventure and it added a whole new dimension to your trip and it probably added a different dimension in conversation with your clients.
Smoke:Oh, yeah. No. We had a whole deep discussion over lunch after that around life and it's three point o stuff. I mean, was more about purpose. And then we had meetings around it.
Smoke:So I'm doing it. It it's It's not without its challenges, right? Because it's easy to revert back into the three d Maya world of like, Oh, I have instant reactions. I have my normal way of being. And but I find myself more and more able to stay in a contemplative state where I am aware of the conversation.
Smoke:I'm aware of the room. I'm aware of where I am. I'm kind of at a at a end. I'm engaged in the conversation, and it takes practice. It's it's like a muscle that I didn't know existed that you have to exercise to become good at it.
Smoke:You know? And it's a balancing. It's a subtle balancing of your brain, having a balanced brain, a centered self, and be present in whatever commerce or situation you are. So it's definitely learning to fly the plane while you're building it. Awesome.
Smoke:Well, is there a is there a tradition that really resonated with you as you kind of went down the journey? I know you went to India. You did a bunch of, you know, different studies. But is there one that kind of you follow, like a traditional lane, or is it kind of a amalgamation of different teachings that you've just made into your own?
Seth:Yeah. I I studied Eastern religions in college because I was fascinated after growing up on a farm in Colorado that I think I knew there were five religions. My awareness was there's like Lutheran, Protestant, Methodist, Catholic, and I think I had heard of Judaism. Like that was it. Like there's five, right?
Seth:And then in college, took an elective class and was like, oh my gosh, you know, Taoism and Hinduism and Islam. When I went to India, I studied the Vedas. I went to the Vedanta Academy and studied the Vedas, which are these, you know, 7,000 plus year old universal laws well before Buddhism, well before Christianity, and they're known as undeniable truths. Yeah. They're very simple.
Seth:Some even say they were carved in stone when they came from the Himalayas. Those really landed with me because they were just so simple and easy to absorb. And the more you give, the more you get. Actions speak louder than words. These of course have been translated, but like really simple things.
Seth:But then it's all about the application. So, came back from my Vedanta studies, this immersive program, in India, and that's when I started to really think about how am I living these truths. And so, gosh, I'd say, you know, actions speak louder than words. I tell my kids to wear their bike helmets, but I wasn't wearing a bike helmet. I would show up to meetings, you know, maybe on time or a little bit late, but I justified it because I figured, well, I'm the busiest guy in the room.
Seth:I can like, what does that say to my team? What does that say to the client? I started to reflect my whole life and how I could live with more alignment. So Vedanta really changed me. I'm not solely thinking myself as a Vedanta practitioner.
Seth:I've, you know, I've gone to Unitarian, universal. I'm a spiritual person. I love all spiritual ceremonies. I've done native American ceremonies. I've gone to Catholic, you know, services, all different faith based services.
Seth:I really love my definition is kinda like the Dalai Lama. It's it's all about oneness and kindness. We are all one. It's that simple, right? So, if we think of someone as, well, you're Republican, I'm Democrat, you're black, I'm white, you're Iraqi, I'm American.
Seth:Whatever form of othering that we do, that's like, you know, such a small fraction of we all are the same. Like, 99. 9% of us are the same. We wanna be loved. We wanna be safe.
Seth:We wanna, you know, care for our families. So, my my religion is oneness And how can I show up with that mindset that any person I meet, a stranger on a plane, the old lady at the grocery store, how can I treat her as an extension of myself from a place of kindness and love?
Smoke:That that's beautiful. The I'm in the midst of a book called Sovereign Self by Acharya Shuna. Do you know? Have you heard? No.
Smoke:And she basically she's the first female leader of a thousands of year old tradition there in India, and she's really extraordinary. But I but this book is literally drawing on the Vedas, including the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, but broadly the Vedas. And she's just going through her teachings. Really, really wonderful. Tried to dig beside the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, it was hard to find Vedas that were accessible.
Smoke:For me, I had trouble. But this one is like opening up beyond the ones I've read, so it's really, really cool.
Seth:That's great. Yeah. I mean, and once you get a taste for something, it just kinda takes you down other rabbit holes. You listen to lectures and talks and yeah. And and, you know, spirituality is also beyond the words.
Seth:Right? It's it's spying on the divine when we take a walk in nature and we just watch the butterfly or see the sunset or stare at the rock, the the flower coming from the rock. So I try to, like, spy on it is the way I think about it. Like, spy on it in any form beyond the teachings. Like, there's an awareness that comes as we go on this path.
Seth:There's, like, beauty everywhere.
