Episode 123: Jeff Scult on Loving Yourself, Discovering Your Inner Gold, and One Golden Thread

Hanging Out with Jeff Scult and David Pasqualone

Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!: [00:00:00] Warning: The interview you’re about to experience has already positively changed people’s lives. If applied appropriately, it can change yours too. The views expressed are those of the guest and host. The content of this podcast is not meant to be legal, financial, or medical advice. Warning: This episode may contain graphic details of the guest’s life. Listener discretion is advised.

David Pasqualone: Hello, friend. Welcome to this week’s episode of the Remarkable People Podcast. Today we have with us Jeff Scult. Jeff, welcome to the show.

Jeff Scult: So happy to be here.

It’s great to see you.

David Pasqualone: Oh, man, we are happy to have you, and ladies and gentlemen, whether you’ve been with us for one episode today or whether you’ve been with us all nine years or something in between, today Jeff and I are going to go through his life story. We’re going to transition into where he is today, where he’s heading next, but all along the way in his remarkable journey, he’s going to drop pieces of gold.

And like our [00:01:00] slogan says, we wanna not just listen, but we wanna do the good we can pick up from Jeff’s example, repeat it each day, form those excellent habits so we can have a great life in this world, but more importantly, an eternity to come. So at this time, Jeff, tell us, if our listeners commit to spending this moment of life with you, what do you guarantee they’re going to get from the episode, at least one thing, so that they can live a better existence and thrive?

Jeff Scult: First of all, I’m no guru. I’m no woo-woo. The what I’m here as a mirror, and what I will guarantee is that they will fall more deeply in love with a piece of their life, a piece of themselves that’s always been there. Because the philosophy that I think we all get to see is that we were all b- born golden, and that whatever has happened or is happening or the stories we tell ourselves or the meaning we attach to it, something about life happened along the way and we get to go back right now, [00:02:00] right here, right now, and say we get to reprocess that, reframe the game, see that we get to remember who we are.

And there’s something which we’re going to ignite inside to reveal who we are anew. And that’s what I guarantee, because this is what I wake up blessed that we get to spend another day on this planet together. And I truly believe with four white walls we’re nothing, but better together we can rock and roll.

This is a, this is going to be a co-creative moment together, and this is what I believe is that you are golden inside and it’s that gold that’s inside us truly that is the thread to unite us, and we’re going to find a little bit more of that gold that already exists inside you.

David Pasqualone: Awesome. There’s times all of us have ups and downs and everything in between.

So ladies and gentlemen, we’ll take a quick affiliate break and come back with our friend Jeff.

 

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David Pasqualone: All right, Jeff, let’s do this. Our audience is here to learn from you, but what you are here to tell us, it didn’t just happen one [00:04:00] day. It’s… it built up from your birth to today. So quickly, bring us through the journey.

Who is Jeff? Where are you from? What’s your origin story? The good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, the pretty ugly. Everything that made you the man you are

Jeff Scult: Yeah. I was– I’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed. You know, I was born into a artist household with two parents who met on a blind date and were married five weeks later in full send, bought the house, had two kids within 15 months, and and or, or 18 months. Let’s do the real math. And my mother was an extraordinary woman. She passed actually the day that COVID got real, on March 20 2000– March 10, 2020. And she saw life through an artist’s lens. And so for her, she was the punniest person I knew.

She was always hanging art upside down, turning things inside out, seeing life as a piece of clay. And we– I definitely got a lot from her in terms [00:05:00] of being an artist that I frankly pushed away for almost half a century in terms of seeing myself as a creator. My father who’s 94 years young today is is an extraordinary man who’s precise with his words.

He was a naturalist. He took us into nature. And so for me, I– my mother’s art was all about nature and us as one. So I, I was born into this notion that, that nature and us is one, yet I pushed it away as I grew. Look, it was not a perfect everything and, there was a lot of, OTJ on-the-job training with my parents, and there was a lot of, fighting in the household and things of this nature.

And my survival mechanism we all develop it growing up, was that for me I was a great reflector. I saw the gold that’s inside everybody else, but I pushed it away myself. And so I developed this weird ability as a young child to be really happy on the outside, but on the inside I didn’t know who I was.

