Episode 14 transcript: How to infuse more creative self-expression into your life with Steve Smyth

 Episode 14: How to infuse more creative self-expression into your life with Steve Smyth

Podcast Introduction

[00:00:00] Steve: Well, creativity is self-expression. But kind of going back, I think what happens is in our environment when we grow up, a lot of what we want to be doing gets squashed because of the fear of putting our real selves out there. So then we actually push a lot of that stuff down. All of our superpowers, essentially, creativity, self-expression, confidence, and assertiveness all get pushed down. So I think what I like doing with my clients is really helping. Kind of rediscover that and bring that so that they could use creativity in a bold new way.

Guest Bio

[00:00:36] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life. But what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead? It's the breath, depth, and purpose of each day that matters most. Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Annette Tarion Kuzma, and join me weekly as I interview guests who make changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be. By their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live. Today's guest is Steve Smith. He's a transformational life coach and Soma breathwork and meditation instructor. Previously, he worked in the sports and entertainment industry for 11 plus years, specializing in partnership marketing and. And over the last three years, Steve embarked on his own discovery of transformation, which brought him to become a certified professional coach through I C F, and he's already changed hundreds of lives through his coaching. His mission is around freedom, transformation, and helping people step more into their authentic self-expression in order to express themselves more boldly in this world.

Interview

[00:01:50] Aneta: Hi, Steve. Welcome to the show. So happy to have you here.

[00:01:54] Steve: Thanks so much for having me. I'm super stoked.

[00:01:57] Aneta: Yeah, this is exciting. And I'm so excited because we met recently through a networking event, right through lunch club. Recognize that we just had so many similarities in our story and also in our journey and the interest that we have. So, I wanted to bring you on, just want to talk through some of the things that we both are interested in coaching and meditation and breath work and really just sort of invite. The audience into the experience that we had on our own transformation journey. So for those that don't know, know you, tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got to where you are today.

[00:02:37] Steve: Yeah, thanks so much. It's a great question. I really see my life right now as this epic transformational journey. Like I worked in pro sports and entertainment for 11 plus. In, partnership marketing. My last job was really my dream job. Worked at Madison Square Garden where I worked across all their properties, Nicks Rangers, and sports properties, managing some of their most prestigious partnerships. And then I ran into a bit of a dead end. I always thought success was. Get good grades in school, go to a good school, and get hired by a top company. Keep moving up, get married, have kids, that whole thing that we're taught that we're supposed to do. Right. And at the time, I missed out on promotion, was caught in the party scene for 10 or so years of my life, and my life just kept getting worse and worse. And my uncle's always been a role model of mine. He's like, you got to check out this Tony Robbins guy. And I. What do you mean to check out? He's like, yeah, I mean, I've been found him for 30 years. He's been transformational for me. And I said, well, I'm not really into the personal development stuff. And he's like, yeah, you just check him out. And then my life just kept getting worse and worse, and I ended up buying a ticket to one of his events. It was three and a half days. , it was transformational. It was amazing. And I was in an arena with 18,000 people, talking about personal development, and it was really the start of my awakening. On the first day, I redefined what success was to me, which was getting better in all the different areas of life and chipping away at that. And then after the event I got, I was so inspired. I was so motivated that I hired, hired a coach. At that moment, I was asking myself deeper probing questions in life. Like, what is my gift? What is my purpose here in life? Like, I have a gift. You have a gift, I want to tap into mine. So then something really interesting happened to me when I went to a yoga class with my wife and they handed out two cards at the end of this class. And I'm not really into yoga. My wife is a yoga instructor and the first course said, teach You to have an amazing gift to teach and help others. And the second card said, allow, and I got instantly emotional. I was like, holy crap. Like this is a sign. So I went back to my coach and I said, that's it. I want to be a coach. What do I need to do? So I joined, coach Phil, one of the top coaching schools around to get certified, to become a coach. and then the pandemic happened. And as I'm sure the sports industry and the hospitality industry got absolutely crushed. And I was one of 1500 people that got laid off. So instead of seeing it as playing the victim, I saw it as an opportunity that I was set free instead of letting go. Then I was like, all right, well I always told my coach I wanted to work for Tony. How do I get involved? And he's like, well, it's a really challenging process, you have to go through training. So then that opportunity came wrapped. And I went through a two-and-a-half-month interview process, and training with Tony and got the job. I worked for Tony for a little bit over a year, coaching people in all different areas of life, and business from the ages of 18 to 65.

