EP 72 : Overcome Challenging Behaviors with Emotional Resilience with Jodi Woelkerling

EP 75: The Peace that starts within you. With our guests Mark Anthony King and Melody Garcia.

We cannot change how things are. How we interpret them, ultimately depends on our view of the world and on how we perceive them and what can we do to make a change in this world. “Peace is at every moment. Peace begins with yourself.”

Melody Garcia, Global Influencer, Transformation Catalyst, and Socially – Responsible Entrepreneur. She is an International Best- Selling Author, Award-Winning Sought-AfterKeynote Speaker, Thought Leader, Writer, International Media Icon, Transformational Catalyst Coach, and Humanitarian.With over 20 years in Fortune 100 Corporate Management and Leadership, Melody has a proven track record of building winning sales teams, business processes, coaching, development, and mentorship, and extensive experience in hiring practices call center management, and more! Melody is a Certified Green Belt Six Sigma, along with extensive leadership certifications and high-ranking accolades that boast of her winning mindset and expertise. Her entrepreneurial spirit, combined with top executive commercial industry expertise, gives her a lethal edge in a visionary focus, balancing microscopic attention to detail and macroscopic implementation for increased revenues, connectivity, and staying power of any marketplace.

Mark Anthony King is a “Master of Words”. He delivers soul-searing messages in both verbal and written form, engaging his audience to deeply reflect. Mark Anthony King is a three-time best-selling author, publisher, award-winning motivational speaker, and one of the most sought-after multifaceted coaches who specialize in Social and Emotional Intelligence. He is also a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner, as well as specializing in Timeline Therapy, Weight Loss Management & Holistic Health, and Strategic Intervention. His incredible love for people has allowed him the privilege of coaching hundreds of clients from all nationalities, age groups, and walks of life in the areas of relationships, leadership, curing lifelong phobias, helping clients achieve physical transformations into their healthier version of themselves or helping a suicidal individual rediscover the beauty of life.

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Ari Gronich

0:00

Just like what we're doing. So, yeah. All right, we're going get started now. Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow. I'm your host Ari Gronich and today I have with me Mark Anthony King and Melody Garcia. It is a double feature for you all. Marc Anthony is a serial entrepreneur, master of storytelling, multimedia persona and a global leader, with a focus on the kingdom of humanitarian impact. His business handlings include a master's in nutrition, health for optimization of overall wellness, and well-being. A Master Practitioner and NLP, strategic interventions of emotional intelligence, etc. His partner melody is part of the global peace. Let's talk with 35 countries handling co-leads of UNICEF, unite Orlando, and international multimedia handling. They're about to launch their sole script, which is a podcast media column and TV show. Is that like a breath full?

Melody Garcia

1:13

Just a pinch. And that was the short form bio.

Mark Anthony

That excited me.

Ari Gronich

1:21

You know, here's the thing, I have been told that I'm going to be in people's pockets, so that when anybody asks them what they do for a living, they just pulled me out. And this is what Ari says. So why don't you guys kinda of tell a little bit about yourselves, Mark, I talked to Melody before, so I'm going let you get started. Tell a little bit about yourself. Why am I talking to you? What is it that you're doing that's going to help create a new tomorrow? And, you know, let's get going.

Marc Anthony King

1:56

Alright, so my name is Marc Anthony King. As far as why you're talking to me, you can thank Melody Garcia for that for putting us into it's a contact. You know, I full disclosure, full transparency. I didn't know the name of the show until right now. And I absolutely love that. You know, we live we live in an age where can I be candid? Or do I have to be like, super politically correct here?

Ari Gronich

2:24

No, there's no political correctness allowed. Okay, perfect. No, no, you're not allowed to censor yourself at all.

