Ep.5 | The Jiu Jitsu Mindset, Universal Basic Income (UBI), & Purpose Born From Being Conned

📖 Episode 5 Summary

In this episode of Game Changer by Empowerhouse Coaching, Amanda Escobedo takes a break from politics to explore creativity, problem-solving, and the process of earning flow — both on and off the mat. 🥋

Through the humbling practice of Jiu Jitsu, Amanda uncovers a universal truth: while some areas of life come naturally — where we find ourselves in effortless flow — most require struggle, repetition, and resilience before mastery ever arrives.

Jiu Jitsu becomes the metaphor for life and business — a reminder that in many arenas, we’re all just white belts. To get into our flow and earn that black belt, we have to show up to the mat, get our butt handed to us, fall, fail, suck, learn, and try again — over and over and over — until one day, it clicks. It’s a practice in humility and perseverance, teaching us how to suck at something and show up anyway.

This week’s episode explores how creativity is cultivated through challenge, not comfort. Amanda examines:

• Jiu Jitsu insights — how discipline, humility, and repetition build the foundation for creative flow, and why embracing the beginner’s mindset helps you find growth in the grind.
• Universal Basic Income (UBI) — taking a step back to ask: What problem are we really trying to solve? What kind of society are we trying to cultivate? While UBI can soothe immediate financial stress, Amanda invites listeners to view it as a starting point for building a society that thrives — one that encourages creativity, contribution, and long-term flourishing, not just relief.
• A story of transformation — one individual’s journey from losing over $100K to a con artist to reclaiming that hardship as fuel. Instead of letting the loss define them, they learned to capitalize on the pain, turning adversity into a catalyst for purpose and profit.

Each story reminds us that our hardships are not the end — they’re the training ground. Amanda weaves in coaching tools to help you create a sense of certainty and belief in the unknown, cultivate creativity in the midst of chaos, and strengthen the faith that even the hardest chapters of your life hold hidden value and meaning.

This episode is an invitation to reframe the way you see failure — not as a setback, but as the soil where creativity, growth, and transformation take root.

💭 Reflection Prompts

👉 Where in my life am I still a “white belt,” being invited to practice patience, humility, and perseverance?
 👉 How might my current hardship be preparing me for a greater level of flow, faith, or creativity?
 👉 What would change if I saw every loss as a lesson — something working for me, not against me?
👉 Am I cultivating relief or building resilience — and what does true thriving look like for me?

🔗 References

• A Colorado city gave low-income residents a $500 monthly basic income for 2 years. The results were mixed.

• He lost nearly $100k to a con artist. He turned it into a business

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:02.904)
Check the mic and make sure it sound right, boys. Welcome to The Game Changer by Powerhouse Coaching, your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance, and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escamillo. I'm your host and intergame coach here to help you change the game. Welcome to episode five. We are back.

Today we're going to do it a little differently. I'll be honest. I'm a little exhausted for politics So we won't be reviewing any deep politics today. Usually when I do review politics, it's really focused on leadership and culture Really focusing a bit on what is keeping us divided instead of united and what are leadership behaviors that can help unite us and There's definitely a lot of areas of opportunities, but because there's so many areas of opportunities I get a little fatigued by monitoring

and watching so I have to kind of create boundaries with how much intake I'm taking on the news politics and through social media etc and so today's gonna be a little focused on more inspirational stories empowering stories we're still tearing apart the headlines but we're gonna break it apart a little different again hopefully in a way that feels more empowering and

apply to your life. But before we dive into, you know, I always love to share personal updates and this last weekend a friend and I, did some private jujitsu lessons with a pro fighter and from that I had just like a lot of different insights is what I'll say. There's a lot of different reasons why I joined jujitsu. One, I've always wanted to be into a fight.

I always wanted to get into a fight. Don't take that as a challenge. I just have this energy that I've just always wanted to do that. And so I feel like jujitsu is a great way to funnel that. But on the other side, I think there's a lot of mindset benefits when it comes to doing something hard. So it doesn't need to be jujitsu, but there's a lot of practical applications or ways I can apply it to my life. And so one is mindset. What do I mean by that?

Amanda Escobedo (02:16.576)
In the entrepreneurial like journey, there's a lot, it's a business, right? And so if you think of a business, there's a lot of different departments, whether you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got operations, you've got HR, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so for me on this coaching journey, not just coaching, but I'm myself on an entrepreneurial journey.

I have a history and a background in working for human resources. so initially when I became certified as a coach, my goal was to apply it within the human resources industry or department, if you will. And I...

There were just so many different facets of coaching I loved. was like, I think this is something fun that I could actually do on my own and explore. And so with that kind of growing a coaching business comes a lot of different areas within a business that I have not been familiar with, whether that's marketing, whether that's business development and sales, whether that's operational, whether that's customer focused. And so I have been on my own learning journey. And one of the coaching tools you will hear me say over and over and over in order to get us in

to the state of flow, right? The state of flow where it feels like you're just flowing through life, you're flowing around challenges, everything's just kind of working for you and it feels like you're in a sense of ease, etc, etc.