[00:06:05] Steve: And it was really transformational for me. I'm 35 years old, but I learned about the human experience and what goes on in the human experience, what people go through, how to get people through it, and really help guide them on those journeys. So that was Tony Robbins. And then in May, this past May, I quit because I got another sign, continuing to pursue my self-discovery journey and open up and continue going down that path. So that's when I decided to kind of take all my knowledge that I've gathered on the hero's journey and, bring it back to the real world in a sense. And starting my own coaching business. So that's where I am right now.

[00:06:48] Aneta: I want to unpack so much that you shared in there and I was smiling. It's so interesting. One, I love when people go through their own transformation journeys and yours and mine are very similar. Mm-hmm. in some ways. So first of all, what was it like, I haven't been to a Tony Robbins event, but even seeing them or hearing them not in person, there's so much energy there. Like what is it actually feel like to be there in person?

[00:07:15] Steve: Yeah. I mean the one word that just jumps to me is just energy. I was literally in an arena with 18,000 people, and it's really about amplifying your energy and getting in that he, he says a peak state, and some people vibe with his energy. Some people don't. But at the time of what I was going through, I needed this amplification. But it was euphoric. The first day we walked across, he had us march out at like two in the morning out of the arena barefoot and, and walked across 10 feet of Bernie high coals. And it was really to just kind of show that fear is very present in our lives, but that if you're workable to walk across 10 feet of burning hot coals, you could really push through and do anything you set your mind to. So that was something that was really amazing for me because I remember walking through it and just letting out so much emotion just that I had trapped inside of me. So it was, definitely a recommendation if you really just want to shake yourself up a little bit to go to one of his.

[00:08:19] Aneta: Definitely this notion of fear. We see that, as coaches, of course, with clients all the time. But what were some of the things that you released if you were able to share that day? What were some of the fears that you had in your own life that you were able to overcome through that experience and also the additional work that you said you were doing with your own coach?

[00:08:39] Steve: Yeah, I think after coaching so many people there's a lot of fear out there, but the biggest fears are social fears. The fear of judgment, the fear of rejection, the fear of disappointment. The fear of making mistakes. The fear of I'm not enough. And a lot of that was caught up in my, in my game. I grew up in an environment. My voice really didn't matter, so I suppressed a lot of my voice and to really go out and express myself, I had a lot of challenges. So a lot of those social fears always were always coming up for me. And now that's something that I really focus on now as a coach. It's really helping people be bold in their self-expression because I think it's so needed in the world today. Like I think. Bold self-expression is really the secret, the happiness. In my experience of coaching well over 1200 hours or so, I've seen and felt so many different people, and what I've realized is that people are really struggling to express themselves in a bold, creative way and when you look around the world, you see it, you see the anxiety, you see the addiction, you see the social media, superficial sharing. You see the bickering, the meanness, all this. And these are all outcomes of people not growing their ability to express themselves fully. And this was a path that I was going down where I recognized. I need to make some changes in my life, or I'm going to keep squashing my voice or having my voice squashed.

[00:10:16] Aneta: Yeah. So what is your definition of self-expression?

[00:10:20] Steve: My definition of self-expression is really about bold self-expression, which is really about having your feeding your thoughts, feelings, and ideas with your unique creative spin on it. Like really being bold, lots of people. For, I'll use social media for example. Like lots of people are talking and sharing on social media, but are they really expressing, they're like, look at my cute dog, look at this fun meal, or where I'm traveling. But are they really expressing themselves? Yes, but not really. Like I'm looking more at like the bold statement. So I think there's a bolder statement that could be made where you're more vulnerable and you're rawer without those fears coming up. I think a lot of people are. Kind of still hiding and are still afraid to kind of put themselves out there, which takes a lot of practice. And that's what I love doing with the clients that I have, is really creating that safe space to practice in a safe environment, so that they can express themselves. Because I think the environment that you're in is so important. Because if you don't feel safe in the environment that you're in, you're not going to open up, you're not going to be yourself, and you're not going to express yourself. Right. So finding the right environment and practicing it with a coach. I think I know you could really transform your life. Yeah.

