Your Dreams Are Trying to Tell You Something – An Interview with Philip Zaldatte

What if the dream you forgot by breakfast was actually trying to hand you your future?

Most of us treat dreams like background noise, strange little movies that fade before we even get out of bed. In this conversation, Philip Zaldatte speaks about his years spent traveling the world learning to interpret dreams, coaching high-level entrepreneurs and business leaders through major life transitions, and helping people close one chapter of their life so a new one can begin. At the heart of it all is a simple truth he keeps returning to: that our identity has to come into focus before our purpose ever can.

Whether you remember your dreams every night or can’t recall the last one you had, this conversation invites you to pay closer attention to the pull you feel toward something more and to the parts of your own story you might be ready to finally understand.

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Today I want to hear more about your insights and wisdom in the area of purpose. I know that’s a major emphasis for you in your teaching, speaking, and coaching. Why is it important for people to understand their purpose?

Philip Zaldatte: Because it acts like a compass, keeping you focused and on track for your future. Every transition has a divine purpose connected to it, and we’re continually evolving as human beings. We’ll constantly move in and out of transitions at different points in our lives, and at some point, we have to start asking ourselves: What is this season teaching me? Who do I need to become that I’ve never been before? What are some things I need to do that I’ve never done before in order to walk into that purpose?

The more clearly you understand your identity, the more your purpose comes into focus. Once you understand your identity, you’re more in touch with your gifts, talents, and skills. Then you can ask: How do these operate in my life, and how can I express them to have a greater impact on the people I meet?

You said that the more I understand my identity, the more I can align with my purpose. What is my identity? Most of us connect our identity to our job or to the fact that we’re a mom or dad. How would you define identity?

Philip Zaldatte: What skills do you have? What talents do you possess? What gifts have you been given by your Creator, and how do they operate in your life?

There have been a few points in my life when I had to reassess where my life was going. One of them was when I completely ruptured my Achilles tendon and was laid up for months. I started thinking about my life: Am I happy with the direction it’s going? Where am I headed, and what do I want to see change in my life? I went through an awakening of who I am, why I’m here, and what I really want to do with my future. That started steering me toward my purpose, and it has changed over time.

More recently, I went through chronic Lyme disease, one of the hardest seasons of my life. I started reassessing where I was going and how I was walking out my future. I’m not going to run my coaching business the way I did before. I’m going to speak publicly more often, and I’ll be more selective about the one-on-one coaching clients I take on. I’ll focus more on coaching high-level businesspeople individually.

You mentioned that your purpose—or a purpose—can change or shift. Do you believe people have one purpose in life that God or the universe gives them, or does it change over time?

Philip Zaldatte: I think it shifts and changes over time.

How do we know that it’s shifting and changing? How do we sense that?

Philip Zaldatte: I’ve heard it said this way: Sometimes you can’t explain it, but you just know in your “knower” that something is changing. You need to go with that flow and see where it takes you. That’s what I’ve done over and over again in my life.

My coaching business has changed. I now specialize in transition, whereas I used to coach people more generally in all areas of their lives. Now I’m focusing on transition, transformation, and entrepreneurial coaching. I want to work with creators—people who want to go into the marketplace and create something revolutionary—and come alongside them to see what could happen.

If someone is listening and feels as though they’re merely existing—working nine to five, paying the bills, and living for the weekend—without the sense of purpose you’re describing, how would you encourage them to discover it? What might that process of discovery look like?

Philip Zaldatte: What I’ve learned over the years is that we weren’t meant to walk through this life alone. It pays to hire a coach who can come alongside you and ask powerful questions that help you look more deeply at who you are. A coach can help you paint a picture: What could your life look like? What would give you the greatest joy? What would get you out of bed every morning, excited to walk into that day?

I help people get more in touch with their gifts, talents, and skills, as well as who they want to impact. I want to impact high-level businesspeople and people who are creating something for the public. That’s exciting to me. It has even led to phone calls from the White House.

