Money, Mindset, and Mental Health: Paris Cluff’s Journey to Financial Freedom

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Hello and welcome to Overcome, a mental health podcast.

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I'm your host, Travis White.

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This is a place for you to share your mental health stories.

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I'm very excited about tonight's guest.

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I'm speaking with Paris Clough.

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Paris is a husband, father, and financial coach.

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Welcome to the show, Paris.

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Thanks for having me.

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I'm excited to be here.

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I think we're going to have a great conversation.

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same here and without wasting any time I'm just gonna have hand the microphone right over

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to you and let you tell you your tell us about your journey

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Sure, you bet.

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I actually got started as a financial coach in 2001.

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I was working for a corporation at the time and the HR department came up and said, hey,

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Paris, you qualify for the 401k.

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And I was like, what in the heck is that?

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know, some new code that I got.

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I did something wrong or right.

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Anyways, all I knew about money at that point in my life was it was green and I wanted

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more.

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And I decided that I was going to really invest in my future and my retirement.

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I needed to know what I was doing.

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It was an important thing for me.

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Like it was like, who am going to marry?

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What house am I going to buy?

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How many kids am I?

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Like, what is your retirement?

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Like those are all important decisions for life.

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And I thought I didn't, I didn't want to leave it to chance.

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I asked a couple of my coworkers what they did and they were like, well, we threw darts,

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flipped coins, put it on the company stock.

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I'm like, that's not what I want to do.

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And so I started really learning a lot about em money.

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started reading books and

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just becoming self-taught.

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one of my coworkers turned to me one day and she said, Paris, you have, can you help me?

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I don't know what to do.

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And she was a little older.

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And so I thought, well, that's strange.

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I thought you knew already, like you, I thought you would know.

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And she, she basically said, no, I need help.

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And I shared with her what I was learning.

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And what, after I had, had the confidence to finally make my own choices in my own 401k, I

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shared with her what I did and what I'd learned.

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And she turns to me, she says, Paris, you have a gift.

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You should do this for a living.

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Like you.

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have a way of explaining things and making it super easy and simple to understand.

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And I was like, thank you.

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And so I kind of was pursuing it as a career.

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went to the local university and I had my degree, my associate's degree, and I was going

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to go get my bachelor.

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Anyways, in the process of doing that, I met another guy who was a recruiter for financial

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services, a financial advisory firm.

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And he's like, Paris, you can go to school and you can learn and then earn, or you can

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work with us and earn while you learn.

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And I was like, well.

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have a young family and I want to earn, I'd rather earn while I learn.

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And so what was interesting is that today we call them side hustles.

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And back in those days, I don't know what we call them, but it was, I was basically one of

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the pioneers of side hustle.

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Cause I worked full time and I had my side hustle in financial advising and financial

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services.

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And then I went full time and did it.

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And I was building a really successful business.

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And as a man, as a husband, as a father, I'm going to kind of just open up a little bit.

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We like to...

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We associate our self-worth a lot of times with our net worth.

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And we associate our ability to provide, because that's what we're supposed to do as men,

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right?

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We're supposed to provide.

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And well, not just men, but mothers too, right?

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Moms are to do that.

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Whoever's listening, if you're a father or a mother, you know, your job is to provide and

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to protect and to preside over that organization, your family.

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And so I was cruising along.

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I was making a bunch of money.

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I was building an agency.

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I was...

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you know, bringing on other agents and training them.

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And I was building an agency where I could actually make money on the agents I was

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training.

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So I was, I was headed towards six figures and then anybody who's old enough to remember

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2008, 2008 hit like a freight train for me.

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Anyways, I was in, I had a lot of clients that were real estate investors.

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They would buy a property and flip it and take a bunch of money and they put it in with, I

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didn't, I'd manage it for them.

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And then they would.

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you know, take the money and go buy the next one.

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And in 2008, the economy made such a huge shift that a lot of my clients couldn't sustain

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their properties and maintain their investments with me.

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And as a financial advisor, we get paid for how much assets we have under management and

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for the different mutual funds and that we've sold.

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And when those are drained or taken or closed out, when those accounts are closed out, our

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income stops.

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I went from knocking on, and I was commission only.

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I'm 100%.

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I didn't work for W2.

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so entrepreneurs have a, there's a, entrepreneurs have a little weird thing in their head

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anyways, right?

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We do, for those who are listening who are entrepreneurs know we were a little weird

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anyways.

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And so I was in 2008 when that downturn hit, I...

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I just remember one day my income went from knocking on the door of a hundred grand to the

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next year I think I made just under 20 grand, which is not good for a husband and father.

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I had three or four kids at the time.

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Anyways, yeah, I had four kids at the time.

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I have five total now, but I had four at the time.

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And I just remember sitting on the couch in the living room.

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I had literally drained all my savings and my credit card companies and my lenders, my

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house, my cars, they were all calling me every day, like 10 times a day.

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I don't know if you've ever been in that situation.

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And what's funny is that a couple years prior to this, I had read a book, which is really

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good.

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It's called The Ultimate Gift.

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And in that book, the guy who's the main, one of the main characters, and I won't ruin the

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book for you, but it's a really good book.

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One the main characters says, you've never really lived until you've lost everything.

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And I was like, okay, I didn't really appreciate that at the time because I'd always been

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blessed and I always had what I needed.

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always had resources.

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I had a wonderful family.

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My wife was a stay at home mom and we were just doing great.

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And then I lost everything and I had to check myself and I had to see if I was willing.

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I learned that that's true.

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really do live.

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Like life is real when you're on food stamps.

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Life is real when you're in the fetal position saying what happened to me?

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How did I get here?

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How do I get out of this?

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And I just remember sitting on the couch and I had just gotten off the phone with one of

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the most ruthless credit collection company guys.

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And he was just like, we're gonna take you down.

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We're gonna.

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you know, bankrupt you, we're gonna do all this stuff.

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And I just remember sitting back on my couch just like, God, what do I do?

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Like I've never been here before.

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And it hit me like a, I literally for a minute, I think I, it just, the weight of the

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pressure just hit me so hard I lost my breath for a second.

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And then all of sudden I had this really strong feeling of you're gonna be okay, just get

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to work.

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And it took three or four years.

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to finally come back from that.

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But it was one of the toughest.

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I would never, I don't wish it on anybody, but I would say that it was the most, it was

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the most profound experience of my life and has built, was a pivotal moment.

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It was one of those, I call them defining moments in life.

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defining moments for me is when I get married, when I buy my first house, when you have

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your first kid, even every kid, right?

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It's a defining moment, but.

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when I lost everything and I had to reevaluate my worth as a man, as a father, as a

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husband, as a business person, as an entrepreneur, like was I going back to W2 or was I,

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you know, did I lose everything to, you know, go back to, you know, that, um, working for

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somebody else or was I going to be able to, you know, save this and salvage this and move

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forward?