[00:11:46] Aneta: Yeah. I agree. And, I found with my own clients too, that I think the first step is really people helping them redefine what success is. And you mentioned this initially, we grow up and we have some sort of goals that either we think that we've created for ourselves or really fed to us by society, by our parents, by people in authority. You mentioned going to a good school, finishing school, and finding a partner. Yeah. Maybe find a great job, and start your home, but there's a gap between. , some of those things like maybe in society's norms, buying the home, starting a family, getting married, whatever those rules are, if you grow up with them and then retirement, there's like this gap. And I think that many times, especially, I'm not sure what the average age of your coaching client is. Mine is definitely between 35 to 55. It's this period of time where people say, Okay, so now what? Like, I'm still young. I'm still fairly young. I still have plenty of years, God willing left, but it's not quite clear what I do for the next 20 years or so. Do you find the same thing that it's kind of, that's the area of time where people are struggling to redefine what success is?

[00:13:04] Steve: Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of the time people come to coaching and they're just unclear. A lot of people know what they don't want, but. don't know what they actually want. So by actually coming into a session with us and really giving them the power to get clear, and to really create as you speak. Because I think that a fundamental piece of self-expression, creating as you speak and not trying to control everything. That's where transformation takes place. But yeah, I could totally relate to how important it is to find clarity and recognize people that are just unsure of what they want and where they want to go.

[00:13:45] Aneta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. One of the other things, as you talk about self-expression, it reminds me that, In working with clients, many times people don't necessarily place a priority on creativity or they're quick to say, I'm not creative, and their mind typically goes to art or maybe music or a couple of different expressions of creativity. But do you find that as well that, creativity is not something that many of your clients, place a priority around?

[00:14:17] Steve: Yeah, I think. Some people see. Yeah, I would say creativity. Well, creativity is self-expression. But kind of going back, I think what happens is in our environment, when we grow up a lot of. What we want to be doing gets squashed because of the fear of putting our real selves out there. So then we actually push a lot of that stuff down. All of our superpowers essentially creativity, self-expression, confidence, and assertiveness all get pushed down. So I think what I like doing with my clients is really helping them kind of rediscover that and bring that ad so that they could use that creativity in a bold new.

[00:15:00] Aneta: Yeah. Why do you think we do that in society? What do you think? That we're trying to tie creativity or behaviors to making money, to a vocation, something that has an end game and not just allowing or maybe supporting the creative expression just for the sake of creativity and for the sake of the beauty in and of itself. Like I think about that often. ?

[00:15:27] Steve: Yeah, it's a great question. I have this theory that I think a lot of it comes from like this industrial mindset. During the industrial revolution when machines were, we're taking over our human nature was replaced by machines. And people learned that the machines were more important and we weren't able to actually use our superpowers in the world. And then the school systems took over and this hierarchy of control kind of took over where we weren't allowed to really be ourselves. We weren't allowed to co-create and collaborate with other people. There's only one right and wrong in school. So it kind of takes, it took away the unique qualities that we have in ourselves I think is really where it starts.

[00:16:16] Aneta: Yeah. It's interesting and looking at young children, I have two adult children, but I always think if I knew as much as I knew now when I was a young parent, I would do certain things differently. Yes. And really continue to support and promote some of those things. It's really the curiosity, right, because I think that some of the creativity and the things that young children are so good at, Asking the really good questions and being very curious and wanting, yeah, to touch things to see if it's hot or they're going to get hurt. Some of the things that we sort of stifle for safety and security reasons are actually some of the things that would make you really successful later on in life.

[00:16:58] Steve: Yeah. And that gets squashed too. Our curiosity, what happened to me personally, when I was younger, I always got in trouble. I was, I was always in trouble doing something just exploring, experimenting with things. And I always got in trouble and I learned that it wasn't safe to like, be curious to do certain things to express myself. And that's another way that showcases our ability to kind of push stuff. In a sense, because we learn it's not safe to be our unique selves. So it's like why? Why use it then?

