Men on the Path to Love
Relationship coach Bill Simpson offers stories and wisdom, to inspire men be the best version of themselves in relationship and live the life they love.
Men on the Path to Love
BONUS: Climbing Life's Mountains: Craig's Story, The Power of Resilience, Determination and Vulnerability
Have you ever faced a challenge so big that it tested every ounce of your physical and mental strength? In this bonus episode you’ll hear my conversation with expert rock climber, professional musician, and keynote speaker Craig Richard. You’ll hear his amazing story of how after a devastating climbing accident that shattered his leg, and just year later, he reached the summit of his dreams, El Capitan, one of the most difficult climbs in the world.
Craig shares about his struggle with Lyme disease as well as facing the darkness of anxiety and depression, and through the power of resilience, determination, and vulnerability has become what he calls a heart-centered leader with an insatiable thirst for life!
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Hi and welcome to the Men on the Path to Love podcast bonus episode climbing life's mountains Craig's story the power of resilience, determination and vulnerability. I'm Bill Simpson, your host. I coach men who want to stop suffering in relationship and who want a deeper sense of love and connection. I coach them how to do it and how to be the best version of themselves and live the life they love.
Bill Simpson:In this bonus episode, you'll hear my conversation with expert rock climber, professional musician and keynote speaker, craig Richard. You'll hear his amazing story of how, after a devastating climbing accident that shattered his leg, just a year later, he reached the summit of his dreams El Capitan, one of the most difficult climbs in the world. And not only that he became a national finalist on the TV show American Ninja Warrior. Craig shares about his struggle with Lyme disease, as well as facing the darkness of anxiety and depression, and, through the power of resilience, determination and vulnerability, has become what he calls a heart-centered leader with an insatiable thirst for life. Hold on tight, y'all. You are in for a steep climb and a story to inspire us all. It's the Men on the Path to Love podcast. Welcome, craig, to Men on the Path to Love.
Craig Richard:Hey, great to be here.
Bill Simpson:Great to have you, man. You've had quite a journey to where you are right now and, of course, I'm all about storytelling, so let's just jump right in. Tell us your story, tell us what you've been through, man.
Craig Richard:Sure. Well, one of the main stories I'm known for is my rock climbing accidents.
Bill Simpson:Right.
Craig Richard:It happened when I was a young man. I had been training to climb the most famous and difficult climb in the world. It's called El Capitan in Yosemite, california. I was just 19 years old, already climbing at an expert level. That influence came from my father, ron, who was a real hot shot rock climber. He started me climbing when I was just five years old. Wow climber, he started me climbing when I was just five years old. So I had already done many serious accomplishments to that point, but my eye was on this ultimate goal of climbing El Capitan. It's 3,000 vertical feet and it takes four days and three nights to get to the top man it's quite a thing, yeah I'd say
Craig Richard:so, yeah, I, uh I've been climbing since I was a teenager with my first cousin his name is ken and, uh, he's like a brother to me, so we've had a special climbing partnership all these years and, uh, to make sure we were ready to climb el capitan, we went to a place here in my home state of Colorado. It's called the Black Canyon. It's difficult to get into, it's not very visited and the climbs, just in general, are of a very high level and it's just a bewildering wild nature to the place.
Bill Simpson:And you had to do it right.
Craig Richard:You just had to do it Well we thought this was kind of the ultimate test. You know, if we can get through this then we can do basically the Mount Everest of rock climbs Right. So we headed in, had a very successful first day climbing the rock. But on that second day, about a thousand feet high, I took a normal climber's fall. All of my safety equipment was working properly. My anchors had caught me. The problem was that I fell about 15 feet of free fall straight onto a ledge before the rope stopped me. I'd shattered my right leg. There was no other people there in the area we were in and we had lost cell phone reception. We had to rescue ourselves, Yep. So we had to rappel 1000 feet to the ground, which took us about eight hours. Me doing this with a shattered leg was quite a feat.
Bill Simpson:An enormous pain, I would imagine.
