Action's Antidotes

There are numerous essential needs that are important for human well-being, but one key component that is often overlooked is play. Unfortunately, play is frequently viewed as a silly activity that detracts from "serious" work. However, what if we were to reframe our understanding of work and recognize the potential benefits of play in enhancing our productivity and creativity?

In this episode, BoredLess Founder Acey Holmes joins us to bring the play to the table.  Acey shares with us the importance of play, and how it can positively impact our personal and professional lives. By incorporating more play into our lives, we may be able to unlock new levels of innovation, fulfillment, and joy.

Whether you are a busy professional or an individual seeking greater fulfillment and joy, this episode has something to offer you. Tune in to learn more.

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The Surprising Power of Play with Acey Holmes

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I want to talk to you about a topic that we have yet to cover on the first 82 episodes of this particular podcast series and that is play because a lot of times we’re talking about personal improvement, how do we get better, how do we achieve the life that we want, but there are other essential human needs and I’ve talked a lot about community, I’ve talked a lot about mental health, and one key component of that actually is play and so my guest today, Acey Holmes, the founder of BoredLess, is bringing play to all of our workplaces and all of our lives.

 

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Acey, welcome to the program.

 

Thank you for having me, Stephen.

 

Thank you. So, Acey, what inspired you to make play your pursuit?

 

So, during the pandemic, doesn’t every story these days start that way? 

 

Lately, yeah.

 

Yeah. I was the clinical full-time practicing pediatric speech language pathologist and, of course, schools and therapy, everything got shut down and after that happened for a while and then longer and longer, administrators and bureaucrats started talking about, “Oh, what are we gonna do to catch the children up?” and they were pitching longer school days and extra summer school and who needs breaks, etc., and so everyone in my field, and we all start digging up all of the research. No, absolutely, that’s the opposite of the answer. Lots of people doing really great work for that and making the point of play is how children will learn. As I was studying this and going through it and reading more and more and more research and realizing that I hadn’t really been learning myself for quite a while and I wasn’t that connected and engaged with my own work that I used to love and I was seeing that story happen with a lot of my friends and colleagues and family and wondered if any of that research about play and the wonders of play, the benefits of learning and growth and development would apply to adults and it does exponentially. So, decided to take the left turn away from kind of the pediatric world because there are definitely people out there already working to bring play to adults but not enough so I wanted to add to that pot.

 

Now, who are the people that are already working to bring play to adults? Because I doubt that many people have actually heard of it, given what adults are encouraged to do on a day-to-day basis in the modern world?

 

Yeah, absolutely. Consultants, global international consultants, they all kind of have their own niche topic but it’s all based around play so Mike Montague, Gary Weir, Dr. Mike Rucker just released a book called The Fun Habit. Jeff Harry, a lot of folks are working in the realm of helping parents understand play and how they can benefit themselves as well as their children, like Laura Haver and Sharon Calderon. We’re kind of all over the place. And then even in Denver, we have --- so we are both in the Denver area so even in Denver loc...

Have you ever observed individuals dancing without any audible music but sporting illuminated headphones? If so, you have witnessed a silent disco, which has been in existence for a while and is now gaining popularity. By donning headphones, one can concentrate on the music and enjoy a high-quality experience. How will this silent disco have the time of your life at your next event?

In this unique episode, we are joined by the esteemed Founder & CEO of CiferNoise Productions, Jason Gorley, who shares his insightful thoughts on silent disco. He navigates through the potential of this innovative technology, providing a brief historical background, and highlighting how it creates a distinct connection among people through the power of music. 

Tune in to discover the many dimensions of silent disco and how it is transforming the way we experience music.

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Exploring the World of Silent Disco with Jason Gorley

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. For most of my life, I’ve had these competing pursuits of wanting to kind of foster people’s individuality but also build community at the same time and one of the problems I encountered was I’d always thought of these particular pursuits as competing with one another, you’re either becoming more close but becoming less individual or going in the opposite direction. My guest today is Jason Gorley of CiferNoise Productions and what they do is they do silent discos, which is one of the areas where I’ve seen people allow people to have an individual experience while also coming together.

 

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Jason, welcome to the program.

 

Hey, thanks for having me.

