Grateful Living

The other day, I was speaking to a family friend of mine whose in college. They go to a business school.

And they’re seeing a lot of their friends going into investment banking. And she was asking me, should I do the same as all of them?

As an individual whose had unique family situation, unique growing up situation, with your own unique motivations, you have to decide what makes sense for you.

Each industry, whether it’s investment banking, consulting or going into a marketing role, you can study the industry - the hours, the pay, the role and you should make the decision based on what you think fits your wants.

Grateful Living Website: http://grateful4living.com/

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en

Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Kelli Maple is a YouTuber with 1.8 M subscribers, her content mainly focuses on reborn dolls, baby alives, and vlogs of her life.

Kelli's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KelliMaple

Kelli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellimapleyt/

Grateful Living Info:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro

0:38 Kelly’s childhood + YouTube channel

1:04 First introduction to YouTube

1:50 Take Us to Making Your First Video in March 2014

3:10 Have you always been creative?

4:20 How did you keep yourself creating content throughout the first year?

5:36 Growing from 26 subscribers to 40,000 subscribers in 9 months

7:13 Are you able to make content for yourself or are you keeping your audience in mind?

8:21 Family reaction to be a content creator at a young age

10:00 Dealing with judgment

10:55 Managing school and content creation

12:41 Managing posting different types of content

13:48 Building community advice

14:43 Balancing privacy of personal life

16:13 Finding authentic friends

17:00 Do you tell people you’re a content creator?

17:52 Burnout

19:04 Weight on you as a creator

20:05 Monetization

21:00 Week in the life of Kelli

21:43 Managing social media accounts

22:38 Eating disorder

23:50 Camera research

25:00 Advice to someone starting out

26:00 Mental health advice for creators

26:57 How long does it take you to produce a video?

27:41 Covid

29:19 Baby Alive, Reborn

30:13 Decompress from social media

31:07 Contextualizing the impact you’ve had (videos of 25 million people watching)

So many of us are given the “formula” for success in different aspects of our life (i.e. we have the knowledge to know what it takes to find the success that we’re looking for).

For example, to get into better shape, it requires eating healthier and working out more regularly, yet so many of us aren’t able to get into better shape.

In this vlog, I talk about the paradox of success.

Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water.

She has received numerous accolades, including being named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Northern California and one of InStyle’s 2019 Badass 50.  Previously, Kara was VP of Shopping Partnerships at America Online.

She hosts the podcast The Kara Goldin Show.

Her first book, Undaunted:  Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller.

In this interview, we talk about:

Kara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karagoldin/

Hint's Website: https://www.drinkhint.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro

0:57 Kara’s childhood and professional career summary

5:33 How the idea for Hint formed (health)

10:02 Was entrepreneurship something you did as a kid? Summer Camp.

18:07 Interning for John McCain

24:39 Arizona state

29:08 advice to college person today

35:43 working at time

40:34 taking a job at CNN

44:34 Joining 2Market/AOL and being there from 1994-2001 and becoming the youngest female VP of AOL, Working for Steve Jobs’ company

58:21 Working with Jeff Bezos and Amazon in the late 1990s

1:05:28 Kara’s personal life - marrying Theo Goldin.

1:13:25 Managing Kids While Being a VP at AOL

1:19:24 What advice do you have to someone starting out a business?

1:26:21How do you make sure your kids don’t find out about the business’ stress?

1:33:28 How do you make sure your kids’ down feel stressed out by your success?

1:44:50 Managing your schedule, balance and ambition

1:46:47 Managing Multiple Office Locations

1:51 Advice for someone starting a beverage company today?

1:55:24 Having accomplished so much in your life, what are your personal and professional motivations?

When good things are happening to you, are you taking time to appreciate them and feel them?

Last Thursday a friend texted me how are you doing?

That past week - I had a great week. I went to Miami, saw my best friends, saw a friend I haven’t seen in 2 years. Monday - saw another friend from my grad school who I’ve never met in person because last year was virtual. Tuesday - hung out with a best friend and played Madden and caught up with another best friend on the phone. Throughout this time, I had a midterm due on Wednesday so that was stressful. And work was busy.

But overall, I had a very good week overall.

