Blending Technology, Spirituality, and Personal Growth with Mark Bradford

Prepare to be inspired as we welcome the brilliant author and entrepreneur Mark Bradford, who masterfully weaves together his experiences in both fiction and nonfiction writing. His unique career path, which spans roles as a podcast host, UAV pilot, and IT professional, unveils how diverse interests can enrich one's life journey. Mark shares how his personal experiences, including a transformative moment in a cemetery, have sparked creative inspiration and led him to develop a unique coaching system. Our conversation explores how life's unexpected events can fuel creativity and storytelling across various genres.

Explore the fascinating intersection of fantasy and science fiction storytelling, and uncover how the dual-brained synergy of technology, art, and spirituality can lead to innovative creations. Mark and I chat about AI's emerging role in creative fields like music, our excitement tempered by a desire to maintain authentic human experiences. We examine the balance between creative and logical thinking through relatable anecdotes from technology and art, revealing how diverse skills can harmoniously blend to foster groundbreaking work.

Dive into personal growth and mindfulness as Mark introduces his "Alchemy for Life" coaching system, focusing on balancing time, energy, and resources. We ponder technology's role in enhancing mindfulness and meditation while maintaining genuine experiences. Discussing the metaphor of personal dashboards, we explore how these can guide our decisions, enhancing self-awareness in relationships. As we launch the Revolutionary Authors membership, packed with actionable insights and resources, we invite you to embark on your author journey, embracing the fusion of creativity, technology, and personal transformation.

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Chapters

• 0:02 The Author Revolution Podcast Interview
• 9:33 The Intersection of Technology and Spirituality
• 15:42 Life Transformation Through Alchemy Coaching
• 24:05 Exploring Technology's Role in Mindfulness
• 28:30 Exploring Tech and Spirituality Balance
• 34:37 Exploring Universal Creation and Alignment
• 37:57 Navigating Life's Dashboard Gauges
• 41:28 Balancing Energy and Time Priorities
• 47:27 Harnessing Energy and Time Alignment
• 50:35 The Power of Mindful Productivity
• 1:01:21 Revolutionary Authors Membership Launch
• 1:05:07 Author Revolution Membership Launch
• 1:11:06 Starting the Author Revolution

Transcript

Carissa Andrews: 0:02

Welcome to the Author Revolution podcast, where change is not just embraced, it's celebrated. I'm Carissa Andrews, international bestselling author, indie author coach and your navigator through the ever-evolving landscape of authorship. Are you ready to harness the power of your mind and the latest innovations in technology for your writing journey? If you're passionate about manifesting your dreams and pioneering new writing frontiers, then you're in the perfect place. Here we merge the mystical woo of writing with the exciting advancements of the modern world. We dive into the realms of mindset, manifestation and the transformative magic that occurs when you believe in the impossible. We also venture into the world of futuristic technologies and strategies, preparing you for the next chapter in your author career. Every week, we explore new ways to revolutionize your writing and publishing experience, from AI to breakthrough thinking. This podcast is your gateway to a world where creativity meets innovation. Whether you're penning your first novel or expanding your literary empire, whether you're a devotee of the pen or a digital storyteller, this podcast is where your author revolution gains momentum. So join me in this journey to continue growth and transformation. It's time to redefine what it means to be an author in today's dynamic world. This is the Author Revolution Podcast, and your author revolution starts now.

Carissa Andrews: 1:33

Well, hi there guys, welcome back to another episode of the Author Revolution Podcast. I am really excited to bring to you an interview today. Now, this interview is kind of funny because Mark Bradford is the gentleman I'm going to be having a word with and he's an author of both fiction and nonfiction books. He's also the host of a top five global podcast known as Alchemy for Life. He is a licensed UAV pilot, he's a speaker, a full stack web developer, just to name a few of the things.

Carissa Andrews: 2:03

Right, and our conversation was super interesting. Not only did we touch on his books, touch on, like, the concept of writing and kind of where he started there and all of the different things he does, but we touched on so many different interesting topics when it comes to, like, the nature of reality, how we can incorporate science fiction and fantasy, like pretty much science fiction. Fantasy was the overarching theme of our entire discussion. We talked a lot about the subconscious mind and about how we kind of craft our realities. So, without further ado, I want to get right into this conversation.

Carissa Andrews: 2:37

There's a lot that we discuss and mark does a lot of things, and in this particular episode, I wanted to make sure that we were highlighting and touching on just a little bit of all the different things that he does. Now, he is definitely a multi-passionate entrepreneur and one that I think everyone is going to enjoy listening to, so let's get to it. Well, hi, mark, welcome to the Author Revolution Podcast. I'm really excited to bring you on the show today. Before we get started, do you want to tell my audience a little bit about yourself?

Mark Bradford: 3:05

The little part will be difficult, but I'll try.

Carissa Andrews: 3:07

I know I've seen everything that you do.

Mark Bradford: 3:10

So, first of all, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it. It looks like we have a lot of really fun stuff to talk about, because I'm not the only interesting person here right now, so you have a lot, too, that's really cool to talk about. So I'm an author of nine books. I have two that are finished. They're waiting to be published. I have a podcast with over 250 episodes. I have a pilot's license in which I use for aerial photography. I created a coaching system that I coach people on. For the last two decades I've also had an IT firm that I've run. Yeah, stuff like that. So that's so cool.

Carissa Andrews: 3:48

Thank you. Well, let's start with your books, because this is the Author Revolution podcast, after all. So you said you've got nine books under your belt, spanning fiction and nonfiction. So my curiosity, first of all, is like what inspired you to come to writing and then what inspires you to switch back and forth between genres?

Mark Bradford: 4:03

Yeah, so wonderful questions. The inspiration for writing there's a tremendous amount of stuff that happened when I got divorced. So when I got divorced that's actually the I know the exact moment that my coaching and my speaking suddenly sprung into life. It was when I took my kids to a psychologist, but I won't, I won't get too lengthy on that. I just started writing after that and I pushed myself into the dating field and I, just as I do with everything, I examine them from this bizarre angle and then I distill and disseminate and so forth.

Mark Bradford: 4:37

I built a writing site from scratch and I started writing books on how all people connect and that started the whole status game series. And then I did two other books and I finally did one that was about my coaching. And then the thing that switched me over was not under my control, it was actually a walk in a cemetery. There's a cemetery nearby my house and I often say it's like a park with dead people. It's very peaceful, very nice, and I had a very clear mind, almost blank, and you probably can relate that that's not something that would happen very often with someone who's constantly thinking about things.

Carissa Andrews: 5:15

Right, at least not intentionally.

Mark Bradford: 5:18

Yeah, yeah, unless it's like a blow to the head or something like that. Right, right. And so I took a walk in the cemetery and then I heard voices. And thank you for not hanging up.

Carissa Andrews: 5:27

No, trust me, I got some stories Go.

Mark Bradford: 5:33

Keep going. So you have good experience with dialogue, so you understand how that works, that you often would play things in your head. Well, I heard two characters talking and I was like this is really cool. Okay, I'm listening. Fine, I got an open mind, I keep walking and I'm like this is the end of a movie, oh my God. And I was getting like the whole weight of it. I'm like this is awesome. And then I was sad because I'm like, well, I'm never going to see this movie. And then I thought, what if I wrote this movie? What if I wrote this? So then it switched into me writing a poem and I started to write a poem, like a sing-songy kind of quatrain-y sort of poem. And then I ran home, sat down and in five minutes I wrote this poem and I went oh my God, that's an outline of a book, that's the book. I'm writing a book now.

Carissa Andrews: 6:17

How great is that? That's amazing.

Mark Bradford: 6:21

Yeah, and so then I wrote the Sword in the sunflower, but when I finished it I realized I was only halfway done with the poem and I had to write the sequel to it.

Carissa Andrews: 6:26

Got it Okay.

Mark Bradford: 6:28

Isn't that interesting, how that works.

Carissa Andrews: 6:29

I love that. I love the concept. I mean, I didn't even have that on our list of things to talk about. I love the concept, though, of channeling and so like for me and in our teachings and the things that we do, like I teach manifestation, but we have a board certified clinical hypnotherapist on board, and so she and I do a lot of different other projects, side projects, where we we dive into like Lynn McTaggart intention experiments and do a lot of stuff with the connection, like the power of eight, and so we've been having some crazy fun channeling experiences going on. So, trust me, I'm good, I can follow you, no problem. Oh goodness, that's really cool.