 

Yeah, no problem. Yeah, thank you for coming on. Yeah, describe the silent disco experience and what motivated you to kind of bring this into the world.

 

Thanks for asking. A lot of things motivated me to bring this into the world but let’s start with silence disco is it’s a unique experience that anyone can travel down with headphones but also, it’s not just wearing headphones, it’s having the options to choose what you’re listening to at a particular event. So, silent disco can have three all the way up to ten channels and each channel can be curated in a way to fit the demographic that is present within your event or any pop-up in general. You could do multiple things from movie nights to conferences to regular parties and it’s just a different way of replacing speakers and creating more of an immersive experience with your ears. How I got into it, I went to a school that partied a lot and I loved throwing parties. University of Arizona, bear down.

 

Oh, yeah, that is known for its party atmosphere, for sure.

 

Yeah, yeah, we do party a lot down there, especially those who don’t even go to college. I always had a knack of wanting to bring people together.

The greatest thing is just watching people smile after they leave your events.

I’ve always been a people person or gathering people together and putting them in little areas for them to hang out in. So, when I got into my adulthood life, more 30s, leaving the telecom industry, I wanted to find something more invigorating, I guess one would say, and I tell people I got into this on a push from an ex-girlfriend and a cover letter. So that’s a really good punch line.

 

A push from an ex-girlfriend, and a cover letter. Now, I don’t know about anyone listening but I usually don’t think of cover letters as leading to anything fun. It’s one of the BS processes, or parts of the job finding process so you have to tell me about how an ex-girlfriend push and a cover letter brought you too silent disco.

 

Yeah, just like everything else in this world, you got to start from the bottom. I guess during that time in my life and it’s starting to get more look far off in the past, yeah, she was the one that encouraged me to or pushed me to be like,

Your emotional intelligence helps you separate your personal life from your work life, allowing you to concentrate on your tasks. This is called compartmentalization, which is a way our brain manages multiple conflicting perspectives at the same time. But, to what degree do you engage in compartmentalization? Or in other words, do you categorize things to make sense of them?

Join me for a fascinating conversation with Mary Meduna-Gross, Ph.D., the founder of Blue Bamboo Leadership. With a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Indiana State University, Mary is a seasoned expert in the field of leadership development. Mary shares her insights on how to overcome anxiety and make better decisions in less time, by improving relationships and breaking down internal barriers. 

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the leading voices in leadership development!

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Achieving Mental Resilience with Mary Meduna-Gross, Ph.D.

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote for the mindset that keeps you settling for less. One thing a lot of us tend to do is really compartmentalize our lives and this kind of goes back to some of the old school work cultures we used to have where this time of day, you’re working, this time of day, you’re taking care of this stuff, this time of day, you’re taking care of that, and we tend to do the same thing with our initiatives, with our mindset on everything. Your work is here, your business is here, your social life is here, your whatever else is important to you in your life is over there. However, unfortunately, or fortunately for a lot of people because it can actually expedite some of the improvements we want to make into all of our lives, they are very well connected. The idea of leave it at the door when you come into work, leave your personal life at the door, that is quite possibly one of the 20th century’s most unrealistic ideas. My guest today, Mary Meduna-Gross, has a business called Blue Bamboo Leadership where she advocates to her clients that we actually take care of ourselves in order to take care of our business as well as some other kind of personal initiative.

 

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Mary, welcome to the program.

 

Thank you. It’s so great to be here. I’m really looking forward to this, particularly this topic about compartmentalizing. It’s something that I am personally well aware of my own habits to compartmentalize and it’s often a topic that comes up in my coaching with my clients.

 

So what I want to do is get to the beginning of this. Where does this urge to compartmentalize our lives come from in your belief?

 

Yeah. Oh, I love that question. Well, literally just before this call, a client and I were having this conversation. We were talking about it. And based on what that part and my own experience, I think that compartmentalizing is one way that we control our experience. I love systems. I just love it. Like if I could put everything on automation, I probably would. I think that is compartmentalizing to the 10th, maybe even 11th degree. But I think we do that as a way, again, to control what is happening. When our work life and our personal life and our relationships and Lord knows if we have kids or pets or anything else, like things just get muddied, and so by compartmentalizing, I get to say, “Okay, I’m gonna just focus on this right now and nothing else matters, and then when I get to my home life, I’m just focusing on this now and nothing else matters.” We literally can’t function that way.

