Theresa Destrebecq https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresadestrebecq/

Theresa 's Website

After spending over a decade in traditional education and education leadership, and another decade coaching individuals, Theresa Destrebecq now combines the two to create, lead, and facilitate book-centered learning communities. Her company, Emerge Book Circles, focuses on supporting organizations and individual leaders to move beyond consuming ideas. Instead, she supports them to read deeper, build stronger connections with themselves and others, and then to create new ways of living, working, and leading from the ideas they first read. She believes we can all be theorists, but not all of us will be practitioners.

Connect with Patrick on Instagram @smithdidit

All music and commercials are copyrighted and used under fair use for critique

In today’s episode, we chat with Shefali Shah. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shefalishahchong/

Shefali is VP of Commercialization and an Industry leader focused on evidence-based strategies for Digital Healthcare, BioTech & Pharma sectors. She is also a certified Yoga instructor. 

Digital health is a tech category that focuses on science and research to continuously develop new methods that empower humans to live their full lives, by making it easier and more accessible to people so that they can make informed decisions on their own on how to live better lives.  

We asked Shefali about the creative process for generating new ideas in their different teams: 

• For the product, the team is constantly working within the product teams to customize what the solutions look like based on where in the world they are and the needs of that region. 
• For research,  they look at the areas that make the most sense, where the patients are going to meet the biggest bang for their buck. While at the same time they are constantly developing new digital biomarkers.  
• On the commercial side, which is her department, she uses a lot of emotional intelligence where her focus is on bringing everyone into the mix and listening to their ideas, seeing a different perspective on the issue.

On a personal note, Shefali was born in India and came to the US for her undergraduate in Engineering where she was 1 out of 2 female students. Her ambition is inspired by members of her family who are Nobel prize winners, founders of big startup companies, and successful entrepreneurs. On the side, Shefali teaches a yoga class where she blends yoga and meditation with dance and music, this results in her students experiencing not just a yoga class, but also an education on the anatomy, physiology, and a creative flow from their brains to their entire body. 

You can connect with Shefali on LinkedIn: Shefali Shah

Our chat today is with a multi-passionate creative entrepreneur Allyson Hernandez. Allyson is the author of Ballad of Dreams, an actor, a singer, a composer, a Broadway star, and CEO of AH Coaching Group.

Ballad of Dreams is a love letter to New York City and Broadway theater. The book, which had originally started out as a Broadway musical before Covid, was inspired by two strong women in her life:  her great grandmother who passed away at 96 years and was a mother to 13 children, and her great aunt Laura who lived a spectacular life, being married to a rich talent scout. 

The book is set in the 1940s and it tells the story of how their different life choices changed their life trajectories.   

A few things we can pick up from Allyson's book and as a creative individual  include

• Implement feedback when given

Open your mind to what it could be. Let go of what you wanted something to be and focus on what the future could be like. The sky was the limit when it comes to creativity.

• Art doesn't have to be just one thing.

Human beings are not just one thing. Your art can therefore be a book, a musical, a soundtrack, a stage play a Netflix mini-series. You have enough content for it to be all of those things.

• Take advantage of the InBetween. 

As a creative who lacks time, take advantage of the dead time you may have in between doing other things in your daily life. As long as that creative idea comes to mind in between doing other things, stop and take action for your creativity. it's taking that one step and being committed to and starting small.

In summary, Allyson says as a creative you must be open to where your creativity takes you. 

You can reach out to Allyson on

Allyson’s Website: Allyson Hernandez

LinkedIn: Allyson Hernandez

Book: Ballad of Dreams

Allyson Hernandez

Allyson Hernandez defines the word multi-passionate as a writer, performer, composer, executive coach, and mom. She wrote Ballad of Dreams to explore who her grandmother was and what she wanted before she became a mother, and, in the process, found the same answers for herself. As President and Founder of AH Coaching Group, LLC she empowers clients to embrace their extra and boldly follow their dreams. She has a BFA in Musical Theater from Syracuse University, is a member of Actors Equity Association, and holds her ACC credentials through the International Coaching Federation. Soul Stories, Allyson’s debut EP, can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. She has performed at the acclaimed Apollo Theater and toured with the Gospel musical If This Hat Could Talk, directed by Tony award-winning director George Faison. On the weekends you can find Allyson singing at church and proudly cheering on the sidelines at her two sons’ soccer games.