Really? Tell me more about that.

Philip Zaldatte: I don’t want to mention names, but one of my original coaching clients was the chairman of the Democratic Party for the state of Nevada. I coached him for five years. At one point during those five years, he called me and said, “Phil, I’m in a limousine in Washington, D.C. Say hi to so-and-so.” He mentioned only the person’s first name, so I said hello, but it wasn’t who I thought it was.

It turned out to be a very powerful politician. My friend said, “He had a dream two nights ago, and he’s been troubled by it ever since. I told him all about you, so he had me call you.” I ended up interpreting his dream and then coaching him for a month. It turned his life around.

There’s something in the Bible that says your gift will make room for you. I’ve always taken the gifts and talents I’ve been given very seriously. I get up every morning and ask: How can I take this to the next level? What seminar could I attend? What book do I need to read to sharpen these skills and talents? It has paid off and opened doors for me in places I never dreamed possible.

That’s amazing. Once someone starts to sense, “This is the thing that gets me out of bed. I’m interested in it and passionate about it,” they may still not know how to get someone to pay them for it. How can they turn something they love doing into a way of making a living? What next steps would you encourage them to take?

Philip Zaldatte: I had to face that reality too, because I wanted to be paid well for what I did. I started asking myself: What price tag could I put on this? I asked other people who were already doing it, and I even asked some of my clients, “How much do you think I could charge for what I’m doing?” They said, “If you aren’t making at least two to three thousand dollars per client, you’re shortchanging yourself.”

I had to get rid of the limiting beliefs I held about myself and who I am. I started asking myself: How much could I charge, and how much do I want to make each year?

I ended up taking on a very powerful man from Manhattan. When he asked how much I charged, I told him, “I ask all my clients to give me an initial three-month commitment. It’s going to be three thousand dollars a month, and I’ll coach you every other week.” He said, “If you had told me less than three thousand, I would have assumed your coaching business sucks.” Pardon my language, but that made me think, “You know what? You’re right. I’m worth it.” What kind of price tag can you put on a changed life?

I coach everybody in five strategic areas: spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and materially. It changes their lives forever. Most of these high-powered businesspeople are alpha males. They know how to make money. It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Manhattan, at Goldman Sachs and places like that. But their emotional intelligence is usually bottomed out. They don’t know how to communicate well.

Almost every individual I coached had a marriage that was hanging by a thread, and they hadn’t bonded with their children. I began coaching, teaching, and training them in emotional intelligence, and it has worked miracles.

How do you help someone who is so driven and focused on a particular goal, yet lacking in emotional intelligence? How do you help them begin to access that part of themselves that exists but hasn’t been exercised or used?

Philip Zaldatte: I ask a lot of questions. Usually, what I discover is that the emotional intelligence piece is intimately connected to spiritual intelligence.

It’s about helping them connect spiritually in some way. Medical doctors agree that we have a “God spot” in our brains that is trying to connect spiritually somewhere. I help them gain a sense of direction by asking: Where do you want to connect spiritually? How could you begin getting good at meditation? Walking them through meditation is part of our coaching package, and it has done wonders.

Are you saying that connecting with God, Source, Spirit, or the Divine somehow unlocks a person’s ability to connect emotionally with other human beings?

Philip Zaldatte: Yes, because very often, some healing needs to happen within the individual. It’s about connecting with the areas where they may not be healthy. I ask questions and often walk them through forgiveness for things that happened to them in the past. It has worked miracles.

Do you find that many of these individuals are nervous about exploring these topics because they sense it might take the edge off their intensity or drive?

Philip Zaldatte: Yes. I would say that’s true of 80 percent of the high-powered businessmen I’ve coached. It might take one or two months before they begin to open up.

