The Courage to Follow Your Heart: Interview with Stephan Spencer

The Courage to Follow Your Heart: Interview with Stephan Spencer

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This is Stephan’s podcast appearance on The Mindset Game Podcast

In this week’s episode, we’re going to explore how tapping into your heart’s intuitive guidance can be really helpful when making decisions. And I’m referring to the type of intuition or wisdom known as non-local intuition, which, according to the Institute of HeartMath, cannot be explained by things or knowledge that you’ve learned in the past or by sensing environmental signals. Now, Steve Jobs referred to this type of intuition when he said, “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Now, as you listen to the light conversation I had with Stefan Spencer, I invite you to stay curious and open and perhaps to recall your own life experiences and synchronicities with regard to trusting your own intuitive guidance. Welcome to the Mindset Game Podcast. I’m your host, Vered Kogan. What if your life was a game where every thought and emotion was somehow creating the movie that you call your life? I am on a mission to help you play the Mindset Game consciously so you can leverage the incredible power of your mind to adapt better to change and create the life of your dreams.

So, hit subscribe and tune in weekly to learn how to master your mindset and transform your life. Welcome to the Mindset Game Podcast. I’m your host, Vered Kogan, and I’m so grateful to have a very special guest with us today, Stephan Spencer. Stephan is an internationally recognized SEO expert. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a bestselling author of three books, a consultant, and a professional speaker. He has keynoted and spoken at hundreds of conferences and has contributed to numerous marketing journals, blogs, and magazines like the Harvard Business Review, Adweek, and many others. He currently hosts two top-rated podcasts that I highly encourage you to check out called: Marketing Speak and Get Yourself Optimized. Stephan, it is such a joy and an honor to have you here with us today. Thank you.

The honor is mine, Vared. Thank you.

So we always like to kick things up on this show with you, sharing a little bit of how in the world you got to do the cool things that you’re doing today. Would you be willing to share a little bit of that story with us?

Sure. It’s got a lot of left turns and surprises, and I dropped out of a PhD in the middle of it while studying for a PhD in biochemistry. I started an internet company in 1995, so that was a big shift. And then, in 1999, I got this wild idea that I could live anywhere in the world because of the Internet. So, I applied for permanent residency in New Zealand. And I got in and I convinced my wife at the time and my kids to make that move all the way around the world. And in 2010, I sold my agency. From 2010 to 2013, I took almost three years off.

I worked maybe not even half-time, but I would travel the world following Tony Robbins around. I was in what was called the Platinum Partnership. That was amazing and life-changing. Met my wife through Tony Robbins. I met her at Date with Destiny, one of his premier events. And yeah, it’s just been a wild ride. I spent nine months in Israel and just got back in the States at the end of April. So that was an amazing time, a difficult time, of course, because of COVID, but also very rewarding, and the energy there was incredible. We’re always on the move doing something interesting, and it’s all about growth and contribution to me.

Well, thank you for sharing. I’m curious, like, what was it that, you know, whether it was intuition or something that led you to drop out of a PhD program? What was it?

Yeah, I don’t believe in randomness. Everything happens for a reason. At the time, I was having a run-in with my advisor, who wanted me to be at the bench working all hours of the night. I had a young family, and I didn’t like that idea. I rebelled against it. He gave me an ultimatum: either leave my lab or find another lab at the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

There was the option of dropping out and getting a master’s degree instead of a PhD. I opted for that. I didn’t want to start over, and I was questioning whether I wanted to end up doing a postdoc and then a professorship and all that. So, I decided I was going to jump onto the internet bandwagon. I had just gotten back from a conference at the time that had Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, as one of the keynote speakers.

That was pretty phenomenal. I got to meet one of the co-founders of Netscape, a guy named Rob McCool, who invented the Netscape server. That was very early days, 1994. People weren’t even using Netscape yet. They were still using Mosaic. And so I was starstruck by all the internet luminaries I had met at this conference, the second international World Wide Web conference. And I decided, okay, I’m gonna just make that leap. A Chinese proverb says, “Leap and then the net will appear.” Yeah, so.

I’m so grateful that you shared that with us because a lot of the people listening might have that kind of intuition or the kind of urge to do something, to do something gutsy and courageous like you did, right? They’re on a path, and maybe it’s a path that they can see themselves through—they should, they could, all that, but there’s a part of them that says, “hmm, what if,” right? “This is not quite it for me.” So what would you say to those individuals who are there but are just experiencing so much fear of the unknown? And they’re kind of doubtful of those instincts.

Well, fear is the opposite of love. It’s not hate that’s the opposite of love. It’s fear. So, if you live in fear, you live in the opposite of love. And that’s a real shame. So, I want to be outside of my comfort zone as much as possible. That means stretching myself and feeling uncomfortable or being outside of my area of expertise or having something about it that doesn’t feel natural. And it’s not that I don’t want to be in the state of flow and be natural and all that. It’s that I want to grow all the time. And I want to grow proactively.

I don’t want to get hit in the head by a brick by the universe in order to make a change. I want to do it on my own calling and to be able to do this because I chose it rather than reacting to something that happened in my life. I learned years and years ago that the universe drops these very gentle feathers on you and on your shoulder, and you can very easily ignore them. The problem is, if you ignore them long enough, they turn into bricks, and then those bricks, when they fall on you, they hurt, and you can continue to ignore them.