Carissa Andrews: 7:03

I think the experience of that too. It reminds me so much of how so many authors do get their first initial like jab of like wanting to write a story, though, because sometimes you know, they've been telling themselves for a long time they want to write a story, they want to write a story and they don't actually give themselves permission to, and then, all of a sudden, there's there's a story idea or something that comes to them that is more powerful than their blocks or more powerful than the resistance to do it, and they just can't not do it anymore. And then they're off and running.

Mark Bradford: 7:31

So yeah, it's really fascinating. You said something very key there. I have to interject. You said they don't give themselves a license. That is one of the biggest things that authors do not do is they don't give themselves a license to write because they're like, well, I should be making money, I should be doing this. This is frivolous, it's not going to work. I'm not going to be able to finish this whole thing. Stop Give yourself a license. Allow yourself to write. I have a license to write. I'm going to write now.

Carissa Andrews: 8:00

You know, yep, yep, play around with it. See what happens. You just don't know what's perspective of like. Why am I going for a walk? And then you bump into someone that you needed to speak to. You know what I mean. But, like in a story, there are many times where I'm in there in the middle of writing something. I'm like I have no idea why this scene is coming to me and why I need to write it. And then, three books later, you'll realize oh, you yourself, as the author didn't even realize it. You know what I mean.

Mark Bradford: 8:24

Yeah, oh, totally. There are so many things behind this thing. When you're writing, when you're creating a fiction, for example and I have a very, very comfortable understanding of the difference between fiction and nonfiction and how it is to write one versus another one One's a hierarchical arrangement of thoughts and the other one is three elements that come together to make fiction work. And when you're doing fiction, there's a lot going on in the background. There's a lot of subconscious stuff going on, and for me, all that subconscious stuff was first of all sort of expanded upon in the sequel and then, when I wrote the prequel, it was really all that subconscious stuff because it was what happened in the in the thousand years leading up to the book.

Carissa Andrews: 9:05

Okay, oh, that's so cool, isn't that neat when it happens. Do you find yourself writing the prequel after the initial books? Because I do that myself a lot, where it's like all of a sudden the prequel will come later?

Mark Bradford: 9:14

Well, exactly that's what it was. So chronologically, it came later in before. So yes, it was those two books. What a great story All done. But wait a second. What happened leading up to that? Okay, fine, let's go back and I'll tell you what really happened.

Carissa Andrews: 9:28

That's so funny. I love that. Oh good, Do you like one genre more than the other, or are you like nope? I like them both equally, for different reasons.

Mark Bradford: 9:35

Yeah, kind of a weird opinion in that I find that fantasy and science fiction are sort of the same thing. It's that one isn't just explained enough. So when you explain fantasy enough, it becomes science fiction, like there's a, it's blurry and and that's what happened with with the sword and sunflowers, that the. You could look at the two books as being fantasy, but it's really underlying sci-fi and the prequels all sci-fi, but then it bleeds back into fantasy yeah, I love that.

Carissa Andrews: 10:01

My first series was like that too, where it's like it started out and I myself thought it was fantasy and my best friend was going, chris, it's on a different planet, it's, it's science fiction. And I'm like, no, it's not.

Mark Bradford: 10:11

And then I realized it was both.

Carissa Andrews: 10:13

It was like oh, I was on rebending, I had no idea Exactly. Yeah, that's so cool. I agree with you there, cause there is that fine line, and I think that's part of the way that I teach manifestation too, because of the fact that, like, there are some people that really attach to the, the woo concepts for lack of a better word and then other people they need to have a scientific explanation, and so that's where quantum physics and quantum entanglement and you know all the different things with neuroscience and neuroplasticity, come in. It's like all these things and all of a sudden it makes people like, wait a minute, wait a minute, a minute, there's a thing here. Okay, let's talk about this. So, speaking of that, I love this idea of obviously blended worlds, and you describe yourself as dual brained, so this plays so well into the conversation we're having. So how does this particularly influence your writing and your work in technology? Because you also work in technology, you said could you give us an example of how this perspective shift typically takes place for you?

Mark Bradford: 11:08

Oh, so what it is is actually true to the word dual. It's happening at the same time and so at least it's trying to, and that's when. That's when my brain is happiest. Is so if the logistics and logical part of my brain can get together with the creative part that creates things out of nothing that I still can't explain. If the two of them can get together and make something, that's when it's singing, that's when it's just happy, and so for me I mean for me an example would be I also happen to be a full stack web developer. I didn't know I was called that, but I do. I can do everything from SQL databases and cold fusion all the way to the logo and all that other crazy stuff and making it pretty so, whatever. But that process and using logic in a back end and also making it pretty so that the humans can play with it, is definitely creativity and logic together.

Mark Bradford: 11:56

I've been playing a lot with AI. I've actually written a number of articles on AI, and I'm not a fan of chat, gpt I'm not a fan of what GPT? I'm not a fan of what's happening with people trying to write, but I am a fan of the artwork thing, even though there's some ethical things going on with that. But creating artwork and now I've been playing with music has been really amazing, because you still you have to go. No, I need a logical way to explain this to this cold thing to make something pretty and beautiful out of it. So that's another way. Aerial photography is another way. Aerial photography that I do. I have a pilot's license, so I did aerial photography and sometimes it sounds like I'm making things up when I talk to people.

Carissa Andrews: 12:36

Yeah, it all merges. It really does. It all comes together. It's so cool yeah.

Mark Bradford: 12:40

Yeah, and so that's another thing too, because there's a lot of control and rules and things, but you're trying to make this beautiful thing in which the thing you used is invisible. I don't want to know about the drone, I want to know about what it sees. That's what I want to see, so that's where it comes together.

Carissa Andrews: 12:55

Oh, that's so cool. Ok, so you got to take me back to the music thing. Like, I use ChatGPT. I train authors on how to use Chat gpt for creating their series, for creating their outlines, for coming up with the plot points, for creating characters, things like that. I I agree with you that I I don't think it's quite there to be able to write stories or even like is it necessary? Because I think we, as artists, we are like, the reason we're writers is because we have something to express, and so if we're using chat gpt to do it for us, it can take away some of that magic, but it can. It's starting to do it for us. It can take away some of that magic, but it can. It's starting to do it, like, with the custom GPT. Is it's pretty great? However, going back to the music part, like, what programs are you using to create the music? I'm so interested in this. This is so cool.

Mark Bradford: 13:33

So I keep getting the name wrong. I just stumbled on it and I've actually created I've created a bunch of songs in it. I think it's like Suno or something like that. I think that's the one that I stumbled on and I found I don't want to say a backdoor, but I found a weird link to it in which I was able to play with it without even like signing on for now. But I think I may end up paying for it to do some commercial stuff. But I did a promo for my book with it that I thought turned out it was actually a power ballad hairband kind of promo for it. That was just crazy, yeah.

Carissa Andrews: 14:05

That's awesome. I love that. I have not played with any AI music stuff, but definitely AI image generation. In a past life I was a graphic designer and so I've got like that whole experience. So me doing pretty things and playing with technology is also kind of part of my repertoire.

Carissa Andrews: 14:20

I am not a full stack developer as far as I'm aware, but I do like technology. That's so cool, so I love that you have like this crossroads between technology and spirituality too, and this is something that kind of blends throughout everything. It sounds like that you do. Could you share how these two passions kind of complement and influence each other in your life and work Like? How does that all come together typically?

Mark Bradford: 14:43

So how does technology and spirituality both somehow work hand-to-hand together? That's kind of like another version of the other question, I would say well, I think they both augment. I mean, technology is sort of like man-made stuff that we created. It's tools like AI that we created that sets us apart from raccoons and so forth, but although they still have the little hands, they're little trash bandits but spirituality is stuff we didn't, that's stuff we discover, I think, and one could argue that spirituality is what we create, like that.

Mark Bradford: 15:22

Spirituality may not exist without us creating it. Who knows, maybe you need sentient beings and they create spirituality, who knows? But I think those two things come together with me because they give me an appreciation. I mean, I have an appreciation for what makes technology work and half of it shouldn't even work, like we shouldn't be able to do. What we're doing now, with all those points of failure just between me and the internet, let alone the internet and you, and back down to what you're doing, is just amazing. You know, and, and and I guess again that ties it's a callback to what we said before, in which you know is it fantasy or is it? Is it is it, is it sci-fi? And that you know to somebody just a few years ago this is fantasy, this is magic.

Mark Bradford: 16:03

Right now, you know, so I think you can extend that and go well, what else is possible, what's out there, what is what don't I know? And you know, you know the old phrase of the more you learn, the more you know that you don't know. You realize how little knowledge you have, and, and I think one of the things really is feeling that there is something bigger than you and something bigger than everyone, and I think that's an important grounding thing that people should have. And you know, it doesn't have to be brick and mortar, it can just be a feeling, it can be gardening, it can be yoga, whatever, something that says something else is there and that we really need to just connect with. And so there you go.