Yet when a friend texted me on Thursday to ask how I was doing, I said I’m good like we all say but I also included a lot of the negative or the things I wanted better in my life.

On Friday, I thought why is that? Why didn’t I look at the good? Why didn’t I respond with I’m blessed because I saw so many friends, which is the truth.

Certainly part of it was my mood and being tired and I should’ve gotten more sleep the night before. But the other part is because our brains are programmed to want more and never feel satisfied.

It reminded me, consciously you have to refocus and reprogram your brain against always wanting more and instead remind yourself to remembering your blessings and to remember to be satisfied.

When good things are happening to you, acknowledge them.

.Write them down. Reflect on them. Make sure you are processing and remembering all the good.

So that when good things happen to you, you’re feeling it in your soul.

Alex is a nationally recognized award-winning social worker and documentary film producer, most recently of Emergence: Out of the Shadows. The film documents the tough journeys of 3 queer brown people as they come out with their sexuality within their conservative South Asian families.

In this interview, Alex talks about:

- Feeling internalized homophobia in high school and feeling suicidal as a result 

- His advice to other South Asians on coming out to family and friends 

- How he got into making documentaries and his advice for others on the process

Emergence out of the Shadows Website: https://emergencefilm.net/social-media-images/

Alex's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexsangha/

Grateful Living Info:

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?...

To Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttt...

To Listen on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo...

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Approximate Time Stamps:

Approximate Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro

0:48 Childhood

2:21 First Feelings of Being Gay, Internalized homophobia, suicidal thoughts

5:08 Advice to someone feeling Internalized homophobia

6:02 When did things get better for you?

8:17 Did joining LGBTQ+ groups help you?

10:00 How is being brown affected your coming out process?

15:32 Arranged marriage aspect

19:54 When did you start telling friends and family?

21:42 How did you grapple with your father initially not being supportive?

24:30 Advice on seeing your parents getting divorced

30:38 A friend’s suicide due to homophobia

34:53 Advice to someone feeling suicidal for being gay?

41:14 What’s it like to be a social worker?

44:30 Starting non-profit SHER as a LQGBTQ community support group

46:30 How did you get into making documentaries?

49:46 Advice to someone wanting to start a documentary

51:24 Coming up with the idea of the film Emergence: Out of the Shadows

52:24 Working with your mom in the documentary

53:27 Alex’s belief in God

58:10 Managing doing multiple things

1:01:20 Supporting Alex

Many of us have faced tough adversities in our life.

So, often, we look at these down times as negatives in our life, but these times teach us a lot.

A bad grade in school teaches us we need to be more focused in our effort and our studies, an unhealthy relationship teaches us the red flag signs that we need to be aware of next time in our relationship.

And we can use those lessons from our adversities to help others have better luck should they deal with a similar adversity as us.

In this vlog, I speak about viewing your adversity in a positive manner and how we can use the lessons from our down times to improve ourselves and others.

Grateful Living Website: http://grateful4living.com/

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en

Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Joe Taveras is an American roboticist, designer, painter and artist. He consistently aims to push the boundaries of innovation with his art, exploring new techniques that reflect his inner and outer environment, questioning our collective future, social norms, and our interminable integration with technology.

Joe is currently represented by Galerie Michael, a world-renowned art gallery located on the famed Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California that specializes in paintings, drawings and prints from the great European masters of the 17th to 20th centuries.

In this interview, we talk about:

- Joe's journey to becoming a painter

- Being represented by Galerie Michael

- Helping brighten restaurant barriers in Boston with graffiti, cubism, and Italian futurism

- How He Became a Full-Time Painter

Joe's Website: https://www.robojoebot.com/

Joe's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robojoebot/?hl=en

Boston Globe feature on Joe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/13/arts/restaurants-are-united-this-painters-bright-bold-dividers/

Grateful Living Info:

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?...

To Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttt...

To Listen on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo...

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Approximate Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro

1:10 What was Joe like as a kid?

3:30 Living in Massachusetts and California in his childhood

5:25 When did art become a passion?

12:14 Was doing something entrepreneurial something you went in Boston College thinking about doing it?

14:15 How has marketing background helped you?

16:37 What was your attitude as you pursued painting more? Was it just going to be a hobby?

21:10 How did you not have fear/self-conscious of not going to art school?