But then the Mack truck shows up, and that’s really, really bad. So, I don’t even want the bricks to show up. Heck, I don’t even want the feathers to show up yet. I want to use my intuition to preempt those feathers and say, okay, I’m going to beat the feather. I’m going to intuit the feather before it even lands on me. And so I’m constantly looking for opportunities like that.

Well, let’s dive right into this topic of intuition and synchronicity because it’s a topic that, for many people, is kind of unknown. It’s like there’s a part of them that believes it, but a part of them doesn’t believe it, perhaps. And yet, it’s a natural thing that we all experience in some way in our life. It’s a universal human experience. One of the things that I know from my training with the Institute of Heart Math is a research institution that studies the optimal state, right? 

That optimized kind of state of flow is that when we are coherent when we’re in a state of alignment, and when we ask for guidance, then we can trust what comes back to us in the form of intuition. Their research with serial entrepreneurs, there was a lot of research done out of Australia and other areas where they saw that those individuals were successful over and over and over again. Sometimes, what they decided went against data and against the evidence of what they could or should do. But yet, 80% of them trusted their intuition, and that is what they credit for their success. How does that fit for you? What have you noticed as you look back at your very successful career?

Yeah, so I didn’t realize that these were intuitive hits until after the fact, many years after the fact in some cases. For example, when I decided to move to New Zealand, that was against conventional wisdom. At the time, it was the late 90s; everyone was moving from, let’s say, the Midwest, where I was based at the time in Wisconsin, moving to the Bay Area, to Silicon Valley. That’s where everything was happening. People thought I was nuts about moving to New Zealand. Like, that’s an island in the middle of nowhere. Why? You should be moving to Silicon Valley. That’s where you’re going to get really big. And I’m like, no, it doesn’t feel right to me. It feels like I should be going to New Zealand. And they’re like, why? Why New Zealand? I don’t know.

It’s just inside of me. There’s something driving me to New Zealand. I have no idea what that is, but I know it’s going to be amazing. And I didn’t have a name for it. I didn’t call it intuition. I just knew that I wanted to be in New Zealand. And it ended up being the most beautiful time that we spent there. It was seven and a half years. It was magical. We ended up being very successful because of it, not just in terms of quality of life and lifestyle but also in terms of business. For example, we were able to acquire really incredible talent because we were paying in US dollars and spending money in Kiwi dollars and New Zealand dollars. At the time, it was about 40 cents to the dollar. It was a real bargain to hire the top talent.

Kiwi companies and New Zealand companies couldn’t afford to spend the kind of money that we were willing to spend because we had US clients. It worked out beautifully. We were able to grow, but we had an office block from the beach. Browns Bay was magical. It wasn’t until a year ago, just about exactly a year ago, that I had a psychic reading, the first one in my entire life. The guy who gave me the reading was a guest on my podcast, and he saved a family member’s life during my interview with him, which I can get to know.

So, I was curious. It had cracked open the door to this whole world of psychic phenomena, the unseen world. So I had a reading with him, and he nailed it. He had so many things to tell me that he couldn’t have known any other way than to tap into what my wife calls the universal Google. Okay, so he knew. He just knew things that I had even forgotten about my mother, for example. He knew. So in this reading, at the end of it, he’s telling me, Stephan, pay attention to your intuition and follow it.

I didn’t understand the significance of that. I didn’t understand that intuition was the whispers of your angels, your higher self, or the upper realms speaking to your consciousness. I did not understand that at the time. All I knew was that my simple understanding of intuition was just a gut feeling, but it sunk in. I paid attention to what he said, and I implemented it in my life. Things have been amazing, amazing, miraculous, and nothing short of miraculous because I have been following my intuition. Somebody pops into my mind, and I call them even though I haven’t spoken to them for two or three-five years. Now, somebody pops into my mind, and I’ll at least shoot them an email or send them a text if I don’t have time to make a phone call.

And that might seem silly, like that’s just random synapses firing, but the thing is, nothing’s random, especially if it just comes in completely without prompting. It’s just unexpected, which comes in unexpected, emotionally charged, and neutral. There’s no anxiety, excitement, fear, or anything associated with it; it simply is. And it stays there. It doesn’t move. It doesn’t jump to the next thought, to the next thought, to the next thought, to the next thought, to the next thing you know, you’re like, Oh yeah, that’s right. I need to pick up milk from the store or whatever. No, it just sticks. And that’s an intuitive hit. Pay attention to those.

Well, would you be willing to share a couple of those stories for some people that are like, I get it conceptually, but give me some more evidence here. What things have happened to you or for you?

Well, after I had prayed for God to give me a job, and this came from me interviewing another psychic, Sheila Gillette, and prepping for that interview, seeing her explain in this interview, this video interview that I watched her near-death experience and how she had prayed to God, “Please let me stay on this planet, let me raise my kids, give me a job, just give me a job, please give me a job.” And I just, that stuck with me for months. Finally, a few months later, I decided I was gonna pray for a job, too. And then, I don’t know how else to describe it, but the veils were thinned or lifted. And so I could see much more about how the universe worked than all these.

