Episode 516 Marla Ballard Shifting Veteran Mindsets by Healing PTSD with Gratitude Transcript
This transcript is from episode 516 with guest Marla Ballard.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] You ever catch yourself thinking I should be further along by now, like no matter how much you’ve done, it still feels like you’re stuck. Maybe it’s the bill stacking up or that voice in your head telling you that you’re not qualified or you’re not capable, or just not enough. If that sounds familiar.
If you’re carrying scars from the battlefield and still bat battling that inner war, you’re not alone and you’re not broken. Now picture this, waking up with a clear sense of purpose, real gratitude in your gut, and knowing that no matter what hits, you’ve got tools to rise. You’ve got peace, even when everything around you feels like it’s closing.
In today’s conversation with Marla Ballard brings. That vision into reach. She’s a military spouse whose husband survived a devastating IED blast in Iraq, and through that crisis they built something powerful, something healing. Marla leads a quantum personal development program designed for folks like you and her approach [00:01:00] to rewiring self-perception.
Shifting out of lack, and leading with love and gratitude is something that every warrior should hear. But before we dive in, make sure you’re subscribed to the email newsletter at driveonpodcast.com/subscribe. You’ll get my five favorite episodes sent straight to your inbox. No fluff, just the best insights to help you drive on.
I also want to take a moment to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community, the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families and civilians impacted by the global War on terrorism.
And if you wanna learn more or find out how you can support that mission, visit GWOTmemorialfoundation.org. Now let’s get to today’s episode.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:02:00] Marla, welcome to the show. I’m really excited to have you here. Looking forward to our conversation.
Marla Ballard: Thank you. Me too. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, so it’s great to see you.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, I know. We actually, we got a chance to chat a little while ago, and I got to kind of know a little bit about your, your background and, and who you are, what you do, your, you know, military spouse and And
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s, that’s super cool. But. For the listeners who maybe don’t know as much about you, they weren’t in on that conversation.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: a little bit about your background, who you are, that type of thing. And you know, I’d love to hear about your experiences, either as a military spouse or you know, some of the challenges that came along with it and, and, uh, you know, also what you do as
Marla Ballard: Oh, Okay.
great. So, so I am the CEO for YU2SHINE and I’m also the director of our Unconquerable Me program, which is a program that we’re actually creating, uh, for veterans and first responders to really get aligned to the unconquerable soul and self that’s within, we’re a quantum personal development company.
[00:03:00] And, um, last fall. Forbes Magazine actually named us a pioneer in quantum personal development. And so, uh, but how I got to that is, um, in my heart, I’m still a farm kid from Kentucky. That’s where I grew up. My husband, Chris, and I live in Maryland now because he works, uh, at Pat River, at the Naval Base.
So he was actually an army guy, active duty, but now he works for the Navy, so that’s been quite an interesting journey. But to get here, you know, I, my background was actually equine science and agriculture. Uh, that’s what I went to University Kentucky and studied and, uh, very early on and became the business manager for a small race horse farm there.
And, uh, I absolutely loved what I was doing. I was having a blast. But it wasn’t, that career wasn’t really a calling for me in the way that the military was for Chris. When I met him.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: He was just so committed to serving his country when we met. And so for me it was, it was pretty [00:04:00] easy to change my life up and follow his with what he needed.
But, uh, in 2000, um, I guess it was 2005 in Iraq, he got wounded in a roadside bomb. Explosion. And so that changed everything for us. If you met him today, he’s in amazing condition. You would never know it, but at the time, uh, the, the bomb actually blew through his Humvee. It sheared off, um, his gluteal muscles all the way down, exposed his tailbone, and he was in the hospital for six weeks and it took 26 surgeries to really put him back together.
And then of course is, as you can imagine, and I know a lot of people in the veteran community can identify with the chronic pain, they came after that for a long time. Um, and so, so it really forced us to change up a lot of things in how I looked at things. Uh, in order to get him off of the line of, of deployment service while he was being medically [00:05:00] processed out, they brought him to the DC region to serve at Arlington Cemetery.
So here I am, a kid from Kentucky, right in this big city, biggest place I’d lived. Uh, and I had no idea how we were gonna juggle everything and how I was gonna be available to him. And. Oddly enough, at the time, it’s so interesting how our self perception works. Uh, at the time, I could not perceive myself as having marketable skills, so I ended up actually starting a business selling nutritional products to doctor’s offices, and we did really, really well.
And so with that, I also helped start multiple networking groups in and around the DC region to support other business owners because I needed to connect with them and I needed to learn how to do those things. Uh, and over the 12 year period of, of that business and those networking groups, I trained and mentored a lot of people.
