What happens when a man survives war, reinvents himself four times, and discovers that true power lies not in achievement, but in surrender? In this unforgettable episode, Walid Malouf shares the soul-stretching story of a life broken open by trauma, reborn through fatherhood, and ultimately made whole through faith, healing, and a return to essence. A transformational coach, father, entrepreneur, and guide to first-time founders scaling their companies, Walid has walked through fire—both literally and metaphorically. His journey begins in war-torn Lebanon, where he grew up amidst violence and instability. At 17, he immigrated alone to America, not speaking a word of English, and began rebuilding his life from scratch. Fueled by ambition and a relentless drive to succeed, he rose to create an impressive career across multiple industries—until an ego-driven collapse forced him to confront the pain he had long buried. What followed were four profound transformations that brought Walid face to face with his conditioning, his humanity, and his soul. This is a story of survival, awakening, and the alchemy that occurs when we stop chasing worth and begin remembering who we truly are.
What happens when a man survives war, reinvents himself four times, and discovers that true power lies not in achievement, but in surrender?
In this unforgettable episode, Walid Malouf shares the soul-stretching story of a life broken open by trauma, reborn through fatherhood, and ultimately made whole through faith, healing, and a return to essence.
A transformational coach, father, entrepreneur, and guide to first-time founders scaling their companies, Walid has walked through fire—both literally and metaphorically. His journey begins in war-torn Lebanon, where he grew up amidst violence and instability. At 17, he immigrated alone to America, not speaking a word of English, and began rebuilding his life from scratch. Fueled by ambition and a relentless drive to succeed, he rose to create an impressive career across multiple industries—until an ego-driven collapse forced him to confront the pain he had long buried.
What followed were four profound transformations that brought Walid face to face with his conditioning, his humanity, and his soul. This is a story of survival, awakening, and the alchemy that occurs when we stop chasing worth and begin remembering who we truly are.
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⏰ Timestamps
01:04 – Meet Walid Malouf: A Life of Transformations
02:12 – First Transformation: From Spirit to Human
05:08 – Surviving Civil War in Lebanon
14:30 – Second Transformation: Immigrating to America
16:47 – Embracing a New Life and Learning English
31:21 – Third Transformation: Becoming a Father
35:22 – Pursuing Ambitious Dreams
38:43 – Facing Challenges and Setbacks
44:41 – Fourth Transformation: Seeking Professional Help
47:54 – The Role of Anger in Transformation
50:17 – Reflections on Conditioning and Ignorance
52:09 – Breaking the Programming
53:11 – The Journey of Self-Discovery
56:07 – Transformational Practices
01:01:48 – A Spiritual Experience
01:19:00 – Coaching and Career Transitions
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🔗 Connect with Walid:
The Deep Coach Podcast
Episode 3: Walid Malouf - The Re-Inventor: 4 Awakenings That Changed Walid's Life (and Could Change Yours)
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Walid Malouf: Quickly, right after I felt anger. Anger at the conditioning, anger at the world, anger at the ignorance of the world, anger at the ignorance of my parents, anger at the ignorance of me, my own ignorance, not knowing earlier what that meant, not treating earlier the effects of the war, not fixing it earlier.
Very angry at my ignorance and my iv and my lack of standing up, for me.
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Welcome to the Deep Coach, the podcast where we explore the transformational journeys that shape us and that propel us to change the world. I'm your host, Jonathan Hermida, and in each episode we sit down with those who have journeyed into the depths of spiritual transformation and who are now reshaping the world through their presence and their work
In listening to these incredible individuals, you'll find insight, inspiration, and practical tools that'll support your journey as a coach and as a human being.
Today I am joined by someone whose story is both extraordinary and deeply human. I feel beyond blessed to be able to call this man a friend and consider him a brother.
Walid Malouf is a coach, a father, an entrepreneur, and a man who has lived many, lives in one from surviving civil war in Lebanon, to rebuilding his life as a young immigrant in America, from chasing success across multiple industries, to ultimately facing a total inner collapse Walid's life has been marked by not one.
Not two, not three, but four major transformations. Each of these rebirths has brought him closer to his essence, to truth, and to a life of purpose. Today he supports first time founders looking to scale their high growth companies.
In this episode, we walked through his four transformations. His incredible healing journey and how fatherhood cracked his heart open and changed everything for him. Walid brings powerful reflections on anger, conditioning, forgiveness, and the role of trust in both personal and spiritual growth. I cannot wait for you to hear this one.
Let's dive right in.
Introduction and First Transformation
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Jonathan Hermida: Walid, prior to to us officially getting on the recording, you were speaking about going through four. Transformations, and that's a significant amount.
Right? Most people, when we talk about going through a transformation, we talk about the singular transformational process that we go through. Can you walk us through what those four transformations were for you? I.
Walid Malouf: I'd love to. You're right. , I am, I'm, I'm, I'm blessed four times. Most of us don't get that many, opportunities at transformations. Um, uh, I was blessed by the first one, like, like most of us, right? I was born, um, and I, I call it transformation from spirit to a human shape, right?
A human being, human life. And, um, that first transformation, unlike many, uh, was unplanned, unwanted, so.
My mom decided that, you know, probably not the right time. I came, you know, the fourth out of four children. There's a decade between me and my other next brother, and decade and a half was my older sibling. And thanks to the, you know, um, life advocating doctor that she consulted and him whispering in, in her, you know, ears that maybe this life that, you know, she's thinking of not allowing to unfold.
Maybe this life can actually do something very big in the world one day. And that's how life was allowed to unfold. Uh, my mom believed, uh, she's a faithful woman. She had doubts and uh, and she believed in that potentially maybe, yeah, this life could do something very big in the world. I. And that story was told to me very early in my life, I must have been three or four or five.
The part of me being unplanned always kind of introduced as a joke. Like, yeah, Wali, there was a mistake, right? Wali, know, milkman or post out man, whatever, right? It's like that kind of a joke. And then the other part of the story was that the only reason you're here is because of the doctor that told mom that you're gonna do something big in the world.
And also as small as I was like, wow, okay, so the only reason that I'm allowed to be here is if I do something very big in the world, very big in the world. Now I'm talking about this at 53 years of age, and we're laughing about it, back then I didn't know whether to laugh or not to laugh. It was code, right?
Um, so that's the sort of context in terms of where I was born in, in the sort of the first act.
Surviving War and Early Life Challenges
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Walid Malouf: As soon as life was allowed to be, it found itself in the middle of death because three years after I was born, an all out civil war broke out in a country where I was born Lebanon, and lasted for 15 years, consumed all my childhood, all my adolescence, and a big chunk of my teenage,
so imagine Gaza or Ukraine right now, that that was kind of my life for 15 years. That was the outside environment. The inside environment was a very loving household, extremely emotional household. Very, very emotional. All the emotions on the sleeves, the good, the bad, and ugly, and being the last. Of four in an environment that was completely enveloped by fear and, and, and lack of security.