 

Yeah, but is there an advantage to having that level of focus? Because it is really hard to really get anything done when your mind is everywhere all at once.

 

Yeah. I think it’s the middle way again. There’s the everything is automated and just happens on a routine, and the other side of that is nothing’s automated and we’re recreating everything every single day. We can’t live like that either. 

 

Yeah.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have subsided in some countries, but the "great resignation" trend is still causing major staffing and hiring difficulties for many companies. Matching employees with the right job can bring about numerous benefits, including increased motivation. What are the effective ways for businesses to connect with job candidates during the hiring process?

Join me as I sit down with Metier Executive Management Co-Founder, Andrea Berkholtz. She is an expert in finding exceptional jobs for exceptional people. With her skills in interpersonal and social skills, Andrea has helped both clients and candidates find the perfect match for the position, salary, and company culture.

Whether you are looking to build the perfect team for your company, this podcast has something to offer you.

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Hiring Process and Matchmaking in the Workplace with Andrea Berkholtz

Welcome to Actions Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. One of the most interesting things about our current time is that we live in a world that’s more connected than ever yet making those connections seems harder than ever before. The internet connected everyone to everything but anyone that’s tried to find some of the staples of life, a job, a romantic partner, even friendships and certain experiences, knows that sometimes this overload of different options out there has created a challenge for a lot of people, especially people who don’t know exactly what they want. My guest today, Andrea Berkholtz is an executive recruiter for a lot of small businesses and startups with her company, Metier Executive Management.

 

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Andrea, welcome to the program. 

 

Hi, how you doin’? 

 

Good, and I hope I said that right. As someone who speaks English and some Spanish, the French phrase, metier, can sometimes trip me up so hopefully I got it right. 

 

You know, you’re not alone in that. When we originally started our company, the idea was Metier is a French word that means the occupation that one was born to do or excels and it’s the perfect word for what we’re doing but it does sometimes trip people up a little with pronunciation. So, I have no problem with however it gets said, it gets said. 

 

Yeah, but metier is like an important aspect of your business, right? I mean, it’s like what you’re actually trying to do. 

 

We help build tech teams for startups. So, for us, it was a word that really translated what we do, which is we are looking to find the right perfect people who were born to do that role that these companies are looking for. 

 

What goes wrong in a lot of these recruiting processes with the record lengths of time and number of applications it takes people to find a job and still get people, in a lot of situations, not satisfied with their hires, a lot of turnovers, a lot of things that don’t work out?

 

Sure. I mean, there’s a lot of ways that the process can go awry.

There’s essentially three people involved in this decision making process, it’s myself, the candidate, and the client, and there has to be a perfect fit between the two to really make things work.

So a lot of times, perhaps, if the client takes a bit too long to get back to me with feedback, then the candidates can sometimes feel ignored or they’re more in the hot of the moment, like they need the job now so they need answers now so, sometimes, that’s something that happens quite frequently is a lack of communication, I suppose, on expected timelines. So, we’re always trying to make that really clear for all parties when we start a project together, but that’s definitely one of the things that pops up. 

 

Yeah, so there’s like a timing mismatch. And one of the things as someone who’s done a good amount of job searching in my time, every company acts differently. One, you’ll hear from 15 minutes after the end of the interview was the most extreme example ...

The belief that young people have the potential to achieve great things is the foundation of empowering youth. By providing access to inspiring experiences and resources, as well as building their self-assurance, young people can accomplish anything they set their minds to.

In this episode, MBSB Coaching CEO Kurt Ogbewele joins us to share his journey of empowering and inspiring young people to reach their full potential. As someone who has dedicated his career to providing guidance, mentorship, and skill-building opportunities to youth, Kurt has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share on how we can all support the next generation. 

Through all of his experience, Kurt created Mind, Body, Spirit is your Business (MBSB) to give youth resources that create opportunities. MBSB offers a wide range of services, including training in basketball, music, acting, teaching, and coaching, as well as access to professional speakers and basketball players who can inspire and mentor youth as they work to become experts in their chosen fields.

