Beyond the Horizon: Exploring the Uncharted Territory of Personal Transformation with Mike Acker

SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Great Grace and Inspirate.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

What's going on, and how are you today?

What's happening, my friend?

My name is Kevin Lowe, host of the podcast, as well as Transformational Life and Business Coach.

Today, well, it's episode 177.

And baby, I am glad to have you here today.

Because you know what?

What's cool about this podcast is that if it wasn't for me having a podcast, I never even would know that so many amazing people exist in the world.

Because, well, all we know about the world is what the news tells us.

And what the news tells us generally isn't very positive.

They tend to focus on the negative.

But a podcast like this, it opens up the opportunity to meet people, to get to know people, and to get to renew this sense that the world maybe isn't as bad as we're led to believe.

Today I'm in the studio with a guy named Mike Acker.

And this is a guy who just is the epitome of exactly what I'm talking about.

Mike says that life isn't just what happens, it's how we respond.

That's what matters.

And that's what makes up Mike Acker's story.

From drug smuggling parents to smuggling Bibles into communist China in the 80s to attending public inner city schools in Mexico to several near-death experiences.

And yet he's come to inspire audiences of over 10,000.

Mike Acker, he says that his life story is one of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But through all of those experiences, he learned to adapt and he learned to conquer.

And he learned to live this life with confidence.

Now, what's cool about Mike is that he doesn't just keep his goodness to himself.

No, because Mike Acker is on a mission to share this principle, this mindset with the world.

His goal is to lead others to turn their potential power into actual results.

He's the author, he's the speaker, he is the guest on today's podcast.

But don't think that is all because this is just the beginning.

This is just my little interpretation of the summary of what is the story of Mike Acker.

Now, before we get to that story, I want to remind you, inside of a last week's episode, I announced the doors opening to my next level coaching program that is called Next Level You, 90 Days to Your Next Best Chapter of Life.

Those doors are open.

And I want to remind you, if you're interested, if you're thinking that you are ready to take that step and embark on your next chapter of life, well, I would love to be the person to help you do that.

All you have to do to learn more, to schedule a meeting with me where we can sit down, have a little phone call, answer your questions, see if it's the right fit.

All you have to do is text the word next to 833-205-8589.

Again, just text the word next.

Awesome.

Easy does it.

That's what we like.

Now it's my pleasure to introduce you to the guest in today's episode.

Here is my interview with Mike Actor.

SPEAKER_01: Mike Actor, welcome to the podcast.

Hey, thank you so much, Kevin.

Looking forward to having a chat with you and giving something of value to all of your listeners.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, fantastic, man.

Well, well, listen, what I think I would love to do is looking at where you are today in life, looking at really who you are, I would love to understand kind of where that's all come from, looking kind of on your backstory growing up.

Would you mind kind of taking me back in time, paint a little picture of what life was like?

And just kind of uh, I thought that'd be a perfect place to begin telling your story.

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: So it's interesting because nowadays I'm a speaker and author of several different books, and I'm an executive communication coach.

So I work with a lot of people and ultimately in communication.

But if you go back in time, it's really surprising that I'm there.

In fact, I was talking to my sister one time.

I said, Isn't it crazy that both of us have healthy families, that both of us are healthy, that we're married, that we have not gone this complete other route in life.

And she said, absolutely.

And why is that so amazing?

It's because my mom and my dad were drug smugglers.

So they were entrepreneurs, and my dad found out that it would be a great and easier way to smuggle in marijuana than to just work a nine to five.

So he was doing that to pay his way through college and instead of waiting tables and doing all that kind of stuff.

And he was right, it paid its way through college.

He did, he did well there.

And then at that moment in time where they decided that they were going to have a family, they thought, well, we better switch over to something else.

Now they're highly entrepreneurial, both of them.

And so they thought, you know what we'll do?

We'll start a legal drug distribution company called Coffee Company.

So in 1978, they started Coffee Company.

They ran that for several years until my dad's health needed to get him away from being with the beans all day.

And he went off and he did his bar exam since he had done his uh law school when he was back in the drug smuggling days.

So I didn't know that, of course.

I yeah, I knew that my parents were entrepreneurs and knew that my mom had run her own preschool.

I knew that my dad had this coffee company.

My mom would go around and take beans and deliver them to the different stores.

And my sister and I would be in the back of the mail truck that we had that we had taken over and redone for this back in the day where seat belts were optional.