I'm not and I'm continuing to evolve in my state of flow within coaching. What does that mean? Well, you know, if you think of jujitsu and I like about jujitsu, we all start as a white belt, which means you are all very humbled quickly. If you've never done any type of grappling or wrestling, I think one of the easiest sports to kind of transition to is wrestling into jujitsu. let's say you don't have that background. Everybody starts at the white belt and jujitsu really teach

Amanda Escobedo (04:07.856)
you I'd say the art of showing up and continuing to suck. It's humbling because you get your butt handed to you and you're dying you're in survival mode and for some reason you show up the next day and you still get your butt handed to you and you have you know

instructor, a professor, a black belt there to show you different techniques and it's as soon as they show you these techniques your brain is like wait what was the technique can you show it to me again and you're practicing and you're not really getting it and then all of a sudden you're rolling and you're in a do-or-die survival moment and everything you just learned just left your brain and so I like to take that example and apply it to business because well one all these different departments we all start at white belts you know

the coaching side, I may be a really good coach and human resources. I may be a really good HR partner, but the reality is I started off as a white belt in operations and sales and business development and marketing. These are all areas that I have never actually dabbled my toes in. And so to just start a coaching business or any business and you don't have that experience and we just have this expectation in our minds somehow, somewhere this expectation is just coming that we should just

know how to do all these things and when things aren't working as expected we get frustrated with ourselves there's a lot of different things and that frustration is what blocks our creativity that frustration is what blocks our flow and so some of the insights that I really came across this weekend when I was in this private lesson with this pro fighter I actually recorded the whole thing I recorded the whole time we were really focused on takedowns so for a little context there is

You can do jujitsu with gi, which is kind of like, I call it the outfit, your uniform, where you have your belt around you, like the traditional kind of gi, for lack of better terms. And then you can also roll.

Amanda Escobedo (06:13.964)
or dujujutsu in no gi. So you're really just wearing kind of like armor, underarmor stuff. And so we were practicing in that underarmor outfit, so no gi, and the whole focus was how do you do takedowns in no gi? So you start standing, how do you bring someone down to the floor? And so part of that, we were doing these like one leg kind of takedowns.

We literally did this one like take down for an hour and I kept seeing the instructor's face as I was trying to replicate what he was teaching me. And he kept saying the same thing over and over to me, like keep your head up, you know, go to the right. And somehow my body kept ending up on other person's body and he was not ending up on anybody's body. And so I just kept doing it over and over. My mind wasn't clicking with what he was saying. And then sometimes I would click, sometimes I would do it right, but I couldn't repeat it. And I was like,

Like what was I doing right before?

And a lot of clicking happened after the fact. I watched the video after the fact. I'm able to clearly see what he was doing and what my body was doing differently. And it just brought me into this reflection and this insight of flow state of being because there are some times and some moments where we are naturally in a flow state where it's really easy. It feels to get into that sense of flow. And I think we've all had those sense of flows. It might be with a person that you feel

Really they aligned and connected with when you're communicating. It's easy. You're not overthinking You're not wondering what they think about you or maybe there's a sport that you feel very confident good at that You were natural at your innate gifts just came out Maybe you were a natural soccer player that was a little more easier for you Or maybe you're a good singer and it doesn't say that you like practice is necessary to continue to evolve and get better but Within you just throwing yourself into that sport. Maybe education. You're someone that just learned

Amanda Escobedo (08:06.774)
really easily. For me, would study all night, take a bunch of notes and still get B's and C's. School has always been very hard for me. But my point with sharing this is we all have those categories in which we can easily get into a flow state where our innate gifts are naturally being activated. That feels very magical for us and everyone's like, they're a natural, right? That's the flow state we're talking about. And

And there are these other areas of life that we are not a natural and getting into that flow state takes a lot of work.

And when I say a lot of work, like anything, it means you're failing, you're falling, you're sucking, you're reflecting, you're learning, you're pivoting, you're showing up again, you're failing, you're falling, you're learning, you're sucking, you're reflecting, you're pivoting, and you're showing up again. And you do that over and over and over and over. And then one day something starts to click. And even when you are learning what you need to do, that still doesn't feel natural. You finally figure it out.

to do that instead, do this instead. As you're taking those steps to do this instead, it still takes a lot of repetition until one day it clicks. And a small example, I remember being in the corporate environment, one of my first bosses, she wanted us to be a lot more efficient and effective in our work. So she removed our mouse.

She literally removed her mouse and she gave us like two to three pages worth of keyboard shortcuts. And our goal was to operate for a week or two with no mouse, which made us extremely slow, very unproductive. We had to keep searching through these two to three pages, looking for the keyboard shortcut to navigate to the next thing we were trying to do. And it sucked. It was terrible until one day everything just started to click, right? I wasn't looking through the

Amanda Escobedo (10:07.948)
anymore and I was just flowing through my keyboard but there was a painful experience before I got there and that's what jujitsu reminds me of that you have to continue to put in the work and it may feel like a slide back it may be very humbling you're sucking but you continue to show up you continue to reflect you pivot and

put in the work and then it starts to click and that's working into a black belt and on average it takes 10 years to become a black belt. So we really have to humble ourselves when things are not working out as we expected. Let's say you're not good at relationships. Let's say you don't feel like you're really good in leadership. Let's say you're you don't feel like your business and your entrepreneur journey is just flourishing. Your friend at 20 all of a sudden they just made millions of dollars doing whatever on social media and

and it's not working out that way for you, that's okay.

And so that reflection, that insight hit me really hard because I've been working with another client and these tools that we're practicing. One of the tools literally where we keep talking over and over is when things don't go as expected, the way that we're trying to get you to flow is to let go of your attachment of how things should be. And part of that though, in that moment, as she's navigating that hardship, she goes through a spiral. say she, the critter brain shows up strongly, takes over.

goes through a spiral and really starts to question why does this always happen to me and her faith because she's a very spiritual person starts to question God why are you punishing me and we've gone through a lot of different tools so introduce her to the brain critter we've introduced her to no expectations we've introduced her to the difference between open questions and closed questions and in the example that I'm giving you right now closed questions look like why does this always

Amanda Escobedo (12:03.062)
happened to me? God, why are you punishing me? You can hear the low vibration and the low energy coming from those questions. That type of question is what gets your nervous system off. You can feel the anxiety, the frustration. That is the critter brain that is blocking your creativity, is blocking you from accessing insights that will help you navigate and pivot forward. Where on the other side, if you're hitting that brick wall of frustration, things don't happen as you expect.