Tune in to hear Kurt's inspiring story and learn practical strategies for how you can help young people and youth in your community. 

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Empowering the Next Generation with Kurt Ogbewele

Welcome to Actions Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today’s youth really need some encouragement. I was actually at a church a couple hours away in a small town community church this past Sunday and I heard the story a woman told me about how her teenage son had already lost seven of his friends to suicide, which is a really, really disturbing thing to hear and something that is even more disturbing when I think about this kind of desperation happening in many different places all across the country and all across the world. My guest today, Kurt Ogbewele, is a coach that is actually helping bring a lot of hope to our youth today with his business, MBSB Coaching.

 

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Kurt, welcome to the program.

 

Steven, thank you so much, man, I appreciate you for having me. Thank you.

 

Well, thank you because this is something that I obviously care about quite a bit, hoping that my upcoming screen time reduction initiative helps relieve some of the pressure and some of the forces that is driving some of our youth to some of these bad places in life away and I know you’re helping the youth get some kind of encouragement for the things that they’re interested in, the things that they want to pursue. And I know that starts from your own story. You have your own story where you needed some encouragement in your youth. Let’s begin with that. You had a pretty sizable family and some turmoil, from what I’ve read, but I’ll let you tell it yourself.

 

Steven, thank you again for having me. Yeah, guys, my name is Kurt Ogbewele, from Brooklyn, New York. Huge family. Dad’s from Nigeria, my mother’s from Trinidad and Tobago. At a young age, we did experience the system. We’re broken up in foster homes and also group homes and reform schools and the whole nine yards and, from that standpoint on, I was able to live with my dad and my older brother. So that right there was a struggle for itself just because I didn’t have a relationship with my dad and living under his system of the household was a challenge because that was something I was not used to. And, for me, I picked up a passion for playing basketball probably around 9 and 10 years old. So my dad, being from his native country, which is Nigeria, basketball, any sports was not a priority, education was, and me being a generation growing up in America, sports can be a number one priority because it can allow you to be able to pay for college and so forth. So, moving forward, I was able to make it to graduation and, from that standpoint on, I knew that I wanted to continue to play basketball so I decided to move back home in Brooklyn, New York,

Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation where you feel like you've hit a dead end and don't know how to move forward? Maybe something isn't going as planned or you're struggling to make progress. It can be confusing and overwhelming to navigate this kind of uncertainty.

Join me as I sit down with Anjali Konojia, an expert in spiritual growth and personal development. In this episode, we explore the benefits of immersive spiritual experiences and how they can help us to reevaluate our lives and make positive changes. Anjali shares her unique approach, which combines travel, yoga, and spiritual practices, to guide individuals on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth. 

Whether you're seeking new perspectives or looking to break out of patterns of stagnation, this episode is sure to provide valuable insights and inspiration.

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Unlocking Your Potential: Guide to Immersive Spiritual Transformation with Anjali Konojia

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I want to talk to you about connection because it’s ironic that, in the modern world, we have the most devices, the most means in which to connect, yet we’ve created a system where it is harder to connect with people, connect with others as well as connect with ourselves than it seems like it’s ever been before. My guest today, Ashton August, her business, YouAligned, helps you connect with yourself so you can better connect with others and it incorporates so many aspects of what we all need to do in this particular period of time to have a better image of ourselves and a better connection with who we are and become better aligned with what we want our lives to be.

 

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Anjali, welcome to the program.

 

Namaste. Thank you for having me.

 

For anyone that’s not familiar with everything about yoga, what does namaste, which I think is the first word anyone thinks about when they think about yoga, actually mean?

 

Really good question. Namaste has taken a life of its own but namaste literally means “I bow down to the goodness or the divine in you” so just recognizing that we all have that same potential within us, recognizing that potential in the other person. So just a little bit of humbleness to show the life that is in front of us when we bow down and say namaste.

 

When you say namaste, so that’s what anyone that’s heard this now can start thinking about whenever they hear or see the phrase namaste.

 

Absolutely.

 

Anjali, your program is called Travel to Transform. It’s in June 2023, 2023 is this year because it’s now January at this recording, and it’s like a two-and-a-half-week immersive experience.

