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Welcome to the Illuminati Spirit of a Gratitude Podcast on the one information platform.
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Hello, friends.
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My name is Your Castle Templar, and this podcast explores the famous unloading self-awareness and the power of our inner spirit, including the subject metal we all face.
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Joining me every week as I can hyperfund us, as we explore how adversity shapes us, how gratitude lifts us, and how we can all uncover the inner strength that we all have within ourselves.
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Join the conversation.
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I appreciate you listening in.
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And welcome back to the Spirit of Gratitude Podcast.
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Today is a State of the Union episode, but we aren't talking about politics.
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We're talking about real-life emotional resilience.
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Lately, everyone is searching for how to find authentic connection in a world filled with outrage, AI noise, or how to practice gratitude for burnout when you're operating on empty.
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2025 was certainly not easy for a lot of us, present company included.
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And for me, while I was posting clips and recording episodes from these phenomenal storytellers and guests, I was actually just trying to keep my head above water and clinging to the wisdom shared from my guests.
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I can help myself overcome that adversity, those self-doubts in my mind.
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That is the value that my guests have taught me in this journey of podcasting.
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So today I'm taking you behind the curtain to show you how the grit it actually takes to stay consistent when the metrics aren't moving and the doubt is loud.
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I'm going to be sharing things I'm doing just to stay in the game and the raw truth questions I've been avoiding.
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This, folks, you don't want to miss out.
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And finally, if you're building a career, a family, or looking for simply a mental growth reset, this episode is going to be the good, bad, and the ugly.
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And as I mentioned before, and I will always remain saying this, certainly I want to make gratitude part of your foundational success to help you turn that stress into strength.
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So let's get into it.
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And answering the hardest question first, folks, what is the one sentence I've been avoiding saying out loud about the podcast?
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And this is a two-part question that I'll uh answer.
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So the first, the very raw and vulnerable answer is this after 60 full episodes and over 350 reels posted, I still have less than 2,000 social media followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
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You know, the self-critic in me is so embarrassed that after 17 months of weekly episode releases, it feels awful.
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It doesn't sit well with me that all of this valuable insight from guests still lives in a vault.
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A lot of people are missing out on the tremendous wisdom and perspective from recent guests, like author and fellow podcaster Jemagorikov, who mentions, be honest with your soul, it already knows.
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Or High Point University President Dr.
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Nido Koubain, where he mentions, don't help people out, help people up.
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Again, great words of wisdom that many people perhaps aren't tuned to, and that falls on me, not on my guests.
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So definitely something is very wrong, folks.
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And weird for me to say this.
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This is where I have gratitude for recognizing this in terms of my own shortcomings and the shortcomings that are pointed out by my friends.
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You know, the self-awareness, knowing things are not optimal, and having the mindfulness to change proactively is what I'm doing and seeking my own truth, as Malek uh Ben Musa had mentioned.
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And that's the good news.
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I know what it is, and I am taking steps to address them.
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And I hate to admit it, a lot of it has involved these self-inflicted wounds.
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And certainly I'm not blaming others.
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I take full accountability and responsibility for what I haven't done.
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And I have not been listening to the valuable advice given from my Gratitude Angels and you know who you are, folks.
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Thank you, by the way.
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Not having a laser focus on who the actual target audience for this podcast is, which I thought were fans of the Ted Lasso show.
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It's close in terms of the themes that uh the show propagates in terms of belief in oneself when uh others perhaps uh or the self-doubt that you have when others believe in you, that wholesomeness, that that gratitude, that empathy, and the kindness.
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But again, that still doesn't hit the bullseye.
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And again, the thing that I haven't uh changed is even the handle yognation.
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So yognation is the community that I'm building, but how and where can people find me on social media if they type in gratitude?
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I want the spirit of gratitude to be front and center, but certainly people can't find me because of my handle of yognation.
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So that's what I am addressing and proactively working on.
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And again, this is where people, and most importantly, though, people need to know who I am.
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If I am to build an authentic audience of gratitude, guardians, and angels, it's helpful to know for people to understand my journey, what I've gone through, why I deeply care about gratitude as a foundation for uh an individual's success.
