There was a period in my life where I was playing the role of the enlightened teacher—meditating for hours, preaching non-attachment, pretending I had transcended suffering. On the outside, I looked serene. Inside, I was miserable. Anxious. Depressed. Struggling. Drowning in perfectionism.

But I couldn’t let anyone know, because I was “the spiritual one.” The persona became a prison.

The day I finally admitted the truth—“I’m not enlightened. I’m a mess. And I’m tired of pretending”—everything cracked open. The relief, the honesty, and the freedom that followed changed my life.

In this episode, we explore the shadow most spiritual entrepreneurs secretly battle:

The Fake Guru Persona — the performance of perfection that disconnects you from yourself and from the people you’re meant to serve.

You’ll discover why trying to be flawless actually blocks your gifts, kills your joy, and stops you from connecting deeply with your audience. And you’ll learn the real path of a true teacher: being human, honest, and just a few steps ahead.

We’ll dive into:

The emotional cost of pretending you have everything figured out

Why perfectionism keeps you stuck and insecure

How the “guru costume” prevents real connection

The moment every teacher must face their shadow

The freedom that comes from being imperfectly real

You’ll also experience a guided moment of self-compassion where you gently take off the mask, speak to it with love, and return home to your real self.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to be the polished, perfect teacher — this episode will make you cry, breathe, and finally exhale.

Because your people don’t need the persona.

They need YOU.

In this soul-stirring episode, we step into one of the most powerful moments of the Bhagavad Gita—the battlefield where the warrior Arjuna collapses in fear and confusion. He knows what he must do, but he’s frozen. Why? Because he’s trying to control the outcome.

Through Krishna’s divine wisdom, we discover the eternal truth that liberates us from anxiety and paralysis: our job is to do our dharma—the work itself—not to control the results.

You’ll be guided through a full emotional journey—from the heavy tension of self-doubt and control, to the deep exhale of surrender. You’ll feel the release of carrying what was never yours to hold: the outcomes, opinions, and results.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a sacred clarity on what’s truly yours to do—and what belongs to the Divine. You’ll experience a powerful self-compassion practice to release the burden of “making it all work,” and return to peace, trust, and freedom.

You’ll discover:

The real meaning of dharma—and how to live it joyfully

Why trying to control outcomes blocks divine flow

How to act from love, not fear

A heart-centered meditation to surrender control and feel instantly lighter

Perfectionism isn't just about wanting things to be perfect. At its core, it's a coping mechanism to avoid feeling bad. Every time we're about to share our work and we think "I'm not sure it's ready" - that's a negative feeling. And instead of feeling it, we distract ourselves. We perfect more. We wait. We do anything except feel the discomfort.

This is the hidden root of why nothing happens.

In this session, I share two powerful stories. The first: standing in a health food store in Kauai, feeling terrible, and discovering that when I stopped resisting the feeling and just allowed it to be there, it immediately began to shift. The second: lying desperately sick in India, in so much pain I couldn't move, until I finally stopped resisting and found a place of peace within the pain itself.

Here's the truth: We spend our lives avoiding negative feelings. We pick up our phones hundreds of times a day. We open tabs to check the news or watch videos the moment we feel anxious. We perfect endlessly rather than finishing because finishing means feeling the fear of judgment. We've been taught that if something feels bad, it must be bad. But that's not true.

When we're doing something new, meaningful, and different, it WILL bring up discomfort. That's not a sign to stop - that's your brain creating new neural pathways. Learning to ride a bike felt impossible until suddenly it clicked. This is the same.

The practice is simple but profound: When negative feelings arise, instead of distracting yourself, stop. Breathe. Put your hand on your heart. Feel whatever you're feeling without trying to change it. You are not the feeling - you are the witness watching the feeling. Just notice and breathe. Surrender it to something greater if that helps. Be curious about it like you're discovering a strange animal in the jungle.

When we stop resisting our feelings, half the problem of perfectionism disappears. The feeling is just a feeling. It's okay. You're okay. And then you can take imperfect action anyway.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you. Email me at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group. Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at awakenedacademy.com.

Here's where we are right now: Stuck in the perfectionism prison. Projects started but not shared. Gifts locked inside. Watching others succeed while we prepare. Exhausted from trying to be perfect.

And here's where we're going: Complete freedom. Clear minds. Healed hearts. Sharing our gifts imperfectly and joyfully. Living our dharma. Being authentically ourselves—messy, real, alive.

The question is: How do we get from here to there?