[00:17:33] Aneta: Right. So what are some of the things you like to do? Just to continue to explore your own cur curiosity and bring some of that back to sort of deprogram from some of the early conditioning that it wasn't safe. What are things that work for you or maybe that you've tried with clients that have really helped with self-expression in promoting it?

[00:17:53] Steve: Yeah. So I guess essentially what I do as a coach, you're.

[00:17:58] Aneta: Sure. Or even what's worked with you as you were on your own journey that allows you to become more self-expressive now, expressively.

[00:18:06] Steve: Totally. Yeah. So what I think it's really about having a coach, I think you can't do this alone. And it really comes down to up-leveling your beliefs, removing a lot of the blocks that come up on their journey. The social fears that I was talking about earlier. And the safe space what I do as a coach is really practiced with my clients through role-playing so that they could build a lot of confidence with me in a safe setting so that when they go out into the real world they're bold in their relationships or as a leader or when they're creating things. It's a big challenge and undertaking as a coach, and I recognized this with a lot of people I've coached who are living this journey and still living it going deeper with the client everything that we do as humans is pretty surface level, so, and what ends up getting squashed gets lost in her unconscious mind. So a lot of the stuff that I do has to do with kind of exploring those emotions and feelings in the unconscious mind. practicing with them in that safe. Yeah.

[00:19:15] Aneta: So one of the things I know that is important to you in that I'm also a huge believer in as a yoga and meditation teacher myself is breath work. And so tell me a little bit about the type of breath work that you do, how you got involved with it, and how you are able to bring that into your coaching practice as well.

[00:19:34] Steve: Yeah, it's a great question and it's, it's really important to me, and as you're talking about, one of the things I like to do for myself, The main one that I do because it's something that you could do by yourself. You could do it in a live class with other people. But yeah, I'd say the breathwork and coaching kind of life together for me. They're partners and music has always been a passion of mine and something that I wanted to kind of keep moving forward with somehow I was caught up on the wrong side of it but incorporating music into the breath work, so my wife and I went to Tulum two summers ago, and we went to one of these classes and we were really inspired by one of the classes. It was a breathwork class, except it had a DJ and a guide guiding us through this journey. And I was like, whoa. Like, what is this? This is pretty cool. I just had a really awesome experience. How do we get involved? And the women told us, yeah, you got to check out this place called Soma Breathwork, or Soma Breath. They're doing it and they're. Amplifying it. So I got curious, followed my curiosity, and my wife and I signed up for what was like their 21-day awakening journey. And, like my wife had this profound like thing happened to her where on the 21-Day Awakening journey, she was, she had a conversation with, with, with her dead grandma about how, like, how it's like safe and how she's doing a great job. And, like it. Profound. So we signed up after this to become instructors, and now this is something that we teach and incorporate into our practice. She's a yoga teacher who incorporates this with her yoga clients. I'm a coach incorporating it with my coaching clients. And what it is, it's it combines ancient proteomic yoga techniques, which is like rhythmical breath. Breath-hold retention is like holding your breath past your comfort zone. And then the big differentiator with them is brainwave entrainment music, which taps into like the different frequency levels, that we can tap into like beta, theta, gamma to really create blissful moments of kind of manifesting what we want into our life. So this has been such. It's something I really fell in love with that I now do with my clients. So the coaching aspect of self-expression is about practice. The breathwork component of self-expression is really about clearing out the space within your body because a lot of the stuff that we suppress gets caught up in our unconscious mind. So we really need to kind of shake it up a little bit and that's what the breath work is.

[00:22:16] Aneta: I'm a huge fan. And, do you find that you have some clients that prefer not to do the breath work? Like are there, or do you feel that everyone who gravitates to you is open to everything that you bring to coaching?

[00:22:29] Steve: Yeah, I'd say everyone's open to trying it, It's not just like people are probably thinking, I don't want to shake up my unconscious mind, but you like really need to in order to really create space to express and create as you speak. But it also has a ton of other benefits, like increasing your energy, better moods, improving your brain cognition, lower spread pressure helps with stress and anxiety. And you could reprogram your mind with this stuff in a really powerful way.