I’ll speak about one individual. He worked for a financial organization called Lehman Brothers, which is no longer around, and he held a very senior position. As I was coaching him and asking questions, I could hear him sniffling. He was crying. I asked him, “What’s going on?” He said, “This is the first time I have felt safe enough to share what is really in my heart and the pain I’ve been through over the years. This is the first time.”

The more powerful and wealthy they become, the less they trust the people who want to get close to them. They’re looking for somewhere safe to connect and someone they can trust. With every client, we sign an agreement emphasizing the importance of confidentiality. Anything they say is confidential.

What is it within you that allows you to be a safe space for these individuals? What is it about the way you think, feel, process, and present yourself that creates that sense of safety?

Philip Zaldatte: I think it’s simply being there for them. Being a good listener goes a long way. When there’s a problem—especially for men—we usually want to fix it right away. But as true life coaches, we don’t fix a client’s situation. We learn to ask questions because the answers are already inside them.

Learning to ask powerful questions helps people get in touch with what is really going on inside. It’s also about making myself available to them. When someone hires me as their coach, they can call me at any time, day or night. It doesn’t matter when, how, or where—I’ll take their call and be there for them.

Speaking of the night, you’ve mentioned dreams, and I know you’re passionate about the power of dreams in our lives. We may have discussed this in our first conversation, but I’d like to revisit it. How did you become interested in dreams and learn to interpret them? I believe it was through John Paul Jackson, correct?

Philip Zaldatte: Yes. He was probably the most powerful dream interpreter I have ever been around.

Were you interested in dreams before you met John Paul Jackson? How did that interest begin?

Philip Zaldatte: Yes. I was having a lot of dreams, but I didn’t know how to interpret them. John Paul helped me get in touch with my own dream language, because every individual has a unique dream language shaped by the life experiences they’ve walked through.

For example, if a dog bit someone as a child, a dog in their dream might represent an enemy coming to hurt them. For someone who is passionately in love with their pet dog, however, a dog in a dream might represent a close friend or protector. I had to learn to understand my own dream language.

I ended up traveling around the world with John Paul Jackson for more than seven years. I watched him interpret people’s dreams, and it was incredibly powerful. He was also taken to the White House numerous times to interpret dreams for presidents and other very powerful politicians.

What was it about him that gave him that ability? Do you think it was an innate, God-given gift, or was it something he cultivated?

Philip Zaldatte: I think it was a God-given gift, and he nurtured it. I started doing the same thing by looking for opportunities to interpret dreams for people wherever I went.

One afternoon, I walked into the place where I had my hair cut, and everyone turned around and said, “We’re curious about what you do for a living, because you come in here when most people are working.” I said, “Well, I work for myself, and I like to help people understand their dreams.” They all became so excited that when I returned the following month, they had written down their dreams. There I was, getting a scalp massage and a haircut while interpreting dreams for the different hairdressers.

How do you interpret dreams when everyone has their own dream language? Are certain symbols common across all dream languages, or do you have to explore that particular person’s life to understand them?

Philip Zaldatte: I think it’s both. You learn to ask a lot of questions. Say a person has a dream in which they’re flying. For one person, it could mean they’re rising above their circumstances. For another, it might be a picture of their spiritual life taking off.

A car in a dream is usually symbolic of a person’s vocation. Then you begin asking questions: What color was the car? Was it red or blue? What type of car was it—a sports car or a luxury car like a Cadillac? Were you driving it? If so, that could mean you’re in control of your vocation and driving toward something.

Someone else might be driving backward. That could mean they’re driving by looking through the rearview mirror—they’re attached to their past rather than focused on their future.

I have a dream for you, Phil. I rarely remember my dreams, although I understand that we dream all the time—it’s simply a matter of whether we remember them. Do you mind if I share one from a couple of nights ago?

Philip Zaldatte: No.

I was with my partner, Mandy, and we went into a storefront where the purpose was to play a game. You would throw a small ball, about the size of a golf ball, against a wall. Then you would throw a larger ball, trying to hit the small ball against the wall. That was the entire point of the store: You went inside and played this game.