Craig Richard:For sure. Yeah, every time my leg bumped into the rock, kind of bouncing down on the rappel, I almost knocked out. It was very difficult, yeah, but we made it through that portion and at that point we'd gotten to the bottom of the canyon and had to make this three-mile very steep wild hike, essentially to get out. Of course I couldn't stand, so I had to crawl on my hands and knees. This lasted for 18 hours through the night in the dark to get out. I didn't realize what a serious endeavor it was until I'd gotten out of the canyon and started kind of reflecting back to me like wow, I can't believe you made it through that. And in my mind it was just well, I just did what I had to do because I wasn't going to die.
Bill Simpson:Right Survival yeah.
Craig Richard:Yeah, and so a lot of things happened in a series soon after that that really changed my life in many amazing ways. Amazing ways, one of which is that after I'd shattered my leg, a lot of people started to project onto me their thoughts about who they thought I was post-traumatic accident. I had a lot of people kind of saying like, oh, it's too bad that you were going to climb El Capitan, but I'm sure you'll never do that now that you're going to have a leg full of surgical steel. And that just had never even crossed my mind. Of course, it was still something I wanted to do.
Bill Simpson:Right yeah.
Craig Richard:So I took a lot of these projections as fuel for me to kind of show people really who I believed I was and what I was capable of.
Bill Simpson:Also to yourself, right.
Craig Richard:Well, absolutely. This was the first real opportunity in my life for me to look at who I believed I really was and what I was capable of doing, and so it was a real blessing in disguise all these naysayers, it really gave me an opportunity to dig deep and look at who I believe I am and what power I have. So yeah.
Bill Simpson:So what happened next? I'm sure all this rehab and everything just to get you back to some sort of a normal state.
Craig Richard:Yeah, I had a very interesting recovery and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was extremely active during recovery. Again, this kind of like well, you've got a cast on, now you can't be the same guy I was like, well, let me see what I can do with a cast on.
Bill Simpson:That's awesome.
Craig Richard:Yeah, and some of it. If you don't understand the context, it does seem a little wild. But, for example, when the Denver Post came to do a story on my my accidents, they had my cousin and I posing at the Garden of the Gods, which is our favorite rock climbing spot here in my hometown, colorado Springs. We were posing on the rocks with our climbing gear on and the cast was below my knee and I'd done this entire rescue using my knee above the break. So I thought to myself, if I've still got two good hands, one good foot and one knee of support, I don't see why I couldn't do a little climbing, got up on the rock, and not only was I able to do it, I was able to do it very, very well.
Bill Simpson:Wow.
Craig Richard:And this, this blew my mind. It still blows my mind.
Bill Simpson:I can imagine.
Craig Richard:It still blows my mind, I can imagine. So the recovery was kind of miraculous in a sense because I healed in about half the time that my orthopedic surgeon prescribed me to Wow. And I really believe that this was my first experience in life with the power of what the mind can do to the physical body.
Bill Simpson:Absolutely.
Craig Richard:There's so many fantastic stories about people that seem to use the power of their mind to heal their physical body, and I really feel like this was a very real experience for me around that. So, after the body was healed, got right back to the serious stuff. As soon as the cast came off, I went to Rocky Mountain National Park and did a 1,000-foot climb with my climbing partner, and we realized that we were back in the game and that we still wanted to train for El Capitan.
Bill Simpson:Wow, no falls and you're ready to go.
Craig Richard:That's right, so that next year we got right back to all those big adventures, back to the big walls, back to all those big adventures, back to the big walls. And exactly one year after I shattered the leg, we did go to Yosemite and we reached the 3,000 foot summit of El Capitan.
Craig Richard:Man that's like a miracle. Well, in some ways, yeah, I think you're right. That being said, it's so real for me. You know, miracles have a lot of magic involved. Yeah, right, there there is a lot of magic in my story. That being said, it felt like such a you know, what can I do in this physical body? Kind of thing like what is my physical body really capable of, and and also, what is the power of my mind really capable of? It's like a practical miracle, I would say there, you go Okay.
Craig Richard:I'll take that.
