The Inner Wealth Podcast

Hosted by Mike Kitko

Business Entrepreneurship Education Health Fitness

Website RSS feed LinkedIn Facebook Instagram YouTube

Episodes

274

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Mike Kitko is the Founder and Creative Director of Inner Wealth Global, a personal and professional development company that helps business owners create aligned wealth, success, freedom, and deep fulfillment—without sacrificing themselves in the process. As an author, speaker, podcaster, and coach Mike guides visionaries and impact-driven entrepreneurs to align their inner world with the life and business they are truly meant to live and create. His work helps you master your mind, energy, and emotions while building intense personal power so that wealth and opportunity flow effortlessly. Through coaching, training, and transformational content, Inner Wealth Global helps business owners break free from unnecessary struggle, trust their path, and create a life deeply aligned with their soul.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 22, 20261 hr 0 min

Ep273. Stop Playing Defense: Go on Offense and Start Living (Buyer's Club Speaking Engagement.)

Send me a some feedback! How much of your life is organized around avoiding judgment, failure, or loss? Playing defense can keep you repeating familiar patterns while the experiences you want stay out of reach. Going on offense starts with getting honest about what you want and becoming willing to move through the discomfort of pursuing it. In this episode of the Inner Wealth Podcast , Mike shares his live Buyers Club talk, Stop Playing Defense, Go on Offense . Through stories about Marine Corps boot camp, skydiving, facing body shame, and rebuilding his marriage, he explores the courage it takes to be seen and create something different. He also answers audience questions about writing a vision, choosing the next step, and finding people who challenge you to grow. Key Takeaways Recognize the Patterns That Keep You Playing Defense. Avoiding criticism, hiding your wins, and feeling guilty about wanting more can shape your decisions. Mike calls these learned patterns adaptive protective programs, or APPs . Start noticing which ones show up when you’re about to do something unfamiliar. Practice Moving Through Discomfort. Mike’s stories about boot camp, skydiving, and confronting body shame show what going on offense looks like in practice. Notice what you’re feeling, explore what’s behind it, and give yourself room to respond. Courage includes taking a meaningful step while fear is still present. Get Honest About What You Want. Your wants and needs matter, and asking for them begins with knowing what they are. Mike shares the written relationship vision he created during a painful chapter of his marriage. Sit down without distractions and describe the life you want to experience, even if it feels far from where you are today. Use Your Vision to Choose the Next Step. You don’t need every detail worked out before you begin. Ask whether an opportunity moves you closer to your vision, and identify one small action you can take. During the audience Q&A, Mike also explores the difference between discomfort around growth and a choice that doesn’t fit what you want. Keep Your Vision Present and Build Support Around It. Revisit your vision daily and practice visualizing and feeling the life you’re working toward. Surround yourself with allies who encourage you, challenge you, and notice when you’re backing away from what matters. Keep taking action as your vision develops. Notable Quotes “We were born to go on offense. And it takes feeling things that you'd rather not feel, saying things that you'd rather not say, doing things that you'd rather not do.” “Courage is not the absence of fear. It's the presence of fear and the ability and the willingness to go into the fear.” “But at the end of the day, your needs and wants matter too.” “And in order to be different, in order to have different, you gotta do something different. Because if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.” “The vision is the greatest tool that I know of to get you out of defense. To get you focused back on to your intentions.” Go on Offense. Where are you ready to take up more space in your life? Grab a pen and paper, get honest about what you want, and choose one step you can take today. Give yourself permission to ask for what matters to you. Get the free Choose Your Destiny: Start Playing Offense video course: https://learn.innerwealthglobal.com/chooseyourdestinystartplayingoffense Explore the Choose Your Destiny Live Virtual Intensive : https://learn.innerwealthglobal.com/chooseyourdestinyvirtualintensive For private coaching, the Inner Wealth Mastermind, and upcoming events, visit InnerWealthGlobal.com or email Mike@InnerWealthGlobal.com . If this episode speaks to you, share it with someone who’s ready to go on offense. Subscribe to the Inner Wealth Podcast and leave a rating or review to help more people find the show. Mike’s Media Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

October 15, 202652 min

Ep272. Choose Your Destiny: Start Playing Offense.