Without a doubt, signs started showing up in my life.

And I’ll give a quick example of one. Now, this is beyond intuition because intuition just feels like you’re just following your gut to a lot of folks. At least, you know, that’s what I understand from the people I’ve talked to. But when you get a without a doubt sign, you think, whoa, we’re living in a simulation or something. This is just too out there. An example of that is when I was reading a book that guided me to follow my intuitive breadcrumbs to get to that point. It was a spiritual book, and it turned out that I was supposed to follow this particular author’s writings and recommendations. A life-changing event happened because I followed these intuitive breadcrumbs that led to her. 

So, I’m reading her book, and I haven’t even bought it yet. I was just starting this process, so I used Amazon’s Look Inside the Book feature. So I’m reading through the introduction or first chapter or whatever, but I’m also listening to a podcast in the background at the same time, which I don’t recommend. It’s not multitasking. Yeah, it doesn’t work. Doesn’t work. But I was doing it and the word I am reading at the very moment I’m reading it comes through the podcast and the audio, which was really wild. That had never happened to me before. But I didn’t do anything with it. All I did was keep reading and listening.

And I’m like, “Whoa, that’s wild. That’s a without a doubt sign.” Okay. So, in retrospect, that wasn’t just a hello. This is why you need to get off your bot and take some action here. You get these angel numbers and all these things like one, one, one, one, all the time. Or it’s not just, “Hi, we’re here. We love you.” I mean, that’s part of it, but a lot of it’s like, okay, now it’s time to tune in and. Turn up the volume, increase your download bitrate or whatever. So you’re not just getting angel numbers; you’re getting complete messages, instructions, ideas, and inventions, right? Whatever. So I’m continuing to read and listen, and it happens again five minutes later. I’m like, “Whoa, okay, I got it. I got it. I’m supposed to do something here.” At that time, I did remember what the word was because that’s a question I often get.

What was the word that? It was repeated; it was the word parents. The word parents, I’m listening to an episode of the Melissa Rivers show about coronavirus. And it wasn’t about parenting. It was about coronavirus. There was a patient on there, and there was a doctor, and there was room last year. So I’m listening to that. The book is a spirituality book. It was called Ask Whitedove by Michelle White Dove. And that wasn’t about parenting either. Now, I don’t remember what the first word was because it was just weird for me. It didn’t register. I didn’t think about what was that word again. I just kept reading, as I said, that second time that got my attention to the nth degree.

So then I stopped what I was doing. I went to her website, and I ended up joining the Patreon community. And there’s some life-changing stuff in there that I that I found. But if I hadn’t done something with that hit, it was, like I said, more than an intuitive hit. It was a big neon sign flashing in front of my face like, hey, this is important. And if you want those sorts of things, ask for them, pray for them, because they’ll come. If you want dreams, ask for dreams. That was another thing. I watched a webinar from Karen Noe, this amazing medium, who explained how to receive messages from angels and from loved ones who have passed.

And I’m like, okay, I’m going to try this. And I asked for a dream. And to be woken up from the dream so that I could remember it. And I got the most beautiful, incredible, otherworldly vision type of dream that I’d never received before. It was heavenly. It was absolutely heavenly. And that was the very night that I had watched the webinar and prayed for a vision like that, prayed for a dream.

Yeah. So you can open yourself up to it. You know, even if you’re a skeptic, I was a skeptic. I was agnostic. Almost atheistic until age 42. Scientists, you know, are always about the scientific method, testing stuff out, biohacking and life hacking and reverse engineering things, and algorithms. But yeah, there’s so much more to life. It really is like the matrix, but we’re not batteries.

Thank you for these stories and these examples. That’s kind of the coolest way to learn things, so we’re curious too. Just experiment and see what shows up for ourselves. You know, it’s very interesting because I’ve been trained in a variety of modalities to connect with our deeper self, our deeper knowing. One of those is Hawaiian Huna, ancient Hawaiian Huna. Very briefly, in Huna, we speak of the higher conscious mind or superconscious mind, or some might call it spirit.

Yeah, different names, right? HeartMath might call it the non-local intuition, yeah, whatever label we give to that. We have the conscious mind, and we have the unconscious or subconscious mind. And to your point about asking for it, in HUNA, we believe that there is no direct link between the conscious mind and our higher self. It is really when we integrate our conscious and unconscious mind when there is a state of coherence.

Then we ask for guidance that really our highest and best self can present itself to us in the form of intuition or a synchronistic event of something that will guide us to the path of least resistance so that we can get what we want. And so what that means is that if I am asking consciously or unconsciously asking for guidance or help from a state of fear and distress, then what’s coming back to me might not be trustworthy.

Where we know it is trustworthy is when we’re coherent, when we are feeding the field around our body with love. We are expanding that field. And when we ask from that state, then we can trust that. And the only way to know that is to take those actions and notice what evolves, right? Those kinds of feathers, if you will, as you said. Now, a lot of people say to me, well, what if I don’t follow the feather or that urge to make the call or listen to the podcast or get on Amazon and read the book? What will happen? And so, what is your answer to that?