Bill Simpson:So you did it, man. So congratulations on that. What was next for you? As you healed, you made this huge accomplishment, this lifelong goal. What was next?
Craig Richard:A lot of things really take off after that. I think because that series of events through that year following the accident and then one year later reaching this major accomplishment, it really got me so fired up about what else I can do and experience in life. I'm a professional musician and I really started to take off with my music. Things just started lining up, I think. My intentions, my heart was in the right place, my talent was at the right level and I started to rub shoulders with some artists like Kenny G.
Craig Richard:He invited me to play through her and then I had an opportunity to do my own headliner show and some people that worked with this big agent had seen my show by chance and made a phone call. And for the last 15 years I've been on tour about nine months out of every year. I've been to over 150 countries on tour with my music and with my keynote speaking.
Bill Simpson:That's amazing. I mean going from rock climber to full-time musician. How did that happen? Like had music always been a part of your life, or what Well?
Craig Richard:that's something I love to talk about. My two parents are just fantastic people and very much influenced me to be who I am. My father, Ron, was a fairly well-known rock climber here in Colorado and he was one of the kind of the original studs climbing in the Garden of the Gods. So he started me rock climbing when I was just five years old. So it's just second nature for me. It's always been there. And then my mother, Carol. She was a middle and high school choir teacher, so the music was always there. And it's really fun for me to honor my parents because, first of all, they did a fantastic job raising me. We're still very close.
Bill Simpson:Sounds like it yeah.
Craig Richard:It's just fun for me to reflect that so much of who I am is because of their passions that they helped come alive in me as well.
Bill Simpson:So I understand you were on a reality TV show as well.
Craig Richard:That's right. American Ninja Warrior.
Bill Simpson:My son and I used to watch that all the time.
Craig Richard:It's a fun show. Yeah, I got turned on to that because after climbing El Capitan, I started doing this really interesting type of exercise. It's called primitive movement. What I understand it was the way they trained the French Foreign Legion, and it was so that they could be ready for any type of environment that they would come across as they traveled the world, and basically it's making anything in front of you an obstacle course. Yeah, so I was living in New York City at the time and I would go to some of the city parks.
Craig Richard:Living in New York City at the time, and I would go to some of the city parks, like I go to Central Park. You jump over bridges and climb trees and climb up, you know, uh, light, light poles and things like that. It's very wild. When people see you do it, they're like what is this person doing? You know? But, uh, I did this for about five years and then then my cousin Katrina, she said you would be so perfect on this TV show that I love watching and it was American Ninja Warrior. So I just auditioned. They thought I was a great fit and I competed in the 2016-2017 seasons and I got fifth place at the Denver finals and that was good enough to go to the Las Vegas Nationals that year, so I made it all the way to the end. It's pretty great.
Bill Simpson:That is awesome, man, I tell you. You just have this determination about you, man. Whatever you've set your mind to, you do it. And it's just awesome.
Craig Richard:Well, you know, one thing that's really a theme for me, bill, is that I just I love life.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, no doubt.
Craig Richard:That's been alive in me since I was a child. Something just turned on inside of myself that looked at living as such an opportunity rather than a thing I had to do. It's like, wow, I get to be here. Like wow, I get to be here. So all these things that I've gotten to experience are just, I think, the meeting of determination and just a deep passion to do things very well, like, if I'm going to be here, I want to do something to the highest of my ability.
Bill Simpson:Well, you got to spend the time, so you might as well be great, right.
Craig Richard:Absolutely, and I mean talent plays a part in that, no doubt. You know, a lot of us are naturally gifted at different things. It just so happened that the two things my parents really turned me on to music and athletics were things that I had a lot of natural talent for.
Bill Simpson:And that's an interesting balance too. You know, sometimes you have, you know you have the jock, and then you have the musician, but you know to do both. Both that's quite a feat as well.
Craig Richard:I'm glad you said that, because I'm talking about men on the path to love. I always tell people that the art, the music for me is my feminine side.
Bill Simpson:Right.
