148: You Deserve the Best In Life: Get More Pleasure, Joy, and Creative Flow with Self-Improvement Guide and Multi-Orgasmic Living Expert Antonia Hall

Robert Plank: Today's guest is Antonia Hall. She's a renowned, award wining author, self-improvement guide and multi-orgasmic living expert. Her teachings offer ways to bring more pleasure, joy, creative flow and meaning into one's life in and out of the bedroom. This interview can go all kinds of different directions. How are things today, Antonia?

Antonia Hall: Things are wonderful. How about yourself?

Robert Plank: Super fantastic. Looking forward to the cool weekend but also had a great week. Could you tell us about who you are and what you do and what makes you different and special?

Antonia Hall: I am an entrepreneur myself. I run a communications business and I am an award winning, best selling author.

Robert Plank: Awesome. About what?

Antonia Hall: Well, my book is the "Ultimate Guide to the a Multi-Orgasmic Life" and it's how to bring that joyful, creative juiciness that is there for the taking into every area of your life.

Robert Plank: How do you do that?

Antonia Hall: Well, you know, because your focused on entrepreneurs and it's wonderful. When you are an entrepreneur, it's ... hopefully, you're living your dream. You're doing what you love, you get to create for yourself, which is amazing. It also requires wearing a lot of hats and that can keep you super busy, so there are a lot of techniques in my book that help with balancing and mindset. Mindset and visualization are critical tools to use.

Robert Plank: I agree with that and I think, I don't know, I didn't realize how important the mindset stuff was, especially in working from home and setting your own goals and motivating yourself. I didn't realize how important that was until maybe a few years ago. I just thought that it was either built in or I just had to wait until the productivity and the flow state and all the kind of stuff would click. Could you tell us about that mindset stuff and what's important specifically for happiness and for flow state and all that kind of cool stuff?

Antonia Hall: Yeah, absolutely. For me, I find it so intriguing the physics behind it is that physicists have told us that the universe is comprised of a unifying substance of which we're all apart. The Eastern philosophy has told us that for thousands and thousands of years. That's important because thoughts are information carrying energy. David Bohm's hologram concept all tells us that every part of that whole is within each piece of us. We are apart of that and that means that if we can see ourselves as the co-creators that we are, you'll see how what you're thinking and what you believe to be true is mirrored in your everyday life.

Robert Plank: In what kind of way?

Antonia Hall: You've got to look at what's going right. There are a lot of things that can get thrown at you when you're an entrepreneur. Seeing those challenges as opportunities for growth will completely shift everything and put you back in the place of power.

Robert Plank: Can you give me an example of that? Either with maybe your self or someone else where maybe you or they were stuck in a certain kind of way of thinking or certain kind of state or just couldn't crack a problem, and then you used some of these tools to get them to where it needs to go?

Antonia Hall: Absolutely. If you have a mindset that tells you that life is going to be full of challenges, you're more apt to create challenges in your life. If you have the mindset that says even the little bumps in the road are just opportunities for growth, then you can shift the way that you see and perceive, everything is perception, the way that things come into your life. You can see it and say oh, hey. This is an opportunity for me to learn how I'm relating with people, for example. We can come into contact with people that have a negative attitude and that brings us down. Is that someone that we want to be doing business with?

Robert Plank: Okay. That makes sense. Is this the kind of thing that you've been using in your own life? Is this something that you use day to day?

Antonia Hall: Absolutely. It's so important to look at your own mindset and to use visualization tools. Top athletes paid experts to take them through visualization. Business managers have people use visualization tools because they work. Being able to see your end goal and stepping into it is a really, really good tool to have.

Robert Plank: Can you walk me through an example of this visualization thing?

Antonia Hall: Sure. If you know where you're going, you're more apt to be able to get there. Being able to everyday just spend a couple of minutes seeing your end goal, everything is created from the inside and it's reflected on the outside. That's our thinking and the way that we communicate with people. If we constantly are telling people oh, this isn't working, this isn't working, guess what? It's not going to be likely to work out. Being able to shift that is going to empower you to create what you want and knowing where you want to go is an important part of that.

