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A
And you're right. We almost called this podcast shed you'd shit. But it got voted down to my displeasure, because I like profanity and I love that we're gonna say shit more times than we can count in this episode.
B
Hello, everyone. My name is Rob Dube, and I am here with Gina Wick. Gino, how are you?
A
Fantastic.
B
Today we're going to have a fun discussion, so we often talk about on our podcast and in our true self Mastermind. As these are a place to shed your shit, we actually considered calling this podcast the Shed your shit podcast. Anyway, that's a story for another day. But recently I was working with a healer who focuses on the subconscious, and I want to give a shout out to him. His name is Gabe Roberts. And out of the blue, he says to me, I'm helping you get rid of your shit. And I was like, what do you mean by that? Because we use that term all the time. And then he said, well, I actually have a definition of what shit means in this context. And so here's Gabe's definition. Shit is S for suppressed, H for hidden, I for influential, and T for traumas. So suppressed, hidden, influential traumas is shit. So with that as a starting point, what's coming up for you, Gino?
A
Well, a couple things, you know, so first, it's like Gabe has handed us a gift because, you know, we call it shed your shit and shine, right? And so that's the verbiage we've been using now for years. So when I say he handed us a gift, I mean, it's like a beautiful acronym he has created, because it's so true. Shed your shit and shine. When we say your shit, it's all of that. It's those four words. And what I would love to do is let's just break down each word because these are the energetic blocks we're trying to teach the world that you can shed and remove and free your true self and shine. And so I would love to break each one down. So if we're going there again, it's an acronym that Gabe created. S H I T. Suppressed hidden influential traumas. Each word stands on its own. And, oh, my God, I hope we create some light bulb moments out there. And so let's start with suppressed. Okay, what comes up for me around suppress? And I hope we'll go back and forth, but we're learning about back pain and other physical conditions in our bodies, and that the root of those, you know, there's a theory and a belief and science out there. That the pain, the health issue, whatever it is, is a direct correlation to suppressed stuff. Okay. And Dr. Sarno, healing back pain. That's that one. I did a little bit of a drill down a couple episodes ago. You know, his belief is we are suppressing anger. And by suppressing anger, it's just showing up in our body in different ways, one of which is back pain. And so that's why this word, starting with this word is so important. It's becoming aware and conscious of the things that we are suppressing in our life. All of those emotions that our ego does not want us to experience and feel. Therefore, it suppresses them down in our energy field and unfortunately shows up in bad ways because it's just trying to protect us, but we've got to release it if we want to be healthy. Mentally, physically, spiritually, et cetera. So I'd love to hear what that prompts you.
B
No, I mean, I don't know that I have a ton more to add. Because you're burying it. You're ignoring it, and it's quietly driving your life. Or maybe not so quietly. It could be shouting at you in a physical manifestation of it.
A
That's exactly what Sorno's theory is and many, many others. Absolutely. Shouting at you for physically, through your body, screaming, saying, please pay attention to me.
B
Yeah.
A
And your ego is just holding it down there, suppressing it.
B
So deep down. So it's hidden.
A
Yes.
B
Yes. So what is that?
A
I love it. And it's like, I don't feel like there's. I feel like the riff on this one is, like three words long and 10 seconds. And we've explained it, but I just love hidden because it makes me laugh. Your ego thinks it has it hidden. You know, it's like, I just. Like. We could stop there, but obviously we'll say more words. But it's, like. Makes me laugh when you shared this with me a couple weeks ago that Gabe came up with this acronym because, you know, suppressed and hidden are, quite frankly, they're the same thing. But it just. The hidden piece makes me laugh because the only one that thinks it's hiding is your ego. It's like it's. Your ego's up there going, oh, I've done such a great job of, you know, tucking this one under your armpit or, like, over here in your lower back or over here behind whatever it is it thinks it hit it there. That is in your subconscious. So again, it's down there below the surface in the subconscious, hiding. And we just got to shed Light on it. We just got to find it where the ego hit it and release it. So the ego thinks it's hidden.
B
Yeah. When I think about it, it's like I get this visual of I'm trying to find something in there. I was doing a session with Gabe and I was very emotional and I said. And I started laughing and I said, how much more is in here? Where is this stuff? This is getting crazy. So good.
A
So good. And then I'll piggyback on that because. Yes, through my experiences, meditation, the few plant medicine experiences, I mean, it just keeps coming up and up and up. But I do believe it's. It's. There's, there's like an endpoint. It does all come up like. Like I do this meditation with my lower back and my subconscious just releasing all of that tension, and I can feel it all coming up and going away forever. So it does go away forever, but I think there is a bunch of stuff in there. You know, you and I are in our late 50s and this shit started at age one, you know, so we're talking like 50 plus years of hiding, you know, and it's hidden everywhere. Yeah. And so it's. It's just a matter of shedding light. Please. Yeah.