Craig Richard:The athletics is my masculine side and it really does give me a very great balance of honoring both of those sides inside of myself they've got the yin and the yang going on and that's that's true balance, right there.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, yeah, and I think that's important for men to hear. You know that there is a feminine side to us as well as masculine, and the same with women, as, as human beings, we have both, and as men, you know, we want to be masculine, we don't want to go near the feminine part, and you know, and it's it makes you a better man, and even maybe balancing out that masculinity, honoring your feminine side.
Craig Richard:Absolutely. I learned from a few different sources, one of which being MKP, the Mankind Project, which I've done some interviews with men from, that it's an international men's group I highly believe in. For you men listening out there, it's a place where you can be in an intentional circle of men that want to better themselves and have some clean masculine education clean masculine education. One thing that I learned there was that this makes sense to me. Being a whole man is embodying these different, very important parts of myself, and they're described in different ways.
Craig Richard:For me, one is the child in myself right also described as the lover, and that can include a lot of that, uh, what we would describe as feminine energy. It's that feeling, it's the heart side, it's the part of us that's okay to open up and cry. It's also the part of me that continues to see the world with wonder, the fresh eyes of a child.
Bill Simpson:Having that curiosity about life.
Craig Richard:Absolutely. That's one of my big stretches, because I can tend to be too serious. I think I take life a little too serious sometimes just because I care about it so much Right.
Bill Simpson:Part of that's having the passion and the fun of it.
Craig Richard:The next part is one that most men are very familiar with, which is the warrior. Art is one that you know, most men are very familiar with, which is the warrior. This is a part of myself that I kind of didn't understand so well most of my life, until I learned how to get in touch with my version of it, which is different for every one of us. You know, the warrior in the real, obvious sense is, as a man, is our muscle, our ability to lead, our um, oh gosh, our ability to direct, yeah, all those things that can come pretty easily, um, but there's ways that that can turn into a shadow. You know a very negative aspect easily, which is dominance, intimidation, um, you know, muscling through things rather than flowing through things right so for me the warrior is really about.
Craig Richard:Well, first of all it was about honoring that. That's a really beautiful part about being a man and I can feel proud of that. It feels good to be in a physical body that can protect, that can literally move mountains, so that's a part of myself that I've come to really love and celebrate in a clean way. And then the two others are the magician, which is really just, I would say, the self-actualized man. This is a very exciting time in my life. I just turned 40 years old on August 3rd. This is kind of the time in life of the magician. All these four parts are, you know, kind of divided up into four stages of life child, adolescent, adult, elder age. And this magician part, I think, is so sweet, I'm stepping into it. It's a time in life where we can really use so much of what we gathered really give it back and just a lot of peace involved.
Craig Richard:I'd love to hear your take on this, because you're very much in this time of your life, bill.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, well, I'm also thinking of midlife. You've had experience under your belt and you've had adversity and you've overcome adversity, and then knowing that you can do that, it's like, well, man, I can overcome anything. If I got through that, I can get through this. It's a time of life I know for me was I'm 65 right now, so that was a time where I felt like life was just great. There was enough maturity in me and enough youth in me to just feel that vibrancy of life at that time of my life. And it's not to say I didn't go through any adversity after that. You know, it's just being human, we do that, and it's led me to now and to my, you know, almost retirement years of even more joy. So you have a lot to look forward to.
Craig Richard:Yeah, I count most people that say that this time in their life was their favorite.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and there's more good stuff to come.
Craig Richard:Yeah, but what I was saying about the four parts you have a child, the warrior, the magician and the king, which is associated with the elder years and the leadership in us. It's a very soft power, Something I got from my dad. When I asked my dad what it means to him to be a man, he says soft power.
Craig Richard:It really speaks to me. It's like absolutely use these tools. You have to really make things happen. This is the, the young part of masculine moving energy. However, you don't need to force anything, scare people, hurt them.
Bill Simpson:Use that power in a kind and loving way absolutely yeah, and that's where the vulnerability comes in and the strength of just knowing that vulnerability and knowing that that's their strength and power in that, as well as the physical.
