Live With Melissa Leellen and Jesse Biondi: A Multi-Faceted Creative Life (#310)

Live with Melissa LeEllen: A multi-faceted creative life – powered by Happy Scribe

Fei from FeisWorld Media, and I’m going live once again with two very, very special guests, and I’ll have them introduce themselves. It’s really fun. We’re all moderators. We are kind of all working. I mean, for me, part time for executive summit, but you’re going to learn a lot. So if I’m new to you, I’m Fei. I run my my own business, have been since early 2016. I’m a YouTuber podcaster, and I just love being a creative entrepreneur. So off to Melissa and Jess.

Hey, everybody.

Hello.

How are you? And how’s it going? This is our Reimagined success. Space. And I’m Melissa Len. And we are the host of Reimagined Success. It’s a podcast about Reimagining, what your success looks like. And I’m also an actress. I am a motivational speaker, and I do some moderation and marketing as well. I also was on Naked and Afraid as one of the contestants on there, which is really fun. And Jesse is my husband.

Yes, my name is Jesse Biondi, and I’m a professional musician. I’ve been playing music pretty much my entire life and have a lot of records out. I’ve got an upcoming single releasing on May 19, which I’m really excited about. And I play here around the Atlanta area a lot, in the Greenville, South Carolina area and just all over the place wherever I can play. And like Melissa said, we run the Reimagined Success podcast, where we’re really passionate about helping people to be more equipped for their journeys, not just with knowledge, but just with encouragement. And so many people are afraid to take steps that they need to in their lives. And so we really try to encourage them to get out of their comfort zones and chase their dreams.

And this is so cool, Faye, because normally we’re on your side, so this is such an awesome experience to be on the other side.

Yeah, it’s so special. And I love the arrangement of this window here. It’s so cool. It’s kind of mysterious. But Jessie, got to ask you a quick question. What type of musician? What type of music do you play?

So I do like alternative indie rock kind of music, but I also am a classically trained musician. My primary instrument is actually cello. I studied that in college. And I play about 13 different instruments, including all the strings, instruments, piano, drums, and just a variety of random things.

And I totally forgot about Deadly Crimson, my comic book series. It’s like when you introduce yourself, you’re like, what else? What else, what else? Fake?

Yeah, I mean, questions right back at you, too, almost. I know that you’re an actress. You’ve been on several TV shows. One of them is a Survivor.

Yeah, well, it’s Discovery Channel, actually. Discovery Channel is making it unafraid. And basically, you are sent somewhere in the world, and you have 21 days to survive or to tap out. And you can tap out at any point I did not I did not tap out. I was gung ho the entire time. There was no way I was going to tap out.

Even though her partner did.

Yeah. And cried on national television.

Girls are tough.

It was a marine. Somebody who was supposed to be tough, ended up tapping out after 14 days, couldn’t take it and cried. And then Melissa here, the sweet little southern girl, made it for an extra seven days all by herself in the Panamanian jungle. It’s ridiculous.

And Jesse, did you run up to her when she crossed the finish line, proposed or something?

I would have if we were together at the time. She did this long before I was ever in the picture, unfortunately. I wish I was there because I would have been cheering her on the entire way.

Oh, yeah. It would have been great.

Fantastic. And Melissa, tell us a bit about your comic books as well. There’s a lot you’re doing. I don’t even know where to start.

But I know I don’t even know how I keep up with my day to day, to be honest. So I wrote and created a comic book series called deadly crimson, and I created this character as a female based powerhouse character. She actually starts off as an assassin, and this is her journey about how she becomes a superhero. And the crazy thing about this character is she actually has a husband and she has a daughter, and it makes her life very complex with the dynamic of the family life versus being an assassin. But this is her journey about how she actually goes around and becomes a superhero.

My goodness. That’s awesome. We’re going to dive into a lot of different things, and I’ve given Melissa and Jesse the freedom to talk whatever we want also, because all three of us pretty much just worked our butts off earlier today.

You more than us. I mean, you did a great job with the moderating. Let me just say, I was listening from the background, and it was so good.

Yeah. So Faye moderated today for Marc Cuban.

I know.

Joanne lipman and Lisa Williams, which is amazing. Amazing events. And she just crushed it, did a phenomenal job and just crushed all the questions. It was just an amazing event.

Yeah. Phase. Our moderator hero.

Oh, my goodness. You guys are so sweet. I actually want to kind of give people an idea because sometimes people always ask me, how did you meet these people? They’re all so different. And they don’t live in Boston. They don’t come from where you grew up, which was Beijing, and how did you meet these people? I think that’s such a tremendous question that we often overlook. So what happened? The journey has been actually kind of in a straightforward way, even though it’s kind of unimaginable at the same time. Is that Michael price, who is I don’t know what his title is, but he is actually CEO.

CEO.

