Mary Farias

In Part 1 of the September Economy Creators Workshop, Mary Reiss Farias moves from August’s theme of Clarity into September’s focus: Alignment.

Clarity helps us identify what we want, where we’re going, and what we want to build next.

But then comes another question:

Does what we’re building actually align with the life we want to live?

Mary shares her own experience of building a successful gymnastics business that eventually placed gymnastics—not Mary—at the center of her economy. Her work, family life, writing, schedule and resources revolved around it. The business worked, but the life it created left her feeling confined and burned out.

That experience helped shape one of the foundational ideas behind Economy Creators:

The center of your economy should be YOU.

A YOU-Shaped Economy isn't simply the collection of things that make you money. It includes your:

• Talents

The goal isn't simply to build more.

It's to intentionally build an ecosystem in which you can live, work, create, contribute, grow—and thrive.

In this episode, Mary explores the progression from clarity to alignment and introduces the idea of creating a personal compass for your economy.

That compass includes four important questions:

What is my mission?

What is my philosophy?

What are my standards?

What is my message?

When those pieces become clear, they can help you evaluate the opportunities, relationships, projects and decisions that show up in your life.

Instead of asking only, “Could I do this?”

You can begin asking:

“Does this belong in the economy I am intentionally building?”

This episode sets the foundation for the September Economy Creators Builds on mission, philosophy, standards and message—and for creating a life and business that revolve around the person at the center:

You.

Continue Your Economy Creator Journey on Substack: https://economycreators.substack.com/

Join the Economy Creators Workshop

Discover where you are in your journey to Lead Yourself → Lead Your Economy → Lead Others, and identify your next steps toward building a YOU-shaped economy.

https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique interests, talents, experiences, and purpose.

https://www.economycreators.live/ec-framework-ebook

Take the Economy Creators Diagnostic Quiz

Identify the opportunities, strengths, and gaps in your personal economy.

https://www.economycreators.live/quiz

About Economy Creators™

Economy Creators™ is a podcast and radio show featuring entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, leaders, and visionaries who are building lives and businesses around who they are—not just what they do.

Because when you stop protecting someone else's economy and start creating your own, you don't just change your income—you change your identity.

Mary Farias

In Part 2 of the September Economy Creators Workshop, Mary Reiss Farias explores one of the foundational pieces of building a YOU-Shaped Economy: understanding the difference between your purpose and your mission.

Mary describes purpose as the deeper reason underneath what we do—the thread that continues to appear throughout the different chapters of our lives.

Mission is how we choose to express that purpose now.

That distinction became especially important for Mary when she stepped away from a life and business built around gymnastics.

For years, she believed gymnastics was deeply connected to her purpose. And it was. Through coaching, she could lead by example, help young people believe in themselves, and encourage them to become more than they thought they could be.

But eventually she realized something important:

She lived her purpose through gymnastics. She didn't need gymnastics to live her purpose.

Today, that same underlying purpose can be expressed through writing, publishing, personal development, podcasting, Economy Creators—and potentially many other things.

That's the freedom that comes from separating your purpose from its current expression.

Your purpose may remain relatively constant while your mission evolves as you accumulate new:

• Experiences

As your life expands, the way you express your purpose can expand with it.

In this episode, Mary shares questions you can use to begin uncovering the thread running through your own life:

What am I naturally good at?

What experiences have shaped me?

What do I care deeply about?

Who do I naturally want to help?

What keeps showing up in every chapter of my life?

And perhaps one of the most revealing:

What would I still care about if there were no business attached to it?

The goal isn't necessarily to manufacture a brand-new purpose statement.

It may be to look backward and recognize the purpose you've already been living.

Once you can see that thread, you can begin asking a different question:

How do I want to express my purpose now?

That becomes part of your mission—and another piece of intentionally building a life and economy around who you are becoming.