I played it in a couple of stores. Then we went to another store that had the same game, but there was a chair, a fake plant, and a sign in front of the wall where you were supposed to throw the balls. I said to the man at the counter, “I can’t play the game because this chair and plant are in the way. Can we move them?” He said, “No, this is just how we do it.” It was impossible to play the game because the chair was there, and I became extremely frustrated.

I even said in the dream, “I’m going to leave you a bad review.” Mandy said, “Don’t leave them a bad review, because they might leave us one.” Then we walked out. That was it.

Philip Zaldatte: Were there colors in the dream?

I don’t remember many colors. The chair was brown leather, and the fake plant was green, but I don’t remember any others.

Philip Zaldatte: What’s your gut feeling about it? I always ask people who have had a dream whether they have a sense of what it could mean.

Then I’m interpreting it for myself! But what’s interesting is that the meaning began coming to me as I was describing it to you. I can’t share the details, but I started to feel that the game represented collaborations between Awakened Magazine and other organizations. It was a fun, playful game—something as silly as throwing a ball against a wall.

Then I went into this other store, and there’s a particular organization that isn’t allowing us to collaborate. They let everyone else collaborate with them, but not us. It feels as though they’re putting roadblocks in our way so that we can’t play with them. It’s so strange that this interpretation came to me as I was describing the dream to you. I hadn’t made that connection before our conversation.

Philip Zaldatte: I was thinking the very same thing. There are going to be some open doors for you to add something to Awakened Magazine that is fun, playful, and lighthearted. It’s going to bring joy to your heart and to other people. There will also be others you want to connect with, but they aren’t open yet.

Were you genuinely thinking that as I was sharing the dream?

Philip Zaldatte: Yes.

That’s so strange, because I hadn’t made the connection between the dream and this situation in my life. The meaning came through me only as I was articulating it to you.

Philip Zaldatte: It’s funny how that works. Everywhere I go to speak, people have all these dreams the night before I arrive. Then I show up, and they say, “You won’t believe this.” I say, “Yes, I do believe it.”

It’s what I’m carrying that people are looking for. It isn’t me they want; it’s what I’m carrying. It can help them get in touch with their destiny, legacy, and future. This is something I share when I teach: Your dreams are the product of your longings, a portrait of your potential, and a promise of your future.

The reality is that nothing burns more fiercely in our souls than the desire to be ourselves and pursue our dreams. When you were throwing those balls, you were simply being yourself.

I was being playful and having fun.

Philip Zaldatte: Yes, and that is going to deepen and become more intense.

Thank you. I receive that. I need more playfulness and joy in my life.

Philip Zaldatte: Dreams often speak of our potential. This is something I encounter when I coach people: Potential unexpressed equals pain. There can be such an intense longing in your heart that it becomes painful. You know you were created for more, but you don’t yet have the ability to express it.

I know that feeling. Say that sentence again, Phil.

Philip Zaldatte: Potential unexpressed equals pain.

When I think about the people listening today, I imagine some of them have a dream, hope, desire, or potential within them, yet they feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unable to move forward. There can be a million excuses, and it feels painful. I know they could call you for coaching, but what is the first step they can take to move out of that stuckness?

Philip Zaldatte: I ask them, “Paint me a picture. What could your life look like? What could you be doing that would bring joy to your heart?”

I coached a young man who graduated from Princeton and was working for a powerful banking organization in New York City. He heard me speak at a seminar in New York and called me two days later. He said, “I need to talk to you. I’m newly married, my parents paid for my education, and I’m miserable. I hate what I’m doing, and I’m depressed every day. I have a new marriage and a brand-new baby, so it isn’t as though I can simply quit.”

He was afraid of letting his parents down, but he was miserable. Potential unexpressed equals pain. He had an ache in his heart because he wanted to pursue what was truly there. I started asking a lot of questions: What could that look like?

What did he want to do?

