Forget keeping up with the Joneses and judging success by how much someone has. Introducing a new success scale based on happiness and freedom to pursue your passions and purpose.  

Episode Highlights: The Journey to the Happiest Workplace

Welcome to Episode 5!

• This episode offers a glimpse into the future of the podcast and the exciting journey ahead.
• Discover how embracing challenges and setbacks can lead to unexpected growth and new opportunities.

Creating the Happiest Workplace in the World

• Learn how the host’s company is on a mission to become the happiest workplace in America (and maybe even the world!).
• Explore what it takes to build a workplace where everyone feels empowered to reach their full potential.

The Power of the Three Principles

• Get introduced to the foundational concept behind the podcast: living from a place of creative flow through the Three Principles.
• Hear a heartfelt tribute to Bob Schell, whose teachings on these principles shaped the journey toward happiness and creativity.

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Creative Fuel for underdogs. This is the last episode I've actually recorded, like, 22 or 23, and

somehow this video just disappeared. But nothing in my world is bad. Everything happens for a reason, and we just learn to adjust to that

and, like. So this is the great opportunity to come back and kind of give you a glimpse of what's coming in the podcast and a chance to just kind

of redo this episode. And it's a great point to say, hey, this is where we're going. So, two things. One, where we are at episode

22 is learning how to take everything that I'm teaching and experiencing and walking the walk. So I brought it

into my company, and we have the goal of making my business the happiest workplace in America or in the world. And so this massive goal of how can

we create a happy workplace? How can everybody feel like they're achieving their full potential? And so that's a glimpse of what's to come, is the journey, how we got

there. And then the other thing, too, is this program is the foundation of getting out of your head and being in the creative flow. And living from this place

is based on an idea called the Three Principles. And the person that introduced that me to the three principles was Bob Schell. And

he, unfortunately, he passed on Sundays. So I would like to dedicate this episode to him, because without him, I would not be on this journey, I would not be here today, and I

would not be be experiencing happiness, which is what this episode is all about. It's the currency of happiness. So, for

me, when I begin to, like, look back and say, what did I struggle with the most? What created the most worry, what created the most waste in my life? What was this

mental suffering, mental burden? It is all to do with money. And it was either I didn't have enough money, or I didn't feel successful,

or my father had, you know, this, the way he talked about us as children. My younger sister was wildly successful in her job, and she

had a ton of money, and my dad would always brag about her, which in turn made my oldest sister. And I feel, you know, jealous and less than. And so this whole idea

of money, it just created, like, a lot of mental turmoil. And so the idea to get past that and to not have

that, that mental drama trauma, and to actually be able to flip the whole thing, be in the creative flow, and flip it into, well, one, how do I get more money? How

do I create more money? How do I live my passion and purpose how do I do what I want to do at the end of the day? Is money really it? Or is there, instead of the

success being aligned with how much money you have, success being aligned with happiness, are you living your passion and your purpose is your currency, new currency,

happiness? And so that's what this episode is going to be about today. So I was not really aware of money growing up. My parents came

from the war, so there was always a shortage. And my mom was always on this really tight budget, and she never really worked. So it was. My father would give her so much money that she

would. It was called her housekeeping money, and she called it the keep. So this was the keep, which we had to, you know, she had to manage throughout the month.

She got her keep once a month, and she had to, you know, get all of the meals out of it, get anything we needed as far as clothes or anything else would have to come out, come out of the keep. And

so there was always this sense of being very frugal, making things work. We never went out to dinner or out to lunch. We never ate out. My mom would always

prepare every meal, and she would make the budget last, and she would always try to keep a little bit left, a little bit over for emergencies. And she did a really good job of managing the

household budget. So there was always this living within your means that we grew up with, but we never felt like we were lacking or we didn't really have

what we need or we never experienced, like, any of that. But some of my friends around me, they would eat differently. So, like, my best friend

growing up was, they had chips and eggs, egg and chips for dinner every night. So french fries, homemade french fries and eggs. I. And it was, like, the cheapest food you could buy, which

was eggs and potatoes. Now, I thought it was amazing because they had egg and chips every night, and you'd dip your chips in the ketchup. You would

just. It would be a great experience. It would be absolutely delicious. But the fact that they had it every night was because they were always struggling for money. But I didn't know that.

And then later, when I moved to a different area in England, my friend there, when they came home from school, they would have a snack, and they would have

a choice of butter or jam on the bread. They couldn't have both. They just didn't have the money for it. And then once a

week, they had meat. They only had meat on Sundays. They couldn't afford meat the rest of the week. And so I noticed those discrepancies but I never really noticed. I

wasn't aware of, you know, materialism and money and things. You know, we never owned a car. My dad had a work car for business, but we never owned a car. So we

always took the bus in public transportation. We were always in school uniform. So you couldn't judge anybody by what they were wearing outside of school. You know, you just had your knockabout clothes

and your church clothes, and so you just never. There was this. There was just this whole not aware of the materialistic things.

