Monsters of Curiosity

Everyone starts a business thinking about the work. Nobody warns you about everything else.

We asked ourselves what the two most important things we've learned from running a business actually are. Turns out two was optimistic. The lessons that surfaced, about hiring, clients, money, and knowing when to walk away, are the kind you usually only get after something goes sideways.

Some of what we cover sounds obvious until you realize how long it actually took to do it.

• Why "hire slow" is only half the advice

• The mindset shift that changes how you see your own job

• What to do when a client doesn't know what they want

• Why "30 days" rarely means 30 days

• The letter in the bag and when to use it

If you're building something, or already in it, this one is worth the 30 minutes.

0:20 The Lesson Nobody Puts In A Business Plan

1:28 Everyone Does The First Half

3:45 This Is Actually Your Job

6:58 They Don't Know What They Want Either

10:40 Two Words That Change Everything

12:27 You Just Can't Hand It Off

18:56 The Line You Do Not Cross With Clients

23:16 Yes You Can Fire Clients

27:22 Is The Like Button Dead

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

You got what you wanted. And then six months later, you wanted something else. This episode is about the mechanism behind that and sadly, why it never actually stops.

Hedonic adaptation is the psychological process behind why nothing stays exciting for long. Hit the goal, get the house, move somewhere new and eventually it all becomes Tuesday. This episode goes deeper than you'd expect on why that happens, where it shows up, and what your brain is actually doing when it quietly moves the goalposts on you.

We also look at this from angles that might surprise you. Stress has a baseline too. So do relationships. And social media has built an entire industry around exploiting exactly this mechanism.

• The hedonic treadmill - why achieving more just raises the bar

• What dopamine and novelty actually have to do with it

• Why stress and hardship shift your baseline too

• The things people refuse to give up no matter what else falls away

• Whether younger generations are finally starting to say no to the loop

0:21 Welcome To The Treadmill

1:28 The Moment The Shine Wears Off

3:12 You Got It. Now What?

6:23 Why News Feels So Good

9:06 Why You Stop Noticing The Good Stuff

11:44 Some Of Us Adapt Embarrassingly Fast

16:56 How Humans Handle The Worst

20:56 Why Solving Problems Feels Like A Drug

22:46 Where Striving Starts To Cost You

26:46 Not Everything Adapts The Same Way

30:24 The Thing On Your Do Not Touch List

34:52 When You Know Better And Do It Anyway

37:38 When Stress Becomes The New Normal

41:52 Good Change is Still Hard

43:16 Is Stepping Off The Treadmill Even An Option

46:58 Your Brain Was Not Built For This Speed

49:56 What Happens When The Hits Come Too Fast

52:36 The Loop Your Phone Knows You're In

55:26 Are Younger Generations Finally Saying No

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

Think about the person you've known the longest. Now ask yourself: do they actually know you? I

t's one of those questions that sounds simple until it isn't. We've all got people in our lives...siblings, childhood friends, decades-long colleagues, who have logged serious time with us. But time and understanding are not the same thing. Somewhere along the way, familiarity starts doing the work that curiosity used to do. And that's where things quietly fall apart.

This episode started with a memorial service and a brother who realized, too late, that he didn't really know the person he'd grown up alongside. And this story opens up a meaningful conversation about today's question.

• Why the people who've known you longest are working with an outdated version of you

• What being an introvert or extrovert actually costs you in long-term relationships

• The way shared memories aren't actually shared at all

• What happens when we stop asking questions and start assuming we already know

• Why shared humor might be the most honest compatibility test there is

And we also talk fart ninja. We mean it. See for yourself:

https://fartninjas.funrise.com/

0:23 Known Forever, Known Least

3:29 When Familiarity Replaces Knowing

7:12 What Siblings Reveal After A Loss 9:22 Do They Know Who You Are Now?

12:20 Why Your Friend Circle Stops Growing

16:32 What Happens When New Neighbors Actually Try

17:57 What Your Wiring Has To Do With Closeness

27:26 Same Memory, Completely Different Story

30:50 The Questions We Forget to Ask

33:16 How Curiosity Does What Small Talk Cannot

39:00 Games That Get People Talking

42:23 Why Fart Humor Is A Real Bonding Mechanism

44:15 The Fart Ninja Compatibility Test

46:37 Audio Easter Eggs

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

It's not your imagination. Change has gotten harder, and it's not because people are weaker or more resistant than they used to be.

The pace of mergers, reorgs, AI rollouts, and restructurings has outpaced what the human brain was actually built to handle. And the standard playbook, which is more emails, more town halls, more communication, isn't working. Because the problem was never information. It's biology.

We dig into why resistance to change is merely a hardwired response, and why the way most leaders approach change is almost guaranteed to make it worse. From what happens in the brain the moment an announcement lands, to the grief nobody is allowed to talk about, to the fear that quietly lives at every level of an organization (including the very top btw) this episode breaks down what's actually going on and what to do differently.