Craig Richard:Well, one thing I would love to talk about that you just brought up for me is vulnerability, because that, above all things and personal work, changed my life.
Bill Simpson:Tell me more.
Craig Richard:Well, I really lived my life for a long time by accomplishing these awesome things and then believing that the way for me to get friends and bring people closer to me was to basically just show them and tell them about all this awesome stuff I did.
Bill Simpson:Right, yeah, all the ego stuff right.
Craig Richard:Exactly, which is a typical from a young man's mentality. It's normal, and I had this wonderful experience with a leadership retreat where the exercise was every person got about 25 minutes to just say whatever they wanted about themselves and their life, and then, when it was over, they agreed that the group could have the floor to reflect back to them how they were received. You know their impressions, their assumptions, all that good stuff, so you can see how people really take you in. And across the board, people said something like this yeah, you know I feel like you're probably this really nice guy, but I'm so intimidated by you.
Bill Simpson:I want nothing to do with you. Blow my mind here.
Craig Richard:I said why? And they said because I feel like I'm nothing like you. And I realized that what wasn't included in anything that I had said was about my hardships in life, about my feelings, about my struggles.
Bill Simpson:Right.
Craig Richard:And so, from that day on, I learned that, especially in living a very powerful life from that place, demonstrating just exactly how human I am like everyone else, that has been the thing that's really began to draw people into my life.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, it sounds like that was quite a humbling experience for you.
Craig Richard:Very much needed.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, and I know that's the power of group. You know I had done some group work before I'd been in a group before I was doing group work and getting that feedback. It's like if you're in with a therapist or a coach, you know, it's kind of like you're in control, right for the most part. But when you're in a group and the floor is open for feedback, you're getting some real good information about yourself. And it doesn't necessarily mean all of it's true. It's just there's a grain of salt in there at some point and to pay attention to it, take it to heart and let go that shield of the ego, take it in, humble yourself and find that vulnerable spot inside you.
Craig Richard:Vulnerability. It's changed my life.
Bill Simpson:Me too.
Craig Richard:I'm so glad to hear that and I really want to broadcast this message, particularly to the men, but also the women that are listening. I think this is a human trait that brings us together, I feel like we are inside so tired of getting the surface version of everything inside.
Craig Richard:So tired of getting the surface version of everything. There's this disconnect, feeling like we're not having a shared experience. But that's such a lie. The hardships for me and talking about them and really hanging them out. There are the things that, time after time, bring people to me. Like I'll do a talk and someone will just be in tears afterwards and won't even ask permission. I'll just grab. No, I don't have any bad boundaries around that stuff, it's okay. But it's like, wow, you've done this, you've done this, you've done this. And then I say, yeah, and guess what?
Craig Richard:I used to have very bad habits with women. I used to have very bad habits with women. I used to have the worst self-esteem. I still struggle with believing I'm good enough, even to this day. I lied about this, you know, and it's like on and on and on. It's like this guy is just like me and so I am getting that love now that I always wanted and was missing for a long time, because I am able to show my humanity, which we are all just dying for, I think you know.
Bill Simpson:That's so awesome because you know, like the guy that was intimidated by you, and then this person you know wanting to hug you and in tears. They're seeing this big ego story and then when you reveal your humanness, it just opens everybody up and you're just as human as everybody else.
Craig Richard:Absolutely yeah. Rather than talking about it theoretically, I'd love to tell a little bit about that.
Bill Simpson:Do tell.
Craig Richard:Great yeah, a little bit about that. Do tell Great yeah. Well, one of my first major real tests with anxiety and depression real deal was when I got sick with Lyme disease.
Bill Simpson:Oh man, my wife has Lyme disease. And it's no joke, man, I mean it's.
Craig Richard:See, here we go. I'm bringing up something that you can relate to, so we're getting close.
Bill Simpson:That's how we do it.
Craig Richard:Yeah, I really was on top of the world for quite a while Just bang, bang, bang around the world, music shows, ninja Warrior adventures, and then, crazy enough, when I was at the pinnacle of all of that, it was at the American Ninja Warrior National Finals. During my last run I crashed in the middle of the course because my body just flipped a switch and stopped working.
