How To Break Free From Inherited Mindsets and Prosper with Chad Peevey

In this episode of 'A Magical Life,' host Magic Barclay chats with author and teacher Chad Peevey about his journey from a traumatic childhood in rural Arkansas to becoming a successful entrepreneur and advocate for personal development. Chad opens up about how he overcame depression, anxiety, and the recession's impact on his life by transforming damaging mindsets into healthy frameworks. He shares insights on accelerating emotional and spiritual health, creating personal and emotional wealth, and how his book and courses can help others on their personal growth journeys. Tune in to hear Chad's inspiring story and his tips for living authentically and fully.

Get your free copy of "Break & Untangle" at Chad's website: https://chadpeevy.com/

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:43

welcome back to a magical life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today I'm joined by Chad Peavey. Chad. Is an author and teacher. He grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive family in rural Arkansas and spent years learning to overcome the trauma, depression, and anxiety that followed him into adulthood. After earning a master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Chad founded several businesses and nonprofits. Among these are the Austin Pride Foundation, as well as the in house marketing agency for the world's largest real estate office and an online training company, and with his husband, The P. S. Foundation for the Arts. Following his passion for personal development, Chad has created a system for supplanting damaging beliefs with healthy mindsets, and now offers guidance and support to all who want to find the same freedom. Welcome, Chad. Hi, Magic. How are you? Good to be with you. So good to have you here. Now, We often talk on this podcast about all healing comes from some degree of inflammation and being better people comes from some degree of having gone through some tough times. And that can be varying degrees for people. You've had a very rough start. What was the impetus to turn that around for you?

Chad Peevey: 2:20

Yeah, I would say the impetus for me to turn it around hit me when I realized as a young adult that the mindsets that I had grown up with that had helped me survive, that kept me safe, that kept me from getting bullied, that kept me off of my dad's radar. Those exact same mindsets that once served me had became the mindsets that were sabotaging me as an adult that were keeping me small. They were keeping me plain as less than what I could be. That was keeping me from realizing my full potential and exploring all the possibilities that existed for me. I, as you mentioned in my intro, I'm somebody that's lived with depression and anxiety for as remember. And what brought it all home to me was when the great recession hit of 2008, and I lost a lot in my business. And it was like I built this life, like from the outside looking in, you would think, Oh, this guy had it all together. And, but it was like a house with no foundation. I didn't have the skills to weather that kind of storm. I didn't have the foundational mindsets that would help me get through it. And the anxiety and the depression made a real comeback for me. And it was at that moment that I knew that I was either going to die. Check out or lean all the way into life. And I chose to lean all the way in. And so now I'm out and writing about my story through my book and having conversations with good people like you about that journey and the hopes that others that are on a similar path can glean something from my experience.

Magic Barclay: 3:56

Great. Now I ask all of my guests the same three questions. Everyone gives me terrifically different answers, so here they come. Okay. What can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical health, but also emotional and spiritual health?

Chad Peevey: 4:14

I would, I would say that my expertise can help someone. have a structured way of thinking about their personal development. It is a way of creating frameworks and mindset models to help a person break free from the inherited mindsets that are holding them back so that we can truly create the life that we want for ourselves, for the people that we care about, and the causes that are important to us.

Magic Barclay: 4:41

And we talk about wealth here. People think that's just financial, but it can also be personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth?

Chad Peevey: 4:54

Well, I love that you don't limit the definition of wealth to just being money. I am so rich in life lessons. I am also rich in love from the people around me. Uh, the three tips that I would recommend for creating. Personal financial or emotional wealth would be number one to create distinctions, uh, specifically defining what is going on in your life and having a true accounting of what's happening in your life so that you can expand what you, what you want more of and, and eliminate what you want less of. So being really clear. About what that wealth is for you and what we know that what we focus on expands. And so how can we identify what those things are and expand them? I would say the second tip I would have would be opening yourself up to being helped. I think that's something I, the only regret in my personal development journey is that I didn't get more help along the way that I didn't reach out to, More coaches, more therapists, more mentors, more guides, more people that have walked this walk ahead of me and allowing myself to be open to asking for and receiving help from others. And the third thing that I would say, uh, the third tip for creating wealth would be To allow your past to be your fuel, not your excuse, not allowing what was yesterday to determine what will be tomorrow. If we're going to have something new in our life, new wealth, expanded wealth, more growth, more development, then we have to try new things. And, and Allowing ourselves to, to not get stuck in our past, to not get stuck in the way things were and moving ourselves forward has certainly been instrumental, has been absolutely key in me creating what I consider my wealth.