Continue Your Economy Creator Journey on Substack: https://economycreators.substack.com/

Join the Economy Creators Workshop

Discover where you are in your journey to Lead Yourself → Lead Your Economy → Lead Others, and identify your next steps toward building a YOU-shaped economy.

https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique interests, talents, experiences, and purpose.

https://www.economycreators.live/ec-framework-ebook

Take the Economy Creators Diagnostic Quiz

Identify the opportunities, strengths, and gaps in your personal economy.

https://www.economycreators.live/quiz

About Economy Creators™

Economy Creators™ is a podcast and radio show featuring entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, leaders, and visionaries who are building lives and businesses around who they are—not just what they do.

Because when you stop protecting someone else's economy and start creating your own, you don't just change your income—you change your identity.

What do you believe about the way you want to live your life?

In Part 3 of the September Economy Creators Workshop, Mary Reiss Farias completes the conversation around alignment by exploring the beliefs and philosophy underneath everything we build.

Two people can have almost identical purposes or missions—and create completely different lives.

Why?

Because of what they believe.

Your philosophy influences how you make decisions, approach money, define success, treat people, respond to problems, recognize opportunities, serve others, lead, create, and think about your own potential.

And some of the beliefs guiding those decisions may not be beliefs you consciously chose.

In this episode, Mary invites you to examine both what you currently believe and what you want to believe.

What do you want to believe about:

• Life?

Sometimes the beliefs we've accumulated don't even agree with one another.

We may believe success requires working as hard as possible while simultaneously wanting freedom, balance and time to enjoy our lives.

We may want to serve others but believe receiving something in return makes that service less meaningful.

We may have a mission we deeply care about while holding beliefs that make living that mission unnecessarily difficult.

That's where alignment matters.

Mary encourages you to ask:

Does this belief support the purpose, mission and life I want to create?

If it doesn't, what belief would?

As you begin identifying those beliefs, you can intentionally define the philosophy underneath your YOU-Shaped Economy.

And that philosophy has a job.

Mary closes the workshop with another foundational Economy Creators principle:

Every asset inside your economy needs a job.

Your book needs a job.

Instead of creating more simply to create more—or constantly wondering where the next dollar will come from—you can build meaningful assets that support your mission, reflect your philosophy, serve other people, and work together inside the economy you're creating.

That is what alignment makes possible.

Get clear. Define your purpose. Build your mission. Choose your philosophy. Establish your standards. Share your message.

Then let what you build go to work.

Continue Your Economy Creator Journey on Substack: https://economycreators.substack.com/

Join the Economy Creators Workshop

Discover where you are in your journey to Lead Yourself → Lead Your Economy → Lead Others, and identify your next steps toward building a YOU-shaped economy.

https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique interests, talents, experiences, and purpose.

https://www.economycreators.live/ec-framework-ebook

Take the Economy Creators Diagnostic Quiz

Identify the opportunities, strengths, and gaps in your personal economy.

https://www.economycreators.live/quiz

About Economy Creators™

Economy Creators™ is a podcast and radio show featuring entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, leaders, and visionaries who are building lives and businesses around who they are—not just what they do.

Because when you stop protecting someone else's economy and start creating your own, you don't just change your income—you change your identity.

Mary Farias & Sophie Berry

In this episode of Economy Creators, Mary Reiss Farias sits down with **Sophie Berry, Master Life Coach and NLP Practitioner**, to talk about survival mode, self-worth, limiting beliefs, confidence, motherhood, self-image, and what happens when a woman finally begins choosing herself again.

Sophie has spent 28 years as a diagnostic radiographer, helping people through moments that are often frightening and uncertain. Now she's taking the skills, compassion, and experiences she's accumulated throughout that career and building a coaching business designed to help women on a deeper level.

Her focus is personal.

Sophie works with women who have spent years raising children, working, supporting families, and caring for everyone around them—while continually putting themselves last.

She knows that experience because she lived it.

For years, Sophie saw herself as a **survivor** and felt that life was happening *to* her.

Today, she sees things differently.

Instead of asking why circumstances happened to her, she began asking what those experiences had developed within her.

