Episode 265 – Unstoppable Wellness Professor with Leo Simpson

Unstoppable Mindset

Leo Simpson II is a community college teacher in Texas. He also is a speaker, entrepreneur and author among other things. He is also known as The Wellness Professor. Leo’s life has always been one of service as he tells us. His grandfather was the pasture of a church which helps explain why Leo comes by an attitude of service honestly. Even from a young age Leo was taught to serve others.

As you will hear, Leo is quite the over achiever. In college while studying accounting Leo was involved in a number of campus organizations. At one point during our conversation I asked Leo if he ever learned to say “no”. He responded, “not then, but eventually”. The story is fascinating.

After college Leo held down a number of jobs in which he usually excelled. While working for UPS he was recognized as even being able to save the company $20,000,000. Even so, eventually Leo moved on from UPS as you will hear.

Leo’s observations about wellness are quite poignant. As you will hear, eventually he adopted an attitude of teaching wellness to people by first helping children learn to adopt a better wellness mindset through his program called “Transform Kids Minds”. His goal is to help over 1,000,000. He will tell us about it and through that program you will learn how he became The Wellness Professor.

About the Guest:

Leo Simpson II, The Wellness Professor, is a speaker, multi-book author, coach, business professor, and strategist. He helps people replace chaos, frustration, and confusion in work, family, and identity with wellness. Where there is weakness, void, or lack, he is poised to breathe wellness into it.

As an influential executive leader with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, a Master of Arts in Executive Leadership, and a Leadership Certification, he is impacting future business excellence and wellness at Lone Star College through his unique value in the classroom with students and outside of the classroom as speaker and facilitator to his peers. He has authored 8 books with others soon to be released and has been a featured guest on a podcast with an audience of more than 130 million.

His distinguished ability to lead leaders and drive business advancement contributed to a Fortune 50 operation achieving over $20 million in cost savings during one of their peak seasons. Having the unique skillset of straddling and bridging well between the worlds of strategy and execution, he has been afforded the opportunity to lead hundreds of employees, influence the experiences of thousands of residents in the apartment industry, and impact change management initiatives in more than 5 industries.

Leo is renowned for his innovative management skills, empowering people at the level of their potential, and revitalizing the synergy between the two most pivotal areas of life. Uniquely, he also boasts the honor of having launched over 80 couples on the beautiful journey of marriage as a 5-Star Wedding Officiant, and the privilege of being a teacher of the Bible and a singer in the Christian community.

Leo's premier effort of focus, intended to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, is an effort called Transform Kids Minds which is intended to influence over 1 million children over a 5 year period. This effort is designed to bring wellness to kids by encouraging them in their worth and value to empower them to protect themselves against bullies, prevent suicide, and stay out of prison. This effort is also designed to bring wellness to adults through positioning them to encourage kids in a unique way that enables the adults to leverage the Hidden Billionaire Success Strategy which can simply be described as Doing For Others Is Doing For Self.

Ways to connect with Leo:

-Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/leosimpsonii/ -Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/leosimpsonii -LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardsimpsonii -YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@leosimpsonii -Encourage Kids - www.inspiretheglobe.net/encouragekids

About the Host:

Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.

Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.

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Transcription Notes:

Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi, there. Wherever you happen to be today, I am your host, Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today we get to talk to a person who has become known as the wellness professor, Leo Simpson, and we're going to have to find out a lot about that. He's authored several books, among other things, and been a all around busy kind of guy. So Leo or professor, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Leo Simpson ** 01:50 Glad to be here, Michael. Well, tell Michael Hingson ** 01:52 me a little bit about you, maybe the early Leo, growing up and all that sort of stuff, and we'll go from there. Leo Simpson ** 01:58 You know, the early Leo, Michael Hingson ** 02:01 yeah. Let's start with the early Leo. Leo Simpson ** 02:03 Yeah, the early Leo was absolutely engulfed in service. And I say that because my grandfather was my pastor for a number of years, and my both of my parents served with him, and between him being a pastor and us serving with them, as well as being in sports and things of that nature, we went to private school for about the first four years of our life, like service was everything, and So I grew up in an environment that was focused on really doing for others, and I really didn't focus a lot on myself, in the sense of, I it was kind of hard to focus on myself because I was in an environment that was always focused on other people. And, you know, being in an environment that was so focused on other people, I was always focused on what I did and how that affected someone else, benefited them. You know, we gotta go do this, because this is what this person needs, serving family like my dad was not the oldest child, but he was the oldest child of his mother, and so he was absolutely counted upon a lot, and people called upon him a lot, and so we got called into the called upon. And so enjoyed a lot of things, though we we played sports, like I said. I played basketball, ran track, played football for a little while, ran cross country, but I had some experiences that took me down a road of wellness, lack that was very interesting, in that I was a quitter. You know, if, if something was difficult, Michael, I would assume that that was not something I should have been doing. And I've kind of figured out what that is now to date, and this that I had this mindset because I was a very obedient child. I had this mindset that if something was difficult, it was like the authority telling me I shouldn't do it, because when I did something that was wrong, I got in trouble for it right? So I didn't have anybody tell me that while you're doing wrong in a disciplinary situation requires you to be held accountable when you're actually pursuing something of value, you can't actually go and buy out because something of value requires that you push through, because those circumstances are really trying to take you out. So I didn't, you know, separate the two. And so I ended up quitting, you know, sports four times by the time I was, uh, you know, graduating from high school. And. Man, it started me down a path of having a facade of wellness in my life and not really having wellness for sure. If that makes sense, Michael Hingson ** 05:11 yeah, I think it does. And I want to definitely come back to that and talk more about that. It's a fascinating thing. But as a kid, did you kind of resent being in a service oriented environment, because that certainly meant that you were involved in doing things for for others and so on, and not getting to do stuff for yourself? Man, Leo Simpson ** 05:33 I loved it. I loved every minute of it. The only problem was I didn't realize if you didn't establish a very dedicated financial strategy in your service, you could end up poor. Yeah, you know, because when you're a kid, they feed you, they take care of you. You know, when you become an adult, you know you you gotta make sure you get paid. And and when I say, make sure you get paid, it's more. So you gotta have a very dedicated structure and strategy. You know that you're a speaker, you've done business for years, but no, I didn't resent it at all. I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed the exposure that I got. I loved the opportunities that I got to experience. I got to meet, you know, a lot of the the prominent people in, you know, the arenas we were in. I got to have exposure and a lot of different experiences and opportunities. Even when I got to college, service was something I really engulfed myself in, as it pertained to student organizations. And as a result of the level of service, I had so many different opportunities. And got to go to, you know, a number of different conferences at no cost to me. Got to travel to South Beach, Miami, Florida, with all expenses paid twice. I mean, services is, is, is a well paying opportunity. You just gotta make sure it's a dedicated payment. Michael Hingson ** 07:06 Well, tell me more about what you mean when you say service, Leo Simpson ** 07:09 service in the sense of serving the needs of others. So on the one hand, service is a matter of, you know, being a part of different programs and efforts that are meant to provide value to people, be it training, be it they have needs or things of that nature, but also services corresponded to, you know, contributing your energies and efforts to bringing Something about so being that my grandfather was a pastor, you know, all of those years there was a lot of, you know, efforts that were being planned, a lot of programs, a lot of services, a lot of meetings that were being planned. So contributing to the, you know, logistics and the outer workings of all of those things was absolutely service. Volunteering through those things was service. And so it was pretty broad within the context of maybe you're serving those who are in need versus you're providing a support in a particular role for a certain operation or something like that. Michael Hingson ** 08:21 Where did your grandfather have his church Leo Simpson ** 08:23 in the Houston area? Okay, kind of in the near the Tomball area. So kind of like Tomball Cypress in the Houston, Texas area. Michael Hingson ** 08:34 All right. And where are you now? Leo Simpson ** 08:36 I am still in the Houston area, probably about 30 minutes from where his church was. So maybe about 20 more so, but yeah, I'm, I'm out on the northern side of where his church is, whereas when I was younger, we live like the kind of like south east of the church and whatnot. So, so Michael Hingson ** 09:00 you mostly lived, you mostly lived in Texas. Yeah, Leo Simpson ** 09:04 only time I really lived outside of Texas for a period of time is when I went to college, went to Gremlin State University, and lived in Louisiana for that period of time, about three and a half, four years. Michael Hingson ** 09:17 What took you down there, as opposed to one of the colleges in Texas, relationships, Leo Simpson ** 09:21 one of my teammates that I played basketball with in high school, his mother, actually went to Grambling, and she was, you know, very close to us. We were close to her and her family. And one day we were sitting down talking, and she asked me, had I thought about Grambling? And I was like, nope, and honest, you know, she started sharing some things with me. And you know what type of opportunities I started looking into it myself, and when I start checking out what they had, as far as their accounting program, which is what I was going to. Majoring in, I saw that they were, you know, one of the the ranked programs in regard to accounting, and I really saw a huge opportunity. But also, but beyond that, she just happened to be talking to me at the right time where I was kind of looking to get out of the city and the state, because I was trying to get away from some people. Who was actually a girlfriend I