So when I moved to America, it was my parents. My dad had a. His company was changing or going out of business, and

he had two job offers. He had one in the south of England, and then he had the opportunity to start a business for a swiss company that wanted to move into the american market.

And we all voted. We said, hey, do we want to move to the south of England, or do we want to move to America? And we all voted, and we said, we all want to go to America. So

we moved to America. And what we didn't realize is that we were moving into an affluent community. The real estate agent, when

my parents came ahead of time and they scouted out where we were going to have the business, where we were going to live, things like that. They picked northeast Ohio because my dad was in the metal

industry. He did non destructive testing of tubing. So the swiss equipment tested tubing for cracks and

defects in welds. And so we needed to be in, like, the manufacturing rust belt. And then the real estate agent said, well, you always want to go where the

best schools are in England. That wasn't a thing like, you wouldn't, you know, if you were going to go for the best schools, you would go for private schools, you know, and we never did that.

We were just always in public school. But so we picked a very. They picked a very affluent community. And in England, we didn't pay for the things that

we had to pay for here. So he, you know, we didn't have cars in England. We didn't pay for health insurance. There's so many things that you didn't pay to. You didn't pay for doctor's visits, you didn't pay for

dentist visits. You didn't pay for any of that stuff. You know, you could go to the opticians and get. Everything was like part of the national health. So we didn't understand the cost of living

here. So when my dad negotiated his salary, we didn't take into account all these extra things that he would need. So we came into this affluent community,

and we didn't really have much. You know, I wouldn't say we were poor. We weren't by any means poor, but we just didn't have what the other kids had. So I

had, like, a rotation of maybe three outfits that I wore throughout the week, and I just didn't fit. So I walked into

an environment where everything was based on money. Everything was based on what you have in high school. It was, you know, what car did you drive? You know, and we were like, we've

never driven cars. We've always taken the bus. And so everything was, like, completely new, and it was a completely different standard. And the way that the kids judged each other, the

popular kids all had money and stuff and brand new outfits all the time, and they were, like, the in crowd. And it was

so extraordinary for me to be part of this and to experience it coming in from the outside, because I completely didn't fit. I totally didn't fit at all. And then I became to start to feel like an

outcast, you know, like, oh, my gosh, we're poor in this rich community. And now it was a huge blessing because it's like, I understand not fitting in. I

understand being an outcast. I understand that immigrant experience of not fitting in. And this whole new world that you're like, you don't have anything that aligns with what

these, these groups that are considered, like, the in crowd, the successful. You know, you're way on the outside of that. And what was really interesting

was we just went through punk rock right before I moved, punk rock had just kind of come through, and everything in England was about being an individual, not conforming, not

aligning with that. And so I moved to America, and, you know, I wasn't punk rock. I was, you know, you had these different types of music that you listen to. And so I aligned more with, like,

the model, you know, which is kind of like the alternative now, but the punk rock was a little too angry and aggressive for me. But it was the whole idea that you were individual and

that you weren't conforming to any norms. And the community, I moved into every. They were going through the preppy phase, and everybody bought, wore

exactly the same clothes. They all bought their clothes from the same place. And it was just like, I could not, I couldn't go there. I'm like, this is. I'm like, no, this is, like, so out of

alignment of being an individual and expressing yourself and expressing yourself through the way you dress, the way your hairstyled, everything. Like, I just couldn't do it. So when I found my

group, it was really the burnouts. The burnouts were the ones that accepted me, first of all, and I could make friends there. The only thing is there was a lot of drugs and smoking and, you know, kind

of dismissing school. And that wasn't, you know, I'm a rule follower. That wasn't, it didn't fit me at all, so. But I just, I found my people there, but it was not really my people,

but it was the only place I could be accepted. And going through that, that feeling that you're not good enough because you don't have money, it just, like, it was

just the wrong, the wrong way to judge people, you know? And so the whole idea of this materialistic society, everything think is based on materialism. And I am in

marketing, but the whole idea that marketing is about, you have to have this to feel good about yourself and you have to have that. And to me, that

is something that's so wrong that to tell people that they have to purchase something to feel better about themselves is just, there's something so wrong with that. So

as we evolve as a marketing agency and as we get really, really good at the two things that we do now, which is really creative ads for like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook,

or organic search, organic search engine optimization, getting to number one on Google, as we do go into that, we have made a very

line in a hard line that we will not accept any clients that are trying to do this fear based marketing. We want to take

on brands and companies and businesses that are improving. And even if it's manufacturing, they're improving the workplace, they're improving safety, improving. Everybody's doing something to improve the world we live in. And

those are the clients that we want to work with. But if it's just like a luxury brand that's, like, this is going to give you status to make you feel better than the next person,

then that's not what we're about. We're about. All of that is nonsense. And so my entire life has been this, like,

why am I not broken? And then the places that are broken, like, what's, what's, what do I need to fix? Or why is this causing me pain? How can I, how can I not feel