B
At age one for. So for somebody listening who's like, what do you mean it started at age one? Yeah. What do you say to that?
A
Well, I mean, again, I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, I'm not an expert on that, but I. Lots of research and, you know, there are healers that find things. But. But it starts when, you know, there's. There's now, you know, science and theory behind, you know, letting the baby cry for an hour till they learn is not entirely healthy. And so that's going on at three months and six months and nine months in a year. But there's stuff that our parents do to us even at 1 years old that we're already starting to form protective layers. And so, you know, it probably goes back to day one. You know, I'm picking one just to kind of go back to a time that we can't remember. I probably should have said day one, not year one. But it starts right out of the chute.
B
Well, some say just being born is very traumatic. And when you think about it, you come from this really protected place, comfortable, everything's good. All of a sudden you're shot out.
A
Yeah. And I'll go one step further. Some believe it happens in the womb.
B
Yeah, that's right.
A
So your mother's trauma that she's experiencing three, six, eight, eight months into the pregnancy you feel and experience. So there's, there's work that's done showing that that's where your trauma started.
B
So anyway, so there's the, you know, and that's part of the maybe influential part of this to get to the next one.
A
Well, influential is the one I struggle with. So we're moving there now. But what I love about influential is that, you know, I, I wish I would have looked up the definition. But again, I try not to do any preparation for this so that it's very organic. But I'm assuming if we look up the definition of the word influential, you know, it means something really important. So we've suppressed and we've hidden something really important. Okay, so again, I'm winging it on that one, but I'm guessing that's such a beautiful word. So now we gotta go find these really important things hidden in us and release them. Because it's very important, it's very influential, it has an impact, it's. Anyway, I'll stop with all the making up words and turn it back over to you.
B
Well, and that influential thing is the trauma. That's the thing. And that's the next one that's the T to all this. And so, you know, and we've talked, we have an episode on trauma, Big T, little T trauma. And so, you know, I always like to start there when it comes to trauma because it's likely that something happened in your life and it's okay. It doesn't make. But my parents were so great. I love my parents. Yes, I know, they were great, all that. But something might have happened, you know, as a baby, this might be a little far fetched for some, but as a baby, you might have been in the crib and heard an argument in the, in the other room and that might have felt unsettling and you might have been crying and nobody was paying attention to you. And it was at one like Gina was saying earlier. And it's kind of stuck within you that maybe you don't always feel safe or you don't always feel secure. Just coming up with a off the cuff idea on that for people to think about.
A
Yeah. And I hope this doesn't take us off the rails because I'm going to go on a little bit of a tangential rabbit hole. But it's very much on point because you're using this word trauma, which is the word we use these days. But I'm going to try to not use a word to make this make sense, because that's just today's word. I don't know what they called this thing 2000 years ago and what we'll call it 2000 years from now. But trauma's the, you know, the fadish word at this moment in time. But what we're talking about again, influential. What we're talking about is something happened somewhere in your life. And let's just use the timeframe we're talking about from womb to today. And you held onto it for some reason, you made up a story about was really important to you, it was influential to you, no one else. You. So you're hanging onto it. Your ego hid it somewhere in your body. And so that is officially known as trauma. But I almost like want an energetic understanding of this thing we're talking about. Again, trauma is the current word. Now, let's try to not use words. This thing happened, this situation somewhere, you turned it into something, you then hid it someplace in your body, you're hanging onto it. That is trauma. And so the point is, whatever you call that thing, it's stuck in your energy field and it is dark energy that's dragging you down and draining you and causing you pain. And so it's really important. And so that then takes us to what do you do with that really important thing that's hiding inside of you that is influential? I. E. We'll call that trauma.
B
Yeah. So what are you seeing when you're working with leaders, which you have been for decades? How is this, how is this showing up, this shit showing up in their leadership? You know, are they aware of it? Are you? I'm sure some are and some aren't. They're very busy. So busyness takes over. And they're building, they're driving, they're achieving, they're being recognized. And because of this, they rarely have time to pause and notice what's actually happening beneath the surface. You know, we write about in the book that driven people are a small percentage of the population. And you know, you tend to leave a black trail behind you. You are the change makers in this world. I mean, your creativity and your ability to get through challenging times with resilience and persevere is unbelievable. So thank goodness for you. But you do leave a black trail. And that's how it shows up. It shows up in the way you're treating people in your companies, in your organizations, in your personal life. Sometimes you have a great situation in your business and it's not so great at home or vice versa. It is Showing up in many different ways. So this is what's going on. Suppressed emotions are influencing your decisions, they're influencing your relationships. And Gino talked about the back as an example. It's influencing your health, but yet on the outside you look like you got it all together, but on the inside there's unease. You might have a stomach or a GI issue or something like that going on. That's unease. Dis ease. Disease Dis ease. Maybe you just have this feeling in life like just something isn't quite aligned and you keep trying to figure it out. Well, that really is likely something. That is your shit. That's what's going on. And what usually brings it to the awareness, unfortunately for you driven people out there, is you either get burnt out, you have some sort of massive health scare or a super strained relationship with one of your key leaders at your company or at your home. And then you might even have this feeling of emptiness. You've done it all, you have this great life and all of a sudden you're like, why do I still feel empty? So, okay, that's my riff.