Bill Simpson:Wow.
Craig Richard:And it was the first symptoms showing up in my body that I'd contracted Lyme disease. So I realized long after, in retrospect, I'd been bitten by a tick about a month and a half prior to that and just like that and just the worst moment possible. You know, it's like being at the Olympics and all of a sudden it's like that poor guy that ran with COVID, you know yeah.
Craig Richard:And and crash flat on my face. And then, in the time of trying to figure this out, this is one of the really difficult things about Lyme disease. It's very hard to diagnose.
Bill Simpson:Yes, it is.
Craig Richard:So I was seeing several different doctors doing all these tests and they had no idea what was wrong with me. My physical, everything had just gone. I felt heavy, just constant fatigue, constant foggy brain which just is like just being in a fog all the time, not able to really pay attention to anything, engage with life. So, without having any answers and feeling so bad, I felt like my life had just been taken away and for the very first time in my life, I knew what real loathing and sadness and depression felt like. I thought to myself for several weeks every day if this is how it's going to be, I might want to start making a plan to get out of here.
Bill Simpson:Really Wow.
Craig Richard:Contemplated suicide because a guy like me that defined himself so much by his physicality but also just being able to use my mind to engage with life, that had been taken away. So I thought, if I'm going to be a vegetable like. I don't know if I want to be here anymore.
Bill Simpson:That's not who you are right.
Craig Richard:Well, it was such a gift because, after I finally got properly diagnosed and treated, got my health back, going to that dark place had given me this incredible insight into what that experience is like, and so that's a great example of something I talk about on stage. That anyone that's dealt with extreme loathing and suffering and depression they feel seen and I think that is such a gift that we can offer is to talk about those struggles, because that's what really I'm learning over and over again is drawing people into my life and me to others when I see that I have so much in common with them.
Bill Simpson:Sure, and that's a lesson for all of us. You don't have to expose everything and just be a total mess. Just own where you are and be vulnerable and know that millions of people are suffering right along with you right now, that you're not alone in this. And I work a lot with self-compassion and it's not self-pity oh, my life sucks. Woe is me. It's this shit is hard and I'm going through a rough time and it's honoring that and that's a stretch for man, woman, anybody to embrace self-compassion like that and we have to kind of learn it, because we don't have a whole lot of role models for that right and having that compassion for yourself, loving that part of you that's vulnerable, that's sensitive, that's loathing, that's having these episodes. The strength is being able to share that and get support.
Craig Richard:Well, and you said it, you know, the support comes when we share.
Bill Simpson:Right.
Craig Richard:The really amazing thing that I would love to broadcast right now for those of you that are listening thinking, oh, what are you talking about? Like, yeah, I'm just going to, you know, start crying and everything's going to, my life's going to change. It's like well, first of all, it's not that. No, it's exactly like you said having the courage to just say I am having a tough time.
Bill Simpson:Okay.
Craig Richard:From that place. Every single time I have opened up and shared that with people in my circle. That's when I get the healing and the support that I need.
Bill Simpson:Absolutely.
Craig Richard:And the connection, rather than just bottling it up inside and, just you know, slowly dying inside, rotting away, opening up to be vulnerable, to let people know where I'm at. That's when I get my love, my support, and I see the people that have really got my back, you know.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, and people can breathe around you, they can be there to support you, they can realize I'm not alone in this as well. That just opens us up for love. And you know it goes back to the feedback you got in your group, you know like, yeah, okay, yeah, this guy who's intimidating me. I want to see the real you like what's underneath that, because we can have both right. Yeah, I feel a lot closer when I hear your vulnerability, you know, and experiencing this with you right now, versus talking about all the ego stuff.
Craig Richard:I love to talk about this stuff, yet it has been the dark places that I've visited since then that has really made me a full man. What's really important to me is being a safe man.
Bill Simpson:Yes.