had broken up with which my father told me I didn't need to have and and she was just getting on my nerves. And so I was like, Man, I gotta get out of here. And that was just a another way to do it. But at the core, you know, I saw that program was going to be a huge opportunity. And when I really looked back on it, aside from the conversation with, you know, my friend's mom and my wanting to get out because of the girlfriend, I was really I look back on it a number of years later, one of the things that held Grambling in my mind was when I was younger. I remember the Eddie G Robinson commercials that they used to have. You know about him and the football team and Gremlin was just one of those places that really stuck out to me. So I guess when she talked to me at that point, it was just the perfect time in the right conversation, and the rest was history. What Michael Hingson ** 11:22 did you really like about college, then going to Grambling? What? What stands out in your mind today? Man, Leo Simpson ** 11:28 my my involvement in student organizations, like I was a part of Student Government Association, I was a part of and I was a part of SGA for all four years of my being there, I was a part of the National Association of Black accountants. I was a part of the the Honors College Student Council. I happened to be the first president of the Student Council for the Honors College. I was a part of it was another, oh, I was a part of a Christian campus ministry for a few years. I was a president of that a couple times. Two years, I was a part of our career services and career planning department. You know, I did training seminars, mock interviews, help people develop resumes like I really enjoyed being able to help people grow and develop. And really it was a huge launching pad for me, being a speaker, a trainer, a coach, as a matter of fact, one of the most transformational experiences I had was when I went to my South Beach Miami, Florida for the first time. And South Beach Miami, Florida, where I went, they had what was called the Black executive exchange program with the National Urban League. And this was a national conference executives from all over the country with top companies and whatnot. And it was a conference, you know? It was a conference for students and for business professionals. And one of the sessions I went to, the speaker's name was Tanya Wilson. I never forget her. Tanya Wilson, she was actually teaching from Dr Spencer Johnson's book, Who Moved My Cheese and man she she delivered a powerful talk on the one hand, but on the other hand, she was able to deliver that talk in a way that it touched my potential deep down on the inside, and brought it to the surface. And literally, I there was a point in the in the session, that I was just weeping because of having been exposed to potential that I had not, you know, been exposed to before. And so from that moment on, you know, I had, I had the bug for teaching and speaking and training, and not to mention it was already in my in my background, with the environments that I was in, but that right, there was just a catapulting experience. Michael Hingson ** 14:17 Mm, hmm, how long ago was it that you went to that conference? Leo Simpson ** 14:23 It was back in 2004 I think it was 20 Michael Hingson ** 14:30 years ago, yeah, summer 2004 Leo Simpson ** 14:34 now, were you out of college at that point? No, that was in my junior year, yeah, okay, going into my junior year. Michael Hingson ** 14:40 Okay. So you, you were involved in so many organizations, when did you have time to study? Leo Simpson ** 14:47 Yeah, that's what people used to ask. Well, I figured I would. That's what they used to ask me. I I think that I just figured a way to. To make it happen, I did not study to the extent that I could have. I would actually say I majored in making a difference more than in accounting, but I grasped the accounting concepts very well to the degree that, you know, I really didn't put a lot of energy and time into, like, heavy duty study, and so I just, I made it work. That's really what I what I can say. I made it work. I can't really say how many hours I put in. I just made it work. Michael Hingson ** 15:38 I know the feeling I when I was in graduate school in physics, I also chose to take some non physics courses. I actually took a year of Japanese, and I took some other courses, and I was the Program Director of our campus radio station, so I wasn't involved in as many organizations, and I was also involved on the outside, having joined fairly recently with the National Federation of the Blind, which is the largest organization of blind consumers in the country. So although I wasn't involved in as many things as you, I know exactly what you're saying, and you do find a way to make it work. I really needed to push the studying part of it pretty hard. So it was studying and figuring out a way, if at all possible, to make the other things work. And it did, and I wouldn't change a thing about what I learned along the way. And I'm sure that you feel the same way that absolutely, you learned a lot about yourself by doing all of that too. Absolutely, Leo Simpson ** 16:40 I found that doing those things helped me to understand what I really enjoyed, but it also exposed how easy it was for me to avoid the things that I needed to do in order to do those things. And so I learned how I was adverse to certain types of difficulty, and that I needed to have a right viewpoint of those difficulties in order to make sure if they were going back to what I said. You know, I was a quitter, and I evaluated difficulty as it was like discipline, rather than difficulty being the test and the the the resistance, in order to build you in what you were pursuing. And so it was a huge learning experience, a huge value experience as well, to the degree that I was able to find myself realizing where I needed to be, even though I had skill sets that were very structural with managerial authorities being able to specialize in a number of aspects on the accounting side, like I really saw I needed to be and continue to push toward areas where I was teaching and training people to be able to apply the things that they needed to apply. So it was a huge benefit. It was a huge opportunity. I got a lot of skill sets with regard to marketing, with regard to dealing with networking, building relationships, planning events. As a matter of fact, you know, the number of events that we planned in college. You know, for those organizations, those skill sets, you know, are brought into you know, my future experiences, not just as a speaker, but there was a four year stint of time where my wife and I actually planned community events for two different apartments. So we were pretty much the the the party people, the the host of experience for, you know, two different apartment communities. So it was huge, and being able to set the trajectory of my skill sets and what I brought with me out of college, I would say I was very versatile as a result of that. Did Michael Hingson ** 19:10 you ever learn, though, from all of the activities and everything that you did, and we'll get to more about you being a quitter and all that. But did you ever learn to say no to anything, Leo Simpson ** 19:21 not then, but I have now. Michael Hingson ** 19:24 So later on, you did no then, yeah, we'll come back to that. Then, yeah, absolutely. Michael Hingson ** 19:29 So what did you do? So you got a degree in accounting from Grambling and and so how did well, Grambling? How were they in football? Leo Simpson ** 19:42 When I was there, we actually still won some championships for the divisions that we were in. And, you know, by the time I got ready to graduate, it started kind of going down at that point. But when I got there, man, they were still winning. But. Big, I think they won