And so I saw that in my parents.

I saw their hard work ethic.

I saw what they were doing.

And I loved it.

I loved just being part of that life.

Now, when I was at that youngest age, I remember my parents making a concerted change in their life.

And I didn't know everything, right?

I'm talking about kindergarten, so I didn't realize everything.

But my parents went from extreme hippieism to conservative Christians.

They they both, over a period of six months, decided to follow Jesus 100%.

We're not talking about like just political or church or something like that.

We're talking about like dive in and read what he says, understand it, go do it.

So at a young age, I'm seeing my parents do this.

I see the entrepreneurial, I see the vigor, I see the livelihood, I see the everything that they're they're doing.

And diving in, at a young age, we went over to China and smuggled Bibles into China right when my parents became Christian, like six months afterwards.

So that's all part of my story.

Now, going really personal, I also at that point in time had a speech impediment.

So at about four years old, lots of people would ask me, What'd you say?

What'd you say?

What'd you say?

My mom tells me that I got to a spot that it was so frustrating to hear that again and again, that I was the one who drove the improvement.

And so we went into a speech therapist, I got some exercises, I learned what to do, and I developed the muscles that I needed to be able to say the words that I couldn't say.

That developed confidence in me.

My parents settled us down into a small little area in Washington, a couple thousand people town.

And right there we just started grinding away at the normal life.

I started developing confidence, getting up on stage and doing uh poetry and doing science fairs.

And really, life was fantastic.

My dad's working as a lawyer, my mom is a stay-at-home mom taking care of us.

It was great life.

And then my dad comes home.

We're sitting around a round table, we're eating meatloaf or lasagna.

Probably one of those two, since we ate those a lot.

And my dad comes home, he sits down at the table and he says, I quit my job, we're moving to Mexico.

My parents got up, went into the other room.

A little while later, they came back and started making our plans to move to Mexico.

Now my life was perfect.

So if you're listening, thinking about a time in life where life was perfect, that was me.

Man, my life was perfect.

It was absolutely amazing.

I was loving everything about it.

And we had to uproot ourselves and go to Mexico.

And now I had to learn Spanish.

So think about communication, think about entrepreneurship.

Here's my parents going off again to do entrepreneurial, this time nonprofit work, serving the poor and disenfranchised, and thinking about communication.

I'd overcome one area of communication.

And now I got to speak in front of people in a different language.

And when I look at that, a lot of people they learn Spanish pretty easy or another language easy.

Not me.

For me, it was arduous.

It took a lot of time.

I would get up in front of an all-Spanish speaking school, and people would just laugh, make fun of me.

It was, it was, it was awful.

It was so bad that I would actually get psychosomatic fevers so that I wouldn't have to go to school.

Finally, I overcame that.

Finally, I got to a spot where I could speak confidently.

Finally, I didn't give in to all the comments that people said about my Spanish.

Finally, I got to that spot and developed confidence again.

So I in my own life, I look at it and go, man, I've overcome a speech impediment.

I've overcome this complete, this complete identity, insecurity, anxiety, nervousness.

And then we moved back to the United States.

And at that point in time, I'm 18, I'm going to college, I'm figuring out what I'm doing in life, and I went to debate club.

And the debate coach saw something in me, saw potential in me, and helped me realize that potential.

So I turned into a speaker, did that for years, and now I do a lot of coaching.

So when I look at my own history, I go, I took some of this entrepreneurial ship, I took some of this faith, I took some of this insecurity turning into confidence.

And that's what I do now.

My my mission in life is to help people realize their potential.

And I do that through speaking, writing, and through coaching.

SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Mike, I love this story.

And I mean, my goodness, there are so many crazy parts to this story from your parents' colorful past to really your childhood being very unique, you know, with parents moving you to Mexico.

So now, how old were you when you guys moved to Mexico?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was 10 years old when we moved to Mexico.

I was just about to turn 11.

And I remember arriving there the first day.

We we took two weeks to drive down two different vehicles.

We packed everything into the vehicles.

We were going to a fully furnished house.

We put all of our stuff, all of our toys, all of our fun stuff in the garage and then into some um storage containers and stuff, rented out the house that we loved, and moved down there.

And I remember arriving at the house, it's decorated in a totally different style.

Mazzalon, Mexico, in 1990 was very disconnected from the United States.