[00:23:02] Aneta: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, we only use about 5% of our conscious brain, so it's important to be able to open it up crazy. Yeah. To transform and we're comfortable with that, right? When people say moving out of comfort zones, it's actually pushing past that. It's opening up, as you say, to more and, and, and sort of feeling a little uncomfortable in, in some of the change. I find it fascinating that there are so many studies now with brain scans and about the benefits of breath work, the benefits of meditation, about just yoga and these practices, the ancient practices of them are over 5,000 years old. And so there were civilizations who practiced this way on a regular basis, had the benefits, had the sort of spiritual alignment before, and then we've forgotten so much of it, and now it's coming back. It's depressing in a more Yeah. It was suppressed, so it's interesting, but I'm really encouraged. People's receptivity to some of these ancient practices, even if they feel brand new to many people?

[00:24:08] Steve: Yeah, I see breath work becoming like, almost like yoga was kind of like this at one point. but I feel like yoga's now more mainstream. I feel breathwork is going to slowly kind of bumping its way up there. It's going to be on that same playing field as yoga at some point.

[00:24:25] Aneta: Yeah, I mean, I think with the breath work too, because we are a nation and actually probably a world of poor sleepers and very, a lot of people are mouth breathers. Mm-hmm, so we're not even breathing properly and it's having a lot of impacts, negative impacts on us. Hopefully, this will help to combat some of that, especially if people see the benefits that you mentioned in additional ones as. Totally. Yeah. Amazing. So I'm excited. I'm going to check out Soma's breath. I practice pranayama breath. It's something that I incorporated into my meditation as well. But I'm very interested in connecting the music piece and, and the part that actually trains the brain as well. Mm-hmm. So what is a great way for people to get involved in that if they're in?

[00:25:10] Steve: Yeah, it's a good question. So I actually have an article that I just posted on my LinkedIn about. Okay. How self-expression is the catalyst for personal growth, leadership, creativity, and better relationships. So it talks about how to get into that state to really practice self-expression. But then on the bottom piece, I also included a link to one of my favorites. breath work, and audio so that you can check out as well.

[00:25:38] Aneta: Okay, that's awesome. And one of the things you mentioned that I hear a lot too in practicing breath work is the retention of the breath beyond the place that we are comfortable. I'm always amazed that if I ask people to hold their breath for like seven seconds if I do the 4, 7, 8 breath or something like that it feels very uncomfortable. Even though if you ask the majority of people and say, can you hold your breath for seven seconds, they would. Of course. Yeah. So, yeah. What is that? What is that about in terms of us feeling uncomfortable retaining the breath and what is the benefit when we're able to do so?

[00:26:15] Steve: Yeah, it's a really good question. It comes down to intermittent hypoxia breathing, where you're able to kind of hold your breath past, past the comfort zone in a sense, and it creates more CO2 in your and that when you're holding your breath with the music, that's when you're able to really let go and feel into your body more, which a lot of people have trouble doing because most of us live in our head. So the breath really helps you get more in tune with your body awareness and having more body knowledge and that's really just the start for people. Just getting safe in their bodies. I know for me personally, it's still a journey. So I practice this twice a day, doing it right when I wake up and right before I go to bed. And as you more and more you practice it, you'd be surprised how much longer you could hold your breath, but also hold the breath work is a metaphor in life, in a sense, when we actually have to kind of push through a little bit more and comes up a lot for a lot of things that we're doing. So it really trains your mind in a sense too. When you wake up and you're actually doing real things in life, just kind of make another step forward or, hold on. One more. Do one more. Yep.

[00:27:37] Aneta: So in addition to the breath work that you're doing, and it sounds like with the yoga as your wife, hopefully, you're continuing to practice yoga, what are some of the other things that you relate to do to either for continued growth and development or just for maintenance of self-care? What are some of the other things, rituals, or practices that you've incorporated on a regular basis?

