How to Become Superhuman with the Creator of the Power of Imagination Framework Patrick Ngako

A with our special guest, Patrick Ngako. He has the power of

imagination framework. He's a life coach, helping people to

change their life, circumstances, and their career

trajectory by this power of imagination framework. Patrick,

welcome to Beyond Adversity.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

It's good to have you with us here. Today, we're gonna get into

the details of the power of imagination framework in just a minute

or two here, Patrick, but there's got to be a reason. There's got to

be a reason why you decided to create this framework that we

find it your website. And there is a many times we find here on

this podcast that people have had some point of challenge or pain

or, or adversity, or something that was an important pivoting point

for them. And if you would just share a little bit about your story about

some of the ways that you have matriculated through various situations,

and then come to create this framework. So what adversity have you

faced in order to get to this point?

Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Brad. I really appreciate you having me on the

show. You know, a lot of people, they face their adversity later on in

life, particularly when they start making their own choices, right? And

the difference with me, for me was right off the bat, I was born in pretty

challenging circumstances. And you do find quite a few people as well

that do have that going for them. When I was born, my parents were

very young. My father was a young 21 year old college dropout. My

you know, unbeknown to him had mental illness. She had been diagnosed

mother was still finishing college, six years older than him. And she,

So his connections were were a bit of an advantage for him business wise.

with schizophrenia a few years before. And part of that process was

when she got pregnant with me, she stopped taking her medication,

which ultimately led her to a very serious nervous breakdown. My father

actually left my mom after a few months of marriage. And so my mom

was caring for me by herself. And she had this massive nervous breakdown.

And at that point, I was sent to foster care, while they tracked my father,

and they wind up finding my dad and he sent me to his mother in

Cameroon, Central Africa. I think by the time I was about two

years old, and so here I am coming, you know, into a country. Well,

granted, I was very young, so I didn't know any better or anything

different. But coming into an environment that's completely different

than what I had spent my few couple of years on earth. And, you know,

the interesting thing part is, it's not like if my father was coming

from a stable environment or unstable household, you know, I was

sent to a very traditional Cameroonian culture. And with been

raised by my grandmother, right, and she was a woman, fairly

young at a time, I believe she was in her mid 40s, when when I

moved to Cameroon, but she had gone through a lot of traumatic

events in her personal life, and she had just come out of jail for

embezzlement. And so I've lost a lot of the the clout and reputation

damage, and, you know, everything that comes along with it. And

that's the environment I grew up in, right. And so my grandmother

raised me, my father joined us a few years later. I was about five

years old when my father join, and, you know, he came, he moved

back to Cameroon. He had never completed college, and he came

back to start his own business. And what he really did was take

advantage of the fact that he was an American citizen, and

was able to bring some goods to Cameroon and sell them there

that was before like, the world open. That was before Dubai, and,

you know, anything that is just before before social media, you know,

so, and even TV and cable and things like that, that people in camera

didn't really have access to and so having this American guy that will

just bring something as simple as a stereo system, we just, you know, kind of.

Exactly. Right. Yeah. And so you know, he had a lot

of opportunities. Actually the way he came to the United

States was in with a basketball scholarship to go to Cornell.

By 18, he was working Naz is one of the top basketball players

in Cameroon, played for the national basketball team. That's

how he was scouted. But he came to the US. And, like he always

used to say that the kids here had a love for basketball that

couldn't, that he couldn't match. And he dropped out. And

basically done a squander that, that opportunity there. So,

I mean, going back to my childhood and my upbringing, my

father remarried, I was about five years old. And, you know,

he basically embraced the Cameroonian culture, which is

polygamy. It's very centered around male, the children are

kind of coming, you know, second, second in priority, a lot of

domestic violence. He very, very short temper. And so I

remember I was four years old, the and not for you, I was

about six years old, six, seven years old, and he use my baseball

bat to beat my stepmother. And I was just watching, right, and so

you kind of see that violence kind of growing up. But that's

what he grew up in, that's what his mother did as well. And

she was the one raising me too, so she wasn't any better. You

know, he had a very, very tough upbringing, and that he didn't

really change the course from that standpoint. And so living

in that environment learning and stable environment was very

was particularly was very challenging, traumatic for me, and I

develop really a big anxiety disorder at that point, right. And that

manifested with with weight. I was, as a kid, I was very obese. Just

throughout my childhood, which is kind of, you know, ironic, because

I'm living in a developing country where some people even have a

hard time eating right.

Sure.

And so, you know, but my father was fortunate enough to

have a lot of the, because he was considered poor, even from

an American form. From a US standpoint, he got a lot of the

government aids coming through to him because of my mother's

mental illness, which is a different, a different story, right? She

benefited a lot from from government aides, but you think about

it, you know, you take $1 a day, that's 500 francs. That's, and

the average salary a year is about $4,000.

So this is a little bit of comparison to the American culture

economically was so dramatically different. So what was put a

bit poor in the United States would have been pretty wealthy,

in Cameroon, and is it fair?

Exactly, exactly. Absolutely. Right. And unless it came down to

things that we would consider basic needs, like health care, for

instance, right? I think healthcare in that sense, is the same

cost everywhere. Right? It was just extremely expensive there.

So when it came down to things like that, it was very difficult

for my father to take care of himself in that if without respect,

but when we came down to kind of primary things like lodging,

and food and things like that, while taking advantage of that

opportunity, you know, basically the conversion rate between

US dollar and Francs is that went a very long way.

Sure. So you had this economic situation in the country, you

were born in the United States, but you grew up in Cameroon,

so there had to be come a time, when you realize that you were

in an abusive situation, or you grew up in this and you, you made

some changes to move out of that. So tell me about the transition,

where you transitioned out of that environment to something different?

Yeah, I mean, well, one of the things that one of the things that

happened, that transition actually happened I was about, I would

say six, I was about some, I was about eight years old, eight or nine

years old, although I did not physically get out of Cameroon when

I was 18. That transformation within started at the age of eight.

And I'll explain to you why. So I was going to a Cameroonian

school at the time. And the practice in schools is that you hit

the kids, right? And I was a very poor student, and that was

mostly because of what happened at home. My father had

multiple wives. You know, Living in this under the same roof, so

think about it. It's hard enough to be married to one person, but

you're married to people that know each other. And so yeah, you

know, it was a very, very distressful environment in that sense. And

so by seven years old, I couldn't really spell my name. That's how

awful I was in school. And my grades were pretty awful. And so the

school actually told my grandmother, we'll have to keep this kid

behind until he gets his way around. Because we can't keep on

moving into the next grade, if he doesn't know, some of the basics.

And so and I got hit a lot at school, just for that I was a very rambunctious

By students, by teachers or

my teachers,

everybody?

By teachers. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, they would have,

you know, sticks, and they use like, the rubber belt of the car,

and just basically hit you routinely. And so one of the things

that the teacher offered was, well, we can, I can stay up, I can

stay with him after school for a couple of hours, just as to go

through the concepts. And there were a few students like myself

that struggled. And so we did stay. And interestingly enough, and

I remember this, he started giving us the exams, as part of a practice

I'm doing during the time with him. So usually, the day before an exam,

he'll give us the actual exam before because he thinks he thought that

we were pretty much idiots. So what I did, I started memorizing the

exams, because I kind of I connected those dots. And in that was

my first time using my imagination, my first time using my

creativity, to come up with a solution because for some reason,

I could not I don't know if it was just the association of getting hit.

So you weren't kind of learning in the traditional ritualistic or wrote

way, you began to apply practices of imagination and memorization

towards the practice there. And then. So this shift here happened to

your emotional triggers, eventually led you to apply your mental and

your cognitive abilities to what you needed to do. So in that process,

what do you think were some of the things that you began to realize

and apply that got you out of this mess, you're in an abusive mess,

at home and at school? And in a culture that was not conducive to

nurturing your imagination? I have to assume, what do you do about it?

Yeah, I think what happened was, um, so my grades started getting

Sorry, I'm losing my voice somehow. My grades started getting a lot

better. And so I stopped getting hit at school, right. And that

transformation made me realize, well, I don't need to follow the

right way. I don't need to follow the traditional way. Right. And

for me, it wasn't, I need to pay attention in class, I need to

understand the concept as they come along. As long as when

the test comes around as core, well, who cares about how I got

there? That's really the way I approached it, right. And I started

becoming a lot more creative, which is, I started studying a lot

more at home because I had a lot of trouble focusing in class.