Carissa Andrews: 16:43

I love that Well, and for me it's like it's so funny because I look at technology like AI right now. I had a meditation the other day where it was like basically channeled or described to me like how chat GPT, how prompting chat GPT is no different than prompting the universe. So, like when I was asking the question, I'm like why, why, if we're always in the present now, like if now the only thing that exists, why do we have our ideas of the past and our concepts of the future? What's the point of that? And basically I was given like, okay, think about ChatGPT Without the context window of understanding what you're prompting it. And you just said, hey, chat, prompt me.

Carissa Andrews: 17:16

A social media post, for instance, it has no context to be able to give you the exact thing you're wanting to deliver, wanting it to deliver. So you as an individual, in this present moment, have to have a context window, your past, to know what it is you desire for the future, have the capability of envisioning that future, so that you can take the inspired action steps and do it now. And so it's like a very it's so similar to chat GPT and I'm just like technology and manifestation, technology and reality. It's all kind of merging and blending in my head. It's just kind of an interesting concept to be able to play around with and I think I don't know, is it wild, it's, it's so cool, I think it's just a neat, a neat way to keep looking at things, like to.

Carissa Andrews: 17:55

Always, like you said, we think we know something. Probably, like when we're a teenager, we think we know it all and then all of a sudden we realize we don't know it all. The more we learn, the less we know. And as you start to do that, it's like you start to layer on different aspects of knowledge. It's just so, it's so fascinating and I love that, and I love being able to take elements from different things, so like taking seemingly uncorrelated objects. So science fiction, fantasy making emerge, or technology and spirituality make emerge, or you know whatever it is it's so cool.

Carissa Andrews: 18:27

Yeah, absolutely, I, I 100 agree with that. Okay, so let's move on to your coaching system, because this sounds cool too. So, alchemy for life it seems like it encapsulates a lot of your life philosophy and the things that we've been talking about. So could you explain some of the core principles that you teach in the system and how people find this like balance within the alchemy for life?

Mark Bradford: 18:42

absolutely, absolutely so, absolutely. So I like to think I figured out what life is made of. It's not a box of chocolate, it's not sugar, spice and everything nice. It's actually, let me see, I have this. So there's a little bottle, it's 3D printed. I have a better one behind me and so I imagine that life is made of three things time, energy and resources. And so I imagine that life is made of three things time, energy and resources. Everything we do uses those things in one way or another, and in some cases we gain energy from something that someone else would lose, energy from something that energizes you Like.

Mark Bradford: 19:17

I like public speaking, because I'm crazy, and so that jazzes me all up. But other people are terrified, literally. A few research says that a good portion of people would fear death less than they fear public speaking. So clearly, clearly, different things mean different things for different people. So you have time managing resources. You wake up, you have your flask every morning, you spill a little bit out into your relationships, your work, your passions, your hobbies, exercise, whatever, and then sometimes you're like oh, it's seven o'clock, wait a minute and you're out, and so this happens to people.

Mark Bradford: 19:49

So we take the time, energy and resources and we map it out into five facets of life. So I tried to narrow what life looked like and it's five facets to me and I call that the balance sheet. And once we look at that we go oh, that's why I'm tired, oh, that's why I can't lose weight, oh, that's why I feel empty inside. There's nothing in my spirituality column. There's everything in my productivity column. I don't even know anything in my learning column, like like you know, what am I doing here? So I've had people that I, that I coach. They look at it and their eyes just go wide and they're like, oh, like they, it's like they, they, yeah.

Mark Bradford: 20:25

And that's why I say life is a game. I'm showing you the board because we never see the board in life.

Carissa Andrews: 20:30

We just don't.

Mark Bradford: 20:31

And now here's the board.

Carissa Andrews: 20:32

That's so cool. So do you, your nonfiction books? Talk about them, these principles, so that people can get a grasp on what they mean and how to implement them? Or is this only in the Alchemy for Life coaching?

Mark Bradford: 20:43

Yeah, it's completely separate than the other nonsense that I do. So, yeah, I did write a book called Alchemy for Life Formulas for Success, which does explain the coaching and does show some examples. That's also pulled from my podcast.

Carissa Andrews: 20:56

Oh good, so good. What is your podcast called for people who are curious to go find you. By the way, it's Alchemy for Life. So yeah, Alchemy for Life.

Mark Bradford: 21:04

I'm up to over 250. I just added a page on my website that lists every, every one of my episodes, so you can actually go there and hit control F or command F and then search for a keyword if you want to know something specific.

Carissa Andrews: 21:16

So that's awesome. What made you decide to start the podcast?

Mark Bradford: 21:19

That all happened, okay, so I guess I'll go back to that, that titular moment, as they say. So I took my kids to psychologist because I was going through a divorce and I wanted to make sure they were okay and I didn't want to be Obi-Wan Kenobi creating Darth Vader, and so I don't know what I'm doing right so. So she said they're surprisingly well adjusted. You're doing everything you can for them. And I said great. And then she said but, mark, what are you doing for you?

Carissa Andrews: 21:45

and I was like what, um?

Mark Bradford: 21:48

and I wasn't, I wasn't doing anything for me, I didn't matter at the time and she said, mark, you need to take care of you or there won't be anything left of you for them. And that's when I went, oh my, and that's when I figured out what life was made of the five facets. And then I, when I started writing all this stuff down, I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. So I decided to start a podcast and I started to figure stuff out in 10 minute bites, because I respected people's time and I wanted it to only be 10 minutes at a time, because so many people just ran, ramble me like, oh, just like the self-help books, and you read the whole thing. You're like, oh, that was a post-it note, that was like one item right, do you listen to videos on two times the speed too?

Mark Bradford: 22:27

yeah exactly and you're like what? Or you look at the transcript and you're like did you say anything useful? Yeah, I wanted to give people tangible bites of stuff every single episode has. Okay, thanks, I'll try that.

Carissa Andrews: 22:37

Okay, thanks, I'll try that so good, that's really cool I love that. I think you're right like there's, there's a that that I agree. There's so much waffling, yeah, and I've I've been noticing like I have a lot of questions for you, but I'm like holy cow, we talk fast and we we get it Like we're there. I'm like sweet, yeah, Holy cow, yeah, Okay.

Mark Bradford: 22:56

I went. I went back to my default speed. With you, I typically don't deal with people who are at the same speed I'm at, so I was just like, okay, I'm just as fast as her and I don't have to worry about things.

Carissa Andrews: 23:04

Yeah, oh yeah. I talk fast. All the time. People are just like. I used to feel bad about that. I don't feel bad anymore. I'm like if you can't keep up, then I'm not for you. It's just the way it is. Yeah, okay. So with your unique experiences in both tech and spirituality, do you see potential for tech to aid spiritual growth then in people? I am assuming the answer is going to be yes, but are there specific tools or technologies that you think can help deepen the spiritual and practical practices experiences? Whatever? You know what I'm saying.

Mark Bradford: 23:36

I didn't fall asleep. I'm actually thinking very hard about this.

Carissa Andrews: 23:39

I was going to say he's in standby mode, Hang on and frozen. My son does that where it's just like he just stops and he's like, but he's thinking. You can tell he's thinking, but it's like his standby mode on. That's why we tease him all the time about that.

Mark Bradford: 23:52

Yeah, if you've gotten me to shut up, that means that you're I'm very impressed by you, because that means I actually think about what you said. I guess technology I would say off the top of my head, it's the metrics Like, if technology can like, technology isn't going to make you appreciate a tree more. I mean, a picture of a tree is not the same as a tree, right, like the smells and sense of it, even a holodeck maybe. When we get to that part, maybe it'll be okay, like, oh, I feel better because I spent you.

Carissa Andrews: 24:25

You know, uh, you know I spent an afternoon in the holodeck at a beautiful college. When I'm on a ship or whatever, right, how do we know we're not already on the holodeck come?

Mark Bradford: 24:28

on mark, we could be holographic universe.

Carissa Andrews: 24:30

Yes, mr, yes, mr musk, a lot of people say that I wasn't talking about musk actually, but okay no, I mean, he's one of the many prominent people who say that we're in a simulation.

Mark Bradford: 24:38

Yeah, I think it's.

Carissa Andrews: 24:40

Brian Green. I think I have a book called the Holographic Universe. I think Brian Green's the author, but continue.