at least one SWAC championship, one National Black championship. And then, of course, the big, the biggest thing was always the Bayou Classic, with the the southern Grambling game. So you know, you can do all those other things, but if you lose the Bayou Classic, you have lost it all. So Michael Hingson ** 20:25 I remember when I lived in New Jersey, I always rooted for Rutgers, and they didn't do very well. One year, they did pretty well, but it was, it was fun to root for the underdog and hope. And as I said, one year they they did pretty well, but they're back this year to having challenges. So you gotta, gotta, kind of always root for the boys, Leo Simpson ** 20:45 of course, of course, absolutely. Michael Hingson ** 20:49 But you know, so you went to college, and you came out of college with a degree in accounting, I trust Absolutely. And then what did you do? Leo Simpson ** 20:59 So, interestingly, I had an opportunity to work for the Internal Revenue Service. There you go. They were taking forever to hire me. And so what ended up happening was my wife, now we were engaged at the time, she had moved back to Houston, where she after she had graduated from grad school with her social work degree, and so hey, I was like, I'm going where my woman is right. And was she at Grambling when you were there? No, she actually, we met through through relatives, and so that's how we ended up meeting. But she was actually she went to Clark Atlanta University, and then was at San Marco in San Marcos at Texas State University out there. And so once she finished at San Marcos with her Master's social work, she came back to Houston. She had actually gotten a role with DaVita dialysis as a social worker. And so I came on back, and while I was here waiting on the IRS in Houston to hire me, they were taking forever. And so I ended up working with a friend of my father's at Houston Community College in their college Operations Office as a budget specialist, and I was facilitating the expenditures and part time expenses, part time salaries for the so the expenditures for the for the college itself, but also facilitating the part time salaries for faculty and stuff like that. And that just happened to be the time when, I think it was Governor Rick Perry had slashed some of the budget for the community colleges in Texas and for the higher education. So everything was running a tight ship. So I came in and I was, you know, helping them save expenses and whatnot, identifying, you know, areas that we needed to be able to educate the faculty, with regard to the policy and all those types of things. So I was with them for about, I think, seven months, and then my role there ended, actually, was let go. That's a whole another story that would probably be too, too long for this one. But then from there, I was looking for work again, and I ended up at San Jacinto College in the research and Institutional Effectiveness office, doing survey research. And the interesting part is between the both of those roles, I discovered how versatile my accounting degree was. I realized that accounting had given me the ability to go into any arena and understand what the expectations are, one of my role and of that environment, and be able to give a lot of value, simply because I understood the frameworks of where things started and where they ended, and how to deal with the in between. And so as a result of that, you know, I just gave my everything to to that role. I loved it. I ended up learning data programming to a degree. I started doing some SQL. I don't do it anymore, but, man, I just kept growing. And I started pursuing a Master's of Science in Psychology with a program evaluation and research concentration. But I didn't finish that degree because I made some poor decisions and leaving work thinking I was going to be situated to, you know, build a career as like an entrepreneur, things of that sort, in a certain way. And I didn't have a clue. I did not have a wellness mindset. I. I had a a weak mindset with regard to a lot of things. Really didn't have a lot of wisdom. Had a lot of wise people around me, but really not a lot of people who could help me understand and navigate what I was thinking, what I was dealing with, what I was going through, because most people around me didn't really understand what I was trying to do and why, and so, yeah, I made some very poor decisions, you know, as far as navigating work thinking that I could, you know, quit a job and easily get another job. And man took myself, my wife, and my oldest daughter at the time, my only daughter at the time, took us through some very difficult times over the next 10 years or so, Michael Hingson ** 25:49 was that mainly because you just continued to go the way you were going, and you were allowing yourself to be torn in a lot of different ways, and Just didn't stop to think about it, even Leo Simpson ** 26:01 Absolutely, absolutely, that that's where it it came to bite me so overextended, and didn't really navigate the overextendedness, and, you know, the proper ways. Michael Hingson ** 26:16 And by the way, never did go to work for the IRS. Leo Simpson ** 26:20 I never did. Well, never did. Boy, the Michael Hingson ** 26:24 nerve right, the nerve, and they still make you pay income tax. It's pretty nerve, hey, Leo Simpson ** 26:30 you know it is what it is. It depends on, it depends on what side of the ship you own, Michael Hingson ** 26:35 maybe, and they tax everyone so you, you continue to work and you continue to to go off in many different directions, yeah, what, what was your greatest success during that time? Leo Simpson ** 26:55 You know, I would say my greatest success story was persevering through difficulty. It was from about 2011 to about 2013 where, you know, it was a in and out of trying to get re situated, do part time jobs here and there. And it was around the end of 2013 going into 2014 that I actually got into something that seemed like it was a more stable position. At the beginning of 2014 I started working with an HVAC company doing commercial maintenance sales. And then, you know, that ended up moving me to being the commercial Maintenance Manager, you know, doing recess system, system, re, system, oh, what my word systematizing. That's what I was trying to say, um, re, systematizing their system and structure. And, you know, one of the things I did there at that company was I was able to, you know, really re structure how their commercial maintenance operation functioned, and make it a little more profitable, even though it was not really a profitable operation, it was more so a lead generation operation. And so it was more of like marketing funds going into maintenance, if you will. And ultimately, what happened was, as I really systematized it and saved time, you know, was able to redistribute or reallocate the the the manpower through that particular effort into other areas of the company, like the construction side that they had, the HVAC construction, as well as the residential side. It started to become to where I was known as the guy who could actually, you know, handle change management, and if we needed to create a new system, and, you know, create a strategy, a plan, this was the guy to do it. And he could go in, create the system, work the system, and then bring other people into the system, kind of like they do with franchisers. And it was really great to discover that I had the ability to handle strategy and execution. I didn't put it in those terms until well later on, but I did realize that I had a knack for being able to strategize and then execute the strategy, which was pretty cool to discover. Michael Hingson ** 29:40 So that's a lot, in a sense, different from getting a degree in accounting, though Leo Simpson ** 29:45 it is, however, that goes back to what I said, because I had that accounting