And, and my sort of psyche are two things that really kind of matters for me is how to survive and how to exist, like how to survive in the world, the inside the world, in the outside world, and how to exist because kind of unnoticed, like unseen unnoticed, not unloved, but
I don't know that for a fact. But if my mom had devil thoughts, like after like the war broke out and I was around here like a kid, like she probably must have thought like, I wish I didn't do this. It's a big liability.
And so. To say that
the developmental, you know, normal progression, story of journey, that normal people, you know, quotes, you know, go through, was disrupted for me and was stunted. In terms of cognitively, emotionally, uh, physically it would be kind of an understatement. And so evidence of dysfunction showed up early on, showed up in the early on in the form of lack of concentration, um, easily distractible, impulsive, shy, extremely shy.
voice, no personality, bad academic performance. Um. And if you were to ask me, Hey, like, you know, what was I your idea of, of yourself? Or your self concept? Or your image of yourself at that time, or as, as you're growing up. I tell you, it was not good. It was, um, definitely less than, not enough. Not for me, good life.
Not for me full life, not for me.
Broken. Broken, just, um, yeah, so bleak. But in that, there was this, there was this, there was a, a, a, I don't know, about a light. There was a light. It wasn't very bright, but it was something. And I embodied in me this narrative that I was always sort of, I always received from my environment about me being more mature than my age.
People kept repeating that all around me all the time. My family school, more mature, more responsible, more mature, more responsible, um, and good at expressing myself in writing. That came up very early in my life ' cause I was writing, I was journaling about the war. I was journaling and I was drawing stuff.
I remember that journal, I must have been five years old when I started it. And, and I was reading it, you know, to people around me. And that was probably the only thing that people saw that was, wow, we're proud of you for something like That piece and that very early on convinced me that I got, I had something in that, in that art, but.
To, not to distract from the story, but, um, I knew that was going for me and, and I had a big, big, big promise that was keeping me going. that was that one day I will be able to leave where I am, where I was born and my family and start life somewhere else. That dream locked me up in future thinking and was the medicine that allowed me to kind of go through every day in an environment that was surrounded me.
It's, it's the knowing that one day it'll be something very different. And so my mind, mind wired as, as soon as I was maybe seven or eight. 'cause that's when I knew it, that this is not real. I. So I wired for the future and everything that was around me became something I had to go through.
It was very big, and that's just the first, that's just the first transformation
Jonathan Hermida: That's just the first transformation. You know, it's, it's so interesting because we're all born into a narrative that is not of our choosing, you know, and, and, and in what you're sharing. You were born into this narrative, you know, of the quote unquote mistake of, you know, questioning whether your life was gonna come into this world.
And that narrative was. Given to you as a little boy and, and spoken to you and shared with you, and then you were thrust into this sort of, um, sociopolitical narrative around you that then further influenced the unfolding of that little boy and how that little boy was viewing himself and the world around him.
And I. can see how that little boy made the decision of this is not going to be, I, mean, one, I, can see how that happened, and two, it's also quite unique for a 7-year-old to think that and to know that I can get out of here. I I'm, did you, did you ever, had you ever been out of where you grew up up until that point?
Walid Malouf: I, I, first time was when I was 11, but earlier I knew that that was my destiny to leave only because my brother, who was 10 years older than me, had that opportunity and chance before me because of the event, 'cause of the war. And so as I was growing up, the world wasn't ending. And my future prospects were not better.
And my family had the opportunity to afford sending kids outside of the country. It's not given to everyone. And given parents decided to sacrifice their presence in order to give us future life. And I knew that was gonna happen to me. 'cause my mom was always, always telling me that was gonna happen. So it wasn't me that I fabricated it, it was happen, it was evidence and it was on that track.
And so in
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: the exit, like I knew when I was gonna be on parole.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Which for that little boy that was in such a conflict driven environment, it was a freedom, I imagine, to just know that that wasn't gonna be, that your present wasn't gonna be your future in some way.
Walid Malouf: Yes, and I think at a deeper level, Jonathan, I think it was also like it gave me meaning. It gave meaning to my life. The exit from the present moment and the reality that I was seeing and living and death and blood and fear. gave me meaning. I didn't know the full meaning of it at that time for sure, but I was like, that can't be it.
I, that it can't be why I was, I was born.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, there was a clear light at the end of the tunnel.
Yeah.
Journey to America: A New Beginning
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Jonathan Hermida: So then where was transformation number two?
Walid Malouf: April 14th, 1989. That's when that day came. That's when 11:00 PM at night. I leave my house travel about an hour north of where I live, under shelling in the war to a port city to get on a boat, literally, and travel for about eight hours and sea at night to get to the next piece of Land by the name of Cyprus.
From there, grab a plane, and 48 hours later, land in San Francisco, California. 17. I'm 17. With my mom.
Landing on that airport on that day truly felt like a second reverse,
truly. And, um, knowing that I can wake up and sleep without the possibility of dying in those 12 hours for the first time in my life.
I don't know how else to describe it besides a new rebirth, honestly.
And, um, that fear gone, that fear of dying gone and that knowledge that you can play the game without fearing of it ending at any time.
I mean, you get to it very differently. You get to engage very differently, with more life, more excitement, joy, which I
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: for 17 years.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. So did that self-concept that you say wasn't very good, did that transform in that second awakening or second transformation?
Walid Malouf: Well, here's what happened. That's, that's, that's so, so I go from nothing. I go from zero, and here's what happened. So I land, I don't speak English. I'm Arabic Frank, French Franco Field, so I don't speak English. And so I decide to learn the language and as quick, fast as I could. TV was my ally and dictionaries.
So bought a lot of dictionary and grammar books. Started studying words and sentences, structures through grammar di books and dictionary. Three, four hours a day. About six, seven months later, probably as fluent as I am right now. Extremely intense. And I started going to high school immediately and learning, receiving knowledge in English, but not learning anything ' cause I could understand anything.
go home and try to piece out the lectures word by word I take notes. I don't take notes, I take words. I got a dictionary and piece it all out. it was a very kind of, you know, birthed by fire in a, in a way if you, you want, right? But I wasn't feeling the pain of any of that. I mean, for me.
I was intoxicated by life. Like I was getting a chance breathe and do stuff, learn a new language in a new life. I'm gonna need it. Like I'm gonna go back. There's no going back. See, that was part of the, like the promise came with mom. Mom left. Two months after I continued. She looked at me in the eyes and she said, there's nothing back there.
Literally, she said, go forward. You got what it takes. Never look back, no support structure, no financial support, no country to go back to in case something doesn't fork out here, right? It is like this is it. Back there is death. choose.