He is. Okay.

Yeah.

He’s so chill. I can’t figure out what he does. But for Executive Summits, michael found me on YouTube originally, just was hoping for us to talk about Zoom Zoom Webinar for these really large thousand person events and ended up inviting me to moderate after finding out. I’m kind of into that sort of thing as a podcaster, and I had to say yes the first time around with Steve Wozniak and Barbara.

Oh, yes.

John, Maggie, it was amazing. So really grateful. So that’s how I met you, Melissa. And then now you’re here with your husband, Jesse, and that’s how we’re all here together. But I would love for you guys to talk about maybe to what extent. What is Executive Summit? A lot of people, unfortunately, still haven’t heard about the organization making a huge difference on social media. We’re growing that surely, and with some patience as well, sending things out for the first time.

So tell us everything with social media patience, right?

Yeah.

So executive summits is a leadership corporation. So we put on leadership summits all over the United States. And this is anywhere from HR Tech CEO women’s leaderships. And we do a lot of tests in markets, too, like, we’re going into fitness, and we want to try a lot of different summits, basically to do education, to give best practices, tips, tools. And I feel like a lot of our members get a lot out of it after every single summit that we host, because it’s all of these leaders who have done it already, and then they’re basically sharing their stories. So when you share stories and you share your ideas and you share it with everyone around you, I feel like you can give everyone the best insight of you actually doing it. Just like Mark Cuban today. I mean, he was just so amazing, and he gave so many just great tips that if you actually listened and you listened to the event, you will walk away with so much knowledge. And also Joanne Litman. She is the chief editor of the New York Times. I mean, she’s just awesome. She wrote a book. That’s what she said.

That is the number one bestseller. And if you listen to these leaders, you can learn so much. And I feel like that’s a lot of times, what’s missing in a lot of organizations is mentors and mentorship and mentorship programs. And I feel like if we got mentors back in corporations, which is what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get mentorship back into companies, and we want these companies to be successful and to succeed.

I love it. And that’s a great introduction. I have left a link to people who are watching on Facebook and YouTube now or later about Executive Summits and different chapters. And Jesse, I just noticed today we connect on LinkedIn today. You’re also a moderator. Your moderation experience, what is it like for you, why you choose to moderate?

Yes. So my background, I’ve always been kind of in front of people. When I first started out in the professional world, I was actually doing a lot of church work. I was a worship leader back in the day. And then life led me down some different paths. And I stopped doing that. And I went to teaching. And I taught middle school for six years. And I was a chorus and orchestra teacher. And I always was the teacher that was trying to make a difference in kids lives and just be that person that could really inspire and teach them the things that a lot of grown ups will just not talk to kids about. You know, I had hard conversations with the kids and really tried to make sure that they grew up with the right mindset as much as I could help, you know, with my 1 hour a day with them. But what was cool, you know, being with them for three years in the middle school, when you’re cooking to teacher, you see those same kids for three years, and you really get to make a difference in their lives. And that’s always been something that was really important to me, was speaking to people and teaching them how to be the best versions of themselves.

And so when I got this opportunity to do Moderating, melissa had gotten a job at the company, and they were looking for another moderator. And so the position came open. And so I applied for it. And I was like. This is really a culmination of all of my past experience rolled into one. Because what I get to do now is I get to find these amazing people. And I get to get to know them a little bit. Kind of like Melissa did with you. Get to know you a little bit. Develop a relationship. Learn about all these super cool people from all over the country that have this amazing knowledge. Amazing experience. And then I get to lead them in sharing that experience with other people. And, like, you know, with Moderation, it’s not just I ask a question, you give an answer. You have to thoughtfully respond to everything that people say and kind of direct the conversation where you want it to go. And sometimes that could be a challenge. But I really love doing that. That’s something that really excited me. And so being able to do that for HR and Tech, those are the two areas that I work with because we have different departments.

So my departments are HR and Tech. I get to find all these amazing HR leaders and tech leaders from, like I said, all over the country and get to hear their stories, get to hear what they deal with. And it’s really opened my eyes to a lot of things because being from a non business background, I never really thought about a lot of the issues that people face in businesses. And now that I sit in these conferences, I’m learning a ton every single time, and I’m really able to glean stuff for my own personal life from these amazing speakers. And it’s been just great.

When he’s crushing it, you guys are all crushing it.

It’s great. It’s such a great organization and inviting these opportunities. And Melissa, you and Dean were slightly behind the scenes today, but you guys are great. Relaying questions to me, helping me really understand, make me feel at ease so that I can execute and do what I need to do. And so it just everybody’s really happy. It’s not like we’re doing this just to fulfill a job description, but we actually care about the audience actively engaging with them. So that leads I think there’s a lot to talk about for moderation, for there are people on my channel who loves to talk about Zoom and Google Meet and how to engage with people on a more authentic level. But I think it’s a great segue to talk about your podcast as well. So let’s address your podcast. Tell us. There’s so many people out there right now. I mean, I get, like, two requests last week from women who want to start their own shows. I happen to be someone who started eight years ago, but what was it like for you to start the show? I think approximately six months ago.

Six?

Yes. And how to find your niche and all that. Take us back six months back. How did you and Jesse start the show and why?

This is actually a really funny story, and I love that we’re able to share this, because we don’t get to really share this a lot on our podcast, I think at the very beginning episodes, but we started through Facebook, actually, and Jesse and I were trying to find an outlet that we could help make a difference in the world together. Right. We were looking at YouTube, maybe starting a YouTube channel, maybe. Well, we haven’t really talked about a podcast, but it just so happened facebook sent me to do a little survey, and it was four weeks, and it was live through their live audio rooms. And this is before they hosted it. They launched it, and I was kind of the one of the test beta subjects through that. And so I did that for four weeks. I went live every single Thursday for four weeks straight, and it was just a fun experience. And Jesse and I got to do that together. And at the end of the four weeks, we looked at each other and we said, we want to do this. We want to continue to do this continuously. And we did.

We went ahead and kept Thursday, because it just so happened that that’s where it started. And so we kept Thursday, and we just kept going with the podcast. Now, we haven’t done a podcast before and we had to learn everything. How to host, how to speak on air, get rid of the UMS and the SOS and the and get rid of all of those filler words and it was just such an amazing experience to learn all of it and grow now after we are in 20 countries worldwide. It’s been six months and now we are growing at a much faster pace and we are actually producing podcasts as well. So if there is anyone out there that they need a little bit of help through producing a podcast, we’re definitely able to help them out.

Yeah, we tried to find topics and people that have good stories. So our podcast, like we mentioned earlier, it’s called Reimagined Success. And the big idea of it is don’t keep up with the Joneses. Everybody experiences success in their own ways. And for me to say that I’m not successful because I don’t have X amount of dollars in my bank account, this car in my driveway, I don’t have a boat or whatever, that doesn’t equal success. And people wrap so much of their identity into what they have and what they do that they forget that there’s little things in life that are successes and you have to celebrate those successes every single day. Listen, I do a thing where whenever something good happens in our lives, big or small, we stop ourselves and we do a little happy dance together and we make weird noises like eh, it’s.

Going to go crazy and it’s fun.

And it’s goofy and it’s silly, but it takes a second for us to stop, slow down. Because as you can tell, our lives are very busy with all the things that we do. But it gives us a moment to slow down and recognize that something good is happening in our lives. And we don’t need to just rush past this. We need to take a moment and really realize that these good things are happening and that they’re propelling us forward to the goals that we want to reach and we celebrate that. And all we want to do is bring more people onto the podcast to do that exact same thing. Because there’s a lot of people that are extremely successful that never stop and slow down and celebrate that success and they just blow right through it and they don’t appreciate it and they just work themselves to death and they’re tired and they’re worn out and if they would just take a couple of moments each day to stop and reflect. Their lives would be so much more fulfilling.

What did you guys celebrate? Or a slowdown to recognize today or going to recognize later today?

Later today. So today we are going to slow down and stop and recognize that. First of all, this summit this morning went amazing. Also, we just put on our goal board last week that we wanted to be on someone else’s podcast every month, at least one podcast. And so tonight we’re going to celebrate being on your podcast, Bay, for our first podcast of being on someone else’s podcast.

Yeah, and it’s been really cool. First time for being dual guests.

Yes. Not first time being on a podcast, but together.

It’s been super cool for us because we keep setting these goals. And just to the left of the computer, we’ve got this great goal board where we have all of our goals listed out and we practice a lot of manifestation sorry, the word just like my brain for a second. We practice manifestation in our lives where we will speak out the things in our life that we’re trying to accomplish and obtain. So recently we were manifesting that we want to have a house by May. Well, we got in April to our house and we just moved in.

We wrote this goal down in November. And keep in mind, we do have two kids, so of course, December, there’s a lot of money going out. So we wrote in November that by May we would be in our new home because we needed a podcast space, we needed an office space, we needed a creative space. And so we said by May. And so January, we started actually saving money. I don’t know how we did it, to be honest.

Seriously, I still to this day don’t know how we pulled it off. But here we are in our new home and it worked out perfectly. And that’s what’s happening with our lives. Every single goal that we’re saying we’re going to do this, it’s not, oh, man, I wish I could do this. I wish I could do that. We actually did a bonus episode on our patreon about this very subject. But wishing your life away is the worst thing you could do. Because every time you say, I wish I could do this, you’re also simultaneously saying, I’m not going to do this. I just wish I could. But we don’t say I wish. We say we are going to do this. It is going to happen. And it’s going to happen in this amount of time no matter what. And so we make these goals and we achieve them. And so this goal of being on somebody else’s podcast is huge for us. We’ve actually already got two more people that are interested in us being on their podcast as well, since we said that a week ago. You’re the third person that invited us to come on their podcast.