This is the map. Not just ideas—the inner transformations that break us free. A bird's eye view of our sacred journey to wholeness together.

This session reveals the complete path with twelve powerful shifts:

We are not our thoughts—we are the witness. We learn to surrender outcomes to the Divine instead of controlling everything. We discover that imperfect iteration is the only path to mastery. We embrace 80% as the new sacred standard. We learn why being real makes us magnetic. We stop performing the fake guru and come home to ourselves.

We find our lane—Pioneer, Translator, or Practitioner—and stop comparing. We share before we're ready using the Oprah Method. We develop growth mindset and see failure as feedback. We understand how 1% daily compounds into miracles. We learn that critics don't count—only the warriors in the arena matter.

And finally, we remember: We were never broken. We are already whole. We are already worthy. We are already enough.

Each shift is a key that unlocks a different part of the prison. We don't have to master them all at once. We just have to walk the path. One shift at a time. One small step at a time.

This is the complete roadmap from where you are to where you're meant to be.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you. Email me at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group. Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at awakenedacademy.com.

Memento Mori: Remember You Will Die

The ancient Stoics had a practice called memento mori—remember death. Not to be morbid, but to be fully alive. When we contemplate our mortality, something profound happens. The petty worries dissolve. The perfectionism loses its grip. The fear of judgment seems ridiculous compared to the fear of dying with our gifts still inside.

In this session, we practice a powerful death meditation. We imagine having five years left, then one year, then six months, then one week. We ask ourselves: What would I do differently? Who would I tell I love them? What would I stop worrying about? What would I finally share?

When we truly feel our mortality—when we let it sink in that we don't know how much time we have—everything changes. Nick didn't know he only had 64 years. None of us know.

Contemplating death daily isn't depressing. It's liberating. It puts our fears in perspective. It reminds us what actually matters. It gives us permission to stop waiting and start living. To stop perfecting and start sharing. To stop preparing and start being.

This practice has been used by monks, warriors, and wise teachers for thousands of years. Because when you remember you will die, you remember how to live.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you. Email me at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group. Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at awakenedacademy.com.

WHY CONTEMPLATING DEATH DAILY IS GOOD FOR US:

Dissolves perfectionism - When you might die tomorrow, "not perfect enough" becomes absurd

Clarifies priorities - You instantly know what matters and what doesn't

Eliminates petty fears - Fear of judgment shrinks compared to fear of dying with gifts inside

Creates urgency without anxiety - Motivates action from love, not panic

Makes you grateful - Every day becomes a gift, not a guarantee

Frees you to be real - No time for pretending when time is limited

Puts critics in perspective - Their opinions matter nothing when you're facing eternity

Makes you braver - What's the worst that can happen? You're going to die anyway

Deepens presence - You stop living in "someday" and start living NOW

Ancient wisdom - Stoics, Buddhists, monks have used this for millennia

I was terrified to give my first public talk. My meditation teacher had invited me to speak to 30-40 people, and I made every excuse I could think of. I'm not ready. I'm not qualified. What if I mess up? What if they judge me?

But I finally said yes. And halfway through, stumbling over my words with my heart hammering, the door opened. A tall man walked in with wild hair and the biggest, most genuine smile I'd ever seen. He dropped down onto the floor three feet from me and just smiled. Like he was watching something holy.

His name was Nick Good. And he asked if he could stay in my garden.

Nick stayed for years. We meditated together every morning, sometimes for hours starting at 2:30am. And Nick wasn't like me. He wasn't careful. Wasn't planning. Wasn't waiting to be ready. Nick just did things.

If he wanted to travel, he went. No plan. No safety net. If he wanted to try something new, he tried it. No three-month preparation period. He was free in a way I wasn't.

One day Nick announced he was going to Hawaii with no money, no connections, no plan. Six months later, he was living in a two million dollar home on the North Shore of Kauai, doing exactly what he said he would.

Years passed. We built programs together. Life pulled us in different directions. Then one morning I opened Facebook. A message: Did you hear that Nick died?

Nick had literally messaged me that morning. The day he died. Reaching out for connection. And I'd been too busy. Too caught up in my head.

Nick died suddenly. Unexpectedly. Just four days before his 64th birthday.

I sat there in front of my laptop, the screen blurring. I couldn't breathe. It broke something open in me. I realized: We're all going to die. It can happen at any moment. We don't know how long we have.

Despite all my success, I was still imprisoned. Still waiting. Still perfecting. Still playing it safe.