Mark Bradford: 24:45

Yeah. So other than that and you broke my whole model because you said we were in one Continue, continue, yeah. But other than that, I think what technology really can do is measure Like if we can be put, measure like if we can be put, like if technology can say, okay, my, my, my brain waves, my delta waves are at this point, ah, that's when I really feel meditative, you know, and like maybe you could wear something on your wrist that monitors that and you have a little gentle tapping and you're like, oh, I'm there, and that'll help you to kind of get into that meditative mood faster. Things like that, I think could be really helpful. Um, even even glasses or something that would allow you to see the world in a different way. Like let's take all the color out, let's do this, let's only focus on, on greens, let's make your field, your depth of view, a little bit different when you look at things. Oh, wow, you know infrared spectrum.

Mark Bradford: 25:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah oh, yeah, exactly like, if yeah, so that you, yeah, exactly see see life how like the bees see it, or whatever, yeah, exactly that's so cool.

Carissa Andrews: 25:42

I love the concept that you're talking about, like the, the tapping liquid of your apple watch, or something I personally use like a binaural app to be able to get into like theta brainwave state to be able to meditate and do things exactly. So I do use technology in that way, where it literally is brain entrapment, trying to get my brain waves to close themselves down, like to slow, because otherwise like, as you can tell, we go fast, right?

Carissa Andrews: 26:03

yeah, yeah, yeah, so that the gamma function needs to come down a little bit. It comes, needs to come down a notch, and then you can kind of chill out. Yeah, I mean, they made the god, helmet right.

Mark Bradford: 26:12

You have you heard of the god?

Carissa Andrews: 26:13

helmet? I haven't, no, it's this okay, so so they.

Mark Bradford: 26:15

So they made this helmet that has, like, uh, various electromagnets in it and they they found conclusively over and over again, when people put it on and they turned it up a bit, people said they were having spiritual experiences with it and it was because of the electromagnetic interaction with the brain, and so I can imagine that you can enhance brain function in some way that would allow you to be a little more creative or whatever. I'm not a big fan of artificial, so like if it starts to taste like artificial, I'm not sure if I want to do that, but I am big with augmentation of some kind. I mean, like everything we're surrounded by augmentation. I mean you're not living out in the dirt, you have walls and air conditioning and all that stuff, so you know technology is good.

Carissa Andrews: 26:57

Well, well, air conditioning is a bit questionable in this house, but that's all right. Yeah, we, we live in what used to be an old cabin, and so we're still in the process of remodeling for the past 10 years that's what we've been doing a lot of remodeling, yeah, so we don't have central area but we do have like a couple window.

Carissa Andrews: 27:15

Like when it gets really bad in the summer, we have window boxes. Oh good, good. But yeah, I like the augmentation aspect of it too. Or like, if you're tapping into, you know a natural element of yourself, so, like you know, having your apple watch to be able to track you know your heart rate and figuring out where your zones are, or figuring out you know if you are in a loud decibel range, you know all the different things that it tracks, or having a way to be able to entrap your brain so that it can function properly in whatever it is you're trying to do. You're obviously you know what your brain function needs to be to do this thing, but it's yeah, it's very interesting the idea of it being artificial. Where do you think the line is there? Like, where does that feel for you?

Mark Bradford: 27:57

I think when technology replaces something we already have and it does it poorly.

Carissa Andrews: 28:01

So, like using chat, gpt see if I can speak today using the Oracle because I call it consulting the Oracle at this point, consulting the Oracle to write your stuff, instead of consulting the Oracle to, like, do the brainstorming session with you. Like, if you're trying to get it to write and it doesn't have all the context and have your brain, your imagination, then it's doing it poorly because it's not you Right.

Mark Bradford: 28:24

Right Exactly, as opposed to using it as like the encyclopedia Oracle thing. Right Exactly.

Carissa Andrews: 28:28

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting I do. Have you ever like researched the other day? It was so funny. I'm like, okay, leave it to an author to wonder about the etymology of the word sideburn, which then led into the etymology of the word butterfly, like why isn't it flutterby? Seriously, and ChatGPT had the whole conversation with me. It was interesting.

Mark Bradford: 28:47

Well, that's what's very cool is you can have these side secret conversations. It's almost like talking to your subconscious a little bit. It's just like butterfly really should be what a fly is called and a fly should be what a fly is called and a fly should be what a butterfly is called, but they should switch names.

Carissa Andrews: 29:00

Yeah, I agree with you there. Yeah, but it's not. It's so weird. It's like we have the weirdest way to describe things.

Mark Bradford: 29:06

I have to say, as a side note, when I worked on my sequel, I was hoping that the three letter government agencies weren't seeing my search history, because what I had to research for my sequel I'm like, oh my God, this does not look good yeah.

Carissa Andrews: 29:21

You need to have a sticker. You know FBI. Just you know I'm a writer, I write fiction, okay, so many of the mystery authors on my podcast episodes are friends and stuff.

Mark Bradford: 29:31

They're always like that too.

Carissa Andrews: 29:32

They're like oh, they better not be looking at the search history.

Mark Bradford: 29:38

Yeah, but research is fun though. Research is really cool because it gives you so much texture and depth to what you're already feeling and you know, and I I think that's a big a trap, for for some authors is like, well, they'll never believe this or this isn't realistic. It's like, how much is really realistic out there? How much of you know some of the most the greatest movies out there like back to the future or something like that? How much, how many plot holes are there in there that you say, well, whatever it's about the story, and so forth.

Carissa Andrews: 30:02

So the characters and everything. Yeah, I agree with you there. It's so interesting the way that that happens. The believability aspect too. It's like things only mean what we tell them, like tell ourselves that they mean too. So like someone who, for instance, is struggling to write a story and is not able to get into the flow of their story that day. One person could be like, oh my gosh, I'm so terrible, why can't I do this thing? And the next person could be like well, it's just it hasn't come to me yet, so I'm just going to let it go and go with the flow. It'll arrive when it arrives, and I'll keep moving on Like there's. There's so many different ways to look at it, and so it's about deciding then, being more intentional with our thoughts and deciding and choosing them more deliberately so that we can feel better about what we're doing. I think, yeah, a hundred percent on that Absolutely.

Carissa Andrews: 30:47

Awesome. So how do you balance the logical problem solving mindset required in tech with the more intuitive, transcendent aspects of spirituality? How do you personally like do both?

Mark Bradford: 30:59

I guess. I guess they're both ever present, so I don't know if I you know it's. It's an interesting. The question itself needs to be questioned because it's it's. It's it's because, sorry to put that back to you. No go for it it's like, but I think that's one of the fallacies of civilization is that technology will move us away from spirituality.

Carissa Andrews: 31:22

It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to, it doesn't have anything.

Mark Bradford: 31:23

It may not have anything to do with moving us, like you could be the most spiritual person possible and you know, get in your, get in your teleported device or whatever it. They don't need it. They're not opposite sides of the same coin, they're. They're like we said, there might be the same thing, kind of like if you look at technology as science fiction and you look at spirituality as fantasy, they're the same thing. We just there's one we don't understand as much as the other, and one we're able to control more, possibly, than we are with the other one. So I guess, oh, I just have a giant answer. That's my giant answer. I don't have anything specific for you?

Carissa Andrews: 31:55

do you have? Do you have specific spiritual practices though that bring that you incorporate each day, then that is going to be different than your tech side. So I'm assuming that your passion for what you do with your tech company, with the development stuff that you do with your writing because a lot of that stuff's technical or strategic, but do you have spiritual side practices then your walk obviously through the graveyard in my aspect could be considered one, right yeah.

Carissa Andrews: 32:20

I agree you have things that you do daily that that would be more on the spiritual side.

Mark Bradford: 32:24

I do and I like your question because I'm gonna think about it after we're done today, because I because it's a bigger question and it's that is there a separation? Do I do this thing to fill this? Do I do it? And so I guess, first of all, yes, I, I like to do yoga in the morning. I have a good friend who's a yoga teacher. So, uh, most saturdays let's be realistic not all I do go and go to a yoga class and I love she does the full. She does the full. There's kundalini and all the other stuff. She does the breathing, she the, the meditation and the movement and I got spoiled by her, because I didn't realize that that's not all yoga.

Mark Bradford: 32:58

Some yoga's only movement, but I feel like it should be all of that. Um, I agree, I like that. I feel that, like I said, I feel the the this is going to sound weird and I've never said this out loud. Um, there's a, there's a.

Carissa Andrews: 33:11

I love that. I'm here for it.

Mark Bradford: 33:12

I'm here. That's huge. That's huge coming from me Something I've never said out loud. I just have this almost giddy appreciation of existence that I can literally be in my in my kitchen getting some water and like start laughing because I'm like this is so absurd, like this, like like life, like in a way, life is a joke.