22:52 Why were you open to failure?

27:42 When was your first win?

31:16 Joe’s Art Process

33:28 Process to going full-time as an artist

40:00 Getting represented by Galerie Michael

45:38 How much do you love what you do versus how much does it feel like work?

46:48 Managing creative vs. operations of business

48:52 Reaction of public (i.e. subjective opinion)

52:42 Personal life and work balance

54:44 Can he turn it off and decompress?

58:24 Joe’s Future

1:00:00 advice for someone starting out their artist career

1:03:00 anything else you want to talk about?

1:09:00 supporting joe

Photo Credits for Thumbnail: Boston-Based Fine Art Photographer Ben Flythe

Allie runs a pet sitting business in her day to day. In this interview, Allie talks about being sexually abused my members of her family, seeing her sister be murdered, living in an orphanage in Kazakhstan, being adopted to the US, having a mom who was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and going to treatment for suicidal ideations.

I want to thank Allie for her being willing to open on so many tough aspects of her life in the effort to help anyone who today is in a position she was previously in.

Allie's Email: [email protected]

Grateful Living Info:

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?...

To Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttt...

To Listen on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo...

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Time Stamps:

0:00 Introduction

0:31 Allie's childhood

1:42 Witnessing her brother die by poisoning

4:00 Having to hunt for food in Kazakhstan

5:45 Being her little brother's care taker at 4

6:24 Her mom's boyfriend touching her

7:45 Not being fed properly

9:07 Witnessing her sister's murder

10:27 Going to an orphanage

14:05 Orphanage operations

15:42 When a man at the orphanage tried to rape Allie

16:28 Hearing her friend Katya get rapped at age 7 by a 16 year old guy

17:20 Weird labor punishments by the orphanage

19:53 When a family showed interest in adopting her

24:02 Coming to the US

25:56 Trying to Find Her Brother

28:21 Dealing with mood swings as a teenager

31:00 Interactions with adopted mom

34:40 Adopted Mom struggling with drugs

36:34 How Allie Developed an Eating Disorder

38:21 How Allie Started Cutting Herself

41:16 Being Touched by Her Adopted Mom's Boyfriend

42:00 Attempting Suicide by taking Tylenol Pills

46:30 Going to McLean Hospital in Massachusetts

49:00 Seeing others who were doing worse than her

50:12 Meeting Meg Durand

51:33 Learning to cry because of Meg

52:45 Moving to Board School in NY

54:00 Allie's relationship with an actor

56:50 Allie's first boyfriend getting caught stealing from her family

59:00 Abusive incident with first boyfriend

1:01:34 Being Introduced to cocaine

1:03:30 Going to rehab/treatment for drug addiction

1:05:30 Getting involved with owner of rehab center

1:07:45 Picking up cigarette habit

1:09:09 How she kept up with Meg throughout her time in rehab

1:10:30 Finding Out Meg Passed

1:12:30 Incident with Adopted Mom Selling Allie's Belongings

1:16:00 Living with Meg's family during a tough time

1:18:53 Going to Rehab Again

1:21:46 Getting into the cat sitting business

1:23:09 Running a successful business

1:24:00 Getting her mental health to a better place

1:25:55 Where do you think your mental health is today?

1:27:49 How should orphanages be run better?

1:30:40 What would you tell little Allie?

1:32:59 If your parents don't listen to you about your sexual abuse

1:35:35 Advice on parents who are drunk/high often

1:37:20 Advice to someone whose cutting

1:40:40 Advice to someone with an eating disorder

1:42:00 Advice to someone being sexual abused by a family member

1:45:50 Who could use going to a treatment center?

1:51:00 Suggestions for someone whose struggling to cry because their numb

1:53:40 Someone whose struggling with addiction

1:55:45 Entering relationships having been through so much trauma

1:57:55 DBT Therapy

2:00:40 If you're struggling to see the positive

2:03:38 Advice for someone whose suicidal

Last week, I followed a new person on Instagram and learned from their bio that they had lost a friend of theirs to suicide several years back, their friend was 14 at the time.

I looked at the photos of the girl, and I just became emotional.

I thought to myself how could an innocent girl like her ever think she should kill herself?

And so I wrote this in memory of her and anyone feeling suicidal today.