One of the books I’m reading is it’s called You Were Born for This. And it’s about creating or not creating, delivering miracles in everyday life, like all the time. And if you get this intuitive hit, pull off the road and help somebody who’s a stranded motorist or give money to a homeless person. Yeah, don’t ignore it or talk to the person. Because that person could, later on, decide to commit suicide, but something you said or something you did change their mind. And if you take this seriously and do not just wait for it reactively but proactively ask for it, just like you ask for a dream, and you might get it, you could ask to deliver miracles.

And that’s part of the book. And that’s something that I was led to. Again, this was a synchronistic, meant for my event to be in this mastermind with seven other entrepreneur men who were all reading this book I’d never heard of before together. And it just so happened it started the following week after I met the guy who was running this group. He told me about the book. There’s something that told me I needed to tell him about a book that I hadn’t even read yet. And I still haven’t read it. This was like five months ago.

It was called My Utmost for His Highest. Something told me I needed to tell him about the book. And he’s like, that’s one of my favorite books. Yeah, it’s from the 1920s. It’s not exactly a new bestseller, but I’ve read it a bunch of times. It’s right here on my bookshelf. That’s amazing. And later on in the conversation, he invites me to be in this mastermind. He’s like, I don’t know you very well. This is our first conversation, and I wasn’t planning on doing this, but I feel called to do it to invite you in this mastermind. We’re reading a book together, you were born for this and so forth. And one aspect of that book that really stands out for me is the asking. I do that all the time. Most days, I ask God to send me; here I am, please send me. And he sends me, and the stuff that I end up delivering for him, I know has saved lives, at least has changed the course of their lives massively for the better.

In many cases, so ask, just simply ask. Oh, and there’s another piece I wanted to mention: you were talking about the conscious and the unconscious. There’s also the collective unconscious. And this is something that Carl Jung wrote quite a lot about and did a lot of research on. And that’s the field, that’s where you tap into the knowing whether you know somebody is not feeling well, or they’re suicidal or whatever. And you didn’t even see them. You just get this intuitive hip that you need to call that person. You’re tapped into a collective unconscious. You’re also tapped into angels in the higher realms. But, you know, it depends on what your belief system is, whether you’re receptive to that or not. I didn’t really, as I said, believe in angels and much of anything supernatural until recent years until I was in my 40s, but everyone has their own journey.

But if you like science and you respect Carl Jung and his work, he’s the guy who came up with the term synchronicity. He was experiencing synchronicity firsthand, and he was so taken by it that he decided to start a whole branch of research into it and write an entire book on it. And, of course, he coined the term in the process. The book is called Synchronicity, and the phenomenon is called Synchronicity. And the way it started is he was in his office with a patient doing a psychoanalysis session. He hears a tap on his window. Now, there are three stories up. So it’s not like somebody tapping on the window three stories up, right? The room is darkened for the session. So why would somebody be trying to tap on a three-story-up window?

And it’s a darkened room. It doesn’t make any sense, right? But it was insistent. So he finally gets up, checks the window, and lo and behold, at the window is something that defies all logic. Well, what I need to tell you is the woman that was being psychoanalyzed. She was in the middle of a dream recall. She was talking about this necklace. It was a scarab necklace. It was very significant, this necklace and the dream. And what was tapping on her old window was a scarab beetle. Like, what are the odds?

It’s essentially zero. This was an otherworldly event. He opens the window, lets the scarab beetle in, catches it, and presents it to this woman who believed in nothing supernatural, nothing that wasn’t tangible and of the scene world. He presents it to her. Here’s your scarab beetle, as she’s recalling the scarab beetle necklace in the dream. Changed her life. Also changed his life, as you know, because he started down this whole branch of research and study.

Thank you for sharing that story. In this podcast, we talk a lot about the power of thought and the power of emotions. You said at the very beginning I followed a feeling. That’s what you didn’t know; it was intuition, but it was just a feeling. It’s not something that we can hold in our hand, per se, but yet we know from research that thoughts and emotions are things. We can measure vibrations, and we can measure things for those people who are listening and are very curious now might not believe in God or the universe or whatever that is. And just to be curious, to suspend disbelief long enough to just have their own experiences.

And that’s the only way to know what is true for us. Perhaps they should follow an intuitive insight and be curious without any attachment to an outcome and notice what is true and right for them. So, for those individuals who want to start a business, grow a business, or change careers. There’s some lack of fulfillment or curiosity where they are now in that part of their life. What do you recommend? Since you’ve been a very successful serial entrepreneur, you’ve done a lot of things, and you’ve met a lot of people. What do you recommend for those individuals with regard to their inner world? What can they tap into? What, if anything, can support them in taking those next right steps?

So, if they don’t believe in anything supernatural or bigger than themselves, then I would start by reading the book Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, who experienced a near-death experience and was forever changed by it. And he is a neuroscientist, a very brilliant man, and very credible. And so I would start there. And as you said, this idea of suspending disbelief is critically important. So go through your day with this mindset of the willing suspension of disbelief. That will open you up to miracles. If you already believe in a higher power, and you just don’t know how to have a conversation with your higher power, whether you call it God, or the divine, or the universe, or whatever, by the way, I would suggest. This is just a suggestion, but I would suggest maybe not referring to God as the universe because the universe is both good and bad. Right, what’s the word? Help me out here.