You might be asking how can even this benefit me? You might be asking what can I learn from this experience? And those type of questions are a lot lighter. They're open. They're curious They're full of possibilities and you can feel them ready to give you those insights that are going to propel you forward instead of keep you stuck Now if we bring this back to jujitsu We've talked about these tools with her over and over and over and she

understands them but they're not applying when she's in the moment of the spiral. And I had this insight was we were kind of navigating and talking through that

You're not expected to just get it because I've given you this tool. Now go out and conquer and I'm in a brick wall of frustration. So let me remember what Amanda said. Let go of attachment to expectations, right? Ask a powerful question. It's going to take a lot of practice. It's going to take a lot of failure. And number one, it's got to take a lot of intention. So again, if I go back to, I just learned this take down move, this one leg

take down move. When I go to practice I'm learning a lot of different take downs and then they hit my brain and then they leave it. So I'm like how do I remember all these things especially when I'm rolling in a fight or flight everything I'm learning that the instructor is teaching me just

Amanda Escobedo (13:59.95)
It hits my brain and then it leaves. And so it's really about being intentional. What I've learned, what really adds value and contributes to my success. When I come in before class and I say, here's one thing I intentionally want to practice. Let's say I want to practice the arm bar. And my goal is to figure out how to do one submission in one of my roles this week or.

within my rules today and my goal is to figure out that submission. That's my one thing, my intention and how do I master and do that? And I might even with my partner say, hey, instead of full rolling out, can I practice this with you? And so it's very intentional because I'm trying to figure out how to master that technique. But in the beginning, if I come with no plan, now I'm just rolling out an instinct, fight or fly, I can't breathe, everything I've learned.

Amanda Escobedo (14:54.582)
So, the moral of the story is all the tools that I teach.

A transformational process takes time. It takes intention. It takes failure. It takes reflection. It takes pivoting. It takes figuring out how to remember to apply this to your life. It's a very creative process and you have to figure out what tools resonate with you, which ones you want to continue to use and how to be intentional with turning them into a habit and a practice.

And really all the tools that we introduce you to, they require a practice. And so just like when you start to go to the gym and or go for a run and let's say you have a goal to run a marathon, you're starting to build an endurance. And if you stop running, you're going to lower that endurance. So all of these practices, these practical tools you will be provided with, they require a daily practice that become a part of your habit.

that become a part of your routine, that become a part of your identity. So it's not just you've been given a tool, you've been introduced to the voices of judgment, your voice of wisdom, you have to establish daily practices that turn them into your identity. And that is a transformational experience. And that's what Jiu Jitsu helps remind me. And so in the beginning, what I want to just validate is you will suck at practice.

practicing or remembering anything you're hearing from this podcast. And so I hope that resonates a bit that you're not expected to be good at just remembering what you learned and applying them in the middle of a fight or flight situation or middle of a point where you're triggered. It's really about being intentional. Intention is the key to your success.

Amanda Escobedo (16:54.72)
So that was my high horse just to kick us off. So let's get into some headlines as I mentioned today We're going to pivot a bit from politics because i'm a little just drained from politics And we're going to focus on a story and the purpose of focusing on this story is really I want us to think of creativity problem solving and so this headline is actually coming from business insider it's an article from business insider and the headline is

a Colorado city gave low-income residents a $500 monthly basic income for two years and the results were mixed. So a little summary of this story. So again, know city of Boulder it guaranteed basic income to a group of people, a pilot, and so they gave guaranteed basic income to about 200 residents, $500 a month.

for two years straight with no strings attached.

Now the results mixed reviews. So while the report, while the participants reported less stress, improve well-being and a greater ability to meet their basic needs for food, rent and utilities, the long-term outcomes really remained unchanged. So that's a part of this mixed reviews. And when we talk about the long-term outcomes remain unchanged, that means there was little improvement to childcare access, healthcare affordability,

savings, debt reduction, et cetera. And so this data really revealed, I'd say something a little simple but profound, immediate reliefs. So the immediate reliefs, they were solved for, but the sustainable transformation, that actually requires a lot more than just cash. And so I want to kind of break this down a bit from, again, a coaching lens. And so from my perspective, and when I say from a coaching lens, this is how I read,

Amanda Escobedo (18:57.864)
And this is how I process really a lot of news articles. Anything I'm watching or reading, my brain continuously evaluates this from kind of like a problem solving situation. And so in this story, the story isn't really about whether Boulder's solution is right or wrong. I'm not really criticizing their solution as being a right or wrong, whether it was a good idea versus a bad idea.

Really, I want us to look at this question from a bigger, look at this story from a bigger question. And if we were to kind of scale back instead of micro-solving, from what I would consider, or how I'm really evaluating this, if we were to scale back and ask a bigger question,

The bigger question that I would actually ask is what kind of society are we cultivating and does it align with the future that we want to live in? Because financial relief met immediate needs in this pilot, but it didn't solve for the underlying cost of living.

Yet people in this pilot, they could actually finally breathe. So a lot of benefits here, right? It covered their rent. It bought their groceries. It paid some of their bills, which kept them up at night, right? Which kept up that the stress. we talk about taking up real estate in our brain, their basic fundamental needs of like, where am I getting food today? Can I afford food? Can I pay my rent? That was solved for. But you know, once you solve for the basic needs, your brain goes to the next stressor and the next stressor for a lot of these individuals was really

You know, what about my child care access? What about health care affordability? Now, how do I save? I have no money to save. What about all the debt I have to pay off? And so none of those line items outside of the basic needs moved with this pilot. And maybe there's even an underlining cost that we're not even accounting for.