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And, um, so that's kind of, today, thankfully, I have a six figure passive income, uh,

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mostly passive.

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And I have a significant six figure net worth.

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I'm not a millionaire, but I'm definitely living with a lot of tools and strategies today

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that I didn't have back then that have, there are kind of contingencies and I have plans

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and backup plans.

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And one of the things that I learned going through that was that you can have a goal, but

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if you don't have a plan, you're not going to achieve it as readily.

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And the plan really helps me.

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Like if I know

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If this happens, what do I do?

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Well, I have a plan for it and that helps me with my mental health.

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And so that's kind of the things that I've learned over those years.

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I've really learned how to help people manage, protect and grow their money from the

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things I've learned by mismanaging, misprotecting and not growing my own.

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So I, when I teach people as a coach, one of the things I teach them is, Hey, this is how

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I do it.

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This is, I'm coming to you from moral authority here cause I've lived it and I was, I

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remember

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I don't know if you have any questions Travis, but I'll just keep going.

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I just remember one day sitting in the grocery store, I was in the line.

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And again, I was making almost six figures at my job before I quit.

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So to have entrepreneurial business that kind of gets you back to that and then lose it

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all, it's like, wow.

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I remember sitting at the grocery store,

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as the lady was or the cashier, I'm saying lady, but it might've been a man that was

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ringing everything up.

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And I was like, shoot, I can't afford that.

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I got to put it back.

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Cause my EBT card would only allow me to buy so much money, so much per month.

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And so I was just like, dang it.

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I can't put that, put that back.

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And I was like, can you put that back and put this back?

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And I got to the point where it's just, you know, it's embarrassing, frankly, to have that

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experience, but it was where I was at and it was what I was able to do.

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the when we turned in our EBT cards when we actually called them up as soon as we could

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and we said, hey, we're we don't need them anymore.

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It was like, what?

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Like nobody ever calls us and tells us they don't need these things anymore.

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So it was kind of fun once we finally got through that whole process.

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So it was it was quite the experience coming out of it.

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And I just remember sitting, you know, praying and I'm a man of faith.

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I try to be anyways.

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And I was just praying to God like, help me, help me understand.

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Help me have the mental fortitude and the toughness to get through this and get out of

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this.

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And I just remember literally sitting in the fetal position more often than not.

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thankfully I've healed so much from that experience that I can talk about it openly and

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really kind of help anybody who has a similar experience.

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But that was the most significant trauma and depression time of my life.

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I've had others like I think we shared right before the show.

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This last year was a real tough one with my wife and her health.

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And what was amazing to me is that just to kind of reiterate, her health was so bad.

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She took, I mean, she had days where it was the whole day she was a panic attack, like the

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whole day she was going through it.

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watching your sweetheart go through that is not easy at all.

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And so I have a little PTSD, frankly, from some of that myself, but...

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What was cool about financially speaking on that is we were able to afford to take, to

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make sure that she got the care that she needed and we were able to pay for it and get it

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taken care of because we were so much smarter with the way we dealt with our money this

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time.

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And that gave me some, as anxiety and provoking and panicking as it is to watch your

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sweetheart go through something horrible, it was nice to know that at least I could afford

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it.

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at least I could take care of it financially.

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And even if it cost us more money than we could afford, we have resources to pull from to

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be able to take care of it.

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And that kind of helps me with my, like I'm a little, I love spreadsheets and I love

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analyticals and all this stuff, you know what mean?

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So my money is all in these places and I have fun things that I do with my money to make

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sure that I have money for things that come up.

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And we can talk a little bit more about that if you want, but.

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That was kind of a big thing this last year even that I had to go through on some issues

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that I'm dealing with with my own mental health right now even.

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it's like it to me, mental health is something that's lifelong, it's ongoing.

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you might have a, so what was it 15 years ago, I had a significant defining moment and did

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okay for five or 10 years and got back out of it.

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Well, it took me three or four years to get out of it.

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And then it was,

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Um, you know, by 2017, I was pretty cool.

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And then just up till about last year or two years, um, now I'm back working through some

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things that I've had to deal with in the last couple of years.

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So it's, I feel like, and maybe I'm only 50.

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So, uh, you know, when I'm 60, maybe I'll have another one.

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Who knows?

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Right.

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But I feel like every time I have one, I learn a little bit different from it.

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And just to kind of give you an idea, I'll, I'll, um, I'll turn it back to you after this

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comment.

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I remember, so 2008, 2009, really 2010, it just kind of ripple affected and domino

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affected the whole, but I remember going to a conference for my company and some of my

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friends that I, they're all over the country, they all come together in Vegas, all of the

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people in the business that I was involved with, all the financial advisors would come to

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this convention every year from all over the country.

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And I remember asking about a couple of people that I saw the previous year.

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and said, hey, how are they doing?

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And they're like, they didn't make it.

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They took their lives because they were so panicked and so much anxiety, so much

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depression from having their clients and their own money just losing everything.

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And I was like, wow, that was real.

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Like that was a real event for a lot of people.

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it happens again in 2020, but I survived it because I was so much more prepared.

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Like that's something that I learned coming out of that 15 years ago is.

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I need to be better prepared for whatever life can throw at me.

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And that's given me a lot.

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I had a lot of anxiety going through the whole 2020, 2021, 2022 as well.

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And I feel good now because we made it, you know, we made it and we were okay.

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But that's kind of my story, Travis, for in a nutshell.

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really cool to hear a story where you were able just to push through it and overcome the

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hard times.

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I was laid off three times in seven years.

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So I can relate a little bit to, I wasn't to the point where, like, you know, I saw a

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little bit of savings, not a ton, but it was basically living off of unemployment.

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But

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It seems like each time that I got a new job, that new job was just a little bit better,

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more money, and just a step above the last.

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So like, even though it was harder each time, because it's like, nobody likes to get laid

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off.

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it's like the last time I was laid off, had two kids, now I have three.

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And it's like, well, I have more mouths to feed.

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Like, what am I going to do?

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So it's like finding those tactics to, you know, keep going.

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like you said, putting your trust in God.

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But when it comes to like the dark times, what role does mindset play in your life to help

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you overcome that depression or that anxiety?

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I think to me mindset changes everything.

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It really does.

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I, so as an entrepreneur, when I first started my entrepreneurial journey, I had the

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opportunity to have some mentors that were like, look, entrepreneurialism is not for the

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faint of heart.

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You kind of have to have some mental toughness to be an entrepreneur.

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So go read these self-help books.

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And I know that, you know, self-help books to some people listening might sound boring as

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heck, but I'll tell you.