Duality. Polarity.

It’s duality, yeah, it’s duality. So, if you’re asking the universe for things, you’re asking for the negative as well. I mean, we learn from the negative, and the hand of God is in everything. So even the tragedies and the travesties and all the stuff that we don’t want in life, also be sure to be grateful for that stuff because, in the bigger picture, it is all for your highest good. If you can trust that the hand of God is behind everything and then you start asking God for things that will help you to show up more powerfully in life and not just for God to be like a genie granting your wishes like I want a bigger car and house and whatever, but instead I want more wisdom.

I want more certainty. I want more desire to change the world, to fix whatever my issues are in my own personal life or whatever. If you pray for those things, you know, every prayer is heard, every prayer is heard. Not every prayer is answered in the way that you want it, but every single prayer is heard. So if you pray to God or whatever you want to call God, other than the duality of the universe, because you’re going to get a lot of stuff you don’t want, more than if you just pray directly to God. So, you know, that’s something that I would recommend, so start asking and make this more of a dialogue. Pray, pray, pray is just you asking, you talking. I’m not a great conversationalist if all you do is talk, right?

If, on the other hand, you’re listening even more than you’re talking, which is the sign of a really good conversationalist in person. So, listen more than you talk, and how do you listen? Meditate. Now, you’re not going to get the messages probably during your meditations. Still, it’s going to quiet your monkey mind and allow you to receive also if you focus your mind on pure thoughts, which then lead to pure words and pure action, so you are congruent with purity.

Don’t watch porn, don’t lust after the neighbor’s wife or any of that stuff because that messes with your ability to receive messages. So, if you are interested in this being a conversation with God with your higher power, then you need to listen. Part of the secret to success with listening in this regard is to meditate and quiet that monkey mind. And then the second piece is to be as pure as possible. Thought, word, and deed.

Thank you. Thank you, Stephan, for sharing that. And it’s very aligned with what we know from research in terms of the techniques out of HeartMath that does a lot of research on non-local intuition, intuition that comes from a field beyond time and space, which we know that the physical heart is connected to something beyond time and space. A variety of experiments have shown that the physical heart decelerates, so it depends on something that hasn’t even happened yet, a few seconds before an event.

So we know that there is something there. And what you’re sharing is absolutely aligned, right? So you talked about this duality, you know, because everything in creation has two ends to it. Yeah, fear, love, right? However, you want to look at it, right? These two ends. So when we are able to be in that state of love or appreciation and compassion, right? You mentioned at the beginning that there’s fear and there’s love, right? When we are in that state of love, then essentially, if you imagine a triangle, right, where we’ve got the two bottom ends of the triangle right here, when you are in a state of love, then what happens is that your conscious and unconscious mind are working together harmoniously, right?

Head, heart, gut, it’s all working together. And in that state, you’re able to receive that non-local intuition from that place. So what that means is that, in essence, I am asking my higher self when I’m in that coherent state, and I’m able to receive it because I’m kind of at the tip of the triangle. I kind of accept what is, and I’m kind of at the tip of this neutral, objective place where I’m not attached to either side of the dichotomy, either end, and I’m just in a state of receiving whatever comes, being very, very curious. And as you said, following those little breadcrumbs, those little feathers, because they are there for a reason for us, even when there’s a little bit of fear or doubt, just to suspend that long enough to experiment, you know, of course, and see what might happen, of course, in a healthy way, making sure that we’re honoring our own values and other people’s values.

Yeah, yeah. And guard your mindset because it’s not just about purity and having a higher vibration or thought pattern that allows the coherence. Still, also it’s about tuning in to whoever, whatever beings, your higher self, et cetera, that want to give you messages and when you are in a lower vibrational state, you are in a lower mental or emotional state, you are inviting in not the best of recommendations because the lower level entities are then whispering into your consciousness instead. And it’s not just about getting these intuitive hits; it’s about the synchronicities, too.

So here’s an example of a synchronicity. I had no idea that you were going to talk about heart math so much, and right on my desk right here is a Heart Math Box that I still need to open. And it’s here because I haven’t opened it yet, and those are yours, of course. We talked earlier before starting this interview about biohacking, and I was going to go grab a bunch of biohacking gadgets and things. This wasn’t one of the things that I grabbed. Yes, I have a bunch of gadgets and things on my desk now for our interview in case we talk about biohacking. This was on there beforehand. Another example of synchronicity in action. So, it doesn’t have to be an intuitive fit. It could be a chance meeting, but that’s not by chance. Nothing is random.

Thank you, thank you, Stephan. I know that those who are curious to learn more about HeartMath and the research on non-local intuition can go to heartmath.org, put in a search for non-local intuition, or just Google that, and that research will come up.

Stephan, I’m so, so grateful for your love, for your wisdom, and for everything that you’re sharing with us today, whether listeners or entrepreneurs want to be entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to live their highest, best, healthiest life.