Allyson's Website

@allysonhernandez_extra on Instagram

Allyson's Facebook page

Allyson on YouTube

Copyright 2025 Mark Stinson

In today’s episode, we chat with Seline Shenoy. Seline is a Digital content creator - a writer, a podcaster, and a journalist. Seline will share with us a lot of ideas on how to explore our own creativity, how to produce, how to research, how to write and how to look for new channels to express that creativity.  

Seline is from Dubai, UAE, and has lived in the USA,  in Sweden, and has traveled to many countries across the world. Through these experiences, she has interacted with people from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, and different racial backgrounds.

These experiences have enabled her to understand different perspectives and really take it in and figure out where she sees herself on the whole broad spectrum of all these different backgrounds and worldviews. she was able to figure out what she could do to relate and build a rapport with people who were different from her.

What are some of the ways this can contribute to a person's creative process?

• Get out of your comfort zone, your social comfort zone, and reach out to people who are different from you. You will see that there are so many different ways to live and think in the world. By doing this, your creativity really gets stimulated.  
• the memorable interactions are with the people. Whenever you have the chance, interact with the people.

What about these different channels you use as a digital content creator that stimulates you to share these messages in so many different ways?

• I experiment a lot so I can get to see what are different ways that I can inform people about different aspects of the world. People take in information differently, I want to make sure I reach out to everybody and their media diet should not be a hindrance for me to convey this information.

Is there a protocol and a process you use no matter what the subject matter?

• First, it depends on how much you know about the topic, the less, you know, the more research you need to do.  After the research, you must figure out how can I craft this material in a way that people would resonate with it, what would make it palatable for them? What would make it interesting for them? And that requires you to understand who your readers are, who's consuming your content.
• Second, I always think about, what is my intention in writing this? What is it that I want people to take away from this piece? And that informs the approach that I take and the angle that I take on the topic

What are some of the considerations for you when you sit down to write for different readers in different places?

• I try not to use too much jargon, I try not to use too many, terms that are very specific to certain cultures, also I try to make it as culturally neutral as possible because I want to reach everybody. Additionally, I use examples and anecdotes that everyone can understand.

In summary, as a content creator, you must have a thick skin because sometimes, you get rejected, so you must get creative about how you reach people. 

You can find out what Seline is working on by visiting --

Seline's Website: Selineshenoy.com

Seline's Blog: Thedreamcatch

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iolani/

In today’s episode, we focus on fostering inclusion and bringing diversity to our world. Our guest today is ‘Iolani Bullock.

‘Iolani is a Diversity and Inclusion expert and an author of the children's picture book Lenox takes flight. She is also a trained ballet dancer. 

‘Iolani was inspired to write the book when she was traveling to Thailand with her infant son and husband. While she was at the airport, she tried to find a travel book to read to her son. The books she came across didn't have very diverse characters. They didn't have very interesting storylines or, different characters, from different backgrounds. When she couldn't find the book that she wanted to read with her son, she decided that she should create it.

After her decision to write her own book, ‘Iolani started by journaling and writing new ideas on her phone since she was still on holiday in Thailand. She would look at her son for inspiration. Since the majority of the book takes place in an airport, thinking back to when she traveled for the first time as a 13-year-old, really gave her inspiration. The book took a lot of iteration, not only when she was turning her bullet points into stories but through her collaboration with her editors. 

One thing that ‘Iolani focuses on in her children’s book is the diversity and inclusion aspect of it. In this book, she brings together the blind, children of color, and even black Americans who were in the world war. These images help normalize different cultures and people that they will see in the society as they are growing up.

