Living A Life Filled With Joy with Leo Aspite | Ep. 25

ByMegan North

My guest on this week’s episode of The True North Show is Leo Aspite, an incredibly inspiring man and a true gentleman.  Leo shares with me his journey when he started as an Engineer and how his purpose has become clearer with every career move he has made.  He loves the fact that the work he is doing now is tapping into all of the practical experience he has gained over his lifetime and how joy and being joyous is the most important aspect of everything he does, both personally and professionally.

Bio:

With over 25 years of experience in operations, consulting, small business ownership, and corporate management at both regional and global levels, Leo Aspite brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to The Alternative Board Gosford.

Leo’s career has spanned various industries and roles, from leading startups and engineering teams to Managing Director positions in medium-sized businesses and large global corporations.

Through these experiences, he has developed a holistic approach to business transformation, focusing on leadership, sales, and engineering to help organisations adapt and grow.

As a coach and facilitator, Leo is dedicated to helping business owners and management teams unlock their full potential.  He provides the tools, frameworks, and insights needed to understand, plan, develop, and scale businesses effectively.  Leveraging the proven methodologies of The Alternative Board, Leo aims to challenge conventional thinking and drive positive change in the businesses he works with.

Outside of work, he is passionate about enjoying good food, traveling, and spending quality time with his family.  Leo also has a keen interest in sports.

If you are ready to turn challenges into opportunities, align your business goals with your personal aspirations, and thrive within a supportive community, The Alternative Board Gosford offers a pathway to success and fulfillment.  Partner with Leo, and together, not only will you work on your business but he will also help you achieve the life you envision.

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Transcript:

Megan North (00:00)
Hello and welcome to The True North Show. I’m your host, Megan North, and I’d like to thank our sponsors of the show, Quantum Awakening, Beth Lewis and Anne C. Clark, and our lovely guest who paid to be featured on this episode.

Today I am joined by a wonderful man who does not just have an incredible business mind, but is also very kind, warm and a true gentleman.

With over 25 years of experience in operations, consulting, small business ownership and corporate management at both regional and global levels, Leo Aspite brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to The Alternative Board Gosford. Leo’s career has spanned various industries and roles, from leading start ups and engineering teams to managing director positions in mid-size businesses and large global corporations.

Through these experiences, he has developed a holistic approach to business transformation, focusing on leadership, sales and engineering to help organisations adapt and grow. As a coach and facilitator, Leo is dedicated to helping business owners and management teams unlock their full potential. He provides the tools, framework and insights needed to understand, plan, develop and scale businesses effectively.

Leveraging the proven methodologies of The Alternative Board, Leo aims to challenge conventional thinking and drive positive change in the businesses he works with.

Now, outside of work he is passionate about enjoying good food, travelling and spending quality time with his family, and he also has a keen interest in all sports.

So if you are ready to turn challenges into opportunities, align your business goals with your personal aspirations and thrive within a supportive community, The Alternative Board Gosford offers a pathway to success and fulfilment. Partner with Leo and together, not only will you work on your business, but he will also help you achieve the life you envisage.

Hello and welcome to The True North Show. I’m your host, Megan North. I am a purpose finder, mental health professional and guide for those ready to return to who they truly are. Here, we explore what it means to live a life led by purpose, alignment and deeper inner truth.

Through real conversations, powerful reflections and soul-led strategies, we will uncover the stories, tools and insights that help you navigate life’s crossroads and find your own true north. So whether you are in the middle of a transformation, seeking clarity or just curious about what is next, you are in the right place. Let’s dive in. Your path starts now.

Welcome to the show, Leo. I have really been looking forward to sitting and talking to you today.

Leo Aspite (03:11)
Thank you, Megan. It is just a privilege to be with you. I’m really excited about our chat coming up and hopefully we can share a bit of insight for the viewers and for everyone who is listening in. Yeah, really looking forward to it. It is an honour to be with you.

Megan North (03:31)
Thank you.

So, reading out your bio, clearly you have pursued many passions and purposes throughout your career. What was the defining moment that led you to pursue your true passion and purpose at the beginning of your career? What was the first thing that you did?