Magic Barclay: 6:43

Terrific. Now, I know on your guest sheet, you answered the next one with, Never had an issue. We talk about weight and, you know, many people are stuck in this rollercoaster of weight, we know that that's often triggered by stress. So even though you haven't had a weight problem, what can you offer the listeners around maybe breaking patterns to do with weight from their childhood or breaking free from the stress that. I guess fuels that rollercoaster.

Chad Peevey: 7:17

Sure. So, when I wrote my book, I discovered that there were three different categories of mindset. Three giant ideas that these mindset methods that I'd written about fit into. And they were matters of self, matters of strategy, and matters of social. In other words, there are the me issues, the self stuff is me, I. There's the strategy stuff, the it, the action, the behavior. And then there's the social stuff. How we show up when we interact with other people. And what I realized is that those three categories, not only offer insight into our mindsets, but they're also what create us living our true selves. However, that might be, there are ways that we compensate and. Mechanisms that we put in place to protect ourselves, to defend ourselves, that hold us back from living our fully authentic lives. And overeating was something that was a part of my journey. And I w I was about 60 pounds overweight, uh, at my heaviest. And it was realizing that I was using food to be a. coping mechanism for me to feel good in the moment. It was certainly a part of my habit to allow food to be what gave me a little comfort when everything else was stressful or I felt like it was falling apart. And so for me and all of my work, whether it is overeating or being tired all the time or being stressed or, uh, however we blame ourselves or blame other people or, or identifying ourselves as a victim. There are things that we do to lock us behind, to hide ourselves, to keep us from living fully and authentically as ourselves and from allowing others to see us as who we really are. And so that has been something that's been really important to me. It's just understanding that I, by overeating. Or by avoiding doing what's good for me that I am blocking myself from living my greatest potential that I am not dealing with the issues at hand in a healthy way. And I have found a way that is, putting a bandaid on it with food or overworking or even over exercising when, when tough times pop up for me.

Magic Barclay: 9:36

Terrific. Now let's get to what you do for people now. So can you explain what it is that you do and what resources you have to help people?

Chad Peevey: 9:51

Sure. So now I am writing. So I have the book that's out. I have the course that is out, the online course, and I do coaching, one on one coaching, and I do a lot of speaking with corporate employee resource groups. And so that is how I am out trying to share, uh, what it is that I do and helping others that are on a similar path to mine and the resources that I have, I have so many resources on my website, including a free copy of my book. I share my, I call it my, my library, which is basically this digital bookshelf of everything that is in my library that I found helpful. I write a blog, I put out a weekly newsletter, all of these things for free and hopes of. Giving folks some help, advice, guidance, along their journey.

Magic Barclay: 10:39

Tell us about your book. Tell us about what we can expect, where that came from and what you hope people gain from reading it.

Chad Peevey: 10:50

Sure. The book came about as a result of not being happy in the business that I had created before the book came along. I, as you mentioned in my bio, I owned a marketing agency inside the world's largest real estate office. And I found that that work filled the bank account, but it didn't fill my soul. And I wanted to feel more alive. I wanted to feel more connected. Overall to my work and feel like that was a reflection of me. And I just wasn't able to see that in the world that I was in. And I'm somebody that's been in, in and out of therapy since fourth grade. I'm somebody that has had to do a whole lot of work on myself. And I realized that that work, hits a plateau. There's a way that our personal development. Is no longer personal. The scars that we pick up on our journey aren't just ours, but they are the exact thing that is going to help somebody else on their journey. And I realized that I had to get out of myself and I had to get into service of others in a way that I felt would really make a difference. And so I started writing everything that I had been learning about myself. And what I picked up, in my childhood and the lessons learned there and how I was dealing with that as an adult. And it took me about four years to write the book. And I discovered that there were these 12 different mindsets that were the most impactful in my life that made the biggest difference when I addressed these 12 issues. And I split those into the three categories I mentioned of self strategy and social. And so that's what I put into the book. The book starts out, every chapter is a personal story about how I stumbled upon that particular mindset, and then I share three different lessons, and then I share three different action items that the reader can go and, and put the, the lessons into practice. And so the book is more than just a book, it is also a workbook. I find that people who read the book say it's not just a read it and put it down. It is a read and do as you go along. And most people really appreciate the action, approach that I put into it. And I think what folks should expect to get out of it is, is tools to take your next step toward your personal freedom. Toward feeling more authentically you toward feeling more comfortable in your own skin toward being able to hold onto yourself in the presence of others and creating a life that you have designed instead of one that's just by default. I think that's what folks should expect. And I am very happy to be one step on somebody else's journey. I'm not your destination, but I'm happy to be one step on the journey. And that's what you can expect to get. Uh, from the book is, a direction to take the next step.