This happened to be the first, the.

First one that we got on. But it’s been mindblowing how we’re watching these things just come to fruition as we’re saying them. And it’s really cool because we’re getting to show the kids like, hey, kids, remember when we said this? Well, look, it’s happening. And remember when we said that? Look, that one’s happening too. And we’re getting to teach our kids that you can literally do anything that you want to in this world. You just have to fight for it and really push towards that goal.

And not just our kids but our listeners to everything that we are saying. We say a lot on our podcast about with our guests, about what we’re doing and then later our listeners see that just like this room where we’re transforming it, it’s going to be a reimagined success space. Like this wall back here is going to be covered with reimagined success and it’s just going to be so awesome to see it visually happening. And that’s what we love, we love sharing so we can inspire and motivate everyone around the world to do what you want to do in life and be happy. And that’s what this life is about. It’s about making a connection, building friendships and building a community and supporting each other and then from there growing and learning and learning from one another and creating an amazing happy world and a happy life.

Yeah, I think that’s a message, that’s the message we need to hear and learn how to do these days, given all that’s happening in the world. Yet we’re transforming our own lives, creative life, personal, professional life and some parts of that is going to pushed together. So I want to dive into the word manifestation a bit because I have, you know, where at the throat are probably very similar in age. I know most of them are exactly the same age. I think we sometimes hear especially people who are, let’s say ten years younger or like the generation after centennial, I don’t know if you know what they’re called but you hear the word manifestation used or overused, whereas you just imagine you just manifest and things are going to come to you. Whereas I think I knowing your journey and having had some extensive conversation with Melissa prior to this, I know you’ll work very hard. I know I worked my butts off to get to where I am today and also not being someone who is with someone specifically who’s Asian and female and, you know, starting a creative journey just didn’t really seem very straightforward but it’s something I really enjoy doing.

So just kind of push through regardless of what people said were thought or hinted what it could be. So could you maybe talk about some of the hardships behind the sexy creative life and that you had to persevere that you need patience for?

Yeah, absolutely. Because like you nailed it when you said it. If you don’t work towards your goal, if you’re not working your butt off, you can manifest all day, every day, but if you just sit on your couch and don’t put any legs to it, then nothing is going to happen ever for you. What people don’t understand is we work at executive summits from 830 ish in the morning till five in the afternoon. Sometimes six, sometimes seven, depending on what the job needs that day. And then after that, we grab a quick bite to eat and we’re right back to work. But on our personal things. And we spend hours and hours and hours of our free time pursuing our dreams, pursuing our goals. And so I’ll sit at my studio desk and I’ll be writing music and recording music. Melissa will be sitting at her desk doing comic book stuff, and we’ll be doing podcasts at all different hours. And whenever the guests can get there with us, it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t. And if you want a cushy life and to do a lot of nothing, then don’t have big goals and dreams.

Because if you’ve got big goals and dreams like the three of us do, as I’m sure that you have, even bigger than what you’re doing now, and so do we, you’ve got to work. And, like, manifestation is great. You can say it all day long, but you have to put the work into it.

And also with Manifestation, we say what we want. The comic book, for example. I said what I wanted. I want this to go to print. I want this six issue comic book series. The second issue is already complete. I just hired a writer that’s going to be working on the third book, and it’s really exciting. I have artists all over the world now, and these are all the things that I said that I want. But then you have to go backwards. You have to do your goal, right? You do your ultimate goal. What is your ultimate goal? And you dream big. You dream the biggest you can. And mine is I want Deadly Crimson in the movie theater. That is my goal. That is where I want to go. I want a sequel. I want it in the movie theater. So now I need to go backwards, right? So that’s my ultimate goal. That is on my goal board for that particular project. So I need to go backwards. How am I going to get there? So then go backwards. I’m doing a comic book series. So that’s going to promote, that’s going to help.

That’s going to get the word out there, that’s going to create an actual image that people will be able to read, will see a storyboard per se. And I can dress up as a character. I can actually go to conventions. I can promote it. So you go backwards, right? You could do your ultimate goal and then you’d go backwards. You also want to do your goal boards every single day. And the more you say what your goal is, that’s manifestation. That’s actually how you manifest. You say what you want and you say it over and over and over again. You have it visually, we have goal boards all over our office. Visually, you see it every single day. And then you have to work backwards. How am I going to get there? How am I going to get there today? I need to do this so I can get here tomorrow. So then ultimately, I get to my long term goal.

Melissa and Jesse, always, every question is to both of you as you see fit.

Yeah. We just look at each other and say, I’ll take it, you take it.