I didn’t [00:06:00] know what I was here to do. I was just here to keep the peace. So I was– I grew as an adult to be a people pleaser and as I said this beautiful mirroring to see the gold that’s inside people. I remember there were moments as a child that I was more interested in being around my parents’ friends than my f- my, my buddies and I would observe something in them and take them on a journey as a nine-year-old and ask them a question, and then ask them a follow-up question to see the gold that resided inside them.

And they’d cry to my parents “Your son just literally unpacked something that I forgot was alive inside myself.” This is a– So I was a weird kid. And weird is an interesting word because weird is one of those words that’s g- that’s gotten hijacked Dave, do you know the actual definition of the word weird?

Because, most people think it’s that outlier, it’s that person that can’t fit in and what have you.

David Pasqualone: The first thought that comes to my mind is strange. Weird is a form of strange. Yeah.

Jeff Scult: Outlier. Yeah. Yeah. Weird, the [00:07:00] original definition of weird in the old English dictionary is one who’s acting supernatural and who’s following their destiny is there anything more remarkable than that?

But for me that was a terrifying thing to be seen as somebody who was an outlier. So I just blended in. I was a chameleon. And a- as a as a young man it became that, that skill that I had, that superpower to see the gold inside people, was actually a deflection mechanism, not a reflection mechanism.

I just was, like, deflecting because I was so fearful of actually sharing anything of myself. The notion of me being on this podcast as a child or even as an adult up until probably twel- 12, 12 years ago would’ve been a non-starter. I would’ve rather go stick pin- pins and needles in my eyes and go, and go, and it just wouldn’t have happened because I would’ve been afraid you would ask something of myself, [00:08:00] something about me.

And I would’ve flipped it back to you so fast you wouldn’t have even known you asked me a question. So I don’t know if any, of the listeners can relate, but that people-pleasing gene is one that that, that is unfailingly nice. And I was unfailingly nice, but I was not kind. Because kindness is telling the truth, telling your truth.

There is no one truth. Let’s get that out of the way. And so as a young adult I continued to develop this, beautiful reflection mechanism, and I did it. I began to do it in, in, in business. And I was always a an amplifier for other people’s visions and values and vibrations and dreams.

I became… I cut my teeth in advertising, and even that was interesting. And I don’t know if anybody can relate, is that, when I was when I was in, in in college one of the great Everything was w- was an illusion. What am I even here doing today? And I went into advertising department took a copywriting class, and that’s when something clicked, [00:09:00] because it was about sto- telling stories.

And I did an assignment in a in a semester that, that… And I did it in three days, and the professor called me in. He said, “Who helped you with this?” And I said I just, it just came effortlessly.” He says, “You’re, you’ve got that it. You should be a copywriter. You should be going into advertising.” And he recommended me to one of the top advertising agencies in the, in, in the country, and I chickened out.

I joined that agency, but I joined as an account guy. I, again, hiding behind my gifts, amplifying for other peoples. And even within that it was interesting. Jim Albright was the name of the professor, and he’s, and he… I remember the letter, the testimony he wrote. He says, “I have…” He says, “I have no idea why one of the best copywriters I’ve come across as a student is choosing to be an account guy, but you’re lucky to get him.”

And so what I did even then was I became like this Cyrano de Bergerac. I would write creative briefs and I would tuck in a tagline for the creatives to use even though that’s not [00:10:00] my job. And they would use it. They’d say “We love working with Jeff because he’s like giving us he’s amplify, but he wasn’t here for himself.”

So that, that continued and I became a serial entrepreneur for other people’s visions, did a number of different things and what was happening though along the way in my late 30s and early 40s was I was getting sick. And it’s a fascinating thing to understand that we can make ourselves well, we can g- we can grant ourselves or we can actually toxify ourselves from the inside out.

And that feeling inside, David, that I was feeling, there was something inside me that was being unexpressed

was something that I had walking pneumonia three times in seven years, and it would always start in my throat and drop into my lungs, and then I literally couldn’t walk, couldn’t breathe. And what was happening was that that feeling inside, I would wake up every day saying “I am less than” instead of a yes, and to life.

And and it’s [00:11:00] amazing thing when origin stories start. You ask what’s your origin story? And it’s an interesting thing because there were a number of different points along that way. I’ve been at Burning Man 10 times, and in 2010 I was so excited and fearful to go to Burning Man because that was like my…

I knew there was something there for me, but I didn’t know what it was. And talk

David Pasqualone: about, talk about Burning Man for those not familiar with it. Yeah. Just quick summary.