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those self-help books, I was in the deep dark pit and abyss, if you will, those

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affirmations, those techniques, those strategies, I feel like my belief is that, you know,

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so if you don't mind, I'll quote a scripture real fast.

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In John, apostles were a little bit nervous and.

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because Jesus was about to leave and he's like, they're like, what do do when you leave?

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And he's like, don't worry, I will send the comforter and the comforter will remind you of

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the things and he will bring all things to your remembrance.

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And I was like, in those moments, I feel like the comforter came to me and brought those

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things to my remembrance and reminded me, hey, Paris, you have strategies, you have mental

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toughness techniques, you have strategies and techniques that you can get through this.

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You're more resilient than you think.

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know, when you're in those places, the voices are loud, dude, like I'm telling you, like

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the and I call I call the voices that are telling me I'm a loser and all those things.

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I call them the devil and his kingdom.

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Right.

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So when they're screaming at me, I'm like, dude, go back to hell where you belong.

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Right.

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And then there's a really good um praise song.

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I can't remember who sings it, but it's called Fear is a Liar.

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And I that's something that I've really

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taken to heart recently anyways, but back in the 2008 era, it was just being reminded of

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all the things that I had done to really build my mental toughness before that.

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And some people don't ever have the strength to build or they didn't build it big enough

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and they get hit hard and they end up crumbling.

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that's, there's, in my opinion,

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There's some, we need to give grace to men and women who have those experiences, like,

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because those are not fun.

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It's not easy.

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feel, I counted a miracle that I came through with more mental toughness on the other

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side.

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I counted a miracle for sure, because I could have definitely gone all kinds of ways with

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the darkness that was screaming in my ears.

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Yeah, yeah, it's crazy in it.

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The hard part is about all this though is it's sad that it takes such a big life challenge

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to get to that mental state sometimes.

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To actually, you know, have that clarity in mind like, you know, I can overcome this.

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I just have to keep pushing.

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But I like the story you told us, like, because it's like, I'm gonna bring religion into

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it again.

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It's like...

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During my hard times, every time I was reminded of Christ, like that's the times, that's

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when I got through that.

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That's when I was actually able to push through.

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Because my problem is two times is I, when I've gone through a hard time, I kind of push

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away and start going the other direction from faith.

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So it's always hard for me to hold on.

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So.

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I love the verse that you quoted from John there.

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Well, it just reminds me of the fact that the enemy wants to keep us down depressed.

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know, Galatians talks about the fruit of the spirit being joy and peace and happiness.

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And I'm like, well, the opposite of those things are the fruits of the other dude.

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Right.

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So if you're depressed and anxious and panicking and all those other things, you're

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experiencing the fruits of the other dude.

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and that's, you know, it's real to me.

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It's real.

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I've had real experiences and I'm just like.

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Leave me alone.

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Go back to hell where you belong and go back.

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And I just want to follow my light.

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Follow the light.

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and build the light back into my life again.

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As soon as I start doing that, and it's not easy, I'm telling you, it's hard.

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When you're in those places where you're feeling sad, depressed, down, like anything,

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that's when those temptations come for all kinds of things, whether it's drugs, alcohol,

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whether it's spending.

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In my business, as a financial coach, I get to talk with people about spending addictions.

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That's sometimes shopping, it's the way that they cope.

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And, um, you know, I've actually worked with addiction recovery.

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My, my, my, brother-in-law is, I think he's got his four or five year coin from AA and,

19:09

I've gone to several meetings with him and, just helped, you know, I love that whole thing

19:21

because I think we can all benefit from it, whether I've never been, or I, I personally

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never had a traditional addiction, but I feel like the strategies and the steps.

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help you even for like depression and anxiety and panic.

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Those steps are still there.

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If they can help somebody who's a raging alcoholic or an eight raging drug addict get to a

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point of peace and happiness, like why wouldn't they work for somebody who just has

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depression and I mean not just depression, you know what I mean?

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Like but who has depression anxiety and not has substance abuse too.

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Like to me that was like okay this makes sense.

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I'm gonna learn this too because and that helped me a lot.

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those 12 steps and those kinds of things helped me a lot too to get through some of the

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stuff that I have been dealing with in my life.

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really cool.

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And what do you where like, think of like the time you're your darkest point.

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Was there a breaking point or anything that comes to mind that pushed you to start

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healing?

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You know, one of the things that I feel like the devil or the enemy or the voices, the

20:25

bipolar, whatever you want to call it, they like to just keep you focused on the problem.

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And these are the problems.

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These are the problems.

20:37

These are the problems.

20:38

These are the problems.

20:39

And I just I do remember I don't remember anything specific.

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right now off the top of my head that's a great question but I don't have a specific

20:44

moment but I do know that when I'm in the spiral of all the problems that I've got in my

20:53

life I have another reminder there are solutions to every problem and you can find them if

20:53

you'll just turn to them

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And one of the things that helps me kind of get out of it faster than ever, like I've

21:06

actually just started doing this again because I've had a few days where I've had those,

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you know, those Mondays, right?

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Where you're like, no, it's Monday again.

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I got to get going.

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And so I start to say to myself, it sounds goofy and maybe a little woo woo, but I've

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really spent some time saying, you know what, I'm grateful that I'm alive.

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I'm grateful for things.

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Today's going to be a great day.

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I have a uh wife that loves me and kids that love me.

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And I have a house that's got heating and air conditioning.

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Like I start to say the things out loud that I'm grateful for.

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And then all of the problems in my life kind of start to shrink and all of the blessings

21:42

in my life start to increase.

21:49

And so those are those that's kind of a technique or strategy that I use when I'm

21:49

spiraling down into the darkness of problems and just overwhelming and you're not good

22:00

enough and you're never going to make it and nothing's ever going to work.

22:03

just start saying, well, you know what?

22:06

It has worked before.

22:07

I've done things that obviously I.

22:08

I'm 50 years old and I'm still alive.

22:10

I have money in the bank.

22:12

I have a good, thriving business.

22:15

I'm talking to great people like Travis White and whoever's listening.

22:19

And, you know, here we are.

22:20

And I'm like, you know what?

22:21

I have things to be grateful for.

22:24

Um, and so I just start focusing on those things and those helped me pull up.

22:28

That's like the, you know, the Mayday, Mayday SOS, you your, your nose diving into the

22:28

earth.

22:33

You're like, pull up, pull up.

22:34

So those, those are the things that helped me kind of pull up and get going.

22:38

And that's, know, when I sit down with, myself and, a client and we talk about the

22:38

different things that are in their life.

22:47

I mean, there's so many reasons for us to be depressed and have anxiety and panic.

22:51

There's a ton of reasons.

22:53

I know that one of the main reasons is money and the ability to manage it correctly.

22:59

Sometimes it's earning it.

23:01

And then once you make it, like, what do I do after that?