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And part of it is to be very open and honest and saying that uh I've been hiding behind the mic, truthfully, thinking that get the guests have the message and I'm simply the messenger.
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And while that is still true, I am still the face of the brand.
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I need to be more visible, I need to be more seen, I need to be more heard.
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And they need to see not only what I am, but what I'm creating.
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And what I'm creating, again, is the ability for each and every one of us that the answers are within ourselves.
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It's to remind this listening public of just this very theme.
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And, you know, a lot of our lives are filled with noise that we're just trying to avoid or tune down.
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And how do we do it?
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And those are the answers that I seek from my guests from the questions that I ask them.
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And uh, you know, as an example, when martial arts legend Ernie Ray Sr.
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talks about martial arts as a foundation of life and a discipline to develop a person mentally, physically, spiritually, and have good character, hopefully that resonates with a lot of people, parents especially, as they try and find tools to help and resources to help uh with their child's uh emotional and mental health.
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And again, it's just this wisdom, folks, that I'm just trying to propagate from the messaging of these incredible guests.
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And if you don't want to listen to your parents or spouse, that's fine.
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We all do that.
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I get it.
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I don't listen to my wife all the time, even though she may want me to.
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But uh again, if there is a guest's message that hits you at the right place at the right moment, that helps directly influences your heart or soul.
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And hopefully from that perspective, your situation might change if you look at a problem differently, or if you look at something else that is a roadblock.
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That is simply what I want to do, put out some good messaging out there, trying to fight uh the ills of technology in terms of what is gets the attention on social media today.
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Um again, that's simply the value when I'm part of the podcast, you know, to be plain and simple.
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Again, this the State of the Union.
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So that is the first part to the question, where I ask myself, what's the one sentence I've been avoiding saying out loud about the podcast?
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Now, the second part to this question is, and again, this is where I'm embarrassed to say, um, being vulnerable, being honest with uh with the citizens of Yog Nation, as I like to call them, is I don't, it's uncomfortable for me to ask you to like and subscribe.
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Um, I know it's so simple to say, I just for whatever reason have this fear, this trepidation.
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Again, these are all mental blocks that I'm creating.
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I'm self-imposing myself.
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But if I'm gonna help build this community of gratitude angels and guardians of gratitude, beyond just needing your support, I sincerely hope that the wisdom shared from my guests somehow resonates with you.
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And if it does, like and subscribe to let me know that what I'm putting out there is helping others overcome adversity, it's helping others reframe their perspective on how gratitude, again, is a foundation to help turn stress into strength.
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And so that's why perhaps I've been swimming at less than 2,000 media social followers.
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And again, there's a lot more to that in terms of the branding and re-messaging that I'm currently doing.
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But again, this is just a hard truth that um it's hard for me to accept just because that is not my nature to I'll just quote beg, which is how I've always viewed it.
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But again, I think that is where my perception is wrong.
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Um, there's no harm in saying, hey, if you like what you see, like and subscribe.
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It helps me know that what the messaging I'm putting out there is certainly helping you or helping another individual do something that overcomes a challenge.
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And I think uh I don't do that enough, I don't say it enough, and perhaps um another thing is I don't want to act like a used car salesman, even though my background is uh a technology sales professional.
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But again, these are just the self-limiting beliefs that I have that I wanted just to be open to my audience in this State of the Union episode, where I mean, it's uh I guess what's the best way to describe it?
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It's uh um sharing my thoughts and feelings and to help relieve the stress and burden that I've been carrying inside of me.
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Again, not asking everyone that who has viewed more than three seconds.
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Again, that's a metric that Instagram and YouTube uses, to simply say, hey, if you like something from uh great grandmaster Ernie Reyes or Hollywood actress Alina Huffman or the Miracles uh lead singer Cindy uh Justin, I would appreciate and and would be grateful to build this community with your support.
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And uh, you know, I think we're we're we're on to something really special because again, it just comes down to what is seen and heard on social media.
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Again, the whole purpose of this podcast is to um counterbalance what there is on social media today versus just some good hole, some messaging.
