Live Every Day to Find Who You Were Meant to Be | EP 001

In this episode of The Phil Bohol Show, Phil takes you on his transformative journey from a struggling immigrant to a successful entrepreneur. Overcoming academic and cultural hurdles, Phil's story is a testament to resilience and the Immigrant’s Edge. This episode offers practical insights into developing a growth mindset and turning obstacles into opportunities. Phil encourages listeners to reflect on their challenges and pursue personal and professional growth, inspiring a path to success through self-discovery.

Welcome to The Phil Bohol Show, hosted by USMC veteran, mindset coach, sales expert, self-made entrepreneur, husband, and father, Phil Bohol. On this podcast, we don't just offer strategies — we offer a war cry, a call to arms, a challenge to rise, to break free from the shackles of mediocrity. You’ll learn the raw truth on how to break your limitations, scale your business to 7-figures, and level up every area of your life. Together, we won't just face challenges. We will crush them. Relentlessly.

Timestamps:

(0:40) - The Immigrant’s Edge

(6:55) - Creating Your Reality & Finding Your Purpose

(8:55) - The Underdog’s Ember

(10:20) - Overcoming The Victim Mentality

(11:56) - Visualizing & Actualizing The Future

(13:30) - How To Reach Your True Potential

(19:22) - Taking Command & Control Of Your Life

(21:21) - The Broken Healer

(26:49) - Becoming Who You Were Meant To Be

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Transcript:

[00:00:00] Sometimes people think that because they're one way in their life, they have to be that way for the rest of their life.

What I found over time is you can reinvent yourself.

You can do whatever the hell you want to do.

You can be whoever the hell you want to be if you're willing to give yourself permission to be that person.

[00:00:30] Oh, you guys, today we're going to talk a lot about your operating system, your mindset, everything that's preventing you from being who you see in your mind, see in your head.

There's something that I heard from Bedros Keuilian called the Immigrant's Edge.

So, I came from the Philippines.

I wasn't born in the U.S.

We immigrated here in the 90s.

And I always felt like an outcast.

I always felt like a weirdo kid.

You know, there's like normal American customs and courtesies.

[00:01:00] I wasn't privy to a lot of that stuff.

And for a majority of my life, I had this like weird confidence issue.

I don't know what it was.

I don't think anybody ever taught me that confidence was actually like a skillset that you'll learn over time or that it's even a problem in the first place.

I don't know about your family, but personal development wasn't really one of those things that, you know, dad comes and gets on a knee and like teaches you about.

[00:01:30] The Filipino culture is a little bit different, I guess.

You kind of just do the best that you can.

And the weird part is, what I found going from like this immigrant kid to building seven figure online businesses is like I'm barely articulate with a lot of things, you know.

Like I barely graduated high school.

I struggled in high school, not because I was dumb.

I struggled in high school because I just didn't give a fuck about it.

[00:02:00] You know, like I just didn't care about sitting in school to learn things that I just didn't care about.

And fortunately enough for me before I, like I was truant in high school, my teachers actually let me test out, so that way I can graduate.

I'm pretty sure I got a GED.

I'm pretty sure I didn't actually get a high school diploma.

I'm pretty sure that's what happened, but I blacked it out so much because of all the bullsh*t that's ever happened in my life.

There's a huge chunk of my life that I've forgotten blacked out.

[00:02:30] Probably my subconscious wanting to protect me, you know, emotionally.

And so when we think about this, there's a weird hunger of wanting to prove myself, not only in the eyes of the world, but really to myself.

I think that's what's lacking in the world.

I think that's what's lacking in America, to be honest.

I think that's what's lacking with a lot of people, a lot of men out there.

I think a lot of people have just gotten so complacent for where they're at.

And I don't mean complacent like I'm just good with my life.

[00:03:00] Complacent also means I'm not happy with my life, but I'm not willing to do what I need to do to get myself to the next level.

And I don't know what that is.

I feel like in middle school and in high school, it seemed like the rest of the world had it figured out.

And I just couldn't understand how people were so confident on these basketball teams, on the football teams.

How are they even confident in swim teams on the tennis court?

[00:03:30] Like being in front of people, performing in front of people.

It was so crazy to me.