Jeff Scult: Burning Man is more than a festival. It’s a gathering in the desert where you get to get raw with the elements, and it’s also about unfettered, completely untethered expression.

Whatever’s inside you. And I knew that’s what it was, and so you could dress the way you wanted, you could speak what you want, you could be around people that are on their path, on their journey. And I was invited into Burning Man. All I knew about it was this crazy hippies in the desert, and I’m like, “Ah, not my thing,” and I pushed it away for, in terms of going.

But in 2010, a month before it was happening, people p- plan for this for six months. I met the original founder of Burning Man, and she literally [00:12:00] pierced into me sh- because she said that Burning Man’s a place for those who are ready to express and to see what expression looks like. And o- once…

It’s funny, once you say yes to life in certain ways, doorways and gateways open, and that’s exactly what happened. Somebody said, “Here’s a ticket.” Somebody said, “Here’s a camp to be with. Here’s an…” It j- it just was in frictionless flow when you say yes and versus no. And so I said yes, and yet I was so fearful to go to Burning Man because I was told that come in with an intention.

What are you here? Who are you? And I was again, fearful, but I knew I had to lean into that cave because… And so I get to Burning Man, and the very first thing I do is I jump on my bike because I, everybody’s connecting, and I was afraid somebody was going to ask me like, “Who are you and what do you wanna do?”

And that piercing, direct question, and I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do or why I was here on this earth or any of that. So I jumped on my bike and I rode out to this thing called Deep Ply, which is just raw desert, flat lands, and there’s this [00:13:00] amazing building there. And it was the temple, which is built every year.

And by the interesting thing about Burning Man is everything’s built as an edi- a- as an artifact, an edifice, and then it burn. It’s taken down or it’s burned by the end of it. And the Man burns and then the, and the temple, which is this beautiful building. And I walked into the mo- one of those beautiful buildings.

And I’ve been to travel all over the world, like Borobudur in Java, if anybody knows what that is. This massive beautiful temple. And I walk inside and it’s graffiti scribbled on the walls of people with messages and what have you, and it was all just a cacophony of noise. But I saw five words, five words scrawled on the wall across, and it was like it was literally like one of those things you c- it looked like it was in a movie because it was a light shaft from above.

It was, like, a gold wall with black letters, and those five words were, “Love yourself. Embrace thy shadow.” Love yourself, embrace thy shadow. And I was literally looking at that and I’m like, “Why can I not stop looking at that?” I’ll tell you why. Because the first two words I [00:14:00] disagreed with, and the last three words I had no…

Can I s- may I speak French?

David Pasqualone: Yeah, man. This is no problem.

Jeff Scult: Okay. All right. Yeah. The last three words I had no fucking idea what it meant. So this notion around love thyself, it’s no, you love others to, to get love. That’s the way love works. To see love in yourself, you love others first. And then embrace thy shadow is I- my whole life I was, like, this really happy guy on the outside because I was projecting chasing light or whatever you wanna call it, chasing happiness, projecting joy.

Because if I, showed what was really inside myself, you’d ask me questions about myself, and I’d ask my questions of my- to myself that I didn’t wanna answer. So embrace thy shadow I disagreed with, and that became, but it haunted me, Dave. And I, and then that became the mantra for awaking thought.

It’s okay, what does that mean [00:15:00] to love yourself? What does that mean to embrace thy shadow? And that really became an anchoring. A- it’s an anchoring to today. It’s a beautiful five-word mantra. So any of your listeners, actually think about that. Do you disagree or agree with that notion?

Love yourself first because your self-love is what invites and ignites a shared love, versus the opposite, which is, you know what? Share love, and then you finally get love. And, what I realize in terms of that one is the greatest philosopher of our time, I thought was, like, Jung or, or Nietzsche or, Plato or any- you pick it.

But the greatest philosopher of our time, practical philosopher I submit was the airline industry Who crushed it. Put your oxygen mask on first and then you can help everybody. And it’s that spiraling out from the inside out that I came to realize was that beautiful thing of saying no, actually self-love is [00:16:00] not selfish.

If you can just come into coherence, and by the way, self-love isn’t that Pollyanna, it’s like everything’s great. It’s just seeing your whole life as a gift. And the thing is not the thing, I came to realize it’s our relationship to the thing. The thing is not the thing, it’s our relationship to the thing.