So the English piece. I lived with a, an old aunt of mine who was 90 years of age. She offered me room a board in exchange for cooking for her, giving her medicine, keeping her company, make sure she is And I go from someone who's barely noticed in his household 'cause of the environment to a place where I'm in complete calm.
I dunno if it was a 90-year-old woman. I'm 17. And I'm keeping her company and I'm making her continue to tick, and all of a sudden I'm serving a very higher purpose beyond what anything I could have imagined. Like, I don't have any money. So I'm working 40 hours a week, you know, at a pizza restaurant and initiative school.
So I'm, I'm, I'm earning money. I'm earning a language at six months, for two years. I'm keeping somebody alive. Really? They didn't know that. But my company, my chatting, my cooking with her I was serving at 17, I didn't know how important that was back then. But that completely transformed to your question, my concept of I was, what I could be doing, what am I capable of,
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: That's why I call it a second rebirth. Not because I just escaped death only, because what happened to me, the way I kind of embraced all of that and the way I kind of showed up. So I went from like. A D student, you know, back home to graduating high school with a 4.2 GPA was honors and make it into Cal, like fiercely.
Like by the time I sat on that seat when I was freshman year at Cal, by the time I got there, and that was two years after I had landed the airport. I was a different person. I was different person. And if you said, look, what, what, what, what changed? I tell you, something very radical changed and all of a sudden I was saying to myself, I can do whatever I want.
I want to do a lot. 'cause I haven't done anything up to the 17.
The world is very wide. I landed like imagine landing from Gaza and the Silicon Valleys like
right. And here's the last one I said. I said, nothing can stop me except death. But where I got myself to, that's what's very far from me. 'cause physical deaths, I knew what, I know what that is. And once I left that death, how I knew it was very, very far from me, physically in my mind. I didn't know that back then.
Wanted to shut that completely, lock it, bury it, forget it never happened. So basically from that moment on, fast forward three, five years until today, I. That psyche of pursuing and desires fearlessly is kind of what really kind of dominated me and my psyche a strong extent, very early on, and still now to a large extent.
And what that meant, basically, know, how I lived my life is, you know, career wise, I chose to fight very strong and hard battles it. I looked for challenge. I looked for impossible tasks. I looked to serve causes, I looked to contribute really meaningfully in people's lives, of of gaining more power, of gaining higher salaries, of gaining more wealth.
All of that did happen to an extent, but that wasn't never the driver. So
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: I was open to everything, to experimenting and allowed myself to, you know, leave whenever pleasure was not being met, and fulfillment was not being met anymore. I
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: that when I was 19, 35 years of that. And so that, you know, led me to, you know, explore five different career path in 35 years, seven different industry sectors, work, live and study on four different continents, work in big boxes and build my own small boxes.
Contribute as an individual and with teams. And
I really never kind of follow any, necessarily any conventions of any rules and
living really kind of there on the edge in a big way. And succeeding. And succeeding a personal level. Uh, I made sure I lived well all the time, material wealth. Um, took care of my house to some extent, but traveled voraciously all over the world. Um, married into a different culture, decided to build a multicultural family.
Um, and yeah, always brought the party like life was a party for me. was. Life of the party, brought the party and somehow pharma was sucking up the air from the room all the time.
I got high on myself, right? didn't know it. But remember we went from zero
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: to do, getting confidence from doing, doing more success, leading to more success, right? getting more and more and more inflated to the point where it got really comfortable to the point where it got drunk.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Yeah.
Walid Malouf: I wasn't noticing that subconsciously what was going on is that all of that power or all of that sense of outside power, as intoxicating as it was almost offensive, almost almost offensive to others, to be honest, almost arrogant, um, was not real, was fake because underneath all of that, I knew that there was fear and there was feebleness.
I couldn't put a point finger on it. Fear showed up in my ease with public speaking
for a long time. Very good public speaker. People applaud messages, went through really good public speaker, but the work it took me to get up there on stage and deliver, oh, not as much as it took to learn English, but it was that kind of work. I was flying high there. There's no engine in the plane. Every time I wanted to go higher, above a cloud, had to make up the engine.
Negotiating big deals, managing big teams, speaking to power from someone who had no voice. All of that took a lot of pain, stress, overwhelm, anxiety, panic attacks, the work, depressions, burnouts. But the conscious mind was focused on more, doing more, more desires, fearlessness, because overall it was all good.
Yeah. I was paying the price, but I guess that was the price of living on the edge. And
I guess I keep standing up after the fall, so resilience and that's a big thing, so I'm gonna lie. I, I, I'm gonna lean on that.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, and the trajectory makes perfect sense. Because you leave war torn Lebanon at 17 years old and enter into an America that is just thriving, right? Capitalism is just like exploding. Post post Reagan. People are making a ton of money. And so you enter into that, uh, consciousness, that American consciousness at the ripe age of 17, when you're coming into your own, when you're discovering who you are.
And you don't just come into the consciousness of America, but you're also coming into the consciousness of wali, of, of your power. So there's a, a pastor Michael Beckwith that.
talks about the four levels of awareness life happening to me by me, through me as me. And you went immediately from life happening to me, to life happening by me, from powerlessness to power.
And of course that's gonna be intoxicating to a 17-year-old man, um, young man. That discovers that he has agency over his life and not only agency over his life, but now he's in a place where literally anything he wants to do is possible. Anything he wants to become is possible. And then he's taking steps and that possible is becoming reality.
And so you can see how easily for that young man, the, the ego just was eating it all up. Right,
Walid Malouf: Every book you know of every author you've heard of everything that points to how powerful it is to live from the philosophy that life is by me.
Jonathan Hermida: right.
Walid Malouf: I was going through it without knowing only any of that, but it was happening to me
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Empowerment culture for sure. Yeah.
Walid Malouf: to the extreme. And from the, you said it from the very early on, instead of being tied up and said, you can't, and be careful, I had no choice. Mom said, there's nothing going back. You got it. Go. That's it.
Jonathan Hermida: Untethered.
Walid Malouf: And she was very removed in, distant away from her and my father and my family to advise or guide or have an opinion about anything.
So the sense of parental control over the future disappeared at 17. Also, that's why in my brain is like, I could do whatever I want. Who knows who's gonna advise. I mean, I just gotta experiment, I guess. it out.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. So what was the breaking point?
Walid Malouf: Um,
I don't know if it's a breaking point in the sense that. understand it to be, that will come in a in a bit later. But there was a breaking point in the sense of my personality expanded, or my identity expanded and my ego, um, didn't stop, but even, but expanded even more. And then, and then it got me in trouble.
I'll tell you in a minute how it got me in trouble.
Embracing Fatherhood: The Third Transformation
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Walid Malouf: But the third birth, three birth, the third transformation happened on May 14th, 2013. And that was the day first son was born. That was the day I became a father.