Leo Aspite (03:48)
Wow. So it is a long career, makes me sound really old.

One of the clear things that I remember, and it was a story and it was a fork in the road, is when I was a young, budding engineer working really hard, but very shy. I was the guy who would probably sit in the corner and just work away and not interact too much.

I felt like it was stopping my life. I was not living my full potential. I had ambitions. I had things I wanted to do and I could see I was missing out just because of my fear of people.

So I thought, what am I going to do? I’m going to tackle fear head on.

I was working as an engineer and a friend of mine asked me to go and teach at our community college, some CAD programs. I felt like this is it, this is my way. I will face my fears and get in front of a class.

The CAD side I knew really well, but the people side, I was physically sick at every class for at least three months. It was a class on the weekends. I would rock up half an hour earlier and I would be outside being sick.

After probably the first month, I stopped vomiting all the time. It sounds weird, but that is how it was. Then I realised if you do it often enough and if you are prepared, it becomes normal.

That was a big moment for me because it meant that I could have the life that I wanted rather than a life that was controlled by fear.

Eventually I started to get really into the students and their journeys and into leading those people toward their goals. I really loved that and it set the platform for me early on for what my true purpose was.

That then unfolded into various careers and businesses and led to where I am now. But that moment of making that decision, even though I was going to be sick and I knew I would be, was the moment that changed my life.

Megan North (06:30)
That is incredible. To think that at such a young age you had so much presence and awareness as well. So many people talk about feeling like that for 20 years, 30 years, and they never did anything about it. Then finally later in life they take the leap.

For you to be sitting there and realising that it was blocking you is incredible.

Leo Aspite (06:58)
Yeah.

It was very visible because I was watching others succeed and I would think, I have the ability to do that, so what is stopping me? It was that fear. That was my challenge.

If you fast forward many years later, I’m a keynote speaker at Crown Casino in Melbourne and I’m pinching myself thinking, how did I get here? How did I actually get here?

That was the validation of that journey, and that was about 25 years later.

Megan North (07:42)
What were you speaking about at the casino?

Leo Aspite (07:45)
I was speaking to engineers about careers within engineering. I was sharing what workplaces are like now, where the talent pools are and the way the world has changed regarding pathways.

Because I was an employer, I had a lot of experience around what companies are looking for. So that was the topic I was invited to talk about.

The topic was quite easy, but when I looked across the room, there would have been 300 or so people there. I was not nervous. I thought back to that moment when I decided that I was going to change my life.

That was the validation that that decision had worked.

Megan North (08:38)
And I think one of the things that is really interesting when we talk about that fear factor is that, and I have been trained as a professional speaker, so I guess when you are trained you get all the tips and tricks, but as a teacher and then as a speaker, one of the things that I always keep in my mind is that no one knows what my script is.

No one is sitting there with my script going, oh, Leo, you missed that line. No one knows. They are just there to hear what you want to share.

From a teacher point of view as well, it is so interesting that we put so much fear and anxiousness and nervousness into it when the people are just turning up wanting to hear what you have to share.

Leo Aspite (09:28)
Yeah, very much so. And you know yourself, technology can let you down and things happen, and they do. So you learn that it is there. If something happens, you just adapt and move on. No one knows any different because they do not know the background.

That actually happened at that big event. They forgot to put a couple of the slides up. We just kept going and nobody knew any different.

A younger version of me would have been quite stressed about that.

Megan North (09:48)
Yeah, really interesting.

In the bio that I spoke about, we talked about The Alternative Board. Can you explain what The Alternative Board is, what is the concept, and what is the work that you are doing with people in this business?

Leo Aspite (09:58)
Yeah, it is really simple stuff. All we do, all I do, is gather six to ten non-competing business owners and put them into a board, a peer advisory boardroom environment, and we basically workshop their challenges and opportunities on a month by month basis.

All we are doing is helping business owners with their businesses. It is a long term strategy. The people who come onto these boards learn how to fish. That is pretty much what we are doing.