That’s a baseline for the whole ethos for the book that I’m lo- that I’m birthing this year. The thing is not the thing, it’s our relationship to the thing. So that notion around loving from the inside out became something that became a hallmark. And then the second piece, embrace that shadow.

Man, what a beautiful thing to say again, the thing is not the thing, it’s our relationship to the thing. It’s not about pain and fear and all those things. It becomes that thing that we get to flip the script and pivot and see that we can use it all, and it’s all a blessing. It’s all information.

The thing is not the thing, it’s our relationship to the thing. So love yourself, embrace that shadow became like a working like, oh my God mantra. And by the way, [00:17:00] this is not like some sort of a straight path. There was a lot of like fallbacks and what have you, but what happened fascinatingly is that- After that moment, I stopped getting sick.

I was habitually sick every year with flu-like symptoms twice a year, and I had walking pneumonia three times in seven years. I had no sickness inside myself for over a decade from my, from my 40s and into well into my 50s. And then 61, and I’ve had some fallbacks and what have you.

But it’s interesting, even within there, there were notions where I knew there was something inside myself that was making myself unwell. But, you wanna get into the true origin story. It’s fascinating that, what happened after that moment at Burning Man is for the next seven years and I became like that.

Do you ever see that movie Memento? Remember the man- I do … the dude. He like he had thoughts and it like, thoughts were like raindrops and they were always like, he was writing notes and they were [00:18:00] all over the walls and in journals and what have you. I-

David Pasqualone: No, I haven’t seen that. It sounds familiar, but I haven’t seen it.

Jeff Scult: I became that guy. Like when a piece of wisdom from the universe would touch me I had to write it down because I didn’t know why I was writing it down at that time. But it, I came to realize, like, all that stuff that I was generating as a child in terms of seeing the gold that’s inside everybody’s ideas, ideals, and individuals I didn’t know why, but I was, I started to write those notes down to myself.

And this year I now know why, because I’m amalgamizing that into a beautiful field guide of all the, the the love notes from the universe and from being with people such as yourself and what have you that, that, that became amassed inside my soul. But I’ll tell you, and this is definitely a mic drop, if you wanna…

if there’s one thing that your listeners will get from this, It’s what happened in 2015. I started writing all these things and I s- and I wrote something to myself that was a life 2.0 [00:19:00] humanifesto that became a reframe of all the things around peer pain and fear and love, and all the lies and disguise that I had told myself.

And I wrote it into something I’d never done before. I’d never written poetry. Poet- and poetry felt too precious but it just rhymed, because that helps me remember it in time. And so I think sometimes in floetic thoughts, right? That, that help me to remember and who I am, and help me to reframe and to release a stuck story and to reveal.

So it became an architecture of living. And I wrote this poem to myself, and I was, again, afraid to share it, because I shared it with myself and it became a walking mantra, and it’s like a four-minute 44-second reframe of the game around all the things around intention and integration and ignition.

Maybe we’ll share it today if you li- you know if if we weave that way. But the point is that I shared it with nobody Because it was too [00:20:00] weird. And that time, again, too strange, too weird in my mind in that, that not the proper definition of weird. And I shared it with somebody for the first time, and it was a weird mo- it was a strange thing to, to do because I was in New York City living at the time in 2015, and I went to the Cool Kids Party.

I just moved to New York, and Danny Clinch, who’s one of the greatest rock and roll photographer of our time, I was fortunate to befriend him, and he invited me to his exhibit. And everybody there was a rock star or a movie star or some sort of a person of super interesting development, and then me.

And I s- I was like, felt a little like a fraud to be there. Who am I to be there, this was a big room. But I was enjoying, it j- it just was a cool moment to be there. And this dude turns to me from the bar and we just catch and have a conversation.

And I said to him, I said what kind of beautiful magic are [00:21:00] you up to in the world?” Again, I didn’t wanna talk about what I was up to because I wasn’t up to anything. I was a serial entrepreneur, and I was amplifying other people’s visions. I was, I had at that time it was a clothing company. We were doing tour merch for bands and brands and cool s- stuff like that.

But it wasn’t my thing or it wasn’t intentional. I didn’t wanna talk about what I was doing. And he says I’m going to do my bad South African accent. He said I’ve come in from a dark place, but I’m actually igniting.” I said, “Did you just say, did you say igniting? I’ve never heard anybody use that word in a sentence.”