It was a tourist place, but not in the same way that tourist places are now.

And now everything's so globalized.

Something comes out here in the United States, it arrives in other theaters around the world at the same time.

At that point in time, Mazeon, it had two theaters that had a total of four uh different theater rooms, and you would have basically they would be the same one.

So there'd be two movies at a time.

One would typically be a Mexican movie, and one would be an American movie that was released six months after it came out in the United States.

So it was very disconnected.

And we didn't have internet back then, of course, and we we didn't have great uh cell phone service, he didn't have any cell phone service, and calls were expensive to make, and and mail would often not arrive.

So I was very disconnected.

And I remember arriving at our house, and it was very Hispanic style of and uh furnished house, and um, I remember just arriving there, laying down in bed and just crying.

Just like, oh my gosh, you know, what what are we doing?

And most of the next several months, all four of us hated it.

Uh it's amazing, is uh we all got to a spot after a couple of years where we absolutely loved it and we were more Mexican than we were American.

But man, that first couple of months, very hard.

SPEAKER_00: I I mean, oh my gosh, I can only imagine what what would you say as as a child in this situation, what was the the biggest challenge for you?

SPEAKER_01: I think the biggest challenge for me was not letting go or let or holding on, I I should say.

Meaning I I started looking back and glamorizing the past.

So I'm looking back and going, man, if only, if only had we had stayed, if only we hadn't left.

And so my dream became to go back to my hometown.

And I really held me back.

And I think we do this often, right?

As you're listening to Kevin's podcast here, you think, you know, if only I hadn't married that person, if only I had married that person, if only I had taken that job, if only I had taken that degree, if only I hadn't gone with those people, if I only hadn't drink too much, if only I had, you know, stayed in my guitar lessons, all the if-onlies.

And for me, that was that was it.

It was if only I could get back, if only I could get back.

And as a result of holding on to the past, I wasn't able to fully embrace right where I was at.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no kidding.

Those those if-onlies can literally eat us alive.

That is no joke.

Now, what was the turning point, do you think?

SPEAKER_01: I had a friend who he was part of the if-only.

And he was he was really big into United States.

And I spent a lot of time with him.

He was two years older than me.

And he he was an if-only guy.

And and so he, when he left and he got his dream, he went back and he actually lived with some family and all that kind of stuff to to get back to the United States.

When I lost that influence, and I found a friend who was and is Mexican, and we clicked and we started hanging out.

That was a changing, that was the turning point.

And all of a sudden, I um I had someone who I wanted to hang out with a whole bunch, and that wasn't saying I want to go back to the United States.

So that was the first turning point.

The second turning point was when I was in eighth grade, I convinced my parents to let me stay in the United States for two months.

So this is that whole thing of like, be careful what you ask for, because if you get it, will it be as good as you think it is?

And so I was like, I, you know, mom, dad.

And somehow, me at what, 14 years old, convinced my parents to let me move to the United States and move in with a family, some family friends.

So we did all the paper, like they became my godparents and such.

And I moved into their house and we're in this gorgeous area, like gorgeous view, fantastic couple, fantastic family.

And they had all their kids who were older than me.

And and I move into their house, and I get to go to play soccer in the United States again, and I get to do all this stuff, and I get to go to a public school.

So I didn't get to go to the school I wanted to, but I got to get to the public school, and it wasn't as great as I thought.

SPEAKER_00: Yep.

Isn't that so many times the case?

Now, why was it not as great as you thought it would be?

SPEAKER_01: Often the things that we look back on become way bigger than they actually are.

And we we look back and go, man, I mean, just think about dating relationship, for example.

You go, like, what if I dated and married that girl that I that I dated in college?

She was amazing.

And so we only see all the amazing things about that person.

Or we look back at guitar lessons.

I took guitar lessons when I was in in Mexico.

And I go, oh man, I should have stayed in guitar lessons.

I don't know why I didn't do that.

And man, if I had stayed in guitar lessons, I would be amazingly proficient now.

Now, at the time, though, there were realities that were part of those decisions.

For for example, even the guitar ones, I would have to take a bus to the guitar lesson.

It took about 45 minutes to get there.

And then I would go to the guitar lesson with two other kids, and they were teaching music that I was not into at all.

So there was no kind of benefit for me.

And then I have to take a 45-minute bus ride back with my guitar.

As a teenager, that just wasn't super exciting.

And so I made a decision based on that.