Robert Plank: Okay. Say that my goal is to double my income or to maintain the same income with half the time or something like that. What would I do, specifically, as far as this visualization thing. Is it a daily thing every time I wake up in the morning? Is it multiple times a day? Do I have to create a dream board or a vision board? What do I do?

Antonia Hall: All of that is helpful. I would at least spend a couple of times a day going into your own mind and seeing yourself already there. What does that look like? What does that feel like? See yourself already in that accomplished goal.

Robert Plank: Then what?

Antonia Hall: Then take actions and know that you're going to get there. Know that the road may not look like what you think it should look like to get there but trust that you will get there. You got to have that success mindset within yourself.

Robert Plank: That makes sense. Is that the only tool? Is that the main tool? Is that one of many tools?

Antonia Hall: One of many tools.

Robert Plank: Okay.

Antonia Hall: I would recommend getting in touch with Breathwork. Breathwork is one of the most powerful underused tools because we think the body's breathing for me. I don't need to think about breathing, it's happening. If you're stressed out, some really slow, deep breaths will help bring that balance back and balance, especially when your entrepreneur, is really, really crucial. You've got to be able to stay in your point of power which is always in the present moment. Anchoring yourself in with breath ... it seems so simple, right? It's actually incredibly powerful.

If you are totally wiped out and you've hit that lull in the afternoon, using short, quick breaths in and out through the nose will actually energize you in a minute. Bam.

Robert Plank: If I'm hearing this right, as far as this breath work kind of stuff goes. If I want to ... if I breathe like the real fast nose breaths, that's to get me to alert, get me energized. What does the deep breaths give me? Does that calm me down or what is that?

Antonia Hall: Calms you down. You know how when you're all stressed out and people say take a few deep breaths?

Robert Plank: Oh yeah.

Antonia Hall: It works. If you're not in that chaos state of being tripped out, oh my God, all this stuff is happening right now. If you just stop and take a few deep breaths and say okay, this is what's happening. How can I deal with it? You're going to be able to deal with it much better.

Robert Plank: How do I, if I have these tools and things like that with the visualization and the breath work, how do I know if I can be at my best. I think that, I don't know, if I'm too relaxed or I'm too happy or I'm too chilled out then I won't be worked up enough to actually be productive but knock out the things that I need to knock out but then I feel like if I'm too productive for too long or too intense, then I get really unhappy and that hurts me over time. Have you come across something like that? Do you have a solution for that kind of problem?

Antonia Hall: What you're describing is really an important question we all ask ourselves when we're running a business. Those two energy's, the masculine and the feminine energy ... that masculine, out in the world, make it happen, do it, do it, do it and that feminine I'm happy, I'm relaxed, I'm trusting, I'm receptive. Being able to balance the two, of using that feminine wisdom and intuition place and the out in the world place of masculine energy is when you can blend the two, that's when you're going to be at your best.

Robert Plank: How do you blend those two things?

Antonia Hall: You have to continually come into balance with yourself and check in with yourself. Where is my mindset? Where is my body? What am I thinking and feeling right now? Is this of service to my end goal? Back to that visualization point, right?

Robert Plank: Right?

Antonia Hall: Knowing what you want and where you want to go and then asking yourself am I on that path or am I letting myself get tripped up over things.

Robert Plank: What do I do if I'm not on track? What do I do if I'm not where I want to be?

Antonia Hall: Right. Then you have to reset yourself and ask what's going on with the mental state? What am I believing? Where am I getting myself tripped up? This doesn't feel in balance. Where am I not trusting the process? It's so important to be able to trust yourself and the process, because you're not the boss. You're the ... right? That's part of entrepreneurship. It's now up to you.

Being able to trust yourself to get you there and trusting the process. Are you doing the best that you can? Are you working towards goals and then are you allowing for? That's that feminine energy again. It can't be all the masculine go go go. There has to be that balance of okay, I've put a lot out there and I'm going to trust that it comes back to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Robert Plank: Yeah. I think so. Just retaking inventory and reassessing, I guess.

Antonia Hall: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Robert Plank: Is there any kind of big secret or is it just a matter of using these tools and repeating this and doing the important things every day?