Send me a some feedback! You get to choose what you want to experience, create, and become. That starts with getting honest about the life you want and putting that vision on paper. Choosing your destiny means giving your life a clear direction and becoming willing to move through the discomfort that comes with creating something new. In this episode, Mike shares his complete free course, Choose Your Destiny: Start Playing Offense , with a new introduction. Drawing on his own transformation, he explores defensive patterns, creating a vision for your health, wealth, impact, and relationships, and practicing visualization and embodiment. He also shares how daily action, accountability, and community can help you keep moving toward a life you’re excited to wake up to. Key Takeaways Recognize Where You’re Playing Defense. Playing defense means making choices around avoiding experiences you don’t want, such as failure, judgment, rejection, or being alone. Mike invites you to notice where avoidance is directing your decisions and get clear about what you actually want to experience. Name the Protective Patterns That Keep You in Familiar Circumstances. Mike calls these patterns adaptive protective programs, or APPs . Perfectionism, people-pleasing, and avoiding failure can influence your choices long after you learned them. Recognizing and naming those patterns gives you a chance to choose how you move forward. Create a Vision That Gives Growth Meaning. Write down what you want in your health, wealth, impact, and relationships , including how you want to feel. Give yourself room to dream without needing to figure out every detail of how or when it will happen. A clear vision gives purpose to the discomfort you encounter along the way. Practice Being the Person You’re Becoming. Mike introduces visualization and embodiment as daily practices for connecting with your vision. Picture yourself living that life, explore how it would feel, and use the Installing Future You meditation to support the practice. Then carry that vision into the choices and actions you take throughout your day. Build Support Around Your Vision. Accountability and community can help you recognize when you’re slipping back into defensive patterns and reconnect with what matters to you. Mike shares how coaching, the mastermind, workshops, and retreats support this work. You get to take the steps with people alongside you who encourage and challenge you to keep going. Notable Quotes “Going on offense means not allowing internal discomfort to control us, to manipulate us, to stop us, to prevent us from doing the thing, from being the person, from having the thing.” “When we're clear about exactly what it is we're looking to create, we give meaning and purpose to that discomfort.” “But again, I'm gonna encourage you, the what of your vision is your responsibility. The how and the when are not.” “And then after you see that for a while, drop into your body and start to feel that it's already complete, feel that it already exists and sit like that as long as you possibly can. Sit like that as frequently as you can.” “We don't allow it to master us, we master it. We name it, we sit with it, we realize it, but we move forward.” Choose Your Destiny. Take some time today to put your vision on paper. What do you want to experience in your health, wealth, impact, and relationships? How do you want to feel when you wake up each day? Get clear, sit with that vision, and choose an action that moves you toward it. Get the free Choose Your Destiny: Start Playing Offense video course, including the workbook and Installing Future You meditation: https://learn.innerwealthglobal.com/chooseyourdestinystartplayingoffense Explore the Choose Your Destiny Live Virtual Intensive beginning in November: https://learn.innerwealthglobal.com/chooseyourdestinyvirtualintensive For private coaching, the Inner Wealth Mastermind, and upcoming events, visit InnerWealthGlobal.com or email Mike@InnerWealthGlobal.com . Mike’s Media Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

October 8, 202624 min

Ep271. Don't Die With Your Song in You: Stop Waiting to Live (with Angie).