So I go, if only, but I take off all of the negatives.

Or think about that dating relationship.

Someone's listening to this going, man, if only I had married that person, sure.

But what was going on in that relationship at that point in time?

What were the cons that you are no longer looking at?

So often when we look in the past, we look at these things and we look at what with these huge, man, everybody liked me.

Everything was perfect.

I was physically fit, I was in this, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And then we we gloss over all the different things that were actually also happening.

Like, yeah, but they were constantly rude or not available or whatever.

And that's what I had done.

I had picked all the best parts and I had magnified them with without looking at some of the of the downfalls.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

And to be honest with you, I think that's something that, like you said, all of us do.

And I mean, in one sense, you can say, well, isn't that a cool thing, a positive thing about us that our mind does focus on the positive aspects of the past.

But in the same regard, that's actually a negative because it totally tricks us.

It makes it harder because we, you know, conjure up this imaginary situation that really isn't the truth.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: So so much of what I do is communication coaching, is what I do a lot of.

And so I all work with people about 25 hours a week, either in workshops or one-on-one.

And that's what my books are about.

Like speak with confidence is about the framework I use to help people.

And someone came to me one time and said, Why should I work with you?

And I said, Because I'm not a natural.

I had to learn the stuff that I talk about.

So it's not something that just came to me or that I was able to be taught and pick up and mentally grab a hold of and pass on.

No, this is something I had to learn.

So I had to learn that overcoming of insecurity.

I had to learn that letting go.

I had to learn all these things I'm talking about.

And as a result of that, I'm able to empathize with people who are in these spots and I'm able to show them some of the steps that are ahead.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.

So now talk to me along this journey.

Where did public speaking come into play?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

So as a young kid, it came in early.

Like when I could be understood, and people weren't just saying what's your name.

And then I had science fairs, I had, let's say, poetry stuff, I had um, what's there was something else?

Oh, spelling bees.

And I liked that chance to get up up front and speak and felt good at it.

Now that was taken away, that good feeling was taken away because when I went to Mexico, I did everything I could to not speak, because the moment I got up there, people started laughing at me.

And yet once I got through that and got through the rejection and got through that concern and got through and made peace with it and overcame that nervousness, I enjoyed it again.

It was this sense of I like representing this, I like telling people what I've learned, I like this helping out people, I like it.

So it became something that I enjoyed again.

And then when I came to the United States, I didn't have any plan to do anything with public speaking.

But I got into theater while I was in college and I enjoyed that.

And I thought, oh, this is great.

And then I had the opportunity and debate to do it.

And I realized that from stage, from speaking, there is interest.

Influence that's had, there's executive presence to gain, there's a great opportunity to help people, there's a great opportunity to grow yourself.

And ultimately, I realize that all of communication is a universal advantage.

I write about that in my books.

That whether you're a truck driver, whether you're having a podcast, whether you're a teacher, obviously, whether you're a preacher, whether you are a stay-at-home mom, whatever you are, communication and improving your verbal, oral, external communication is a universal advantage.

And so now I write about that, I talk about that, I encourage people on that.

And I tell people, look, you improve just a little bit in this area.

It improves your health, it improves your relationships, it improves your wealth opportunities.

It's huge.

So I'm glad I went into it.

It was kind of an accident, uh, but I got into it.

And now I'm able to point people towards improving their communication in regardless of what situation they're doing it in.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Well, man, I that's just incredible.

Now, when you got started writing and you wrote your first book, was that literally just your way of finding another, you know, kind of medium for communicating?

Like how did that come about?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that that was a one of those really cool random things that happened that took a lot of grit.

So, so I was working in sales.

I was a, I was doing consultative sales and doing really well at that.

But because I wasn't, I wasn't doing a lot of speaking and coaching at that point in time in my profession, because now I wasn't overseeing a large team like I had in the past.

So I decided that I would just coach on the side.

I've always had people who are reaching out to me for various events, go, hey, Mike, I heard of so-and-so, but told me about you.

And so I had this person who find me during that time.

And I was coaching anywhere from zero to maybe 10 hours a week on a really busy week.

And it was pure extra money just for fun.

I wouldn't charge that much.

It was just show up, they show up, I help them out, move on.

So I have this one one lady, she comes out to me and she's like, Hey, Mike, I got this big event.

I wrote a book and I'm asked to speak at a college.

Can you help me prepare?