We help them focus in the areas where they are either not experienced or where there are bottlenecks in their business. It is a joy. It is an absolute joy and privilege that they trust us with all of that.

I love it. I have seen a lot through my business career and have a lot of those experiences, but that collective approach and the accountability that happens in that room is just phenomenal.

So I feel very honoured and privileged that I can be a small part of that.

Megan North (10:25)
Definitely. And so what are some of the reasons why people join The Alternative Board?

Leo Aspite (11:42)
Being an engineer, I thought I would only be helping engineering businesses. As it turns out, most of them are not engineering businesses.

What does that tell you? It tells you that the reality is businesses have business owners, and if you forget about what the business is, they have common challenges. They are usually around time, money, staff or people, vision, strategy or exit. They usually fall into those categories.

That is our niche, that we help these businesses along.

What started out as “I only know engineering businesses” has really quickly turned into “a lot of businesses have similar or common problems”.

We work with established businesses. That is where they sit, not so much start ups.

Megan North (11:48)
And having known you, and that is how we met, through The Alternative Board as well, I think one of the other reasons that people join is because often as a business owner you feel quite lonely.

Leo Aspite (12:54)
Yes, definitely.

In my own engineering business before The Alternative Board, I was the MD in Australia. I reported to a board that was in New Zealand and I was pretty much left on my own, making lots of big mega dollar decisions. The board was supportive, but limited.

So for me it was a lonely place, especially because I lived on the Central Coast and my business and the workshops and the engineers were all down in Melbourne. It was very lonely, very difficult.

I just wish, and I always tell people this, I wish I was part of The Alternative Board as a member because it would have helped me a lot, especially in the exit part of the business and building that succession plan.

I did it reasonably well, but I would have done a lot better with this environment and I would have got more money.

So there are plenty of reasons for myself that a peer advisory board would have been a much better option as a support network for what I was doing.

Megan North (13:05)
Yeah. And so did you, were you aware of The Alternative Board? Is it something that has been on your radar or did you just happen to go to a meeting? How did The Alternative Board for Gosford come across your path?

Leo Aspite (14:17)
Yeah, it is a really good question.

It was driven by purpose. I kind of knew that this is where I would end up from my purpose drive. I have always liked helping people and, because I have been around business a long time, I like helping business owners because I understand that.

I even went and did an International Coaching Federation course during COVID, when everyone was locked up, because I knew the next phase was going to be in some sort of coaching space.

When I devised my exit plan from the other business and I knew that I could only do that business for five to six years because it was just physically too much living interstate, I started to look around and ask who is doing this very well. Who is delivering a service where you can have a good thriving business and where they actually have the right tools and systems and processes that will deliver.

So I went searching for that and then I spoke to a couple of people in that field who were doing well. I jokingly say I was stalking them to see what I could learn.

I found that it was a great community and a really good process. The Alternative Board has been around since 1990. They have been doing these peer advisory boards. They have all the tools, all the evidence is there that this really works on a global scale.

So I thought, these are the guys I need to be talking with.

I reached out to the Australian division and then started those discussions. They introduced me to a couple of the facilitators and I sat on some of their boards as a guest.

Then I knew. I just knew. I said, this is what I could do really easily and I could bring value to the Central Coast.

My purpose, and I know this was one of the things we were going to talk about, is that I have a blatant goal of helping 100 Central Coast businesses prosper on the Central Coast over the next three years.

They will prosper and employ local people, like our children.

If you live on the Central Coast, you will know that there are 30,000 people a day driving down to Sydney for work. It is not a great lifestyle. Twelve to fifteen hours in the car every week.

So if I could make a change or support our business community on the coast so those businesses can thrive and prosper and hopefully employ some of our kids, then this place becomes an even better place for our families to live.

Because I have three boys and two of them still live on the coast, but the other one had to move because the opportunities were not there.

So it is very purpose driven, but The Alternative Board is my vehicle to be able to put that vision ahead.

Megan North (14:32)
Wow, that is incredible. I did not know that. We had never spoken about that. So I feel really privileged that you have been able to share that today. It is an amazing vision.