So what I will do is I'll find places at home where I will reread

kind of what we went through during class during the day, and

trying to position myself to be able to not have to rely as much

on the test that the teacher was giving the night before. And so

the process was really okay, then there are many ways you can

get the same result. Right, there is a traditional route. There's the

way everybody says you have to do things. But ultimately, as long

as you get those results, right, you can find any other way right.

The sky's the limit of that right.

As you begin to use like visualization practices or use began

to have use of some sort of mind, mindset type of situation

to break these patterns.

Absolutely. I started, you know, some people call it photographic

memory what I did actually, you know, I read a lot of Sherlock

Holmes. And that's kind of Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes. And

that's one thing that he does characterizes that memory palace.

Right. So what I did start using was a pattern where I will store

images in my head, right. And I will just kind of look at a page

and kind of remember and kind of understand that page. And

use that for the next day for the future in you know, when I did

have the exams. And so I think what winds up happening, why

ended up happening, I was preparing more for the exam. But in

the longer process, I grasp a lot of these concepts, right?

Which begin to apply not only your exams, but that helped you

when you entered the business world and other things you

were involved with. Is that fair to say? Patrick?

Right. Absolutely. And I think what's more important, what's

more important here was the fact that what stuck with me

was that in life if you are stuck, if you are getting into a point

where you know, you're not able to move forward, right, the

answer, nine out of 10 times is within. it's not outside. I've never

had a sense of being trapped.

and it's rarely at the end of a stick that you're being hit with either.

Right. Exactly.

You rarely find the answer is at the end of the stick you're being hit with.

Yeah, absolutely. And so you know, it's one of those things where

you, you know, you there's really never position in life where you

are trapped, right? I think, depending on where what lands

on your lap, it could be something that's completely cultural

stuff, catastrophe, catastrophic for you. At the end of the

day, depending on how you accept it, and how you embrace

it, and how you view it will define and determine how you,

you turn it around, right. And so the circumstances that i

did not choose, like, I did not choose to have a mother with

mental illness. And that came along with its own frustrations

and its own anxieties, I did not choose to grow up in the kind

of environment that I grew up in. But a choice that I made

was whether to accept it, right? Or to do something about it,

or to at least try to create something else.

So what else? What else did you do about it? You you had to

accept the reduce? What about it? You've mentioned visualization,

you've mentioned memorization, you've mentioned about the, the

mindset, you have things, was there any aspect of this Patrick, that

had to do with something kind of beyond self? I'm talking about

something either spiritual or, or metaphorically, or something along

that line was any aspect of your transformation? That was kind

of going deeper on a spiritual level?

Yeah, absolutely. I think. I think one thing that I did find, and with

all of that is the cornerstone, to even the power of imagination is

courage. Right? And I think courage, true courage and pure courage

goes beyond your own abilities, right? It goes beyond something that

you can just will your way to it, right? Something you can just,

you can just think about courage and say, Well, I'm going to be

brave today. Courage is something that comes it's an energy that

comes from the universe that comes from whatever force that you

believe in, whatever power that you believe in. That's where

courage comes from. And so, I think, when, when you, you know,

follow what I call the path of least resistance when you follow

your dharma when you follow your life path, and you're in tune

with your personality, right? Because to be quite honest, I

don't think a lot of people would be able to stomach kind

of the conditions I was brought in, I'm naturally stubborn, and that helped me.

Well, right, so many people, when they have those difficult

conditions of abuse and things spiral into the malaise of what

they are living in, they get stuck there. I'm sure if we went back

to Cameroon or other places that you've been, there's plenty of

people who are still stuck there and those lifes and lifestyles

and you chose something different and then you teach us

something different. And that's what we want to talk about

now is how what you teach you know you've mentioned

here about you've made changed your mind. And that's

led you to some, you know, a different pathway, a life

path, as you put it, I know you're a life coach. And so tell

us a little bit about the power of imagination, you call it the

power of imagination framework that gave you a progression,

it helped you in your career, it helps you in other areas of life.

So, define that for us what at what is the power of imagination.

So the power of imagination, the framework itself, it's essentially

a set of tools that helped you get your mind out of the way, right?

I think what I call the imagination is essentially, your spirit, because

the way I look at it, in my view, is of how human beings are, you

know, we are with some sort of Trinity, right with with three,

three entities within one. And so there is the body, right the

physical body are, quote, unquote, flesh, and that's as, as

real as we get, you know, once we, if we don't have any body,

then we're no longer existing, right? And then there is the there

is the mind. And then there is our spirit, and our spirit is our true

self. And that's the part of us that's eternal, that's the part of us

that's connected to everybody. And, you know, it's, it's that

kind of the Spirit is one, but it's also unique and individual to

fall to every single individual. And so the Spirit is the one that

carries the imagination and imagination, is really that ability to

create, to create something new to create something that is

beautiful, right. And so, the problem is, we have our mind, and

our mind was truly meant, as a way for the spirit to communicate

with the body, you know, as kind of a bridge and part of our mind,

are the natural, they like kind of like the instincts such as, like

breathing, and even like your pure flight or fright on things like

that, just to preserve the human body are kind of working in

our minds, right? A part of our mind, but also in the mind is

what I call our operating system, essentially, language. All the

belief system that we've have, a lot of them are downloaded

from our parents things that we learn from our parents on

how life should be, right. I'm a black person. And this is how

a black person should be an A black person should live right.

But to be quite honest, from a spiritual standpoint, black,

white, brown, there's really no difference, right? It's we're

all the same in that from that standpoint. And so the, what

the power of imagination helps you do is to go back to that

spiritual self of you and allow it to, to provide you with the

tools to change your current circumstances. Because a lot of

the times our belief systems, at least, the way we operate on

do come in a way of us being creative. A simple example, right?

Let's go there for a second, this creative part here. You said,

You need to have the courage to use your imagination and

your imagination is really where you're beginning to connect

up with a spiritual side or some deeper side to create something.

Let's go there for a second Patrick. Yes. Because when we

create something we create, we develop basically new least,

this is what I think here's what you think, give up new patterns,

you new habits, new ways of doing things, and you are

productive, you produce something. So tell us about some

of the new patterns or some of the new mindsets or some

of the new habits or disciplines you may have in your life,

that have helped you create something and then what did you create it?

All right, absolutely. A good example, simple example is

exercising, right? Okay, I grew up with my father, my father

was an athlete. But he did not carry the habits growing up.

By the time I was old enough to remember my father was

north of 350 pounds. Right? And so, and he got bigger and

bigger after that. So he never really was in the habit of

working out. Now. The reality is, that's something that I

picked up because he used food as a way to cope with his

anxiety. And so that's something that I did too. I learned it

was part of my operating system, and things like portion

control and watching what you eat and things like that

were all part of my education. I my upbringing. Now the

reality is my father unfortunately passed away at a very

young age of 56 years old, right? Because of that, and so,

the question became, well,

You witnessed the patterns he went through? Right? And as

a part of your education, you were starting to follow some

of the same patterns. Exactly. But you broke those patterns,

and you just created new patterns. Right? And you

mentioned use this as example of how you create new,

you apply new disciplines, right?

Absolutely.

or new habits and things like this to your life, and you

created something in this case, you re created your body?

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, we, you know, same height,

same body type, by the time I was 18, I was about 310 pounds,

which is humungus. And so I was really heading towards the

same, same, same way. And you used to always tell me,

you're so lucky, because you were able to get a hold of

that, and be able to get around it young enough, where

you don't have such damage, right, that is too late to turn

things around. Right. And what I mean by courage is the

courage to really face your operating system to face your

own habits. And to say, this has to stop. It's going to be

painful. But I need to change my pattern. And it takes

a lot of courage because the people around you, right?