 

Well, when I was part of the university, the higher education system, I’ve taken trips with alumni, I’ve taken trips with students, graduate students, people doing research, and not just to India but actually one of the most fantastic in terms of fulfilling trips I’ve taken is to Greece, I took a group of premed students and we worked in the refugee camps, offering some of these yoga services. Yoga entails meditation and breathing exercises as well as well as physical postures. So a lot of these folks, of course, unfortunately, have ended up on the Greek Isles from many different places being displaced. Many, if not most, are experiencing a lot of mental health issues so that has been one of the most dependent highlights in terms of taking such an immersive trip, going to help people, contributing something positive towards their life. So what is Travel to Transform? So this time around, I want to take people to India, to the Himalayas. Why? And I think you and I have a little bit of this in common, we’re interested in health, right? Mental health, physical health. This becomes extremely important in this time when some kind of consider the pandemic to be kind of sort of over,

Self-care doesn't just involve sitting around doing nothing. Listening to one's own thoughts, absorbing, and analyzing all that occurred during the day are all parts of spending time with yourself. 

In a day with 24 hours, we spend about 15 of them awake after deducting the hours we sleep. How much of it are we spending with ourselves? And what value do we place on ourselves?

In this week's episode, YouAligned Founder and Content Director Ashton August delves us into mindfulness; taking charge of your mental health and well-being. 

YouAligned  is a resource to promote wellness of the mind, body, and spirit. Their mission is to provide insightful, motivating, and unique content on a wide range of topics such as wellness, spirituality, yoga philosophy, and more.

Listen to this podcast and develop a more positive mindset so you can truly thrive.

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Mindfulness: How to Connect with Yourself and to Others with Ashton August

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I want to talk to you about connection because it’s ironic that, in the modern world, we have the most devices, the most means in which to connect, yet we’ve created a system where it is harder to connect with people, connect with others as well as connect with ourselves than it seems like it’s ever been before. My guest today, Ashton August, her business, YouAligned, helps you connect with yourself so you can better connect with others and it incorporates so many aspects of what we all need to do in this particular period of time to have a better image of ourselves and a better connection with who we are and become better aligned with what we want our lives to be.

 

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Ashton, welcome to the program. 

 

Hello, thank you so much for having me, Stephen. I’ve been looking forward to our conversation today. 

 

I always love connecting people with this health and wellness sector because it is such an important focus right now, especially because I believe we are in a mental health crisis society wide right now and that we need any of these tools that we can get in order to just become better connected and better accepting of ourselves. 

 

Well said and I am in full agreement with you. As a mental wellness advocate, I cannot emphasize enough how important our self-care as a means for supporting our mental health is and, you said it, unfortunately, it’s so true that, I agree, we are in a state of mental health crisis.

 

So, currently, right now, and we’re recording at the end of 2022, beginning of Sagittarius season, which we’ll probably get into later, me being a Sagittarius myself, but currently at the end of 2022, what is the main thing keeping people from being mentally well, being aligned with themselves?

 

I think that we are still rubbing up against the problem that we’ve had as a society for quite some time, which is this glorification of the hustle mentality. So even though we’re getting more and more aware of this being the state that we’re in and this perhaps being not optimal for our health, we are not really seeing a collective change yet. So I love that the awareness is there, like people like us are having these conversations and are dedicated to making this change, but I would say that at the end of 2022, society as a whole is still really stuck in “Go, go, go, do, do, do, get as much done,” and you and I both know that when we’re in the state of mind, I’m sure all of you tuning in know, when we are frenzied like that, it’s very, very hard to take a step back, take a deep breath, get present, and find that space for ourselves. 

 

For sure, and one of the challenges that I’ve personally encountered is this feeling of guilt, this feeling of I should be doing something. What do you think is the antidote to that? Because there’s going to be a day when you’re just off, that’s part of the cycle of life,

The sole focus on experience and professional skills is no longer the typical approach when it comes to how employers evaluate job candidates with technology. The change to using skill-based talent assessment tools is what businesses are after for. It's not a question of if technology is changing the employment environment anymore; rather, it's a question of how.  What does the significant change in the hiring procedure imply for prospective developers and staffing industries?