What you shared with us are really practical tips that, if nothing else, make us more curious to play and engage with our world at a new level. Thank you for your time. How can people learn more about you, your podcasts, and your books? There’s so much wealth of love and wisdom that you have to share. Where can we go?

Well, I would start with Get Yourself Optimized, which is the podcast all about spirituality and biohacking, life hacking, productivity, and personal development. That’s a passion project for me. My area of focus in my business world right now is search engine optimization. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing and search engine optimization, then go to StephanSpencer.com or Netconcepts.com. Both of those sites have a wealth of information in those realms.

But I’m also working on a self-help book, which will come out probably in another year’s time, on personal development type stuff and spirituality. So I’m very excited about that. Yeah, start with Get Yourself Optimized first. And if that intrigues you, then I would start reading up on some spirituality, stuff like Four Agreements or Celestine Prophecy or whatever tickles your fancy to get you going because your intuitive higher self, whatever you wanna call it, is going to lead you to the right resources and it’s gonna be an amazing journey. So I’m excited for you.

Thank you, Stephan. Once again, you’re just a wonderful soul, and I’m very grateful to you.

Thank you. And you are a wonderful soul as well. And so are you a listener.

That’s right. That’s right. Sometimes, we need that reminder. So, thank you for reminding everyone out there that they’re not alone.

We’re never alone.

That’s this week’s episode of the Mindset Game Podcast. Visit us at themindsetgame.com for more. And remember to play the Mindset Game consciously to master your mindset and transform your life.

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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last modified on November 8, 2024.

We at Koshkonong, LLC are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online experience for all of our visitors while offering a high-quality user experience here at www.stephanspencer.com (the “Website”), or/and any other websites operated by the Company, including but not limited to:

We know that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. We have developed this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of Information we receive from users of the Website. Koshkonong, LLC (the “Company”) operates the Website.

This Privacy Policy, along with our Term & Conditions, governs your use of this site.  By using www.stephanspencer.com (the “Website”), or by accepting the Terms of Use (via opt-in, checkbox, pop-up, or clicking an email link confirming the same), you agree to be bound by our terms and consent to this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect

When you visit our Website, we will learn certain information about you.

In order to provide you with the most efficient and enhanced personalized service and attention, and to accommodate certain requests which you make, we request information about you in certain circumstances and collect certain information automatically.

Consistent with our previous practices, we will only collect and process your personal data when we have a lawful basis for doing so. These lawful bases include when you provide us consent, when we have a contractual obligation to collect or process the data, and when we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data.

We may collect and/or receive the following types of information from you:

Information Provided Voluntarily

Personal Information. You may be asked to provide personal information including your name, address, email address and phone number when you sign up for any of our newsletters, respond to a survey, register for a class, or purchase a product or service. We will only request the personal information that is required in order to fulfill our obligations to you, i.e. in order to deliver what you have requested, as well as to comply with any legal obligations that may accompany such an exchange.

Order & Billing Information. If you place an order through our Website, we track certain information about the products and services you purchase. At checkout, you will also be required to provide additional information required for processing your payment. This generally includes a debit or credit card or other payment information, expiration dates, card security codes, your billing address or similar information.  This information is generally processed and captured by third-party vendors, such as payment processors and merchant account providers. To the fullest extent possible, we make an effort not to capture or retain this information ourselves (unless, for example, we are requested to process a refund, follow up on the delivery of goods or services, or work with customers or vendors on resolving any errors or other scenarios.) Third-party vendors who assist us in any of our business functions will also be doing so pursuant to their own terms and conditions, including privacy policies and terms of use.

Information Collected Automatically. In addition to the information described above, we may collect some or all of the following information:

Activity Info (Log Data). Information may be collected based on your use of the Website, which generally includes information about your computer hardware and software, such as:

Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses, operating systems, browser types, device types, URLS, access dates and times; Website pages that you visit; referring website information; universally unique identifiers (“UUID”), advertising identifier (“IDFA”), carrier and country location, hardware and processor information, network type, and other related data.

Use of Cookies.  Our website may use cookies in order to deliver a better experience for you. Cookies are files with small amounts of data that a website stores on your computer’s or mobile device’s hard drive so that certain information about your visit and web-browsing preferences will be recognized upon a return visit. Cookies serve functions such as “remembering” log-in names and passwords, or enabling or saving shopping cart contents. Like many websites, we may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to help us improve the experience you have with our Website. Most web browsers have a function that allows you to delete existing cookies on your device or you can set your browser options so that your device does not receive or accept cookies. Doing this may interfere with your ability to use the Website. [ ]

Third-Party Analytics. We use third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics) to evaluate and aggregate visitor data. These services help us evaluate Visitors’ use of the Website, including time spent on certain pages, which areas of the Website receive the most traffic, how often visitors visit pages within the Website, and also provide general geographic location about visitors, the source of referred traffic (from other websites, vs search engines, etc). These third party analytic services use cookies and other technologies to help analyze and provide us the data. By providing your consent to this Privacy Policy, you consent to the collection and review of data about you by these analytics providers in the manner and for the purposes set out herein.

For more information on Google Analytics, including how to opt out from certain data collection, please visit https://www.google.com/analytics. If you opt out of any service, you may not enjoy the full functionality of the Website.