• Why your brain shuts down when change is announced

• The one thing that works better than any communication strategy

• Why leading with "what" before "why" makes everything worse

• What a badly handled merger actually looks like from the inside

• Why chosen change and forced change hit completely differently

0:21 Why Change Feels So Much Harder Now

2:18 Your Brain Is Not Broken

10:54 The Front Door That Slammed Shut

15:19 The Simplest Thing That Actually Works

18:29 Give People The Why Before The What

22:33 How Clarity Gives People Back Control

25:54 What Organizations Won't Let You Grieve

32:29 Leaders Are Scared Too

37:01 Progress Requires A Map

38:46 Everyone Is Already At Capacity

42:54 What A Badly Handled Merger Actually Costs

49:13 The Difference Between Chosen And Forced Change

50:47 When Your Brain Has Nothing Left To Give

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

You hit the goal. You celebrated for about ten seconds. Then you opened your to-do list. Sound familiar?

We're genuinely terrible at celebrating our own wins and the reasons are weirder than "we're just busy." There's a lot happening between the goal line and the champagne: a brain wired to find problems instead of progress, a cultural voice telling you not to get too big for your britches, and an entrepreneurial mindset that treats celebration as something you can afford after the next thing gets done.

BUT the next thing is never done. So we need to talk about this.

• Why your brain is literally wired to skip straight past the win

• The difference between celebrating the finish line and celebrating the journey

• What modesty is actually costing you and it's more than you think

• How to decide in advance which moments are worth stopping for

• The hardest celebration of all

0:25 You Hit The Goal. Now What?

5:15 Did You Actually Notice The Win?

9:02 Stop Waiting For The Finish Line

14:00 Don't Get Cocky But Maybe A Little

19:47 Your Brain Is Wired To Miss The Win

24:32 That Was Actually A Big Year

29:00 What Does Success Even Mean To You?

32:28 Why Some People Hate Their Own Birthday

34:36 Celebrating Everyone Else Is The Easy Part

36:48 You Are Robbing Yourself Of Joy

38:25 Let's Automate The Champagne

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

If you received an inheritance tomorrow, would it actually change your life? Or would it just sit there? Now ask that question about your kids instead.

In this episode, we dive right into the hard questions.

Because the math on when inherited money is actually useful has shifted dramatically. People are living longer, buying homes later, and starting families at older ages than any generation before them which raises an uncomfortable question about whether the way most people structure their wills still makes any sense.

We also get into whether inheritance should come with conditions, who is actually owed, and what happens when a family has to divide not just money but everything else.

• Whether inherited money arrives too late in life to actually matter

• The case for skipping a generation entirely

• Why housing costs have changed the inheritance equation

• Whether putting conditions on your money is controlling or just smart

• What happens when family members want very different things from the same estate

If you have ever thought about what happens to your money after you are gone, or someone else's, this one is for you.

0:19 The Inheritance Question Nobody Wants To Ask

1:56 Should Inheritance Skip A Generation Entirely

6:15 Why The Wealth Gap Between Generations Keeps Growing

11:04 What Your Parents Paid For A House Vs What You Paid

17:00 The Case For Putting Strings On Your Money

17:55 Is Inheritance Something Anyone Is Actually Owed

20:54 The Age When Inheritance Actually Makes A Difference

22:56 Why The Family Home Is Always The Most Complicated Part

29:34 What Robots Have To Do With How We Age

33:22 How Technology Is Already Changing Elder Care

35:16 Why Inheritance Expectations Are A Family Fight Waiting To Happen

38:25 The Story Behind The Spinning Wheel Nobody Wanted

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

The last time AI gave you an answer, did you question it? Most people don't. And that is the point of today's episode.

We discuss when critical thinking became optional, what technology and education did to accelerate that, and why the brain is biologically wired to take the laziest route available which means the easier we make access to answers, the less most people actually think. We also take a look at fear, echo chambers, and why panicking about AI and actually engaging with it are mutually exclusive activities.

• Every answer is one click away and somehow we are getting worse at thinking

• How decades of teaching to the test quietly killed critical thinking

• Why your brain is designed to take the lazy route and what it costs you

• How fear shuts down the exact thinking you need most when things change

• AI is already in your doctor's office and most people have no idea

0:27 When Did We Stop Thinking For Ourselves

5:19 Why Google May Have Made Us Worse At Thinking

13:59 Is Using AI Thinking Or Just Outsourcing It?

22:59 Why We Accept Answers Without Questioning Them?

27:54 How Fear Of AI Stops You From Understanding It

34:58 Why We Are Less Prepared For Change Than We Think

38:27 Your Brain Is Wired To Be Lazy And It Shows

40:37 How Evolution Explains Why Thinking Feels Like Work

46:28 How To Flip Fear Into Opportunity

50:04 How Algortithms Make Sure You Never Change Your Mind

54:21 The Good News About How We Adapt To New Technology

58:24 Why Staying Curious Is The Only Real Strategy Listen on Apple Podcasts

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

We almost did not go. The voice that kept listing reasons this was a bad idea was very loud. We went anyway. Here is what happened.