And I wrote this three-part story, poem to myself. I call it My Humanifesto, and it’s a story of intention, integration, and ig- ignition. And he says, “Oh, I wanna hear it.” And I said no. Way too weird, or, way too strange. It’s not the place. It’s a party.” And he drops his glasses, and he says, “No, I wanna hear it now.”

And I’m like, again, I was a Houdini artist, always finding a way to escape, and I’m like, I’m not going to get out [00:22:00] of this. And I was sweating bullets, in- inside. And I shared it with him. And-

David Pasqualone: And we’ll go ahead and add a link to it. I’m sure you have it on YouTube or somewhere or reading.

Yeah. And we’ll put a link in the show notes to it so those who wanna listen to it can access it.

Jeff Scult: Yeah. It’s actually pinned at the top of my of my IG, Jeff Sculp at- Perfect.

David Pasqualone: We’ll put all

Jeff Scult: those

David Pasqualone: links in there …

Jeff Scult: yeah, that should be all good. So at the end of this I shared it with him and I’m literally like, I gotta get the fuck outta here because this guy’s gotta think I’m the strangest cat and I can’t believe he listened to this thing for four minutes.

I told… I sh- we can’t shame, we can’t shame another, we can shame ourselves. And I was shaming myself on the moment when he said, “What are you going to do with this?” And I said, “Nothing.” And he said, “No, I asked you what are you going to do with this?” And he s- and I said, “Who am I to share? I’m just Jeff, a guy with these thoughts.”

And I’m telling you, Dave, and I want your l- your listeners to really listen to th- these [00:23:00] 33 words, because in these 33 words, he forever obliterated every lie in disguise, every belief. And if you look at beliefs, there’s an L-I-E right in the middle of it. My belief was that if I was sharing, I was being egoic, narcissistic or selfish.

And he said to me, he said, We are on this planet to learn to love and to share. And if you’re not sharing your gifts, you’re being selfish. Quit being so fucking selfish. And he look- goes like this, Dave, with three fingers, and he pokes me in the chest hard. Never even got this guy’s name. Turned and walked away And I sat there and literally it’s like the entire universe popped for me.

Because again, like I was thinking to myself that if I’m sharing, and I spent a lifetime telling myself this story and attaching meaning to it, that if I was sharing I was being egoic, selfish, or narcissistic. And the reality is that if you are sharing [00:24:00] your gifts, whoever you are, wherever you are in your life, if you are sharing your gifts, you are inspiring another.

And that’s the way the g- the thread always weaves. And I knew that this was about sharing a story about the gold that’s inside all of us is that expression, and that’s the thread to unite us. And so I knew it was about a golden thread, and I… And I had this crazy dream one night that I was going to wrap the world with a golden thread and share this human manifesto, and I was not going to take no that was what my fear and my story was telling myselves.

And so I was invited to Berlin of all places to share the human manifesto for the first time. I took golden threads with me, and I did this social experiment, which was such a crazy thought. But I took this social experiment of taking golden threads with me on this journey, and over the next year I went around the [00:25:00] world and was invited into communities to share the human manifesto and tie golden threads, and this notion around that we are all connected by the, by our expression.

We are all connected by the gold that resides inside us. And so I had this dream to inspire others to share the wisdom that resided inside themselves. And we’ll talk about full circle where that is today. But it, what it manifested initially after I tied golden threads around people’s wrists, is I asked every single person, Dave, the exact same question.

And the question was, “What does it mean to you to live life golden?” And the fascinating thing is to this day, I’ve tied tens of thousands of these on people’s wrists. No two answers have ever been the same. And that to me was like the snowflake fingerprint that every one of us if we tap into what’s inside ourselves has an individual expression.

And that to me is the most inspiring- re- rememory, remembrance of humanity, [00:26:00] that if we simply are expressed, everything else o- opens up. And I then had a dream to, I to weave a golden thread through the perfect T-shirt. And so One Golden Thread didn’t start out as a clothing company. It started out literally go- tying around golden threads.

And so I had a dream to create a clothing company. There would be a golden thread weaving through every article of clothing as a visual reminder. And that sent me on this journey around sourcing the most benevolent fabrics and fibers in the world, and ultimately it morphed into One Golden Thread that as a first time…

And this is also a big theme that I think all your listeners, I have, I had friends in college that felt like their lot was, the die was cast when they were 35 and their li- their life was going to be, it was clear and there was no modifications, no substitutions to the menu [00:27:00] of their life.