23:03

Like, how do I, how do I manage it?

23:05

So that it, you know, they say it's not about making how much you make it's how much you

23:05

keep.

23:10

And so we do need to make more money, but we also need to manage what we make more

23:10

efficient, efficiently and effectively because how many of us argue with our spouse or

23:18

argue with our kids or argue with ourselves about the money and

23:23

the situation, how much things cost and inflation and marriages, you know, are spiraling,

23:23

you know, out of control because they're arguing and you don't want to, you know, you're

23:32

arguing about money more often than not.

23:34

And when you're arguing about money, where does the love go out the window, you know?

23:38

And so that's one of the things as a financial coach, I get to touch on a lot of different

23:38

aspects of people's life because money touches so many areas.

23:50

And so that's one of the things that I

23:52

that I think that I've built a foundation with my own money that gives me some of those.

23:59

I mean, still have stress.

24:00

I still have anxiety about money.

24:01

I still worry about like, I just got a bill in the mail and I'm like, all right, well.

24:07

This wasn't expected.

24:08

I don't like it, but at least I had the money for it, right?

24:11

So, but I still had that bubbling up of anxiety, like, my gosh, what are we gonna do?

24:14

How am I gonna get this taken care of?

24:16

And I was able to do it, because I have a plan in place, and I'd worked the plan, and I'd

24:16

built the plan, and I know it'll be okay.

24:23

And that helps me diminish what could be a way greater stressor.

24:29

If that makes sense.

24:31

Yeah, that totally makes sense.

24:32

And I really enjoyed you talking about showing gratitude and how you do that and those

24:32

affirmations because I think that's a big step in pretty much rebuilding trust in yourself

24:47

after things are starting to fall apart.

24:50

Mm-hmm.

24:52

I really like what you just said, Travis, building trust in yourself.

24:55

So just as a quick side note, one thing that I knew in 2008 as I was rebuilding back out

24:55

of it.

25:02

Um, I was, I like exercising, so I'm kind of a different guy.

25:06

I, that's what I chose.

25:07

I would say choose something that you know, will, will give you, bring you joy and it

25:07

will, it will not, give you any stress.

25:15

I knew that if I went to the gym, a 25 pound weight couldn't lie to me and tell me it was

25:15

30 or 12 or it was 12.

25:22

The iron never lied.

25:24

Right.

25:25

And I, that was one of the things that I was worried about in business.

25:27

Cause people would tell me things and they'd do another thing.

25:29

And so I was just like, who can I trust?

25:31

And then I would like, can I even trust myself?

25:33

Right.

25:34

And so one of the biggest ways to build confidence and to build trust in yourself is to

25:34

keep the commitments that you've made to yourself and start with small ones.

25:46

Like get up, get out of bed, turn, don't snooze.

25:51

You know what mean?

25:51

Like sometimes it's just as simple as.

25:55

get dressed, take a shower.

25:56

I did it, you know what mean?

25:58

Starting small and I, every day I went to the gym until today, don't, I feel like a fish

25:58

out of water if I miss a day lifting weights and I don't necessarily want to be a

26:07

bodybuilder, you know, somebody, know, whoever the big Simon Sinek, not Simon Sinek,

26:07

there's this new kid in town that's like the big guy on social media who's a bodybuilder.

26:17

I don't want to do that.

26:17

I just want to maintain my physique.

26:19

I want to be able to just stay conditioned and stay, and it keeps my mind focused.

26:23

for those few minutes I know I can at least keep that commitment and that starts my day

26:23

off really well and so it helps me build trust again in myself.

26:32

That's huge Travis, what you just said is huge.

26:36

Yeah, and it's all about habits, like building up those good habits and continuing to do

26:36

them.

26:40

And when it comes to like, let me rephrase that.

26:44

How do money and mindset intersect in your work with others?

26:49

Well, as I shared a little bit, there's so much of our worth that we put on money because

26:49

money really runs so much like.

26:57

How much, what kind of house can we buy?

26:59

What kind of food can we eat?

27:00

What kind of schools do we get to send our kids to?

27:03

What kind of entertainment can we enjoy?

27:07

It all boils down to what we have as resources to be able to spend or use those resources

27:07

with.

27:13

So, I mean, a lot of times when I talk to people, it's like, let's get the found, I think

27:13

we're more consumers than we are creators and we need to be more creative than

27:24

consumption.

27:25

So when you can build savings accounts, like I personally believe that one of the key

27:25

problems in life in stressors is that we're spending tomorrow's money today.

27:37

And when you spend tomorrow's money today, it keeps you on the treadmill, keeps you in the

27:37

rat race.

27:42

It keeps you constantly with that carrot out in front, right?

27:45

So to speak.

27:47

My goal with my clients is to teach them how to spend yesterday's money today.

27:53

you already made it.

27:54

So when I'm talking to somebody about their spending habits,

27:58

One of the big things is, okay, if you go to the store, like all of us who have kids, and

27:58

I don't know how old your kids are, Travis, but if they're old enough to go to the store

28:06

with you and see all the cool stuff on the shelf, you've had this experience.

28:10

Dad, can we buy this?

28:12

Right?

28:13

I wanna buy this.

28:14

And so one of the things I learned how to do, and this was before Amazon's wish list came

28:14

around, but I would tell my kids, put it on a list.

28:23

create a list, write it down.

28:25

And I would write it down, I'd carry a list sometimes if they didn't have it, I'd write it

28:25

down, I'd show them, look, let's write this down.

28:30

So they got a feeling, okay, dad knows that this is important to me, but even if we don't

28:30

buy it right now.

28:37

So I said, let's put it on the list and let's save up for it.

28:40

It's so much dollars and we'll save up for it.

28:41

And then when we have the money, we'll come back and we'll buy it.

28:44

So a lot of times we'll save up for it, we'll come back and they're like, I don't even

28:44

want it anymore.

28:47

Okay, well, that's great.

28:48

So you know it was an impulse buy.

28:50

And so to me, if we can switch,

28:52

from buying from savings to buying from credit, I think that we're gonna reduce a lot of

28:52

our stresses.

28:59

And if you can do that, and I think that's a lot of the mindset of I'm gonna save up for

28:59

things.

29:08

And it really comes from a position of gratitude.

29:12

Like I have money, I can do it versus entitlement.

29:15

To me,

29:17

And this is a broad stroke here.

29:19

So somebody listening might say, well, let's get into the details of this.

29:21

And that's fine.

29:22

We can.

29:23

But it's an entitlement mentality to me to say, I'm going to buy something with tomorrow's

29:23

money because I have a great job.

29:31

It's going to continue to be a great job.

29:32

You've already said, Travis, you've got laid off three times.

29:34

Like, what's the reality in life?

29:37

We're going to probably get laid off.