Fatherhood happens to a lot of people hit me like a ton of roses. I discovered a dimension in me and I. A natural ability to be caring, attuned that I knew I had some of, but never believed I had it in me to that extent where it was just carrying me to do stuff beyond what my mind knew about what I had read about fatherhood so naturally and so powerfully that it just couldn't be unnoticed.
Truly, on that day, I felt lifted and started acting in a very different way. Was everyone,
my, my son, who was born under then I was 16, so
I dived into fatherhood, like I dived again into how I learned English. I didn't, uh, there's no book that I probably didn't read that was on, you know, every stage of, you know, breeding, growing, nurturing. And I did that because I just started feeling a very height and sense of responsibility. The moment I felt I became responsible for the existence of another human being.
I became in, in very interested this whole business of my own existence and the existence of everyone. And
the, the knowing now I'm leaving a part of me behind me made me to do more work and even more effort to leave her better than I found it. Which was always something that was driving me. So a very heightened sense of responsibility. And I accompanied the, I'm here to live it high as I can.
And the why behind getting stuff starting mattering a lot more than the getting the stuff.
So I studied fatherhood. I tried to live it every day to the optimum that I could obsessively. The word obsessive is key 'cause that's what it got to be.
Annoyingly to my wife. Well, I wanna do everything. I wanna be overly present, overly attuned. I took the first two and a half years my son's life. Off of professional, sort of heavy duty. I was consulting. I chose to kind of consult light load and be with my kid like most of my day, two and a half years.
I had exited from, you know, business prior to, you know, my wife giving birth so I could afford to do that. So I worked out well. So I always made, made sure I could afford my will and my will was to be with my kid for two and a half years, and I made it happen again. Right. I could do that. Like big deal.
Big, big for the ego, right? 16 years into the fatherhood business, six years ago, my ego convinced me that I could do that, could go out there and do something that very, very, very, a lot of people had tried and failed at. And I had decided that because I had figured out this fatherhood business better than most, maybe I stand a chance, and I decided to go out there and work with teenagers and help them self-discover and self lead
as early as possible without the conditioning and the programming write their own journey. And I wanted to do it through adulting, physical boot camps and AI applications. That was six years ago. AI was not even the thing, or it was, but I didn't know what was carrying me at the time. And what was, I mean that, that dream.
felt it in me like I've never felt anything and I had a bunch of them in my life It was lifting me. It was in my mind. I was dreaming about it. I was waking up with it. I was talking about I couldn't stop
and I didn't know why until later. But essentially now that been chatting about the story, what I wanted to do, I had been working in the coaching business for again know six, six or seven years up until that moment when I decided to do this business and I had learned about all these tools and all these frameworks and all these methods that are very helpful to people who are self fleeting that I didn't have because I was just going at it rough, rough way.
a lot of bruises, really a lot of broken glass and a lot of blood trails, just like awful. And when I got to be in the people business, I was like, it's all there. Why aren't people doing more of that? Right. And I was like, then I knew why, but I was like, okay, teenage is where I wanna go because it's before the conditioning life experiences.
Right. But what I had forgotten is that unlike me, people don't start at zero at 17. The program starts much, much earlier. Right. And I thought 17 was like, oh, perfect moments. Like no, too late. I knew that by doing it, obviously. Right. And I forgot. One essential truth is that we hardly truly self-lead by choice, even when it's all in front of us in terms of what is it that we need to do?
Because in my experience in endless, countless people's experience that I know we truly self flee, maybe get to do that by accident, not by choice. And what happened to me, the way I was leading my life, by accident, I mean people don't, are not born into war. People don't leave home in 17 and go from this to that.
I mean, I forgot all that and I said I'm gonna go out and do this.
I could, I could defy nature. I discovered that I couldn't, it's not the first time I discovered I couldn't defy nature. 'cause I tried many times before. This was the time that broke the edifice.
Jonathan Hermida: How so?
Walid Malouf: The ego could not stand the thought that I chased yet. Another dream midlife like I had not learned yet.
I had many red flags from VP, people I respected, despite books that I read that told me, don't do this. It shows, listen to the other ones. Something was scary in me to do this work from the soul place that made me oblivious to everything, all the signs.
Something was telling me, self-discovery, self-leadership early on, liberation from fear early on that. change the world.
And I forgot why that was not possible so quickly.
And waking up to that at 50 after my ego had known that it was a, now I'm smart. Like I'm not nothing like my ego's not where I was 17 years old. I was like, I've built businesses, I've Latinos, I traveled the world. I've like God, like, and the thing about teenagers, I got it because here's what others don't have is this father whose fiber that I discovered in me that will allow me to penetrate.
I would've discovered that that was gone and that didn't, didn't work, and that all my calculations were false.
Questioning, uh, questioning the sort of how I was doing thing and how I was operating, um, became very persistent, very urgent louder than any other time in my life. That was not the first time I questioned, but I just didn't understand how I was able to allow myself to do something like that.
I had been bruised once before, a decade earlier, but differently. I had a financial bankruptcy that wiped out good half a million dollars, just like when I was about to start a family because of impulsivity in patience and bad calculation. That damaged the ego a lot and ask, and one, you know.
Pushed me to question but didn't, didn't shake the edifice, didn't cause the earthquake that said This can't work. I can't continue like this. cannot continue to see it wrong.
It's very troubled. Lost complete concentration, lost ability to plan complete disassociation from family, from kids, from any conversation. Heavy depression, health wise, every indicator was flushing red everywhere. Immune system flared up, gut system flared up. And one worrisome thing that really caused me to really panic was the lack of ideas to pursue, lack of pleasures to pursue.
Lack of excitement to pursue is as if this, this, this, this creativity, this, this pulse, this thing that drove me for 75 years was become an extent. could see nothing anymore as if like this dam I was holding broke and this resilient thing, flat, nothing.
I guess kinda, you know, if you're on your deathbed and there's a machine, right? And then the line goes like this. kind of how I felt.
Everything that was before now I was up for questioning
to the point where I started asking myself, is this big enough now for me to kind of maybe seek professional help, like somebody that can help me mentally figure out what's going on and maybe gimme whatever I. I don't want medicine. I don't want medication. I've seen a bunch of people take medication in my life and I didn't see it work, so I was like, eh, not my thing.
But I was like something to help me figure it out. I was like, what was going on? I didn't recognize it to be so bad ever. That was the first time when of called up a professional counselor, a psychologists, and described what was going through and started having a conversation.
The Fourth Transformation: Seeking Help and Self-Discovery
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Walid Malouf: And that first conversation marked the transformation that you know is most relevant to us and what I call the fourth reboard rebirth.
So this, this one conversation kind of led to hundreds of other conversations was dozens of professionals. You know, one modality led me to discover another modality and one book, 10 more books, one guru, another guru, and.
That's been the work since, since it began every day. More clarity, every day, more understanding.