We're back from Indonesia and this episode is the debrief nobody planned. Scooters in chaotic traffic, surfing lessons while ingesting a lot of salt water, and a chicken with a plastic bag on its head that did not survive day two. But the episode goes somewhere bigger than the trip. It goes into why our brains are wired to assume unfamiliar things will fail, what it costs us when we let that voice run the show, and what home actually means when your definition of it starts to shift.

• Why your brain shoots down new ideas before they get a fair chance

• What it looks like to catch that happening and override it

• Why every major life change takes more patience than you planned for

• Whether home is a place or a person and how that answer changes

If you have ever talked yourself out of something before you even tried it, this one is for you.

0:19 The Doubts We Had Before We Left And Why We Went Anyway  

0:44 Renting A Scooter In Indonesian Traffic With Zero Experience

3:00 The Chicken With A Plastic Bag Did Not Make It

6:46 Why We Shoot Down Every Good Idea Before Giving It A Chance  

11:22 What Makes Some People More Tolerant Of Change Than Others  

17:42 What Moving Houses Teaches You About Patience And Ambiguity

22:32 Why She Opened With I Don't Want To Sound Like The Devil

26:30 Is Home A Place Or Is It A Person

32:15 Is The Word Dude Actually Gendered

35:02 Settled Back In But Already Thinking About Getting Out Again

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

Most people spend their whole life talking about moving somewhere new. We actually went.

We did not go to Indonesia for vacation. We went to find out if we could actually live there. What we found was a crash course in snap judgments, rental listings that lie, what travel has become now that everyone is performing it instead of experiencing it, and what happens when you ignore the warning signs at a monkey forest.

This episode goes somewhere bigger than Indonesia. It goes to the question of what it actually takes to stop talking about a different life and go find out if it is real.

• What evaluating a place to live actually looks like versus just visiting it

• Why your first reaction to something unfamiliar is almost always wrong

• What social media has done to the way people travel

• What phone algorithms are quietly doing to your attention span

• Why the worst moments always make the best stories

If you have ever thought about blowing up your routine and starting somewhere new, this one is for you.

0:19 Is Indonesia Actually Somewhere I Could Live And Work

3:00 The Rental Listing Lied And We Want Our Money Back

6:29 How We Are Narrowing Down 16,000 Islands To One

15:20 Instagram Has Offi cially Ruined How People Travel

22:18 Your Phone Is Designed To Steal Your Attention And It Works

28:35 How Your Environment Shapes Your Behavior Without Your Permission

31:06 What Makes A Travel Photo Actually Worth Taking

34:58 The Monkey Forest Did Not Go The Way We Planned

40:15 Why Your First Reaction To Something Unfamiliar Is Usually Wrong

45:19 Do You Actually Travel Well With the Person You Love

49:51 The 2 Rules That Make Travel Actually Enjoyable

50:51 The Worst Moments Always Make The Best Stories

58:06 When Time Zones And Technology Stop Cooperating

1:02:24 The Small Things That Make A Place Feel Worth Staying

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]

Jenny felt actual rage before we even hit record on this one. That should tell you everything about how badly businesses have been taught to think about social media. Every business owner asks the same question: which platform should I be on? Wrong question.

In this episode, we break down why the answer starts with your audience, not the algorithm's flavor of the month and why speaking to your end user and speaking to the person who signs the check are two completely different jobs.

We also get into using AI as an actual strategy partner: auditing competitors, spotting content gaps, and figuring out what a platform is quietly rewarding this week. Plus the boring stuff that quietly wrecks campaigns, and the one asset that survives no matter what happens to any platform...your own contact list.

• Why starting with the platform instead of the audience is backwards strategy

• How to message an end user differently than the person approving the budget

• Why organic and paid content need different goals, not just different budgets

• Using AI to compare competitors, find content gaps, and audit your own feed

• Why incomplete profiles and missing tracking quietly wreck ad spend

• Why you don't need to be everywhere, and how to choose channels on purpose

0:19 The Channel Rage Is Real

2:02 Follow Your Audience, Not Trends

4:17 When You Have Two Audiences

9:00 Organic Builds Trust, Paid Sells

11:39 Let the Metrics Decide

13:47 Give Away Your Expertise

16:50 AI Is Rewriting the Rules

21:56 Fix Your Tracking First

24:53 AI Makes Content Easier

28:21 Find Your Competitor's Blind Spot

31:07 AI as Thinking Partner

34:20 Go Where Smart People Gather

38:55 Own Your Audience, Not the Platform

42:20 Ditch the "Shoulds"

46:45 The Prompt That Changes Everything

50:01 Never Trust Just One AI 51:57 Final Thoughts and Fine Print

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-curiosity/id1893176736

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Iy2Y9XMyJ9Yjc9icMeUDG?si=ajdpFX1ZQIWtUF-RFffg7Q'

🎧 Listen on iHeart https://iheart.com/podcast/332768788/

🌐 Visit us at: https://monstersofcuriosity.com/

📩 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one: https://www.youtube.com/@MonstersOfCuriosity

💬 Have a question, story, or anecdote for us? Email us: [email protected]