Leo Aspite (17:59)
Now it is out there. In print.

Megan North (18:10)
Maybe we need to do this every year at the same time.

Leo Aspite (18:19)
I can give you the headcount. I am over 20 now, so I have about 80 to go.

It is about accountability. I am doing this because I have to be accountable to myself. I am calling it out because I really believe in that purpose. This is my way of making sure that I deliver on what I say.

Megan North (18:43)
What is it about the coaching and the helping business owners that you love? Why does it light you up?

Leo Aspite (18:54)
I feel very honoured that they trust me with their numbers, with their detail. I love the fact that I am a partner.

I love the fact that some of them ring just about every day, for anything, because I am part of their business world.

I love the fact that they trust me with that vision for their own business. It is not always pretty. There are challenges. Sometimes there are tears.

They have honoured me by trusting me with that responsibility and I do not take that lightly. I absolutely love the privilege that they have bestowed upon me.

Megan North (19:44)
Yeah. I can completely relate to that because I feel the same with the clients that I coach. It feels like a real privilege that you are on the journey with them and that they want you to be walking beside them on that journey.

It is really lovely.

So for you, from your perspective then, because you have just said that you want to be accountable, do you have a coach? Do you have someone that you can call upon and bounce things off as well from your perspective?

Leo Aspite (20:01)
I do, and we both know him. It is not very well known. We just deal with that ourselves.

When you align your values and your goals, you try to find somebody that you relate to. I just relate to him.

Megan North (20:11)
Yeah.

Leo Aspite (20:23)
Beautifully in every way. From a spiritual point of view, from a business point of view, there is a big alignment.

We lean on each other and it is just an additional thing that I did not even think about. It has just come about and it is so aligned.

We have accountability for our members and people that we work with, but within this business we are accountable also at our level. I find that beautiful because it is the same thing.

We are all businesses. We have business challenges and having the same processes that we expect our members to have is aligned.

I am very fortunate because I have one of the best. He is a light in my journey. I am blown away by that.

Megan North (20:33)
Yeah, I love that. I think it is so important that we literally practise what we preach.

It is one of the first things that I often ask people if I am going to be partnering with them or doing some work with them, what are you doing then for yourself?

If they say, well, I do not really need anything, I think, do you not want to develop and grow?

It is important that we do that as well, because we then bring everybody along through the journey that we are on for them anyway.

Leo Aspite (20:52)
Yeah, I believe in that big time.

I will tell you to the point where I had to make a big change.

If you go back a few years, I was the MD of an engineering business in Melbourne, lots of staff. I knew from day one that I could not sustain that for more than five years. I did my exit and succession plan from day one. It was a great thing, but through necessity, because I just knew.

About three years ago, I really challenged myself because my health was deteriorating and I had to live my values. So I made a conscious plan and followed that plan to exit out of that business, to sort my health issues out.

I had knee replacements. I had lots of things going on that were just hanging around because I was always working and never dealt with them properly.

I put a plan in that put health at the top of the list. I put joy and passion and purpose at the top of the list. I put relationships, time and life balance at the top.

I changed the way I ate. I changed the way I exercised. I put all of those things that I neglected for a long time into this plan.

So the version that you are seeing now lives a very well balanced life. I do not do the 60 flights a year. Most times I am driving 15 minutes. It is really cool.

It is so cool that I walk around with a smile and think, wow, I have actually got six or seven pillars that are all going in the right direction. That was very purposefully done.

I asked for a lot of help upstairs to get that journey going and He has been kind to me, but I did the work.

I had to do the work and I had to exit a very profitable business. I could have just stayed in the money lane. The reality was I had to decide what true purpose was.

We are on The True North Show, so I am talking about that. I had to deliver because I cannot expect other people to do the same if I did not do it myself. I had to do it first.

I am proud to say that I am not there yet, not 100 per cent, but my life is alight.

You know my story. I lost my wife in 2012 and I thought that was going to be the plot that I was in.

As it turns out, if you are prepared to be open and you are prepared to reinvent and you are prepared to do the work, you can have the business you want, the relationship you want, the health journey you want, the family you want.