[00:28:00] Steve: Yeah, I think my morning routine is super important. I think if I start with this morning routine every day and I do absolutely nothing, I still win. Like it's, I do, I used to do so much, but now my wife and I just got a puppy. So we're, it's kind of broken down into like an hour, but I do three things. I wake up, I do the breath work for 20 minutes. I get up and do some sort of movement just to get the energy, flowing around. I do some like prayer and, and gratitude, and then I go, And, and walk and just get some sunlight so that, my brain can get activated. And if I'm doing those three things, my day is great and then anything personal growth, I love it and eat it. I'm getting more into consciousness and, exploring more of that personally. And then one thing that my wife and I are actually. Co-creating together is like these breath sound journeys that were where I'm DJing live and she's guiding life through yoga. We actually bought like 15 or 20 headphones and everyone who signs up gets a headset and they're guided through a sound journey from me and guided through her and it's kind of separated into yoga and breath work. That's amazing.

[00:29:26] Aneta: Yes. So very interesting. So is that something that you could just do in life or is that virtual as

[00:29:31] Steve: Well? Right now it's just through live. So we've only done one. Our second one is actually coming up this weekend. So if anyone is in the New York Long Island area, wants to come to check it out? Would love to have you, but yeah, it's relatively new that we're just kind of experimenting with it and it's been.

[00:29:50] Aneta: That's so great. And yeah, definitely we'll include all the details and the show notes for people that want to take advantage of that. So speaking of New York definitely [00:30:00] was our second home. I used to live there. And I know you live in Forest Hills. We talked about that. One of the places I love to visit is New York. So what would you say you've noticed about New York sort of post covid, post-pandemic because you've been there through the pandemic as well?

[00:30:15] Steve: Yeah. I would say it's changed a lot. So my wife and I actually moved back to Long Island, we grew up in Long Island. We lived in Queens for five years when we were both working in corporate. But I'm always going in and out of the city. I'm a huge Rangers fan, so I'm, I'm always traveling back and forth for games. But the energy has definitely shifted a bit, I would say. I don't know if it's just me changing, but I just think that my energy and New York energy aren't really, I don't know, resonating that much anymore. I kind of get overwhelmed a little bit. But yeah, I'd say it's, it's still the same old New York in a sense.

[00:30:54] Aneta: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was very curious just to see in terms of what's changed and, and what might be different. But, it's been an interesting couple of years for many places, especially for places like New York City and other big cities.

[00:31:07] Steve: Yeah, there's a lot of construction. Like Penn Station is getting completely cleared out and redone and they added this whole other station for people coming in from Jersey and all other states called Moynihan Station, which is beautiful. It's state-of-the-art which is really nice. But yeah, I mean that place changes and there's always something changing or building or, or tearing something down.

[00:31:36] Aneta: Yeah. So you've mentioned a couple of times signs and just being open and available to see them and so is this something that you always were in tune with or do you feel like the work that you've done has now made it makes your spidey senses a little bit more active?

[00:31:54] Steve: Yeah, it's such a, such a good question. Yeah. As, as I was mentioning before that, I was one that really lived in my head, and, going on the journey to Tony Robbins and becoming a coach and joining Coach Phil and quitting Tony Robbins, those were all like inner knowing, so all like feeling that I had inside.

[00:32:15] There were like little nudges that I was. Yeah, I should probably listen to that. And I, the more and more I started listening to my intuition and stuff, that's where I found the real peace and happiness and, and joy. It's a practice for sure. But really listening to that, that inner knowing that that intuition has led me down some really good paths, on my journey.

[00:32:41] Aneta: Absolutely. And the other thing that you said that I think is a piece of it as well as allowing, and I love the word allowing, sometimes the word surrender, which makes me feel very uncomfortable, but allowing seems to be gentler. So, what would you say are the things that you do to just remind us because it's very easy to just hold on tight and to resist?

[00:33:05] So what, what do you do that allows you to allow things to sort of come in and out of your life more easily?

[00:33:13] Steve: I think just being on this path and recognizing, that life is happening for you and not to you playing, not playing the victim. And as you mentioned surrender is a big part of it for me. I learned that if you try and control everything, that's when you start running into big challenges, right? Because control is one of the biggest delusions. So really practicing surrender and meditation. Having a great wife to kind of co-create and bounce things off each other, is very helpful. But, yeah, it's still an ongoing learning experiment for me.

[00:33:53] Aneta: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, the title of this podcast is Live the Width of Your Life, and it's from a Diane Akerman quote, and I ask all my guests now curious to see what your response is. What does it mean for you to live the width of your life? And how are you doing that personally?