I said, sure.

And she said, you know, do you want to swap services?

Well, she was a financial advisor.

I was like, I don't really need that, but uh, but thank you for that.

No, I'd just rather have you pay.

And then I said, Well, tell me about this book that you wrote.

Who published it?

She said, Oh, I self-published it.

And I said, Well, tell me how'd you do that?

And she starts talking me through the whole process that she went through to publish a book.

And I said, Okay, let's swap services.

You coach me on writing a book, and I'll coach you on speaking.

So she told me the resources she did.

I joined self-publishing school and I read a whole bunch.

I listened to podcasts.

I worked with her.

And I decided that in 90 days, I was going to write a book about some of the key coaching stuff that I would walk my clients through.

And that became the framework for Speak with Confidence, and it also became the framework for my first book, Speak with No Fear.

So I wrote down seven different strategies with a whole bunch of funny stories and anecdotes about my life.

And so it's peppered in with just really a lot of personality.

And I wrote it in 27 days.

I did not want to.

The many days.

Well, I wanted to at the beginning, right?

And I said this big, huge goal.

And then I just held myself to it.

I made myself.

I gridded my teeth and I went through it.

I'd wake up at 4:30 in the morning, take a cold shower.

I would uh get ready for the day.

At five o'clock, I'd be at the computer, I'd write for an hour, and then I'd go about my day doing some coaching sessions and doing some sales.

And so that's what my life was for 27 days.

Then I finished it, sent it over to my friend.

She came back with all of these nasty comments about how awful it was.

They were really helpful comments, but it felt really bad at the time.

And she's like, this doesn't work, this doesn't work, you shouldn't say this.

So I cut those out, I listened in, and uh another 30 days of editing it, getting it formatted, and then I marketed it and sent it out there, and the book caught on fire.

At this point in time, the first and second edition have over a thousand reviews on Amazon.

It's got 250 reviews on Audible.

It's been translated into seven different languages.

It has earned me the opportunity to write several different uh books as well.

I just released my newest book through a big publisher, Wiley, same one as Patrick Lencioni, and that came out in December.

It's got 100 reviews already.

So that opportunity was presented to me.

And then I took it and then gridded my teeth through it to get to the other side.

So here's what my encouragement would be to some people right now.

What opportunities are in front of you that if you gridded your teeth for 90 days and went through, it would open up a whole new window of opportunity, a whole new way of life.

Like I had no plans to do what I'm doing now.

No plans.

On the calendar today, I have six people that I'm going to be coaching after this.

So I had no plans to do that.

But this window came up.

I challenged myself to do it.

I gritted my teeth through it, and in 87 days, launched a book that became an international bestseller.

And a lot of people say that about their books, but mine truly became that.

It's on Forbes and all kinds of stuff.

So that's that's how I went about my book.

And then I just kept on doing it.

SPEAKER_00: Wow, man, that's absolutely such an awesome story about how you wrote that first book.

Now I'm anxious.

Did the process of writing become easier and easier as the books came along?

SPEAKER_01: Yes and no.

So sometimes it's hard to remember what you wrote where.

So sometimes I have a hard time remembering did I already write about this?

Did I already tell the story?

And so there's probably some overlap.

I try not to, and I have editors who go through it and everything to make sure that I'm not just saying the same thing again and again and again.

But the process of it, I mean, now I have it down pretty down pat, where I I, in fact, I'm looking at um a big sticky note on my wall right here, and it has the center idea, what it's about.

And then I kind of do this mind map where I have a whole bunch of different things that are related to it.

And then I start organizing those and kind of putting things together and start writing them out.

I actually have already written the next two books.

I just can't release a book right now because I I have a a non-compete with my publisher for the book that it just came out in December.

So I can't actually publish another book with them with by myself or through anybody else until December 8th of this year.

But I already have two finished.

And a lot of it is discipline.

I think, I think of writing like I think of writing like working out.

We all know what we need to do to get more fit.

We all know that you got to eat less and work out more.

Now, I'm sure there are some different things that some people have that makes those things a little bit more difficult.

But generally, if we're doing some some good working out and some walking even, just walking, an hour a day, half an hour a day, and and eating less, generally that's gonna get us to it.

Now, why though, why is it that me right now I'm about 10 pounds more than I want to be?

Why is that the case?

Why is it the case for a lot of us?

Because we just don't consistently do that.