In this week’s episode, Insquad Co-Founder and CEO Alex Svinov tackles us with his platform that helps from small to large tech business to save time on finding developers, software engineers, and programmers. 

Insquad is an IT services company with a focus on offering excellent remote software developers from all over the world to United States and Europe companies. Insquad runs coding exercises and coding tests to prove their skills which is vital in hiring a developer. 

If you are looking to hire remote software-developers, listen to this podcast on Actions-Antidote.

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How Tech Is Changing the Hiring Process in 2022 and Beyond with Alex Svinov

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. We all know the workforce is changing and some of the concepts around hiring, retaining, and developing a good talent team is also changing quite a bit and one frustration that I think a lot of people have experienced over the past several years, in particular, even though that may be changing a bit in more recent times, is the challenge that often comes with trying to find good development talent. As you know, nearly every business, nearly every company, anyone that’s trying to do anything, needs to have a functioning website, needs to have some kind of a web presence, and a lot of other businesses are increasingly using data, data analytics, artificial intelligence, everything that comes from these development teams so development has become a really highly sought after talent base, especially senior developers, developers with certain expert level expertise, experience that can really jump in and solve your problem. My guest today, Alex Svinov, has a platform that helps small- to medium-sized businesses from startup to the mid-sized find remote senior development talent, something that I think we can all appreciate being a little bit easier.

 

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Alex, welcome to the program.

 

Hey, Stephen, thanks for inviting me, great to be here. Hello, everybody. 

 

Thank you for joining. And let’s start out with what goes on, I think a lot of people are familiar with but maybe some aren’t, the challenge in finding development talent, whether it be a person to just build and maintain your website or a several-member team that has certain areas of expertise, like certain programming languages or domain expertise.

 

Yeah, I think the challenge in finding a great developer or building development team primarily lies in the part of evaluating and finding the right talents for your team, because everybody who’s been doing software development knows that there are no two identical developers out there. Even though they may be having the same stack, having the same experience, they will still be different type of person, actually different type of code writing pattern, and so on and so forth, and I guess the key problem there is that, to be successful in each and every team, you need a different type of developer. Some teams need somebody who’s doing a lot of coding, some of them do somebody who is very good in architecture, and so on and so forth. And then, essentially, what ends up with technical teams spending a lot of time interviewing candidates just to find the right person. This is what essentially we at Insquad are doing is that we’re trying to shorten this period so that the technical team spend less time interviewing candidates. We do that before them.

Even in a small firm or for yourself, a financial plan is very important. It's a road map, a guideline, and a reminder of what you want to accomplish.. But in this contemporary time, what is the optimal way to maximize money and maximize your life ?

In this week’s episode, Ascent Personal Finance Founder Zechariah Schaefer joins us to discuss the ever-changing financial industry for Gen Z and Millennials, crypto, retirement, and much more.  Zechariah Schaefer is an Advice-Only Financial Planner for Gen Z & Millennial Crypto Investors & STEM/Healthcare Professionals. He founded Ascent Personal Finance to empower young people to build financial freedom. 

Ascent Personal Finance empowers young people to reach their financial goals by helping them with their crypto investing, taxes, budget/credit, starting businesses, and more. Zechariah Schaefer ensures to have a methodical financial plan that is updated regularly for a successful life ahead. 

If you're interested in building your holistic financial plan, listen to this podcast on Actions Antidote!

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Financial Planning May Look Different for Gen Z and Millennials with Zechariah Schaefer

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I want to talk to you again a little bit about our finances. Finances, not always everyone’s favorite topic to talk about because we’re really talking more about our passions, but finance, first of all, can be a source of passion for some people and also can be a source of power for people if people are able to handle their finances properly. My guest today, Zechariah Schaefer, is in the business of helping the younger generation of people handle finances. As you know, there are generational differences and different groups of people like to handle things differently and Zechariah has his own unique formula of not only helping the younger generation handle their finances but also bringing the service to people who are usually not quite served as often by the financial planning community.

 

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Zechariah, welcome to the program. 

 

Yeah, thank you, Stephen. It’s an honor to be here.

 

So, Zechariah, tell me a little bit about your financial planning services.