Antonia Hall: I think that it is ... the more tools you have in the tool chest, the more you're going to be able to live to your greatest potential. Then remembering to rely on them. We get so busy and in that accomplishment type space. Am I getting there? Am I getting there? That can throw you off balance if you're not giving yourself the self-care. Stopping and treating yourself right, because boy, when you're running a business, you can get so caught up in the doing, the do do do do, that you're not taking care of yourself and then you're really not going to have the long haul of getting to that end goal.

Robert Plank: That makes sense and when you mentioned that, it made me think to 10-15 years ago, when I was in college and I would have the college lifestyle. I would stay up all night, overnight and I would do homework assignments at the last minute. I thought I was having fun just flying by the seat of my pants but doing that and doing the business stuff, it really caught up to me after awhile. It was the weirdest thing because I always thought that if I just wanted to be productive or I wanted to power through some project, I could just put in 20 hours straight or put in over night straight.

I noticed that might of worked maybe when I was 20, but then now that I'm in my 30's, I've noticed that every time I try to do that, I might be able to do that all nighter or might be able to put in 12 hours at a time but then the next several days are just dead days, are just days where I'm just totally burned out and I have to almost work for 2 or 3 days afterwards just to get back on track. Then I calculate, if only I had put in 2 hours, 4 hours a day times x number of days, then I would've gotten to my goal or I would've finished what I needed to finish and it would have been more careful. It would have been more attention to detail and I wouldn't have felt like I had to go through this huge ordeal of pushing myself to hard, having to recover and then having to get back.

Antonia Hall: Exactly. It's so important to stay in balance with yourself and just stop and say alright, I've done everything I can for now and I need to go back to taking care of myself.

Robert Plank: Have you ... is this the kind of thing you work with entrepreneurs? Is that right?

Antonia Hall: I tend to work with visionaries and entrepreneurs, yes.

Robert Plank: With those people that you work with, what common problem are you seeing that they all have? What's the number one problem?

Antonia Hall: It's usually the lack of self-care. It's usually not stopping to do things that bring pleasure into your life. The reason that my book is based on, "The Ultimate Guide to a Multi-Orgasmic Life" on our sexuality is sexuality is one of the most potent energies that we can tap into. It's not just the one on one sexual or by yourself. It's tapping into pleasure through all of your senses. When you are able to go back to finding pleasure in the way that it feels when you're laying in a hot bath or when your in the shower. Instead of being caught up in how did that meeting go yesterday or oh my God, I have this meeting coming up and I hope, you know, whatever you're letting your mind trick go. Coming back to that present moment of taking care of yourself, of feeling the water on your skin and just being present with that is so powerful. Then, learning to bring your own energy up through your body, will charge and invigorate you because sexual energy is creative and it's juicy and the more you're moving it through your body, the more energy you'll have.

Robert Plank: That makes sense, especially like you mentioned there ... at the end of a long day and I'm having a bath, I need to kind of forget or put aside or just shrug off the baggage of the day. Those kinds of things help me to unwind, reset and reflect ... just kind of turn off all the outside crap.

Antonia Hall: Self-care. It is so underrate and it will ... the more that you give that to yourself. That moment of relaxation, like you just said. The moment of really being present with I'm eating this food and you're tasting it and you're there in that moment with it, the more you feel taken care of and the more energy you'll have to give to your projects in getting to those end goals.

Robert Plank: That makes a lot of sense and as I'm hearing you explain this, it's almost like the ... I might make myself blush or something here, but it's almost like if you're in a sexual moment, again if it's with someone else or with yourself, there's that really important factor or just being there and not being somewhere else and not letting whatever outside stuff or whatever stuff that's running in the back of your head distract you from the current situation in the same way that if I'm at the computer or I'm doing something that needs doing. Writing, programming, messing with a webpage, something like that, it's almost like there's that same quality that's required there of just having that 100% focus, be in the moment, not let the other stuff distract you. At least, that's how I feel.