We’re basically the same person. It doesn’t matter.

Right. But we just ended this very much of women empowerment conversation, and we’re just ignoring men naturally for, like, five minutes. Jokes aside, value both of your opinions very much, which is I think everybody kind of is used to or choose a different approach. Like, for instance, I remember 20 years ago, you know, the reason that I fell in love with Seth godin’s work was he was very much the opposite of the other motivational speakers. He is very much talking about what is that you love to do and understanding the why, the focus, and what you be doing if money is not even a factor. So when I look at my YouTube Journey, my podcasting Journey is something I love so much, I would do it for ten plus years. Absolutely. Even if I wasn’t getting paid from it directly, I knew it was very important, and frankly, it took all the pressure off of me years into it. I look at all the time, commitment, money.

Yeah.

I definitely questions, like, it would be really nice if I can turn this into a full time career of some sort. But I remember at the beginning, that wasn’t the reason why I started that. So how do you two balance between the I need to set goals. This needs to be the movie theater. I want to understandably. So a fulltime career versus oh, my God, it’s currently not paying the bills. I’m in the chapter two out of a ten chapter book. Like, what do I do? How do you balance it now? Beat yourself up. A lot of people were asking that question during the summit earlier today.

Yeah, I think that’s a great question, because we are so hard on ourselves. Okay. I will be honest with everyone. I am a perfectionist. I am such a perfectionist. And I just like this house. When I moved in, I wanted everything perfect right now. Like, not tomorrow. I want it perfect right now. And sometimes we have to step back and we have to evaluate the situation. You know, you have to breathe. I’m huge in meditation, yoga, exercise, eating healthy and drinking water. You have to do everything to keep your body healthy.

Good job, Faye.

Drinking that water. It’s about balancing and staying healthy and also doing what makes you happy, too. There are times where Jesse and I, we have plans to spend the rest of the day doing our work and focusing on Deadly Crimson, focusing on music, focusing on anything that we need to work on. That night. And then sometimes we are like, hey, we need a break. We have to take a break. Step back. Refresh. Make sure you’re getting at least 6 hours of sleep every single night. You want to make sure that you are loving yourself first. So love yourself first, and then you’ll be able to love everyone else, and you’ll be able to give and you’ll be able to contribute how you need to contribute, but you have to love yourself first, and you have to give your body that time to recharge and refocus.

How do you know sorry, Jesse. How do you know you’re loving yourself? You’re doing it the right way. Like, selfcare is interpreted or misinterpreted in many different ways. It’s interesting. It’s like, I bought a diamond.

I got many cure.

Like, no, no, that’s not actually that’s not the people think, you know, treating yourself to something that is the completion of self care, whereas I see this much bigger scope of what it means. Jesse, feel free.

Yeah, I think it’s more about honoring yourself more than, like, spoiling yourself. Yeah, it’s fun to go treat yourself to stuff and get the things you like, and that makes you feel good. But are you honoring yourself? Are you listening to what your body needs, what your mind needs? Mental health these days is so important. If you’re not doing something to preserve your mental health, especially in the climate in which we live in these days, where tensions are higher than ever, people are more divided than ever before. You have to take time to center yourself, to look inside, to evaluate how you feel on your own. You have to check in with yourself honestly and say, okay, so I’ve got this busy, busy day ahead of me. How am I doing? Am I too stressed out? Do I need to walk away from it for a little bit, go outside, get some fresh air, just sit on my porch and listen to the birds for a couple of minutes just to refresh myself before I get back to the grind? Because it can be exhausting. It can be defeating to sit behind a desk. And like you said, you know, we don’t do these things full time yet.

You know, we have day jobs. We have to supplement our income to do the things we love. And it can be really frustrating sometimes to be like, I just want to do this one thing full time and only do my creative things. And you realize you can’t do that yet. And so you have to keep encouraging yourself. You have to keep positivity and getting a group of people around you that are supportive and believe in your dreams and getting rid of the naysayers and the haters that are in your life and just saying, you know what? I don’t need any negative energy. If you can’t get on board with where I’m going in life, then maybe you’re not along for the ride with me because I’m going here. I’m going to achieve these goals, and I want the people in my life that are going to come with me on this, not the people that are going to try to stop me.

Very true. Melissa, anything else that you wanted to add or share?

Basically everything. We talk about this so much, and like I was saying earlier, about when you meditate, that is how you can really go inside yourself and reflect and check in with yourself. We do that daily. Sometimes we’ll run outside, like he said, and we’ll sit on the front porch and we’ll just sit there. And I will sit there and check in with myself and meditate for a moment and just breathe. I think your breath is one of our best assets that we have. And a lot of times we forget about that and we forget to take care of ourselves. And yeah, it’s not about just nails, because my nails are not done. It’s not about nails. Right. It’s not about that about taking care of yourself. It’s about really listening to what your body needs, listening to what not just your body needs, but what everything around you needs, and building a community in a space in order to achieve what you’re trying to do in your life.