Mind you, My My father grew up in a family and he was

probably the biggest and nobody ever told him, Hey, you

got to stop. Nobody ever heard and never held them

accountable and say, We love you stop, you know, stop

eating take care of yourself. Yeah,

So one of the things you're talking about here is none of

the a personal realization, personal AHA moment as a

word that I needed to change, but also this accountability

that comes with the people we love, and so on, and when

it comes to your physical health or anything else, rather

than being abusive, to try to be an encourager to try to

help the help, things to move along. And one of the

things that I'm learning about you, learning about you,

Patrick, is that you seem to have taken this, these

experiences that have happened to you, your abuse,

your anxiety, and, you know, moving from one country

to another and different cultures, and so on. And you

have formed a new sensitivity, you call it the power of

imagination framework that's worked for you. But you've

gone beyond that now. And you seem like you care

enough about others, that you want to teach this, that

you sound like you love others enough that you wouldn't

teach them to help them to change became a, you became

a successful student. And you have also a hip hop artist,

that you are sharing with others practical advice. In

contemporary music, tell me some of the ways that you

are helping others either through your teaching, or

through your music, to help them to transform to help

them to get to a better place to help them to embrace

the power of imagination, what do you teach in people,

my, my, the biggest part of my teaching is really to be able

to be self aware, I think that's something we like a lot in this

in this society. In our, in this day and age, I think we're very

good about especially the younger generation about

emotional. You know, beans, I think a lot of us are very

sensitive to, to how we process events and how they impact

us emotionally. But I believe that self awareness is still very,

very challenging. And that's why I'm using does is to is

challenging people in their thinking patterns. We make, you

of them are automatic based on, on, on on the way we believe

on the way we operate. They already been being programmed

by, by what we get from our parents from our environment,

and my music is to really be there to challenge it, right? Hey,

why do I need to be this way? Right? Why? Because when you

think about it, you know, from Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King,

or anybody that has gone to driven change, the first question

was, well, do I really need to do that? Why do I need to do it right

and now self awareness and be able to step out from your body

and actually observe your thinking pattern observing your every

single thought, you know, in a meditative way, does bring

out positive you know, regardless of who you are

Well, I think music as a sense, music goes to that. The rhythm

of life, you know, itself, you know, your musical rhythms. You

noticed your studies. So now that often reverberates with our

own heartbeat and other things like this, or physiology. But

what I wanted to get with you is I love the term you use to

describe your music as heal hip hop artists, which implies

that there's something to heal, that there's brokenness,

you know, so I'm interested in how you use your music, to

help yourself or help others to heal from some brokenness

and by the way, you use us your stage name GAKO. And but

how do you help audiences? How do you provide advice to

people to heal through your music?

Yeah, and you know, for full disclosure to the concept of

heal hip hop, I actually do not come up with it, i There are

some artists that I work with in Nashville, that are the,

you know, spear hitters of heal hip hop, they call it heal

hop. And, and, but it's really a philosophy where, you know,

the music, the music is uplifting. The music, because I mean,

a lot of the hip hop today can be, you know, not as uplifting

as it should be, right? You kind of have to sift through a lot

of content in order to be really

seems like a lot of it's, it has a lot of anger, and a lot of,

you know, violence and so on. And what you're sharing

here is the uplifting

Right. I mean, you also don't want to ignore the anger

and violence because it is part of reality, and somebody

needs to talk about it. Sure. But I think you need that

balance in that you need also somebody that will

bring out an unnecessarily a cheesy positive message.

But again, healing, the healing begins with accepting right,

healing begins with awareness. And what heal Hip Hop does

is ask the questions, right? Hey, the way you're thinking, is it the

right way? Right? The way you're looking at life, is it is it? Is it the

right way? Have you thought of something else? A lot of times

people haven't had to ask themselves that question because

they just operate on an automatic level, right? The way they

cope with trauma, the way they cope with different events in

their life is just the way they've learned it. And so what heal Hip

Hop does is say, Well, have you thought about it? Right? Have

you actually put some thought into it? You know,

tell me though, like the lyrics or a little bit about one of your

songs that you think is a good representation of what you

share to people that may be given this good vibe? Can you

give me some lyrics or something like

that? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I have a song that's called I think

lockdown blues. And the chorus goes, it's okay. It's okay. It's

I work with, you know, a lady out in the UK to create that song.

