View From the Roof (Formerly the Get the F*ck Off Podcast‪)‬ Andee Scarantino

Roger Martin is an incredibly deep, beautiful, powerful human being I received the distinct pleasure of meeting this year. During our time on the Friendship Bench together, I began to view him very much as a teacher.

In our conversation, we discovered we shared similar moments of awakening when we realized that life as we imagined was actually a creation our minds, an illusion, and completely changeable.

Roger shares some of his early story, and the moments that got him asking the question that helped him change his entire experience: “Why Do You Experience Life As You Do?” (Or, “Why do I experience life as I do?”)

This exploration centers in the ideas of curiosity, connection, waking up, and finally feeling peace after seemingly a lifetime without it.

If you find yourself in a lifetime of pain, unable to shift from it, I hope you can listen to this episode, and hear something maybe a little bit differently than you have before.

Roger is the author of the publication Helpful Questions Change Lives. He’s the Co-Founder of The Mindset Difference, helping leaders be at their best, irrespective of the circumstances they face.

You can find Roger on Substack (https://hqcl.substack.com/) on his website (https://www.themindsetdifference.com/) or on LinkedIn.

Motherhood is such a sacred, special, and often overlooked role that women play in our society. It comes a lot of heaviness. The questions – “Will I do this right?” “Will I f**k up my kid?” 

And then the guilt, guilt for everything you did, didn’t do, might have done, could have been…

It is courageous to be a mother. 

I said that at the end of today’s episode of View from the Roof with my dear friend and masterful coach, Alysia Lyons. She is doing some of the most noble work I know, helping moms navigate the journey of parenthood.

Alysia Lyons is a mom first. She is a Master Neurotransformational Results Coach, the Co-Director of Raising Enlightened Children, an author of several parenting books and the host of the Imperfect Mommying podcast.

As the proud mother of a son who has been her own course corrector, she now leads the parents through long-lasting neurological shifts to help ease their guilt and increase their emotional peace to find their happy. 

What’s the most essential thing to being a great parent? The answer might surprise you.

Mentions in this episode:

First, Alysia’s NEW book Good Mom Rules: Ditch Mom Guilt & Find Your Happy officially launches on NOV 7, 2023.

GET IT HERE TODAY

 

Information about Alysia and Melanie’s 5-Week Course (and registration) can be found here:

https://alysialyons.com/register

or here: bit.ly/3ra086G

 

More information about Alysia and Melanie’s work with Raising Enlightened Children can be found at:

https://alysialyons.com/

and

https://www.raisingenlightenedchildren.com/

Join the Raising Enlightened Children Community on Facebook here: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2599203676991650

It’s been a while since it’s been just me and the microphone.

Today’s episode is inspired by the idea that “everybody’s right.”

Maybe it's a generational thing I notice from others— people wanting to know "the answer." Making everything "a debate." What's the "correct" answer? What is the "right way" to be?What if everybody's right?In fact, they are.And the experience you're having is simply your experience. To know that, to trust it, is part of "the way" to living a life more reasonably.

Through my journey of recovery (since 2018, sober since Christmas, 2019) I began exploring “What’s the best way to live?”

I am brought back to the Tao more than anything else, the “way” to live a harmonious life. The Tao emphasizes simplicity and effortless action.

Whenever we apply force, there will be a counterforce. When things are “right,” others, by default become “wrong.” When we oppress, people begin to rebel.

This might go down in history as “the episode where Andee suggests we let everyone out of prison.”

Funny… I think it seems reasonable. Maybe after this episode, you will too.

Have a listen if you’re in the mood for some hot air.

Also, thanks to Craig James for your constant inspiration. You keep me feeling, questioning, wondering….

Housekeeping:

If you haven’t checked out the new look and feel of GTFO, please go right now! getthefuckoff.com

Subscribe to my Substack here: viewfromtheroof.substack.com

And if you liked this episode and want to leave me a $20,000 tip, here’s a link to the jar:

https://getthefuckoff.ck.page/products/tip-jar

Mac Bogert is my soul brother, I’m certain.

Since we first connected early this year, I’ve enjoyed all of the time we’ve spent together. We can weave in and out of conversation so effortlessly in the collective pursuit of exploration of humanity.

Today’s episode of View From the Roof is one of those marvelously circuitous conversations of discovery.

We talk about love, embracing, giving, and receiving…

There are notes of recovery in there, as Mac and I both are sober and on that journey.

We explore judgment of self, how we believe that started, and how we perpetuate it.

We talked about “finding the cracks” to foster connection, dropping our shields, and understanding that happiness and love are available… not scarce commodities.

I think my favorite part of talking with Mac is that it’s an experience.

We share the understanding that we’re all just tall children, so we come in curious as we are and allow that to guide us in our parallel journeys walking our paths.

Give this a listen if you feel like joining our play.

You might just learn what the meaning of life is.

Postscript: In this episode, we mentioned Mac’s compilation book (of which I’m a contributing author) Gender Crap: Stories of Illusion, Expectation, and Redemption. You can read more about it at https://gendercrap.com/

Post-postscript: Here’s a link to learn more about #ourfriendshipbench and how you can join us every Thursday

https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/discovering-magic-at-the-middle-of-a-bench/

In July 2022, Dennis Pitocco appeared in my LinkedIn DMs. We had been connected already because of a compilation book I participated in that year (The Four-Fold Formula for All Things Wellness) but the message seemed random to me.