Mark Bradford: 33:40

It's just so amazingly hilarious the stuff we don't know, the stuff that by me talking to you, I'm so cut off with everything else happening around the world right now, like even with with my friends, family, everything else, clients, I'm focused on you, and for me to think that I somehow know what's happening, that I know whatever, or the fact that just chemistry and physics and gravity and quantum physics, all that, the machinery of life, like Carl Sagan said, all that stuff that has to happen for us to even breathe, like for me to even see you, like to develop eyes that can make these monitors and things work to see through the air, just right, the fact that I've been breathing, I'm not aware of it. Now I am, oh, my god, you know that's breathe, breathe, yeah, anyway, no, um, just just that. That slams down on me sometimes and I just start laughing like okay, I get it. That's hilarious, so it's great, it's just ever, it's ever-present and I think, okay, so I'll say this is politically incorrect. Um, I, I get a big chuckle out of the people who are, who are totally stringent.

Mark Bradford: 34:42

The universe was created and then, and then the people who are like no, there's a big bang. And I'm like how is there a difference between bang and poof? That's the literally this is right, it's just a different word like. It's like, it's literally the same thing something poofed into existence. And you're saying it happened this way. You have, but neither one of you has. You have so little knowledge on this. Just, you know, you're wearing this little ball, this ball covered in gases, and we kind of sort of peer out there. We're at the edge of a pie plate. We can't even see behind our own galaxy because of where we're positioned. We're like, we think there's some stuff over there. We're just gonna fill it. Come on right, like, like, and so when that all rushes into your brain at once, you're like oh, oh brain freeze.

Mark Bradford: 35:26

Oh, you know, so sorry right, okay, yeah way too long of an answer.

Carissa Andrews: 35:30

I apologize, but that's no, that's great where it?

Mark Bradford: 35:32

is for me.

Carissa Andrews: 35:33

I love that, though. No, I agree, and it just it makes me think about. I don't know if you've ever studied Abraham Hicks or what happens from esther hicks when she channels abraham. Have you heard of this?

Carissa Andrews: 35:41

no, I have not abraham hicks is a channeled, like she calls them beings, because she doesn't know like there's multiple, it's just like an energy that she, she channels. So her name is esther hicks, but they they've talked for like 40 some odd years about law of attraction as the, the focal point for humanity to kind of start understanding what is there trying to create and why they're here, and so they talk a lot about that, that giddy part of it where it's like when you are on point with your purpose, when you're aligned with your purpose and and basically, in essence, channeling who you truly are and not kinking things off in and keeping the flow of creative energy, of source energy, of whatever to come to you, the better it gets, the better it gets, the better it gets. The more giddy you get, the more expectant you get, the more excited you get, the the easy it's because, like when think about it when you're a kid, like you laughed probably all the time and things were just funny for no like, no reason whatsoever.

Carissa Andrews: 36:34

And then you become a little older and things get more dire and more serious, more serious, and then, like that, the combination of like what how many times kids laugh a day to like adults is like it's so divergent and it's insane, but it's because we kinked ourself off from that like flow of universal energy. When we get back into it, I think that makes total sense. You're, you're in your vibe, you're in your flow and so the alignment's there and it's, it's just like, of course it's going to be funny, of course it's going to be like. This is crazy, this is just how weird is it that we're here right now, like the evolution that had to happen and everything that had to become a thing and that evolution, a whole new concept but you know what I'm saying Like a whole new can of worms.

Mark Bradford: 37:13

Right, yeah, no-transcript. And it's just like all of a sudden you just you kind of let go and you're going, you're guiding it, but the river's pulling you at the same time, kind of thing I mean it sounds like the ancient one from from.

Carissa Andrews: 37:37

Dr, that sounds exactly like Abraham they talked about that too where so many people are pointed upstream and the river's pushing you one way but you're trying to paddle the other way and that's why everything feels so hard. So when you just let go of the oars and turn around, the boat will go where it needs to go.

Mark Bradford: 37:51

Yeah, but there's some guiding in there too that you don't realize. I think there is still some free will, and that's a whole. Nother discussion is is the existence of free will and so forth.

Carissa Andrews: 38:01

Yeah, I love that too. That's a good conversation, because we're so free that we can choose enslavement. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Right, yeah, and we do it all the time with the way that we tell ourselves the stories of what we think we get to have, or how we get to be, or the creativity we get to bring forth, or all the things, like the person we get to show up, as it's pretty wild. I agree with you, that's a, that's a good. That's a good topic too. We could go down a rabbit hole.

Mark Bradford: 38:26

Absolutely yeah Hour. Four of our podcast today Right.

Carissa Andrews: 38:34

Oh goodness, I can see we're going to need to bring you back, mark.

Mark Bradford: 38:37

I would love that.

Carissa Andrews: 38:38

We're going to have to have lots of conversations, okay, so let's talk about this one, because there's so many things, like I said, that you do and so many interesting facets that I had to pull like little bits out of all the different things for at least this introduction to who you are. So you often say that everyone has a dashboard and gauges that guide their decisions, so could you elaborate on this metaphor and perhaps share how we can use the tool to enhance our daily lives?

Mark Bradford: 39:01

Absolutely so. My very first book was the Status Game, and, and so basically I saw when I started dating that all relationships were based on one thing your relationship with your daughter, your, your, your, your kids, your, your husband, your peers, your clients, your boss All based on one thing. And so I wrote about that in the status game, and so what it comes down to is this I imagine that we have a dashboard in front of us. It's sort of an invisible dashboard that you wish you could see and then it's filled with gauges, like on a car. Okay, on a car, the biggest gauge is the most important, it's the speed, that's the thing that's going to kill you, and then it goes to the smaller gauges and so on and so forth.

Mark Bradford: 39:43

On our dashboard, we have a big gauge of the thing that's most important to us in the people we're trying to find Okay, so the person you're attracted to. So this is basically your love dashboard. You have two others, you have a total of three, so the love dashboard. You look and you have this gauge that says, oh, I really like that. If there are seven on this, well, I'm done right. And some people are sort of one gauge dashboard people. They're like single-minded, like you have your friend Nancy, who only goes for rich guys. You have another one that only goes for this kind of guy or whatever, it doesn't care, there's the one that has the height. And then she's like well, why do I keep getting connected to a-holes? Oh, because you don't look at the personality. They're all seven feet tall.

Carissa Andrews: 40:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Bradford: 40:27

You focus on that and your gauges change as you get to know people. That's why people grow apart, because their gauges shrink and grow. The guy who was a had with long hair who played the guitar naked on the couch is now the guy now that you have kids, isn't earning any money. I guess we've grown apart, you know. So it's those. So the gauges change. So once you start to figure out what your gauges are, you start to go. That's why I'm attracted to these kinds of people.

Mark Bradford: 40:52

All the time I'm looking for X and sometimes that looks like that gauge, but it's not. I got getting fooled by that or I'm overly focused on that. We also have another dashboard for our friends. We have a third one which is for us. So when we look in the mirror we go I like that person because we look at the gauges and we go, yeah, that's where I am and I've had to make a couple of hard decisions in the past for myself and again the divorce and stuff are very difficult for me. And I looked at my gauge and my parent gauge was really important and that's what caused me to do what I did. So I was happy when I looked in the mirror and went yep, I followed through with that. So it's interesting when you start to learn these various gauges on your dashboards, and that's the way I envision that.

Carissa Andrews: 41:35

That's super interesting. It's interesting to me, too that you said seven out of 10 or whatever. Super interesting, it's super. It's interesting to me, too, that you said seven out of 10 or whatever, because my husband and I we have both taken the, the Clifton strengths, the 34 strengths test, if you've ever looked at that, and literally in the top 10, we share seven of the 10 top 10. So it's it's pretty wild, it's a.

Carissa Andrews: 41:54

You know they're a little bit out of order, but they're really close at the same time, like some of them will flip flop or whatever, and but they're really close at the same time, like some of them will flip flop or whatever, and I think that's probably why he and I connect so well, like because of the fact that we, our thought processes, are very similar, the way that we handle different things are very similar. We're both very strategic and high future and learners and you know all the other things, whatever it might be.

Mark Bradford: 42:16

I would imagine that you also have a very strong friendship bond with him as well, probably a bit more than most couples that you know.

Carissa Andrews: 42:23

Yeah, I think so too. We actually met on the Internet, so all we could be was friends for about seven months.

Mark Bradford: 42:28

Wow, okay, so you learned patience as well. That's cool, but you're describing sort of the difference between the love dashboard and the friend dashboard. The love dashboard you have certain things that turns your crank and forth, okay, um, but they're not necessarily in line with with you. That's why opposites attract and all that stuff. The friend dashboard is somebody who?

Carissa Andrews: 42:49

who agrees with?