She even replaced one identity with another:

**Survivor → Conqueror.**

In this conversation, Mary and Sophie explore:

• What it means to live in survival mode

Sophie also shares something especially important for anyone who wants to build a new chapter without immediately leaving their existing career.

She once believed she couldn't successfully build her coaching business while continuing her nine-to-five.

Then she questioned the belief.

Why couldn't she build both?

Today, Sophie is intentionally building her coaching practice alongside her radiography career, with a vision of gradually reducing her hours as her business grows.

That's a YOU-Shaped Economy in action.

You don't necessarily have to destroy what exists to create what's next.

**You can begin building from where you are.**

And for the woman who has spent years putting everyone else first, Sophie's message is beautifully simple:

**Believe in yourself. You can do way more than you think you can.**

CONNECT WITH SOPHIE BERRY

Facebook:

LinkedIn:

ps://economycreators.substack.com/

Join the Economy Creators Workshop

Discover where you are in your journey to Lead Yourself → Lead Your Economy → Lead Others, and identify your next steps toward building a YOU-shaped economy.

https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique interests, talents, experiences, and purpose.

https://www.economycreators.live/ec-framework-ebook

Take the Economy Creators Diagnostic Quiz

Identify the opportunities, strengths, and gaps in your personal economy.

https://www.economycreators.live/quiz

About Economy Creators™

Economy Creators™ is a podcast and radio show featuring entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, leaders, and visionaries who a

Mary Farias & Dr. Jengyu Lai, DPM

In this episode of Economy Creators, Mary Reiss Farias sits down with Dr. Jengyu Lai, Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) of Rochester Clinic, for a conversation about healthspan, vitality, healthy aging, lifestyle medicine, nutrition and taking a whole-person approach to long-term health.

Dr. Lai is a board-certified podiatrist and one of the relatively few podiatrists in the United States who is also board certified in lifestyle medicine. Through Rochester Clinic, he integrates lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, regenerative medicine and biomechanics to help patients look beyond individual symptoms and consider the whole person.

And he introduces an important distinction:

**Longevity isn't the same as vitality.**

Living longer is one thing.

Remaining active, productive and healthy enough to enjoy those additional years is another.

That makes health an important part of the economy each of us is creating.

We can spend decades building businesses, careers, relationships, wealth and opportunities—but our ability to enjoy what we've built is deeply connected to our health and function.

Dr. Lai encourages people to stop allowing a diagnosis to define what they believe is possible.

Instead, he asks:

What can you do? What do you want to continue doing? What matters to you?

If you love golf, travel, horses, hiking, playing with your grandchildren, building your business or pursuing a passion, maintaining the function required to keep doing those things gives healthy aging a personal purpose.

In this conversation, Mary and Dr. Lai explore:

• The difference between lifespan and healthspan

Dr. Lai's own journey into lifestyle medicine began with an unexpected physician joining his clinic—and then experimenting with lifestyle changes himself.

The experience changed not only his personal habits, but also the way he thought about practicing medicine.

Today, he is working to bring multiple disciplines together into a more systematic framework for helping people understand the interconnected factors influencing their health.

His message is particularly relevant for people approaching the second half of life who aren't satisfied with simply adding years.

They want those years to be active, meaningful and enjoyable.

As Dr. Lai reminds us:

Health is not simply the absence of disease.

It's about strengthening and supporting your body so you have the opportunity for both longevity and vitality.

Because the YOU-Shaped Economy you're building isn't only about your income, business or professional success.

**You need the health and vitality to live it.**

CONNECT WITH DR. JENGYU LAI

Rochester Clinic:

Connect with Dr. Lai:

Dr. Lai's Healthy Eating Resource:

Mary Farias & Chloe Rachel Gallaway

In this episode of Economy Creators, Mary Reiss Farias sits down with author and Story Medicine Guide Chloe Rachel Gallaway for a beautiful conversation about memoir writing, emotional memory, healing, family, creativity, becoming a writer, and finding the courage to tell the story that keeps calling you.