Having written this book while working from home, ‘Iolani gives us tips on how to have a successful work-life balance. These tips include:

• Spending time outside, moving your body. You don’t have to take your recurring calls inside the house, you can have that call when taking a walk. This helps you clear your mind and gives you space to be creative.
• Bounce your ideas off people you trust. 
• Speak and write your ideas when your creative juices start flowing. 

In summary, Finding a community that inspires you and you can use to bounce ideas off also helps. The more you put into your creative process, the more you will get out. 

You can reach out to ‘Iolani on:  

Website: Lenox takes flight

Copyright 2025 Mark Stinson

In today’s episode, we chat with Valeria Aloe, the author of Uncolonized Latinas; Transforming Our Mindsets And Rising Together.  Valeria possesses over 20 years of experience in finance, marketing, and business development, she is also a trainer and public speaker. 

Valeria was born in Argentina and after getting her Business degree, she came to the US to get her Masters from Dartmouth University. Her grandmothers are her biggest inspiration because of the sacrifices they made.

According to Valeria, the Latin American countries and Hispanic culture holds limiting beliefs about who they are and what achievements they can get when they go to the US.  The thesis of the book is for Latinos to become more aware of limiting cultural beliefs that hold them back, and then letting them go.  

In her book, Valeria mentions systemic biases and the best way to overcome them is by working on yourself. Not waiting for the system to change, to become responsible for overcoming those limiting beliefs, not being afraid to speak up and ask for what you need to succeed. 

Once you  have identified your limiting beliefs, and have started working on yourself, you must take assertive action which involves two steps: 

• Learning to create your own brand, to bring your full self to the table.  This is about finding your value, understanding what you bring to the table, knowing, knowing what makes you, YOU, and looking to the unique skillset and the values that have to offer. 
• Creating and finding Allyship. Latinas need to do more by going out there and connecting with allies, and asking for what they need, whether it's asking for sponsorship, getting mentorship,  learning from others, observing what works for those who are non-Latino, navigating the system by learning and expanding your network outside of the Hispanic community. 

Valeria’s book writing process was new for her, having corporate background which had taught her to think sequentially but when she started writing her book, the creation process was messy and uncomfortable.  She learned that she had to sit and be open to receiving information without trying to put it into categories.  Her publishing company gave her a lot of support by giving writing workshops, coaching from other writers.

In conclusion, the advice she would give to creatives is to pay attention to your instincts.  Don't try to silence the intuition that you have, follow the intuition in that messy process. It will guide you to the path that is important for people.

As for the allies, offer Latinas help, be willing to lend a hand, to offer guidance,  since they don't speak up and ask for what we need. 

To other Latina women, her message is to believe in themselves, to realize the power they have individually and collectively as a community, and not be afraid to bring their full selves to the world because what they have to offer is needed. It matters. It makes a difference.

You can connect with Valeria on 

LinkedIn: Valeria Aloe

Book: Uncolonized Latinas

Copyright 2025 Mark Stinson

Anne Jacoby

Anne Jacoby has spent over 15 years cultivating creativity in business. In her role as founder of Spring Street Solutions, Anne partners with leading companies to build innovative, connected and inclusive workplace cultures, offering custom workshops, executive coaching, business culture strategy and learning program development. She previously served as employee #7 at Axiom, a global leader in on-demand legal talent, which she helped launch globally across 14 offices. She has also served as VP of Learning, Development and Culture at RGP, a global consulting firm with 5,000+ professionals. Before her transition to the corporate world, Anne spent 15 years as a professional singer, actor, dancer and voice-over artist, developing a healthy obsession with storytelling.

Anne's Website

@annejacoby.author on Instagram

Today, we ignite and unlock your own creativity, but also the high-performance culture, happiness of your own teams inside and out, clients, the whole sort of stakeholders.  In today’s episode, we chat with Anne Jacoby

Anne is a professional keynote speaker,  author, entrepreneur, and Founder + CEO of The Spring Street Solutions Company. She’s on a mission to cultivate creativity at work, through corporate culture strategy, custom workshops, and leadership programs.   