degree, I realized that it made me very versatile in in pretty much any environment. Because what. Happens is, you know when you understand what's affecting everything, you know how to structure the things in order to get certain results. And so whether I was doing technical work in the HVAC arena, brazing copper pipe with solder, or, you know, releasing refrigerant or adding refrigerant to a system, I understood how everything that I did had an effect on the numbers of the company. And it's crazy how you know, I can be able to see that. And so even one of the things I didn't say was in 2012 I actually acquired a certification in leadership, speaking, teaching and coaching with the John Maxwell team. And as a result of that, you know, I had a very strong leadership mindset within the context of how I approached everything that I was doing. So I was using my leadership perspective that I was continuously growing in I was using my accounting, and then the the various aspects of the strategic focus and operation of the HVAC industry, and I was just growing and making a difference, right and and to be honest, it goes back to my childhood. In my mind, it was like, I'm serving. I'm making a difference, you know, I'm I'm taking what's being given to me, and I'm actually putting my best effort in it and getting results. So that's where service began to expand for me, beyond just, you know, volunteer stuff, to where really in everything we do, everything we're doing, we're really serving others. Michael Hingson ** 31:43 So how long did you stay with that company? Leo Simpson ** 31:46 I was with them for almost two years, and the the ownership, because it was a small company, they began to shift their priorities, and I was no longer a part of those priorities. So I had to leave again. And I left on short notice, because it was kind of like one of those forced resignations type of thing. And for me see maybe a couple months, I was looking again, and I ended up finding myself at UPS as a seasonal full time driver, and watch this. So if you if you look at it, I went from education to getting some certification in leadership, right, and then from that certification, I went into HVAC, which they called the mechanical industry, and then I went from mechanical to transportation, which, you know, UPS is one of those top transportation companies in the country. And I went, and I was like, Hey, I'm going to be here for a long time. As a matter of fact, UPS was the company that paid for me to go to that conference those two times when I was in college. And so in my mind, it was like, this is an opportunity to be a part of this organization. And there was no guarantee that I was going to stay based on their own words, but in my words, I was going to stay there, and that was that. And so I got out there, and I killed the game. Man, Michael Hingson ** 33:28 what happened? Leo Simpson ** 33:29 So the short of it is I ended up, uh, coming in, getting trained, discovering what it was that they expected from us for the seasonal time frame, and I was a standout. It was probably maybe five of us in, you know, the group that season that were, you know, really solid standouts. And I'm talking about I was making their numbers look good for the seasonal time. My deliveries were timely. I was getting done early, able to go help other drivers deliver, you know, get volume off their vehicle, Bring, bring deliveries in, or, I mean, bring pickups in to the to the distribution center, to the center, and then even, excuse me, even being able to Bring packages from off of their vehicle that needed to be delivered so that they were not outlaid and, you know, all sorts of things like we, we were making it happen. I was going all over the the service area that we focused on and helping drivers get packages off of their vehicle. We, you know, felt like little sandals, little helpers during that time frame. But from there, what ended up happening was the center manager for the center that I was a part of, he was like, hey, you know, thank you for your service and what you're doing. And he just happened to ask the question, do you have a bachelor's degree? And the fact that I had a bachelor. Degree, they were able to accelerate me into their process. And literally, from the time I started there, seven months later, I ended up in management, and so I had to go through driver training, and I'll tell you this, so I really wanted that position, because I really saw it was going to be a game changer for my family, simply because I had to come back after the seasonal time as a part time employee in the warehouse, and had to, you know, load package cars and all that kind of stuff for the delivery drivers for a period of time before I could get back on road. But before I had to get back on road, I had to go through driver training, and they they call it integrat. So their inner grad was actually in Atlanta, and just so happened before that, I ended up getting an issue in my eyes. I didn't know what it was until I came back from the training, but I discovered later on that it was actually I ended up with bacterial infection in both of my eyes, but I didn't care. I needed to go to Atlanta and get this done, make it happen. And so I put myself in some very serious danger to potentially lose my sight. And you understand what that that is, to not be able to see physically with your eyes. And thankfully, you know, my optometrist was able to provide some support in that, and I didn't have to deal with having to learn life all over again and learn a new language. So ultimately, I pass intergrat With my eyes hurting. I mean, I wore shades the whole time, just to, you know, keep the sun from disturbing my eyes and things of that sort. And next thing you know, I passed, got back, got back on the road, drove for, I think, a few months, and that's where I ended up, back. Ended up in management. And the coolest part of my experience at UPS was the center that they assigned me to was actually for the Katy area. And when I got to that center, it was said that our our center department, if you will, was the worst in the free world, which means it was one of the worst departments in ups, right? And I was the last supervisor that they added to the management team. And just like what I did over in HVAC, just like what I did in higher education, just like what I did in retail, those times that I worked in retail, I just brought my value, especially at this point. I understood how to deal with change management. I understood how to bring leadership value. I understood the very constructs of accounting systems and how technology was affected by productivity from individuals, and I focused on those things within just the fluid understanding of them, and my driver group began to respond well with, you know, great results as well as I begin to be called upon to influence our entire group of drivers and part timers through, you know, our pre work communication meetings and things of that sort. And we turned it around to where, going into peak season, we were leading our division, one of the top departments in our region, and we were actually, you know, producing some serious cost savings within the context of the budget, to where, during that peak season of 2016 we actually saved over we saved the company through our own division. I mean, our own department, over $20 million Michael Hingson ** 38:59 and they recognize that as a valuable thing, Leo Simpson ** 39:01 absolutely, absolutely. Michael Hingson ** 39:04 So you were successful there, and how long? How long did you stay there, or are you still there? Leo Simpson ** 39:13 I'm not still there. You're Michael Hingson ** 39:14 not still there. Leo Simpson ** 39:15 So what happened? I made a dumb decision. I was very much in my my selfishness as it pertained to what I wanted to see my career