And the reality is that we are all a reclamation project. We are all just beginning. And so at age 51, I became a first-time clothing designer. Never designed anything before in my life. But I gotta tell you, the most powerful thing we can do is create for ourselves first. Everything we love in this world wasn’t done with a business pl- business plan, the most magical things or even agenda or what have you.

It was done with pure intent. What’s inside you that’s burning to be expressed? What’s inside you that’s burning to to go for it? And I learned to stop not going for it finally at age 51. And so I designed for me the world’s perfect tee, and that’s now morphed into a global, a globally beloved community of individuals that are wearing One Golden Thread.

And there’s a golden thread always weaving through every article of clothing. And it started with designing for me the world’s perfect tee, and I was wearing it, and I des- again, there’s no shame when you do it [00:28:00] for yourself. That’s the way we play the game. When you do it for yourself first, there’s something that’s going to unlock.

And then what happens is that somebody else is going to itself enroll themselves in whatever that is and say “That’s a part of me.” It’s not about Jeff. It’s not about Dave. You’re- you do this, you’ve done this so beautifully because you’re here to shine s- shine a light, to hold the flashlight, to shine the spotlight.

And what happens along this journey when we do that is individuals get to self-enroll. It becomes an easy on-ramp for self-enroll. And when that happens, then we’ve got a game to play, and that, that game is not about you or me, it’s not even about we, it’s about a broader aura. And that’s, I think, what’s happening with humanity.

In this world con, slightly mad with all the dis-ease, the dissonance in this world, the AI, the artificiality. I think that what’s happening in this world right now is so beautiful also, which is coming back to coherence, coming back to connection with self, community, and [00:29:00] planet. And what One Golden Thread sought out to do was y- to follow the dream of weaving the world with a golden thread, wrapping the world with a golden thread.

And I didn’t know I was going to do it through clothing, and we’re now a we’re launching a community fund n- this week. We’ve grown into a $7 million clothing brand a year, and we’re just getting started. And what’s fascinating about it is that One Golden Thread, as I said, didn’t start out as a clothing company.

It started out to remind everybody of the gold that resides inside and share the wisdom. So I’m very proud that, a year and a half ago I launched a podcast called Drops of Gold, which is all that, if this is wearing the wisdom, that was that was weaving the wisdom and wearing. And Drops of Gold is about sharing the wisdom.

And it’s going to be a book for people that don’t like to read books. It’s got- it’s going to have cards in it that are all about simple sl- qu- quick-hit reframes to rem- for you to remember who you are, for you to release the stuck stories, and for you [00:30:00] to reframe the game. So this is a blessing, and I feel if my, if I take any cues from my mother, it’s about, play with things.

Turn things inside out. If I take cues from my 94 years young father who’s still not just with us, but he is with it. I chose this upcoming year on June 25th for my 65th birthday to spend it with him. He’s, he is a massive inspiration for me of somebody who has a life philosophy of why not.

And he’s one of my favorite chapters in the book because his why not isn’t why not with a question mark, it’s with an exclamation mark

David Pasqualone: Beautiful …

Jeff Scult: that’s a beautiful way to live.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and I definitely wanna go back to something I think that many people around the world from all perspectives and belief systems struggle with.

I come at life with a Christian worldview. I believe the Bible 100%, and God created us. He created us to love ourselves, and even within the quote-unquote [00:31:00] Church or Christian community, people get that so mixed up, ’cause Satan gets in life, and Satan’s the author of confusion. He wants to mix everybody up so they can’t have peace, they can’t have joy, they can’t have that confidence.

So if you were talking to somebody trying to find the balance between humility and hiding, right? Like you said, you didn’t wanna talk about yourself. You didn’t wanna take credit. You didn’t wanna be in the sh- in the spotlight. You were so far to one side that you’re out of balance, and then there’s other people who are so far, they take all the credit, they take all the pride, they take all of it, right?

So where do you think the balance is between hiding and the, humility?

Jeff Scult: It’s a, that’s a beautiful frame. I think part of the the the bigness of the answer lies in it’s not about balance. Balance is balance is a dangerous, slippery slope. Because, when we talk about [00:32:00] balance…

do you remember as a kid going on a teeter-totter?