A
I listen, I was just gonna sit here and you can take it into the home stretch with that. Man, that was a beautiful riff. I don't know that I'm gonna say anything new, but maybe I'll say a few different words because you're asking me, you know, so how does that show up in a driven person? You know, functioning in the world as they function in the world? And these driven people are in all walks of life, all careers, all. And so it shows up as, again, we're talking about shit. So the suppressed, hidden, influential traumas stored in your body, it shows up as fear because you're making fear based decisions. Almost with every decision you're making, it's showing up as aloneness. You're afraid of being alone, so you're attaching yourself to people. It shows up as insecurity. So you're walking around with an imposter syndrome. It shows up as isolation where you're afraid of being alone. And then you're isolating yourself. It's the most fucked up dynamic. And you constantly don't ever want to feel that pain. That was the shit from the past. And so you've got 18 layers of protection so that you don't feel that pain. And again, with all of that going on inside of you, like you said, you're not treating people well. You're yelling, you're defensive, you're getting triggered every 30 minutes about something. And so as a Result of all that you've created this so called perfect package. All these layers, the suit of armor. We've talked about the cocoon. And your nervous system is amped. And again, that's what leads to the dis. Ease, the unease. And so the tectonic plates are just always shifting. Well, it's possible to feel peace in all of those situations. If we could turn back the clock and you spent the last five years being and doing all of those things I just said by shedding the shit, you could experience all that with peace. The tectonic plates won't shift. Your nervous system will be calm. As a result, you'll make much better decisions. Love based decisions, intuition based decisions, inside out decisions. And life will be more impactful, you'll have much more energy and you will feel inner peace.
B
But you know, I love that because this is a great segue into this last part that I want to touch on. And I've had conversations with people and I go one question after another about an issue that's going on at work. And then you get to the root of it, which is something unresolved. And then they might say to me, I just don't feel like dealing with that. I don't want to. It's scary. I don't want to go there. Why don't, why? What's going on there, in your estimation? What's going on? Why don't people want to go and address this shit?
A
Because it hurts. And it comes up with as much pain as it went down. It hurts. We don't believe that the pain we have to go through to release it is going to make it go forever. And on the other side is that feeling of peace. So it just hurts. It starts to come up, we feel it, and then we push it right back down because we start to feel that old pain. It's because it hurts.
B
Yeah, let me build on that a little. You know, actually it's a death. Every time it happens, it's a part of you that dies. And you don't wanna die. You don't want parts of you to die. And so this is your identity that you're dealing with here. And your ego doesn't want that to change. You built your lives around control, around proving yourself and persevering, building wealth, getting stuff, all those things. So they serve you at a certain stage in your life. And what ends up happening is you stick with them because they are familiar to you. And what I want to say here is this is about letting go. You know, always a great book that we recommend by David Hawkins, Letting Go. This requires trust. It requires belief. And the trust that Gino was talking about peace. This is the trust that you're not going to lose your drive. You're not going to lose this edge. It's not going to happen. You have to believe that you can be driven and have peace. And it's scary for you high achievers out there. It's scary. But I'm speaking from experience. I say you actually create space for more peace, more clarity. And this is where you're going to make the greatest impact. It just starts to flow, flow. And you'll be like, ah, I didn't know. I actually didn't know you could feel this way. This is so nice, actually. Okay, Gino, do you have anything else to add?
A
The only thing is that I'm feeling incredible gratitude for Gabe and thank you for hit. And other than that, I feel we've said it all.
B
Yes. So good. So good. All right, well, thanks for joining us, everyone, and we'll see you next time. Time. In the meantime, stay focused and much love.
A
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, we wish you all the best in freeing your true self. Stay focused and much love.
Hosts: Gino Wickman & Rob Dube
Air date: January 14, 2026
In this candid and insightful episode, Gino Wickman and Rob Dube dive deep into the emotional and psychological barriers that driven entrepreneurs face in their personal and professional lives. Using the acronym “S.H.I.T.” (Suppressed, Hidden, Influential Traumas), coined by healer Gabe Roberts, the hosts break down how these internal blocks keep us from living authentically, achieving lasting peace, and unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. Through honest storytelling and practical wisdom, Gino and Rob explore how these obstacles are created, how they manifest, and crucially, how to begin shedding them to reveal our True Selves.