All of these things can be achieved and I am just so excited that that is all possible. I am starting to experience all of that. Bring it on.

Megan North (21:55)
Yeah, and it is interesting from a spiritual and energetic point of view that the more we do the work on ourselves, the different people that we start to bring into our lives as well and the different levels that they are on.

Leo Aspite (22:03)
Definitely. I believe in that.

I believe in this law of attraction thing. As an engineer, I did not, but as an MD and beyond, I believe in that.

The only person you can control is yourself. So if you work on yourself and you bring your best version of yourself, you will attract the right people.

I got married again last year. You bring the right people into your life.

I bring the right clients. The clients I work with are just a joy. I do not deal with difficult clients because I am attracting the right people.

I am setting the right expectations for everybody and bringing the right value. With that, business is a joy.

There is not a lot that I can complain about compared to my old life. This is phenomenal.

I brought that to me just by attracting what I want out of life, being really clear, finding out what it is that you really want out of life. What is your joy?

All of that stuff, all those ducks start to line up. Add a bit of prayer and doors start to open.

Then you know there are things that I cannot even explain. I just focused on that joy and what that joy looks like and then did the work.

Now everything is just great fun. Why not?

Megan North (22:24)
Yeah, exactly. That is the work that I do with my clients, helping them find their true north, because I wake up every day loving what I do and I want everyone to feel that.

When talking to you, it is why you and I connected immediately as soon as we met, because we both want everyone to be feeling that joy and living life to the fullest.

Leo Aspite (22:30)
It is the world. Why not, because it is possible.

Megan North (24:58)
Exactly. Why would you want anything less?

Leo Aspite (25:22)
Yeah. I guess I wish I had learned it earlier, but that is life. Wisdom comes with time and you have to go through stuff. No one misses out, everyone gets something.

We have had our fair share of that stuff, but we survived. My three boys survived.

All of that gives you clarity and purpose. Once you have worked that out, you start to focus on only the good stuff that you want in your life and you prune away all the other stuff.

Megan North (25:47)
I love that you prune it away.

So Leo, I just wanted to ask you before we move on to the mental health piece, the work that you are doing in The Alternative Board, when you have clients and business owners that are coming to you and they are sitting around the boardroom table talking about issues that they have in their business and challenges, do you think that that is the same sort of issues and challenges that you experienced when you first started in business?

Do you think things have changed over time, or do you think that those pillars that you spoke about, time and money and those sort of things, are always the same?

Leo Aspite (26:04)
Yeah, I think sometimes the detail might change. AI is a big topic and there are always going to be those sort of things.

The world does evolve. We had COVID, there are wars, there is a lot of global stuff that impacts business.

The one thing that is guaranteed is change. There is always going to be something for businesses to deal with.

The structure of how problems and challenges occur, I do not think that has changed, because people are people.

It is just transforming whatever it is that is the bottleneck and I do not think that has changed.

Even I recognise some of the challenges that we resolve. I had those same challenges, exactly those. A lot of the time it is just about people. You dig and dig and dig and you find out that sometimes the bottleneck is the business owner themselves.

It could be fear. There are a lot of things that can hold the business back and I do not think that changes.

I think we will see another generation come through and they will have similar scenarios. The detail might change, but the areas of challenge I do not think will change because we are humans and we have these obstacles in life to overcome.

That is what I have seen so far. Working with all these businesses, I see that there are common things that continue to pop up.

That is what is really cool because then we know we have seen that before. We know where to go with that. Of course, there are new things all the time, but generally speaking the foundation stuff, we have seen a lot of that and we have even experienced a lot of that.

That just helps the room and it comes out in the collaboration. Someone will bring something out and then one of the other members will actually address that really well because they have had that in their own business.

That collaborative approach is the key because it brings, sometimes, things that we have not even thought about. It brings a complete look at what that challenge is and what is possible in a practical sense, because it is really coming from a business owner, not from a consultant or a theoretical approach.

It is coming from someone who has their own business in the same area, the same locality, who may know someone, like a referral, that could help solve that problem.

It is all really relevant to what it is and it is tailored to their challenge.

I applaud that within The Alternative Board. That is what it brings and I think that is why the members get such good value in their journey.

Megan North (26:04)
And I love that this vision that you have, because really you are creating a legacy of the businesses that are going to be on the Central Coast to then have this feeling of being able to go into boardrooms through The Alternative Board feeling connected, feeling supported, that they have got their back.

If that is then going to the next generation and the next generation, then that collaboration in business, and not being a competitor but being someone who can support each other, is definitely a legacy of a generation that you are creating.

Leo Aspite (33:40)
Yeah, what blows me away is how many of these businesses want a legacy business.

So it is not all about getting in and getting out. Some of them are building their own purposes and they are looking to structure it in a legacy sense, whether that is an employee stepping up or a family member or whatever that looks like.

They are interested in sustainability and beyond, and that is really powerful stuff. It aligns itself very well with my vision, so they want my attention big time.

I will do everything I can within The Alternative Board to help them on that journey.

Megan North (34:05)
Yeah, definitely.

So when you are pursuing your passion and purpose, how do you maintain balance and prioritise everything to do with mental health and wellbeing?

What have you done over the years? Has it changed, has that journey changed, or have you had things that you have always done that really work for you? What does that look like for you?

Leo Aspite (34:09)
I have had to change in a big way. I had to look at, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, every pillar of life.

In the past, I never did health well. I did family more reactively. When I lost my wife, I had to reinvent because I needed to be around a bit more for my boys, but I never really dealt with it well. It was always just reacting or responding to what was ahead of us.

When I planned for this business, I feel like I really did it well. I took my time and thought about how I do this well and sustainably because it is probably the last phase of my working career and I want to do it really well.

If you look back at my previous life, I was working six or seven days a week. I was interstate, 60 flights a year, eating at the wrong time, living in hotels, always on planes, trains and in cars. I was away from the family a lot. The boys were older, so they did not need me as much, but still, it took away from that lifestyle and put a lot of pressure on me.

Mentally, I was drained because it was just so constant. And as you get older, you feel these things. As a 40 year old manager, I was invincible. As a 50 year old manager, I was not so invincible.

So I feel like this is the first time I am really dealing with the mental side of my wellbeing the best that I have ever done.

The reason for that is because I have put all the pillars in an important level. That means eating properly, sleeping well, having time off.

I do not work the 100 hour plus weeks anymore. I am much more effective when I am at work. It is about quality, not volume.

I am very deliberate with my time. I live near the ocean, so we just look out the window, we are watching whales and all that sort of stuff.

Time with individual family members, time together with the family.

We come from an Italian background, so the big dinner table is very important to us, and my dear wife is from the same sort of background. So we have lots of kids and babies and all of that stuff around food and we value the simple stuff in life.

I have put all of those things in place and I have two calendars running. I have my private calendar and my business calendar and they overlay.

I hold my private calendar bookings very high because if they are in there, they mean something to me. I will not book a slot that is going to impact that because I am managing my wellbeing.

I can see myself doing this business because of the joy I get, and if I do it really well and manage it well, I can have it all.

I can have the great lifestyle and I can have the purposeful living and I can help these businesses, but I do not need to be working 100 hours a week to do that.

That is what I have learned. In the last few years I have brought that balance in.

What happens is I bring my A game. I bring it to the table, whereas in the past I could be really tired and sometimes it was clouded.

So I feel really proud that I have actually done that in my life and I will continue to do it now that I know how. It is delivering.

We talk about joy. I am getting joy because I am actually doing what I need to do in my life.

Megan North (34:31)
Yeah. And so I would imagine with all of that management, particularly the two calendars that are overlapping, boundaries, I am assuming, play a big part in everything that you do.

Leo Aspite (34:58)
Yes, very much so.

Even with the members and the clients, I have the boundaries pretty much in place. They know where to go and where not to go. We have set that up and it is all respectful.

It is very professional, because it has to be. They are paying, I am getting paid, so I need to deliver a service that fits the service that we are providing.