And really, the, the, you know, the song goes is a conversation

with, that she's having with someone else, it was telling him that

it's okay, right? You know, it's okay. If you don't want to talk,

it's okay. If you don't want to compete, it's okay. If you don't

want to be the best. It's okay. If you want to just, you know, it's

okay if you don't want to do something that you truly, that

you truly don't believe in. And, and that's really to bring out

the idea that a lot of the decisions that we make, or other

actions that we take are not really generated by us. They're

more so generated by, by to do the way we've learned to

operate in life, right?

Sure. And so that song is called it's okay or something.

Yeah. Is that the title of it? Or?

It's locked down?

Locked down blues? I'm

sure. Yes, yes.

So that a second ago? Well, it's, you know, music, I'm an old

disc jockey that just whether he's gonna share that with you,

because I know the power of music. I'm not a musician, myself,

I used to be a concert promoter and, and I've done some some

of that type of thing. Never hip hop, though. Gotta say,

but I certainly know the power of music to transform people

in what your message here is of the power of imagination

framework is all about live transformation. Tell us about a

person or situation where you've seen someone who's been

somehow their life has been changed or impacted, either by

your music or by your message or submit personal interaction.

Tell me a testimonial story about somebody you've seen

change in your life.

Well, I mean, in terms of of seeing people, change in my life, I

you know, to be quite honest. The way I bring out my message,

it's more in kind of like wisdom bytes, right. I have a good friend

of mine. You know, years ago, I told him well you one thing

that you need, you know, I recommend you doing is to see a

therapist, right, particularly as a, as a young as a young black

male, because we do deal with a lot of things. And that was part

of me encouraging him to have somebody that he can talk to him

bounce, write his own thoughts. And as you're speaking and

you're sharing these thoughts with somebody that's neutral, you do

realize, you start observing your own thinking pattern, which is

critical, you really unlocking your own imagination. And yours,

you know, I gave him that wisdom bite and kind of walked away

without necessarily falling closely. And years later, he ping me

and said, hey, you know, this is a great, this, this was one of the

best advice. You know, I've been working with therapists for years,

and we're unlocking a lot of things. And same thing in college, I,

you know, recently lady messaged me and say, Hey, you told

me this, you know, about betting on yourself, when, many years

ago, that's like, almost 20 years ago. And to this day, I tell that

to my students, and she's a teacher, she's a middle school teacher,

and she's like, I literally have your code. As as one of the

thing. The first thing I teach us to my teach to my students

on the first school year, so you know, my, my philosophy is,

you know, I share wisdom, you know, I'm a peaceful rebel.

That's, that's really the way I look at myself.

Well, the easiest way is to go on my website, patrickngako.com.

I love it. I love that a peaceful rebel. Well, there's

some good, there's some good things there are Patrick

about how you shared it with others and your music and

how you've influenced people and your quotes on the wall

of a classroom and in middle school. That's pretty cool. And

I'm also on Instagram. Same handle Patrick Ngako, on Instagram,

that, that's awesome. So, you know, our listeners are going

through their own share of anxiety and circumstances that

they have to deal with. And you provide some good, helpful

information and encouragement here, your wisdom that

you've just shared there? How can people get be connected

to you and learn more about the power of imagination

framework, or perhaps even your music? How can people get connected to you?

and Facebook and all the platform, if you just Google me, I you

know, my name will come first. And on my website, you do

have links to my music. I'm coming with coming out with

an album in the next few months. It's an electronic r&b

album, where I will be the primary performer while we do

sole performed on that one. So that will be a lot more even

as I'm more connected. As I'm going. You know, I talk a lot

about some of the struggles that I've had personally, particularly

around chant challenging and rebelling against the negative, the

vicious kind of behavior and negative tendencies I grew up in things

that tend to keep you at lower levels, right. And so

nobody does. Nobody deserves to live a life of abuse. And so things

you've gone through and if you can be helpful to others and know

that you want to be and so we'll certainly put links to your website,

Patrick Ngako would Ngako I'm sorry, yes, patrickngako.com. And

so that's Patrick, and you can find him there. Also, we'll put links to

our website, drbradmiller.com. And then where you can catch up

with the power of imagination framework and his music. And so

some good good stuff here today from Patrick, his name Patrick

Ngako. And he has been our guest today and we thank you for

being our guest today on the Beyond Adversity podcast

with Dr. Brad Miller.