Marc Anthony King

2:34

Alright, so we live in an age where, unfortunately, the leaders and the trailblazers in the world are just horribly narcissistic, and the things that they're doing, and the things that they pride themselves on, and what's important, it's all self-glorification, at the end of the day, you know, so you asked what it is that we're doing to make a better tomorrow. Again, speaking, truthfully, we have the audacity to put God first and put service to humanity. Second. And that's an interesting concept for a multitude of reasons, you know, and I'm not going to get into religious discussions or religious debates. But my greatest mentor, Jesus Christ said, that the two things that we should do in this world in order, it's service to God, and then service to humanity. And somehow a Melody says that she was at best, when you put God first and humanity second, God finds a way of putting you first. You know, I never thought in a million years that I'd be doing the things that I'm doing now. It's, I didn't plan for it. And when it started happening, I asked myself a, no disrespect, but are you sure God that I'm the right person to be doing this? Because it was never on the plan, you know, and we become so myopic in our desires, and we become so like, single minded and tunnel vision in terms of what it is that we want, but ultimately, at the end of the day, that might not be in alignment with what God wants for us, you know, and when we surrender in that regard, we allow Him to place us where he wants us, the impact that we make, it's not self-serving, it's not self-glorifying. It's all to glorify Him and what better way to glorify Him then that actually doing something to create a better tomorrow, not hypothetically. Not conditionally, but literally, and long, long story short, short story long at this point, I'm sure. We were now in a position where we're handling the and I say this humbly, and I say this with so much gratitude in my heart, the welfare of 36 Different nations across the world, you know, and when I say welfare, I'm talking about hygiene products, I'm talking handling internally displaced peoples, orphans, preserving pygmy cultures, teaching children about their rights, teaching women about their rights, women's empowerment, agriculture, bringing in food, bringing in clean water, bringing in infrastructure, into incredibly remote areas. You know, these are, these are responsibilities that I don't take lightly. And one of my greatest pleasures aside from talking about God, and how amazing God is, and how amazing that woman is, right there on the screen underneath me here is doing what I can everything I can, you know, Melody has an amazing prayer that says, God, use all my gifts, talents, and annoying things and maximize everything that you gave me so that I can help make the world better, and help people, you know, help me help them. Being able to use that platform to talk about what it is that we're doing, and who we're helping is, is become the greatest joy of my life at this point.

Ari Gronich

6:09

Cool, so I'm gonna interrupt you a little bit.

Marc Anthony King

6:12

So I was I was rambling at that point.

Ari Gronich

6:16

I don't know this about me. But I'm a very non-religious person, very spiritual person. I've studied pretty much most of the religions in the world, like, at a young age. And so I was, you know, nine years old, and I was I was in Hebrew school, from the time I was like, five. And then I started when I was nine, practicing Buddhism. And through Buddhism, I met my girlfriend, who lived on a reservation, and I started practicing and studying Indian way, and native way. And from there, I ended up studying Druidism and the Quran, and I kind of just love studying religions, in general, but I don't find myself in the same kind of state that you find yourself in, right, as far as like, having a specific and direct person that I think I'm speaking to. And so, I just want to I want to open this up, because the things that you're doing are amazing. Some people who are listening to this show are not going to resonate with the words that you're using, as far as God kingdom, King, you know, those kinds of things, they might resonate with the word source, they might resonate with the word universal truth, they might resonate with a lot of other things other than those words, and I want them to get turned off to the things that you're doing because of the words that you're using. Right. And so, I just wanted to emphasize that the things you're doing are amazing. To me, they have nothing to do with anything other than what's in your heart and your soul. Not so much a higher being that you're answering to and so I have a question for you. The question is serving God se

EP 74: Diversity and Inclusion with Jeff Le

Jeff Le has had a career at the highest levels of public policy and politics at the state, federal and international levels. A recognized thought leader in political advocacy and representation, his analysis and opinion-writing have been featured in The New York Times, POLITICO Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post, FOX News, The Hill, Roll Call, Forbes, and local and regional newspapers in 30 states.

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Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow. I am your host, Ari Gronich. And today I have with me, Jeff Le, and I've been looking forward to having this conversation for a long time. Jeff is a two-time tour guide in Afghanistan. He's an ultra-marathoner. He's in the political arena. And that's the thing that I really want to talk to him about. But this is a guy who's recognized as a thought leader, as in political advocacy. He's been featured on Politico magazine, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, I mean, Fox News, all kinds of stuff. But Jeff, I'm gonna let you tell a little bit more about yourself. And where it is that, you know, you feel like your history has met your present, and is like pushing your future forward.

Jeff Le

2:36

Thanks for having me. Ari. Flattery will get you everywhere. So, thank you for that very warm introduction. You know, when I talk about my life, I really must take time to talk about my parents, first and foremost, not just because they love each other very much, and here I am. But also, because, you know, it's their bravery and passion that allows me to be an American today. Right. So, they were Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon. 46 years ago.