Philip Zaldatte: I’ll tell you in just a moment. He said, “Phil, I don’t go straight home after work anymore. I stop at a couple of pubs, and I’m snorting cocaine again.” He went on and on.

Ultimately, he quit his job, moved to the Midwest, and opened a gym that he now runs. He has never been happier in his life. That’s what he wanted to do. But when your parents have paid for your education because they want you to make a lot of money, you don’t want to let them down.

Identity always precedes purpose. I helped him get in touch with his true identity and who he really was. He had been living as someone he wasn’t. He wanted to be in business for himself.

What is it within us that allows us to release the expectations others place upon us? These could be expectations from our culture, ethnic community, or religious community. They might even be expectations we’ve placed upon ourselves: “I’m supposed to be this person. I committed to this path a long time ago, so I have to keep being the same person.” What allows us to release those expectations and step into the new potential burning within us? What happens internally?

Philip Zaldatte: If they’re spiritual people, I’ll ask, “What is God teaching you in this season?” Obviously, there’s a lot of unrest in your heart. You know you were created for something different or something bigger. Paint me a picture: What does that look like, and what needs to be released? You can’t bring the old into the new.

What emotions don’t belong in your future? What do you need to let go of? Every transition begins with the first stage: an ending. Something needs to end so that you can reach the middle stage—the wilderness experience—where you’re shaped for your new beginning. But you can’t bring the old into the new. What do you need to let go of to get started?

Very often, it’s your own expectations. Our history is in our heads, and it often controls us. What needs to be released so that something new can begin to unfold?

Of course, the process of letting go can feel overwhelming and requires courage. You may be able to paint a picture of the next step, but in reality, it remains unknown until you step into it.

Philip Zaldatte: Yes. That’s why it’s important to have a coach. Multimillionaires and some of the most successful people in the world have all had coaches in their lives.

You’ve probably read Erwin McManus, whom I think you’ve quoted before. We’re called to be co-creators of our future. Unless we create, we’re cheating ourselves, because in our heart of hearts, we’re all artisans of some kind. We’re called to create.

It helps to have someone support you as you begin creating your future. You’ll have to make the decisions, not me, but I’ll come alongside you and encourage you along the way. As you said, it can be very scary in the beginning because you have to let go of things. My wife thought I was crazy when I told her I was changing careers in midlife to become a leadership coach. She said, “You’re doing what?”

How did you navigate that shift yourself? Were you immediately clear that you were going to take that step, or was the process frightening?

Philip Zaldatte: It was frightening, but I knew I had to do it. A professor at Regent University had written a book on coaching. I bought the book, and by the time I was about one chapter into it, I was in tears. I realized, “This is one of the missing pieces of my life. This is who I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to do.”

Before that, I had traveled all over the world giving seminars on dreams and visions. Now that’s part of my coaching package. If you hire me as your coach, I’ll also be your dream interpreter. I don’t know anyone else who is doing that.

That certainly isn’t very common. What advice would you give someone like me, who wakes up and can’t remember any dreams? My partner, Mandy, remembers hers all the time. How can I become better at remembering mine?

Philip Zaldatte: You have to journal them and train yourself to do it as soon as a dream ends. Roll over and write it down. I have a pen with a small light that turns on when I press it against the paper, so I try to make it as easy as possible.

I’m somewhat like you because I don’t remember my dreams very well. As you alluded to, we all dream. Medical doctors say that if we didn’t dream, we would go insane, because dreaming is how we process things during the night.

I teach people to practice rolling over and journaling their dreams immediately. I think I tend to dream early in my sleep cycle, so by the time I wake up, it’s difficult to remember what I dreamed earlier in the night. I’ll often send up a quick prayer and say, “God, would You help me remember my dreams?”

Before we started recording, you mentioned that as you’re helping someone understand a dream, you’ll often receive a revelation, insight, or intuitive knowing about something happening in that person’s life. Did you learn how to do that, or was it a gift you were given?