this pain anymore? So it was, it was physical pain that you felt, like when you, my, my dad was just going on and on about how successful my sister was. Because what

you interpret is, I'm not, and then, and you're not proud of me like you're proud of her, and that's not the truth at all, but that's where your mind goes. And then the second thing was

that I was alienated in a community because of their values. And so, one, immediately I said,

well, materialism and judging people based on what they have, especially kids, we have no control over what we have. The family that we're born into, the journey that we're on, we

have no control over that. Judging kids by what they have is just ridiculous. It's awful. And so the new standard is the currency of happiness. And so it's

like, what am I pursuing? What am I doing to make myself happy? How happy am I? How happy am I making the people around me? And then, and how successful

am I with that? And how successful am I aligning myself with my life purpose, my path, my potential? And then the other part of it is, how

am I honoring my creative soul? How am I honoring my creative nature? And you look up a Google survey, and it says 70% of the population

feels they're not reaching their creative potential. So it's, how am I aligning with that? And how am I achieving my creative potential? How am I living in this amazing world?

And the more and more and more you get into it, you realize all that nonsense in your head is not real. All the drama, all the trauma, all the pain, all that, none of that is

real. It's just thoughts that are creating these chemicals through your body, which are feelings. And the more you spend in this zone, in the creative zone, in the creative space, all that just

disappears. And so, you know, I could go and spend time with my dad, and we could talk about how proud we are of my sister. We could talk. I could embrace her. I could

be around her. I could say, you did such a fantastic job. You go, girl, you know, and not be hurt, not be jealous, not be. It just allows you, because you're living

in this much higher plane. You're not living in this status, you know, judgment zone where you're judging yourself, you're judging everybody around you. You're just not living in that

place anymore. You're living in this place where you have the potential and you have the opportunity to do anything. You can create anything. You can be anything. It's just finding that alignment

with your path and your purpose, who you should be, and then using the creative flow, using problem solving, advanced problem solving, brainstorming to solve every problem that you

face. There's no obstacle in front of you. It's figuring out what the next step is, and the next step is, and it's just

thousands of baby steps to get you where you're going, but there really is no obstacle you can't overcome. And once you take that mentality and once you lean into that, all the

other stuff just disappears. And then you start to have these really big goals. Like, my goal is to start a creative revolution. And I want to make the workplace the happiest place you can be.

And I want to reverse everything that causes mental strife and mental weight and holding us back and drama and then just the waste

of energy and anxiety and worry. Like, what if we put that energy into actually solving problems, fixing problems, improving our lives, improving the lives of people around

us? And so it's like, how do we flip the story? How do we say, I don't care what you do for a living. I don't care how much money you have. I want to know what you do

for free. I want to know how you're aligning to your life purpose. I want to know how you're unfolding that and you're having your impact on the world. Tell me about that. And that is your

riches. And so the idea of prosperity is a totally different idea. It's an idea of untapping your potential, leaning into it.

It's about developing these really, really rich, amazing relationships around you. Having these amazing relationships with your family, with your friends, with your employees, with your co

workers, with everybody that has been brought into your life, that you're not having these superficial relationships where you're judging, you're in your head, but you're having these deep connections

with, with them, where you see their greatness, you are always addressing their greatness and you're helping to see them, to see that greatness in

them. And then just kind of being the champion and the cheerleader to helping them on their journey and unlocking their steps and unlocking their potential. And when you get to

that place, when you get to that place where it's no longer about you, about your journey is to show other people

just the innate health and wellbeing that they have, the innate opportunity and potential that everybody has and that no

one is broken. And instead of, like, judging and seeing the brokenness in everybody, that we're living in this world of just amazing possibilities, and

then you're the champion. You're the role model for that. By living in this world and just accepting everybody you meet, by just seeing this place in them, instead of addressing what's on the outside, you're

addressing the true greatness on the inside. This is a note from our sponsor, me and my business, advancreative. If you have amazing products or services but are

missing great marketing and we want to talk to you, we'll get you found on Google, we'll take your content marketing to the next level, and we'll move your business from invisible underdog

to industry leader. Go to advancreative and book a consultation with my team and let's get creative. And so I'm just going to look at my notes here because I want to make sure

that I addressed everything that my team was like. This was great from episode five, but we lost the video. Okay, so I was an outcaste. It's not what you do for money. You do for

free. What are you creating? What are you doing with this lifetime? And the biggest thing was, how could I be happy without money and money. We need money, we need

food, we need everything. But it's not the goal and it's not the pursuit. It has to be bigger than that. And

really the last thing is business. We have figured it out. We have figured out how to, again,

in what we're doing in my life, we're doing in the business. We've learned how to lean into our greatness, only accept clients that we can be great with.

And living in this space has really transformed everything in my business. So it's operating from greatness, not from smallness, from our unique abilities,

instead of the things that hold us back. So stay with this podcast, stay with me. And once you get to episode 22, you'll find that we're doing it.

We're really doing it. So have a great week. Bye.