I was like, ah, I don't know.

I don't, it gets in my head a lot.

What about if people judge me?

What if I miss?

What if the game winning shots on me?

And I miss like, there's just all these what if scenarios.

And I think I struggled with that for so long as a kid.

You might have as well.

That there's two ways to go.

Number one is you let it break you.

[00:04:00] You let it become part of your identity, that you're not this person who can actually perform.

You're not this person that can actually succeed.

You're not the person who says they can do something and actually follow through with it because you've read it into your mind that that is who you are.

You're the guy that just can't f*cking do what he says he's going to do.

Or you can take the path that I've taken, which is the long path, of just wondering what's the point of living that way?

And really working your way up.

[00:04:30] To just getting so fucking frustrated with your life, that you want to make a change.

When I think about all of these different evolutions I went through In middle school, in high school, and all of the darkness I've ever experienced in my life.

Jesus, I've lost myself multiple times over.

But for some reason there was this thing about me that I just had this weird chip on my shoulder to prove myself right.

[00:05:00] I was talking to, I forget who I was talking to, I was talking to somebody.

You know, when my family got divorced, it felt like everything was taken from me.

It felt like I had no control over the situation being fucking 10 years old.

And since then, it became part of my identity to never allow anybody, anybody to be able to take anything from me.

I have to lose it because I chose to lose it.

[00:05:30] I chose not to put in the work.

I chose to do the thing.

I chose to self sabotage.

I put it into my head that that is the only position I ever want to be in in life.

And it requires a lot of responsibility.

It requires you to carry a burden that your life is on you.

And I mean, it's not really anybody's burden, but yours to bear.

And for some reason that pressure is the thing that I was looking for.

So this concept of the immigrant's edge, it really called to me when I heard about it, because I was like, I don't know what it is.

[00:06:00] But people in a first world country don't realize they have first world problems.

They don't realize that it's actually not that bad.

No matter how you're struggling here, it's not that bad.

It's not as bad as being in a third world country struggling.

And if you're from a first world country and you have any type of opinion about that, that's called entitlement.

And the weird part about it is people don't understand this.

That the opportunity you have is far different.

[00:06:30] Than opportunity you have in a third world country.

I mean, just to get it out, just to get out of that situation, that environment is a blessing in itself.

And so when we think about my hustle and drive, for me, it never really clicks for me.

How people can let their lives go by and they never self actualize, they never actually find themselves?

They never actually meet the version of themselves they made up in the head.

As far back as I can remember, I used to think about life as like a video game.

[00:07:00] I used to think about life as this thing that you can just dream about and you can create it.

And that might have been weird.

That might be some of the mental gymnastics I put myself through, but it works for me.

Because if you believe you can create something in your head and turn it into reality, what's preventing you from creating the reality yourself?

And every time I feel like giving up.

[00:07:30] There's a part of me that's like, well, damn, what was the point of getting from the Philippines to the United States just for me to turn out to be a sh*t bag?

What was the point of my family going through all of that stuff just for me to feel so entitled that I don't put in work to become the best version of me and become that in our history.

That somebody down the road for generations to come will remember that Phil Bohol was this specific person for our bloodline.

[00:08:00] In my mind, how entitled do you have to be to not know and not really understand that you're meant for something more in this world?

You're not entitled to it, but you're meant for more.

But people really are so selfish.

I think people really are so selfish when they think that every day they wake up that it's like it only affects them.

If you don't have kids yet, just realize.

[00:08:30] It's affecting somebody and it's affecting you at the end of the day.

If you have kids and you wake up and you're not putting forth all of the effort to get better daily, not just trying your best on a daily basis, intentionally pushing yourself outside of your perceived limits to become better for your family, to be able to provide more for your family.

I think there's a selfishness to that.

And I think what happens is a lot of people that actually have that gift, that ember.

[00:09:00] That thing that I look for in people, those are usually the people that have spent their entire lives being told that their thoughts are sh*t.

They dream too big, they've probably had toxic family members that kind of talk shit to them as they try to level up in life.

Those are the people that everybody doubted the most, and the sad part is that the majority of those people that have that gift believe the nonsense in the world.

They believe the weakness in the world.