He had read my writing and wanted to offer me an opportunity to write for his publication… one that seemed perfect and aligned.

“No costs. No surprises. No catches. No kidding. Just an amazing group of talented professionals who've joined us over the years to share powerful messages. And unlike other websites, we're completely independent (not advertiser supported), allowing us the freedom to publish good content – even if it's already been published elsewhere, as our Editorial Criteria is centered on timeless, actionable inspiration.”

So, of course, my first thought was “There has to be a catch.”

Turns out, there wasn’t.

And, as it turns out, that interaction completely changed my life.

I started as a writer, but I ended up engaging with a new world of human beings focused on seeing humanity at its best, and living lives of compassion, integrity, connection, faith, dignity, humility, and love.

It’s been so beautiful, and it’s my great honor to have Dennis on View From the Roof this week.

The biggest thing to know about Dennis is that everything he does is “for good” versus “for profit.”

He spent about 35 years in banking, met his wife, Ali, along the way, and they owned businesses all over the world.

Then, about 15 years ago, they sold all the businesses and decided to settle down in Tampa, Florida.

“We were faced with something very few people have, and that is choices… Well, here we were, able economically to do pretty much what we wanted. We weren't ready to retire. We weren't ready to play pickleball. And so we said ‘Let's take some long walks…’”

On those walks, they decided a few things… They wanted to travel, and they wanted to give back. Give back, but not in the sense of “writing checks.”

Both of them independently had a desire to serve humanity on a deeper level… Not just volunteering once a month but truly being with humans, talking with them, delivering meals, aiding non-profits, volunteering on boards, and becoming chairpersons of boards. They wanted to be involved in a deep and personal way.

Dennis also decided around the time they retired that he desired to start a website to keep his mind active. He and Ali wanted to build something they wouldn’t mind visiting every morning, and they were going to break all the rules in the publishing business… because they could.

As he says in this interview, “I went out to a bunch of people that were writing for Forbes, Huffington Post, and other places, and said ‘Tell me what hurts?’

He and Ali logged all of the complaints they received and said “We’re going to do the opposite… You can write whenever you want about whatever you want. It could be poetry, it can be prose, it can be articles, it can be 10 pages long, or 10 words long… The only ground rules we have is at a very basic level it’s got to be respectful and it can't be mean-spirited. Otherwise, share your voice.”

That was the beginning of BizCatalyst 360. 13 years since they started, they have almost 1100 writers on every continent except Antarctica, they published about 30,000 articles, and they’ve won two awards.

What started with long walks continued to include long walks. They served as a daily grounding point for Dennis and Ali. If a decision needed to be made on a direction they may or may not go, they’d add it to their morning walk.

About six years ago, after what began as a small idea grew into “Oh my God, look at the size of this thing,” they decided in order to rediscover humanity, they needed to walk their talk also.

You can serve humanity by working 24/7, but is that really the best way to do it? They decided it was time to take a sabbatical.

Isn’t that something? Somethi

My guest on this week’s episode is Anthony Hall (otherwise known as Grandpa STORK.) He is the founder of a space tourism industry startup, The Rose of Education Organization, TREO Inc. (https://www.treo-inc.com/) which is developing operations in education, entertainment, and exploration.

They intend to be the leader and the answer to the question: “What kind of games and sports will humanity play in space?”

Their goal is to empower and inspire the youth of the world, especially in marginalized areas of the world, so that they can be stakeholders as humanity takes its next grand voyage among the stars.

This vision began when Anthony became a “Grandpa,” now 19 years ago. As he was in the delivery room welcoming his grandson into the world and watching the miracle of his daughter becoming a mother, he began to think about his life, successes, and accomplishments as an African American who had worked in the IT industry since 1992.

The year was 2004, and as he envisioned the future, transported all the way forward to the 2060s when the US and former USSR would be celebrating the centennial anniversary of their space programs, he began to wonder—

“With colonies on the moon, space mining, etc., What about the children of Africa? What about the other children in the world and developing countries? Will they be a captive audience? Would they be captains of industry and enterprises as humanity takes us next grand voyage into the stars?”

That’s when he began to explore “what Grandpa was doing to give back.” How could he be more of an active participant in his grandchildren’s lives, communicate their dreams and aspirations, and help them discover, cultivate, and nurture their talents and gifts in a manner that will benefit humanity?

What was birthed was a game-based, play-based learning platform to nurture and cultivate these young people by playing games— games to really tap into what their talents are, how to use their superpowers in the world, and how they present themselves to lead humanity forward in compassion, humility, and integrity.

In our conversation, Anthony and I dive into how these games function to empower humanity, what he foresees for the future, and the vision for using these games to teach AI to help dissolve bias in the world.

Here are all of the links where you can find Anthony aka Grandpa STORK and learn more about his work:

https://www.treo-inc.comhttps://twitter.com/iamonlyclayhttps://tiktok.com/@grandpastork2https://instagram.com/grandpastorkhttps://YouTube.com/@grandpastorkhttps://linkedin.com/groups/3477989https://linkedin.com/in/anthonymhall

Grandpa Stork’s top four hacks for living a life with purpose, on purpose:

Dream Big - Play Hard - Give Back - Have Fun 

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