We don't discipline ourselves to consistently do that.

And that's that's really what it came down to in the book.

I think that books are like it's like being in shape.

It's that consistent discipline.

Now, yeah, do you have to have um the ability to write?

Sure, it might be that you might have a harder time or a longer time of getting to the finishing point.

I'd been writing for years, so it wasn't as hard for me as it might be for somebody else.

But going back to our workout uh analogy right there, is you know, somebody might have 100 extra pounds of weight and someone else might have 20 extra pounds of weight.

So it's going to be easier for the person with only 20 pounds to get to that spot.

But both of them can, it just might take that one person a little bit more concerted effort.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So now one thing that I'm kind of curious about is looking at kind of where you are today and looking back with all the books that you have written and published, all the speaking engagements that you've done, is there any connection between public speaking and writing that like you've you've made?

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: So a lot of what I do is help people extend their influence.

And so, really, what is extending your influence about?

It's about getting your message out there.

You have the leadership, you have the product, you have the gumption, you have the execution, but maybe you don't have that external presence.

So that presence can show up in a couple of different ways.

It can show up through public speaking, it can show up through writing, it could show up through social media.

So there's a couple of different ways that can show up.

So I'll help a lot of different clients.

Uh in fact, Belarushi, she was one of my first executive communication clients.

That's kind of an upper tier program that I do for thought leaders.

So she came to me to public speaking, and as we were working and developing her speeches, I said, you know what would be really important is for you to write a book.

And she came up with a great idea, got a publisher.

She actually got published through Simon and Schuster, and her book has been gaining traction, and it was at Barnes and Noble and all kinds of great things.

And really that came down from that executive coaching call with me.

I have another client who came to me who said, I want to write a book, and his name's Jason, he just finished the book.

So I walked through and coached him.

I don't do that a lot.

That's kind of a a subset of what I do.

But I coached him through writing the book, and it's just through the editing process now.

And now we're looking at, okay, what's the next step for for Jason to?

Well, it's about public speaking.

So those two go hand in hand.

It's about it's about influence.

And that's why a lot of a lot of speakers originally come from writing a book and a book that really gets traction.

And then they turn into speaking.

And that's why a lot of speakers who just had great stories and such need to write a book so that it's codified and people can pick it up and and take it with them.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

One thing that I wanted to ask, and this kind of goes back to earlier in our conversation when we were talking about your parents, is I look at your parents and I and I have, oh my goodness, like their story is incredible on its own.

But I'm wondering, is there any kind of lesson they taught you or piece of advice or story that they shared that has been an impact, you know, has made an impact on you and your life?

And this just incredible, I started to say entrepreneurial journey, but it's really more than that.

It's it's a much more meaningful journey that you've been on.

And I just I wonder if there's anything that your parents said did that has stuck with you?

SPEAKER_01: So it's not something that they've really necessarily said, and although there have been things that they've said.

Like, for example, uh that my my sister and I were just talking about this yesterday.

And we we we were not allowed to say that we were bored growing up.

We were not allowed to say that's unfair growing up.

And my mom would instantly say that life's not fair.

And if we're bored, she's like, well, I'll give you something to do.

So we weren't allowed to say those things, which is fun.

But really, when I look at them, I see that where you are is not where you have to stay.

You know, they were in a spot where, for example, my dad.

My my dad's dad never told my dad that he loved him.

So my grandfather never told my dad that my grandfather loved him.

And and that ate away at my dad.

My dad went away to live with him, and my grandfather became an alcoholic, and my my grandfather told my dad that he had never amount to anything.

So my grandfather was very educated, was quite literally a rocket scientist, and very sharp, very smart.

And that's what he told my dad.

So you think about those words that a dad has and says to a son.

And so some of the things that my dad did in life was to prove that not true.

You're not gonna go to college.

You can't make it through college.

I'll show you how.

Well, I'm gonna do this through selling marijuana, you know, back in the hippie days and before the cartels.

And and so my dad made a way, you know, where there's a will, there's a way.

And I've seen that in my dad again and again.

And same with with my mom.

There's she was actually running away from her ex-boyfriend who wanted to kill her when she found my dad and was came to a place of safety because my dad was was uh had means to protect himself because he was in the drug trade.

So they found these ways and they weren't always ideal.

But even then, they were in this way that was not great for raising families.

So what did they do?

They started a legit business, coffee company.