Chloe is the author of *The Soulful Child: Twelve Years in the Wilderness*, a memoir inspired by her extraordinary childhood growing up on 500 acres in the wilderness of northern New Mexico.

With no electricity or running water, Chloe's childhood education happened as much through nature, animals, gardening, chores, survival, and family as it did through traditional academics.

She didn't begin formal school until age 12.

And yet she became a writer.

Chloe shares the remarkable evolution from putting a period after every word as a child, to writing endless run-on sentences, to studying poetry and writing, and ultimately becoming a published memoirist who now helps other people discover the stories within themselves.

But her journey didn't begin with believing she was a writer.

For years, the book lived inside her.

People told her, “You should write a book.”

She still hesitated.

Then came a catalyst.

After the birth of her daughter, Chloe returned to the mountain where she'd grown up to introduce her baby to her father. Seeing her aging father while holding her newborn daughter brought the passage of time into startling focus.

She realized her father wouldn't always be there.

And suddenly, writing the story mattered more than writing it perfectly.

That decision eventually led Chloe to something deeper than writing craft:

**Story Medicine.**

Chloe believes our stories are not stored solely in our intellectual memories. They also live within our bodies, emotions, sensory experiences, and relationships.

Rather than beginning only with structure, grammar, scenes, or the technical requirements of writing, Story Medicine invites writers to move out of their heads and into the emotional memory of their experiences.

The result can be something much bigger than simply finishing a manuscript.

It can become a process of meaning-making, integration, wisdom—and healing.

Mary and Chloe explore:

• What Story Medicine is and why our stories carry meaning

Chloe also shares an important distinction for anyone considering memoir:

Your story is yours to tell through your lens.

Other people may remember the same events differently. That doesn't eliminate your experience or your right to tell your story.

For Chloe, the intention behind telling that truth matters. She approaches memoir with an intention toward healing rather than harm—even when the story contains difficult experiences.

Her own memoir demonstrates what can happen when we allow craft and emotional truth to work together.

And perhaps Chloe's most important message is for the person who has been quietly thinking:

I have a st

Mary Farias & Andre Alexander

In this episode of Economy Creators, Mary Reiss Farias sits down with Andre Alexander, the Freedom Architect, for a thought-provoking conversation about freedom, success, entrepreneurship, self-worth, relationships, and designing a business around the life you actually want to live.

Andre works with business owners and executives who have reached a point where success is costing more than they expected. His work helps them rethink and redesign the way they operate so their success supports their lives instead of consuming them.

Growing up in the Caribbean gave Andre a very different perspective on success.

His philosophy is simple but powerful:

Success is meant to be enjoyed now—not deferred to some mythical point in the future.

Andre challenges the conventional hustle culture that tells us to work harder, acquire more, remain constantly available, and hope that freedom and happiness will eventually appear as a result.

Instead, he asks a much more fundamental question:

What do you actually want from your life?

Mary and Andre explore how easily business owners can become trapped inside economies they created themselves. The business may be successful financially while demanding their time, draining their energy, affecting their health, or taking them away from the relationships and experiences that mattered in the first place.

Andre even challenges the familiar concept of “work-life balance.”

Why?

Because work still comes first in the phrase.

His alternative is **life first**.

Your career or business was supposed to help create your life. So when did the business become the thing around which everything else had to fit?

That question connects directly with the Economy Creators philosophy of intentionally building a YOU-Shaped Economy—one in which your business, work, relationships, health, interests, money, experiences, and personal growth support the person you want to become and the life you want to create.

In this episode, Mary and Andre explore:

• Why freedom is ultimately a choice

Andre also explains that creating freedom involves working on two sides simultaneously: the individual and the business.

You can have a well-run business, but if you're exhausted, burned out, disconnected, or struggling personally, your capacity to lead suffers.

Likewise, you can work extensively on yourself, but if you've built a business that requires everything to continually flow through you, the structure itself will keep draining you.