And listening to what your soul needs. You mentioned earlier that Seth Godin talked about what would you do if you had endless money and that wasn’t an issue, you just do whatever you wanted. I ask people that question all the time myself. Whenever I meet someone for the first time. That’s actually my favorite question to ask them. So if money wasn’t an issue, what would you actually be doing? I don’t care what your job is. That’s not who you are. But so many people, they forget that, and they get wrapped up in their job. The thing that they’re just doing to make money, it’s not their passion. It’s not their life, and they define themselves using that. And so I love to know, what are people’s real passions? And that’s what feeds your soul, is your real passions and things that inspire you. Art and literature and movies and music and all the beauty in this world. My desktop on my computer is outer space because I’m obsessed with outer space. I’ve got all the planets tattooed on my arm right here, because I’m just completely obsessed with it. And just looking at things from outer space, I follow a million outer space things on Instagram and Facebook.

Just looking at inspires me. It gives me a sense of awe and wonder and makes me feel like I’m actually a part of something way bigger than I could ever imagine. And it puts me in my place of the universe. And so that feeds my soul. And if you’re not feeding your soul, then your soul is going to die and your body is just going to keep on living this mundane life and just going through the motions, and you’re going to forget that you ever had dreams because you’re going to be so miserable and beat down that you’re never going to even think that they are possible. But if you daily feed those dreams, it’s like the old proverb of the two tigers, the one you feed the most is going to win in a fight. The one you starve is not going to win. So you got to feed that tiger that you want to win. So if you want your dreams and your goals to push forward, then feed that. Don’t feed the things that are just the mundane in your life. Do good work. Don’t be a slacker at your job. I mean, we’re not advocating for that, but really put your heart and soul into the things that feed you and help you to grow and take time daily to grow.

Because if you’re not, then if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

And growing also includes learning from everyone else. You have to learn every single day.

Yeah, we listen to podcasts. We listen to interviews. The other night, instead of doing a night’s worth of work, we sat in our room and we laid in bed and watched Elon Musk interviews for hours and hours just because that man is just so inspirational.

Yeah, isn’t that interesting? First of all, my mom my mom and I are spiritual, and she’s always believed in the universe on Earth, and I’m sure she will love the tattoos and many of your interests. Jessie and also, I noticed, I’m not sure if you come through life like you look back to yourself 510 years ago, 15 years ago, were you like, very different people? Because, oh, my gosh, oh, my goodness.

You’Re like, definitely I don’t even recognize that old person anymore. I’ve changed so unbelievably much in the.

Last five years, in the last year, in the last two years. I can say this about myself, and I always wanted to make a difference in the world. I’ve always wanted to be someone, because you have to be an influencer in order to influence people. You have to be someone in this society. Unfortunately, you have to make your way and pave your way and make a name for yourself, and then people will listen to you. So I’ve always wanted to do that, so I can make a difference, so I could share my light and I could share joy and I can share smiles and I can tell people to smile. It’s okay. It’s okay to smile. It’s okay to love yourself. It’s okay to reflect on yourself. It is okay to say, I love me. I love me first, and then I can love all of you just as much as I love myself. And I’ve always wanted to do that, but I’ve always been so afraid of failing or putting myself completely out there and then, you know, it doesn’t go the way that I want it to go, and we have to get out of that mindset.

And I really, in the last, I would say, two years, have given up all of my fears and given up everything that was holding me back in life in order to really, really pursue what I am doing now, which is making a difference in the world. And that’s what I’ve always wanted to do. But in society, everyone tells you you’re not good enough, you’re not going to make it. You can’t be an actress, you can’t be a podcast host. You won’t make any money in that. You can’t. You can’t. And you hear that, especially at such a young age, you hear you can’t be an actress because there’s so many actresses, there’s so much competition, and we get that instilled in our heads and in our brains and in our souls, and we forget that we are limitless. We are so powerful. We are these crazy supercomputers that can do whatever we really put our minds to and our hearts to. And if you lead with your heart and you lead with a positive influence in the world and you really want to make a difference, then people will see that and you have to give up fear so that you can push forward and make that happen.

Now, two years later, I tell myself, I can do this. I am doing this, I will do this, and I do it. I just do it.

Yeah. For me, three years ago, my life was completely out of control. Nothing was going the way I’d hoped it would. My relationships were terrible, my friendships were terrible. I wasn’t the man that I wanted to be in life. And I’ve been on a journey over the past three years trying to grow and change and become the best version of myself. And I’ve been studying and I’ve been researching and I’ve been listening to stuff and I’ve been meditating and growing and working on myself. And I feel like for the first time in my entire life, I’ve taken control back and actually named my album that I released in January, taking Control. Because it’s so important as we’re humans that live in a society where we’re told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and if we don’t do it this way, then we are difficult. We are trying to be something that we’re not supposed to be. And there’s cancel culture and all this stuff these days that you have to worry about. And it’s time that people just start taking control of your life, taking control of your relationships, taking control of your dreams and your goals and saying, you know what?