And then when my dad's health uh what made that prohibitive, they went into law school.

We lived in a trailer while my dad finished his bar exam and then we bought a house.

So I I look at all of this and I go, my parents just kept on making these huge monumental changes from one thing to another.

You know, when when they hit an obstacle, instead of just giving in, instead of going to the government, they they went and they reached out to God and they reached out for hard work and they put the work in, they got to the next spot.

Same with my sister.

My sister ended up getting pregnant at 17 years old.

She had her path paid towards medical school from an accident she had been in.

So she had a great future ahead of her.

And quite literally, some people said, you know what?

That's so sad.

What a waste of potential.

You know, because she's gonna be a young mom.

But instead, she and uh her boyfriend got married right before she turned 18, or right after she turned 18.

She took two years to finish her her school because she had a baby, and then she got pregnant right again afterwards.

So she was pregnant when she was 17, 18, 19, and 20.

She had three kids almost back to back.

And you look at that, go, oh, that that marriage isn't gonna last.

Uh, poor girl.

She's she's gonna be on welfare.

She's she's not gonna be able to make anything of herself.

I mean, all those things that could easily be said.

But where you are is not where you have to stay.

Just because you made some bad decisions, just because you got in a bad spot, just because some bad things happened to you, it doesn't mean you have to stay there.

And now my sister and her husband have been married for 25 years.

Uh, they have actually six kids together.

So they went on, went on to have several more.

My sister has done extremely well for herself in real estate.

And my brother-in-law has done extremely well in corporate America and high levels of of leadership.

So, watching my family, and then I I'd say to me, where you are is not where you have to stay.

I had 18 years of being in one career and then just got tired and needed something different.

And what am I gonna do?

And with that consistent movement forward with with faith, with support, with learning, with feedback, with coaching, you can get to that next spot.

So if you're listening to this, and I think these are some great, I know we're coming to the end of our time.

So some great ways to end here is look at where you are.

And if you find out that you're not where you want to be in your health, in your in your wealth, in your relationships, in your communication, in your leadership, in so many different areas of your life.

Where you are is not where you have to stay.

My parents were drug smugglers, I became a pastor.

Where you are is not where you have to stay.

SPEAKER_00: And that right there is, I think, one of the most powerful statements that all of us need to remind ourselves because life can get really tricky and life can get really down.

And it's so easy to get in this mindset that it's never going to get any better.

But where you are is not where you have to stay.

I love it.

Mike, I want to thank you, man, from just in the most sincere way possible for being a guest here on the podcast today.

I love hearing your story.

I love just everything that you're about, the story that you have to share.

Last thing is just where is the best place for people to reach out to you to find more about you, to find your books, and and I'll be sure that all of that information is left inside of the episode show notes.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

So I can be fine at mikeacker.com.

So that's the website.

But then all my social media is mikeackerdot com.

So mikeackerdot com.

Mikeacor.com.

And you can find me everywhere.

You can find me on Amazon.

My books are at Barnes Noble as well.

And so you can find me there.

The newest one, speak with confidence.

Really, not just about speaking, it's about confidence.

So I'd highly encourage you to pick that up on Audible or to pick it up at your local bookstore, order it through them, support them, or order it through Amazon.

You can get it there and on Kindle or on paperback.

And Kevin, thank you.

I really appreciate you having me.

I really appreciate you having me on the show.

And thank you to all your guests for or for all your listeners for tuning in today.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, fantastic.

Well, well, Mike, I uh appreciate you so much.

And uh yes, for you listening today, I hope that you have enjoyed today's episode.

But more importantly, I hope that you've taken some notes and really thought about the stuff that Mike has shared with us today and start thinking, wow, what could I implement in my life today to make tomorrow a little bit better, all based on what this guy just shared with you?

That's what this podcast is all about making tomorrow a little bit better than today.

Get out there and enjoy the day.

This is Kevin Lowe with great grace and inspiration.

Hey, real quick before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to care and think, wow, I wish I could be like that.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing.

But I just can't.

Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_00: You are capable.

You are able.

And you darn sure are deserving of having all the information of life.

There's nothing special about me or any test I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it in the slightest.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror.

And remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it.

Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me.

What about the center of the podcast?

Or if you'd like to work with me at the code.

My contact information is inside of every episode of code.

So go down, check out my contact information and reach out to me today.

With that, I encourage you to check on the day every day.