Sitting there, tears running down my face for my wild, free, fearless friend, I made a decision: I would rather do things imperfectly and live fully than die with my gifts locked inside.

We don't have forever. Every day you wait to be perfect is a day you'll never get back. Every day you don't share your gift is a day someone who needs it suffers without it.

In this session, you'll identify three things you're meant to do—three gifts you're meant to share—if you had just five years left and no fear.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you. Email me at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group. Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at awakenedacademy.com.

You have something inside you that needs to be shared. A gift. A message. A way of helping people that only you can offer. You've known it for years. Maybe decades. You see it clearly sometimes—the vision of what you could create. The business. The program. The book.

But here's what's actually happening. You're not doing it. You start something and then you stop. You get part of the way there and then abandon it. You think about it constantly but never finish. Or you don't start at all because it doesn't feel ready yet.

Maybe you look at what you've created and think: It's not good enough. I'm not polished enough. I need to work on myself more first. I need more qualifications. More training. More clarity. More something. Who am I to do this anyway?

Then you scroll through social media and see other people—coaches with perfect websites, authors with massive followings, teachers with TED Talks. And you think: They have it all figured out. They're so polished. So professional. So ready. And I'm not.

So you tell yourself you'll start when you're more ready. When you have your own stuff figured out. When the timing is better. Maybe next month. Maybe next year. Maybe when things calm down.

But next month comes and you're still not ready. Next year comes and you still haven't started.

And meanwhile, there's this feeling growing inside you—a sadness, a frustration, a sense that time is passing and you're not doing what you came here to do.

You have projects or notes from courses sitting on your computer that you've worked on for months, maybe years, but never finished. Emails you've written but never sent. Programs you've designed but never launched. Books you've started but never published.

Because something's always not quite right. You need to tweak this. Adjust that. Make it better. Make it perfect.

And deep down, you know what's really going on. You're scared. Scared of being judged. Scared of failing. Scared of being exposed as not good enough.

So you protect yourself by not finishing. By not starting. By staying in preparation mode forever.

You're trapped. Trapped in a prison in your own mind. A prison where the walls are built from perfectionism and fear and "not good enough" and "not ready yet."

In this session, we face what staying stuck really costs—financially, emotionally, in our relationships, in our health. Not to punish ourselves, but to see clearly. Because you can't leave a prison you don't know you're in.

Then we make a choice. A gentle, powerful choice to begin the journey toward freedom.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you.

Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group.

Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at: https://awakenedacademy.com

I created this journey because I was drowning in my own perfectionism. Fifteen unfinished books. Hundreds of unsent emails. Courses that could help people but weren't perfect yet. Despite a seven-figure business and 30 years on this path, I was still trapped. And I watched my students doing the exact same thing. Beautiful souls with gifts the world needs—stuck in the same place.

Maybe you see yourself here too. You have real gifts inside you but you're not sharing them fully yet. Not because you're broken, but because you're carrying wounds and fears that got layered onto you from outside. In this session, we identify the "buts" that stop us—I'm not ready yet, I don't have time, it's not good enough, the market is saturated—and begin to see them for what they really are: programming that doesn't belong to us.

This is where healing begins. Not with forcing. With gentleness.

Listen to this episode and let me know what hit you. Email me at [email protected] with your thoughts, breakthroughs, or questions. If you're an Awakened Academy student, join the discussion in our private Facebook group. Not a student yet? You're welcome to apply anytime at awakenedacademy.com.

This is the healing work that comes before the action work. Before we dive into breaking free from perfectionism, you need to understand what this journey is and what it isn't. This isn't another how-to course teaching you tactics and strategies. This is about clearing the internal blocks that have been stopping you from using everything you already know. Simply listening and allowing yourself to shift is the work. No action required. Welcome to the back roads that lead to the highway.

Welcome to the messy beginning. In this first unscripted raw episode, Michael shares why this podcast exists - because life is messy, we're all doing our best, and it's time to stop pretending we have it all figured out.

He gets radically honest about his own journey: 28 years of spiritual practice, a seven-figure business, thousands of students served - and still feeling trapped by perfectionism. He talks about joining a 12-step program for internet addiction, doing uncomfortable shadow work, and all the unfinished projects sitting on his hard drive.

This episode is permission to be imperfectly you. To share your gifts even when you're still working through your own stuff. To stop waiting until you're "ready" and just begin.

If you've been holding back your song because you're not enlightened enough, healed enough, or perfect enough - this one's for you. Put your hand on your heart and breathe. It's all going to be okay.