Send me a some feedback! There are experiences you’ve wanted for years, and it’s easy to keep telling yourself you’ll get to them later. A clear vision keeps those desires in front of you when fear, money worries, or discomfort start making your decisions. Playing offense means getting honest about what you want from this life and becoming willing to move toward it. In this episode, Mike and Angie share what a long-awaited European trip taught them about vision and the time we have. After 26 years of talking about Germany, they finally experienced Oktoberfest, then traveled on to Vienna and Prague. Their visit to the Bone Church became a powerful reminder of mortality and the dreams people leave unfulfilled. They explore old protective patterns, returning to your vision, and what it means to live without dying with your song still in you. Key Takeaways 1. Your Vision Can Outlast Your Timeline Mike and Angie held their dream of visiting Germany for 26 years. Angie distinguishes goals with deadlines from a vision that gives your life an overarching direction. Get clear about the experiences you want, and give them room to unfold. 2. Notice When Fear Puts You on Defense Mike describes playing defense as organizing your life around avoiding negative circumstances. He calls learned protective patterns adaptive protective programs , or APPs. Recognizing those patterns can help you see where fear is keeping you from experiences you want. 3. Use Your Vision as a Pattern Interrupt When money fear or self-doubt shows up, Mike and Angie return to what they want to feel and experience. Revisiting your vision gives you a pattern interrupt and a way to refocus your attention while you work through uncomfortable circumstances. 4. Remember That Your Time Is Limited Standing in the Bone Church, Mike and Angie reflected on the lives and stories behind the human remains. The experience brought mortality into focus and renewed their commitment to travel and fully live. Continually saving your dreams for later has a cost. 5. Move Through Discomfort Toward What Matters New experiences can bring discomfort, and Mike encourages listeners to stay connected to what they want as they move through it. He closes with an exercise: look back at things you once wanted and have already experienced, then recognize how much has become possible. Notable Quotes “And this isn't an exercise in impatience. Going to Oktoberfest was part of our vision for 26 years.” (Mike) “Without a vision, we can't fully know how to play on offense.” (Mike) “And the spiritual feeling that the church wants to evoke is memento mori. Remember that you will die.” (Angie) “Don't ever, ever pretend you don't have any emotions or feelings. And don't think you shouldn't have the emotions and feelings that you have.” (Mike) “Don't die with your song in you.” (Mike) Call to Action Take some time today to look back at the things you once wanted and have already experienced . Then get clear about what you still want from this life. What keeps getting pushed to later? What would it look like to start playing offense in that area and move through the discomfort that comes with it? If you’re ready to get clear about what you want and start playing offense with your life , connect with me through www.InnerWealthGlobal.com or email me directly at Mike@InnerWealthGlobal.com . Mike's Media Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

October 1, 202621 min

Ep270. Your Vision Makes the Discomfort Worth It: Why Growth Requires Something Bigger Than Comfort.

Send me a some feedback! A clear and powerful vision does more than give you something to work toward. It gives meaning and purpose to the discomfort you’ll inevitably experience while creating something you’ve never experienced before. Growth requires unfamiliar territory, and unfamiliar territory creates discomfort. The question is whether you have a vision powerful enough to make that discomfort worth moving through. In this episode, Mike shares how his vision of becoming a United States Marine carried him through the pain and chaos of boot camp, how the nervous system adapts as unfamiliar experiences become familiar, and how Viktor Frankl’s work helped him connect meaning, purpose, vision, and our willingness to endure difficult circumstances . Ultimately, playing offense with your life means getting clear about what you came here to experience, create, and become—and becoming willing to move through the discomfort required to create it. Key Takeaways 1. A Powerful Vision Gives Discomfort Meaning When you are deeply clear about what you want to create, become, or experience, discomfort becomes part of the journey toward something that matters. Vision gives you a reason to keep moving when growth gets uncomfortable. 2. Growth Requires You to Make the Unfamiliar Familiar Your nervous system naturally feels safer in circumstances it already knows. Repeated exposure to new experiences allows your body to adapt until what once created intense discomfort becomes something you can handle. 3. Comfort and Growth Require Different Choices Creating expanded circumstances requires doing things you haven’t done before. If you continually retreat when discomfort appears, you return to what is familiar instead of continuing toward what you want. 4. Meaning and Purpose Change What You Are Willing to Endure Mike connects his experience in Marine Corps boot camp with Viktor Frankl’s observations about meaning, purpose, and the human will to continue through extraordinarily difficult circumstances. When you have something meaningful on the other side of the discomfort, the discomfort itself has purpose. 5. Playing Offense Requires Clarity and Willingness Playing defense means organizing your life around avoiding negative circumstances and internal discomfort. Playing offense means getting clear about what you want to experience, create, and become—and becoming willing to move through the discomfort required to create it. Notable Quotes “A powerful and clear vision for who you're becoming, what you intend to experience, for wherever you intend, the quality of life you intend to create, for the, anything you intend to accomplish or accumulate. A clear and powerful vision will help you find meaning and purpose in all of the discomfort and pain required to experience it.” “The more familiar circumstances become, the more regulated your nervous system begins to feel in them and begins to experience them. So the same thing that causes discomfort on day one doesn't even move anything inside of you on day 90.” “What we need to do, is to find meaning, and purpose in that discomfort, so that you move into and through to discomfort, towards something unfamiliar, to something new, and to expanded circumstances.” “In order to master this, the creation process, in order to experience something brand new, something new, something expanded, something even better than what you're experiencing right now, you must be willing to face and endure discomfort and pain.” “The willingness and the ability to feel and move into that discomfort and pain is gonna separate someone who's playing offense in life from someone who's playing defense.” Call to Action Take some time today and get clear about the dream that’s in your heart. What do you want to experience? What do you want to create? Who do you want to become? And what discomfort might you need to become willing to move through in order to experience it? If you’re ready to get clear about what you want and start playing offense with your life , connect with me through www.InnerWealthGlobal.com or email me directly at Mike@InnerWealthGlobal.com . Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