[00:06:00] I got very heavily involved in personal development for myself just so I could learn some skills and tools to succeed. And from there I started getting a lot of people interested in having me go into coaching and consulting. And so that was what brought me this far. So that’s, that’s a synopsis of the arc.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And. It’s interesting because you, you coming from, you know, a small town, you know, moving to the big city and just having that, that difference, having a husband who was wounded and needs care with all of that, there’s a lot of changes going on.
Marla Ballard: It was a lot.
Scott DeLuzio: all at once. Right.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s the way it seemed to me anyways, so as, as we were talking here about it.
And so that, that had to be challenging. Not, not just, you know, seeing a loved one, obviously through a terrible time
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s challenging in and of itself, but then moving to a new area, [00:07:00] you don’t really know, probably a whole lot of people in that area. It’s, it’s big. It’s. Noisy.
It’s not your typical farm life that you might
Marla Ballard: No, not at all. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, so, so that challenge I guess going through that challenge, not only the, the injuries that your husband was going through, but also the physical location that you were in, being kind of new to you new to your family.
Probably open your eyes to some of the issues that other veteran families or military families, I should say, are, are going through, right? Because they
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: to different areas. They don’t necessarily know people in those areas. So they’re starting off fresh every few years, moving to a new
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: but then also adding in that caregiver aspect of it,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: that has to be a challenge in and of itself. And then. having that mindset that you really didn’t have any marketable skills despite having the fact that you [00:08:00] had worked in a a career that you did have marketable skills in. So,
Marla Ballard: I did. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: from an outsider looking in, it’s like, come on, come on crazy.
Marla Ballard: of course it it. Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: but but when, when you’re, you’re moving all the time it’s, it’s almost like you feel, almost probably feel like you. get a job
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: well, hey, I’m only gonna be here for a few years and you know, nobody wants to hire me for that. And so,
Marla Ballard: yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: you probably get trained in your brain that I’m just not employable.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, you know what? One thing that we, we teach and talk about a lot is you cannot out imagine your self-perception.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: So, so truly because my self-perception was so locked in. But what, what’s a kid from race horses gonna do in dc
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Marla Ballard: Right,
Like, and so I just, that, and that was my self perception at the time.
I hadn’t, I hadn’t really worked for a couple years, uh, because of the deployment and everything. And so, [00:09:00] yeah, I couldn’t out imagine that. It’s, it’s interesting how that works, isn’t it? And that’s true for all of us.
Scott DeLuzio: right. Yeah. And that’s, it’s unfortunate too because there’s so many military spouses who have incredible skills
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: They, I, I knew I, we knew a family. Uh, we, we live close to an Air Force base, and we, we knew a family who lived here when we first moved in. And, you know, the, the wife had a college degree.
She, she was, had all the professional certifications and
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: the things that, that you, you would need to get a good job in, you know, the, the field that she was in. And she just, she stayed at home with the kids.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: nothing, I’m not. Talking down on that. There’s nothing
Marla Ballard: No,
Scott DeLuzio: Uh, it’s a hundred percent a a great option for
Marla Ballard: it’s one of the highest colleagues you can fulfill, for sure. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: And, and so that, that’s, in no way am I knocking that at all. But I, I, like, I. I almost wonder like, did she just feel like, oh geez, nobody wants to hire me because I’m gonna be leaving in a, a couple of [00:10:00] years. And
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: like that, that’s just such a challenge that I, I feel like a lot of military families probably have, have to deal with,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: who, you know, like you, you went, went through, you got your degree and you were.
We’re doing you know, this type of work, and it’s like, geez, that’s, that’s kind of rough. But you know, so that definitely opened your eyes. So what you’re saying there opened your eyes to some of those, those issues. I wanna go back to something else that you were talking about. One of the things that you currently are doing and you mentioned something called quantum personal development
Marla Ballard: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: I wanna bring that up again. Could you explain a little bit what that is? I know
Marla Ballard: Ab. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: was, was, uh, kind enough to highlight that and, and that
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: that was awesome. But for the listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with quantum Personal Development, what is that all about and, and how does that, how does that work?
Maybe, does that even tie into some of those limiting beliefs that we’re just talking about? How does that all work?
Marla Ballard: Absolutely. So, so when, when we’re looking at personal development, most of it is about [00:11:00] mind over matter, right? It’s changing our mindset so we can actually shift how the energy around us is working to change our material world. That that’s basic personal development. In quantum personal development, what we’re actually combining is spirituality and quantum physics with understanding how energy actually works and flows, plus mindset, uh, and then implementing its practical application into everyday life.
I think one of the biggest complaints that people have about, spiritually based coaching programs and things like that is that people get way up, up high up here in their spirituality and, uh, sort of like a Wu mindset, but there’s no actual direction of practical application of how to actually implement it into your everyday life to really make things work and, and shift for you very, very quickly.