By providing those boundaries and a structure that also allows me to have the joy is phenomenal.

I must be doing it well because I am at joy all the time. Most days I am just looking at the calendar thinking, what am I doing next, and the calendar is full.

Usually the night before I have a quick look at what the day is and I go, wow, we have seven in a row, all of this stuff, but I am excited because it is another opportunity to fulfil that vision.

Megan North (36:40)
And so is there, I mean, you have mentioned a couple of times, talking up there, so I am assuming praying that you are talking about. Yeah.

Is there anything else from a specific mental health point of view? Do you meditate, or is it being at the water that helps you, or is the prayer something that really helps you? Is there one thing or a few things that you do?

Leo Aspite (36:50)
Yeah, I pray a lot more. That is my thing.

I have believed in God all my life, but then when I was lying in a hospital in New Zealand, six weeks after my wife passed away and I had had a motorbike accident and I had three little kids at home, and I was running out of people to look after them, I did a lot of praying on those days.

Then I realised that you just cannot pray and ask for stuff at the dying moment. It is not a great way to live life.

So I vowed to myself that I would actually be better at that and that is what I have done. I have a relationship with God and I am really proud of that.

He has opened doors. Now I pray every day and I spend most of my time really praying for others and praying in thanks for everything that is coming.

The humility is just incredible. It is this place that I want to live in.

My day is just being humbled and looking at the ocean. We have the best people in our lives. We have great friends.

I have to praise that every day because it is so joyful. I know what the season we used to live in looked like and I know it took a lot for us to get out of that.

Megan North (38:11)
Yeah, that is beautiful.

I am not a meditator per se, but I do pray and I feel like they are kind of the same in the sense that I am connecting to God, and both my parents have passed away so I have a beautiful relationship with my parents.

That is how I feel like I meditate, through the prayer that I am doing.

I think that that gratitude and being really grateful for everything that is happening in your life is something that is really important, because my understanding of all our guides and angels that are around us is that when we are saying thank you and oh my gosh, this is amazing, they go, oh, she really likes this, what else can we give her?

Then you are constantly getting all of these amazing things and then you are like, gosh, this is amazing, and they are like, great that she loves that, what else can we give her?

So that having that gratitude and just being so happy about what we have got is joyous. It is that word you have used so many times. It is joy, is it not?

Leo Aspite (38:15)
I wish there was a word that was more, but I cannot think of one, so that is why I stick with joy.

It really brings the balance. It moves the ego right out of the picture and you just become so humble that you start looking at everything in such a positive way.

Where we live, how we live, the people we are with, everything is amazing.

One day it could all be taken from us, so why not live like that now?

Megan North (39:27)
Exactly. And so if you meet someone at a group gathering and someone is thinking about starting to explore their true passion and purpose, what advice would you give them?

What is one thing that you would say to them as they start on their journey?

Leo Aspite (39:40)
Yeah, so I think most people, if I relate back to myself and that earlier story, have fear.

You have fear as a kid. I was the shy kid and I had this fear all the way to adulthood. I had this fear, I do not know what it was, but it controlled me.

It was going to control my life and there was something in me that said, I need to shake this because it is stopping me from being something.

So my suggestion is, face your fears. Everyone has heard that, right, but really face your fear in a way that will allow you to grow.

By facing that fear, you will grow. Whether it is public speaking or whatever it is, you will find that just by doing something towards that, it will let that go.

I always jokingly say, even to the members, once you have done this a thousand times, you will get the hang of it.

They will laugh, but what I am really saying to them is, just make it a habit. If you make it a habit, it is going to remove the fear.

If you remove the fear, then your true self will come out. It just comes out and you could be 65 when that happens or you could be 15.

There is no rocket science to this, but the brain will stop you. You can stop yourself doing anything or you can create your mind to do anything. You choose.

My tip is face your fears and then deal with it by doing something towards overcoming that fear and then explore it and go, wow, I actually like this.

Then all of a sudden you go, I can do that, what about that, and then it leads to the next step.

At a young age, you do not know anything more. You do not have any wisdom yet to understand that, but you can do that. You can do something that will get you to go forward. As the wisdom builds, then you will unpack all of that stuff.

