Eddie Gilman shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Eddie, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do you think others are secretly struggling with—but never say?
I believe most people secretly struggle with understanding the meaning and purpose of their lives. I think that symptomizes as not feeling good enough, unworthy, and directionless in life. Due to the extreme pressure and constant bombardment of information and mental stimulation, we either feel pressured into being a certain way, or adopt certain values, or are distracted altogether. We’re programmed and kept as far away from understanding ourselves as possible. If everyone discovered who they truly are and how powerful they are, the world would transform into a healthier place.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Eddie Gilman, and I’m the founder of Imagine Life Development Center, a transformative methodology that bridges psychology, spirituality, and strategy to help people awaken their innate potential and build lives and relationships aligned with their soul’s purpose.
My work was born out of profound personal loss and awakening. After my marriage ended and my world fell apart, I had what I can only describe as a spiritual initiation, a vision of the human soul as an oak tree within an acorn. That image became the vision for my mission: to help others discover that everything they need for transformation is already inside them, waiting to be embodied.
Through my coaching, books, and programs such as Better Than Before: Relationship Revolution, I help individuals and couples transform conflict into clarity, pain into power, and longing into purpose. My approach blends neuroscience and strategic intervention with archetypal psychology, mysticism, and human behavior. The result is a holistic framework for emotional mastery and spiritual maturity, which I call “the integration of the self and the soul.”
At the heart of my brand is a radical but straightforward belief: that true innovation begins within. When we heal our relationship with ourselves, we elevate every relationship around us — personal, professional, and planetary. It’s not just about self-improvement; it’s about conscious evolution.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I had to be, I was a dreamer with an unguarded heart, a kid who felt everything deeply and saw meaning in everything. I believed people were good, that love could heal anything, and that life itself was a divine conversation between the soul and the unknown.
But somewhere along the way, I learned to perform instead of express. I realized that being “strong” meant suppressing my sensitivity, that achievement was more important than authenticity, and that approval was safer than truth. I became what the world rewarded until the life I built around other people’s expectations collapsed.
When I was sixteen, I lost my girlfriend and her older sister to a drunk driver. Later, my ex-wife left me for my best friend of seventeen years. There were other betrayals that taught me how fragile trust can feel when life breaks open everything you thought was certain. Those moments shattered me, but they also cracked the shell of who I was pretending to be.
Through grief, heartbreak, and disillusionment, I found something more sacred than the version of success I once chased: I found myself. The pain stripped away everything false, and what remained was the boy I had buried, the one who listened to intuition, loved without conditions, and believed that even suffering could serve the soul’s evolution.
Today, I live from that place. My work, my mission, and my relationships all rise from the ashes of those experiences. I’ve come to understand that freedom isn’t found in becoming more of what the world wants, but in remembering who you were before you forgot you were enough.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes. There was a time I came within a breath of giving up completely.
After my ex-wife left me for my best friend of seventeen years, she took everything: the furniture, the photos, the pieces of a life I thought we’d built together. All that remained was a bed, a kitchen table, and the echo of my own disbelief. In thirty days, I lost thirty pounds. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. Every thought felt like quicksand. The next nine months became my darkest hell.
One night, my fears, insecurities, and hopelessness grew so loud that silence became unbearable. I sat on the edge of my bed, pressed a loaded gun to my head, and tried to pull the trigger. But it wouldn’t move no matter how much I willed it. Something, somewhere, more substantial than my despair stopped it from firing. Divine intervention, perhaps?
In that moment, I didn’t hear angels or see light, but I did feel the weight of something divine holding me in place. It was as if Life itself whispered, “Not yet. There’s more for you to do.”
That night became the beginning of everything. It was my breaking point and my turning point. What died wasn’t me; it was the illusion that my worth depended on what or whom I had lost. From that darkness came my life’s work helping others rediscover the meaning in their own pain, the purpose in their suffering, and the divine intelligence that can resurrect a soul even when all hope seems gone.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie my industry tells itself is that true fulfillment can be achieved outside of oneself.
We’ve built an empire around external solutions—the next program, the next mindset hack, the next manifestation ritual—as if wholeness were something we could earn, buy, or chase. But fundamental transformation doesn’t come from what we add; it comes from what we’re willing to face and release within. Ultimately, it’s about who we become and how to embrace “being” rather than our addiction to “doing”.
The personal development world often glamorizes success while bypassing the soul. It teaches people to “fix” themselves instead of remembering themselves. But fulfillment isn’t found in achievement, image, or approval; it’s found in alignment, in the quiet space where you finally stop running from your own reflection.
The truth is simple: nothing outside of you can give you what your soul has been trying to hand you all along.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Absolutely. I’ve chased happiness in all the usual places — in music, in love, in achievement — believing each would finally quiet that ache inside.
As a drummer, I lived for the stage, the lights, the rhythm, the connection. And for a while, it felt like transcendence. But when the show ended and the noise faded, I was left with the same silence I had been running from. I mistook applause for self-worth.
The same pattern played out in relationships. I thought if I could love deeply enough — or be loved perfectly enough — it would heal the emptiness I carried. But every time, I found myself orbiting the same truth: no one can fill a space meant for your own soul.
It took me years to realize that what I was chasing wasn’t happiness, it was home. And home isn’t found in success, romance, or even purpose. It’s found in the stillness of being who you are, without needing anything outside of you to make you whole.
Ironically, it was when I stopped trying to be fulfilled that fulfillment found me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dreamoutloud.center
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamoutloud.center/