Origin of the Acronym:
Rob shares inspiration from healer Gabe Roberts, who defines "shit" as Suppressed, Hidden, Influential Traumas.
“Shit is S for suppressed, H for hidden, I for influential, and T for traumas. So suppressed, hidden, influential traumas is shit.” — Rob Dube (00:49)
This lens provides structure for understanding and addressing the emotional burdens we all carry.
“The pain, the health issue, whatever it is, is a direct correlation to suppressed stuff.” — Gino Wickman (02:18)
The ego is convinced it can hide pain and emotions within us, but they continue to influence us subconsciously:
“The only one that thinks it's hiding is your ego... in your subconscious. So again, it's down there below the surface in the subconscious, hiding. And we just got to shed light on it.” — Gino Wickman (04:35)
The process of self-inquiry and modalities like meditation can bring these hidden issues to the surface.
Memorable moment: Rob recounts a session with Gabe where he humorously wonders, “How much more is in here? Where is this stuff? This is getting crazy.” (05:29)
Suppression can start as early as infancy, or even in utero:
“There's work that's done showing that that's where your trauma started.” — Gino Wickman (07:48)
These buried issues aren’t trivial—they have significant (influential) impacts on our lives and behaviors.
“We've suppressed and we've hidden something really important... now we gotta go find these really important things hidden in us and release them.” — Gino Wickman (08:22)
The hosts riff on how the term ‘influential’ draws attention to the weight and importance of what’s stored inside.
Whether "Big T" or "little t," trauma refers to any emotional event the self did not fully process at the time.
These experiences are encoded in our nervous system and shape core beliefs, sometimes without our awareness.
“Something happened somewhere in your life... you made up a story about [it]... you then hid it someplace in your body, you're hanging onto it. That is trauma... whatever you call that thing, it's stuck in your energy field and it is dark energy that's dragging you down and draining you and causing you pain.” — Gino Wickman (10:20)
Common manifestations:
Fear-Based Behaviors:
Gino lists common patterns: fear-based decision making, insecurity, imposter syndrome, repeated defensiveness and triggers, and the metaphorical/unconscious amassing of protective ‘armor’ that ultimately leads to anxiety or burnout.
“You've got 18 layers of protection so that you don't feel that pain... your nervous system is amped.” — Gino Wickman (15:23)
Hopeful note:
These patterns can be interrupted and healed through shedding, bringing inner peace and allowing for more authentic, love-based decisions.
“You could experience all that with peace... Your nervous system will be calm. As a result, you'll make much better decisions, love-based decisions, intuition-based decisions, inside-out decisions.” — Gino Wickman (15:43)
It Hurts:
Uncovering and processing suppressed traumas can be painful as the original pain resurfaces.
“Because it hurts. And it comes up with as much pain as it went down. It hurts.” — Gino Wickman (16:53)
Fear of ‘Death’ of Old Identity:
Rob likens each emotional release to a micro-death, threatening a familiar identity built around control, drive, or achievement:
“It's a death. Every time it happens, it's a part of you that dies. And you don't wanna die. You don't want parts of you to die. And so this is your identity that you're dealing with here.” — Rob Dube (17:19)
The Need for Trust:
Reassurance that peace and impact can coexist:
“This is about letting go... This requires trust. It requires belief... You have to believe that you can be driven and have peace.” — Rob Dube (17:48)
Gino on lifelong patterns:
“You and I are in our late 50s and this shit started at age one... so we're talking like 50 plus years of hiding, you know, and it's hidden everywhere.” (05:50)
Rob on entrepreneurial consequences:
“Driven people... tend to leave a black trail behind you. You are the change makers in this world... but you do leave a black trail. And that's how it shows up. It shows up in the way you're treating people.” (12:19)
Gino on what’s possible:
“It's possible to feel peace in all of those situations... you'll have much more energy and you will feel inner peace.” (15:45)
Rob on the outcome of doing the work:
“This is where you're going to make the greatest impact... you'll be like, ah, I didn't know you could feel this way. This is so nice, actually.” (18:23)
The conversation is direct, down-to-earth, compassionate, and sometimes humorously self-aware. Gino and Rob create a safe space for vulnerability, acknowledging both the challenge and the liberation that comes with emotional healing.
This episode of Shed and Shine offers entrepreneurs and high-achievers a roadmap to understanding and releasing suppressed emotional burdens (“S.H.I.T.”). Through personal reflection, practical examples, and an insistence on the value of inner work, Gino and Rob communicate a powerful message: Peace and fulfillment are available, but only if we have the courage to confront and shed what no longer serves us.