Philip Zaldatte: I think it was a gift I had been given. When I started interpreting dreams for people, as strange or mystical as this may sound, I would receive a spiritual “download” connected to the interpretation.

I used to interpret dreams at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. People would bring me their dreams, and I would diagram the symbols on paper. I would say, “This is how I’m interpreting your dream,” and then walk them through it. I’d turn the paper around and show them how I arrived at the interpretation.

Then I would say, “Let me tell you a few more things I see when I look at you. This is what I sense—tell me if I’m wrong.” Sometimes they would break down crying. Other times, they were simply in shock.

I taught other people how to do the same thing. People would wait for us outside the bookstore when we finished because they wanted to ask, “Who are you, people? We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

I’m getting ready to hold an evening of dream interpretation at a bookstore here in Williston, Vermont, and they’re very excited about it. People are incredibly curious about dreams. Do you know the difference between a dream and a vision?

I don’t. Tell me.

Philip Zaldatte: Dreams are typically symbolic in nature, while visions are more literal.

John Paul Jackson had an open vision of a space shuttle exploding shortly after takeoff. He was so troubled by it that he called NASA and said, “I need to tell you something I saw in the spirit. I wanted to get this to you as soon as possible. You need to be careful.” They dismissed him as some kind of kook. Then the space shuttle took off and exploded shortly afterward.

That was an open vision. What he saw was what was going to happen.

How do you know the difference between a dream and a vision when it happens at night?

Philip Zaldatte: Sometimes you’ll be dreaming, and then it’s as though the scene changes and you receive an open vision. The vision closes, and you pick up exactly where you left off in the dream.

You make a note of it and go over it again the next day. You’ll simply know in your “knower,” so to speak, that the middle section was an open vision. It doesn’t need to be interpreted; it is what it is, and it will come to pass.

You’ve spoken about coming alongside people and coaching them. If someone is interested in inviting you to work with them, what does that process look like? You mentioned a minimum commitment of three months. Do you offer certain packages?

Philip Zaldatte: I’ll ask, “Why do you want to hire me as your coach? What’s going on?” I gather some information from them, and then we can create a package specifically for that person.

It usually takes close to three months for people to experience the breakthrough they’re seeking. They can visit my website, ProlificLeadershipSolutions.com, which paints a picture of what I do and what it looks like to work with me.

I know you’ve been speaking more frequently lately. What topics would you love to speak about, and in what kinds of settings?

Philip Zaldatte: As I said, I specialize in transition, so I can speak about that. I can also speak on dreams and visions, as well as what it means to be an artisan of your life.

I think that topic would encourage many people to realize they can create a future for themselves. As you become more in touch with your values, identity, and unique mix of gifts, you can begin to understand how they all come together to create a destiny for your life.

Once again, what is your website, and where is the best place to connect with you on social media?

Philip Zaldatte: My website is ProlificLeadershipSolutions.com, and you can find me as Phil Zaldatte on Facebook. I’m also going to become more active on Instagram and start posting short videos. I’m working on that now.

I also want to tell you about the gym I go to. I became friends with the owner, who was a bodybuilder. One day, when I walked in, he was going around the gym showing people something on his phone and saying, “Look, Phil’s famous! Phil’s famous!”

I asked him what he was doing, and he was showing everyone our first podcast interview. He was so deeply affected by it that the next day, he went out and bought himself a Bible and gave his life to God. It turned his life around. He has been transformed, and it began with him watching that podcast interview.

How many more people will experience a transformation after watching this one? I hope it’s a lot.

That’s wonderful. Phil, it has been great having you with us. Thank you for all the good you’re doing in the world—and for interpreting my dream. I’m going to contemplate it further. Thank you for being with us.

Philip Zaldatte: Thank you so much for what you do and for all the lives you powerfully impact by being yourself and operating in the unique mix of gifts God has given you. It’s an honor to be with you.