September 24, 202625 min

Ep269. Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Growth Requires You to Endure What Your Nervous System Avoids.

Send me a some feedback! In this episode, Mike Kitko breaks down one of the clearest differences he sees between people who create extraordinary levels of wealth, success, fulfillment, and impact and those who continually struggle to gain traction. After years of working with high-performing entrepreneurs, Mike has simplified it to two things: extreme clarity about what you want and the willingness, ability, and capacity to endure the discomfort required to create it. Mike explores why growth is inherently uncomfortable and why your nervous system often resists the very things you say you want. Through experiences from Marine Corps boot camp, skydiving, his own career transition, and conversations with private clients, he explains how unfamiliar circumstances create internal discomfort—and why learning to stay in that discomfort long enough for your nervous system to realign is essential to expanding your life. Key Takeaways 1. Clarity Is the First Requirement for Creating What You Want People who create exceptional lives have intense clarity about what they want, who they want to become, how they want to feel, and what they are committed to experiencing. When you stop focusing on what you’re trying to avoid and give yourself full permission to want what you want, that clarity becomes a creative force that moves you forward. 2. Growth Requires the Capacity to Endure Discomfort Knowing what you want isn’t enough. Growth requires moving into the discomfort of something unfamiliar and staying there long enough for your nervous system to adjust. The people who consistently expand their lives aren’t necessarily experiencing less discomfort—they’ve developed a greater capacity to endure it. 3. Your Nervous System Prioritizes Familiarity Over Expansion Your nervous system is designed to keep you alive, and one way it does that is by attempting to keep you in circumstances it already recognizes. A new relationship, career, business, level of wealth, or version of yourself can feel unsafe simply because it’s unfamiliar. That discomfort doesn’t necessarily mean you’re moving in the wrong direction. 4. Many People Retreat When They’re Closest to What They Want Mike shares three recent examples of people who had the opportunity to receive exactly what they said they wanted but stopped at the threshold because taking the final step created uncertainty and discomfort. Sometimes the greatest resistance appears when you’re standing at the edge of becoming someone you’ve never been before. 5. Growth and Comfort Cannot Coexist Expansion requires entering unfamiliar territory. Whether you’re building wealth, changing careers, deepening relationships, or creating a completely different life, there will be moments when your nervous system urges you to retreat to what it already knows. Your willingness to continue through that discomfort determines how far you’re able to expand. Notable Quotes “Not everybody has the same level of willingness to endure discomfort that growth requires.” “Growth does require discomfort because it’s unfamiliar. It’s territory you’ve never entered before.” “Everybody knows exactly what they don’t want and they wake up each and every day to avoid it. And very few people know exactly what they want.” “The second one is the one that’s most challenging, and that’s the willingness, the capacity, and the ability to move into and through the discomfort that’s required to grow.” “Growth or comfort, can’t have both.” Call to Action If this episode hit home and you recognize that you’re standing at the edge of something you want but struggling to move through the discomfort required to receive it, let’s connect. Visit innerwealthglobal.com or email Mike directly at mike@innerwealthglobal.com . No assistant. No gatekeeper. Just a conversation about where you are, what you want, and how we can expand your capacity to step into what’s next. Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

September 17, 202645 min

Ep268. Unleash Yourself, Part 2: Everybody Knows What They Don’t Want—But What Do You Actually Want?