Mark Bradford: 42:50

you, it's somebody that gets you, somebody that says, yeah, this is what I'm about, I'm, I'm, I'm picking up what you're putting down, I'm smelling with your cooking, so it's, um, it's, it's, it's, it's that sort of thing. And that's where the friendship one is, and that's why people who also have friends that are that will do something horrible but like, well, that's Bill. You know he's kind of like that. You know he cheated on his life, but he really likes the Packers. You know, whatever, right, right that makes sense.

Mark Bradford: 43:17

Yeah, so that's kind of how that works and that's why that's different than the loved one.

Carissa Andrews: 43:19

That's very interesting. Yeah, I could definitely see it. There's also an element, though, with like opposites attract, that I think they're both in in one way or shape or form. They're wanting the same thing. Like you know the, the guy who is like, let's go with, find that place where he feels like he's supported or seen or whatever, and the sunshine is just wanting to like, bring joy and happiness to everything. That includes the you know grumpy old dude over there. You know, like so it's like of course it comes together because people technically want the same thing even though they're opposites and, and so you also need to describe what she's getting out of it.

Mark Bradford: 43:56

What she's getting out of it is is, uh, is's getting out of it is probably a level of dependability that she and steadfastness that she doesn't normally rely on for herself because she is high energy and bouncy. And I have a chapter in, I think, the Status Game 2 that talks about gold diggers, cougars, something. Oh my, I forgot what it was but it's a clever thing.

Mark Bradford: 44:17

Yeah, because they will immediately smear a dude because he goes after younger women. Because you know he wants high energy, he wants indicators of health, which a lot of younger things, you know, nice hair, da-da-da-da skin. That's indicators of health that are built into us. But then they'll also say oh, you're a gold digger. If a woman is interested in a man who's a high earner or whatever, but she wants dependability and things like that, and if those two people can make that work, that's fine. They're both getting something selfishly out of that.

Mark Bradford: 44:46

And it's interesting how we'll say, well, like, you're with him because he's a good dad, yeah, okay. So what if he wasn't a good dad? Well, I wouldn't be with him. You're with him because he has high morals. What if he wasn't? I wouldn't be with him. You know, blah, blah, blah. But if you say I'm with him because he's a higher earner, well, if what he wasn't, well then I wouldn't.

Mark Bradford: 45:05

It's the, it's this, it's it. I know it sounds shallow, but it's the same kind of concept where that gauge says it has to be up to this size and so it is what I say. I'm not like that, but I say it is what it is and don't beat yourself up. If you have a like, just kind of look into that like and make sure that there's not a gauge behind it. You know, because maybe you want a high earner, not because you like material possessions, but because you like security and you grow up with very little security and your brain, just like a lot of women, go for tall guys because there's this dad thing that happens and they also, you know, they hug the guy and they're really hugging his stomach because they're so that you know that the height difference they feel safe and secure with a guy who's tall, even though they may not because the guy is an irresponsible jerk, but his literal physical appearance causes them to say security.

Carissa Andrews: 45:51

Isn't it interesting, I think, the concept of how our brains connect to these concepts and if we can become aware of it like that is how we shift those patterns. That's how we can go. Okay, I understand now why I like this thing, but is it serving me? And then you can ask yourself well, could I, could I believe something that's going to be better? Could I change this to be just a little tweak that makes my life easier or makes it like pushes me in the right direction, versus like attracting the tall guy? That's an ass. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly, yeah, interesting.

Mark Bradford: 46:20

Yeah, and that's the awareness is huge. That's like the three principles basically with me. It's like you know, having is discover something and then create an awareness for the people that listen to my podcast or talk to me or work with me. Is that just giving them that awareness, like I said with the sheet, is huge because you can't un-become aware of something.

Carissa Andrews: 46:40

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't work like that. I mean you could, you could go into denial, I guess.

Mark Bradford: 46:45

But it's still going to come back and bite you in the butt. It'll be back. Yeah. It being in your subconscious isn't any better. It is going to bite you?

Carissa Andrews: 46:51

Yeah, it'll come back. Okay, so when it comes to, like you said, full stack developer and being a prolific author, how do you balance?

Mark Bradford: 47:04

those two aspects Like how do you, how do you pull in time for writing and still being so technical with all the things that you do, or does one influence the other? Um, I don't think the influence. I don't think they talk, they're not in speaking terms. I'm so, um, okay, but but I, what I, what I found with, with doing with, with realizing that life is made of three things time, energy and resources is that and I did a podcast on this it's more often about the energy and less often about the time.

Mark Bradford: 47:27

A lot of people will come to me and say how do you have time for all this? And I'll say no, no, no, no. How do I have energy for all this? Because I, in fact, I did coaching for someone who I did some other work for that they came back to me and they kept seeing my signature change. You know, this book is out, this book is out, and they're like I've been trying to write a book. I need you to be my book coach. So I ended up coaching her and it was the same kind of thing. She'd come home, she'd have three or four hours, but she'd watch the Bachelor or she'd just go and watch trash TV because she was drained by her job. So we had to work on her energy during the day, so that she had energy to work on her book, and that's the way that that worked.

Carissa Andrews: 48:04

That's super interesting too. What do you think of Parkinson's law? Because we teach that often about like how, having that, like having that understanding, like do you know what Parkinson's law is? Okay, so Parkinson's law is basically that time will expand or contract, or work will expand or contract to fit the time allotted for it. So when we decide so this is.

Carissa Andrews: 48:23

It kind of goes back to the way that I teach manifestation too when we decide or observe a particle, right, it becomes a particle, it collapses time.

Carissa Andrews: 48:30

When we look at it and we decide on something, we can actually shift how much time it is.

Carissa Andrews: 48:35

And that's why people are like, okay, I have three months to finish this paper in school, like whatever, and it's not until the night before it's due that some people will sit down and actually start the thing, or some people will just do it the whole time or have it done the first week, or you know whatever. Everybody kind of decides what this time looks like for us, but it expands or contracts based on the time allotted for us, and so when we're trying to manifest something quickly, for instance, you have to truly like be aware of time. You can collapse it and then, just if you wanted something tomorrow and you really believed it can happen. Like your mind-body coherence has to be in sync then you can make things like that happen. But what do you think about like, being like? Is there an energetic connection I guess is what I'm saying to time like where you can, in your decision moment, just make that happen? Is there like a willpower enough to be able to make it happen?

Mark Bradford: 49:26

So are you. So are you saying I can exert my will to, to change, to create an event or to change the amount of time needed for an event Both?

Carissa Andrews: 49:38

because think about any time that you've had a deadline or anything that you've got going on. Yeah, if, if you decide you're going to make it happen and you're it's going to be done by that day or it's going to be done sooner than that, whatever day you decide it's going to be done by right. It usually is going to be done by that day. But if you're kind of waffling, you're kind of like I'm not sure if I'll make it happen, uh, that's not enough time. I don't think it's enough time to probably go past that deadline because you haven't collapsed it enough or you haven't focused enough to decide that no, this is the time that I'm going to do it right, so work will expand or contract to fit that time allotment. Does that make sense? But I think there's a level of willpower there.

Mark Bradford: 50:11

Yeah, I I have like four comments, so the first one is park, park, parkins. Parkins's law could be uh applied to storage space and also hard drive storage space. It's the same concept that it'll expand to fill whatever.

Mark Bradford: 50:23

If you get a bigger hard drive just like a house there's never too much. Oh, you have too much space, oh well, right. And then I do think I did a podcast called Blind Positivity and it was about people. Just that's okay, just be positive. It's like, no, you know, there's more to it than that and there are things at work in your brain that are happening that we just don't define. And that gets right back to our.

Mark Bradford: 50:50

I think the theme of this episode is science fiction versus fantasy and how all of life revolves around that. But I use the example of someone you know who said I really want to see butterflies. You know, I just want to see more butterflies. And then they're driving around and that's on their brain, and then they go past the store and they decide to buy a bunch of seeds and stuff. They're doing gardening, but they end up buying a lot of the seeds for really pretty flowers, they plant them and then, like a little while later, like wow, I thought about butterflies and now I see butterflies.

Mark Bradford: 51:20

Well, yes and no, like you did and you didn't, like you did physical things that made that happen. As far as expanding the time, I truly believe that we have, and you and I are in our hyper state right now, and I believe that we can, because I look at the time and I look at talking to you, I'm like man, we recovered some ground. This is awesome, because usually it's not like, yeah, it's a lot slower than this, and so I'm glad I can keep up with you.