Other Third Party Tracking Tools. We may also collect or receive information from third parties, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and/or other third-party social media and similar sites.

How to Access Your Personal Information

If you have provided personal, billing or other voluntarily provided information, you may access, review and make changes to it via instructions found on the Website or by emailing us at me [at] stephanspencer [dot] com. To manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications, you may unsubscribe by clicking the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of any related email from the Company. Emails related to the purchase or delivery of orders are provided automatically – Customers are not able to opt out of transactional emails. We will try to accommodate any requests related to the management of Personal Information in a timely manner. However, it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases (for example, if we have a legal obligation to keep it for certain timeframes).

How We Use and Share the Information

We use the collected Information to understand customer needs, including regarding our Website services to:

  • present you with information through our Website and email services;
  • provide our services, process orders, and administer our programs;
  • maintain and improve our Website;
  • respond to your requests, and provide customer service, including in response to any problems that may arise, such as difficulties in navigating our Website or accessing certain features;
  • solicit your feedback, and to inform you about our products and services and those of our third-party marketing partners that we feel may be of interest or value to you;
  • personalize or display advertisements to you on third-party platforms;
  • improve our services or offerings; and
  • fulfill our legal or contractual obligations to you.

As with transactions elsewhere, when you purchase products, services, or programs via our Website, your credit card company will also retain certain information regarding your purchase. We will not otherwise provide any personal data to your credit card company without your permission.

We may share the Information collected with joint venture partners, affiliates, agents, current or prospective business partners, businesses under common control, third-party businesses or partners participating in administering our programs or services, or to those providing business functions such as technical support, customer service, marketing assistance, etc. These businesses will only have access to information as necessary to perform their functions and to the extent permitted by law.

In the event of the sale or transfer of our business to a third party buyer, including in the event of bankruptcy or liquidation, we may, as necessary, share your data with the buyer or transferee.

In the event that we have to collect on a debt owed to us by you, we may, as necessary, share your information with an attorney or a court of law to enforce our rights and collect what is owed.

Under certain circumstances we may be obligated or compelled to disclose the Information: when required by law, court order or government agency, or when disclosing such Information is reasonably required to protect the Company, its property, the Website, the safety of visitors or others.

Retargeting / Personalized and Behavioral Ads

We may, using the techniques described above, and in conjunction with third party marketing partners, gather information from your visit to our Website for purposes of providing relevant advertising content to you in the future. This means that through third party marketing partners or third party sites such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, we may display advertisements to you (remarketing or retargeting), based on usage data collected during your visit to our website.

Google Analytics: As described above, we use Google Analytics on our website. We may utilize any of the following advertising features that utilize the Google advertising cookies: Remarketing with Analytics, Demographics and Interest reporting, Segments, and Double Click integration.

To opt out of seeing personalized ads via the Google platform, please visit https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en

For more information regarding how Google uses cookies in advertising and how you can control advertising cookies, visit http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/

To personalize the ads you see via the Google platform, visit http://www.google.com/settings/ads

For more information on how Google uses data when you visit its partners’ sites or apps, visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/

Or, via an opt-out browser add-on, you can opt out of having your site activity available to Google Analytics. For more information, or to install the opt-out browser ad-on, please visit https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en  Please note that if you opt out of any service, you may not enjoy the full functionality of the Website.

Google Ad Words: We may utilize Google Ad Words, which provides certain of the information collected on our website to the Adwords advertising network. To opt out of Google Ad Words, visit https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en

Facebook Custom Audience: We may utilize Facebook’s Custom Audience capability which allows us to display ads on Facebook to individuals on our email lists or in our database. We may provide personal information to Facebook, such as your name, email address and phone number to enable Facebook to identify whether you are a Facebook account holder. To opt-out of the Facebook Custom Audience, please email us at me [at] stephanspencer [dot] com with (1)“Facebook Custom Audience Opt-Out” in your Subject Line, and (2) your name and email address in the body of the email.

Other Personalized and Behavioral Advertising Services: We may participate in other retargeting services that are similar to those described above.

Managing Cookies Via Your Browser:

You may be able to change your cookie preferences via your browser settings. Please visit your browser’s help section for assistance with turning on notifications regarding cookies, or disabling cookies through your browser.

Managing Cookies on Your Mobile Device:

You may be able to change your cookie preferences on your mobile device either via your browser settings, or via the settings (preferences) on your device. For additional info, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/mobile/

Use Caution When Sharing Information Online

When you voluntarily make your Personal Information available online in an environment shared by third parties – including in webinars, classes, online conferences, via email, on message boards, chat rooms or on blogs, or via telephone calls or conferences – that information can be viewed, saved, collected, heard, and/or used by others outside of the Company. We are not responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of information provided in these contexts. Please be mindful whenever you share any information online.

Security of Your Information

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While we incorporate standard industry practices internally and with our services providers, which we believe is sufficient for the information involved, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Because we work with third-party businesses and vendors in various aspects of our business including operating this website, database management, website security, etc., we cannot guarantee the absolute security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that the Information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to and from us over the Internet. Any information that you provide to us via email should be treated with extra caution, as we cannot control the level of security available through email providers.