29:39

We're probably going to have setbacks.

29:40

Like my business, I don't have a business.

29:42

I'm not employed so nobody can lay me off, but I have clients that cancel or go to

29:42

somewhere else and I got to make up the difference.

29:51

There's pros and cons to employee and entrepreneur and entrepreneur.

29:55

There's pros and cons.

29:56

So I feel like if somebody manages their money effectively and they really work to build

29:56

wealth, they're going to be able to have more peace, more tranquility, more

30:09

serenity than the person.

30:11

For example, my car, I walked out Friday morning and my car wouldn't start.

30:16

And that's a stressor for anybody.

30:18

Like, first of all, am I going to be late to my appointment?

30:21

You know, am going to make it to my errands?

30:22

Am I going to get to work?

30:23

Like just a whole bunch of stuff going through.

30:25

Am I going to be able to afford it?

30:26

Hopefully it's just a battery.

30:28

You know, it's not just, you know, what could go wrong?

30:29

Like, like all the stress around mechanical stuff.

30:33

There's people out there that are mechanics that are like, no big deal.

30:35

But to me, I'm not a mechanic, so it was a big deal for me.

30:38

so I was like, you know what?

30:40

The good news is I have money in a savings account for car mishaps.

30:46

So when I finally got it into the mechanics, like, it's just the battery.

30:50

only this much money.

30:50

I was like, thank goodness.

30:51

I have way more than that saved for it.

30:53

And so I was able to just pay for it.

30:55

And so it's nice.

30:56

Life is going to be stressful.

30:58

add to that by mismanaging your money and being in debt.

31:03

And now you are in now that you're in debt and you're because you've just consumed way

31:03

more than you should have because you felt like you were entitled to it because I work

31:10

hard I deserve this you know yes yeah you work hard and you might deserve some things but

31:10

do yourself a favor and don't put yourself in a position where you're gonna you know

31:20

regret it later.

31:22

I can say I'm probably guilty of a few things that you just mentioned.

31:25

I was like, I could probably fix a few things off of what Paris is saying here.

31:34

That's so true.

31:34

It's real for all of us.

31:37

So what would you say that most people get wrong about rebuilding after a financial and

31:37

emotional crisis?

31:48

I think the biggest thing is to change.

31:50

So there's a saying that I really like.

31:52

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

31:57

And so if you like what you're getting, keep doing what you're doing.

31:59

But if you don't like what you're getting, then change what you're doing.

32:03

And another thing that I like to say is that money has more to do with habits, behaviors,

32:03

and beliefs than it does with math.

32:09

And so as someone rebuilds, they need to look at the habits that got like, I have a client

32:09

right now that they came to me and they said, Paris, we can get out of debt, but then we

32:20

get right back into it.

32:21

And then we get out of it again.

32:22

And then we get right back into it.

32:23

Like this cycle, like we want to be able to get out once and for all.

32:26

And to me, that's kind of the same, that's a rebuilder's mindset.

32:29

Like, we're finally ready to get out of this situation and never go back.

32:34

And whether it's a really deep dark situation or whether it's just kind of like a just

32:34

kind of one of those stressors that kind of is more of an annoyance.

32:43

I feel like check your habits.

32:45

What are your habits?

32:45

What are your behaviors?

32:47

What are the beliefs that you have around money?

32:49

Like, do you believe that money is hard?

32:50

Do believe the people who make money are crooks and swindling others?

32:54

Do you believe that or do you believe that money is easy that you can make it quickly and

32:54

easy if you just get the right side hustle or you just try to find the right

33:01

niche, you're going to be able to go for it you're going be able to have that passive

33:01

whatever income you want.

33:06

Like what are your beliefs?

33:07

What are your, and then are you living, you, are your habits can congruent with that?

33:11

And if you, if you look back and you say, this, that this belief, this habit and this

33:11

behavior got me into the hole I was in.

33:20

I'm not going to do those habits, behaviors, and beliefs anymore.

33:23

I want to find new ones.

33:25

And sometimes you need a coach.

33:26

to get you out of those, to help you through it.

33:28

And accountability coach or accountability partner.

33:30

You can do a, there's all kinds of different coaching.

33:32

You can do biblio coaching.

33:34

You can do coaching with a person like me who's gone through it and can I help you through

33:34

it?

33:38

can go person with a life coach, whatever you want to do.

33:41

Oh, YouTube videos.

33:42

Some of them are really good actually.

33:43

But I would say start with habits and um atomic habits is a great book.

33:48

You know, the Think and Grow Rich is another great book about belief.

33:51

Frankly, the Bible, the scriptures are great books as well, but work on your belief system

33:51

and work on that gratitude and that you're worthy, you're worth it, you can do it.

34:02

You don't have to be a jerk to be a millionaire.

34:04

You can actually be a millionaire and be a really good person.

34:07

There's another really fun thing I like to say is that money doesn't make you, it reveals

34:07

you and then it magnifies you.

34:14

So if you're a good person and you wanna magnify good in the world,

34:18

get moneyed up so you can actually produce a lot of good in the world.

34:22

I'm tired of these guys out there doing all kinds of derelict immoral things making a ton

34:22

of money.

34:26

tired of that.

34:27

I want good people to make bunches of money so we can do good in the world.

34:30

That make sense?

34:30

That's what I'm about.

34:32

that totally makes sense.

34:33

I knew somebody who lived close to my mother-in-law and my wife was like, they're like

34:33

multi-millionaires and you wouldn't even know it.

34:43

Because they were so humble.

34:46

And it's like, yeah, it was crazy, yeah.

34:49

That's legit.

34:52

And it's like, it's like, I feel like we need more of those type of people.

34:57

Yeah.

34:58

Me too, me too.

34:59

Let's bring them out.

35:00

Let's raise up a generation of people that are wealthy.

35:04

That's what I'm saying.

35:05

Yeah, I'm all about it.

35:07

I want to get a little bit more wealth under my belt first so I can preach it a little bit

35:07

more.

35:16

So to some client, if they're still living in survival mode, how do you approach a person

35:16

like that?

35:25

So one thing that I actually just recently found myself because of the all of the health

35:25

concerns that happened to my wife over the last year, I found myself really focusing in on

35:37

all of the problems, the overwhelm, feeling like there's no way out.

35:43

around every corner, around every corner is going to be another crisis.

35:48

Every phone call is going to be a kid telling me they got this out of the other.

35:52

My wife telling me something, you know, she's back.

35:53

I need to take her to the ER.

35:55

I mean, it was just like, it just felt like I was in survival mode for a while, just even

35:55

the last, you know, last in 2024.

36:03

2025 has been a much better year.

36:05

And so one of the things that my wife and I just decided to do recently was to dream a

36:05

little bit.