do, and how quickly I wanted to see it move. And, you know, I continue to communicate to my leadership, you know, that I wanted to move into more of the the training, the leadership development, maybe even the sales role, and that's not really what they wanted to do in their in my time. They wanted to do it in their time. And there was a an opportunity that my wife's stepfather was continuously kind of sharing me about, and I completely you. You know, went on my ambition and my preference to move in a different direction with something that seemed easier, and put myself and my family in the situation where I was looking for a job again, because, you know, the things that he was talking about didn't actually come through. And next thing you know, you know, we're going through difficult times again, and what ended up happening from there was, ended up living with family, and, you know, there was a number of stints. And I haven't really said this, and I think this is important to say, with regard to, you know, really talking about, you know, the wellness professor and the wellness focus. You know, I know what it's like to be poor. I'm talking about to where you don't know where you're going to live, and really you're that close to living on the street because you don't have a home of your own. Dealt with foreclosure of home, dealt with repossession of vehicles. And during this time, when I left ups, repossession of vehicle was certainly the case. We had to move rapidly out of the place that we were living in. You know, couldn't even continue to take care of it, just because, after I left there, it was difficult for me to get work again. You know, it was just not a good situation. Well, it was after leaving ups that I actually went ahead and started doing my master's program with Liberty University, and I did it online. So, you know, that was something that I was able to to do without traveling or anything like that. And from there, I ended up humbling myself, if you will, and starting with target as a season, not a seasonal. I think I did start a seasonal, seasonal employee, you know, right around there, Christmas time or something like that, Thanksgiving, just part time. And while I was also doing my Masters, and while living with family, really trying to figure out and come out of the hole again. And from there, I ended up working with another HVAC company. This one was one of the guys I work with at the other company. We were good friends. He had started his own company, and he was buying out his he had bought out his partner, and he was rebuilding the company. And there and again. Here's Leo revamping something, you know, navigating a company through a change management situation. And I came into that company in, I think, 2019 April, 2019 and I stayed with them all the way until November 2021, where I was fired. So and why did that happen? It happened because it was said that I committed an administrative ethics violation. Have you ever heard of Michael Hingson ** 43:18 that? Conceptually, Leo Simpson ** 43:23 so that means, you know exactly what that is, that that is where somebody just said, I want to get rid of this person. I just need something to figure it out. And, you know, here's the interesting part. I was the person responsible for hiring in this company, so I knew the policy and procedure with regard to that. And you know, the fact that this person knew that and still moved to do what they did, it was very clear that they were indicating, hey, you know, it's time for you to go. And you know, one of my questions that I asked at that point was like, you know, why didn't you just give me a call? This is, this was something easy to to address whatever it was you had as a concern. But, you know, you heard one side of it, didn't hear the other side, so that you didn't know really what was going on, but that's, that's what it was. And so at that point, looking for a job again, and what I started to do was apply for jobs and also hustle at the same time. And a part of my side hustle was not only, you know, trying to do some things that were kind of coaching and training oriented. But a friend of mine had mentioned that he was actually providing or making himself available as a wedding officiant. And I was like, how you doing that? And so he showed me how he was using thumbtack to actually generate leads. And. And you know what his process was from there. And I was like, I can make some money with this. And I know how to build a system. I know how to market, you know, as far as being able to the the leads are already generated. And I know how to kind of set things up on my my profile to facilitate, you know, the type of people that I'm looking for, or, you know, establish myself in a niche area. And so I did that. And from November of 2021, till about, I think April, May, maybe even June of 2022, I think I did over 60 weddings, and so that really put me in a position to where I saw again, I really had a unique ability to build something. And I stopped applying for jobs, and I just said, let me just keep building. You know, let me, let me, for once in my life, not quit something, no matter how hard it is, and create some momentum. Because I come to understand, you know, how when you stop, you actually interrupt your momentum. And when you do keep going, sometimes you may not be going in the you may not be doing the thing you really need to be doing, but at a minimum, you're creating momentum that could get you in the the place where you need to be. And so I kept with it, and it was as a result of that decision that led me to where I am today in two respects, one, teaching at the community college level, as well as, you know, building a business where, you know, I'm really helping people understand how to achieve and experience wellness at its core, wellness from the perspective that not just I want to be healthy or well, and the more general perspectives we think about wellness, but wellness as it pertains to the core mindset of wellness, which deals with understanding that when you're consistent in meeting the needs of others, and you know those who cannot help themselves and those who cannot do back for you, you are positioning yourself to experience abundance and wealth accessibility going forward. And there's some some ways we talk about that, but ultimately, I get to teach business on a semester basis. And you know, give students who come through the community college a lot of value that people who pay 1000s of dollars on the outside get. And really the focus is not a matter of how much they're paying, but about the value that I'm able to give them. So yeah, it's been a journey. It's been a journey. So Michael Hingson ** 48:07 when, well, let me ask this first Sure, did you you've done a lot of things, and you've worked in a lot of environments where you've created change? Did you ever feel that you were resented for trying to make change all the time, and maybe you shouldn't have pushed so hard at some of those things? Leo Simpson ** 48:31 Some Yes, others know, because that was my role. That's what I was asked to do. Okay? The thing is, because I was so good at it and I was making things work, well, the problem came because I was so good at it, and me being so good at it, it made it to where, in their eyes, I started to be looked at as the person who was trying to take over. And I can see that. Yeah, you can absolutely see it. And so there was never a I'm trying to take over. There was, hey, you gave me this responsibility, and I'm going to execute it with great effectiveness, excellence and efficiency, and that really wasn't the thought process, you know, I I always misjudged what their expectations were in the sense that I did what they expected me to do. I just didn't do it with the mindset that they expected me to do it, if that makes sense, yeah. And Michael