Amanda Escobedo (20:51.33)
costs unique to each person's circumstances, whatever stage of life they're in, whatever community they're a part of. And so the question becomes, what does success really look like? Is it a monetary program that covers all of our bills?

Or is it a society that really teaches people how to create value, to generate opportunity, not just to receive it? So because immediate relief does matter, and again, I don't want to belittle that at all, immediate relief is what stabilizes us. But what about sustainable transformation? That's really about helping people unlock their own ability to thrive.

And so that's really about building skills, building confidence, and building creativity. That's the mindset that really fuels abundance. So when people know how to create their own value, create their own money becomes, when we know how to create our own value, money becomes really a byproduct of that. It flows through your ideas, through your purpose, through your contribution. And it really is the teach the person how to fish principle.

It's applied really at a societal scale. And so another thought that came to mind when I was reading through this article is it brings us back to one of the biggest conversations that are really happening right now, which is related to AI. Now, many people fear that AI is gonna take over everybody's jobs and that, you know, that's a part of what fuels the call for universal income. So, you know, right now I've been reading and hearing a lot about this call for universal income because

of the fear of AI. It's going to take all of our jobs, so how are we going to pay for things? We should establish this. The government should pay for this universal income. But what if

Amanda Escobedo (22:48.558)
here's the question, what if AI will actually is less about, how do I say, taking people's jobs, less about replacing us and what if it's really about transforming the workforce? What if it's really about giving us a chance to reimagine this workforce entirely?

Yes, AI is a fact. We've already seen it. I've already seen it with some of the businesses that I support. It does reduce certain roles. Absolutely. We're not taking that away. But it also has the ability to open doors to new possibilities. Right now, AI is actually making it way easier than ever for people to create, build and share their innate gifts with the world. With technology, with digital tools, you can actually start your own business, launch a brand and reach

millions of people often with little more than an idea and a laptop. So instead of fearing AI, what if we actually embraced it? What if we kind of surf the wave rather than being swept by it? What if the future of work wasn't about jobs and adequate minimum wage, but what if it was about value creation?

And so a future where education policy focused really on helping people discover their innate gifts, solve problems and create impact. A society that empowered builders, innovators and creators. Because the truth is, AI may not destroy our purpose. It just might demand that we discover it. And maybe this moment, this is the intersection of fear

and innovation. It isn't about the rich really getting richer or the poor getting left behind. Maybe it's our opportunity to shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset to recognize that wealth isn't really finite, that value can be always be created, and that's where the infinite supply of potential is just waiting to be unlocked.

Amanda Escobedo (25:03.768)
When we learn to create value, we really learn to create wealth, not just for ourselves, but for everyone connected to what we build. All of this reminds me of just kind of my upbringing a bit in my childhood. Growing up, my parents always made my brother and I do chores. I was the house cleaner, my brother was the gardener.

young kid I had a step stool before I could even reach the sink so I could wash the dishes. One of my first toys was a toy broom, no kidding, and my dad always joked, you didn't know what you were doing at the time but it was a good start.

And I remember the days when my brother and I wanted to go play outside with our neighbors. We would run inside, ask my mom, hey, can we go and play with the neighbors? And she'd always say, yes, but I need you to clean the kitchen. Yes, but I need you to do laundry first. And so my brother and I really learned to have one foot in the house, one foot outside of the house, have the door cracked open. We'd ask if we could play with the neighbors. And as soon as she'd say yes, before she said, but,

We'd slam the door and we'd sprint off laughing and run with our friends. And we couldn't get in trouble because we didn't hear the but or the chore. All we heard was the yes. So looking back though at my childhood, I joke about it now, but I'm actually very grateful for all the responsibilities my brother and I were given. Those chores, they really built something much deeper.

than just cleanliness, right? It really helped us build ownership at a very young age. They gave us, and I'll say and I'll speak for myself, a strong sense of value, a strong sense of contribution, pride in being a part of something bigger than me, my family home.

Amanda Escobedo (26:53.57)
that same pattern has shown up in work as well. So I've seen how people really thrive when they felt like they matter, right? You see it in organizations when people feel like they're contributing to something meaningful. And the opposite is actually true as well. When people feel undervalued or unseen, that motivation and that engagement really drops. If you think about relationships that you're in, you know, I once dated someone who wanted to move me into

his house, pay all his bills so I could focus on growing my coaching business and I thought well that's very generous, kind even.

But then when he asked, you know, what would you do for me in exchange? It hit me that that felt very transactional because to me value isn't about what we get. It's about what we give and in a relationship at work in society, fulfillment doesn't come from dependency. It comes from a sense of purpose. And so from knowing we're contributing to something bigger than us or co-creating something, building something that really

manners. That is what actually creates a rich life. So maybe universal income, if we bring it back to this article, maybe universal income is part of the solution. Maybe it's part of the solution in the sense that it helps stabilize us, right? It's a foundation for survival that gives people that breathing room. But if we stop there, if we just stop at giving the universal income,

What if we actually risk creating a new problem, an unintended consequence like disconnection, loss of motivation, or that quiet erosion of self-worth? Because when people no longer feel needed or capable of adding value, it starts to affect more than your income. It impacts your confidence, your relationships, your mental health.

Amanda Escobedo (28:55.094)
And that's why I believe the conversation shouldn't really stop at just relief, right? At that immediate relief. It should really evolve toward renewal, toward teaching people how to create value, how to build, how to lead, how to contribute. Because thriving societies, aren't built on dependency. They're built on creativity, connection, purpose.

And so let's break this out a bit. That's a little bit of kind of a...