3:25

Yeah, they were refugees in, you know, Thailand and the Philippines and escaped Vietnam and communism on a 32-foot raft. So, you know, when they made it to the United States in 1981, after six years, a year later, I was born. And that came with great rights, but also responsibilities. And growing up in Southern California. My parents had a gardening company. And it's important to highlight because it was my first job. My first job at eight years old was being the gardener's kid, and mowing lawns in the weekends. I learned two things about this. Number one, manual labor sucks. And education is really important, two people treat you based on what they think of you based on what you do. And so, understanding that we're only equal in concept, but maybe not in reality is an important lesson learn at a young age. I say all that because a lot of my professional and personal life was driven on this understanding. And I would break my life chapter into three chapters, and we can talk about each of them. Yeah, the first was a chapter in the international affairs arena, right? I got to work and travel and 85 countries around the world. There was so much to see and do, including, you know, what you referenced was, you know, my time in Afghanistan, you know, working in the international development, economic space, but also working in the human rights and advocacy, is base. And obviously, recent events in Afghanistan, are quite tragic and horrible. We'll talk about that. After that experience, it made me ask for mentally, what was I doing for the country back home? And so, the second chapter of my life was in politics, but you know, really with a stronger emphasis in state and local politics. I got to work for the governor of California specifically for five years. Jerry, yes, great way for Jerry Brown, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, so that the current governor of California, the previous governor of California, and which, for me was fascinating, because when Jerry Brown was governor, California, in the 70s, and early 80s, my parents arrived here. So it was so fascinating that their son could be advising the governor of California, the same governor, who was governor when they landed. So, think about that, from that, you know, the world is an interesting circle. And I was really proud of the work that I got to do in California, as you know, I mean, California, you know, covers some really interesting issues and technology and innovation.

Ari Gronich

5:53

California is crazy state.

Jeff Le

5:55

There's a lot of stuff to talk about, right? Fires, floods, you know, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, I mean, your amens, I mean, there's so much stuff that comes from there. And also what's not talked about the largest veteran community in the country, and 30 military installations that are sort of the backbone for our efforts in the Pacific, not talked about, but it's very important. Think about not just from a national security perspective, but also from a local economy perspective, having those installations there, those work I really got to work in really proud of. And now in this phase, I work in technology. And I'm really focused right now on housing, and really focused on reducing barriers for people to get to affordable safe housing, at a time where you have potentially millions of people being evicted, through no fault of their own. So, you know, for me, my goals have really been focused on trying to support empower the most marginalized at a time where the haves and have nots grow, what can we be doing to be smart and thoughtful about this, and not throw the baby with the bath wash.

Ari Gronich

7:09

Absolutely. So let's start to unpack some of this stuff a little bit. We're gonna go back, I actually I had a girlfriend. Long time ago, she had a tattoo on her butt that looked like a shipping label. It's said made in Vietnam. She had been a refugee who had escaped on a boat, like a rowboat, almost to Thailand. And so I find that interesting, because I know what it's like what it was like for her parents, who did the escaping, you know, and all of that what they faced and possibilities that they faced in order to escape a place. And where I'm going to draw the parallel in a minute is not necessarily to the Vietnam, but it's to Afghanistan, and all the refugees that are being forced, you know, to leave their home. And so, we'll draw that parallel as well. But what I want to get to at the first is, is that eight-year-old boy, who is being aware of the fact that your equality is not necessarily equal in the eyes of the people. So, I want to just kind of unpack this this one little bit for a second, let's talk about equality. And if there should even be anything called equality, and if so, what would it look like to you? So, let's just.

Jeff Le

8:49

Yeah, it's funny. So, under the law, there is supposed to be equality, right? In society, that's certainly not necessarily the case. There is something very important which is equity. Equity is important. Yes. Equanimity too. Those two concepts are very important. And so, I believe in equality of, there's an equality of opportunity and potential. Outcomes are different. Outcomes or outcomes. But we also must acknowledge that, there are some folks that are born on third base. There are some folks that are born on first base, and there are some folks that are selling hotdogs in the stands. It's it is different. And so, where you start does affect how you play the game. Right? Like if you're playing Monopoly and you got Boardwalk and Park Place to Start, it probably affects the way you probably can maneuverer. And I can tell you that my you know, my parents coming to the United States with nothing, I can't say we had Boardwalk and Park Place. I think we were just happy to have it. Have a token on the board. Right, we're happy to be here. And very much at least in an Asian American Pacific Islander angle, particularly Vietnamese American one, there's one very much filled with gratitude, a gratitude that we get to be here and that we get to chase, the thing that you and I have talked about, which is the American dream. The American Dream, though, isn't the dream for your parents, the American Dream is the possibilities for your children. That's what that is. Because, you know, very few, you know, these refugees you cited and Afghanistan, they're here are like being resettled. They are not going to be the direct beneficiaries of the American experience and the opportunities here; their kids will be. That is the American dream. The parents will have to live with the trauma of what they lost and what they'll never get back. And I know we discussed like, oh, how lucky these Afghans are to make it. The survivor's guilt. That's real. And they're separated from their family, their friends, their loved ones, everything they've ever known. So, they're always going to be knothole. So, I think there's this notion when we talk in society about like, oh, these refugees are taking advantage of things. Oh, they're just trying to find a way to, you know, further themselves. No, it's a last resort. It is a last resort. I mean, you think about what makes you happy? It's your community. It's the people around you. It's the sense that you're living in your skin.