Smoke:Everywhere. There's
Seth:gifts all the time. There's so much synchronicity happening. And whether you call them angels or guides, like we're all being supported in ways we have no idea. And we're just muted because we're looking at our phone, getting to the next meeting, thinking we're pushing it all, and we lose sight of the fact that there's all tremendous support happening. You know, in Bhutan, the monks say that destiny is 50% fate, 50% agency.
Seth:So, yeah, half of it is what we do with it, but half of it it's happening for us. And I have this story that kind of woke me up to this. I had had this bump on my head, like a cyst on my head for three years. Went to the doctor four or five times, like, don't worry about it, no one can see it, you're so tall and it's nothing to worry about. I was with my kids in Mexico, we have a place in Baja, and I was getting into a taxi cab and I hit my head on a tree branch, I had a baseball cap on, I took off my baseball cap and I had only hit that cyst about the size of a of a nipple, and it was bleeding.
Seth:I'm like, oh, dang it. I hit that cyst. We went to this mission for the first time. It's the oldest mission in in North America. And at this mission was a statue of a saint with a red with a crown bump on its head.
Seth:And my kids thought it was hilarious, so I they took a photo of me next to this saint with a bump on its head because I had a bump and it had a bump. Come back to Santa Barbara and that bump was still sore, so I went back to the dermatologist. He goes, Yeah, it looks like you really bruised it. I can do a little treatment to cut it open, release the pressure and you'll be fine. I'll suture it up.
Seth:And then I got a call four days later that they did a mandatory, check and found out that had been cancer. Yeah. And it was growing. And so I went and had, you know, a special surgery and the surgeon said that, you know, you were months away from it being bone cancer. This had been growing down.
Seth:It was right next to your skull and it was months from being bone cancer. Had I not hit my head, had I not seen the saint, like it was all, I felt like God, someone saved my life. Yeah. It it felt like I was truly being supported. And I think there's a lot of ways we're supported.
Seth:We have no idea, but that was one where I actually had the awareness that, wow. I I thank you. You know, thank you for for guiding me even when you say don't worry about it.
Smoke:I think we're I love that. We're being guided all the time and it's just whether we're aware of it or conscious of it or not. Like, with my this whole journey for me started literally, I was in Nepal for a business deal and I had we had the opportunity to spend a day at Buddha's birthplace. And I got to go to, you know, tour the whole place. It was magical, but I wasn't particularly, you know, known as spiritual or religious.
Smoke:And my friend actually, you may know David Spencer, the YPOer, kneeled down. He passed away this past year, but he kneeled down and started to pray. And I was like, okay. When in Rome. Right?
Smoke:So I'm like, alright. So I I kneel down and and I just asked for peace and love. And in that moment, in that magical place, had, you know, what I now would call a Kundalini rising, but I had this lightning strike that went up my spine through my head and I was like, What was that? I had no context, no understanding of what that was but that really started this whole journey. Was like, Oh, okay.
Smoke:And then you know, a few months later, had the opportunity to sit with a really good teacher and experience a deep dive into which which kinda cracked open some of the memories. And and then that just led me on my journey. And I think, you know, in my case, I think you can when you start to discover stuff, you can either recoil and say, oh, I don't wanna go there. And, you know, it's not doesn't feel safe because it's very it's it's new footing. It's like you don't know what you're gonna experience.
Smoke:Or you turn toward it. And that's what I did. I I just I just I just turned toward it. I said, like, oh, wow. I didn't even know this.
Smoke:And then I I just started digging and digging and digging until I was like, need to know everything. I need to understand this. And anyway, and obviously, it was a guided thing. There is a reason I was in that temple. There was a reason I I had to I did that project.
Seth:And there was a reason why young smoke who is the grinder, who is a wrestler, who, you know, was taught when you're in a certain hole to to lean into your opponent and go in. Like, some of that grinder achiever part of yourself might have been why Smoke in his fifties also decided to lean in when you had that experience. Like, so that's why I think it's kinda beautiful too. I used to think I had to let go of my perfectionistic, working so hard not to fail energy to be this new Seth. But no, I wanna hold his hand and have him skip along with me on this because I'm standing on his shoulders.
Seth:You're standing on Smoke Jr. Shoulders, which is what allowed you to act that way after you had that experience. So I I just wanted to point that out that Yeah. Yeah. Wrestler Smoke who wasn't at all in probably in your spiritual sense, that might have served you in that moment which has brought you to where you are today.
Smoke:I agree, Kub. And I know that I did my first, what do you call the hot yoga thing where they do the 30 poses.
Seth:Oh, yeah. A Bikram or Bikram.
Smoke:Yeah. I I didn't really know what I was signing up for, but I Anidra's not in town, so I was like, need to go do something. I did a hike and I'm like, I I wanna do yoga. So I signed up for this. I went to this class and that was one of the hardest workouts I have had.