My whole coaching practice is called empower house. The goal is to empower house. It's power house. The goal is to empower you to activate your power house within. And so that's where I'm really, when I see the world and constantly seeing the world of how do we like my vision, my North star is really about a thriving society. We have everything we need, not only to be successful, but success means different things. But the fundamentals of success is being key.

contributors. Your self-worth is being a key contributor by using and activating your innate gifts. It's really a self-discovery process and that's where a lot of time when we are giving things to people and that alone is the solution, we actually start to take away purpose. We take away self-worth and so there may be a pairing is what I'm speaking to. And so I want to break all of this down, everything I'm speaking of and this article down into specific

coaching tools because what we're really talking about here again as I mentioned in beginning of this article is we're talking about problem-solving we're talking about creativity and ultimately purpose and so if you've listened to past episodes we've had five so far so if you've listened in one two three or four you've probably heard me say over and over and you'll hear me say it in this podcast episode now creativity always starts with a

Amanda Escobedo (30:54.928)
And you've probably noticed how many questions I've asked throughout this one single episode and all of my questions the goal and the intent is that they're very energizing, full of curiosity, full of wonder. That is the point.

because many people don't know what question to ask. So when I'm working with clients and teaching them the difference between closed question and open questions, we teach them what close questions sound like, how they're really depleting of energy. They're really hopeless. They're really jaded. They're bringing your baggage in. And then we teach them a bit of the characteristics of open question, full of wonder, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of time when I'm working with clients, they're like, well, I don't know what questions to ask.

And if that's the case, well, you don't know where to start when it comes to asking a question. I always say you can start with three easy peasy. And the first question is what problem am I trying to solve?

Now, when do you ask these questions? Generally, you're asking these powerful questions when you're up against the brick wall of frustration, right? That's when we're feeling stuck. When we're feeling stuck in our marriage, we're feeling stuck in our business, we're feeling stuck in our career, we're feeling stuck in our health. What problem am I trying to solve? And a lot of time, we feel like there's a lot of different things happening in our life. And so we really need you to focus. Let's pick one.

and let's focus on what is that problem that we are trying to solve. And from there, we might navigate to the second question. What would success look like here? Right? So a lot of time, it's funny when I'm working with people and I'm trying to get clarity on, okay, where's the area of the life or business that we want to focus on? And I start to navigate to what does success look like? People start to answer that question. And I want you to increase your awareness. They start asking or answering that question and telling me,

Amanda Escobedo (32:53.228)
all the things they don't want. Well, I don't want this and I don't want that. I'm like, I don't care what you don't want. What I want to know is what you do want. And that's probably why you're staying stuck because the only thing you're focused on is what you don't want. And so innately, that's what you're attracting.

And so what we want to do is let go of what you don't want. And we want to get clear on what you do want. And when we're identifying and clarifying what success looks like, your third question is, how will you know that you have it?

What will you see? What will you hear? What will you feel? What will you be experiencing? And so we have to get really tangible and specific with this outcome. And it's these three questions alone that can begin to unlock your clarity and your vision and your creativity. And so for me, I'll say, I feel super clear on the empowered society that I really want to cultivate. have a clear vision in a North Star on how I believe.

Society has the potential to lead and so naturally because I'm viewing the world in that lens open questions curious questions and these problem-solving dynamic come naturally for me because I have such a clear vision I have a North Star and so powerful questions stop being intimidating for me and they really become creative fuel

And so going back to examples of powerful questions, as I told you before, I've asked 45 million different questions just in this episode alone, just in this article. Let's go through some examples of some questions that I've already asked so you can hear what they sound like. So example powerful questions are, what kind of society are we cultivating? How do we go beyond relief and move toward a thriving society?

Amanda Escobedo (34:50.156)
And so even just let's just pause there right now. How do we go beyond relief and move towards thriving society? That thriving society, note that second piece of the question is really based on the North Star, the vision. What would it look like if meeting basic needs became the starting line for creativity, for purpose and for growth?

Again, going back to the North Star, and if we're talking about a thriving society, I'm very clear on what fuels a thriving society. Creativity, purpose, growth. And so, and I'm also with this pilot that they've come through, we've gotten a bit of clarity. So me asking this question acknowledges the pilot does solve for something, it solves for basic needs. But where I feel out of alignment, which what the article recognizes,

is that there were still other needs not being met. And so what I'm really asking is, you know, what if or what would it look like if basic needs became the starting line? So it's not the finish line, right? And so maybe that's why this pilot wasn't successful. I don't want to call it not successful because it gives us clarity. And so I think that there's an opportunity where this income, this universal income can still be a solution, but it's only the start of the solution. We can't

there. Which is why we ask the question, what would it look like if meeting basic needs became the starting line for creativity, for purpose, for growth? Because it's really hard to access your sense of purpose, your creativity, your self-worth, all of that when you're struggling to meet your basic needs. And then we move on to other questions that ask, how might stress and hardship be the raw materials of our transformation?

And that's another thing here. We're actually going to go into another article after that. That's going to dive a little deeper into this. You know, one of my strong perspectives is that all the hardships that happen within our life, they have the ability to be key contributors to our transformations. They actually have the raw materials to propel us into a richer life. They have all the learnings and the insights, but you have to have the tools to know how to extract them.