[00:34:11] Steve: Yeah, that's, I love this question. So there's a song by Seal called Crazy, and there's a line in there that he, he says like, isn't it crazy that in a world full of people, only some want to fly? And I was like, God, Yes. Right, like what? You got people copying other people's dreams. You got people not going for their dreams, you got people hiding on the sidelines like, I want to fly, I want to find freedom. Like I really want to be out and make a, make an impact in this world. And for me doing that is by really stepping more into my full self-expression. Like really continuing to be open and curious on this path, of self-discovery. And really just listening to my heart and staying outta my head. Now, as I was mentioning before, I think if I just keep following my heart it's going to lead me down wherever I was supposed to go from the start.

[00:35:09] Aneta: I love that. Thank you for sharing. So what's next, personally and professionally? Anything else that we should be looking out for?

[00:35:20] Steve: I'd say I have my hands full right now. There's a lot, there's a lot of people that still want, freedom of expression. On a personal level, as I mentioned, my wife and I just got a new puppy, so we're super stoked about that, and that was definitely eye-opening in a sense. The next thing is definitely the start of a family. And we're also running a mini. Kind of experimentation. Next month we're going to California to kind of see if it's a potential move, just to start maybe a new adventure together. But I'd say the big thing for me that I'm working on right now is it's like a side project creating, these men's groups with a few other coaches, and it's tied to self-expression, but it's heavily involved with unmasculine vulnerability and masculinity. I think there's so much, stigma around that right now for men that they can't fully express themselves. They have to be all tough and macho. They need to be in control. Creating a safe space for men to open up and really speak what's alive to them in their hearts, and what's challenging them, I think is going to be powerful once we launch.

[00:36:34] Aneta: I think that's beautiful. And I know both Louis Housen and Justin Baldoni wrote books around, masculinity and vulnerability and sort of challenging some of the stereotypical behavior. And, I say that's fantastic. So, best of luck to you there, and how else can we best support you and the things that you're doing?

[00:36:54] Steve: Thank you. Yeah, that book, Lewis House book is actually the one that inspired us to do this. So yeah, it's definitely a big piece of what we're doing. Yeah. How you can best support me? Well, first off, I want to thank you for allowing me to be on this, and be a guest on your podcast. It was super fun. I think you're awesome and love what you're doing. It's so inspiring. Thank you. And I think we need more coaches. Out there uplifting and freeing humans. I think the human family is really suffering right now. And I think the ripple effect is real. Like every person that I free, every person that you, free every person, that all the other coaches are freeing or sending a ripple effect into the world. And I think we need more people doing that. I think the coaches may say, stop no more coaches because it's a little flooded right now, but I see it the other way. I think we need it. People freeing each other because I believe in free people. Free people and control people, control other people. I would say for support, yeah. You can follow me on LinkedIn TikTok, or you can send me an email at s my 11 gmail.com. And as I mentioned before, I have a special gift for your member’s special LinkedIn article with breathwork audio that I.

[00:38:15] Aneta: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. We'll include everything in the show notes and I'm with you. I think that I always say that creating lanterns of light, I love this image of light. And, as we continue to pour out love into others, I think they're able to do the same and then we should, mm-hmm. sort of share. More broadly in the world. So thank you for the great work you're doing. So excited that we have an opportunity to connect and that we're able to co-create this podcast session today. So hopefully you will come back anxious to hear more of the great things that you are doing, and I wish you continued success. Always.

[00:38:51] Steve: Thank you very much. Yeah, this was super fun. Appreciate you and yeah, we'd love to come back.

[00:38:57] Aneta: Absolutely. And if you watch today, subscribe, follow us, and be sure to check out all the notes in the show notes. So thank you so much. Absolutely, Steve, have the most amazing day.

[00:39:08] Steve: Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

[00:39:11] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. I appreciate you being here so much. Make sure you subscribe because every week you'll hear stories from people just like you. I hope you'll be inspired to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, create more joy and mindfulness, and live the life that you always wanted to live. And if you enjoy today's episode, please share it with your friends and family and leave a review. It would mean so much to me. Have an amazing day.