Anne grew up in the theater. She was a performing artist, a singer, an actor, a dancer, prior to getting into business.  She went to Northwestern University to study theater as she was determined to create a career out of the performing arts. When she went into business, she thought that her creative background was actually a liability she tried to hide it.  Later, she went to business school, where she realized creativity at work is essential.

Through her company, she helps leaders and individuals build creative cultures to thrive in this new world of work.  

When she’s working with companies or clients, she starts by finding out what the organizational purpose is, the why behind why your company exists, and what you're aiming to do in the world.  Everyone is creative at work, everyone has the opportunity to make incremental, positive change, to reinvent that, is essential in business across the organization. Thinking that only the marketing department is creative, is the kind of thinking that's blocking a lot of ingenuity and innovation that can rise within all parts of your company. 

Some steps you can take in your company or even personally if you want to implement something new and different can include:

• Psychological safety and really getting a good read on whether your team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas.
• Forming those human connections across our organization.
• Belonging is a big lever for organizations to build community, to drive up employee satisfaction, understanding if people feel like they belong and, feel included.

With the new way of work, it's now an opportunity for leaders to use this as not a liability but as a strength and a way to differentiate themselves and their organizational culture.  

Research done on creativity and the benefits in the workplace include, increased productivity and increased feelings of belonging & improving the feedback loop which lets leaders understand what people are craving, what people want out of their work experience.

For individuals trying to increase their creativity, they should build a connection with their audience, with the person that is consuming your art. It's about building that connection to really listen and to connect the dots.  keep at it, keep refining, keep getting that feedback from whoever the audience is, keep reinventing. 

In conclusion, from working with leaders across many different companies, there's a change in leadership, they are starting to recognize what employees want out of their work experience and they're open to change, while now prioritizing employee wellbeing. 

Copyright 2025 Mark Stinson

In today’s episode, we travel to Akron Ohio, where we talk to Mattew Shields. 

Matt wears many hats including that of a Founder & CEO of Virtus Technology &  Co-Founder at Significan LC, a digital transformation process expert, the host of Pass the Secret Sauce Podcast, and an author of Sprocketize: An Uncommon Approach To Rapid Digital Transformation, Incredible Innovation & Building A Business You Love.

In his podcast Pass the Secret Sauce, Matt has interviewed over 160 business leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs.  The main purpose of this podcast is to tell the story is of entrepreneurs. Because a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs or people that are thinking about business, think that they need some kind of some type of a connection or some type of a leg up, or, maybe they weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouth. So, they shy away from it. But his podcast aims to not only give good tips and good advice but also, encourage people to be able to move forward with whatever it is that they're looking to get involved in.

In addition, these successful individuals also focus on personal development and how they look at their own lives and what they're doing in their own lives, and how they want to improve. 

While successfully running Virtus Technology, Matt also runs Significan LC a multifamily real estate company, where they are both owner-operators of the buildings. Significan LC’s approach is different in that they consider those that are leasing agents, to be membership coordinators, they break down the landlord-tenant dynamic and instead refer to them as members because at Significan LC they believe in building communities.  

After interviewing these successful individuals a few things are common to what makes them and their businesses a success

• Frameworks - The way they break down their process and create frameworks to be able to make things more simple. and, creating that repeatable way that you can plug your business into this exterior tool that, you can use to track and, measure things and, make sure that you're moving in the right direction.
• Personal Development - these successful individuals also focus on personal development and how they look at their own lives and what they're doing in their own lives and, how they want to improve. 
• Failure-if you're not failing then you are not trying. You must get out there and give it a shot and learn what sticks. 