[00:09:30] They believe everybody else's projections because those people that are projecting onto you don't actually believe in themselves, which is why they're going to tell you not to believe in yourself.

And it's unfortunate because a lot of great people that have the ability to have great success, have great impact, that can literally be that vital person in their bloodline, they let their flame diminish.

[00:10:00] And it sucks. I don't mean that anybody that was born in the first world doesn't have that same chip on their shoulder, they haven't gone through shit, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying for the majority of the people that I've ever experienced in my life, in my time, people don't capitalize on the opportunity to get better.

Most people really do like to spend most of their time playing victim and really finding all of the excuses of why they're not successful.

[00:10:30] I was that way too.

I remember this one sales job that I had, I was becoming truant because I lost Connection with my purpose and why I was even showing up.

Like, why the fuck did I even want to make money?

What's the point?

And I remember, I think he was a sales manager or sales supervisor.

And he's like, Phil, where are you?

It's an hour late.

And this is how I know the victim mentality happens to the best of us.

[00:11:00] I really used the excuse that I almost got into a car accident.

I remember this because I feel like an idiot for even using that as an excuse, but this is what the victim mentality does to you.

I literally said, I almost got into a car accident, that's why I'm late.

As if that meant anything, I didn't, I didn't actually get into a car accident, nothing really happened, somebody almost swerved into my car and it shook me a little bit, so I cooled off and drove at the speed limit.

But aside from that, I was late because I woke up fucking late.

[00:11:30] But I chose to blame something outside of me.

And I think people get stuck here in their life.

And it's so interesting that sometimes people think that because they're one way in their life, they have to be that way for the rest of their life.

What I found over time is you can reinvent yourself.

You can do whatever the hell you want to do.

You can be whoever the hell you want to be if you're willing to give yourself permission to be that person.

[00:12:00] And I think one advantage that I've had more than other people that I see as a gift is that immigrant edge.

I have something to think about, you know, when I'm reaching a level of success.

I'm like, that's not for me.

I'm hungry for my people.

I want to be able to show, you know, people back home, look at what we're doing over here.

Like we might not be Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos yet, but I can see it.

I can dream it.

It's there.

It's a potential reality.

[00:12:30] Whether it's me actualizing it or somebody else in the next generation too.

I see it for us.

And I don't know if people think that way.

There's some people that I know that do think that way, that have that idea, but not a lot of people.

And the thing about immigrants too, not everybody, not every immigrant thinks that way sometimes again, just like the two paths.

You can believe that you are this weakness.

[00:13:00] So there's a lot of Filipino guys that I see playing very small, very passive.

There's a passiveness to them.

It's like they've been bred to not speak out of turn.

And this might be from Filipino culture that might be from being the same thing because racism is a real thing.

And just having that ember challenged so much that it went out and there's a passiveness and that passiveness never allows you to get to the next level.

[00:13:30] So the whole purpose of me talking about this is not so much the immigrant edge.

I think this is just to put it into your head that the only way for you to become who you think you can become is to be more than you ever thought you could be and living every day to find that person.

[00:14:00] I think people are so driven by the external life that they don't realize that the world is a lot more spiritual than what they can see.

If you can feel the difference with being present in these moments, every second mattering every decision that you make creating starting or ending a sequence that leads to an end result.

When you can see all of these different patterns in life.

[00:14:30] And that success is a formula.

What you want is a formula.

And all you have to do is keep taking the steps forward that you can see in the mind.

Why don't people allow their minds to grow, to develop?

Most people again are so complacent with where they're at playing victim, it's a lot easier.

I remember when I was playing victim.

Super easy.

I didn't have to worry about sh*t.

I'd just watch Family Guy all day, smoke weed all day, drink at night, go to the bar, get f*cked up, and then do it all over the next day.

So easy.

[00:15:00] You don't even have to try.

And all you have to do is complain about how bad life is because everybody else will feel sorry for you.

It's a lot harder to be successful.

Because that's where you really focus on you.

That's where you have haters.

That's where you have non-believers.

That's where you have people that doubt you, and you already doubt yourself so much.

So then to carry the weight of the world, and their doubt, and their fears, and their projections, it takes a strong individual.

But that doesn't mean you're not strong enough, you're just maybe not strong enough yet.