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Um, and it's I'm still kind of alarmed where 57 million people have some sort of mental health uh condition.
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Again, no fault of their own.
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But you think about all the resources that are out there podcasts, books, seminars, webinars, individual coaching therapists, you know, trained professionals who can really support you.
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57 million of us are still in this state where we're trying to get some of our mental blockers unblocked.
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And perhaps if this podcast is a way to help support you in that mission and in that endeavor, again, through the storytelling of guests, and certainly a little bit about myself in terms of how I view the world, my struggles, my ups, my my my uh my down moments.
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Hopefully it makes rising tide lifts all boats, as I had mentioned before in a previous uh podcast episode.
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And so that's the bad news.
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Well, I'm not gonna say bad news, but that is how I take a self-critical look of of uh of the state right now.
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Good news is, and this is where I'm really excited, pivoting to something that is more positive, that gives me momentum, and that is uh with 68 episodes, I've nearly crossed the 200,000 view threshold on YouTube.
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Again, taking baby steps, but it's meaningful to me that again, while I might not have the right number of followers, again, that's on me, but at least this messaging is getting out there.
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It's being viewed, it's being heard, and hopefully being internalized, because that's what it is.
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Again, the answers are within ourselves, and I feel that it is my mission to help bring these incredible storytellers based on the diversity of their age, profession, background, and culture, to help support you in something that whatever you're going through.
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And of course, uh, you know, on the positive note, I look at that Anthem Award bronze statuette in my office, and I think to myself, well, even though perhaps the listening public um may not see the true value, but at least, or in terms of number of followers, is that at least uh I know that I have the support and backing from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, who selected this podcast among hundreds of thousands of podcasts out there, specifically in the uh one of the seven uh divisions that they evaluated all of the 2,000 entries across 43 countries in the health category and having a podcast take bronze.
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Um, again, it's not a pat on my back.
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It's actually recognition to the guests, to you, the listening public, to the Anthem Awards to bring this recognition uh to life.
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And of course, this wouldn't be possible without uh my uh best partner that I've had in this uh journey, Backlot Studios, Tyler Copenhaver, Lee, Dejean, the team on the back end that brings this vision to life.
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Again, all of this content lives in a vault, and I just uh need the public support.
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And perhaps that is another uh sentence that it's it's hard for me to articulate and say I need help, right?
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I need help to grow this channel.
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Um, and I and the reason why I have chosen YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok is trying to address where the majority of people get information uh for them.
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And so I chose these platforms uh intentionally for that reason.
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And so again, much gratitude uh to the listening public to help support me, to help encourage me on those days where um I don't want to do it, right?
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But uh the best of the best, uh the top 1% in their fields, do it because they have to do it.
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It's that emo uh unemotion, the uh the emotionless discipline, I guess that's the word that I'm trying to say.
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It's uh I learned picked that up from a Navy SEAL and author, uh Jocko Woolinick.
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So if if Jocko, if you're listening, thank you.
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But again, it's that emotionless discipline to just fight through your everyday struggles and just continue to be better uh than you were yesterday.
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It only takes 1% margin to be better, and uh that's part of what I want to share.
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Um, the second part um is what am I currently doing to change things, knowing that I have this problem of less than 2,000 social media followers, is I'm doing a complete rebrand, and I'm really grateful for uh the owner of the Chua group, Washington Chua, the ad agency I've uh I selected to help me get started on reframing some of the brand messaging, which is where he coined the phrase gratitude turns stress into strength.
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And so I'm certainly taking that to another level.
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And um, you know, recently I was in London, uh great world city, uh really blessed to spend my uh family vacation there in the Christmas markets.
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Uh but nonetheless, uh in terms of the logo itself, uh doing a certain rebrand, I'll keep you posted, citizens, on what that looks like.
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But in terms of looking at the word gratitude at a high level, what is it that I'm really trying to achieve and the purpose of having the listening audience again find these answers within ourselves?
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And I think it comes down to a couple of foundational pillars of what gratitude really means, which is the uh I would say uh subcontext of uh underneath gratitude, you have awareness, you have courage, you have resilience, which we talked about emotional resilience at this at the at the start of of my intro.