Smoke:And and I got through it, and she said she said, your goal is to not leave the room, is to is to make it through. I'm like, okay. So there was a lot of poses I couldn't do. But at the end, she said, little harder than you expected. I'm like, that was really hard.
Smoke:And I and I but I I reverted back to my wrestling room days and being able to stay present in a hot room and, you know, make it through. But it it would that was that was quite the experience.
Seth:I bet.
Smoke:Yeah. No, and that's I think that's another element, right? It's I think sometimes a mistake or I don't know it's a mistake but like some approaches have historically been about renouncing the ego, destroying the ego, getting rid of the ego. That will happen naturally over time. But it doesn't need to be the enemy.
Smoke:It's actually the friend. It's actually what got you to this point in life. And I've come to appreciate that. And and, you know, literally, like, that's been my approach to spirituality. It doesn't it doesn't match up with, you know, with some of the other paths, but, you know, I treat it like an entrepreneur.
Smoke:What did I need to know? Like, all right, I had gaps in knowledge, so I need to read a lot of stuff. I need to absorb information. Oh, it's not just about reading. It's about experiencing.
Smoke:So I got into meditation practice. I got into contemplation. And as I've layered these things on, it's been easier and easier, but it really was a entrepreneur's mindset. It was like, okay. You know, what resources do I need?
Smoke:What people do I need? What do I need to know? What's you know, what is the what am I and so there was a there is goal oriented things, but my goal has been to open to raise my awareness, to raise my consciousness. And it does end up being more of a yang, you know, kind of a receiving, remembering stance. But to get there and do all the prep was more of a go getter approach.
Seth:It takes both, it takes both. And I would add that retreats when facilitated allow for that work, push, and now the reflection and absorption into practice, into action. Like when you're doing a deep eye gaze, working with each other's limiting beliefs, doing a reverence exercise, or doing a letting go, or doing an honoring your future self, a guided visioning, you know, advice from your future self ceremony by a fire on a beach in the middle of Baja, Mexico. Like, when you do some of these exercises, it actually can really catapult some of those teachings that are in you now into more action in your life. There there there's something about the technology of soul to soul connection that just, like, breaks it open even further.
Seth:And and I agree that the ego, has been our ally in many ways. And, you know, they say, like, the first half of life is fueled by the ego. The second half of life is fueled by the soul. So kind of in that midlife oftentimes is when the soul starts to like wake up more and starts to pull us more, but the ego can still help push us on that journey home.
Smoke:Yeah. No. I think that's right. I think we're being pulled. I definitely feel that I don't have any choice.
Smoke:I do have a choice, but my choice was to do this. And given that choice, it's more of a pulling than it is me pushing now. Oh. But I I think where the pushing comes in is the work you can do to prep prepare yourself. You know, grace is is granted by divinity.
Smoke:It's not something you you can ask for it, but it's not something any of us control. But what we can control, it's like the what do you it's just back to business principles. Right? Like, do what are the things that we control within our within our ability? All the other things, don't worry about.
Smoke:You just deal with them. But the things you control, you can be prepared for it. So that approach has been really, really fruitful for me in cleansing and purifying and living the prayer. Really what it comes down to is like you become the prayer. Right?
Smoke:It's like, you know, you're not praying. You just are the prayer at some point. And yes.
Seth:Love that. Well, I'm so happy for you, Smoke. I'm so excited to see how much you've grown in just the last few years. And I know that so much more growth is ahead for you as well.
Smoke:Yeah. Well, thank you, and thanks for all you do. I'm looking forward to joining you on one of your things here coming up, I'm sure. But this is a beautiful conversation. I love all the work you're doing, you know, and anything I can do to be helpful to you, you know, please, you know, don't hesitate.
Smoke:If people wanna learn more about some of your activities, your retreats, anything else, is there a good way to get ahold of you?
Seth:Yeah, the best is just go to my personal website, which is my name, sethstreeter.com. From there you can get connected to social, but probably just go to the website as a placeholder and happy to connect with folks that would like to discuss further.
Smoke:Awesome. Well, Seth, thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you being a part of the Smoke Trail and hopefully let's do it again, but maybe we'll do it at one of your events somewhere.
Seth:That'd be great. And let's just mention the reason this all came to be was because of a fateful encounter at the Phoenix Airport. When I was running from one gate and you were going to another, and I'm like, smoke. And then we briefly connected maybe four or five minutes, and then you talked about the podcast, and you're like, oh my gosh. I should have you on.
Seth:So, like, was that was that a mistake or was that support?
Smoke:No. No. That was support for sure. And they happen all the time. It's up to us to just be present and notice how many things we miss just by not being there.
Smoke:But yeah, that was exactly right. So awesome. Well, Seth, thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you in person again soon.
Seth:Likewise, Mo. Thanks again so much.