David Pasqualone: Yeah.

Jeff Scult: Yeah. Okay. So teeter-totter’s all about balance. If you finally hit that equanimity, you’re in that perfect place where you got that that lovely lady or you got the buddy on the other side, and you’ve hit it. You go, “Oh, I’m in balance.

I’ve finally got it. I’ve got… Oh, no now we’re out of balance. Oh.” A- and it’s this constant thing, as opposed to saying what happens when we look at it through a lens of harmonizing, where it’s no longer, it’s letting go of the duality of life about good or bad, or high or low, and to see it all as a blessing.

It’s all part of us. That’s why that notion around love thyself, embrace your shadow is really interesting. It’s not about saying it’s all about the light, or it’s all about… It’s embracing. It’s literally saying, like, how can we harmonize it all? How can we see that w- that that it’s all a part of us?

And I’ll tell you the first time it came to [00:33:00] me, as somebody who was raised more ritual versus, versus religious. I was raised Jewish. And, I didn’t really take to religion. I didn’t really think about whether there was whe- whether there was a God or what have you.

And I’ll tell you what transformed for me on this subject was after years of hearing about a plant medicine. If anybody’s heard of ayahuasca which is… The way it was described to me, w- was for you to get closer to source and truth or what have you ayahuasca will give you not what you want but what will show you what you need to see.

And I was skeptical and I was also fearful. And in 2014 I was invited into a ayahuasca ceremony in the fall of of that year in Vermont. If you’ve ever been to Vermont in the fall it’s extraordinarily [00:34:00] beautiful.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, I grew up outside of Boston for 20 years, so it is gorgeous.

Jeff Scult: Gorgeous. The explosion of color. Even at night you can kinda see the colors and, you know- And

David Pasqualone: it gets cooler at night. Every night, no matter how hot it is during the day, it’s cooler. That doesn’t happen everywhere in the world. That’s why sh- for our listeners, every night gets cooler and crisper.

It’s amazing.

Jeff Scult: Yeah. It’s a special version of a crisp. It’s Or a crisp and cool. It just feels, your sk- there’s like a liveliness on your skin. It’s really… It’s as opposed to being just freezing like a frigid drop. It was really lovely. So we were a group of 30 of us and we were down in the basement of a cabin, and I started having the, these visuals, and I didn’t even understand it, but I just it was fractals and I just started feeling like this unification with myself, with the universe, what have you.

And I s- I walked my way, I stood up, and you’re not really supposed to be moving around, and certainly not to go outside. And I said, “I [00:35:00] have to go outside. I must go outside.” And they said, “You can’t do that.” I said I must see if this is real what I’m seeing inside myself inside the back of my eyes.”

And I went outside and I stood on the deck- And a starry night in Vermont in the fall, and I looked up to the sky and I saw the stars all

smiling at me. Not smiling like with a smile, but literally like I saw stars the way I’d never seen stars before. And I looked in the hillside and all the trees, even with the colors you could see at night. It was almost like my, this painting that was my mother’s best friend behind me. In terms of the colors at night, you can you got the feel.

And I could see the trees swaying. And I looked to the left of the person who was w- watching me, because I wasn’t supposed to be outside, and I looked down his chest, Dave, and I [00:36:00] literally saw this this almost like glacial blue orb emanating from him, which was the same kind of orb that I saw from the trees, the same orb from the sky.

And I looked down at myself, and I saw it inside myself. And it’s not about what I saw or what I didn’t see. It’s not about some UFO This isn’t what that, this isn’t what I’m saying. It’s about the fact that there was a feeling of coming in the right relationship with the universe to begin within, that begins within each of us.

And what I saw was the source that resided inside everything, and that nature and us is one, and that it be- and that I was included in that mix. And so as opposed to outsourcing source always that it’s that, that, that man in the sky, for me, or woman in the sky, for me I saw it as, as just wow, like God is real and it exists inside [00:37:00] all of us.

And that, for me, was the most heartwarming notion around our place in this in this beautiful universe, and we all get to be part of that universe. And that any feelings that I was having as a human around loneliness

Became more about aloneness. And it was different for me from that day before, from that moment forward. Because look, we come into this world alone, we leave this world alone, and yet we get to have this magical experience. I got to see nature through that lens of like we’re never alone. The next time you take a walk in nature, see that the tree’s hugging you back.