Send me a some feedback! In Part Two of Unleash Yourself, Mike shifts from playing defense to going on offense. Most people have tremendous clarity about what they don’t want and spend their lives trying to avoid negative circumstances, consequences, and feelings. Going on offense begins by getting clear about what you actually want to create, experience, and express. Mike explores the relationship between clarity, inspiration, creation, and receiving—and why having success, wealth, love, or freedom means very little if you cannot actually experience it within yourself. This episode challenges you to stop building your life around avoidance, reconnect with the vision inside you, and begin creating a life that leaves you excited to wake up and live it. Key Takeaways 1. Everybody Knows What They Don’t Want Most people have tremendous clarity about the circumstances and feelings they want to avoid, but very few have developed the same clarity about what they actually want. 2. Clarity Moves You From Survival Into Creation When you have a vision for your life, you finally have something to wake up and create instead of spending your energy trying to prevent everything you fear. 3. Inspiration Is a Different Way to Create Insecurity, inadequacy, and insignificance can keep you creating from survival, while inspiration allows you to create for the experience, expression, and expansion itself. 4. You Experience Your Life Through Your Body Having money, success, love, freedom, or accomplishment does not guarantee that you will experience those things if you have not learned how to receive and feel them within yourself. 5. Going on Offense Starts With What You Actually Want If the life you’re living no longer works for you, wipe the slate clean and get clear about the health, relationships, wealth, impact, experiences, and life you would choose if you were no longer organizing everything around what you’re trying to avoid. Notable Quotes “Everybody knows exactly what they don’t want. Everybody knows exactly what they wake up to avoid every single day. And for most people, that is their intention in life. They wake up every day to avoid the negative consequences that they don’t want to experience.” “You’re in survival mode when you’re driven by insecurity, inadequacy, insignificance, but you’re in creation mode when you’re driven by inspiration. And inspiration and clarity go hand in hand.” “When we have that vision, then it energizes us and we have something to wake up to create instead of just a whole bunch of stuff to avoid.” “If you are successful, but you don’t feel successful, you’re not really experiencing your success. If I’m managing a $350 million operation and I feel like a fraud, then I’m experiencing life as being a fraud.” “If you feel like the overall makeup of your life isn’t working for you, then let’s start getting clear about what it would look like to wake up excited every day, on fire for your life—not trying to avoid those internal conflicts, but to feel the inspiration of your life.” Take the Next Step If you’re ready to stop organizing your life around what you’re trying to avoid and get clear about what you actually want to create, experience, and become, reach out to me directly. Visit https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ or email me at mike@innerwealthglobal.com Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

September 10, 202639 min

Ep267. Unleash Yourself, Part 1: Stop Playing Defense With Your Life and Move Beyond What's Familiar.

Send me a some feedback! In Part One of this two-part series, Mike shares the opening training from his recent two-day workshop, Unleash Yourself, and explores what it means to play defense in life. Your nervous system tries to keep you alive by keeping you within circumstances that feel familiar—even when you consciously want something more. Expansion requires moving beyond the familiar, and that means discomfort is inevitable. Mike explores why new circumstances can cause us to retreat or sabotage what we want, and why learning to work with your nervous system is essential if you want to stop playing not to lose and begin experiencing more of life. Key Takeaways 1. Playing Defense Is About Trying Not to Lose Defense organizes your life around maintaining what you already have and preventing negative circumstances and consequences. 2. Your Nervous System Prefers What’s Familiar Your nervous system attempts to keep you safe by pulling you toward circumstances it already recognizes and knows how to navigate. 3. Expansion Will Create Discomfort Moving into new and unfamiliar circumstances can create discomfort even when those circumstances are exactly what you consciously want. 4. Retreat Can Look Like Self-Sabotage When unfamiliar circumstances create enough discomfort, you may unconsciously retreat, sabotage progress, or return to circumstances that feel more familiar. 5. Learning to Work With Your Nervous System Changes the Game Growth requires developing the ability to move into and through the discomfort that naturally accompanies expansion instead of allowing that discomfort to continually send you back into defense. Notable Quotes “Your nervous system tries to keep you alive by keeping you in familiar circumstances. So it’s going to create discomfort so that you back up and ultimately retreat in life when something new and unfamiliar starts to show up.” “Your nervous system is actually trying to serve you, but it doesn’t care if we’re wealthy or successful or happy or fulfilled. All it cares about is keeping us alive.” “We’ve got to learn how to work with the nervous system and go into and through the discomfort that is eventual and constant in the expansion of our lives.” “Most people are playing defense, and defense is all about trying to keep everything that you have together, trying not to lose, and trying to prevent negative circumstances and consequences.” “Going on offense is the fun part of life. Playing defense is trying to keep everything you have together and not lose, where going on offense is about expanding and experiencing more of life.” Take the Next Step If you recognize that you’ve been playing defense in your life and you’re ready to understand what’s keeping you there and learn how to move forward, reach out to me directly. Visit https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ or email me at mike@innerwealthglobal.com . Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