Mark Bradford: 51:44

No, but so I think that you can expand and contract this energy to fill it in a certain way. That's why you know, that's why I like mindfulness and a walk in the park can feel different than than intense work. But I also I did a podcast on being in the zone and I'm only mentioning them because it helps me to catalog and remember no, I, I totally get it yeah, the, um, the in the zone, and how you feel.

Mark Bradford: 52:08

When you're in the zone and you're looking, it's like been an hour and a half and you're like, oh, and you're just sort of like singing and your, your brain's humming along and it just feels right and um, or uh. When you're like, oh, my god, when does the end? And do we still have to be here? You know, can we leave yet? I know we just got here and like, then you like, you know, like the watch pot never boils, kind of thing, and stuff like that.

Mark Bradford: 52:28

And then finally, I think I have done kind of a tricky, naughty thing with regarding the kind of the concept of, well, if I waffle about and I don't know what I'm doing, it's going to take forever and I'm never going to do it, kind of thing I have said to my brain oh, okay, yeah, we have all this time now. Yeah, you know what? I'm just going to sit down and do this, like I did that with writing a few times, where I'm like, yeah, I don't really have a deadline with this, that's fine, but I'm just going to sit here like I'll like out loud, I'll like lie to myself, even though I know what I'm doing is I'm trying to trap myself into writing for two hours. I'm not. I'm trying not to let my subconscious know that. No, just a couple minutes. Yeah, I'll probably go.

Carissa Andrews: 53:10

Yeah, just a couple minutes and you know my husband calls that the 10 minute rule. When he when there's things that he doesn't want to do but he knows he has to do it, he's like I will give, will give myself 10 minutes, 10 minutes, and if after 10 minutes I don't want to do it, then I'm gonna switch to something else. And very rarely after 10 minutes do you actually want to switch. By that point you're in it. You're like okay, my brain's in it, I've got it Like whatever 10 minutes is so long.

Mark Bradford: 53:33

I set alarms on my secret listening devices at all over my house. I can't say her name because she'll say what do you want?

Carissa Andrews: 53:41

Yeah, mine will go off too.

Mark Bradford: 53:41

Yeah. So I have, I'll set 10 minutes, I'll say I'm just going to do this for 10 minutes and I'll be like 10 minutes is long. It's a long time to like do some cleaning and things and you can get some some serious stuff done doing that, yeah, yeah. And and I don't know, I don't want to interrupt questions you may have, but along the same lines, I don't know if I told you about the do it to a fault method that I created. I did a talk on that. Okay. So do it to a fault is a method I created for you to take your mind and hook it into doing something that either is tedious and you don't want to do, it is repetitious, or something that is so giant and foreboding that you're like I can never do this right, like writing a book or something like that. Yeah, right, and so so F-A-U-L-T so feeling activity, universal location, time fault. Okay, so you hook it to one of those things and it just gets done. And this doesn't take a month, it can literally take 24 hours and suddenly it starts happening and it's the weirdest thing. So what I did was I did a couple things first.

Mark Bradford: 54:45

First, I really didn't like doing like unloading and loading a dishwasher and washing dishes and stuff like that. I didn't really like that and I live, I live alone. So I, when I get a phone call that's a social call I stop what I'm doing and I get. If I can't, right, if I'm in the middle of working, I can't. But. But if I can take a break, I get up. I get up. I can't just sit there on the phone say, yeah, how you doing, I get up and that the phone call is tied to me getting up and doing housework. Okay, if you call me, you make me do housework automatically. Yeah, it works, that's just the way it works. And obviously I try not to clank plates or anything like that, but I just do it and the whole time I'm talking I'm just doing it. The part of my brain, the monkey brain, is just doing that stuff. I did this to the point where my son called me once and we talked and he's an old watchwoman like me blah, blah, blah. So we talked for a while and then later that day I went to unload the dishwasher and it was empty and I'm like who emptied the dishwasher? Like I was like freaked out because there's nobody else here and I realized it was so automatic that it was just happening. And then we had this conversation one day that was so long, the entire house was clean, everything but vacuuming, because I couldn't do that. But I was like my God, the house looks awesome.

Mark Bradford: 56:26

No-transcript, you can do that with time as well, and people do it with time all the time. It's lunchtime, I should eat. Well, I'm not hungry. Well, this is when we eat. Oh, you know. So we do that all the time and it's actually a bad thing where it's connected to time. So anyway, that's my ramble about do it to a fault that's super interesting.

Carissa Andrews: 56:44

I really like that concept. My husband does that. I mean for sure, because when his mom calls, his mom likes to to talk and she's a lovely lady but she lives in england, still, like I, I met my husband, he was in england. We met online, like I said, twitter back in the day and um, so when she calls he'll he he'll be getting like dinner ready, so he gets everything going. He does the whole thing Like then he's like dual, dual working with things as he's talking to her. I'm like for me, I'm typically just always going like. The only time that I'm not doing something is when I'm sitting down to meditate. But even then, most of the time I'm sitting like on my meditation seat and I'm probably moving, like there's like a movement or something that's going on Like I can't sit just by myself Like I can.

Carissa Andrews: 57:24

I've done it. But for whatever reason, a movement has to be in place, it just, it just is. It's interesting.

Mark Bradford: 57:30

Yeah, interesting.

Carissa Andrews: 57:32

Yeah, that's so cool. I love that concept. I'm going to have to. I have to think more on that one now.

Mark Bradford: 57:37

Yeah, it's one of my podcasts and one of my talks I gave to you, so you can always just look it up if you want to have the longer yeah.

Carissa Andrews: 57:43

I will definitely put that in the show notes too, because I think other people are going to be like, oh, that's really cool, that's, that's a really interesting way to look at it. Ok, so what's next on the horizon for you, mark?

Mark Bradford: 58:05

Is there any upcoming projects or books or new developments for Alchemy for Life that you're particularly excited about out? Yes, thank you for asking. I have two books I finished. One of them is the third in the series of the status game. It's actually the status game three, called Beyond Status, and it actually incorporates both the books and a hundred page workbook so that you can actually discover what your gauges are. So it's a special way of questioning yourself that speeds up and slows down and tricks your subconscious into being honest, and so it's a little method I developed. So I think it's a really cool book and I think the cover turned out really pretty too.

Mark Bradford: 58:29

So that's that's. I'm sitting on that because I'm deciding on how it's going to be released properly, Cause I don't want it to be released out into the void. I want a bit more, a bit more. I don't want to say fanfare, but I want a bit more interaction with people on that so they can really get on it. The other one is I asked myself a question one Saturday morning.

Mark Bradford: 58:53

I'm sitting on the floor and I said, if I could have anything I want, why don't I? Like what's stopping me? Like, if I say I want to do a thing, what's really stopping me? What is stopping any of us from doing that? And I was like, well, this is going to be fairly easy to answer. So I sat down and I started writing a Google Doc and I was on the 10th page of it. I'm like this is a book, Holy cow. So I sat down and I started writing and then I did the hierarchical arrangement of thoughts and I'm like, oh my God, I figured it out.

Mark Bradford: 59:21

And this has more citations than any other book. In my experimental psychology. This has 46 citations so far. So I'm citing everything from Freud's work to the New England Journal of Medicine. Just a whole bunch of stuff about my concepts, and what I do is I take Freud's pain pleasure principle I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. So, yeah, he developed. Yeah, so it's, we either go towards pleasure or away from pain period. That's it. Everything is that binary, and I figured out the level above that. So there's something between that and us doing something.

Mark Bradford: 59:52

And then I also did research on the highest performers, people who are Olympic athletes, and stuff that, almost without a fault, every single one of them, no pun intended. Every single one of them. It's repetition. It's if you just repeat it, you get better at it. But they don't talk about why they repeated it, Like Michael Phelps, for example. Michael Phelps is why people don't realize that is that he suffered from I think it was ADHD, and so he would spend a lot of time in the pool because he just felt better in there. Well, it was that that caused him to go into the pool. I mean, granted, his physiology is like fish-like, I get that.

Carissa Andrews: 1:00:31

He's a merman, it's fine.

Mark Bradford: 1:00:33

He is, yeah, but it caused him to be in there. So there's a thing behind stuff that and I call it monsters and unicorns. So there's there's. There's something that prevents you from doing something repeatedly, or there's something that causes you to do it all the time, like you always do that. Oh, because of this something in your childhood. What have you?

Carissa Andrews: 1:00:51

Gotcha, that's super interesting. Oh, I'm looking forward to that. So when, when are these two things coming out?

Mark Bradford: 1:00:56

All I can say is this year.

Carissa Andrews: 1:00:59

Okay. So, Mark, where can my audience go to find out more about you, what you do, all the things? Because?