Freedom requires intentionally examining both.

And perhaps most importantly, it requires ownership.

You can recognize that something needs to change. You can know what you want. But eventually, you have to decide whether you're willing to create it.

As Andre reminds us:

“Freedom is a choice.”

And:

“Success should support the life that you want rather than consume it.”

That is the heart of creatin

Mary Farias & Ale Santoliva

And in a world where AI can generate a logo, write copy, create a banner, and produce marketing materials in seconds, how do you make sure your business still feels unmistakably human—and unmistakably yours?

In this episode of Economy Creators, Mary Reiss Farias sits down with branding and positioning expert Ale Santoliva for a conversation about brand clarity, human connection, self-image, entrepreneurship, creativity, and intentionally building an economy around who you are.

Ale and her husband, Kirill, have spent more than 12 years building their branding and positioning studio and helping entrepreneurs and organizations recognize, refine, and communicate their potential.

Ale believes branding is far bigger than a logo, color palette, website, or visual identity.

Your brand is the entire experience people have with you and your business—before they work with you, while they work with you, and even after the relationship ends.

That makes clarity essential.

When your message, positioning, visuals, values, and audience experience work together, people can more easily understand who you are, what you do, and why your work matters.

Mary and Ale also explore an increasingly important question for entrepreneurs: What role should AI play in building your brand?

Ale isn't anti-AI. In fact, she sees it as an incredible tool. But a tool still needs human creativity, emotion, judgment, strategy, and input.

When everyone uses the same tools to generate the same kinds of graphics, language, and marketing, businesses risk becoming interchangeable.

And ultimately, AI isn't buying your products or hiring you.

Human beings are.

The conversation goes even deeper as Mary and Ale explore the connection between branding and self-image. Ale shares how her own identity evolved from an expected path involving international relations, politics, languages, and diplomacy into entrepreneurship and creative work.

One decision to travel to New York ultimately changed the direction of her life. It was there that she met Kirill, with whom she would eventually build both a life and a business.

Today, their partnership demonstrates another important Economy Creators principle: the power of masterminding and complementary strengths. Kirill brings extraordinary creativity while Ale brings strategy, systems, communication, and an ability to simplify complexity.

Together, they have intentionally created an economy that allows them to work internationally, travel, collaborate with people around the world, and build a life around their values.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

* Why branding is much more than your logo or visual identity

Ale also shares what she and Kirill are building now: a more accessible group branding experience designed to help entrepreneurs clarify their audience, positioning, brand personality, communication, and visual direction before moving int

Mary Farias & Rebecca Olsen

What would change if you stopped building your life around what you were supposed to do—and started building it around what you actually wanted?

In this episode of Economy Creators™, Mary Farias sits down with Denmark-based entrepreneur Rebecca Olsen for a conversation about family, freedom, entrepreneurship, wealth, personal development and becoming what Rebecca calls the CEO of your own life.

Rebecca grew up believing there was one responsible path: get a good education, find a good job and build a secure life.

Then, at 28, she unexpectedly lost her mother. Time seemed to stop—and Rebecca found herself asking a much bigger question:

How am I actually using the time I have to live?

That question changed the trajectory of her life. Later, motherhood brought another wake-up call. After returning to work, Rebecca picked up her young daughter from daycare and suddenly realized how much of her daughter's life was happening without her. She made a decision: she wanted to build her life around her family—not fit her family into the leftover spaces of her career.

In this conversation, Mary and Rebecca explore:

• How conditioning and paradigms can quietly pull us back into lives we've consciously decided we don't want

One of the most powerful ideas in the conversation is Rebecca's evolution from carefully planning everything to becoming more open to possibilities she couldn't have anticipated.

She compares it to ordering at a restaurant: you decide what you want, place the order—and then allow the kitchen to prepare it. You don't follow the waiter into the kitchen and micromanage every step.

It's a beautiful metaphor for learning to clearly define what you want while releasing the need to control exactly how it arrives.