September 3, 202627 min

Ep266. Remaining Committed: Staying on Offense When Life Doesn’t Go According to Plan (with Angie.)

Send me a some feedback! Fresh from our latest workshop, Angie and I sit down in San Francisco to talk about one of the simplest and most powerful frameworks my work has evolved into: the difference between playing defense and playing offense. We also get personal about what happened when the workshop didn’t produce the outcome we wanted, how quickly disappointment can pull us back into defense, and what it looks like to master your nervous system and keep trusting where your life is going. Key Takeaways 1. Defense Is About Protection Playing defense means organizing your life around preventing negative circumstances and maintaining what feels safe and familiar. 2. Offense Is About Expansion Playing offense means trusting yourself enough to move toward growth, new experiences, and the life you actually want. 3. Your Nervous System Wants Familiarity Past experiences can cause your nervous system to pull you toward familiar circumstances even when you consciously want something different. 4. Preferences Can Puncture Peace Disappointment can take over when we become emotionally attached to how we believed something was supposed to unfold. 5. Mastery Allows You to Stay on Offense Nervous system mastery helps you move through uncertainty without allowing circumstances to send you back into defense. Notable Quotes “At any given time, in any aspect of life and in the moment, you’re either playing offense or defense.” “Defense is comfort. It’s focused on comfort. And offense is focused on growth.” “Maybe it’s the preferences that were the problem, not the reality.” “It’s not go time all the time, but it always is time to stay on offense and to trust that the future is going to be better than you could ever imagine.” “Wherever your nervous system is entangled with circumstances and your expectations, it’s time to detangle them.” Take the Next Step If this episode hits home and you want to go deeper into this work, reach out to me personally at mike@innerwealthglobal.com . And if you’re listening on an audio podcast platform, make sure you’re also subscribed to The Inner Wealth Podcast on YouTube , especially over the next couple of weeks. I’ll be sharing recordings from the workshop, and the video versions will let you see the slides and visuals that accompany the teaching. If you normally watch on YouTube, subscribe to the audio podcast as well to help us increase our reach and impact! Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

August 27, 202629 min

Ep265. Stop Playing Life on Defense: The Unconscious Programs Protecting You From the Life You Want.