[00:15:30] And for you to be able to live the life that, oh my gosh, everybody can live, if you're willing to pay the price daily, oh my gosh.

I wanted to give up on life so many times, and I'm so glad I didn't, honestly.

I'm so glad that I had somebody show me a mirror to how meaningless I saw my own life.

[00:16:00] That it evoked this anger, this wrath in me.

That I let anybody else control what I deemed was value of me, what my value was.

And I made a decision to never let that happen again.

And it's a hard path, you know, it's a simple path, but it's not easy to, to be disciplined, to wake up at the same time every single day, to push yourself on a daily basis.

[00:16:30] To step outside of your comfort zone on a daily basis.

I'm going to keep doing more of these videos to continue to share with you what works for me in my life.

Because I'm telling you right now, I wasn't this guy.

A decade ago, you would have never recognized me.

You would have never come across this video.

Because I just wouldn't be the person who would attract somebody like you to want to learn from.

And that's the weirdest part, because it seems like life just happened in a flash.

[00:17:00] But that's the beautiful part about being so present.

Time moves so quickly.

When you're so into your head, and you're so into not being where you want to be, not being grateful for where you already are, time moves so slow, it's like you're stuck in a prison.

But man, when you're present, when you're in each second, it's like every second is fleeting.

It's like bittersweet because you know you're becoming who you need to be and it's just a matter of time till your reality catches up to you.

[00:17:30] But it's bitter because you know that time waits for nobody.

Time doesn't stop.

And like you're wanting this to continue to be the next version of yourself.

It's like, ah, I'm longing for it on a daily basis, but you also have to balance the patience that you can't rush that process.

It's like rushing, you know, a plant to grow faster.

Won't happen.

[00:18:00] It's like me telling my wife with our second, deliver faster.

She can't.

It's gonna be however long the baby wants it to be.

That is what our growth and our development and our evolutions are like.

It's like, once you get present, once it clicks for you, you want it so bad, but you have to master the balance, the dichotomy of pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, but being patient with each push.

[00:18:30] When you do that, you find a version of yourself.

That is clear of judgment, judgment of self, fear of judgment of others.

You live more free the way that you want to.

And you realize that when you are you, when you're in a state of being, you attract everything that you are.

That's when you live the best life.

When we pretend to be somebody, we're not.

[00:19:00] When we pretend or carry on a persona, what I call false armor, we attract the people that are attracted to that false armor.

So that's why sometimes it feels like we're carrying this weighted vest, this flak jacket, this version of us that's so tiring to be, instead of just being.

And just seeing, well, who likes listening to this monotone Filipino guy on the internet?

I don't know.

We'll see, we'll see.

[00:19:30] My hope is over time, through these journeys, through these lessons, through these evolutions that I go through, and you just see as I share what's working for me as a human, as a person.

To going from, damn, I only made 400 bucks, I only made 600 bucks in two weeks.

Damn, I only made a thousand dollars in a month?

F*ck, bro, damn, I only got 20 bucks.

Should I buy more food?

Actually be full this week?

[00:20:00] Or f*ck, now I gotta get to work, can't afford a taxi or Uber.

I need to get gas, even though the mileage is crap.

Is my car gonna start?

F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, is it gonna start?

Is it gonna start?

Ah, it started, thank God.

F*ck, battery died.

70 bucks, can't afford that.

How am I gonna figure this sh*t out?

Hey bro, can I catch a ride with you?

Can you drop me off?

I went from that guy to a guy that doesn't ever have to worry about money.

[00:20:30] Because I've become the person who knows and is confident in myself that I can produce money at any given moment for no reason just because I want to.

It's different.

And if you told me that I would have that mentality before, I'd probably be like, No, you're full of sh*t.

That's only for the lucky ones.

But again, when you take command and control of your life, you don't really feel like anything is luck.

You understand that every day is a preparation.

[00:21:00] Every day you're building yourself to be the person who can capitalize on the opportunity once it presents itself.

And it's kind of like those little sushi bars.

You know, with the turning tables.

As soon as it passes, it passes.

You don't know if it's coming back around again.

So you gotta be prepared, you gotta be ready.

Every day's a test.

And it's a beautiful life.