Amanda Escobedo (37:11.254)
And so how might stress and hardships be the raw material of our transformation? And what kind of culture do we want to intentionally build? Again, one that soothes the symptoms or one that solves the roots. So these are just some examples, the powerful questions. These are questions that get you very curious, that get your brain to start thinking, thinking, thinking, what if, let's go back to that question. How might stress and hardship be the raw materials

of our transformation. When we ask that question, if you don't believe stress can be a key contributor to your life and you're like stress sucks, stress is the worst thing that could ever happen to me. When we ask a question, how might stress and hardship be the raw materials of your transformation? Your brain will answer any question. Your brain will answer any question and the key is asking it questions are gonna propel you forward instead of keep you stuck. And so in that fundamental

fundamental question if you're going through a hardship, you're going through a stressor right now in your life and you're asking why does this always happen to me? Why am I being punished? Those type of questions keep you stuck. Those type of questions keep you anxious. Those type of questions keep you in hardship. But if we ask the fundamental question, how might stress and hardship, so we're acknowledging these things are in our life, how might stress and hardship be the raw materials of our transformation?

that starts to figure out, your brain starts to think, how can I use and figure out how to use this stress and turn it into an opportunity that works for me?

So these are examples of powerful questions. So this is a really big coaching tool that I want to extract and share with you. One of my favorite coaching tools is really asking powerful questions. And when I'm working with a lot of different clients, they're telling me a lot of different stress, anxieties happening within their business, within their team, and they're going on the rants. And I give them that space to get, do a whole brain dump is what I say. And then I bring us back to a focus of like, all right, you've given me a lot of key different areas.

Amanda Escobedo (39:22.768)
we want to focus on. might bring, okay, this is the essay, what takes up the most real estate in your brain right now. So that brings us to a focus. And okay, I say, what does, what problem are we trying to solve within this? So I'm trying to get clear on what is the actual pain point. And so powerful questions are going to get you there. Now, as we reflect on this story that we've reviewed about kind of this universal income,

mixed reviews of the outcome that helped meet the basic needs but didn't really contribute, let's say, that hitting all of their income, the sustainable life that we're looking for.

My curiosity to you is has anything in this episode really sparked something within you? Has it inspired you to maybe see things from a new perspective, to question what's possible or to reconnect with the part of your soul that's very curious, that's very creative? Maybe the idea as an example of universal income, maybe that idea doesn't really light you up and that's okay. But the question then is what does ignite your soul?

what societal, what workplace, or what personal challenge might be calling for your leadership, for your creativity, for your voice. Because that's what it really means to be a game changer. This whole podcast is called Game Changer and our goal is to see a problem, any problem, societal problems, personal problems, workplace problems, not as an end, but as an opening.

and an opening to create, to contribute, to make the world just a little bit better because you decided to show up within your purpose. And so if you're in this world, you're having a quarter life crisis, a midlife crisis, you're a high earner, great job title, maybe you just got laid off from your job and you're like, ugh, I hated that job anyways, but now I have no money coming.

Amanda Escobedo (41:19.092)
this is that pause the universe is trying to create for you to create more intention to lead with a sense of purpose and if you're in discovery of your purpose and how you can really add value to the world I invite you to take a step back and look around at all your frustrations and identify which one ignites you to solve for what problem

Are you passionate about solving? And that will be kind of the stickler for you. We all have different things that ignite our soul that are unique to us as individuals. So I'll leave you with that.

So let's go into our second article and our second article I'd say feeds very well into this first one. So the flowing through this one is called he lost nearly a hundred thousand dollars to a con artists, but he turned it into a business. So in the last story again, we explored how financial relief can really help people survive, right? But not necessarily thrive.

Because thriving is a transformational experience. It's about more than just relief. It's about renewal. It's about empowerment. It's about purpose. And the truth is hardship comes in many forms. It's not always about money. It can be, right? But sometimes our hardships are very emotional. They're very relational. Let's say within your family dynamic, your intimate relationships. And sometimes it's the kind of hardship that really shakes your

confidence, shakes your faith, it shakes your sense of self-worth, and it's the kind that really tests who you believe yourself to be. Because here's the powerful thing about our hardships, every single one carries the potential to transform you. It has the opportunity to teach us, to grow us, and if we allow it, it has the opportunity to redirect us towards something more meaningful.

Amanda Escobedo (43:23.394)
Because our challenges aren't just hardships, they're invitations. Invitations to turn your pain into purpose, to find the message behind the mess, and to create something valuable from the very thing that you believe broke you away.

And that's exactly what this next story really reveals for us. How one man, he took betrayal, shame, a financial loss, and he transformed it into creativity, contribution, and wealth. And so a little summary of this story and this article. So in 2013, Jonathan Walton, a reality TV producer in LA, he met a woman named...

Smith, someone who at first felt like family, felt very at ease with her. She was a magnetic, she was captivating, and full of stories about her wealthy Irish relatives, an inheritance battle that sounded straight out of a movie.

And over two years, Walton grew to trust her completely. He helped her through supposed crisis, loaned her money for legal fees, did everything a loyal friend would do, until one day it all unraveled and Smith wasn't who she claimed to be.

And so she was a con artist. And by the time Walton discovered the truth, she had already scammed him out of nearly $100,000. So Walton lost his savings. He declared bankruptcy. He put his adoption plans on hold. It was one of the darkest chapters of his life.

Amanda Escobedo (45:07.458)
But instead of collapsing under the weight of regret, Walton made a decision. A decision to change everything.

and he turned his pain into purpose. He launched a blog to warn others, which later evolved into a podcast and a book that have since earned him multiple times what he had lost. And today he helps scam victims worldwide, track down con artists, file reports and navigate the justice system all for free.

And just recently, he flew to Ireland to watch his former friend be convicted for new fraud charges. So we had a full circle moment of healing and closure nearly a decade later. As Walton puts it, con artists don't target anyone specifically. They target everybody. They're like the sharks moving through the water.

So the story of a powerful reminder, it's really a powerful reminder that mindset fuels your creativity.

our beliefs, they either ignite your creativity or they block your creativity. so beliefs or power or questions, close questions like why does this always happen to me? Bad things always happen to me. That just closes the mind up and they spiral us into self destruction. Those are beliefs or questions that come from what I like to call the critter brain. That's the critter brain at work.