Ari Gronich

11:27

You know, it’s funny to me, as you're talking, I had a thought, right? How many people do I know that I grew up with? Who have never left? The place that we grew up. Quite a few. And how difficult it is for somebody, just to willingly choose to go move somewhere, even just out of city. Not just out of state but out of city. You know, how many people do I know that have lived on the same block. You know, as their parents lived, and their grandparents lived the same block the same neighbourhoods. And when I hear somebody say, you know, these people are, they're being forced. What I want to see happen, right.

EP 73: How Mediation results greater resolution in conflicts? with Brian Frederick

The difference in perception between tearing things apart, putting things back together, and peace-making versus ripping away and how does this relate to Brian Frederick's children book.

Brian enjoys acting as a full-time mediator, mainly in commercial litigation disputes. Brian is also the owner of GetMediation and heads up the panel of mediators there.

Brian specializes in commercial disputes of all kinds, and he brings many years' practical experience to bear with a kind ear, imparting dexterity and empathy to broker effective solutions.

Brian is an accredited Mediator for Civil/Commercial and Workplace mediations. He qualified as a mediator in 2012 and has been practicing mediation ever since. Brian set up his own Commercial Mediation panel GetMediation in 2013 and is the owner and one of the senior mediators available there. GetMediation has most recently been awarded the Mediation Service of the Year Bristol 2020 prize in the Bristol Prestige Awards.

Brian believes in cost-effective dispute resolution and insists that mediators on his panel are “adept at alleviating some of the particular personal animosity and bitterness which can tend to exacerbate the legal situation in commercial disputes, and pay particular attention to focus thoughts towards costs because the parties will often have a very uncompromising adversarial attitude towards each and every point at issue.”

He is also an author of a children's book titled Ziggy loves Sausage.

Ari Gronich

0:11

Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow I am your host, Ari Gronich. Today I have with me, Brian McKibben. Brian is an attorney turned author of children's books; I'm going to let him tell you a little bit about that story of how he went from that transition. So, Brian, why don't you tell the audience a little bit about that transition of how you went from an attorney, who specializes in mediation to an author writing children's books.

Brian McKibbin

0:43

Yeah. Well, first of all, I didn't expect to take that transition. When I went to school, I was always sort of funneled into this career. And I discovered I liked being what I sort of call an anti-lawyer more than a lawyer. So that's why I became a mediator because you're trying to put people back together rather than in litigation, you're essentially you're trying to tear them apart, it's in your best interest as a lawyer to keep the fight going, because you keep getting paid. It's in the client’s best interest to settle the case because that's what they're going to do in the end. I find I didn't like fighting. I liked peace-making. And so that was a transition in my own career. And I think with that mindset, I've always wanted to be a writer. But when I was younger, I thought I would write thrillers. And I guess with that, more sort of serious adult mindset that you might say, is in the lawyer’s typical head, when I became a mediator, it's about shifting perspective. And generally, about bringing happiness. And I think that all sort of coincided them with the little thing that happened to be in locked time,

Ari Gronich

2:01

Component lock time, somebody may not know what that means.