And so that’s what we do.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and so [00:12:00] me, one of the things that I, I want to start doing with this show is talking about the actionable advice, the takeaways, the things that people can do. Like it’s, you know, it’s great that there are tools available to
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Z, How do I, how do I get started? What do I do? What do I need to do?
Do I, you know, how, how does this fit into somebody’s life to be able to work with that? So let’s just say they have some of those beliefs similar to what you were talking about where I’m not employable, I’m not. I don’t have any marketable skills or any of those types of things. You tell yourself that enough, that just becomes wired in your brain that
Marla Ballard: Yeah, it does.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s not going anywhere,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: soon unless you do something to change it.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: do, we work with those types of beliefs? And it doesn’t necessarily have to be that one, you know, for the
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: I’m, I’m sure you. Can beat yourself up a thousand different ways. [00:13:00] And that, that we, we can’t even cover all of them right now. But, um, you know, just generally the concept applies that you know, there’s, there’s things that we are telling ourselves there, there those beliefs.
How do we work with those to, kind of change those to something more positive?
Marla Ballard: Well, the, the fastest way to actually change neural pathways in the brain, and you can go, you can Google on Psychology today or any number of psychology forums, is actually through love and gratitude. And so that’s where the spirituality piece comes in because everything in embedded into our programs is about love over mind, over matter, right?
And so, it, for me, one of the fastest ways to shift mindset or any energy is the practice of gratitude.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: Because what happens is, is when when we have a desire for something and we feel we’re not reaching it. Or like me in, in DC looking up at the, getting stuck, driving [00:14:00] around the Pentagon again and not knowing how to get out of the loop.
Right. And going, I, I have no idea. You know, the desire is there for something more, but the perception that we’re actually involved in at that moment is lack.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Marla Ballard: It’s one of total lack, right? It’s gonna be, I am, I’m, I’m lacking this. I, I lack the skillset. I lack the ability, I lack the money, I lack the confidence.
I lack the. The capacity, I lack the time. I lack whatever it is, right? And so when we’re in lack, what we’re actually coming from then is, is everything that we’re gonna start to see in our awareness is showing up is lacking.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Marla Ballard: The moment that we can realize that that’s where our mind is, and we can stop and express gratitude for something that is working, we’ve actually started to shift the energy.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: And so gratitude and love to me are, are the two fastest, [00:15:00] easiest, most accessible practices or if you’ve ever had this experience, you can be really down about something, but someone you get to go spend some time with someone you love and you focus on loving them and it shifts everything about your energy.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: Right, or you or someone does an active service for you or, or gives you attention and you feel loved. It shifts everything. So those two energies really can shift things the fastest. And then from there it’s, it’s, I think one of the things that is, is absolutely not taught is that there are actually universal laws that govern the flow of energy of all energy.
And when you start to. Learn that, how that works and how to work with the flow of energy, with love and gratitude and start to shift your mindset, then you can start to create change very, very quickly.
Scott DeLuzio: So just going back to your example of
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: kinda familiar with this now, [00:16:00] where the narrative in your mind might have been, I. not good enough. I’m not marketable. I, I’ve been
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: for a number of years. That, that was the narrative that was
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: in your mind at, at this
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: A lot of, I can’ts, I won’t, I, you
Marla Ballard: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: those negative type of
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: the not, not positive, uplifting things that you can do.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Right, like you can available for your husband to help with, you know, some of his
Marla Ballard: Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: you, you can you know, you can, there are things that you can do.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s not what you were doing before, but there are things that you can do and, you know, thank, thank God you’re able to be able to
Marla Ballard: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: things.
Able to care for a family. You’re able to, there might be a different job that you are able to do and. Well then be grateful that you have that ability to
Marla Ballard: That’s [00:17:00] it.
Scott DeLuzio: types of things. And so that’s kind of what I’m getting from you is like, those are the mindset shifts,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: have. Now, I know there’s some people probably listening to this like, okay, well I don’t.
I’m not married. I don’t really have a, a great family life. There’s not really a lot of, not really feeling a lot of love,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Would you suggest something like volunteer work, that type of thing, that, that might be able to allow you to switch the narrative from you know, what’s going on with me to how can I help that other person?
Is that something that you might think of?
Marla Ballard: Absolutely. If that’s, if that’s what a person feels guided to do, that would make ’em happy. But that’s the main thing is, is you also, I mean, none of us can really force things. You know, we, we are, we’re all very strong and powerful, right? Especially military folks. Right,
There’s a, there is that brute force, like, we’re gonna, let’s do this.