Antonia Hall: Yes, Robert. That's so, so important and it will keep you in your point of power and the more that you stay balanced in that moment and just okay, this is what I need to do right now and trusting that it unfolds right, because mindset, again, is so important, the more that you're going to be able to get through things and find that it moves through faster and with greater ease.

Robert Plank: At first glance, when we first started talking today, it almost sounded like spiritual, almost hippie kind of stuff, but the more you talk about it, the more it makes sense. The more I'm hearing that it's this really important thing that a lot of people need to either do or discover for the first time or be reminded of. I just keep thinking back to all the times when I thought that things were okay or I thought that things were in balance. I thought that things were handled and so many times if things were just out of whack, I would think things would be okay in the moment but then I might have a whole week of just zero productivity or just feel really sad or feel really run down because of the lack of that self-care and the lack of fixing problems before they became problems

Antonia Hall: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Robert Plank: Can you tell us about this book? You mentioned it a couple times. You have this Multi-Orgasmic book. Ca you tell us ... it's different from our usual topics, but that's perfectly okay. Can you tell us what this book's about and what led you to create it.

Antonia Hall: I was living in Los Angeles and it's very crazy place to live. I was stressed out from all the traffic and that hurried energy around me all the time. I started trying to find tools to help me find balance and my inner peace because I knew that I was better if I was coming from that place. The more I started using these tools and learning about new ones, I was like how do people not know this? This is amazing. It's transformative. When I went back to Grad school, they said what do you want to study and I said I want to help people make peace with their sexuality and these tools around are inherent sexuality because it's a part of nature of which we're all apart, and give people these tools so that they can find that balance and joy and boy, it really puts you in the zone. I think we've, hopefully, all had experiences where we've gotten in touch with our sexuality and then we just feel so in the zone the next day. We're happy and we're in the zone and we're creative and we're juicy. That's there for the taking all the time. That's how I came up with the "Ultimate Guide to a Multi-Orgasmic Life."

Robert Plank: Awesome. You have the book and then do you do any other kind of stuff as far as the business you've built? Do you do coaching and stuff like that?

Antonia Hall: I do sometimes do coaching. I just turned the book into an audio book so you can have me read the book to you, if you're commuting or something like that. It's very accessible. It's just a couple of pages and then an exercise, a couple pages, an exercise. It'll give you tools that the more you implement, the more it will empower you and help you get through this as a better version of you.

Robert Plank: Awesome. I know that's what I want and so, about some of the tools that you mentioned so far and that you mentioned in this talk, there's that visualization thing, there's the breath work stuff, the self-care. Is there any one last tool you want to throw there in to the mix so people have different tools or are those 3 things enough for now?

Antonia Hall: I think just remember that you deserve the best in life and you're creating it as you go along, so stay in your power and trust yourself and take care of yourself so that you can be at your best.

Robert Plank: Awesome. That's a good message and I think that as we were talking, what I was trying to think of is there have been times when I've been way to stressed out at home and then I go on vacation to Hawaii or to the beach and get really relaxed but then not want to go back or have a hard time getting back into the flow state. What you've described here is that maybe the problem was instead of letting things go get super bad so that we need a vacation or a break or a reset, to use these tools to have the balance and to manage things so that we can have everyday be one of those days that has not only the happiness but the flow state and the productivity as well. That complete fulfillment. Is that right?

Antonia Hall: Yes. That is absolutely right.

Robert Plank: Awesome. Glad to hear it and I like these tools that you shared with us. Could you tell us where people can find your book, find your audio book and find the websites that you create so they can find out more about you/

Antonia Hall: "The Ultimate Guide to a Multi-Orgasmic Life" at AntoniaHall.com.

Robert Plank: Perfect. Short and to the point and gets you there. AntoniaHall.com. Thanks for stopping by the show, Antonia ...

Antonia Hall: Thank you.

Robert Plank: ... and for telling us about not just how to ... I guess the multi-orgasmic component is for people to go and get your book but as far as the simple stuff to get back on that track to have a more self aware life, visualization, breath work, self-care and the book is "The Ultimate Guide to a Multi-Orgasmic Life." AntoniaHall.com and thanks Antonia for stopping by the show.

Antonia Hall: Thank you, Robert.