Brian McKibbin

2:05

Sorry, that's just my accent lock time. And during the pandemic, like when we were all told to stay home, some local kids decided to cheer us up, I guess. And they would, they would ring the bell, you know, the little game children play ring the doorbell and run away. But when you came to answer the door, the first time I came was very surprising, because I looked down. And there was a little bouquet of flowers. So, they left these little flowers that they picked, and they'd, they tied them up with a bit of sort of coarse grass. And, and then they came back over a few days, and it became apparent that they wanted to play a little game and, and for me to talk to them, so I did. And then gradually, these little heads would come out from where they were hiding. And we play this game that I could pretend not to see them and still talk to them, you know as if I'm talking to thin air. And this went on for a few months. And when I was taking walks, we have some woodland behind where we live, the idea of a story came to me and so I started to write this book called Flower fairies as a result of this sort of little inciting incident. And then I got, I got a bit of writer's block. With that after a while, and luckily enough for me, one of my characters in the story had this pet accident. And one day the story about one of the adventures of the little dog came to me instead. And that one flew, I'm still writing the other book, it's still in development, I guess you'd say. But Ziggy the dachshund and was born and I've written about half a dozen of those stories now. Two of them are published, and there's a sequence ready to go. So that was the transition really, partly mindset, and then partly a little bit of luck, I guess, and a little bit of inspiration from some of the little kids that, you know, came like, like the flower fairies to deliver some flowers for us, and cheer us up.

Ari Gronich

4:13

That's actually pretty cool. I like hearing those stories of what people have done during this particular craziness, to create joy and create happiness. And so that's really cool. What I'm interested in what I talked to you about a lot in our pre-interview is the differences in perception between tearing things apart, putting things back together piece making versus, you know, ripping away and how does that relate to your book? Yes, but more importantly for me is like let's dive deep into the perceptions and the things that people, you know, get benefit from in this time of like, the world feels like it's being torn apart and has been brought together. So

Brian McKibbin

5:12

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fighters in there. When you're a litigation attorney, as I said before, you know that the profit motive is always there. So, when you talk to a client, they have a dispute, you're always telling them about a, a kind of fictitious best-case scenario, you know, ultimately, that that's why there's so many, you know, Court steps settlements because it's only in tacouple of days before the trial that your lawyer starts to level with you. And then everyone's disappointed to find that they're not going to score, you know, 100 nil here, that there's going to be a compromise. And I think, you know, the way that the world it feels at the moment as a wee bit like that, where there's just so much angst and so many people seeing so many things that aren't, you know, that aren't true or aren't verifiably true, and there's a lot of disinformation. And I think people are probably quiet, I know, I am quite anangst ridden at times, when I'm watching the news. In mediation, if I was, if I was sort of mediating that kind of situation, it's, it's about trying to change your headspace, and have a different perspective on things. And a little bit like in the books, to find that little bit of joy somewhere, because it's always there. It just depends hon ow you think about a particular event. I mean, obviously, there can be just events where it's a complete catastrophe. So, I'm not really talking about something that, you know, like a bereavement perhaps, or something like that, but something that's made you angry, is something that you can choose, you can choose your reaction you can choose if you're going to go apoplectic, and then start yelling at the television and throwing things at it. Or you can just let it be. And, you know, and get on with your life, you know, in disputes. That's, that's a picture that I try and paint for my clients that if they can,if they can reconcile the anger that they're feeling with a different perception of what could happen later today,when they walk out of the door with like, the rancor and fight the weight of this dispute. Doesn't the second thing feel better? You know, being able to go on with your precious life, because it's finite. And, you know, how many days more, are you going to waste months for years and money.

Ari Gronich

7:48

Let me see, let me take you to a dark place. Okay, let's take you to a dark place. This is something that has been going on for centuries. Sure. And I'll give you a little background. So, I had a roommate, who was a Palestinian Muslim, and she was like my sister, I'm Jewish. She and I would have amazing conversations, we would get into the meat and deep and dark and dirty and in the conflict, right? But we had the perspective of you're my sister, I'm your brother. And no matter what we say here, right, we will always be connected that way. And so, we had a way of speaking to each other that was kind and yet forceful in our own belief system. So, we were able to get these things out. So, my question to you would be, let's go to that kind of a big picture if you were mediating the, you know, Palestinian Israeli conflict, right, something that's been going on for decades, that nobody seems to have been able to get through. And I'm saying this because I didn't want to talk. I don't want to say mask versus not mask or Vax versus faxed, right. COVID versus not COVID conspiracy versus, you know, the industry is aamazing you know, perfect and would never try to hurt you. I'm not talking about the really deep stuff. I'm talking about just this conflict.

Brian McKibbin

9:26

Yeah, just this little conflict.

Ari Gronich<

EP 72 : Overcome Challenging Behaviors with Emotional Resilience with Jodi Woelkerling

Jodi Woelkerling is a Leadership & Executive Coach & Trainer who specializes in assisting individuals & workplaces to better manage & overcome stress and its effects. Jodi is the owner of Jodi Woelkerling Enterprises where she coaches people on how to be resilient leaders. Jodi is also the author of World Class Leadership. Jodi is passionate about using her knowledge and experience to assist businesses to build an enduring resilient culture at the whole culture level, the various levels of leadership within the business and at the individual level, so that the business as a whole and the individuals within the business can experience the enormous benefits of an enduring resilient culture.