I’m not just going to live life for two days off in a week’s vacation. Like, I’m not going to live my life anymore. Just hoping that someday maybe I’ll get to retire. If I’ve made enough money throughout the rest of my life, and then I can live the last of my days when I’m old and feeble, finally starting to live life. No, we need to be living life now. Right? We need to be doing things now so that we can live our fullest lives. There’s so much in this world to experience and just in our planet. It’s a beautiful, beautiful planet that we live on. 98% of people in this world will never even see outside of their hometowns. Maybe that’s a bad number I’m making, but the sentiment is there that so many people will never leave their hometown, so many people will never go outside of their state, never mind their country. And it’s like you are missing out on so much culture, unbelievable world in people yeah. In perspectives and everything in this world that we have to experience. And you’re missing it because you’re too busy working nine to five every single day and slaving your life away for somebody else’s dream.

And you’re forgetting that you are born with dreams. You were born with a purpose, and you were born with gifts to share with this world. And nobody else can do that the way that you can. And if you’re not the one doing it, then somebody is missing out on that. And so we’ve literally said out loud to each other, this is the path that we want to go on. And we are pushing with all of our minds to go on that path because we are taking control of our lives, and we are making sure that our lives are going the direction that we want them to go, not that somebody else told us that they should go.

Yeah. Isn’t it liberating to be in your 30s? Because I remember feeling, this is the mindset. This is the mindset I wanted to have. I just don’t know how to actually get there. I remember being 1920, but I also think it’s interesting, like, as you’re talking, I think about what’s changed to me in my, I guess, my 20s, my early thirty s I remember as a period of time. But I’m really into, like, fashion. Not fashion in the popular culture sense, but more like what defines it? What kind of funky clothes can I wear? What represents me? Where can I get a good deal? Like, I’m really like something right now. These days, I find myself not remember like, a single label that I used to love. I used to be like, get all giggly when I run into TJ. Maxx or Marshall’s. Like, oh my God, here’s what’s like true religion. There’s some, I don’t know, like some crazy it doesn’t even register with me. I don’t care if I need to shop at Walmart or Target SARS. Those people who are like, more minimalist and all these conscious clothing, environmental friendly. I like that kind of stuff, too.

I’ll pay extra. But I noticed I’m just not into all of that anymore. Instead, not just the cause, but the things that really drives me are conversations with people, which is podcasting. How can I create some tutorials that people find helpful on YouTube and see the numbers go up? People are like, oh my God, you saved my day, my week, my projects related to working on palliative care and thinking about my dad passed away in a manner that I really didn’t. I still do not wish it upon anybody, even my worst enemy. There’s got to be a better way to go. Death is part of life. Having my friend Gustavo with his project enabled disabled talking to now over 50 people who recognize themselves as with a disability, their family, their medical professionals. And to me, that energizes me to no end. And I feel like that’s such a transformative feeling of they’re not doing this for show anymore, I’m not doing this for anybody else. I’m here to empower the people who want to come along on this journey with having a good time.

One of my favorite messages is to tell people how strong they are. We all are told that we are weak and that we need other people to save us and other people to help us and other people to guide us. We are so strong. You know, the placebo effect is a great marker of this. You know, somebody takes a sugar pill and they suddenly get better. The sugar pill didn’t do anything. Your mind did something, your body did something. You can heal yourself, you can fix your life, you can get out of the situation that you want to be in. But you have to realize that you have strength inside of you that you’ve been told isn’t there. You have strength inside of you that’s been held down and pushed down and really just made you to feel like you’re this weak little nothing. And you have to realize that you’re not alone. You can look around your world and there are people right beside you that have the same strength that you do and they’re strength in numbers. And if we can get people together to realize that we are the strong, powerful people, then we can accomplish anything we want to in this world and we can make this world a beautiful place.

And that’s our goal is just to shine a light in this world and make people realize there’s more to life and you’ve got to grab it or else it’s going to disappear and you’ll.

Miss it and going back to what you said. Bay, your priorities really do change when you’re leading with your heart and when you’re really trying to make a difference. It’s so funny because we look at a lot of these successful people, like Elon Musk, for example. I mean, he is one of the richest people in the world and he is living in a $50,000 tiny house like a tiny house. And he sold a lot of his properties, most of them. And he’s living in a tiny house with his family. And he’s got five kids. Yeah, he’s got five kids.

Oh, my God, I need to look at the place where he’s able to fit everyone in.