Children

We are strongly committed to protecting the safety and privacy of children who visit our website. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through the Website. If you are under 13, please do not give us any Personal Information. We encourage all parents to talk to their children about online safety and to monitor their children’s use of the Internet. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us, please contact us, and we will make best efforts to immediately delete that information from our databases.

External Websites

While we have carefully chosen those vendors with whom we work, especially those involved in the transmission of data on behalf of our business, we do not control and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites, including those of affiliates, business partners, sponsors, advertisers, or other websites to which we may link from time to time. When visiting any third-party websites, you are responsible for reviewing the privacy policy and terms of use applicable to each site. They may be different than those that you see here.

California Privacy Rights

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, residents of California have the right to request from a business with whom the Californian has an established business relationship, certain information with respect to the types of personal information the business shares with third parties for direct marketing purposes by such third party and the identities of the third parties with whom the business has shared such information during the immediately preceding calendar year. To request a copy of the information disclosure provided by the Company pursuant to this provision, please contact us via email at me [at] stephanspencer [dot] com.

Our California Do Not Track Notice

Consistent with our policies described above, we collect information from our visitors on our website and across third party websites where applicable, to provide relevant content and advertising. We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals of web browsers.

DNT is a setting in your web browser that informs websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable DNT through the Preferences or Settings options of your web browser.

Visitors Outside the U.S.

Our Website and the servers that make this Website available worldwide are located in the United States. The Internet laws in the United States govern all matters relating to this Website. Any information you provide in subscribing to or visiting our Website will be transferred to the United States. By visiting our Website and submitting information, you authorize this transfer, processing, and use.

EU Visitors and the GDPR

If you live in the EU, certain of your data may be subject to protection by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), a privacy regulation intended to help you have greater control over your personal data.

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we extend to all of our website visitors:

  • to know what information is being collected, as disclosed in this Privacy Policy (“right to transparent information”);
  • to object on grounds relating to your particular situation to the collection or processing of certain kinds of information (“right to object”);
  • to withdraw consent even after it has been given, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing of your data prior to your withdrawal (“right to withdraw consent”);
  • to access, modify or update your information so that it is correct (“right to access” and “right to rectification”);
  • to have your information deleted or erased (“right to erasure” or “right to be forgotten”);
  • to have your data transferred or ported elsewhere (“right to data portability”);
  • and the right to restrict processing in certain situations (“right to restriction of processing”).

For purposes of the GDPR, to the fullest extent possible we do not directly collect or maintain personal data of our EU visitors or clients. This is done through partnerships with third-party vendors who have systems designed for the collection and storage of data on behalf of their clients (“data processors”). The data is only kept as long as is reasonably required to accomplish the purpose or purposes for which it was collected. Certain data may be expunged or utilized more quickly than others, and depending on your engagement and behaviors, including purchasing behaviors, we may be engaged in a business or contractual relationship with some longevity. (For example, if you purchase a course or program, or services that span over some time, you will continue to receive communications in regards to those offerings or services).

The categories of data processors with whom we work, and that help us in the collection of information that allows us to serve and interact with you include website analytics provider(s), website and web form plug-ins and related third-party services that allow us to maintain an up-to-date online platform and communicate with you electronically, an email service provider or providers to assist in managing email correspondence with our visitors, customers and list, as well as payment processor(s) and/or merchant account(s) to help us transact sales online and follow up with you regarding any purchases. For a list of specific data processors with whom we currently work, please visit our list here.

Those within the Company that may have access to the data include Officers, Directors, Managers, Supervisors, Salespersons, or those providing customer or technical support. Access to the data is provided for specific purposes, generally related to communicating with you, fulfilling our contractual obligations, providing customer service or technical support, collecting payment, or monitoring performance of marketing and sales efforts.

You may contact us at any time to have your information with us or any of these processors updated or corrected, deleted, or to obtain a copy for your records. Additionally, you may opt out of receiving any additional emails or marketing messages from us by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our email notifications.

Further, if you feel that we have not complied with the relevant data protection regulations, please contact us by sending us an email at me [at] stephanspencer [dot] com with your first and last name, your country of origin, and a summary of your concern or complaint. We will endeavor to respond at our earliest possible convenience to address your concern. If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you may have additional options.

Residents in Designated Countries may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant EU data protection authority. You may access a list of the Data Protection Authorities in the EU here.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

The Company may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as necessary to protect our users and to comply with a changing environment. Please review the Privacy Policy when you visit our Website to remain updated on our current policy. We have no intention of making any changes to our Privacy Policy and practices to make them less protective of personal information collected in the past. By accessing the Website and/or using our services after making any such changes to this Privacy Policy, you are deemed to have accepted such changes. Please be aware that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, our use of the Information is governed by the Privacy Policy in effect at the time we collect the information. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Whenever we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will update the date at the top.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us via email at me [at] stephanspencer [dot] com with “Privacy Policy” in the subject line.

© 2015 – 2024 by The Legal Website Warrior® (www.LegalWebsiteWarrior.com). All Rights Reserved.  DO NOT DUPLICATE THIS PRIVACY POLICY (OR ANY PORTION THEREOF). THIS CONSTITUTES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.