We can talk more about that, but that's, that's, I, that's been where I am and this, this conviction, this discovery, first of all of this work and this conviction that this work and ultimately is opinion, the only meaningful work to do, convinced me that this is gonna wanna do going forward, not just on my cell only, but whoever wants to partner with me to do it for them.
Very, very powerful stuff. powerful stuff. So this old identity, this old ego, this old this, this, this fearless. pursuing pleasures not a hundred percent dead at all,
but it's not about that anymore. It's not about that anymore.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: And, and, and it's pursuing that without, without that being the thing. And
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: game. And so
I'll stop here and let you poke where you love to poke.
Jonathan Hermida: Oh man, there are so many places to double click. Um, what an extraordinary life. And on so many levels, you know, because it's really a life fully lived courageously. And I say courageously specifically, I was, I was gonna say fearlessly, but it wasn't fearlessly because courage implies there is fear along the way, and courage is facing something the unknown and moving forward regardless.
And you, from day one, have been facing the unknown over and over and over again, right? Like those, those rebirths were the marker of entering into a new unknown and stepping into it. And then even the micro unknowns, micro in, in quotations because, you know, going bankrupt, losing half a million dollars is no joke.
And that's. A huge unknown with a growing family, and what I can only imagine is a ton of fear, a ton of worry, a ton of stress. There's something that you mentioned in uh, uh, a form prior to our call around anger, around a lot of anger towards people, circumstances. Can you describe that anger a little more?
Walid Malouf: Yeah, yeah, sure. Um,
the anger, um, relatively new thing for me. Um, it's not that I've never felt anger in my life before. I think I felt it in a lot of ways, a lot of times, but kept it. As opposed to expressed it, but feeling it, being with it and talking about it is a relatively new thing. And it started, um,
right, so this, the, the, the, the awakening, the transformation, the enlightening, the, the awakening, whatever we wanna call it, transformation. I, I lived recently. Um, there's a lot in there, but it could really be kind of described or summed up in four big moments, four big And the first one was discovery.
that's the part where it was discovery. And right after discovery there was anger, lots of pain, lots of suffering. And that's when I discovered. The programming and the conditioning through therapy works, through readings, through programs that I did. So I discovered basically the story of my, my early programming, my early conditioning, and the impact of my family and my environment and my life experiences had on me.
And
for a very brief moment after discovery, brief, there was relief as in it's not me. Yeah. Almost like a very good, pleasant feeling of that it's not me. Something got done to me.
Not yet blame or pointing the finger, but just good, good. That feeling. Quickly, right after I felt anger. Anger at the conditioning, anger at the world, anger at the ignorance of the world, anger at the ignorance of my parents, anger at the ignorance of me, my own ignorance, not knowing earlier what that meant, not treating earlier the effects of the war, uh, not fixing it earlier.
Very angry at my ignorance and my iv and my lack of, my lack of standing up, you know, for me. Um, and suffering that anger. Lots of, lots of suffering at that, at that anger. Um,
and even, even, even when I. Deepened the sort of reflection, right? And I forgave the circumstances, the, the war, you know, parents and how they operated. And you know, even when I forgave, I was still angry.
Still angry at how it, how, how, how it is like this conditioning business, this programming business that we're not responsible for. And that gets us locked up like that. That's, that's kind of a game, is that it's not fun.
And so there's anger and suffering, lots of fears and depression. Also depression and feeling of
betrayal in a way.
Like what a farce, like a bat trip.
We can't move forward and be bigger because of the programming that we didn't ask for.
And that was the first period of discovery. That was the first act where the anger was a big part of it. And that was a couple of years.
Alchemizing Through Faith and Science
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Jonathan Hermida: And how did you Alchem? Yeah. How did you alchemize that or process it?
Walid Malouf: Faith.
Faith first level, the ability to break the programming.
My, my brain would not accept it's, this is where it stops. So intellectually I had to find a solution. I. So I dug deeper, more sciences, more psychology, more spirituality, more ontology, more brain science, more Microphysics, name it again, like this is the intense sort of I wanna solve it. Like I wanna learn English 'cause it's my new life I wanna at.
It was that kind of intensity.
Therapeutic Journey and Self-Discovery
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Walid Malouf: At one point in time I was working with four different therapists on four different modalities for about a good year and a half. Somatic, EMDR, attachment, IFS, whatever.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: And then I started believing in that it's not game over, it's accessible, but I don't know what it's gonna take to accept to access it because not a whole people are, it's very difficult.
It was very difficult. And so it wasn't a home run, like it was a big deal. It was a lot of fighting, inner fighting. There would be something that would make me hopeful and then I'd read something else. It would make me feel despair again. And then I'd have a week be feeling really good. Would I have evidence of it's definitely a higher being.
Walking around here today, I would see it. would see it. I'd feel it. Yeah. And then there's a week would be disaster. I'd lose it.
Right. And I was dealing with, what I discovered also is that all this conditioning actually has names like it's called A DHD, lack of concentration, like a focus and possibility, making hard decision, like so many things could have gone much better. Had a discover a HD module. and fixed it.
The house, I was angry also, right discovered. I had something called C-P-T-S-D Complex, PTSD. Not just one trauma, but a nice bouquet.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Balancing Family and Personal Growth
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Jonathan Hermida: And what was it like to be processing all of this with a young family, growing family? You know, it wasn't just you, so you had to show up as a father, as a husband in work. What, what was that process like for you?
Walid Malouf: I showed up.
I showed up
first. I showed up for myself.
I was advised to take a bunch of medications. And specific medications I call medication that I decided to take, and that was meditation, journaling, and yoga. Right. We call those transformational habits, right? Disciplines, whatever you wanna call them. Practices. I just started them very early on. It's been five years right now.
It's been a daily ritual and I made sure that that space was like it was at four o'clock in the morning, wake up till six 30. That's my time. And I did those things and I'm only saying that, and I'm only explaining it because that's what allowed me to shop for the rest of the day.
That's when I reconnected with me, the story. That's when I reflected. That's when I had fears and I had faith at the same time. That's when I laughed and cried. when all the theater happened. So the rest of the world then followed and I was able to handle it. But I needed those two and a half hours every morning and that's why I'm still doing it today.
And I don't think I ever stopped.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Yes. Essential. Essential to have those grounding spiritual practices.
Walid Malouf: really. And, and, and, and this identity of me, also the fatherhood identity that's obviously still there. That also helped me to show up for the family and for the kids like that, that's very strong in me, right? And so that, that that role, that act wanted to play itself still fully despite of the other thing that was going on, part of me still wanted to show up.