36:10

we, we don't, we're not able to, we can pull the trigger on several things, but we're not

36:10

able to pull the trigger on everything that we want to do.

36:17

But the fact that we started to dream a little bit more again, and what I mean by that is,

36:17

let's say right now you're listening to this and you're just in survival mode.

36:26

Like there's no way out.

36:28

You're all the voices are telling you, you're never going to make it.

36:31

There's no way out.

36:32

Everybody else is going to be rich.

36:34

Like I've literally genuinely, I get frustrated when I see, I'm 50 and I genuinely get

36:34

frustrated when I see these 25 year old, 30 year old kids on TikTok and Instagram and

36:43

everyone else say stuff, stay stuff.

36:45

Like I'm a millionaire already at 29 years old.

36:47

I'm like, man, life is going to kick you in the, you know what, if you're not careful.

36:53

And, and quite frankly, a lot of those people lose their money cause they're not wise with

36:53

it.

36:56

Cause they're spending it like knuckleheads.

36:59

And so I just decided, you know, my wife and I sat down and like,

37:02

we gotta get out of this cycle.

37:03

We gotta get out of this cycle of this we're in and how can we do that?

37:06

So she's like, let's start.

37:07

So we started talking about dreaming again.

37:09

We went outside in our backyard and we're like, what can we do here?

37:12

Can we remodel this or can we look at it?

37:14

Again, we're not able to pull the trigger on it, but we just started dreaming again.

37:18

What's possible?

37:19

So I would say if you're in it right now and I know you're gonna feel like it's a lie,

37:19

you're faking, it's fake.

37:27

but sit down and start saying all the good things that your life has brought to you.

37:31

Tell yourself some of those positive affirmations and then set aside some time to set a

37:31

goal.

37:37

Like let's say that you're living in an apartment and you're barely able to pay rent next

37:37

month and like it's, as of this recording, it's the 31st of July.

37:46

So you might be sitting here, know, the reality, August 1st is tomorrow and you might be,

37:46

I don't know how I'm gonna pay the rent.

37:53

Sit down for a minute and set some goals like and do this like you're in the present

37:53

tense.

37:59

I earn enough money to pay my rent every month and I earn more than enough.

38:05

Start saying things like that.

38:06

It's again, it sounds a little woo woo, but I promise you it works.

38:10

If you write out and you got to write it out, you got to say it, you got to write it out

38:10

and you got to talk about it as if you already did it.

38:17

Write down, I will be

38:20

financially free.

38:21

will be more, I will be wiser with my money.

38:24

I, or no, no, I am wise with my money.

38:27

When I make a dollar, I keep it and I'm wise with it.

38:31

Like start telling yourself in the present tense, and I promise things will start to

38:31

shift.

38:35

It may take a month, it may take two, it may take six, it may take a year, but you'll

38:35

start to see that, wait a minute, I have.

38:43

Like maybe you have a goal to buy a car, maybe you have a goal to buy a house, maybe you

38:43

have a goal to get married, maybe you have a goal to get out of debt, maybe you have a

38:48

goal to finally start your 401k or start investing and start building a nice nest egg.

38:54

Whatever it is, I have a nice nest egg.

38:57

I have a 401k.

38:58

I know what I'm doing when it comes to investing in the stock market.

39:01

I'm going to have $100,000 in net worth, you know, I have $100,000 in net worth and then

39:01

put a date like,

39:11

a year, two years, three, whatever it is, put a date on it if you can.

39:14

If you do that, I don't understand all of the things, how things work in this universe,

39:14

but I know that when you start to do that, things start to move and they start to

39:29

rearrange.

39:29

And I believe my personal opinion is that God's like, good, my son or daughter is finally

39:29

figuring out their worth, because I've been trying to tell them, they're finally figuring

39:39

out their worth.

39:40

I'm going to start moving this universe.

39:43

I'm going to start moving stuff to make sure they get what they're talking about.

39:47

And so that's something that I would say.

39:49

I hope that makes sense.

39:51

That totally makes sense.

39:52

You're the probably the third person that's come on and talked about like manifesting like

39:52

that.

39:58

And I keep putting it off to like write down my goals.

40:04

now you're making it so like, I really need to stop putting this off because I have so

40:04

many things in my mind that I want to do.

40:11

Like so many things that I want to, where I want to take this podcast, you know, like some

40:11

of my next steps of kind of where I want to

40:19

go with it.

40:21

They're all kind of intertwined.

40:23

But it's like, now I just need to write it down.

40:25

I have it all played out.

40:26

I've spoke to my wife about it.

40:28

It seems like every single time that I start speaking these things, I go through, I get

40:28

myself in a rut and start thinking, you know, I'm not good enough.

40:38

Like things don't work out.

40:39

I'm that type of person.

40:41

One of my biggest flaws is

40:42

I'm kind of pessimistic by trait, like, and so I always think the worst of everything, and

40:42

if I can't see it, sometimes it's hard for me to like, I want it now, like I want it now.

40:56

So you're explaining to me something that I need to actually sit down and do, especially

40:56

like, you know, I want to do this within the next year, I want to do this within three

41:04

years, like, I think it makes complete sense.

41:08

completely transparent, I do that because if I don't, I will spiral.

41:12

I'll do the same thing.

41:14

If I don't spend time to do those things that I just shared, will.

41:18

That's what I do.

41:19

The things that I tell people they should do, because I know it works because it works for

41:19

me.

41:24

Because if I don't do those things, I just I just sit in that spin mode.

41:31

And just, I don't get anywhere or do anything.

41:33

it's like, what can I do today to move the needle forward?

41:37

Even if it's an inch.

41:39

What can I do today to move the needle forward on my life, on my goals?

41:44

What can I implement?

41:45

What plan can I do?

41:47

And that's legit, Travis, you're, you and I, when you were explaining yourself, I'm like,

41:47

yep, that's why I do this.

41:54

Because if I wasn't, that's where I'd be.

41:58

Yeah, I've been in this like kind of depressed like anxious mode this last two weeks.

42:04

Don't know how I got there.

42:05

Just comes and goes sometimes.

42:06

Sometimes I do great and other times I'm like, you know what?

42:10

Life sucks.

42:12

I'm garbage right now.

42:14

But my wife and I had a long talk yesterday and she's like, you know what?

42:18

You need to start.

42:21

I need to start holding you accountable for the goals that you're making because you have

42:21

these dreams in life and you're never going to achieve them if you don't push yourself

42:29

forward.

42:32

And yeah, yeah.

42:34

So she's doing it.

42:37

Yeah, I have a winner.

42:41

she's not going to go anywhere.

42:43

She's stuck with me, whether she likes it or not.

42:47

awesome.

42:51

And, she's, she's saying, okay, each week you need to write down how you're going to push

42:51

yourself and the things you're going to do with safe.