Amanda Escobedo (46:42.424)
part of us that's really focused on protecting us, controlling and survival. But when we shift from the critter brain to the voice of wisdom and we adopt beliefs like even this somehow can serve a purpose, those type of beliefs and thoughts really re-enter our creative flow.

And those beliefs open the mind, they signal safety, and they tell the brain there's something meaningful here to uncover.

Once the mind believes there's purpose, it starts searching for creative ways to make that purpose real. And so in Walton's story, he was obsessed. He had an obsessiveness that both actually trapped him and was the key to his success. Now at first through this story, his obsession, it really showed up as a need to rescue. He described himself as saving a damsel in distress and his energy, his creativity,

resourcefulness, they were all there, but they were misdirected. And when he finally saw the truth, he didn't suppress that obsession, he redirected it. And that same creative drive that once found ways to financially save his friend from driving, from saving his friend, it became the drive that built his blog, that built his book and his podcast. And so that helped him now heal others.

Now, obsession isn't the enemy in this story. It was just misdirected. And I'm really highlighting obsession here. Obsession is a really big key. And so again, before we talk about misdirected, he was very obsessed with helping the damsel in distress, right? He was very obsessed with rescuing. Now,

Amanda Escobedo (48:36.716)
redirecting when guided by clarity, when guided by intention, that obsession is what actually becomes creativity in motion. And that's where everything kind of shifted for him. His obsession stopped being about saving someone else, but it really became about serving something greater. And he transformed his pain into purpose and his purpose into profits. So creativity thrives when we let go of expectations and we hold

on the faith. Those go hand in hand. you again, you've heard me say over and over and over one of the key tools and practices is letting go of our attachment to the outcome.

letting go of how we thought things should turn out for us. And that faith is what needs to be in parallel with letting go of expectation because there's a lot of uncertainty ahead of us and that's where your faith comes in and faith is a coaching tool. You have in that level of uncertainty the option to choose fear or choose faith and one will keep you stuck while one will propel you forward.

And so faith is an intentional belief system that really fuels your creative flow. It's a mindset. It's a mindset that says, even though this isn't how I thought it would go, I trust it's working for me.

against me. And so it's letting go of how we expected things to turn out and make space for curiosity, for reflection, for clarity, which are all the true ingredients for creativity. Reflection is what turns your hardships into wisdom. And without it, we stay stuck in regret. And regret is what keeps us frozen, while reflection is what moves us forward.

Amanda Escobedo (50:27.264)
And that's what Walton did. He didn't just heal, he reflected, he learned, he redirected. And that's why today he can see patterns now, right? He can identify red flags now, and he can now teach others what he learned.

And so I've experienced something very similar, not con artists, knock on wood, right? But in this reflection regret. So one of the things I always like to share with clients is one of the beautiful things about being human, superhuman powers, is we have the ability to time travel. We have the ability to travel to the past and we have the ability to travel to the future. But the key is how are you traveling? Are you traveling to past regrets or are you reflecting?

Are you traveling to future worries or are you planning for success? And so as an example of this regret versus reflection, I remember specifically after a breakup I went through, I spent an entire year reflecting on everything I could have done differently. And when I reconnected with the person that I had broken up with, I shared all these insights. I shared all my reflections, all the areas that they could have done better highlighting

I didn't know what I didn't know but now I know better and now I have the ability to do better right and I was very excited and very apologetic because I learned a lot of things about myself through that reflection to share all of my insights about myself and after I shared my insights I asked what have you learned through this process and I remember their their response was not to trust women again.

Now for me, that moment was pivotal. It really revealed a lot, something profound for me.

Amanda Escobedo (52:15.79)
It had a realization for me that we were living in two different mindsets, right? One was rooted in reflection and insights and the other was rooted in regret and bitterness. Now new insights are what fuels your insights are what fuel your growth, your transformation. It's what fueled my transformational experience for myself and his regret. It really built a wall. It built a lack of trust within himself and within

others and listen no shade to him and kind of going through that regret and that wall journey i've been there too in a relationship after him i have

to resentment and bitterness for over a year. Every single day I asked myself, what am I intended to learn from this experience, this breakup, from this relationship? But my voice of judgment was so strong, it took a lot more time in this second relationship to heal before I could access my wisdom, my insights, and my learnings.

And so what I don't want to take away from us and the journey of life is the human experience. Hardship is there are different types of hardships that we go through and there are different types of hardships that your brain processes differently, right? One breakup, I was navigating, I was able to ask and learn and I got a lot of insights that flooded with me.

throughout the year and then the second breakup I had it went differently the breakup went differently the completely navigated and I left

Amanda Escobedo (53:56.886)
jaded and bitter and full of resentment. So in that second point, I still stayed committed to asking every single day, what am I intended to learn? What can I gain from this experience? But in that second experience, what I didn't realize, my healing journey was greater. And so what I'm not saying is that coaching tools will immune the human experience. But what I am saying is that coaching tools can provide you with a sense of certainty that

what you're growing going through isn't the end-all be-all. They can really help you cultivate a mindset of faith and belief. A mindset that says even this hardship can hold value for me. And coaching tools really help you work through hard a lot better.

help you increase your self-awareness, to understand what you're thinking, what you're feeling, what you're learning. They help you get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable and they can help you cultivate your flow state. And so for example, if we go back to my example of jujitsu, jujitsu has been one of my most powerful metaphors for this whole coaching experience. We've all had, again, that flow experience, whether in sports and music, in work.

where time expands, you're no longer overthinking, you're in complete alignment with your body and your breath and your instincts and it feels like magic. And sometimes, as I mentioned before, that flow state comes naturally. But most of the time, it takes a lot of work. And Jujitsu teaches me to be intentional about what I'm trying to improve, to accept that I'm going to fail when I do. And I have to keep trying anyway.