There was not an option. Oh, I'm tired today, or I'm depressed today, or I'm not feeling today. Oh no, I wouldn't accept that.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: Pardon me, would not accept that the bar was still very high there.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Spiritual Awakening and Parental Loss
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Jonathan Hermida: So the fourth Awakening was. Sort of, uh, came with the uncovering of sort of the, the pain, the emotions, the, the trauma that somehow was sort of latent in inside that You hadn't really explored to a certain degree. And so the fourth awakening came with all of that kind of coming to the surface and you being somewhat assaulted by it and therefore needing the, the support, the external support, the obviously internal support through your transformational practices.
At what point, you know, I know this is a lifelong journey of healing and, and, uh, uh, evolution. At, at what point have you started to feel a bit of a settling and yeah, settling into your deeper self in a way, and, and kind of putting those, uh, inner, um, traumas, inner experiences in, in their place, so to speak.
Walid Malouf: You are right. It's endless and it's a journey and, but you're right also that there's a moment before that moment. What kept me going and kept me kind of in this process, hopeful courage was evidence, right? I was, I was, I was having those moments of clarity, I was having those moments of settlement, I was having those days in those situations that I handled heavy emotional situations that I handled from a place of detachment, control and masterfulness.
did have those moments. When those evidences increased and became more in volume than the normal code, I started feeling shift in me and a stronger faith, again, is the word, and that there's a, there is a possibility of a different form of being, and it's not sporadic, it's not occasional. It actually could be consistent.
The more it was happening, the more I was believing until truly a big moment happened where there was a truly a before and after. of how I decided to kind of run my life after, because it was very powerful evidence and a very superior form of being led, truly feeling truly first time ever led from the soul, not from the mind.
Powerfully, very powerfully
when it comes to spirituality. This is very new to me. As a matter of fact, I had put a on spirituality a long time ago because I had associated with religion and I come from a place where religion created civil war. So I always had, had been hesitant about all of that business, right? And I got to Berkeley, I got completely cured.
And right after that with my life, spirituality never really had a place. It was resilience. It was always a very soft thing to work. me closer to my third dimension and the connectedness between all three, mind, body, and soul. the moment where I was led by it solely. Is at a very, very high emotional moment for me that I thought would, I've always thought about it as would be a devastating moment for me.
That's when I was gonna lose my parents
very strong relationship with my parents outta my 53 year kind of existence. I only saw them for about 2030. It was living my life. Saw them once in a while, right? Never really lived with 'em. You know what? I dunno what I'm doing. I don't know. Seeing an age, they're seeing me grow, but relationship of love, they can't guide me.
They tell me don't. They never told me don't do anything. I wasn't light the world on fire. I was being successful in their book because their book, I was supposed to be either in a militia or dead. No matter what I was doing. They like looked at me. It was blessings. So I had a very good relationship with them.
then my dad made it all the way to a hundred. God bless his soul, right? And I was very attached to him. And he was the one person I really called at least once every week
all the way up until he was like that, died. And so as I was going through this, he was gonna approach 97, 98, 99, and I was feeling like this is gonna be devastating. 'cause he feeling gonna, and I have a relationship with my dad that's specific because in his type of personality and his character, he was the calming force in my childhood and adolescence.
So my mom was the fearful and anxious about anything that would happen in the world, let alone a war outside of our house. And dad was the, it's all gonna be okay type of personality, And so I was very much reassured by him in my, you know, childhood. I didn't know that. And so our relationship together grew stronger in adulthood as well.
Because of that feeling. I always felt an effect with him. It was different. So hear one day that he got Covid, 2021 guy's, nine, nine years old. didn't have a vaccine.
Brother calls me up, he says, yep, dad's got Covid, not feeling good about it, and what are we gonna do? And I say, well, dad's gonna die. Probably having to figure out what next steps are around that line because Dad's gonna die. And the way it came out from me, like he was asking me, Hey, what, what'd you do this morning?
And he's my dad. Like, I love the guy. And it's not like I have no feeling for him, but the way it came out was very rational, very objective, very distant, present. In the moment of what's going on, I hang up the phone. It never ever, ever happened to me about my life. I got the phone and I go to my office and I start writing letters to my departing dad.
Thought of it. Then continued for about two months after he depart as a ritual.
Immediately when I wrote, I felt much better. I wrote what was going on. My feelings never happened to me. That never did me in my life, even though I was doing the work. That level of sort of presence, mindfulness, being with it never happened. A week after that, myself in Lebanon, of Covid
at my dad's bedside. For the last 10 days of his life, I was the only one in the room Medical staff not allowed to be in the room because of Covid, but I negotiated to be in the room
and felt a moment of sadness for 10 days.
It was gratefulness, it was joy. It was celebration of a hundred years old man's life. It was a bunch of thank yous. It was a bunch of reassurances. Never had I played that role in my life, ever. I didn't know how to do it. I don't know what I was doing. I'm not sure how I got the power and the force to kind of pick normally and help my sisters and my family pick normally and reassure them and letting them know that I know that that's not gonna suffer.
People were like, 'cause I had gotten to a point where like I kind of dissected his life and I'm like, overall, he's a good guy. He's a good guy. And usually it finishes okay for good guys, I believe. Right? So I was walking with that kind of a force and power that made me very peaceful with it. And then things happened.
He passed away six 20 on that morning of 19th of October, 2021. I was the only one in the room who was a medical staff, whose job is to basically close the lids, unplugged the machines and next steps. And I was the only one in the room. My sisters were advised to leave the room because of high emotional moment at that moment.
Right. And I was like. It's a very manly society, right? It's like, you know, the man stays in, stays in the room. I'm like, okay, great. I'm not sure if I'm the powerful now, but I felt it was powerful. I was there and I was holding my dad's hand and last breath, very last breath. And the machine went like this.
And in that moment it looked at me to to staff, and it said That was the last breath. I said, okay. And then the printout came out of the machine that was the last breath just to evidence. And they gave it to me and they explained it to me and I said, do you have the printout that shows his soul is in the air harboring over us?
Really, don't, I don't think I've ever told that story to anyone. This is the first time, really, not even to my family. Both staff, medical staff looked at me, laughed and they cracked a smile. One of them said, I wish we did. The said, not yet.
This, this case's job is to do that all day long and to be with family and to have tears and emotions, and this is this. I'm just sitting there like, the one that tells me what's going on now?
And the smile on their faces made me smile. And that's it. I walked out of that room without even looking at my dad's body feeling. Peace.
Calling my wife, talking to my kids, saying Grandpa passed away. He's in a different world. I'm gonna stay a couple more days to deal with, to deal with the body. And I come back home
how one hour later I show up at the hospital's executive director's office.
There's a situation where the bill is inflated because of Corona, um, equipment by 70%.
And when I learned that from when I got to the country, I was like, that's not gonna happen. Like, um, we're not gonna do that. We're not gonna be charged 70% more because of. What I'm wearing in the room. It's not gonna happen and I'll deal with it later, but, and it wasn't, it wasn't this sort of ego not gonna happen.