Hingson ** 49:45 you didn't really seek out what perhaps their mindset was or what they wanted your mindset to be. Leo Simpson ** 49:52 Yes and and if I had looked into what they wanted my mindset to be, I probably wouldn't have been with them. It Michael Hingson ** 50:01 could very well be Well going back to something I asked earlier. So when did you finally learn how to say no? Leo Simpson ** 50:08 I learned how to say no, really last year. It was last year that I learned how to say no, and I said that way because I learned that I needed to say no after I got fired from that company. But learning how to say no was different than learning to say no, right? Michael Hingson ** 50:34 So talk about both of those a little bit, if you will. Leo Simpson ** 50:39 So learning to say no is understanding, having a clarity that no is just as powerful as Yes, and in many instances, no is what makes your yes appropriate, right? And I didn't have a Healthy Love for no because I only saw no as a negative, rather than no as an indicator of either this is not where you need to go, or you're not being granted access because you haven't produced or delivered what needs to give you that accessibility, right? So just in the context of understanding that no is valuable, is when I learned not only that I needed to hear it, but I also needed to use it, right? Because if you don't appropriately use No, then what's going to happen is you're going to find yourself derailed, right? You're going to find yourself being, you know, pulled from different categories. You're going to find yourself pulled in two different categories that can actually move you away from what it is that you really need to be focused on. And this is where I learned you know how to say no. With regard to why. The main way that you know how to say no is you have clarity of what it is you ought to be doing. If you don't know what you should be doing, then anybody can present something to you, and you'll go with it. Michael Hingson ** 52:23 You learn that do you learn that some of that comes from engaging others and learning what they expect, so that it isn't just your decision, but you you make it more of a team oriented kind of a thing. Leo Simpson ** 52:38 Absolutely it corresponds to the word we use a lot today, is niche, right? And your niche has to be related to somebody else's problem and the solution you have for that problem. So if you don't know two things, one, if you don't know what your solution is with great clarity, nor do you know what that person's problem is with great clarity. You're not going to know how to really become a very solid teammate with them, but you're also not going to know what you should be saying, yes or no, too. So the the clarity you get about what solutions you solve, what I'm sorry, what solutions you provide and what problems you solve. With those solutions, it helps you to understand where you should be looking, who you should be working with, and who you shouldn't be working with, and who you shouldn't be going to look for. Okay, so how I really learned how to say no. Was, I was in a situation. This was actually somewhere around November of last year, and I got a message from a person on LinkedIn, and in their message, they were like, hey, you know, reaching out to you. You know, see that, you know, we it seems like there's some alignment with what we do, how we do and I had never had anybody say this specifically, if there's anyone I can introduce you to in my network, let me know. And I was like, nobody's ever said that to me. And I mean, I was just going to ignore the message. But because of that aspect, I was like, hm, I think I need to respond to this, right? I respond. We set up a meeting, we talk, and as we're talking, in no way, shape, form or fashion, do we end up talking about what it is I said was the reason that I want to talk with them, especially because they invited it, and so I kind of went along with it, just to kind of see how the conversation would progress. We ended up setting up a second meeting. We came back to that second meeting, and there and again. And we did not talk about what it was that we initially had spoke to talk about, and what they were trying to do was to kind of get a hard sell, to get me to make a commitment to go with them. And what they provided was a very valuable service for somebody who's a speaker, a coach, a trainer, an author, you know, has a voice and things of that sort. But ultimately, it wasn't where I was going and what I was doing and because of all of those different experiences that I had, and at this point, I was very clear about what I was supposed to be doing, what my niche was and what was not in that niche, I was able to say, Nah, I'm not there right now, like this is what I need to be focused on. And you know, when I get to that point to focus on that, I can reach back out to you. So I was a game Michael Hingson ** 55:56 changer. How did you become known as the wellness professor? Ah, Leo Simpson ** 56:01 great question. So we have so I have eight books that I've published, and one of them is a kid's book, and this was really an accidental book, just to be very honest with you, and I say accidental because it wasn't a book that I was trying to write. It wasn't that I wasn't open to kids book. It was something I thought about in the context of pursuing, you know, writing books, but it wasn't something that I was giving attention and commitment to. And somehow, the algorithm, I don't know if it was an algorithm. Somehow I got this video that came up in my my suggestions that was saying something along the lines of how I wrote a kid's book in three days with no illustrator. I think that was what it said. And I was like, Huh. First of all, what caught my attention was three days, because I don't know too many people who write books in short periods of time. One of the things that I did with my my approach to writing books, is one i i dictate the books. But also I looked at it from the standpoint of, when I was in graduate school, I had to write like, 10 page papers, like every week. So I'm, like, if I was writing 10 page papers every week, you know, if I write a book, I can write a book in about that same time where I'm actually dictating it and communicating the thought process that I have about a subject matter and captured in that book. So that was a thought process I had to where I could actually produce a book in a short period of time fairly so the the fastest I've actually produced a book was, I think, like five days from from starting to publishing, right? So I saw that, and I was like, Okay, let me check this out. But the thing that also kept caught my attention was the fact that she said no illustrator. So I was like, okay, she did it quickly, and she had no illustrator, but this is a very cool illustrated book. I was like, I want to see how she did that. Turns out I did some research on her. Kept looking at her content. She had purchased a course, and that course showed her how to use a number of different systems and technology that I was also using, and so I was intrigued. I was like, if I can develop a concept for the book, if, if I can identify enough stock photos for a particular concept that I've created, and my girls love the storyline of the book, hey, I think we got something. And at the time, I think my oldest was like, 12, and my youngest was, like, maybe six. And so I was like, Hey, this is perfect, because they are the age range that I would be building this book for. Long story short, um, fast forward to this, not to this year to 2023, what I decided to do because, you know, my wife and I, my oldest daughter, she's 14 now, but right before she turned 10, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And so you know, that year that she was diagnosed was actually the year of the pandemic. And so that