Right? And so, and I love that unconquerable spirit. But, but there’s also a point where we’re gonna [00:18:00] fund and, and we need that actually sometimes to just get us off the block. But there’s also a point where, you know, you’re forcing against something that’s absolutely not aligned or not gonna work for you.
And that becomes exhausting. But what I always come back to is, is, is this, you know, so, so let’s take a basic lack. Like let’s say you’ve got a bill coming at you that you’re stressed about paying. right.
The economy, I, everybody’s gonna have this, Right.
Most everybody’s experiencing this. It’s just a matter of taking a breath and remembering all the bills that you were able to pay before, and just reminding yourself you’re so grateful for that.
And then as, as you really allow it, and it’s, it’s not about just saying, I’m grateful for it. It’s letting your, your body actually relax into feeling okay. I wasn’t Sure. how I was gonna pay that last one, but we, we did it. It came. I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to pay everything up to this point. Let yourselves relax so that you can get a new inspiration for the next thing.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:19:00] Yeah, that makes, that makes some sense too, because when
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: you have this big mountain that you’re trying to climb,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: you don’t realize that you’re already halfway up the mountain or you know, three quarters up the mountain. And, and
Marla Ballard: That’s it
Scott DeLuzio: look like it’s a, a long way to the, to the top, to that
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: but if you look back at all the other things that you’ve already done.
And, and I’m guilty of this too. This,
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: of times people might listen to this show and not realize this, but a lot of times it’s a very selfish reason that I have people come on the show because I have these same issues myself. And so
Marla Ballard: of course.
Scott DeLuzio: through these things, it’s like, yeah, you know, I guess I did do a whole lot of this other stuff like.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Bills paying a, paying your credit card bill or, or something like
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: the, the bill happens to be. And you’re, you’re looking at it and it’s like, man, that’s a lot of money that I, I have to come up with to pay for this
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: then you look back at you know, months prior or, you know, last year around [00:20:00] this time may, maybe you
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: a big credit card bill last year and you figured out a way to to pay it off.
And you’re. You’re doing okay. You’re
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: breathing, you
Marla Ballard: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: lights are still on, you know, things are, are good. Could they be better? Yeah, sure. They probably could
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Things could always get better, right? Like,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: I, don’t, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s like, you know what?
I get paid too much money, or
Marla Ballard: Right. I know.
Scott DeLuzio: much love. Or, I, you know, any of those things I have too much of good, no one has too much good, it always
Marla Ballard: all right. Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: greener,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: right? But. You can look, take a look back from what you’re saying. You can take a look back and be like, you know what, I was able to do that.
Okay, cool. I, I can feel good about what I was able to do.
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: a lot of, lot of military folks they get outta the military and they’re like, you know, oh, I didn’t deploy. I don’t feel like I did
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: for my country. When
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: other people deployed. Some people got injured, some people came back just [00:21:00] fine.
But you know, people. and they did something
Marla Ballard: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: And what did you do? You, you held on the fort at home so
Marla Ballard: Yeah. Big time.
Scott DeLuzio: could go and deploy if, and we weren’t gonna just leave the gates open
Marla Ballard: Right? Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: went off and, and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: that they were in.
Um, we, we had to have people here and if without those people that nobody would be able to deploy. So you had to do that. So, you know, you can look back on that and say, okay, well. I was able to do that. At least I provided that opportunity for those other people.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: just a ton of different things that people might be going through.
You can’t obviously cover ’em all, but you know, to your point, look back at some of those those things that you did accomplish.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: someone who went through basic training, if that’s all you did in, in your military career, and then you just kind of did your job and,
Marla Ballard: It’s a huge accomplishment.
Scott DeLuzio: something, you know, still check the
Marla Ballard: It’s a huge accomplishment, absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:22:00] You You, can probably say, oh yeah, well, you know, me and however many millions of other people went through. Yeah, okay, fine. But let’s look at you as an individual.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: it. It’s something that had you not raised your hand and volunteered to go do, which by the way, you volunteered to go do.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Had you not done that, you wouldn’t have accomplished this. You took the initiative and you did it. And that’s, that’s an awesome thing, uh, that you can be proud of.
Marla Ballard: Absolutely. And you know, that’s that. I will tell you, I, I’ve been privileged to work with a lot of high achievers too. And, and
so many people in the military are, are high achievers, right? There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of big challenges. Um, just to even it, it, it takes something to even wanna go into the military and serve.
Right. It just, you’re, you’re different already to, you know, that’s, that’s a high achieving mindset already to go, to look at it and go, I can do that. Right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Marla Ballard: I can do that. And then, you know, I know, I know I always love when my husband talks about, you [00:23:00] know, doing distance running and how it was just, I’ll just get to the next mile marker, or No, I’ll just get to the next lamppost.