43:02

So I'll give you an example.

43:04

One of my goals with my podcast is to start like selling merch.

43:09

Just to make a little bit of side income.

43:12

And right now my podcast isn't like huge.

43:14

It's barely in the beginning phase.

43:17

Mm-hmm.

43:18

Um, I've put out 30 episodes so far, but, and so she's like, so you need to sit down and

43:18

you need to write down like the things it's going to take to start selling your shirt.

43:29

need to buy some samples of that shirt and get some ads up on Google or wherever you want

43:29

to put them.

43:36

So that's what I've started doing in the last couple of days.

43:39

And just to, I've felt a lot better.

43:42

I mean, that was just yesterday that I actually ordered.

43:46

So shirts to like, I.

43:48

designed.

43:49

So they'll be here in like a week and I'm like okay well I'm moving that needle just a

43:49

little bit to better myself.

43:56

That's all it takes, just a little bit every day.

43:58

And it's a compounding effect.

44:01

In finance, we call it compound interest.

44:04

it works with everything that we do.

44:06

It works with our skills.

44:07

Just if you hone your skill a little bit every day, in a year, you'll be like, wow, I'm

44:07

really good at this now.

44:14

Mm-hmm.

44:14

thing with just true with a dollar.

44:16

It's not about the dollar amount that you're investing.

44:18

It's about the habit of investing.

44:20

So even if you can only afford 25 cents a month, get in the habit and then it will grow to

44:20

50 and a dollar and $10.

44:27

And before you know it, you'll be like, wow, I got a couple thousand dollars in the

44:27

savings account or an investment account.

44:32

You know what mean?

44:33

So it's just those small things every day.

44:36

And honestly, do I get overwhelmed with.

44:40

you know, when I look at Amazon packages continuing to arrive at my door, you know, I'm

44:40

like, what are we spending, right?

44:46

Like, where's this going?

44:48

And so instead of having an argument, I go to my spreadsheets and I look at my net worth.

44:53

And it's crazy to me that I just did it.

44:56

I just, do my net worth once a month.

44:58

A lot of people do it.

45:00

Well, most people never do it, but I do it once a month.

45:02

Some people say do it about every quarter or every six months, but I do it once a month.

45:06

And my net worth increased from, and again, as I shared earlier, this, we're recording

45:06

this in July, from June to July, my net worth increased.

45:15

And we had some birthdays and some other expenses come up.

45:18

I was like, there's, literally, my brain was telling me there's no way that we're going to

45:18

make it this month.

45:24

Like we spent way too much.

45:26

And then I sit down and I look at all, I look at the numbers and I just get clear on the

45:26

numbers.

45:31

And then I'm like, my gosh, I was faking myself out.

45:34

Like the numbers don't lie.

45:36

I lied to myself as I hear these you're spending too much.

45:39

You're never gonna make it your savings is drained You're never gonna have it like I was

45:39

listening to all the voices but then I sat down and did the numbers and did the math and

45:46

the math was like You actually have more than you thought you did now I'm in a situation

45:46

where I've gotten to that point where that's my reality I know for a fact there's people

45:57

out there right now.

45:58

They're like

45:59

I have the voices and the math is telling me the same thing.

46:02

You know what I mean?

46:03

then if you don't like what you're getting, change what you're doing.

46:07

And I would be happy to help in that process.

46:10

So I don't know if this would be a time to m share my free gift to your listeners, Travis

46:10

and Nabil.

46:20

So I have a free gift for anybody who's listening and would like to have it.

46:24

So when I first started in the financial services industry, I was a financial advisor.

46:28

Like I was licensed, federal licenses, state licenses, I had them all.

46:31

I still have a state license, but I don't do the federal licenses anymore because as a

46:31

coach, I have a certificate from the National Financial Educators Council.

46:41

Anyways, so.

46:42

25 years ago when I first started the business and I was calling on people and say, hey,

46:42

look, I'd like to come over and help you with your finances, help you invest, help you

46:50

save for your future, help you with all those things.

46:53

And I would invariably get the objection, I don't have any money.

46:57

I have no money, I'm in debt, I need to pay my debt first and then I'll talk about

46:57

investments or I just don't have the budget for it, all kinds of things.

47:06

And so as an advisor, I'm like, I make money if people invest with me.

47:11

I don't so I need to figure out a way to get more people to help them find money.

47:16

And so I created a four It's a four-step process where I can take you through how to find

47:16

money that you're Misallocating in your budget right now like

47:26

If you, most people who tell me I don't have any money, just to give you a couple

47:26

examples, every once in a while I will come across somebody that they've really done some

47:33

good work and they really don't have very much extra, but it's really rare.

47:37

I went to a very low income city one time years ago and this couple said we don't have two

47:37

nickels to put together and I said if I could find three or four hundred dollars.

47:49

in your budget without rice and beans.

47:51

I'm not talking about rice and beans.

47:52

I'm like, if I could find three or $400, would you take half of it and save it and invest

47:52

it for your future?

47:58

Because I don't want to, mean, if they're that tight, they need a couple bucks to just

47:58

kind of have some breathing room.

48:04

And so they said, sure.

48:06

And I ended up finding $800 a month for that family.

48:09

And.

48:10

The average person, when they go through my process, it's $300 a month that they find that

48:10

they're able to put back into their budget.

48:21

And more often than not, if you really go for it and you really do it right, you can find

48:21

six, seven, $800.

48:27

One of my colleagues did this, it does a similar process.

48:30

It wasn't my particular strategy, but it was a similar process.

48:33

He was able to help a really high income earner find $1,500 a month.

48:37

Most six figure earners right now are actually feel like they're living paycheck to

48:37

paycheck.

48:41

So a lot of times it's not about making more money.

48:44

It's about the habits you have once you make those money, once you make that money.

48:48

And so that's my free book.

48:50

It's an ebook.

48:51

It's about 18 pages.

48:52

It's actionable.

48:53

It's stuff you can actually read and do.

48:55

So if you go to my website,

48:56

club.com forward slash free book.

49:00

you'll be able to download that ebook and you'll be able to go through that process.

49:03

Now there's an upgrade if you want to learn on base, if you learn better with videos and

49:03

audio, there's an upgrade there and the ebook is expanded into workbooks that you can

49:12

actually really do some stuff with.

49:14

And the upgrade does have a cost to it, but the free book for sure is available to anybody

49:14

who goes to ParisClough.com forward slash free book and downloads that book.

49:24

And I promise if you go through it, 30 days later, you're going to have

49:27

few hundred dollars in your bank account more than you did uh the month before.

49:34

It's awesome.

49:34

I love that you're pushing something like, I'm going to help you find money, help you

49:34

figure out how to dig into your finances and do that.

49:44

It's just a different approach than I'm used to.