Send me a some feedback! What if the fears and behaviors keeping you stuck aren’t random—but protective programs running beneath your awareness? In this episode, Mike introduces APPs: Adaptive Protective Programs , unconscious patterns created to protect us from pain but which can eventually become limitations. Through a deeply personal story, Mike explores how his own APP— “love equals pain” —shaped his relationships, business, and ability to receive love and acceptance. He explains how identifying and releasing these programs can help us stop organizing life around what we’re trying to avoid and finally begin playing offense. Key Takeaways 1. APPs Are Adaptive Protective Programs APPs are unconscious patterns designed to protect us from experiences our nervous system has associated with pain. 2. APPs Keep Us Playing Defense Fear of judgment, rejection, abandonment, failure, or visibility can keep us focused on avoiding pain instead of creating what we want. 3. Yesterday’s Protection Can Become Today’s Limitation An APP may have helped you navigate an earlier experience, but that same protection can restrict your growth long after the original circumstances have changed. 4. Awareness Gives You the Opportunity to Uninstall the APP When an APP activates, the DRILL Method helps you recognize the feeling, investigate it, listen to what it’s telling you, and begin letting it go. 5. You’re Here to Play Offense Releasing outdated protective patterns allows you to move beyond survival and put more of your energy toward expansion, creation, and the life you came here to experience. Notable Quotes “We play life to avoid something instead of to create something. That is playing life on defense. It’s basically protecting ourselves from something instead of unleashing ourselves in the world.” “The nervous system has one job and one job only, and that’s to keep you alive. It tries to keep you alive by keeping you in familiar circumstances because it knows it can keep you alive there.” “There was an APP installed very early in childhood that my body developed as a defense mechanism to keep me from getting hurt. And that APP said: love equals pain.” “We’re not here to live our lives through these APPs and hold on to them. We are here to become aware of them, acknowledge them, understand what they were trying to protect us from, and finally let them go.” “You are not here in this meat suit just to survive until your very last breath. You are here to expand your circumstances, expand your experience of life, and experience the dream that you came here to experience.” Take the Next Step What APP is running in the background of your life? Maybe it’s telling you not to be seen, not to risk rejection, not to trust, not to ask for what you want, or not to become too successful. The work is not to judge these patterns. It’s to recognize them, understand what they’ve been protecting you from, and begin releasing the protection you no longer need. If this episode revealed something in you and you’re ready to dive deeper into your own APPs, nervous system, self-concept, and the patterns keeping you on defense, reach out to me personally at mike@innerwealthglobal.com . Let’s explore how we can work together to help you uninstall what’s keeping you stuck and begin playing offense for the life you actually came here to experience. Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

August 20, 202631 min

Ep264. Belief, Clarity & Your Nervous System: The 3 Keys to Creating the Life You Actually Want.

Send me a some feedback! Why do some people receive the same strategies, opportunities, and information but create completely different results? In this episode, Mike shares three foundational elements he has seen separate those who transform their lives from those who remain stuck. Those three elements are belief, clarity, and nervous system mastery . When you believe in yourself, get clear about what you truly want, and learn to move through the discomfort of unfamiliar circumstances, you become far more capable of creating and receiving the life you actually desire. Key Takeaways 1. Belief Is the Starting Point Sometimes you need someone else to believe in you until you develop enough evidence and experience to believe in yourself. 2. Clarity Is Power Most people know exactly what they don't want. Getting clear about what you do want gives your energy a direction and moves you from survival toward creation. 3. Your Nervous System Prefers the Familiar Your nervous system has one job: to keep you alive. It tries to accomplish that by keeping you in circumstances where it has already proven it can keep you alive. 4. Growth Requires Discomfort Creating something new requires moving beyond what currently feels familiar. That discomfort isn't necessarily a signal to stop—it can be a sign that you're encountering the current limits of your nervous system. 5. Put All Three Together Belief opens you to possibility. Clarity gives you direction. Nervous system mastery helps you move through the resistance that appears as you create a new normal. Notable Quotes “You are way more powerful than you will ever, ever know, than you will ever realize, and you will ever feel. Just having somebody believe in me when I didn't believe in myself was like a launching pad for me.” “Everybody in life knows what they don't want, but very few know what they do. There is so much power in clarity. It gives clear direction for the energy in your life.” “There is a dream buried inside of you. But if you don't look for it and if you don't get clear about it, you'll wake up to just survive. And when you unlock that dream, you give yourself the ability to thrive.” “Your nervous system has one goal and one goal only, and that's to keep you alive. It tries to keep you alive by trying to keep you in familiar circumstances because it has proven effective in being able to keep you alive there.” “You can't have growth and comfort at the same time. Growth requires understanding the current limits of the nervous system and beginning to work through them. If you master your nervous system, then it'll stop mastering you.” Take the Next Step Where are you struggling most? Believing in yourself? Getting clear about what you actually want? Or breaking through the discomfort that comes with change and transformation? These are exactly the areas we'll explore in my next live intensive workshop, Built to Give, Rebuilt to Receive . If you're ready to identify what's keeping you stuck and begin expanding your capacity to receive the life you truly want, join me at the next workshop. Click Here for More Details! Or reach out to me personally. Tell me where you're struggling, and let's start the conversation. mike@innerwealthglobal.com Mike's Media: Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikekitko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekitko Music Credit: " What's Left of Me " by Wes Hoffman & Friends

Is this your show?

Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.

Claim this listing

More Business podcasts

The Bottom Line

Alexander Spencer

BusinessInterviews guests