But, but that takes something, that takes that grit. That is, is so needed. But at the same time, what I fund, myself included, and probably you too, that high achiever mindset is very quick to dismiss the accomplishment.
Scott DeLuzio: Yep. Very much.
Marla Ballard: Right? And, and, and so it, it’s the, that, and that’s where it, it’s, it’s a, a funny thing.
It’s like a double-edged sword. It’s right. And so, the gratitude is your opportunity to actually give yourself the space to recognize your achievements and how far you’ve come.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Marla Ballard: Uh, so one of my favorite exercises that we, that we teach to our, our clients and our community, very simple exercise. I do it in the mornings, is I, I really tune into three things I’m grateful for Right.
now, and that really helps me refocus my energy into being present to what I have instead of focusing on what I [00:24:00] don’t have.
So the moment I can feel the gratitude for three things I have right now. Then the next thing I shift my mind to is what are three things I wanna focus on today
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Marla Ballard: so that I can align my priorities, but I’m actually doing it now from a place of immense gratitude of what I have, not from lack of what I don’t.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Marla Ballard: And then from there, what are three things I wanna let go of?
Scott DeLuzio: Interesting. Yeah.
Marla Ballard: And it’s just a simple practice. Sometimes if, if, uh, if Chris and I have time in the morning, we’ll actually sit over coffee and do that together,
Scott DeLuzio: okay. Okay.
Marla Ballard: It just, but it, it helps your brain immediately realign. And I often find that the thing I, I will let go of is almost always one of ’em is worrying about something or someone right.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Right. And that, that’s a big thing too, because like you said, like the, the, the bills that you might have
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: got a big bill. Okay, [00:25:00] let’s, let’s stop worrying about that.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: be grateful for opportunities that we’ve had. Be
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: maybe you have the job to make the money to pay the bill.
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: that you’re, you have health, that you’re
Marla Ballard: exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: and do that job. You know, and, and that. have health so that you don’t have extra expenses, like medical expenses
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: things that might just add onto that pile of, of debt
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: in. and be grateful that you have a plan to pay it off.
Maybe, you know,
Marla Ballard: absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: using that as an example, but
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s just a way to help reframe the mind if, like you were saying but you. Have that high achieving mindset. You’re, you’re absolutely right. You said this before, that you are very quick to dismiss the achievements. I was mentioning basic training as something that, you know, anyone who’s can call themselves a veteran, they have gone through [00:26:00] basic training and that’s an accomplishment.
Marla Ballard: it is.
Scott DeLuzio: I immediately, as I was saying that I, like my brain immediately clicked and said, well, yeah, that’s just the bare minimum, but still It’s something like you were saying, it takes something special or takes someone special to be able to say, that difficult job over there, that, that thing that’s, that’s really tough.
Could send me to some really dangerous places. Have me do some really dangerous things. Yeah, I got this. I’m, I could
Marla Ballard: Yeah, I can do it.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s the first achievement that you had to do is be able to say, yeah, I think I can
Marla Ballard: It’s massive.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s, that’s a big thing because I mean, you could have just as easily said, nah, you know what, I’m not gonna do that.
I’ll, I’ll go get a job doing something else that’s a little safer. Keep me close to home.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: hours. I won’t, I, I’ll have some probably better pay
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: all the things that, that you could be doing. You said, you know what? I want to [00:27:00] serve my country and for whatever reasons that you said you want to serve your country whether it’s patriotic motivations or maybe you wanted the money for college, you know, whatever it
Marla Ballard: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: You still said you, you will do it. And be grateful that you had the opportunity
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: And, and so those are the, the types of mindset shifts that are I understand are incredible. Incredibly difficult to start to incorporate in your life.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: But like we were just saying, hey, we all did some incredibly difficult things already.
So
Marla Ballard: time.
Scott DeLuzio: that we can’t do another incredibly difficult thing. We just have to figure out the kinda roadmap to get us there to,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: to get those positive thoughts. Have gratitude, love you know, and, and love could be a, a, a difficult one, like I said, you know, especially if, you know, you don’t have a family, uh, you know, close family connections, you know, but maybe you have some friends I don’t know, maybe you have a dog that you can live,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, people, [00:28:00] you know, people or, or pets or, or things like that, you know, could be, you know, a good place to start.
Marla Ballard: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: with that and, and start small if you have to. If you, if you have nobody in your life and you’re, you’re struggling with, with figuring out. Do you even love yourself? You know,
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: that that could be a place to start too. It’s just work on
Marla Ballard: it’s huge.
Scott DeLuzio: right?