Highlight the emotional resilience required to use and embrace your strengths and effectively manage challenging behaviors.

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Ari Gronich

0:03

Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow I am your host Ari Gronich. And today I have with me Jodie W. Jodie is a resilience expert and yes, I said W cuz I cannot pronounce this wonderful Australian last name. She's a resilience expert and is really fascinated with teaching others how to experience a resilient life. So, Jodi, I'm going to let you tell a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do and why you do it. And let's let the audience know, what is it about resilience that makes you tick?

Jodi Woelkerling

0:42

Yep. Beautiful. Thank you for having me on Ari. So what I focus on, as I said, as you said, is resilience. So that's resilience from people building their own resilience. And it's also from leaders building their own resilience, but also leading in a way that…

Ari Gronich

1:00

Let's define resilience for a second.

Jodi Woelkerling

1:03

Cool, cool, cool. So I look at resilience in two kind of ways. So the first way is as much as possible, staying calm, when things happen in your life. So we're talking about kids a minute or two ago. So just say that the kids are fighting, you're trying to get ready for work, but they're fighting in to get food organized, or whatever. So there's certain stressors in life as much as possible, staying in that state of calm, and there's various things you can do to help facilitate that. But the reality is, we're all human. And very few people on the planet live in a state of Zen, 24, seven. So the other side of it is when we are actually feeling stressed and resilience is being tested, recognizing that sooner rather than later, and bringing ourselves back to a calm state as quickly as possible, because that second side recognizing it and then bring back to calm is..yeah, critical. critical turning point, yeah.

Ari Gronich

2:17

Okay. So why do you think people should be more aware of how resilience works in their own lives? And, you know, both personal business social, but what do you think? Why do you think it's important for people even recognize whether they're resilient or not?

Jodi Woelkerling

2:33

Yep, absolutely. So there's a couple of different reasons why it's really, really important to start with, it's linked with a lot of health issues. Webmd.com, I think said between 70 and 95% of doctor's visits per hour, I'd have to verify that, but I'm pretty sure it was between 70 and 95. They said doctor's visits are somehow related to stress. So that's either directly like pester does to the doctor says I'm stressed, can you help me or indirect because there's a lot of long term and I'm not medical qualified, but so please don't take this as advice. But there are a lot of long term health issues with being in a state of stress, because the state of stress changes things physiologically in it. So things like blood flow to the to the, the core organs, doesn't go as well, because if we're living in that stress state, we're living in fight or flight, the blood flow goes to the extremities, so and there's a whole lot of other physiological feeds. So…

Ari Gronich

3:39

Hold on a second. So it sounds like you're talking about emotional resilience as the only form of resilience that we're talking about in this context, so I just want to I want to make sure that I'm being correct. Are we only talking about emotional resilience? Are we talking about physical resilience, financial resilience, we're talking about other forms of resilience?

Jodi Woelkerling

4:03

Okay, it's a good it's a good question. So my focus you've correctly picked is more on the emotional resilience. But things like you said financial resilience, making sure you've got like a buffer that you can fall back on, if things go bad, that sort of stuff. Yes, does is important. And strangely enough, they're all kind of intermingled. So if you have resiliency built into your relationships in your life, it means that you handle stressors in your life better and there's probably not as many stressors so yeah, but you're definitely picked it definitely my focus is more emotional resilience.

Ari Gronich

4:41

Okay, so so let's get really deep and dark into the dirt of resilience, emotional resilience. So let's just go through a mass of litany of traumas that are possible, right betrayal, sexual abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, feeling not worthy, shame, right? All these things. So what benefit to those things? Does being resilient have?

Jodi Woelkerling

5:17

So questionnaires Are you talking about when those events are happening? Are you are you talking about the effect of those events on your life?

Ari Gronich

5:26

All of the above, right? So you have an events, you have something everybody's had a series of something that's occurred to them in life, right? And I guess what, what we're talking about is the benefit of having a resilient emotional outlook. So you said we're talking about emotional resilience. And I like to make sure that the audience has actionable things, right, that they can do when they leave for that. So I want to be just really clear and go down into the dirt of the matter. So when is resilience important? It's To me, it's not important. If everything is going well, in life, right? resilience is not as important if everything is going a Okay, it's only really important when we're challenged. And so that's what I'm getting to you is what are the benefits of resilience? In your personal your life? Right? When you've had all of these tragedies, all these experiences of life?