49:48

Yeah, and when people say Paris, how much do you cost?

49:51

I'm like, well,

49:53

I promise that I'm going to help you find more than my cost and in two or three months,

49:53

you're going to be like, my net worth increased by how much?

50:02

What the heck?

50:03

My last client, 10x their net.

50:05

Just in three or four months, I've been working with him.

50:07

I've already 10x their investment.

50:10

In me, their outcome.

50:12

I know I can help people and that's a huge thing for me as a man, as a provider to just be

50:12

able to help.

50:20

thing, which I was just gonna end on this if that's okay.

50:23

Another really big thing that I do to help me get out of my funky dark depressive states

50:23

is I'll call a friend and I'll say how can I serve you?

50:35

Like as soon as I get out of myself and I go serve others there's something deeply

50:35

profound that happens and changes my whole

50:45

energy, my whole vibration just changes when I go serve others and when I call friends and

50:45

say, hey, tell me like, how can I help you?

50:53

Like, what are you going through?

50:54

And I kind of want to talk to them or I'll go out and work in the yard or serve them.

50:58

then, you know, look at my next door neighbor mowing the lawn.

51:00

I'll go out and help him or something like those are some really good things that I do

51:00

service serving others is is something that I do to get out of my funky places.

51:10

Yeah, that's awesome.

51:10

I love it.

51:11

I have one general question left for you.

51:14

em Well, I guess two if you're good for two more questions.

51:22

So if you could go back and talk to yourself at your lowest moment, what would you say?

51:29

I would say it's never as bad as it seems.

51:33

But at the same time on the other side of it, it's never as good as it seems.

51:36

Just keep going, keep your head down.

51:39

You'll make it.

51:41

You made it yesterday, you'll make it today.

51:45

it.

51:46

I love hearing this stuff.

51:48

And this one is a very generalized question.

51:52

I get all sorts of responses from it and I ask every guest the same question.

51:58

What would you say is the biggest stigma when it comes to mental health?

52:04

So I shared a little bit earlier about I want to bring light and the opposite of light, of

52:04

course, is darkness.

52:10

And there's a lot of people that's like I if if I was to ask and pull my neighbors, if I

52:10

was to pull anybody in my church.

52:20

anybody in my colleagues, if I was to poll them and ask them, hey, do you think that I

52:20

suffer from mental health?

52:27

I bet you most of them would say, no, dude, you're like one of the most solid guys we

52:27

know.

52:31

Like you're just, always positive, always have.

52:33

And I'm telling you behind closed doors, I have demons, dude.

52:37

I have demons that scream in my ear.

52:40

And so it's darkness.

52:41

I feel like the one of the biggest things about mental health stigmas is that you're the

52:41

only one going through it and nobody knows and nobody

52:50

cares and I think that's that's that one of the biggest lies I bet everybody on your

52:50

street whether and every one of your co-workers and every one of your church people that

53:01

you go to church with I bet every single one of them has a demon or two or three that

53:01

they're fighting every single day or at least regularly and so I feel like the more we

53:12

bring it to light we say look I'm suffering I'm struggling

53:17

And it's okay to deal with this.

53:19

Again, earlier I shared the problem like, hey, I'm suffering and this is why.

53:24

Okay, what can we do to find a solution?

53:28

And live for, we need to validate the problem.

53:32

Like the problem is real.

53:33

Your mental health is real.

53:34

There's anxiety, the depression, the sadness, the voices, they're real.

53:37

Like don't, don't discount that.

53:41

Don't live there though.

53:43

Get out of there as fast as possible.

53:45

and start to build on a solution to get out of it because the devil wants to keep you

53:45

isolated and alone and in the dark and God wants you to be with your community with your

53:56

people in the light and that's um I don't know if you've ever gotten an answer like that

53:56

but that's what I would say

54:04

No, I think that's great.

54:06

And it's, it's crazy to me because like since doing this podcast, I thought I was alone

54:06

and I was the only one out there that had these, story to tell.

54:16

And the longer I do it, the more I realized like, no, everybody out there suffering.

54:23

And I mean, it's very rare that I hear somebody oh

54:27

say no, like I've never suffered from a mental health problem because to me, some of those

54:27

people who don't think they're suffering, maybe they just don't know what the symptoms

54:36

are.

54:38

Like that's really my, that's really my thought on it.

54:42

It was like, you show some of the signs, you just don't know that you're showing the

54:42

signs.

54:50

Right?

54:50

It's true.

54:52

I think there's a lot more people than, yeah, there's a lot more than we realize.

54:57

Absolutely.

54:58

Yeah, I totally agree with you.

55:00

Last thing I have here is we've discussed quite a bit tonight.

55:04

Is there anything that we have not discussed that you would like to bring up?

55:10

Um, I think, you know, as a final thought, maybe just faith over fear.

55:16

Fear is false evidence appearing real and faith is, something that can, whether you have

55:16

faith in, in God and Jesus, or you have faith in your own ability to kind of captain your

55:27

life.

55:28

and, you know, I do follow,

55:30

I do follow the scriptures, I love the scriptures, I love God and Jesus a lot.

55:34

I also have a great appreciation for the Stoics, the Stoic philosophers.

55:39

They have an absolutely fantastic thing to do.

55:42

just faith over fear and recognize that every time the voices tell you that you can't do

55:42

it, it's really a lie.

55:50

It really is a lie.

55:51

You can, you can do it, you can overcome.

55:54

because if I can do it, one of the greatest things that I could hear someone say is if

55:54

Paris could do it, man, I could really do it.

56:04

Does that make sense?

56:05

Like if somebody's like, well, if a guy like Paris can do that, boy, I could probably do

56:05

it 10 times better.

56:10

Do it, please go do it.

56:13

I just wanna instill in people the belief that they can do it, they can overcome.

56:16

Whatever the challenge is, they can overcome it.

56:20

Awesome, I love it.

56:22

Well, Paris, thank you so much for taking time out of your night to chat with me.

56:28

No, it's been a pleasure, absolutely a pleasure.

56:30

I hope we continue to develop a relationship and chat and maybe even do this again in

56:30

some, maybe when you're on episode 300, I can come back and.

56:39

uh

56:42

writing down a list of people that I like.

56:44

There's so many people that like I want to keep in contact with.

56:49

So I think it's awesome.

56:52

Well, thank you for joining us today on this journey of truth, healing and hope.

56:57

If today's episode resonated with you, remember you're not alone and your story matters.

57:02

Keep showing up for yourself.

57:03

Show yourself some gratitude.

57:05

Don't be afraid to reach out for support.

57:07

Please follow us on Instagram, share our show, do whatever it is.

57:13

You do all social media because the best thing you can do for us right now is get our name

57:13

out there.

57:18

Thanks again for listening.

57:19

Until next time.