Marla Ballard: That’s huge. That’s, it really is. That’s huge. Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: Because I mean, I think without that, I don’t know. You, you might actually just say, you know, none of this is even I care about because, you know, I, I don’t even have love for myself. I’m not gonna go love somebody else.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: there’s, there’s your, your first challenge
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: go and figure out how to.
Have that love for yourself.
Marla Ballard: Agreed.
Scott DeLuzio: and so I wanna talk a little bit more about you, what you do and the, the way that you address some of these challenges. Uh, YU2SHINE is, is the,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: again. and so you have a team kind [00:29:00] of that, that helps people in these these situations that.
They, they need to figure out how to get that gratitude and love and, and things in their life. You know, what are ways that people can you know, basically start interacting with, with what you guys do.
Marla Ballard: With us. Well, one, one of the things that that we have that, that I, I just, I love so much that I’m very, very proud of. Is we do have a, a modality that we’ve licensed and copyrighted for our company called Free Me, EFT. And I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of EFT, but, uh, it actually was approved, I believe I got a letter in 20 13, 20 14 was approved by the VA to help veterans and other people with, with releasing, um, post-traumatic stress and trauma.
It can help release the emotions around that. And so, that is one of the modalities that we do.
use, and all of our coaches are trained in that we have 17 coaches on the team. [00:30:00] Everybody is uniquely specialized in a certain area of expertise, as well as all of us have the ability to work with the overarching programs that the whole company has available as well.
So at this point, we have a lot of tools and resources. For people at, at any level of what they’re looking for that we can work with. What I typically recommend people do is start with our free ebook that they can download. It’s called, it’s at my gift offer.com. And what is so cool about that is it’s a free ebook and in it we have listed the most 50 limiting beliefs that people have.
Based on experience with thousands of clients now all over the world. And then we have the antidote to how to actually use a technique to help release that belief very quickly and affirm in something that’s gonna be more serving [00:31:00] to help people grow.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s, I, that’s actually a, a key tool I think right there is that
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: piece is is especially important because if you have these types of limiting beliefs You probably get people who just feel stuck,
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: not think this belief because it’s
Marla Ballard: absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: this for the last 10 or 15, 20 plus years,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, even more, they might, this might be a lifetime thing that they’re thinking because they, you know, maybe were abused as a, a child and they, they, well, well, that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. I’m supposed to be somebody’s punching bag or, or
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s a terrible way to go through life, obviously.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, and then they, they just maybe, I don’t know, seek out those types of things and it’s like just val more validation that that’s how it’s supposed to be for them. And. [00:32:00] couldn’t be further from the truth, but trying to convince yourself that when that’s all you’ve ever known is gotta be pretty difficult.
So having that, that
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: to that to help help you see the light, if you will, you know, have that, that light bulb moment come on where you are like, oh my gosh, I’ve been doing this this way for all these years. I don’t need to be doing it this way. I, I
Marla Ballard: Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: totally different.
Marla Ballard: Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s really important.
So, uh, I’ll, I’ll definitely have that link in the show notes for people to go and get that, that resource because I, I think that that’s if nothing else, that’s a great way to go and start. Figuring out how to help improve, you know, what it is that you’re doing. And then if that helps you,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: next step, you know, re reaching out and getting, you know, maybe a little additional guidance and, and helping
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: push you over the finish line as far as sure that you have the right tools and [00:33:00] resources in place to be able to to cope with some of these, these issues.
Now I
Marla Ballard: It’s amazing. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: I do wanna take a, a second. Just to
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: you had mentioned that you know, everyone on your team I’m gonna use not terms that you use, just terms that made sense to me, but everyone on your team are kind of generalists. They’re able to kind of cover everything in your, your program, but then you have a few people, or, or not, not a few people, but everyone has their own specialty
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: Thing that they kind of carved out What.
Are some of those specialties, just for the listeners to kind of
Marla Ballard: yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: uh, understand what some of those things are that, that you guys specialize in?
Marla Ballard: Sure.
So, so to give you a little backstory, our, our focus as a company is for everybody to be able to shine the light. They came here to be. And that’s unique to each of us, right? Like, you’ve got this amazing gift for podcasting with veterans. It’s awesome, right? And, and so you get to live in, in the alignment of that, of what you came here to do to help, to help the world.
And I, I get to do that with, with the coaching and, and with the things that I do. [00:34:00] And so our goal is, is to recognize that we work best when we all get to live into our gifts. So we ask our coaches to first live exactly what we are bringing to the world.
Scott DeLuzio: Got it.
Marla Ballard: And so through that lens, each of us has a different specialty or a different area that we feel particularly called to work with.
Like I said, mine is unconquerable me because I love working with veterans. I love working with those un conal spirits. And I, and I love I love so much seeing what happens when that potential and experience and skill sets are valued. Right? But we’ve also got a coach that loves working with leadership.