Mark Bradford: 1:01:06

like we said, you do a lot. Oh, thank you. So just, markbradfordorg is really the one place if you, if there's one place to go markbradfordorg.

Carissa Andrews: 1:01:18

It has all my books, my connection to alchemy, all the other stuff too. I love that. Well, mark, thank you so much for being here. We're going to have to bring you back.

Mark Bradford: 1:01:23

I appreciate you talking with me? I would love that.

Carissa Andrews: 1:01:25

Yay, well, that's awesome, thank you for being here.

Mark Bradford: 1:01:27

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure, it really was fun.

Carissa Andrews: 1:01:34

Well, there you have it, guys. Isn't Mark amazing? I had such a blast talking with him about all the things. There was so much that he does that. Trying to narrow down just one specific topic as we brought him in, it was so hard. I'm like you know what, we're just going to talk about all the things and see what happens, and so you're welcome. This is the talk that you got because of that decision, isn't it great?

Carissa Andrews: 1:01:56

He was so much fun to chat with and I think this was the perfect time to air his podcast episode because you know, we talked about the nature of AI, of, you know, the science fiction with the fantasy and all the things, and right now we're right in the middle of Plotober and literally, as of today, as of the airing of this podcast episode, I am on day three of the four books, five days next live cohort. So it's been really fun to see, like, how people are incorporating and using ChatGPT this year with their series, with the way that they're planning their books and all of the things. It's been so much fun and this particular live launch has been just amazing, like people have been in and out of the conversations. We've been having such a blast coming up with new ways to be able to use ChatGPT, and I'll tell you, it's evolved a lot since last year, but at the same time, the basic principles are the same. The prompts that come back have just gotten so much better, which is saying something, because last year the prompt returns were amazing. They were so good. So it's been an interesting year to see the evolution of AI and how large language models are helping us, as authors, come up with some new and incredible ideas.

Carissa Andrews: 1:03:12

So if you haven't had access to it yet, if you haven't hopped in and you're curious about how AI works, I'd encourage you to kind of perk your ears and stay tuned, because I'm going to be launching a brand new membership. It's coming out very soon, in fact, I'll be announcing it next week, but I'm going to give you a little hint about what it is. This particular membership is all going to be about the strategy side that I've been teaching for Author Revolution. So over the past I don't know six years somewhere in there, I've been teaching authors from a gamut of things on the fantasy side and the science fiction side, whatever you want to call it. I've been doing both for a very long time, and so what's come to me is a direct path, something that I can use to help you understand. Number one, what I can teach you, and, number two, give some tracks to people who are looking for something specific that they're learning, and so this particular membership it's going to be called revolutionary authors Weird right, what a name. So good, I'll be opening up the doors on the 14th to everyone who wants to hop in and join, but this particular membership is going to include all of the strategy stuff, so everything from four books, five days, plan your series, challenge, rapid release roadmap to the new courses on audiobook creation as well, and so much more like.

Carissa Andrews: 1:04:35

It's going to have a lot of things, but the biggest thing that I want to mention is that we're still going to live launch Rapid Release Roadmap, starting on the 21st, and so it's a part of this new membership. It's the only way to get access to Rapid Release Roadmap at this point if you haven't yet joined, so what's really cool, though, is that we're going to be live launching it. We're going to be going through, we're going to have calls biweekly so that we talk about, like, what's been going on and all the things that you're learning inside Rapid Release Roadmap and the reason for that this year. Normally I would do it every week, but this year I'm going to be in Vegas for AuthorNation, and so I'm teaching, I'm doing a presentation, and so I just I'm not going to have the bandwidth to be able to do a call when I'm in Vegas. So, that being said, we're going to do every other week and I want you to just like really get immersed in this process of learning how to plan out your four book series.

Carissa Andrews: 1:05:29

Whether you do AI, whether you do it, you know, manually, and that's fine too. However, you want to design your editorial calendar for your books, I'm all here for it and I'm your cheerleader for it. But what's also cool is, with the whole NaNoWriMo thing going a little bit wonky, like I'm not, I don't have issue. I don't take issue with NaNo for the stance on AI. That's never been an issue for me. But I know that there's a lot of things that have been mismanaged when it comes to that particular organization and while I appreciate all that they've done, I have never fully been just an all-in on NaNoWriMo, the company.

Carissa Andrews: 1:06:07

I've loved the concept of the. You know the 30 days being able to get your books written very quickly. I personally, though, like the six week sprint better, and I like being able to write five days a week instead of all seven, and I like being able to have a little bit more breathing time, and so that's what I teach inside Rapid Release Roadmap, right, and so what we're going to be doing is, when we kick things off on the 21st, we're actually going into a six-week writing sprint as well, so I have a community built inside of this new membership where you can come in. It's a brand new community being built, so it's new, but we're going to hopefully have a lot of engagement where we're talking about how to plan our series, how to plan our books, what we're doing, how we're writing, and there's so much fun stuff that's going to be happening inside of this membership that I just can't wait to show it to you. And now, not only are you getting access to a lot of the content that's already been built, but I'm also doing masterclasses every single month, and, inside this particular membership, you do get access to our monthly masterclasses, not only the library of masterclasses that already exist, which there are 13 of them so far, but you get access to all the new ones that are coming out as well, and this particular month, october.

Carissa Andrews: 1:07:20

Now, if you're following your future self, you already know that this is kind of like our shadow work month, and so inside of your future self, we're doing a lot of shadow work, meditations and hypnosis. Now with the revolutionary authors. There is not access to your future self, but there is access to those masterclasses, and the masterclasses will be touching on shadow work and why it's important for authors to kind of deal with shadow work. Because as we, you know, go through this process. As we're authors who are in this creative field, we get hung up an awful lot on our limiting beliefs and sometimes that is just a part of our shadow right. There's a part of us that wants something, that thinks we can't have it, and so when we can take a deeper look at our shadow side and incorporate it and envelop it a little bit more into who we are, we can release some of those limiting beliefs and move forward. So that particular masterclass is coming up.

Carissa Andrews: 1:08:13

If you want to just hop into the masterclass, you can obviously do that as well. I'll have a link for that very soon going up onto the website. But otherwise the Masterclass membership has access to everything and with this new, bigger membership, for people who want to hop into the courses and have a community surrounding the courses, this is going to be the way to go about and do it, because you get access to it all. So I hope you'll check it out. Things are starting to go up on my website, so if you're interested in checking it out, you can definitely do that now and just feel free to kind of peruse, take a look at all that this membership is going to have to offer. Of course, if you want to just go straight to the show notes, you can head over to authorrevolutionorg forward, slash 256. Everything will be listed out there for you and you can just click out to check it out. But in the meantime, I hope that you'll just think about it because, as we're going forward with Author Revolution, from this point forward all of my courses are going to be inside memberships, and the reason I'm doing that is because I've learned about myself.

Carissa Andrews: 1:09:14

I personally love the community part of it. I love being able to have the discussions, to do the Zoom calls, to be able to see your faces and actually talk about all the things that are going on. And so when I'm doing a course and it's not a live launch, for instance, it's harder for me to know how people are doing with the courses, because not everybody responds right, not everybody asks questions, and while that's still probably going to be true in the memberships, because not everyone's going to want to join, at least you have the opportunity to. You have access to me every single day. If you want to, you can ask questions in these communities and I'm here to support you. So I just like the feel and the vibe of that so much better.

Carissa Andrews: 1:09:56

And so we've got these two tracks right now. Right now it's the high vibe authors. Those are for the manifesting authors, the ones who really want to dig into mindset, work, manifestation, all the good stuff there. And then those who want the strategy side, the side where it's like, okay, I need to learn how to, you know, put my books together. I need to understand this business of being an author. I need to understand how to plan my series or to create a yearly editorial calendar, whatever the case might be. I'm here for that as well.

Carissa Andrews: 1:10:24

But there will be something brand new coming very soon and it's going to be a component that kind of bridges the gap between the two, and I can't wait to share that with you. It's something that's been in the works now for a little bit of time, and I'm going to be developing that very soon. I don't know when it's going to come out. If I have my way, I would love to be able to start launching it in like December, but for sure by January kind of, because I think it's a very awesome way to kickstart the new year. But I also know that there's a lot of stuff that's going on between here and there, and so I don't want to lock myself in just yet. But knowing me, knowing the way that I work, there's a very good possibility.

Carissa Andrews: 1:11:06

All right, guys, I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast interview. I hope you've enjoyed all the discussions that Mark and I had. He's a great guy. Definitely go over to the show notes and check everything out. Make sure you check out his podcast as well, and I hope that you take away all sorts of good stuff from this conversation today. So, without further ado, enjoy the rest of your week and go forth and start your author revolution. Thank you.