I'm gonna fight for this and you'll see kind of me, it was like, this is not fair. It won't happen. won't happen. Kind of a thing. Like I, I had a knowing of, like my sister told me this was like a big deal. You have to fight it and work with it. And I said, let's not worry about it. It won't happen.
I asked for a meeting with the director many times. She refused. She finally accepted an hour after my dad passed away, just passed away six in the morning. I walk out of my dad's room and I go into the office of the director after hang up with my kids and the meeting lasted for five minutes.
All that came outta my mouth, was gratitude for the service that they provided. Despite all the errors, that would have never probably saved my dad, even if they weren't made, I.
And I said that I'm not gonna pay the excess 'cause it's unfair. And I understand that the country is kind of lawless there now, and you're doing things that are not good. But I'm not gonna be a victim and I'm only not gonna be a victim because if my dad was here right now, he probably wouldn't allow me to be a victim of this just because of justice.
And he was a just man, you can do whatever you want. I said, you can do whatever you want. You can keep the body. I got the soul
and I'm good. And I'm very peaceful. And it's all, it's, it's in your hands. Of course, I was gonna pay the bill no matter what. Of course I was gonna get the body outta the hospital of course. But what came outta my mouth in those five minutes was the a hundred percent authentic truth. And I just didn't care what she did, what she thought.
What happened after I was like, didn't want to talk to you for five times. Now the man passed away and I'm good to go. I'm calm, I got a soul. You can do whatever you want with the body.
And I left. Two, three days later before I got on a plane, I asked my sister, Hey, what happened to that bill? And she said, she called me and she said, it's gone. Like don't worry about it. We're only gonna pay for the surgery. Whatever happened that was very medical that we cannot afford, but everything was gone.
She said, she didn't say a word. She said, you know, please let your brother know that I understood and whatever. And I didn't expect that at all. Honestly. is not a country where sometimes this what happens. People are like, oh, okay, fine. No. And what I didn't expect is me to do it with so much ease.
That's the thing. It's not doing it. It's doing it. Feeling like it's a nothing.
Jonathan Hermida: Okay.
Walid Malouf: Never ever was I able to execute or do something with so much ease so much emotional charge.
This is someone who just closes dad's eyelids an hour ago, said, where's the machine that told me where her soul is? Jokingly walked down and said, you can keep the body. I got the soul and then went up to do some administrative work for the funeral as if, as if I was going about my business on a day-to-day basis.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Yeah.
Walid Malouf: People around me were like, who is this really? They told me after, like, you, okay. They thought I was faking it. They said I was going through a process that allowed me to bury the pain.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: They thought it was something unreal. Truly as if it wasn't my dad almost, I cried. I was crying,
but the moment, the crying and the suffering came immediately after, I remember that. It's not dead.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: There's something different that's eternal.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: it's better because I can connect with that anytime I want. I don't have to come here and see him physically. I can be in Seattle.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm,
Walid Malouf: Call on it.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: Big deal. Big deal.
Jonathan Hermida: Huge deal.
Walid Malouf: Big deal.
Jonathan Hermida: It's the perfect story to describe a spiritual experience in human form in the most mo you know, it's in the most I was every day. Matter of fact, sort of way. This is how spirituality Truly shows up in day-to-day life. You know, sometimes we think, we think it's this sort of, you know, um, sort of awakening happening in our mind and our brain.
But I think real spirituality, grounded spirituality happens in these moments, in these human connections and showing up differently than we would have otherwise. And that's when we can really see the quality of our transformation. We experience it. Others experience it, others feel it. It's beautiful.
Walid Malouf: Truly Jonathan, it's truly like, it's, it's the evidence. Seeing the evidence of it is what gives faith
Jonathan Hermida: Yes.
Walid Malouf: it or nurtures it.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah,
Walid Malouf: And there was this story of the parting of my father.
Jonathan Hermida: yeah.
Walid Malouf: was over months of three, four months. So I got to be that for an extended period of time
Jonathan Hermida: Right.
Walid Malouf: and like never before.
That's a very big evidence. So that's why there's a moment after that. That's the moment after that is the me that decided to, the first time now Mostly from faith
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: hopefully very, very little from fear. 'cause before it was all fear, all, all, all of it.
Jonathan Hermida: Right.
Walid Malouf: today it is in a lot of ways, but there was after that moment where this business of me being able to truly be consistently operating from that very, very high level of existence is real And I gotta gotta lean in it more, more and more and more. And trust, and trust and trust. Detach, detach, detach. And that's what got me into kind of a, a, a, a phase where I started to make decisions without overthinking too much about them listening carefully to what was moving inside of me and following.
And that became a very big deal in terms of how I started operating. I mean that's kind of how, you know, I came to know the center and the work that the center does and I. I mean, it's not the biggest operation in the world, in the world of coaching out there. It's, it's, it's a boutique place. It's has very special things been, you know, kind of looking into a bunch of, you know, certifications out there and, and, and works.
And I just knew that this was the place, that, this was the type of coaching that, that, that works. And this was the kind of journey that I was going through and I went through and I wanna take people on. And it was really spoke to me very loudly that I didn't really research it very much. I mean, I made the call like in a day, read the book in a weekend, made the call on the days.
And normally that's not how I act. Hesitant. I'm more hesitant, um, deciding, deciding to
share the startup type of work partner I. Founders around spiritual kind of work that took a big leap of faith. I mean, I'll be honest, founders, entrepreneurs are not necessarily conventionally thought of as most, knowable to soul awakening coaching and identity transformation and
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Walid Malouf: drop on agendas and detaching from goals, right?
Jonathan Hermida: So true. Where did, where did that inspiration, because you serve first time founders who are scaling their companies,
Walid Malouf: Mm-hmm.
Jonathan Hermida: where did the inspiration to serve specifically this group of individuals come from?
Coaching Founders and Entrepreneurs
---
Walid Malouf: Doing it. Um, I never stopped coaching throughout my entire sort of inner journey. Um. I quickly found out that, um, helping teenagers self-lead was not going to, uh, be something that I can pursue much longer. I started, uh, coaching, uh, uh, people who were in career transitions, um, um, in, in the middle of Covid.
And so it was a big, big business. Um, and I started coaching people who are mid careers and executives, um, who were, you know, leaving the life that they had built up until then and thinking in their, you know, midlife fifties and, you know, what would they wanna do next? And most of the time it ended up being, here's the thing that I wanted to do that I've been, you know, not wanting to do for the longest time.
I wanna build my business, open my shop, do my consulting gig, or what have you. And I started and I started working on that kind of, um, a client, um, um, base. Then slowly became, started working with founders, um, um, engineers, scientists, change makers who had built businesses, founded businesses, built teams, have a product in the market, have early success.
Um, and they were still struggling and struggling even more than the early days. Was, was scaling, uh, was adding more complexity, uh, was adding more people. Um, was, um, that we know about what it takes from taking something that's a small startup all the way to, you know, from barely upper millions to a billion dollar enterprise.
And, um, working with them, um, I found. Myself to be resonating a lot with their personalities and their characters, um, and some of their also, um, mental, emotional, uh, and physical stories as well. Um, and some of their programming, uh, although not a hundred percent the same as mine in terms of war and what have you.
But really kind of struck on the same themes of not being heard, not being seen, not being attuned to, and then driving for freedom and driving was pleasure and revolting and rebelling and all of that sort of started speaking to me and reminded me a lot of my own story and how I kind of led my career and how I kind of enterprised and never accepted what is and always was only what if, uh, I could do this and created things.
And so that convinced me that this was the target audience I wanna speak to and I wanna help the most. I. As you know, in coaching you, you wanna speak to your identical, right? To me, the most effective and the most impactful. That's when it works the most. Um, so that, you know that, that that's how I kind of gotten to that realization after a lot of experimentation and a lot of work with a lot of people and a lot of work on myself and asking myself, do I wanna spend a big chunk of my life with?
'cause I'm not gonna do anything different than that going, going forward. And more of that. And so that became a big question. It's like,
who, who, who do I resonate with the most of what I share with the most? Who do I share with the most? Is, is kind of how I found that to be the case. and then, and then I had to kind of ask myself the question, well, what type of entrepreneur do I wanna work with? Right? And there's a bunch of entrepreneurs.
I mean, my definition of entrepreneurs, very, very broad and broader than probably most people in terms of entrepreneurs. Anybody who can see c think. take initiative to create something new. But period, you know, whether you are doing it on your own, whether you're in a company, whether you are doing it professionally or in your personal life.
So there's a very wide definition of entrepreneur, but when you found something, when you're founding a business and you're recruiting people and you're building a product, you're doing it for beyond who you are, beyond yourself. You're usually founding for beyond who you are. And so founders, not just executives or CEOs, was a big deal for me.
the next level of reflection was, I know for a fact that this type of work that I wanted to kind of do really makes sense for people who are in the business, or they know it or they don't know it yet, but they're in a business of shedding one identity and trying to embody another one. And it has to be at a moment where I was at, whether entity is dead, whatever got them to where they are.
Is gone and they figured out that they're gonna create something new. So the moment of right, what we call the integrity crisis, like the identity crisis and in the life of an entrepreneur. 'cause I know a life of entrepreneur, there is a moment where you have to scale and go grow what you started and you created or not.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: If it's work and if it's getting traction, and that scaling is a very different business than founding and it takes a very different person. 95% of founders don't continue scaling and they either go on to do something different or they go on the boards of what they created or they stop in the business of founding.
But there are few who get stubborn about this business, who don't wanna lose control, who don't wanna lose their freedom, who wanna see their destiny and master it just exactly how they dream it. And they know there's more in them. They know there's more in them and they feel they could do more. Right?
And they've done already a bunch of stuff. They've gotten through therapy. They discover what might be their handicaps. They've read some books contrary to kind of maybe public perception. Founders are very introspective, retrospective people, very deep thinkers, extremely intellectual. And those that carry big dreams, I'm lucky to work with.
They are very, very emotional and very sentimental and very, their senses are very there. awake, but they're there. And you can access 'em so easily because there's so many ups and downs emotionally every day. you just gotta pick up on one of them and work with it.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah,
Walid Malouf: very fertile ground.
Jonathan Hermida: it really is.
Walid Malouf: think, yeah, and you might think that you know this business, uh, you know. The importance of silence and stepping back and slowing down and no agenda. All of that might be contrary to nature, uh, you know, for them. it might be something that they're worried about in the beginning, but what I'm finding out is that they, they can't get used to it, you know, quick enough.
And once they do, it becomes almost like an addiction.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Walid Malouf: It's like they want that hour, they want that hour and a half where they know. They probably will probably, maybe say very few, and most of it'll be nothing but a lot of things also.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Yeah. Especially for that demographic that are So.
in their head all the time, to have that space to both disconnect and connect at the same time. Right? Disconnect from the mind, disconnect from the outside world and connect with their inner self, the beingness within them. It, It's it is truly transformational, that space for everybody, but certainly for that group of people.
Walid Malouf: It's very big deal. It's very big deal. It's, uh, you know, sometimes call it like a mental spa. They, they say it's a mental spa for me. it's a place where I come to energize, refresh, clear my brain. It's like a mental spa. Like I go to a spa, physical spa, massage, what have you. And my hour with you is like refreshes me.
Others call it anxiety Plus I don't like that very much, but I'm, happy to be the pill for anxiety. Right. But, but Right. But, but, but yeah. I mean, that's the only place where they can come and be totally naked.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, yeah,
Walid Malouf: anywhere. Not even their family, not even their spouses, not even their, you know, significant others or nothing.
It's a very lonely business.
Jonathan Hermida: yeah.
Walid Malouf: a company leading a company, scaling company is a very lonely business, and journaling internally is a very lonely business, and they go together very well, even better, with the help of a guide.
Jonathan Hermida: Oh, so needed, so needed. Walid. What an extraordinary, inspiring life you've led. I am excited for your boys to really know this story of yours in whatever form they get to hear it over time and the bits and pieces that they've already heard and put it together because I. You are such a incredible example of just a human being that has lived so fully, so completely in so many different ways, and that they're gonna be so proud if they're not already proud of you and who they get to call their dad and their father.
You're such a great example for them, and it's, um, yeah, it's inspiring as a father myself, just thinking, you know, uh, through what even I wish I had in a father, you know, all the traits that you had, the, the resilience, the courage, the strength, you know, to just start over again, over again and over again.
You know, as we close the episode, if you could leave listeners with one invitation, something to reflect on our practice in their own transformational journey, what would it be?
Walid Malouf: I would say don't get attached to the story, whatever story it is.
Um,
don't even get attached to the story of your awakening
as gnarly as it is and as big as it is, and as much as the brain wants to claim victory for cracking it, I'd say just don't attach that as well and just.
Remember, remembering is a very big deal 'cause it's easy to forget, but just remembering of who everyone is at the essence. Me, you, my clients, my neighbors, yours. Remember that and be that. Remember love and be love. When I discovered that simple formula, I was like, that's a good one. Don't attach the story.
Jonathan Hermida: Beautiful. Beautiful. Is there anything you'd like to share before we close?
Walid Malouf: Gratitude. Gratitude, always in the beginning and the end. Appreciated this conversation very much. I appreciate you very much as you know, and the work that you do, Jonathan, and who you are as a person. so thank you for, for hosting me. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a sounding board. Uh, you.
Jonathan Hermida: Thank you my friend. I appreciate you. deeply. Thank you.
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