Jodi Woelkerling

6:27

Yep. So if I go back to why is it important, so I talked about the health stuff, it also has a big impact on how we function intellectually. So one of the physiological things, when we're feeling stressed is the thinking part of our brain doesn't function as well. So having resilience and being able to stay calm, to draw back to you in the moment, something's happening, how do I was an advantage is in the moment, if you are feeling stressed, the functioning part of your thinking part of the brain is impaired. So that is often when people make decisions that may not be for their best. And they also may do things like I don't know, just say that there's a there's a stress at work, they may act and yell at somebody at work or act in a way that they would prefer not to, because they're acting out of that emotional state. So in the moment, it's important because it's keeping you more in that logical state, and you are more likely to respond in a way that is better for you. short and long term. Does that answer your question?

Ari Gronich

7:43

So, I'm gonna just break down your answer and physiological terms a little bit, right? So stress triggers your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system to go into fight or flight. When you're in fight or flight, all of the blood goes from the main part of your organs into your extremities, so that you can run so that you can flee so that you can do something other than or stop other than processing food, processing nutrients, you're not doing any of that stuff, you're no longer processing and your organs, you're literally in fight or flight. When you're in that state. At a regular chronic level, you become in chronic pain you be you begin to develop chronic stress levels, you're talking about resilience as a mediating factor to the stress levels, right? So the resilience emotional resilience is techniques and tools that you could use to I would imagine to breathe to meditate to do things to calm that central nervous system so that you're not in fight or flight Am I correct it all the things that I've said so far translate words. Am I anything.

Jodi Woelkerling

9:01

What I'm going to do with your permission is break it down a little bit more and talk about how I work with pe

EP 71: Beneath the Surface of China's Politics with Jason Szeftel

Here with us today is Jason Szeftel. He is an expert with China politics. Listen how we tackle issues regarding force labor and many more.

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Ari Gronich

0:25

Welcome back to another episode of creating a new tomorrow. I'm your host, Ari Gronich. And today I have with me Jason Szeftel. Jason is an expert in China politics. He is a writer, a podcaster, and a consultant. He's been in the world of sustainability. And I'm really excited to have a conversation with him about all of that, because, you know, this world we're living in is changing. And we are creating a new tomorrow today and activating our vision for a better world. And Jason might have some good ways for you to do that. And, you know, relationships with the rest of the world. Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason Szeftel

1:45

Thanks, Ari. I'm glad to be here.

Ari Gronich

1:49

Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got started in, in the relationship with China, and some of your sustainability and those kinds of things. your background?

Jason Szeftel

2:02

Yeah, sure. My China angle for me goes back a long time, probably around 20 years. But I was really, really got interested in China around when 911 and the Iraq war. And all of that really started. That was very curious about not even curious, I was kind of worried and curious and tense and nervous, wondering what was going on in the world, are we going to see with China, the same sort of bizarre miscalculations and hysterical reactions we saw with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then here we are 20 years later, and we've kind of fled with our tail tucked between our legs. And over that time, I just wanted to learn what was really going on in China, what the country was really about what to do with a country that's so large and complex. And we had to understand we have to really understand it, if you want to have any sort of way to get our hands around where it's going and where it comes from. Really. And then yeah, so I started I went, I learned Chinese. In college, I got a scholarship to study in China, in Beijing, at Beijing University. There, I learned about various systems. Actually, that's where a lot of the sustainability stuff came in. I was really interested early on, in how are we developing the world today? How, what systems what electrical types of systems are we building, sustainable water systems, transportation systems, all of this. And when I was actually in China, I was studying their transportation networks, agricultural systems, their demography, all of those inputs that kind of give us the societies that we live in. I was just very curious where that was going. And yeah, at the time, that was the, you know, 2010 to 2015, I was in and out of China, most of the time. And that was where that was kind of the heyday for me of sustainability, and what kind of sustainable future we were going to build. And I actually learned a lot of things that kind of set me against a lot of the mainstream about how would we would get that done? And what would work and what wouldn't work? And yeah, so I've just been kind of putting some pieces together, trying to figure out what could work and what we could do, and then trying to share it with people.

Ari Gronich

4:00

Awesome. So you know, this show is all about going against the mainstream. So let's talk about a little bit of what the mainstream solutions are. And what you've found, are the flaws in those systems, and you know, how they can be improved?