 

Yeah. So what I do is I run Ascent and Ascent is a registered investment advisory firm with a sister tax prep firm, literally, it’s just a sister firm for legal purposes and what we do is we help Gen Z and millennial really high performers to manage their money well, to manage the life resources well, to pay less taxes, still pay their fair share but not leave the IRS a tip, and then to invest wisely. And really our specialty is working with crypto investors and with tech professionals, we have equity compensation and the reason for that is simply I’ve been in the crypto space for almost a decade and before I ventured into finance, I was well on the path to becoming either a dev or working in cybersecurity, which I’m still very passionate about those spaces, they’re really cool.

 

Yeah. So what makes someone a high performer? That’s how you phrased it, right? Yeah, so what are you looking for in a client? What makes someone that?

 

Yeah, so the people who I work with, which we’ll get into this later in the episode I’m sure, but my passion really is helping people who can’t yet get advice. Gen Z and Millennial high performers, people who are really high income earners, usually $200,000 and up a year. They, surprisingly, are actually part of a group who can’t get advice right now because the traditional financial planning models are either focused on managing investments or selling products. And so if you’re a 25-year-old with a $300,000 total comp package from Meta and you also have a whole bunch of crypto, if you go to a traditional financial advisor’s office, what they’re going to tell you, if they’re one of the really high quality firms is what they’ll most...

A cluttered environment has been shown to deplete energy and have a detrimental impact on our overall mood and self-image. However, numerous interior design techniques and approaches have been found to relieve stress levels. But, what’s more to it? How do the elements of interior design improve our health?

 

Studio Institute Denver Founder and Professor MaDonna Collingwood explores how interior design impacts our physical, and mental health and well-being. Studio Institute Denver offers accelerated programs in interior design and construction management.  She helps individuals who are pursuing a career change while still working to keep daily expenses. 

 

Professor MaDonna Collingwood teaches students everything they need to know to begin a career in the building trades without the need for expensive college tuition.

 

To know more about what they do, listen to this podcast on Actions Antidote.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Interior Design and Its Impact On Our Well-Being with Prof. MaDonna Collingwood

Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, I’d like to once again talk to you about career change. Now, a lot of people find themselves in a place in life where they need to make some sort of a career change because whatever you’re doing right now isn’t working, and one of the prospects that a lot of people run into is this idea that, to make a new career, you have to go back to school and get a whole new degree, which is not only really time consuming but also consuming a lot of money. And I think one of the best phrases I’ve heard from people looking at that option and says, “Okay, that’s great. Now, who’s gonna pay my mortgage? Who’s gonna pay my rent during this whole four-year period when I’m going back to school and pursuing something completely different?” Today, my guest is Professor MaDonna Collingwood and she started an organization called the Studio Institute Denver and what makes this one a little bit different than the ones that I had previously engaged with is it’s not tech focused, it actually helps people who want to move away from technology and build a career in the trades.

 

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Professor MaDonna, welcome to the program. 

 

Thank you. 

 

Thank you so much for joining today. Now, let’s start off by telling my audience a little something about the Studio Institute Denver. What is it all about and how does the programming work?

 

It’s a 6- to 12-month accelerated trade school. I have two programs, one in interior design and one in construction management. We do mostly night classes hybrid so some are online, some are in person, some are both, and then we do a little bit of daytime on Fridays. So, most of my students work full time and then they go to class at night.

 

So your core audience, your core crowd are people who are pursuing a career change while still working full time and so they don’t have to really deal with some of those issues of, “How am I gonna keep the lights on? How am I gonna pay my rent?” and stuff?

 

Right, and I record every class and every lecture and then I send out a virtual link as well so they can always join and I’ll share my screen and they can watch the whole class from home so if they have to work late or they can’t make it in for whatever reason, they can still attend.

 

You probably have a lot of people who have interesting schedules that can be variant. Do you end up having a lot of students who also have childcare duties, like taking care of kids and stuff like that, that can make it even more challenging to make any kind of a career change?

 

I do. It’s a trade school so the ages of my students really varies a lot. It goes from 18 to like mid 50s right now. Yeah, a few of my students are parents so they’ve got to pick their kids up from school and everything so they can only attend at certain times or on certain days.

 

Not bad.