Magic Barclay: 13:45

Fantastic. Now, many people, I guess, look at coaches, look at authors and go, well, you know, that's all fine for you. How can I do this? Can you just let the listeners know how much work you've done? On yourself and for yourself to get this, this healing going to break free from the trauma from your past, just so that they can get an idea that, you know, the fact that it might be taking longer than expected is okay.

Chad Peevey: 14:21

Yeah. So the way that I approach my, my work and my work with others is I am not Moses on the mountaintop bringing the word to you. I am a fellow traveler. I am somebody that's in the thick of it. I'm somebody that's in the trenches and I am, I am sharing with you what I'm learning along the way. That is my approach. I do not set myself up as the know all guru. I'm somebody here with you. I may be a step ahead in some areas. But I'm still walking the journey of personal development never ends. it is a constant and ongoing thing because there are so many different layers to who we are. I tell my clients, there is no destination. There's only the journey. The only destination is death. that's the only destination. Otherwise we're living, we're growing. We are, I am pushing my clients to be uncomfortable and uncomfortable in a way that is suffering toward. I give them a new vocabulary for their suffering. I share with folks that I think of suffering as being the consequence of unmet expectations or desires. There's a way that I want to go through the world and I want to see certain outcomes and inevitably things don't go the way I have imagined. And the consequence of that is I suffer. This is the human condition, but every day when I wake up, I get to make a choice about how I'm going to suffer. I can either suffer from the way things are. Were, or could have been, or should be, or ought to be. I can suffer from my experience growing up and, and how awful that was. Or I can suffer toward. I can suffer toward creating, uh, the life that I want for myself, and the people that I love, and the causes that I care about. And that's the choice that we all have, every single day. And it's not an easy choice. And, but it, I think it is a choice worthy of intentional awareness and effort toward. Choose to suffer toward. If you're going to suffer, suffer towards something that's worth it, that's worthy of you and your life, and that's worth creating. And for me, that has guided me every single day. When I get up, I'm going to suffer toward and I'm suffering towards something that I've chosen. I am doing something that I want to be doing, knowing that I'm going to suffer, knowing that I'm going to struggle, knowing that it's going to be hard and knowing that that's just part of it. But I'm attached to the direction. I don't know where it's going, but I know the direction I'm going is worth putting one foot in front of the other and heading that way. So, for folks that are on the journey of personal development, that are on the journey of healing, that are on the journey of overcoming, it gets better, but it, it gets better when you realize one day, like, like I did, that Good night. The goal was never comfort. The goal is never to get to neutral and stop. The, the goal was never to get out of it and then stop. But the goal is to get out of it, get comfort, and then say, I'm gonna reach a little higher. I'm gonna keep going. It's, and realizing that your own healing is enhanced and accelerated when you can help somebody on their journey of healing. And on their journey of accomplishing what they want out of their life. When you can do that, the benefits come back to us tenfold. And so that's what I would, say, Magic, I would say, get up and suffer toward, find something worthy of you.

Magic Barclay: 18:02

Fantastic. Now we've covered a lot here. Is there anything we haven't covered that you feel the listeners need to hear?

Chad Peevey: 18:10

I think we've covered it. I put on my high points.

Magic Barclay: 18:15

Terrific. So we love freebies here. What can you offer the listeners and where can they find it?

Chad Peevey: 18:23

Absolutely. I would love to, uh, offer a freebie. I'm offering a free copy of my book. And that is at my website, chadpv. com. It's right there on the homepage and inside the book, make sure you look for the link to get the book bonuses, where you'll get some guided meditations and some worksheets and exercises that can help guide, uh, guide you on your journey. Just a little bit more to that, that supplement the book and help you take that next, next step.

Magic Barclay: 18:56

Terrific. So that's chadpv. com. You're also on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn at chadpv. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your inspirational story with the listeners. Thank you for having me. And listeners, thank you for your time. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, and review this podcast with all that you know and love. And for now, go forth and create your magical life.