Jason Szeftel

4:17

Sure, well, right now, the two main systems from a sort of renewable energy perspective, it could just take this sort of green energy, which is very important, since the Industrial Revolution, you need energy to run society to run any of these civilizations, any of these industrial systems. And we've typically ran on fossil fuels, coal, oil, natural gas, and everyone, every where's talking about how we're going to get rid of them. And the main two that we've come up with are basically wind turbines, wind energy, and then solar energy with solar panels. And these two things are awesome. I have nothing against them. I think they're very cool. But the issue is that most of the world, the vast majority of the world does not have the solar irradiation you need or the wind speed, height and consistency that you need to have panels, I mean startup panels or turbines running. So if you sort of map it out, and you look at the sort of places where you have the right solar conditions, or at certain conditions that radiation you need, or the right wind conditions, to a very small percentage of the world. And you if you put that next to the places that have the population centers nearby, it's tough otherwise, you have to build very, very large transmission systems. And in the United States, for example, it's very tough to build a single transmission line, it can take decades, it can take 10,15 years. And so, red tape, but a lot of things, it could be environmental things, you could be crossing a lot of preserve, you know, sort of habitats that need to be preserved or endangered species, it can cross through tribal lands, red tape, and then yeah, and then there's increasing backlash from a lot of rural areas. So in California, the two oldest areas for one of the tools areas for wind and solar energy is near Palm Springs. And people in Palm Springs now see a lot of the solar and wind energy production as almost industrializing the landscape. So they don't want to see wind turbines, as far as the eye can see that I want solar panels on all land surrounding them. And it's a real challenge. So that's particularly on the left, where there's so much investment in these two technologies, there's ever more competing interests. And it's interesting that these are both environmental versus environmental, environmental versus humanitarian, environmental versus sometimes racial or other other justice issues.

Ari Gronich

6:38

So when it comes to those two, right, we're not talking about something that I've thought of as a great source of energy for years, which is wave energy, right, the flowing of waves, so they're constantly coming into shore, there is a way to harness that energy, right. But we're not talking about that as far as like a main kind of energy source. The other thing that comes to mind with regards to things like the wind turbines, right, I remember reading, this is maybe 12, 13 years ago, and a Popular Science magazine was a wind turbine that was horizontal. So instead of vertically spinning, it's been horizontal and spun on basically a fulcrum. So there was very little resistance. So it was like a three mile per hour breeze that would cause it to generate energy, which is almost nothing and can be found almost everywhere. Yet, those kinds of newer forms of the old technology still aren't being adopted, right? The solar panels are just starting to undergo transformation in their technology as well. To make you know them less expensive. So here's my question, the point of that rant is, when it comes to these things, how quickly can we move with technology if we got out of our own way, rather than holding technology back due to money concerns and other things like that?

Jason Szeftel

8:31

Yeah, it's an open question. But even you bring up a really good point, that there are different styles of these sorts of technologies, and some of them aren't being considered as much. A big reason why is that? It's a question of scale, and centralization, and a lot of ways. So the large solar and wind companies are just as invested in controlling these resources as a typical fossil fuel company, oil company is. So they want to build giant wind farms. And giant solar farms. Because it gives you scale, it gives you a large size. They're not as interested in doing small micro local sorts of things. There's a big battle going on between should we have giant, giant transmission lines all over the world and all over the country in sort of take advantage of the great wind corridors in the center of the country and sort of shift the energy out, you know, and take advantage of, you know, the Southwest, the United States for solar, or should we try and do this in a more diffuse distributed way, where you have little, little power plants everywhere? I mean that's a big question. Yeah, I mean, that's just one of the things we always got to remember. It's trillions of dollars to replace the grid. And it brings up real questions about reliability, about who runs it, how the systems work, because they're not meant for solar panels on every house. That's not how they're designed. And we'll see where it goes. But you also bring up the question of the tech, the actual, how far can we go? With the technologies we have and so, on solar panels, there's about there's an efficiency threshold, we really not gonna be able to go beyond it. But it's very good, I mean, it's very good. And then with wind turbines, you're sort of what they've decided to do is just go for bigger and bigger turbines, they're not really changing, like, the arrangement of them, they really just want them huge. I mean, I think they're multiple football fields long at this point. And that's also really good for the companies. Companies like vest das in Europe, the manufacturers, these because no one is gonna come at you, if you manage. If you're manufacturing things that big. It's, there's very few companies that can do it. The other questio