You might notice that I'm very dark in my presence.

You might have a lot of darkness in you.

[00:21:30] You might have had a lot of trouble in your life.

You might have felt lost in your life.

You might have, at some point been like me where you're like, I don't even know if there's a point in living anymore, but I want you to understand.

And I'll hold up a mirror for you if you don't understand this right now.

[00:22:00] The fact that we are 20 minutes into this conversation and you're still here.

Just understand it takes a growth minded person to sit and to listen and to absorb information being passed like a torch of knowledge and experience to hopefully shorten the gap for you to become who you need to be for yourself and for your family.

I don't think there's a lot of good mentors in the world.

[00:22:30] I don't think there's a lot of people that genuinely care about people in the world.

I think there's only a few.

And across 8 billion people and counting, it's a large few, but it's very small in consideration to the rest of the population.

And I think that the people that go through the dark times the most, those are the people that can touch other people in ways that only people who have experienced dark times will ever be able to reach them.

[00:23:00] I think that's where world changers are born.

I believe that all the people that were once broken and lost, once they find themselves, once you find yourself, are the very people that can help others do the same.

And that, on top of where you might have come from, whether you're an immigrant like me, you were born in a first world country, you come from somewhere else.

[00:23:30] I think that when you take the brokenness, when you take the sense of loss, or being lost with just that drive and that hunger to survive and to be that you feel so deeply those emotions that haunt you on a daily basis that when you see it in other people, you just you understand where they're at.

You don't even need to talk.

You can see it in their eyes.

[00:24:00] And when you are the person that has led yourself through that, past that, you've evolved.

I think that you can change a lot of lives.

[00:24:30] And I believe that if I was able to get to this point in my life where I just get to create videos like this in hopes of sparking that ember in you, to just hold up a mirror, if nobody's ever told you this before, I'm grateful to be able to do that because at some point you will do this for somebody else too.

Just realize that it's going to be a hard path.

It's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life.

You don't ever actually get there.

It's nonstop.

It's ever going.

[00:25:00] But when you shift to enjoying the ride, this ride of life, every day makes it worth it.

Makes it worth it to go through the pain, through the struggle, through the dark times again, because you will.

And one day I hope that you can feel the sense of purpose to pass the torch to somebody else.

Because you also know that there's this sadness.

[00:25:30] There's really the sadness of being in such a dark place that you don't even know what the purpose of life is anymore.

Where you're on that edge to seeing the light, but still feeling those lingering pieces of darkness in you.

[00:26:00] I think that makes the best person because it's that balance we have to focus on on a daily basis to give the best of ourselves to the world while still healing ourselves.

I think there's this concept of the broken healer or something like that.

It's very interesting.

So if you made it this far, this is how I'm going to be doing my YouTube videos, at least for a segment of it, where all I do is share with you.

The things that have worked for me, that have helped me change my entire life.

And I'm going to bring you along for the ride.

[00:26:30] Because if all I do is document my journey, and that helps somebody, somebody that doesn't believe in themselves, maybe somebody that does but doesn't, somebody that thinks they have the cards stacked against them, then that's the purpose.

That's what I feel called to do right now.

[00:27:00] So I hope that as you listen to these rambles, what I call them, It helps you see in you the thing that I see in you, the ember, and just know that all you need to start is with the ember, and throughout your life, you just feed the flame, and every day, you invest becoming more and more you.

It's a process, and I hope to guide you along the way with how I found myself again.

[00:27:30] And the crazy part is even though I know who I am now, there's different parts of myself I'm finding out I never even knew about myself.

So it's interesting how this all works.

With that being said, I'll see you in the next video.

Implement and execute, and reflect on everything we talked about today.

Your life means something, but you choose what you want it to mean.

And then every day you just be it.

Don't worry about anybody else, don't worry about anything else.

[00:28:00] Push yourself, create it in your mind, the superhero that you just look up to, that puts a smile on your face when you think about him, that you'd be proud to be and wake up as every day.

When you look in the mirror, you're like, damn, that is me.

And you still feel that sadness that you were once a broken boy.

And now you're this.

[00:28:30] If it was possible for me, I promise you, it's possible for you too.

Stay plugged in. I'll see you next time.

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