Tesla is now making houses, really affordable houses. They start at 10,000, but his is 50,000. Okay, he’s a billionaire, that’s fine. But yeah, it’s crazy.

But I mean, you look at something like that and that really goes to show that he does not care about how people look at him. He does not care. I live in a tiny house and I am one of the richest people in the world. That says something about, like, his character. But not only that, when you look at a lot of people who are showing off and they have all of these quote unquote things, a lot of times they’re so in debt, and we don’t want anyone to go in debt to try to keep up with anyone else. And that’s also what our podcast is about because it’s not about keeping up with anyone else. It’s about what fulfills you, what makes you happy. Only get the space that you need. If you don’t need more than four bedrooms, don’t get more than four bedrooms just for showy purposes. Stay within your means, stay within your margins. And always know that if you do that, everything else will come at you in life.

I absolutely love it. I want to also give people some practical next steps as we’re wrapping up the conversation. And thank you so much, Daniel, for sharing your feedback. Is that when I think about manifest or creating something on your own instead of waiting for the perfect moment, waiting for a partner, not everybody is as lucky as, you know, sharing that vision because both of you also work on something together and then something separately, right? Yes. So that is a beautiful thing. I think consider really be in the moment, having a conversation with someone, it’s not always going to go well. People have very different views, religious or political. Sometimes they get really unfortunately get in the way that I would recommend when starting the conversation, to not go there first, but to talk about, you know, everyday life in a very authentic way, talking about your dreams, but having that authentic conversation like the one we have right now. I mean, none of us first, it was on our phones, right? Like, imagine if we know each other really well, we enjoy each other’s company. It wouldn’t be unusual for us to pick up a phone, but we can.

We’re very focused and this type of conversation and just somehow just like, I don’t know, spark something very, very different. Like we’re paying attention on purpose. We could have just not do this. We ended this an hour ago or whatever, but we choose to be here. So I encourage people to try that and experience that difference. So what are some of the takeaways or homework or experiments you want people to think about?

Be present. Be present in every single moment in life. If you are staring at your screen and there’s a moment passing you by, you will never see it and you will never experience it and it will never happen to you. You have to be present in whatever it is that you’re doing. And I’m not saying we have our screen time and we are on social media and we do marketing and everything else that you need to do, but everything that in life you have to be present.

Yes. And also have difficult conversations, have conversations that make you uncomfortable because growth comes from discomfort. If you only stay in your echo chamber and you only listen to the same voices that say the same things over and over and you get no outside perspective, your perspective is going to be extremely small and you won’t accomplish nearly as much as if you grow your perspective. So listen to other people, especially today in this world where people are so polarized and if you don’t have the same opinion, well, then you’re just the bad guy. Well, get out of that mindset and listen to other people’s opinions. Listen to other people’s experiences because when you hear people’s stories, it’s hard to put a label on them that’s just kind of overencompassing. It’s hard to be a racist or an ageist or a sexist or whatever you want to be when you actually get to know people and listen to them and realize, you know what, I didn’t actually understand what they were going through and I didn’t actually get that they had these struggles, but now I do. And now I can see from their perspective and I can change my mind and be a better person.

Also share your stories, share your adventures, share everything that it is in life so other people can understand what you’re coming through and you have to share your insight and your wisdom so everyone in life will have another viewpoint. And it’s so important to say, yeah.

On our Reimagined success page, we’re actually doing videos through the process of moving into this house and the stuff that we have to do our yard is disgusting. It is full of weeds, it’s overgrown. It’s horrible. If anybody saw our yard that’s like a landscaper, they would just think shameful thought of us. And you know what?

We just bought the house two weeks ago. Okay?

But we’re also not hiding that. We’re showing our mess because right now we’re in mess and we want people to know that though we’re striving to be our best selves and though we are accomplishing great things, there are other things in our lives that are messy and gross and bad and we want to be honest about everything because you never know what somebody else is going through. And the one thing that you say can just radically change their entire situation because they can finally stop and say, you know what? I have permission to be a little bit messy. I have permission to not have my journey look perfect. Because journeys don’t look perfect. Can I just shout that a little bit louder? Don’t listen to instagram. Don’t listen to Facebook. Journeys are not perfect. Everybody’s life is messy. No matter how clean it looks.

Filters do not clean up everything.

Yeah, no, that’s such a great point, guys. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. And it’s still at the very beginning, and it’s exciting. It’s probably going to take some Pivots, and you can’t experience change for anyone who’s listening or watching as a business, as your creative endeavors, no matter how small, how big they go through transitions and just kind roll with the punches and grow with them, don’t get frustrated. So I love this so much. Thank you, guys. I’m going to take this offline, but don’t go anywhere. It seems that we have other businesses to take care of after this. Thank you so much for watching, everyone.

Thank you for having us. We really enjoyed.