Craig Richard:I've been really visiting this a lot lately, uh, with a good friend of mine named hannah, and she keeps reflecting back to me that she feels really safe around me. God, that makes me feel so good that that is something I'm offering is, as a man, that that's in my energy and that has been absolutely through a lot of self-reflection about how I show up, and I think a lot of that has come through continuing to process my sadness, my anger, you know, which is a very easy go-to masculine emotion, clean and healthy ways.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, yeah, I did an episode not too long ago about creating safety in relationship and just our physicality alone with women. There's an underlying current of he could overpower me, you know. There's the physical aspect and then, like you said, the emotional, the anger that can be intimidating and be scary, and one of the things I coach my clients from day one is four things when you're thinking about your partner or your spouse is I love you, I respect you, I care about you and I want you to feel safe in this relationship.
Craig Richard:I like that.
Bill Simpson:And do whatever you can to do that, because otherwise what's the point?
Craig Richard:If my spouse or partner doesn't feel safe, that's not a good thing in many ways, the point of the work that you're doing, bill, is that it's you say what's the what's the point, but there is a lot of unconsciousness that exists in this world oh, absolutely most.
Craig Richard:Of it right, and this is about taking it to another level. This is about owning how good things really can be. Exactly All of this stuff about practicing and developing, being what I would say is being a good man are the things that have really created the space to have the kind of intimacy and connection and friendships and in love that I never experienced when I was younger no, no you know, so much of my experience was again out of my ego and my how my mind felt, but I feel so in my body now, particularly when it comes to intimacy.
Craig Richard:That has been such a game changer I can't even begin words to again. Like you say, develop trust and safety and true deep intimacy and connection with those people in my life. It's a whole different experience.
Bill Simpson:And that intimacy is amazing and the connection just gets deeper and deeper, and even on a sexual level with intimacy it's just so much better, it's just amazing. Yeah Well, Craig, I think we could talk for hours man.
Craig Richard:Yes, we could.
Bill Simpson:I really like where you're coming from and what you're doing out there. Is there anything you'd like to say to wrap things up here, is there?
Craig Richard:anything you'd like to say to wrap things up here, oh, just that learning to live from my heart has always been the thing that's led me where I wanted to go. So I very much resonate with what you're about men on the path to love, because for me, it's what I and I feel all of us truly desire in the end is just to love and be loved.
Bill Simpson:Yes, sir.
Craig Richard:Out of the head to the heart.
Bill Simpson:There you go. I appreciate you, craig, and if someone wants to check out your music or keynote speaking and all that you do, how can we check you out?
Craig Richard:Thanks for asking, so my website is CraigRichardcom.
Bill Simpson:On Instagram, my handle is CraigRichardardlive. It's the same for YouTube, craigrichardlive and LinkedIn. Thanks so much for sharing your soul with me today, man. It means a lot to me that you opened up the way you did, and I wish you continued success and let's stay in touch. I love that, Bill. It's really great to talk to you and that will do it for this bonus episode of the Men on the Path to Love podcast.
Bill Simpson:Climbing Life's Mountains Craig's story, the power of resilience, determination and vulnerability. Thank you so much for listening and again, big thanks out to Craig Richard for sharing his story with us. You'll find the links to all of Craig's info in the show notes. Now coming up on the next episode of the Men on the Path to Love podcast. Now coming up on the next episode of the Men on the Path to Love podcast.
Bill Simpson:Are you on the fence about your marriage or relationship, wondering if you should stay or go? Is it worth fighting for? Well, on the next episode, I'll share Hakeem's story, who asked himself these same questions. Find out what he decided and some things for you to consider. If you're trying to decide about yours, Please join me for Is my Relationship Worth Fighting For episode, and if you have an idea for the show I would love to hear from you. Just go to my website, menonthepathtolovecom. You can contact me there. You can download my free cheat sheet Five Ways to Communicate Better in Relationship. You can even set up a free coaching call with me on how to communicate better in relationship. Once again, my website is menonthepathtolovecom, and if you want to help to get more men on the path to love, I ask that you please tell as many guys as you know about it, post it on your social, come on, y'all share the link and share the love, and until next time, keep your heart open and stay on the path to love.