And so really the formula of flow, the work to flow is super simple. Lead with intention, repetition and reflection, which means you have to try that over and over and over and over again until it sticks and you finally feel in alignment.

Amanda Escobedo (56:04.558)
It's the same for life. Letting go of expectations, whether about friendships, relationships, finances, isn't easy, right? Maybe you thought you'd be married by now. Maybe you thought you'd have more money by now. Maybe you thought you'd have a house by now. Letting go of what you thought your life or your career or your relationships were supposed to look like isn't easy. But if you're intentional about showing up, learning,

and letting go of your attachment on how you thought things should be, letting your letting go of your attachment on the outcome, even in the days that all of that feels really heavy, that's a lot of progress. But if your intention is to show up and let go, sorry, because transformation doesn't happen all at once. So that's the other key thing again, as I mentioned from the beginning of this episode, transformation takes time.

And it's really a time of surrender. It happens once you surrender one day at a time, one moment at a time. And so some days surrendering to what is to letting go of expectations, you might be successful. And some days, probably more than not, you will be unsuccessful with surrendering and acceptance. And that's okay. You have the ability to try tomorrow and the next day and then one day after that. And then

the day after that and then the day after that until one day it just clicks and you're finally in a state of acceptance right until one day you get the idea and the spark to share your story to help others and create something create something new out of the hardship that you just went through and that's where the magic happens magic isn't just luck it's intention practice over and over

And the other thing I always like to say about luck, luck, luck, lucky, lucky, lucky. Have you ever felt that moment where you're like, I'm so lucky right now.

Amanda Escobedo (58:07.338)
things are just happening for me. Well, Stanford University research actually shows that luck isn't just random, it's created. It's that intersection of preparation, curiosity, awareness, and action. And sometimes we stumble into this formula of luck by accident. What I want to actually teach you through these coaching tools and through all of these episodes is I want to teach you how to practice

luck on purpose, how to create your own luck with intention.

And that's what coaching really helps us do. helps us transform hardships from again, something that threatens us into something that can challenge us to grow. It strengthens our mindset to hold faith that even this can provide value. It helps us get creative in finding purpose and impact through hardship. Despite it, teaches us the art of letting go of expectations, not only to surrendering what is, but also staying open to the unexpected.

that can arise from this. In Jonathan's story of this article that we're speaking through, those gems were purpose and impact. So even though losing $100,000 from this person he thought was a friend that ended up being a scam artist, that's a really sucky thing I think we can all acknowledge. But now, him reflecting and looking back, I think he can maybe categorize this as a gem because he has discovered his own sense of purpose, has created value, and is

able to impact a lot of people by sharing his story and helping others. And again, what started as a deep wound really turned into a mission for him. His pain became a bath way, his purpose, and he's transformed it into profits.

Amanda Escobedo (59:59.744)
And so this is kind of a journey that we're speaking through and this is that creativity. And so just like a quick recap on some coaching tools that we've highlighted within this specific article. Number one is obsession. So I don't want to minimize that obsession is actually a key to creativity.

Obsession, if you think of founders, entrepreneurs, those hustles and bustles, they were obsessed with what they were trying to create. Obsession is a key characteristic of creativity, but when guided by clarity and intention, it becomes focused energy in motion. And so with all things, a mindset, the mindset that you hold, your obsession that you hold,

can either block our creativity or fuel it. It's just about how are you using it? So obsession is key and obsession tied with intention, right? Is what can actually be focused energy and motion. Mindset is another coaching tool that I want to highlight.

That's the bridge between fear and flow and it transforms what happens when we shift from that threat into challenge of accepted. So it's a lot of reframing is what I'll say. And so you're trying to figure out how to reframe circumstances so that they are working for you instead of against you. And that's a mindset. It's a paradigm shift that happens. The other tool that we've highlighted that's paired very closely is letting go of

expectations and faith. Those are two other coaching tools that we talk about. so faith is really the belief that even this, this pain, this disruption, this uncertainty can actually serve a greater purpose. And when we talk about letting go of expectations, letting go of our attachment of the outcome, this is the willingness to surrender to what is out of our control, to stay open to what can emerge next.

Amanda Escobedo (01:02:00.208)
And then the last piece here is really about creativity. And creativity is the practice of asking powerful questions to unlock your purpose and reimagine possibilities even in the face of hardships.

And so as we reflect in today's stories, I want you to ask yourself what current hardship might actually be an invitation for me to create something new. Where in my life am I viewing challenge as a threat instead of acceptance? Challenge accepted. What belief could I choose today that would help me re-enter a creative flow?

And what might I discover if I let go of how I expected things to go and stayed open to what's actually trying to unfold for me? Because the truth is luck doesn't just happen. Purpose doesn't just appear and transformation doesn't just arrive. They're all cultivated.

through curiosity, through reflection, through courage, and through action. And that's the work of a game changer. Not to avoid the hard, but to practice it until it becomes your superpower. That's all I've got for you folks. No politics today, just two articles, empowering stories here to serve you. My name is Amanda Escobedo and you've been listening to Game Changer.

If today sparked insights, ah-has, or new perspectives, I'd be oh-so-grateful for you to subscribe, leave a review, share this episode with three people in your network who are ready to master the inner game and unlock

Amanda Escobedo (01:03:48.654)
their potential. Your support, all of your support, it helps others discover this resource and it invites them to be the next game changer. Join me next time for another conversation of leadership, culture, and creating impact that lasts. Thanks for listening.