That can deliver the, you know, Maxwell, uh, John Maxwell’s laws of leadership and just really loves working with leaders, right? I’ve got another coach that’s really, really called to work with helping people feel more connected and build connections, you see? So that’s what I mean by how we specialize. And so the other resource that that.
I’m so happy to tell [00:35:00] you about that. We came, it came together as a team. Actually, we were in a team meeting when the idea came, so we did it all together. But on November 11th last year, we created a Facebook group called Free Me Group, and we, we launched it on Veteran’s Day with the intention actually, of that not being the final product at the beginning because we were, no, we knew we were going into the holidays and like you and I’ve talked about a lot of people.
Feel very alone because of so many different circumstances we end up in. And so we really wanted people to have a group that they could come join and see and connect with people there in a conversation and connect with our, our, you know, people that would be doing different events and things. So since our launch, our coaches have been actually posting live videos.
Using our free me EFT technique, uh, and talking about different areas of, of things that people are facing as they come up. Additionally, we [00:36:00] have a community there now that engages in a daily gratitude practice, which is really cool. So Free me group on Facebook is a, is a great resource as Well, that people can come and find us and connect with us there.
Scott DeLuzio: Well, I think that’s actually a great resource as well because for people who are struggling with finding anything to be grateful for,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s a new practice to them and they are used
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: themselves up and being down and negative and you know, everything. Is awful.
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: the mindset that they have.
If you can see other people posting some of these things that they’re grateful for
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: realize that, well, it doesn’t have to be, you know, this multimillion dollar thing that you’re grateful for, it could
Marla Ballard: Now.
Scott DeLuzio: thing. It could be, you know, I’m, I’m grateful for, you know, the, the crisp fall of air and, you know.
Warm cup of coffee or [00:37:00] something
Marla Ballard: Yeah, exactly. Well, like I told you I got hurt yesterday in Jiujitsu. I’ve been so grateful for ice packs, like, like a good ice pack. Man, that is just,
Scott DeLuzio: Right, right. And so, know,
Marla Ballard: is a silly thing, but what a luxury really, when you think about it.
Scott DeLuzio: exactly. And, and if you think about someone maybe 150 years ago,
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: a muscle. Well, guess what? There’s not a whole lot of options, especially
Marla Ballard: I, I have this exactly, I have this awesome cushy ice pack. I didn’t have to use a bag of peas or anything. Like it’s the real deal and it’s so,
Scott DeLuzio: It, it’s great too. Right? And, but that,
Marla Ballard: yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s grateful. I mean, uh, and, and even thinking about that too, like, not, not that I want to get into like compare
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm. No,
Scott DeLuzio: but, but if you think about things that’s, that we take for granted every day that someone 150, 200 years ago would’ve loved to have, like,
Marla Ballard: that’s it. Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: about it. Like, it, [00:38:00] it takes, you know, 30 seconds for the water to, to get warm
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: step in and take a hot shower. Someone 200 years ago that, I’m not even sure they knew what hot water was to, to bathe
Marla Ballard: exactly. That’s it.
Scott DeLuzio: God forbid you need to clean yourself in the winter.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: gotta be freezing. So
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: that would be you know, something. Simple. If, if you’re struggling to find something like, Hey, I, I can go take a warm shower today.
Marla Ballard: exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: got outta bed today and I did something small, you know, uh, that’s, that’s why I think, you know, there’s a lot of those Navy Seal motivational speaker type people.
It’s like,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: your bed every morning. And that that’s something that you can, uh, say that you accomplished. And hey, look,
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: if that’s, if that’s where you’re at and that you need that, that one little thing, Hey, cool, make your bed
Marla Ballard: Well, and. you’ve tuned into the energy of it beautifully. You know, um, I love, I love language And so, you know, the word appreciate actually has multiple meanings because we can say like, I appreciate you as [00:39:00] gratitude, but then we also talk about how assets appreciate and value, and go up in value. And so what actually happens is the things that, we appreciate, appreciate.
And so like you’re saying, the moment you’re grateful for something that you would otherwise take for granted now has a, a much higher value. And that’s how it starts to shift things. And so you, you tuned into it beautifully.
Scott DeLuzio: I appreciate when my retirement account appreciates
Marla Ballard: Yeah, exactly. Right, right.
But that, but that is why that actually works and it starts to shift the energy so quickly because as long as we’re taking it for granted, it’s practically non-existent in our, in our focus or our awareness. With the moment we have gratitude for it, we’ve actually valued it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. And it, it, it’s just a, a, it’s a mindset shift. And,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, the way I’ve had the brain explained to me is that it, it’s almost like a like a little stream that kind of [00:40:00] carves its path through wherever it’s
Marla Ballard: That’s it.