was a very tense year because of that aspect. We homeschool them, so that wasn't a big deal. But also, my father passed away unexpectedly. You know that December that she was diagnosed, which was in 2019, so all of these things are happening for her to where her her world is like shocked, and that year, she actually attempted suicide with her medication on a couple of occasions. And by the grace of God, my wife was able to, you know, kind of wake up in the middle of the night and notice that she was really, really low. And, you know, take some measures to address that. And that's when we discovered, you know. What she, you know, had done on those those couple occasions? Well, I started doing some research and discovered that kids, you know, as young now as four years old, are taking measures to take their own life, and having gone through that experience with my daughter, you know, who had just pretty much turned 10, and you know, seeing those details like, you know, I had a burden for the kids at that point. And so what happened was I started to look at how I could create an effort leveraging my kids book in order to, you know, bring value into the the environment. The kids book is called lion, lion, roar, roar. And it's a play on the lion roaring, and the animals around them, around the lion, actually saying, lion, lion, roar, roar, to cause the line to roar. So it's showing the value that each of those groups have for one another in that environment, right? And so it's a huge, you know, encouragement, you know, within the context of helping kids to understand, you know, be the great you that's what the series is called. This is the first in the series. So I say all of that. And what I decided to do was to create an effort called Transform kids minds. All right, you'll see how this all comes together. And in the effort, what we decided to do was a few things. One, to energize the kids. Read the book, right? And, and it's a very exciting book. You know, it's probably about eight minutes. It's very engaging. And the kids, my little nephew, at the time, when I first wrote it, he loved it. He was at the school telling his teacher how to read the book, even though he couldn't read this 1:01:53 is how you do it. Leo Simpson ** 1:01:56 So that was pretty cool. And so then, not only do you energize the kids, you train the kids, and we leverage the teaching, the the reading of the book with what we call the five greatness sayings, and we teach them based on those five greatness sayings, which are, I am loved, I am unique, I am valuable. I was created for greatness and great things. I was great to live a life of contribution. And then the third thing that we do is we encourage and how we encourage the kids is we invite other people. This is not a non profit effort, but we invite other people to actually join us in the encouragement of the kids, which is they get to purchase a book and what we call an encouragement plaque under the encouragement. So they're purchasing what we call kid impact encouragement, and they're being like an at a distance mentor to a number of kids in a written manner, to where that plaque goes in the front of the book. We present the book to the kid after we read the book, do the training, and then we say, hey, these people have given you a book, and they want to encourage you and let you know that you are loved, you're unique, you're valuable. You created for greatness and great things, you created to live a life of contribution. And so, hey, we want to make a difference to your life, type of thing, right? Well, what I did was I said, Okay, this will be great for individuals. Should be a part of but also for businesses. And because I have an accounting background, because of the constructs of the plaque, it would be a great marketing expense so we can get businesses to support this, just like that company sent me to, um, to Miami, that same expense would actually be the same thing for this situation. I was like, Okay, well, I approached one of the associations in the Houston area with that concept. And I have never had this happen before. Michael, usually people would just straight up tell me, No, not interested. But there was a there was a level of favor that I had with this executive director, because I was a mentor. I was a mentee of their mentor program when I was back in the sixth grade, so I even approached her, using that as a leverage to get a conversation with her. And while we're talking, she said, I really love this concept. And mind you, before we got on the line, she said, Hey, I just want to ask you, you know, I'll have a conversation with you with the caveat that if, if this doesn't fit, sure, sure, absolutely, if this doesn't fit, what's going to happen is, you know, we just got to part ways. But you know, if that be the case, well, she said, I love this concept, but I don't love it for marketing. I actually like it more so for wellness. And I was like, huh, yeah, I can see that. And so we started talking about it, and when she did that, I just shifted, because at that point I'm seeing Okay, she's not having me go off the course of what I'm doing. Okay, but she's actually seeing where it applies to them, so let me actually work with her to make that happen. Long story short, I go in from I go from that conversation, and I get with my mastermind partner, and we tease out the conversation, and it was from that conversation with my mastermind partner that we discovered that everything that I've been doing, everything that I'm doing, everything that I'm going to do, is really up under the wellness umbrella. And everything that I teach, I teach it because I seek to bring wellness to people. And the biggest level of wellness is this doing for others is doing for self, because hence what? Wellness professor. Yes, hits the wellness professor. So it all comes full circle. Michael Hingson ** 1:05:50 Well, I think that's pretty cool, and I'd love to continue, but we've been doing this long enough, and I don't want people to get bored with me or you, but I want to thank you for being here. How do people reach out to you? So you're clearly a coach, you have a company, and tell us how people could reach out to you, absolutely. Leo Simpson ** 1:06:08 So you can reach out to me, one of two ways you can go through Instagram. My Instagram is at Leo Simpson, the second, which is at Leo Simpson II, or you can go straight to my website, inspire the globe.net. Michael Hingson ** 1:06:26 Inspire the globe is the name of your company. Leo Simpson ** 1:06:28 Absolutely, we breathe solutions into the world's problems. Michael Hingson ** 1:06:31 Well, thank you for being here and taking all this time to talk about it. We we probably need to do more of this and do another one of these in the future. But hey, I really there you go. I want to thank you all for listening and being here with us today. This has been fun. We'd love to get your thoughts and your opinions, and please give us a five star rating. We value that highly. You can reach me. Michael Hinkson at Michael H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or go to our podcast page, www.michaelhingson.com, podcast Michael Hinkson is m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O N. Really hope that you'll definitely come back and hear more podcasts from us. If you know anyone who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset. Please let us know. Please reach out to me. We're always looking for guests. Leo, same to you. If you have any thoughts of other people who ought to be a guest, we would really appreciate you letting us know and giving us introductions. But again, I'm one. I want to thank you for being here and taking all this time with us today. 1:07:39 Sure thing, I appreciate your privilege. **Michael Hingson ** 1:07:47 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.