Megan North (40:43)
Yeah, I love that. And I think the thing is too, sometimes when people are thinking, I want to do something different and they are frozen by fear, there is all this time that goes on with them thinking in their mind.

At least if they face it and have a go, they might actually realise it is not what they want to do, but it might put them on a different pathway to something else.

Leo Aspite (41:09)
Yeah, that is pretty much it, exploring it.

I will give you another tip, from my own experience. If you get God on your side, if you are praying for it and you are asking for it, the doors are going to open.

That is a lot easier path than knocking down mountains on your own.

So if you put those two things together, you can just about do anything. I have not seen anything that cannot be done with those two things.

You have to do the work. He opens the doors.

Megan North (42:26)
Absolutely.

Yep, beautiful. Amazing. I love that, I love that.

So can you believe that we have actually only got a couple of minutes left?

Leo Aspite (42:34)
I knew this chat would go quick.

Megan North (42:54)
It is like a blink.

So I am going to ask you the same question that I ask all of my guests before we finish our amazing conversation. What is one lesson or truth that you have learned on your journey that you wish you had known earlier?

Leo Aspite (44:07)
Well, I think that the facing the fears, I would have really appreciated someone sharing that bit of insight with me as a seven year old.

I think I would have had an even different childhood. I did not have a bad childhood, but I had a limited childhood.

I was the middle son, I was the quiet one and I just was compliant.

I would have had a phenomenal childhood if I had understood that. Maybe.

So if you ask me what I would do differently, I would do that earlier because maybe my life would be even more amazing thinking about that.

I do not regret anything, but if you had your time again, I would have liked to have learned that lesson as a seven year old and then watched life unfold.

Because there are so many opportunities at school that I look back on that I did not take. That would have moulded me differently again.

Megan North (44:44)
Yeah, how interesting. Wow. Just face the fear. So the overall feeling is just facing the fear.

Leo Aspite (45:05)
It is simple, right, but who has not had fear? Show me someone.

Show me someone that has not had some sort of fear to conquer.

Megan North (45:19)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Leo Aspite (45:32)
That is relative to children because they carry stuff.

I thought about this a lot, Megan, and I was trying to think of some real, super duper complex scenario.

In reality, it just comes down to a thing I learned in the Bible, which is self love. If you love yourself and you believe that you are worthy, all things are possible.

So when I am working with business owners, guess what comes up when you dig deep. As an engineer, I call it root cause analysis. You keep digging in.

You find out that it always comes back down to those two things. Self love and worthiness. That is it.

Megan North (46:50)
Yeah, very powerful.

Leo Aspite (47:09)
But I cannot cover that on the first session.

Megan North (47:24)
Yeah.

But it is a beautiful way for us to end our conversation today. So thank you.

Look, I am just so grateful for you giving me your time today and for sharing everything that you have shared today.

I knew our conversation was going to be incredible, but it has definitely filled my cup. So thank you.

Leo Aspite (47:50)
Oh, thank you. It is always a joy being around you. From the moment I met you, I thought, wow, what a great human being.

So I feel very honoured and privileged that you are sharing this time and that you thought of me, this old guy with the cap on.

Megan North (48:23)
I love it. I love it. It is amazing.

Leo Aspite (48:38)
I really feel privileged and, you know, watch this space, we will probably do some more stuff together, Megan, right?

Megan North (48:41)
Definitely. Absolutely. Absolutely, without a doubt. For sure.

So thank you, Leo.

Leo Aspite (48:58)
Thank you. Thank you. It has been an honour and privilege.

Megan North (49:12)
Thank you for joining me on this episode of The True North Show. I hope today’s conversation brought you closer to your own sense of purpose and reminded you of the power you hold within.

If this resonated with you, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review or share it with someone who is also walking the path of becoming.

To continue the journey, head over to meganorth.com. You will find resources, support and ways to work with me one on one.

Until next time, keep trusting yourself, following your intuition and taking one aligned step at a time. Your true north is never lost. It is just waiting for you to come home.

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