Today, Rebecca and her husband intentionally build their lives together. They study personal development, discuss their dreams, align around how they want to raise their three children, build businesses and invest with the goal of creating freedom that isn't dependent solely on their labor.

And Rebecca's vision is expanding beyond her own family.

She shares her desire to help people—particularly those she's connected with in Latin America—recognize new possibilities for entrepreneurship, economic opportunity and self-sufficiency.

At the heart of it all is a deceptively simple idea:

Your life doesn't have to look like everyone else's. You can decide what matters to you. You can question the conditioning you inherited. You can define wealth and success differently. And you can intentionally create an economy that supports the life you actually want to live.

Rebecca closes the conversation with a question worth asking yourself:

When will you become an Economy Creator?

Connect with Rebecca Olsen:

Continue Your Economy Creator Journey on Substack: https://economycreators.substack.com/

Join the Economy Creators Workshop

👉 https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique interests, talents, experiences

Mary Farias & Ludie Hansen

What happens when your greatest heartbreak reveals your greatest purpose?

In this heartfelt episode of Economy Creators™, Mary Farias sits down with Ludie Hansen, a speech-language pathologist with more than 35 years of experience, who is preparing to retire from clinical practice to focus on a new mission: supporting dementia caregivers through innovative technology, education, and community.

Ludie's journey wasn't one she planned.

After losing her job while helping her daughter through breast cancer treatment, she experienced anxiety, loss of identity, and uncertainty about what came next. During that same season, she became a caregiver for both of her parents, losing them just sixteen days apart. Those experiences transformed the direction of her life and revealed a need she could no longer ignore.

Today, Ludie is building Revival Haven, a growing platform designed to support the millions of families caring for loved ones with dementia.

In this conversation, Mary and Ludie discuss:

• Why caregivers often lose their own identity while caring for others

• The emotional reality of dementia and "the long goodbye"

• How speech pathology prepared Ludie for this new calling

• Why most caregivers don't need more information—they need practical help in the moment

• How AI is making personalized caregiver support possible

One of Ludie's most exciting innovations is the Revival Haven App, an AI-powered resource that helps caregivers navigate difficult situations as they happen.

Instead of searching through articles or waiting for appointments, caregivers can describe what's happening and receive practical guidance on what to say, what not to do, why certain behaviors may be occurring, and simple techniques to help both themselves and their loved one through challenging moments.

Mary and Ludie also explore a topic that resonates far beyond dementia care:

Finding your purpose after life's unexpected detours.

Ludie originally considered becoming a health coach, but nothing felt quite right until she asked herself a simple question:

"What did I love most during my 35-year career?"

The answer came immediately.

Supporting people living with dementia and the families who love them.

That realization became the foundation of an entirely new economy built around purpose instead of obligation.

The conversation also highlights how AI can be used to serve people—not replace them. Ludie shares how she uses AI to develop resources, organize her business, build educational tools, and free more time for the work she loves most: helping caregivers.

Her vision extends far beyond an app.

She is creating books, devotionals, educational webinars, professional resources, and a supportive online community where caregivers can find encouragement, practical strategies, and hope throughout their journey.

Ludie leaves listeners with a message every caregiver needs to hear:

"You're doing the best you can... and that is enough."

Whether you're caring for a loved one, navigating a career transition, exploring AI, or searching for your next chapter, this episode is a powerful reminder that our greatest challenges often become the foundation for our greatest contribution.

Connect with Ludie Hansen

🌐 Website: LudiesRevival.com

📧 Email: [email protected]

📱 Revival Haven App: RevivalHaven.app

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ludie.hansen.9

Continue Your Economy Creator Journey: https://economycreators.substack.com/

🎯 Join the Economy Creators Workshop

Discover where you are in your journey to Lead Yourself → Lead Your Economy → Lead Others, and identify your next steps toward building a YOU-shaped economy.

👉 https://www.magnetminddevelopment.com/economy

📘 Download The Economy Creators Framework

Learn how to build an economy around your unique inte