Scott DeLuzio: and. As more and more water gets added into there, that that stream gets wider and wider and wider and eventually becomes a river, and then eventually becomes, you know, this, this big rushing thing of water going through it.
And it’s a lot easier to divert that stream when it’s really tiny than it is when it’s this big rushing river.
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: going to divert. The Colorado River going through the Grand Canyon right now, because it’s so deep down in the ground, and
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: not gonna be able to divert that. But if there’s a little stream, a little trickle of water coming through, I mean with a, a shovel and a, you know, 10 minutes of effort, you can probably divert that stream to someplace else.
And, and, and that’s. that difficult to do, but there’s no way I’m, I’m shifting that Grand Canyon at this point, like not without some heavy, heavy lifting and heavy
Marla Ballard: exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: and so the longer the point of this is not just talking about, you [00:41:00] know,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: natural, uh, you know, rivers and, and things like that, but the, the whole point of this is the longer that you hold onto these beliefs and these thoughts the deeper they get and.
The more like the Grand Canyon, they become, they become really hard
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: shift and really hard to move. versus something that maybe you catch it early on and you, you’re able to shift that mindset
Marla Ballard: That’s it.
Scott DeLuzio: not, not to say that the, the Grand Canyon is impossible. It’s just more difficult the longer you let it go on.
So, so start working on it today, you know,
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: this today and, and start making those changes in your, in your mindset. I’m guilty of this too. This is why I have
Marla Ballard: Oh, we all are. It’s part of the human condition.
Scott DeLuzio: know. So, you know, this is
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: I want to help other people because I know how much it sucks it to have this kind of mindset.
It’s just
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: awful sometimes. And you get stuck in those. [00:42:00] beliefs. You get stuck in those, those periods where you just feel blah or
Marla Ballard: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: whatever. And like, you don’t have to,
Marla Ballard: No.
Scott DeLuzio: there’s another way. and
Marla Ballard: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: this is, this is wonderful. So, I do want to you know, before we wrap up this episode, I just wanna make sure that.
All the resources that you wanted to mention, uh, that we got a chance to talk about
Marla Ballard: Oh, thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: I, I know you, you, you talked about the I think it was my gift offer.com, the, the
Marla Ballard: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: group, the, the free me Facebook group. Anything else that you wanted to mention before, uh, we wrapped up?
Marla Ballard: If anybody wants to find us on our website or connect with me directly, they can go to YU2SHINE.com.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. And, uh, again,
Marla Ballard: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: to,
Marla Ballard: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: the Facebook group, the you
Marla Ballard: I
Scott DeLuzio: o other sites for the, for the resources. I’ll have all of those in the show notes for the listeners, so you can check those out
Marla Ballard: absolutely,
Scott DeLuzio: easily.
Marla Ballard: and so. Yeah.
so there’s, there’s three places to [00:43:00] connect with us. My gift offer.com, get you the free ebook, and, and we will have your email address right, that, that, that generates an email. Uh, and then you’ll go into, um, our, our email where you start getting on a list for different things that we have coming up.
And then the, uh, free ME group is a great place to connect. All of our coaches are in there and, and participating in that group as well as delivering some of the live programs. And then on our website. And so, uh, if anybody needs help or it just has a question about a resource or anything that I can, can help with, I’d be, would love to hear from ’em.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Yeah, and again, these links will be there, so it should be rather
Marla Ballard: Amazing.
Scott DeLuzio: to find you and, and, and check out all this information. But I do wanna say, uh, Marla, before we, we wrap up, I do appreciate you coming on the
Marla Ballard: I do You too, so much. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: and sharing, you know, what it is that you do. You know, I, I know the, the journey probably was not easy, especially dealing with
Marla Ballard: No.
Scott DeLuzio: injuries that your husband [00:44:00] had.
The, the, the. Probably the stress and the trauma that that brought to
Marla Ballard: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: life and, and everything that’s, it’s not an easy thing to go through, but,
Marla Ballard: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: you stick through it, you stick through the, the difficult times and you can look back and, and be appreciative of all the work that that
Marla Ballard: absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: it to like you said, your, your husband now, you wouldn’t know that he had an issue, uh, an injury, sorry all those years ago, what, 20 ish years ago?
By looking at him now, but that. It takes a lot of hard work, and so you should be grateful that that was the outcome you know,
Marla Ballard: Yeah, definitely. For sure, for sure. Yeah. Thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: Well, thank you again, Marla. I, I do
Marla Ballard: Thanks,
Scott DeLuzio: on the show.
Marla Ballard: and I appreciate you having me.