See that the skies are actually embracing you. The universe has your back. These are not cliches. This is actually what I see to be. And that we are in this to win [00:38:00] this together. And it was such a beautiful peaceful feeling, and that has emanated through me and continues to this day and will continue until the day that I take that last exhale.

Awesome. So this notion around hubris and humility, or whatever the other H was, but I think it communicates- I

David Pasqualone: just said humility and hiding. Like hiding from being successful

Jeff Scult: The greatest gift you could give yourself is to share your gifts, and the greatest gift you can give another is to share a gift. Because by shining the spotlight by allowing yourself to step in the s- spotlight y- your very doing so shines a spotlight out to another to share. And and, it’s such a powerful thing to realize, like nobody’s above, nobody’s below, nobody’s on stages, and that we all get to see that we’re sitting in circle.

[00:39:00] And in doing so we’re walking each other home together.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And if I’m hearing you, the summary and the core of your message is falling deeper in love with yourself in a healthy way, and then there’s gold inside all of us that we need to share, and by sharing it we’re doing the greatest calling we can do to glorify God.

He gave us the gifts, and we need to share those with others and to show love. Is that correct?

Jeff Scult: We’re… That is absolutely correct. We are here for a blink. We are here for a blink. And it doesn’t start tomorrow, it starts today, always. And so that’s why, the greatest thing you could do, somebody, l- listen your listeners listening to this podcast, the greatest thing they could do is go out, f- shut down their computer, shut down their phone, and have a c- have that conversation.

Take that first step. Go deeper into the acknowledgement that there that, there’s an expression which means a lot to me, which is a dream that keeps coming back is no longer a dream, it’s a calling. So what’s, what [00:40:00] is calling inside you? And if you’re already living and breathing and doing it, realizing that going deeper into that and falling more deeply in love with what- whatever that is y- you’re doing is an, is a beautiful thing that you get to do today because it amplifies somebody to step into their way.

David Pasqualone: Awesome. Now, Jeff, if people out there are listening, they wanna check out your clothing line, your book, continue the conversation, what’s the best way to reach you?

Jeff Scult: Best way to reach me is you can contact me at jeffscult.com. That’s J-E-F-F-S-C-U-L-T.com. There’s a contact form you could actually… That also is a repository for both the clothing brand, One Golden Thread.

That’s also the link to the podcast, Drops of Gold. You can follow me on Instagram at, @jeffscult. Follow the clothing brand, @onegoldenthread. And and then Drops of Gold is is [00:41:00] @dropsofgold_. And yeah. We’re w- we’re in a beautiful pocket on this planet. There’s a lot of shifts and pivots that are happening, and it’s an honor to to be sitting here with voices such as yourself and to be a voice around the table to inspire humanity to fall more d- deeply in love with whoever they are.

And if there’s something that feels like it’s unexpressed that- that’s ready to rock and roll take that first step. That’s the s- that’s the soul thing. Speak that first voice because it’s a masterful way to live to realize that that you’ve already got it. And that’s the most…

Th- that is probably the most important reminder we can all remind ourselves, is that none of this is new. We were born golden. We already are, and we are simply, as humanity, designed to remind ourselves, and maybe that one other person, and maybe that person is you.

David Pasqualone: Beautiful. Jeff, thank you for hanging out with us today.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for hanging out with Jeff and I. Jeff I appreciate you, brother. I wish you only the best. And [00:42:00] ladies and gentlemen, don’t forget to check out the show notes. You can see our affiliate special offers. You can see links to Jeff’s website, his Instagram, and all his contact info.

And like our slogan says, Listen. Do. Repeat. For Life! Doesn’t matter if it’s me, Jeff, or anybody else, listen and filter through what you’re hearing. Do the good that you know you need to each day. Repeat it so you form those healthy habits so you can have a great life in this short life. Jeff said, life’s short, right?

It’s a moment, it’s a vapor. It appeareth and vanisheth away. That’s what the Bible says. So live a life that’s going to echo throughout eternity for good. We love you. I’m David Pasqualone. This was Jeff Scult. Jeff, thanks again for being here, brother.

Jeff Scult: Thank you, man. Pleasure to be with you.

David Pasqualone: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, share this with your friends and family, and we’ll see you in the next episode.

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