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Then you've got appreciation, and then you've got humility.
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I think those are the five key elements of what gratitude really is, and again, how uh this is a foundation and helpful reminders of when everything may be going bad, wrong, not ideally the way you want.
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This is what I want to impart in the listening public is to say, look, you know, better days are ahead.
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And I think that's where I am optimistic.
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Um again, my nature of uh being a technology account executive.
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I just think that you learn how to be optimistic through tough times, again, through my eye issues, through uh my daughter's uh Tress challenges, and again, turning that adversity into strength.
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Um so again, I'm this is where I'm just thinking out loud, I'm without a script, so that's why I'm not as uh as eloquent as I was perhaps answering the first question.
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So that's part uh two of what I wanted to share in terms of the rebranding and the re-messaging, of uh of getting more followers, of getting this message that I believe is so critical at this juncture because people aren't necessarily looking for ways to avoid toxic positivity or have that toxic positivity.
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They're looking for real answers.
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And hopefully this podcast provides those real answers that again you internalize for yourself to help support not only you but your family, perhaps a loved one, um student in your classroom, um, anyone uh that you interact with.
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And so that's the second part.
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And um next question is what am I quietly carrying alone?
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Again, this is a State of the Union episode, and what am I quietly carrying alone is certainly the stress uh on my back and on my shoulder.
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Um I like to think that uh I'm a pretty good actor.
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Not that I'm a real actor.
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But uh again, when a person sees me, and I think it goes with a lot of people, you just don't know what they're going through.
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Um I g I I guess it's it's the old adage of of uh you know, be in a person's shoes and you and then you are able to know.
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what it's really like.
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And um yeah, it's just, you know, the the everyday stresses that I have to uh support to family.
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I got bills to pay, you know, purpose uh doesn't pay the bills.
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And so there's certainly something that uh, you know, again, being very open and honest, kind of the uh the the state that I'm in.
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But again, it just goes back to how the messaging of the guests and having gratitude really ingrained in every cell of my body helps keep me present.
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I guess that is a better word.
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Yes I have days where um I collapse and not think about it but uh before I go to bed I think to myself tomorrow's going to be a better day tomorrow will be a better day tomorrow will be a great day and that's kind of the the thought that permeates me when I do have a not so good day.
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I didn't say bad day but not so good day not as efficient not a um I'm staying silent folks just because uh again it's uh I feel like I'm in a in in confession right now but again it's all to help you understand my journey who I am uh so that way um I build and grow this audience for all of us uh rising tide lifts all boats I think the final question I want to answer is what do I want my daughters to learn from watching me build this um again I've got uh two adult daughters one's gonna turn 25 uh in a few weeks and another one is 21 I married young so that's why perhaps I've got older kids than uh than most others I'm 52 currently and hopefully they uh my daughters see in me building this thing from scratch um what it takes the hard work the sacrifice you know all the common elements of of what it takes to really have a vision to execute on it uh not lose your focus um you know at the end of the day I just want to be a good role model to them as I know my listening public does that as well uh to perhaps their tribe so to speak um and also I want to flip that also kind of kind of a second part is is uh giving honor to and respect to my parents who have given me this value system of discipline and hard work at an early age.
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Again I want to honor them as best as I can I always like to say that uh it's really my mom's kindness that uh lives in me that uh is a part of this podcast a lot and of course it's my father's discipline um again he was a person that uh came in 1970 with eight dollars in his pocket student visa uh earned his way to become a PhD in horticulture and soil science became a small business owner um and that's where uh again I grew up in a nursery and so plants don't water themselves so to speak and no matter whether it's 120 degrees out in a greenhouse where it's uh 100% humidity or uh 35 degrees you're still working you're still working and so that's what uh I'm really grateful for and so trying to be that dutiful son I thank you for listening and for subscribing for tuning in to this particular raw emotional podcast episode if uh something has resonated uh in the messaging that uh affects you or that can positively affect another person please uh do the needful and I'd appreciate uh reviews