Matt’s future involves working on a training program that will teach people the beginning levels of investing in multifamily real estate, having a deal room so that if you are looking to move into a new area as an investor, or you want to start investing in a new city and you don't have any connections there, he will be the connector. 

In addition, Matt is working on creating the synopsis of the frameworks and the learnings from Pass the Secret Sauce. 

You can connect with Matt at 

Podcast: Pass the secret sauce

LinkedIn: Matt Shields

Instagram: @Matthewshields

Copyright 2025 Mark Stinson

Christina is not only a podcast host of mindset to manifestation, but she is also a real estate broker, a sales professional, and a Reiki master. Christina tells us how her background in art has helped her creativity in selling real estate within New York.

Christina is the phoenix that rose from the ashes. Having grown up from extremely humble beginnings with teenage parents who later exposed her to an environment of drugs, getting married then divorced, and then being one of the oldest students in her undergraduate class, she started doing yoga and meditating. Through this spiritual journey, Christina has emerged as one of the best real estate agents in New York, selling high-end properties and signature developments and with a successful podcast. 

Christina incorporated all these in her real estate business where she shares with us some creativity tips she has used in her industry including:

• Christina believes that 95% of sales is the energy you portray to people as it reflects what you're feeling. It's about how you’re making this person feel when they are around you. When working on the developer/ seller side, you're selling a product, you're meeting new people with every appointment, you must really use those creative juices
• Following her Coaching background, Christina is teaching people how to transfer that energy in sales and real estate sector by making them unlearn some things and then build it back up because people have this preconceived idea of what sales is. This has led to teaching these habits on her Mindset to manifestion podcast.

 What lies ahead for Christina after she has finished reassessing and reinventing herself, and taking time to reflect on herself and what she wants to give back to herself, she wants to make an impact more on a big corporate level because I feel like those leaders in those companies need to have that awareness 

Bio:

Christina Medina is a certified life coach, blogger, and podcast host who is passionate about teaching others how to use the power of manifestation to uncover their inner magic. As the founder and CEO of Mindset to Manifestation, she provides one-on-one coaching, workshops, and other services to people who are serious about wanting to transform their lives.

Christina overcame several obstacles as a child, including growing up with family members who struggled with substance abuse and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Determined to see more of the world and make it on her own, Christina moved out of her family home at the age of 17 and worked several jobs to support herself.

She worked her way through university studying visual art, and in 2007 made her dream come true by moving to NYC. In 2009, feeling the impact of the recession, Christina lost her dream job in an art gallery. Because she was determined to make it work in a city she always dreamed of living in, she started bartending at night to support herself. 

It was during this time that Christina also started working at a yoga studio by day, where she learned more about yoga, meditation, and Reiki. It was then that she had the epiphany that she wanted to help people for a living as a life coach. She received her coaching certification in 2011 and worked with several clients who needed guidance. However, Christina realized that she wasn’t generating enough income to replace her bartending job so she decided to try her hands at real estate too in order to fund her coaching business and expand her services. There she applied her mindset techniques to real estate to attract more abundance, and this is where she truly transformed her life. It wasn’t long before Christina quickly rose to the top of the industry due to her people skills, fierce ambition, and ability to manifest her deepest desires. Despite attaining a high level of success and prestige, she realized that she wanted more and missed helping others break through mental barriers.

Christina decided to merge her two passions (manifestation and real estate) and organized frequent mindset workshops for real estate agents who wanted to learn how to meditate, develop an abundance mindset and overcome their fears. Confident that she’d found her calling, Christina launched the official Mindset to Manifestation podcast in 2018 to connect with others who wish to bring more abundance into their lives. Now Christina is passionate about helping others develop the right mindset and dive within so they can make their dreams a reality through the power of manifestation.

You can follow Christina’s work and connect with her on:

FB Group:  https://www.facebook.com/mindsettomanifestation

IG: https://www.instagram.com/christinamedinanyc/

https://www.instagram.com/mindsettomanifestation/

Official Page: https://www.mindsettomanifestation.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinareneemedina/