Ep.7 | Birthday Celebrations, AWS Outages, & Ground News

📖 Episode 7 Summary

In this episode of Game Changer by Empowerhouse Coaching, Amanda Escobedo celebrates her birthday and explores the power of perspective, creativity, and problem-solving — from personal milestones to system-wide breakdowns. 🎉

Amanda reflects on how moments of joy and moments of frustration can both spark transformation when met with intention. Through a coaching lens, she unpacks how shifting perspective — from micro to macro, from reaction to creativity — can open up new possibilities for how we live, lead, and create impact.

This week’s episode explores influence, innovation, and leadership through three stories:

🎂 Birthday Reflections — Designing a Life You Love
Amanda shares her birthday celebrations and the joy of creating intentional circles, meaningful goals, and environments that inspire growth. Life becomes more beautiful when you design it consciously — surrounding yourself with people and energy that expand you.

💻 When AWS Goes Dark — Creativity in the Face of Disruption
A 15-hour AWS outage disrupted businesses across the country, revealing how dependent our systems are on technology. Amanda unpacks this through two contrasting stories — one viewing the outage from a macro perspective that identifies systemic challenges, and another from a micro perspective centered on empowerment and ownership. Through a coaching lens, she highlights how creativity emerges when we integrate both — seeing the whole system and our place within it. True leadership requires the ability to zoom out, zoom in, and stay adaptable when things fall apart.

🗞️ From Frustration to Impact — The Story of Ground News
Born out of frustration with media that pushes less news and more narratives, Ground News became a platform designed to uncover bias and broaden awareness. Amanda explores how this story models the coaching principle of transformation: when we hit a wall of frustration, many people complain, point blame, or stay stuck — but creators channel that energy into curiosity, creativity, and impact.

Together, these stories remind us that creativity isn’t limited to art or innovation — it’s a mindset. Whether you’re facing a birthday reflection, a business outage, or a cultural blind spot, there’s always an opportunity to see differently — and to lead from that expanded perspective.

💭 Reflection Prompts

👉 What current challenge or frustration might be inviting you to think differently or take inspired action?
 👉 As you think about a challenge you’re facing today, is there an opportunity to expand your perspective — to see both the macro (systemic) and micro (personal) layers of the problem?
 👉 In what area of your life — health, finances, career, or relationships — could more intention bring greater focus, clarity, or purpose to your actions and habits?

🔗 References

• Amazon Web Services outage shows internet users ‘at mercy’ of too few providers, experts say
• One Tech Tip: How to prepare for outages that impact our online lives, from banking to chatting apps
• Ground News: A Platform Helping Readers Compare Media Bias 

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:02.894)
Welcome to the Game Changer by Empower House Coaching, your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escobedo. I'm your host, inner game coach, and I'm here to help you change the game. Welcome to episode seven. my goodness. We are flying through these weeks.

For those of you that don't know, I just had a birthday! Your girl is a Scorpio. Watch out. I am officially, I'm gonna share my age, I'm officially 38. Not at that age. I actually really enjoy getting older. As weird as that sounds. I'm getting more greys and embracing them. I call them my wisdom lights.

I actually used to have blonde hair. So for those of you that know me, I used to have really blonde curly hair to kind of help hide my wisdom lights, if you will. And then the pandemic hit and I couldn't color my hair anymore. And I was like, you know what, maybe this is the time to just embrace how God is making me. And so I decided to try and go all natural. And now I really do love my wisdom lights. My grays that are coming in, they kind of just look like natural lights.

At least that's what I tell myself. But when I had my blonde curly hair, used to love it. I remember when I was traveling in Morocco and this guy, this vendor was trying to sell me things and he was trying to figure out where I was from. So he was like, hello, hola, Guten Tag, bonjour. He went through like literally every language he knew and he couldn't figure it out. And then eventually I just kept passing by his stand every day and he just decided Shakira. He started calling me Shakira.

which I thought was amazing. Anyway, I had a wonderful birthday weekend. I actually celebrated a little early. So this past week I had some friends over, super low key, wore my, it's a costume I just keep wearing. My brother's completely over it. It was sriracha. I've worn it so many times. So my brother was like, I'm going to buy you a new costume. But I just think it's the costume that never gets old.

Amanda Escobedo (02:20.332)
I think a better fit for me would probably be tapatio. I am a big fan of tapatio. And actually, so much it used to be a bad habit. Back in the day when I had a really bad hot sauce fix or salsa fix, anything spicy fix, I would buy the Costco-sized tapatio and then dump it on my food. I wouldn't even taste my food. It would just be a bowl of tapatio. So much, I would go through one Costco-size of tapatio every two weeks.

a lot of freaking sodium. Especially for someone that has a heart condition. Luckily nothing has ever surfaced from that. But I just, think since my last surgery when I was 27, I was like, maybe this is a time to kind of kick the habit. And so I did. Sort of. Still love my tapatio, but a lot less and I taste my food before. But yeah, I just had a really wonderful gathering with a bunch of friends. We had costumes. I had a mix of like

Friends from Bumble BFF. I love my girls from Bumble BFF. Had a mix of gym friends, jujitsu, some family, a friend from, I wouldn't say college. She actually went to college with my brother. And then I met her in San Francisco. So just a mix of really great people. And then I went to Catalina Island with my sister-in-law. She's really my sister, I feel.

We love each other so much. I love her and I've been wanting to go to Catalina for so long I actually used to go when I was a kid and I used to go to this camp Del called camp Del Corazon and it was a camp for kids with heart defects and I've only seen the campside of Catalina Island. I've never seen Avalon or the city side So it was nice to just go there was a beautiful beautiful perfect day

The only downfall is my energy level was low. I ran what six miles, seven miles, six miles that day and I don't think I fueled enough after I just felt every moment my body was dipping and we ate a bunch but I just like I eat a lot when I'm working out and I did not eat enough and I was like give me ice cream, give me pretzels and it's still just what was not hitting my macro count so I was dipping. So I need to go again when my energy is not like that and then also just be probably intentional.

Amanda Escobedo (04:38.764)
with water activities. It was so beautiful. We should have been in water. That was on me though. But overall, great birthday. And then yesterday just was the official birthday. Hung out with my parents. We went and got a drink and celebrated just very low-key. Watched a little Dodgers game. But yeah, overall, lovin' it. And you know, I'd say with this birthday, again, getting older, I'm really enjoying getting older, mostly because I'm just coming into a sense of gratitude.

I think I'm loving more of who I'm becoming every single day. Like I talk a lot about creativity as a self-discovery journey and really the self-discovery process never ends. I'm constantly learning just areas of opportunity for me, areas which I love about myself and just, I don't know, I just really love who I am.

And it just creates a lot of gratitude. And part of what I love about myself is I'm becoming more more intentional with my life. I'm becoming more and more intentional about where I spend my time, what kind of circles I invite into my life. And everything has intention. What I eat, where I spend my time, my friends, my goals, everything is intentional. And so I just feel a lot more grounded.

and have a lot more structure, have a lot more purpose, and again, a lot more just gratitude because anything that gets my time really, really matters to me. And because anything that gets my time really, really matters to me, people that allow me to be in their life as well and spend their quality time with me, I just have a strong sense of gratitude that someone will decide to share their space with me and their time. So for all of you that...

But know me, that share your time with me. I just know I'm very, very grateful for you. I've got a couple articles to review today. So I'm not gonna go too deep into this first one. I actually was like, my gosh, this is such a fun article. So the article is called, The CEO's Secret Weapon, Why Business Leaders Are Obsessed. Can you guess with Jujitsu?

Amanda Escobedo (06:44.33)
And literally I was reading through this article, was like, is everything I said on like two episodes again on why I love Jiu-Jitsu, all the mindset benefits. Again, I'm not going to go too much into this article because it just highlights everything that I talked about. But if you aren't aware, just some of the tech leaders that really love Jiu-Jitsu or renowned CEOs, so like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Andrew Wilson, Dan Schulman, Mario Lopez, he's not necessarily.

CEO, he's an actor. But still a lot of people within very, I'd say, strategic positions really love jiu-jitsu. And one of the examples I just love to kind of share within this, again, a lot of benefits. I'm not going to recap everything that I talked through in the last episode. You're welcome to listen. I think it was episode five where I really talked about the benefits. But one of the things that I love, when my friends coined it, I don't want say coin, but I love what she told me. She may not be the originator, maybe she is.

But she said the reason why she loves jujitsu, it's almost like physical chess. And I was like, oh my gosh, what a great way to think of that. Because at the end of the day, jujitsu is just problem solving. And it's problem solving and being strategic. And so chess can be very much problem solving. And I just love the strategy behind it and then under a pressure cooker moment. And it really requires you to be super, super focused.

I like to think of, know, a lot of us have squirrel brain where it's hard for us to stay focused. We're maybe trying to work on a project or a presentation and our brain is thinking what's for dinner. Oh, I gotta go do this. I gotta do that. Or, oh, let me look and scroll down my social media. No, no, no, you are hyper focused on that mat because when someone is trying to choke you out, you're trying to survive. And not only trying to survive when you're up and better in the colored belts, you're not only just trying to survive.

You're thinking of how do I get out of this lock while you're thinking of what's your next move to be proactive and then create some type of submission or whatever it is, right? You're trying to become in the forward sense rather than the defense. And so a lot of benefits, but I won't dive too deep into that article, but I just wanted to like toot the horn. I was like, it's not just me that loves the benefits and the mindset and the meditation and the focus aspect. It has a lot of benefits that can help you.

Amanda Escobedo (09:04.75)
One article I do want to dive deep into I found a little interesting. So there was an AWS outage an Amazon web service outage a couple days or weeks within the recent month and it was a 15 hour outage and I wanted to review the articles on this two in particular just because there were there were two completely different perspectives on this whole incident that happened.

And what I liked about reading through these articles, it's less about pushing a narrative at you. That's less of how I want to look at these articles. For example, if you're reading about politics, if you get something from Fox versus CNN, those are narratives on either the left or right that are likely going to be pushed on you. But what I'm highlighting here is less about narratives being pushed in you, but more about creativity and solving.

for a problem that occurred. And one article really evaluates the problem at a micro level, at a more empowering level, and then the other one looks at solving the problem at a macro level. And I think it's just important for us to think about problems in that way, which is why I wanted to highlight that. So one of the articles, let's see, was really highlighted as Amazon's web service outage shows internet users at.

mercy of too few provider experts say. So that's what the headline says. And then the other one, the other headliner is one tech tip, how to prepare for outages that impact our online lives from banking to chatting apps. So let's break out just those two headliners as an example. Again, the first one is we are at the mercy of too few providers.

I found that headline just catchy to me just because it really speaks to a bit of fear and it speaks to a little bit of like, are we working towards a monopoly sort of sense? And there's a bigger macro problem that could be ahead of us. And then the other one again is very empowering in looking at this at a micro level. So it's saying we have a tech tip for you, right? One tech tip, how to prepare for outages that impact our online lives.

Amanda Escobedo (11:24.472)
from banking to chatting apps. again, micro versus macro. So let's give you a summary of just the incident a little more in detail. again, earlier this month, 15 hour Amazon Web Services AWS outage, it quietly rippled across the world. It shut down thousands of websites, apps and online systems that most people didn't even realize depend on Amazon.

So if you're not familiar with what AWS is, think of it as kind of the digital backbone of the internet. It's where countless companies from banks to hospitals, social media and government systems, they store and run their online operations. And so when AWS goes down, the effects are immediately immediate and then wide-reaching. Wow, why can't I talk? And so again, wide-reaching might look like banking apps like Venmo.

communication platforms like Signal or Snapchat, they all went dark. Or you can think of retail sites, hospital porters, and internal business systems, they all froze. So again, for 15 hours, can you imagine? Much of the digital world and the economy it fuels really stood still. I wonder if you noticed. So this wasn't just a tech failure, it was really, I would like to say, a reality check, a reminder of how dependent we all have actually become.

on a handful of invisible systems that keep our world running. And so again, we're gonna look at this through two different lens, two different articles that really capture this event in a very different yet, I'd like to think complimentary way. One is zooming out to explore the system itself, and then the other is really zooming in to help the individual navigate the problem.

So if we're gonna break down article one, so this actually came from The Guardian, and again, the title was Amazon Web Services Outage Shows Internet Users at Mercy of Too Few Providers. Now, The Guardian really approached the outage from, again, that macro perspective, a systematic view of how modern internet really operates, and their core message.

Amanda Escobedo (13:35.116)
The world's infrastructure has become dangerously reliant on just a few cloud providers. And if you aren't aware, the small few are really Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. These giants, these tech giants, but still too few. And experts warn that if one fails, it can paralyze essential services, which is a big deal, like healthcare, finance, and then even our national security.

And they called for, in this article, diversification in cloud computing, not in the sense of breaking up big tech, but really about rethinking how critical systems are distributed and safeguarded. Now, this article really pointed to a government discussion in the UK about whether Amazon should be labeled a critical third party. Meaning, so if you're labeled a critical third party, meaning it would be held to a higher national resilience standards.

much like our banks or our utilities. Now, the creative question, you always know, everything creativity, everything creative-wise starts with a powerful question. Now, the creative question I'd like to ask that raises an important point is how do we structure technology so that one failure doesn't take down everything? Such a simple question. Such a simple question that can stimulate more questions.

or ideas? How do we structure technology so that one failure doesn't take down everything? Immediately, maybe it's because I was working at aerospace for a little bit, I immediately think of national security. My brain goes on high alert on national security. So I'm like, yeah, we don't want failure. We want to feel protected. And so this is really this question. It's a call for reflection to consider how we design our systems.

so that we can really withstand disruption and protect our societies that really depend on them. So that's Article 1. Article 2. Article 2 comes from the Associated Press. And Article 2 is a reminder, the headliner, One Tech Tip, How to Prepare for Outages That Impact Our Online Lives.

Amanda Escobedo (15:48.192)
Now the Associated Press, AP's, piece took again that micro perspective turning a massive infrastructure failure into a moment for individual empowerment. It really focuses on preparation adaptability and I'm just going to pause for a second because my mind went when I was reading this article so my parents actually they volunteer for the Red Cross.

and they're all about preparedness, be prepared for natural disasters. And if you think of a natural disaster, that's something that is disruptive to societies and out of our control. We can maybe as a society reduce risk and that's where the macro question can come in and the government maybe can put some support in place. Again, as that other article talked about third party, so having a higher standards for certain things. But on the other side, what my parents really do is they do a lot of education.

on how you can be prepared yourself for a natural disaster. So my parents, as an example, they do a lot of presentations, even within their complex. They live in a 55 and over dirt complex, and they talk to their neighbors on how they can be prepared for a natural disaster, whether that's water preparation, food preparation, prescription preparation, whether that is having your money preparation, right? Because if there's a natural disaster and bank systems go down, how are you gonna buy things?

So they really talk about all these fundamental needs, what you have control of in this setting that is out of your control, how you can mitigate risk for yourself and or feel empowered in a worst case scenario situation. So that's where my brain went when I was reading this Associated Press. So again, going back to it really focuses on empowerment, individual empowerment, preparation and adaptability. So again, how did this happen?

So here's really how they talk about how you can stay grounded when they do. So this article offered practical creative solutions for every single person, everyday people. So number one, they talked about keeping your money in more than one bank account. They talked about saving important files across multiple platforms, maintaining backup communication options like SMS or phone calls.

Amanda Escobedo (18:01.134)
keeping some type of cash or online records for emergencies. Now, the goal of this article isn't necessarily to panic you, it's really about practicality, practical creative solutions for yourself using foresight, flexibility, curiosity, all to stay ready when or if systems fail. Now, AP, the AP piece, the Associated Press piece,

quietly reinforces what I consider a powerful truth, which is creativity isn't just art or innovation. It's really how we adapt when things don't go as planned. So you guys have really talked about my specialty is creativity in business and really creativity is a way of life. It's about flowing and adapting. It's really about riding the wave. And so it's not about getting stuck behind the brick wall of frustration, being fearful.

of uncertainty, it's really about setting yourself up for success. And being curious is where setting yourself up for success comes into play, being reflective. So if this outage happens, and maybe the outage didn't happen to you, but it could happen to you. And so it's about taking these moments and being reflective and saying, what can I do to help support myself and mitigate risk? So if we want to turn all of this into a problem statement, so I always like to think of if we want to

you know, get creative, not in an art form way, but in a problem solving way. And we want to solve the problem. The question is always like, what is the problem that we're solving? And so I like to kind of think through a problem statement and then transform it into an open question. So if I were to put all of this into a problem statement, I might consider, you know, the outage exposed something bigger than a temporary tech glitch. It revealed a fragile dependency.

that touches every layer of modern life like business, government, and individual. So that's a problem. That's our huge problem. But how do we turn that into creativity? The way we turn all of that into creativity is by transforming it into a powerful question. And as a reminder, powerful questions are very open. They're very curious. They're filled with just possibility. They're energizing. They're full of dumbness.

Amanda Escobedo (20:22.158)
Right? You're so curious it feels like a dumb question and it's those dumb questions we're afraid to ask that really trigger creativity, that really trigger all the unlimited possibilities. So if we were to transform this problem statement, if you will, into a powerful question, then we might ask, how do we design and prepare for disruption in a way that protects operations, revenue, data, security,

and communication from collapsing when the systems we depend on will inevitably fail, right? They have the ability to inevitably fail. Because dependency without reflection can create really great risk, but reflection without action, it doesn't really build any type of resilience. So a big part of creativity is clarity. Clarity comes from curiosity, reflection.

And the most important piece of creativity is follow through with action because clarity and insights is nothing if you don't do anything with that insight, right? So let's kind of break down a little bit of the macro versus the micro when we talk about the focus and the creativity response.

So we're going to break down a bit the two different articles. So let's talk a bit about the macro level, which is really focused on reflecting on our greater systems, right? If we talk about the macro problem, we have four of those big tech giants that really control a lot of all of that systems we're storing. And so it's really about the focus in this article is examining the broader infrastructure.

and how society organizes itself around technology. So that's the focus of that macro level. And then the creative response, I'd say, really encourages a systematic creativity. A systematic creativity, which is really about reimagining how to build safer, more distributed systems that can serve and protect the people. So again, it's really about a systematic solve.

Amanda Escobedo (22:29.112)
Whereas at the micro level is really about individual empowerment. So the focus is really looking at your own sphere of control, how you prepare, plan and adapt. And so the creative response here is really encouraging the person, the individual to be creative. It's empowering the individual to take action, to diversify their tools, to strengthen their digital resilience. So.

What's really striking in both of these articles for me is these articles are neither enabling a victimhood or fueling fear. It's really both of these from my perspective are modeling reflection, awareness, and proactive thinking, qualities at the heart of creative problem solving. And you know, the...

Last thing I'll kind of say on the micro piece, again, it's looking at your own sphere of control. When I do some leadership initiatives and I'm supporting leadership initiatives, I might develop a training. One of the things we talk about in the leadership role is your sphere of influence versus your sphere of control. As a leader, you can't control everything. And as humans, there's nothing that we can control. But what is it within your sphere of influence that you can help problem solve and solution for?

And I remember I was doing like a co-training with a friend with a peer. And the example he gave, I thought was so critical when we were going through this leadership presentation. And he really talked about his marriage, which I thought was a little funny. And he talked about how he lives in Florida and there's a lot of hurricanes. And his wife was watching this hurricane come closer and closer. Every two seconds, she was like.

giving him the play-by-play of where it was, how far it was, how many hours it was gonna take, or days it was gonna take to hit the house, all these things. And it was creating a lot of panic, anxiety, and fear for her and also him. Now her watching and tracking that hurricane, does she have any control of where that hurricane is gonna show up, whether it's gonna hit her house? Nothing. So her just tracking, I'm not saying tracking is a bad thing, but if your entire focus is just on tracking this

Amanda Escobedo (24:43.918)
hurricane that can create a huge disaster, you're not solutioning, you're not supporting yourself, you're actually just fueling fear, which then becomes a blocker for creativity. But if we redirect our focus from maybe what you have control of to what you have influence on, right? And so within here, and what you have influence on is actually a piece of control that you have.

And so if we think of within this tech giant world where AWS goes down, that's out of our control, but what do we have within our sphere of influence that we can create control out of? So if we go back to the hurricane, what my peer did to help support the situation was he was like, okay, well, what will we need in this natural disaster? So it was all about planning. So they started boarding the windows, they went to Costco and bought all these supplies.

They were looking at the tracking to decide at what point would it make sense that they decide to leave the home versus stay the home so that they have to leave the home with a good runway of time to make sure they can exit safely. So all of that then becomes solutioning. It turns into solutioning into practicality. And so now we're starting to influence the terms of safety for ourselves by putting action into place. And a lot of that comes into reflection, right?

So that's a little example that I wanted to give within this micro and spirit of influence versus spirit of control. Now, bringing it back to both of these articles, both the Guardian and the Associated Press, I'd say they both chose curiosity, reflection over fear. And I'll say maybe the...

Was it the Associated Press or the Guard? The micro level, the headline was a bit of fear. It had a bit just, think, to draw you in and have a hook. It was like we're at the mercy of these big giants, these big tech giants. I'd say that hook within the title maybe had a bit of fear. But the overall article, I felt, was very solution-based from my perspective. so leading a bit with curiosity, reflection, reflection over blame, that's another thing. And then the possibility of

Amanda Escobedo (26:53.964)
rather than panic. So it was really less about trying to place us into panic, but trying to think of what are the possibilities? How do we solve for this? And so if I were to put this into coaching terms, what are some key takeaways as it relates to creativity? When we're facing moments of disruption, when we're facing moments of change, when we're facing moments of frustration, all of what we can take from these articles, honestly, everything starts with curiosity.

Creativity begins with the question. You always hear me say that. You're always gonna hear me ask 45 million questions. So creativity starts with curiosity and curiosity starts with a powerful question. So really instead of reacting when things go wrong, so with AWS going down, what an article or people could have done was blame AWS. It could have said that.

You know, they're not dependable, they're the worst, and maybe businesses should remove and extract themselves from their services. But rather than assigning fault, it really was about asking a powerful question. What's really happening here? What can we learn from this? And then curiosity, that's what transforms chaos into clarity. And it was curiosity that really transformed this chaos into a macro level problem solving.

and then also a micro level problem solving within this process as well. And the other part here as well, know, choosing reflection over blame. So similarly, instead of blaming AWS for their outage, blame keeps us stuck. So anytime you're blaming either an individual or you're blaming a group, you're actually missing the opportunity to solve the problem. And so when we're blaming,

an individual you're blaming the group, the only way to solve that problem is to remove the individual, is to remove the group. But the reality is if we blame AWS and we just say they're not dependent, it doesn't tell us why they're not dependent. It doesn't tell us that why they're not dependent doesn't apply to Google, to Microsoft. Those other companies could also be at risk if we aren't solving for how this outage happened and how to protect ourselves.

Amanda Escobedo (29:08.63)
And so reflection is what actually opens up the space for awareness and understanding. So helping us identify what exactly went wrong, how to solve for it moving forward, reflection turns reaction into what I would say design, design for creative solutions. One thing I also wanna say just about reflection, us as humans, you'll probably hear me say this quite a few times on multiple episodes of this podcast, but.

One of the great things about humans is we actually have the ability to time travel. We have the ability to travel to past regrets, to future worries, and we also have the ability to travel to the past with reflection and we can travel to the future with strategic planning. Now how you travel is either going to block your creativity or it's going to fuel your creativity. And so

Reflecting versus regretting, reflecting versus blaming someone on the past, reflecting versus guilt. Reflection is what's going to give you your insights. Reflections is what's going to give you your learnings. Reflections is what is going to give you the information to pivot and be more successful for the future. When we are traveling to future worries and we're anticipating all these things that can go wrong and we're so afraid and when we're in the supermarket and our brain is so

worried about this presentation I have to do, this party I'm hosting, and all these people that are going to show up and it better go perfect, whatever it is that our brain is traveling to the future for. If we are sitting and worrying, that has zero value to us. What is more beneficial for us is if your brain is going intentionally to the future and it's trying to think through all the things that can go wrong,

it's writing it down and it's trying to mitigate risk, which means solve for it, actually putting in a plan to mitigate risk. That is strategic planning. And that has a designated time in which you are utilizing that brain space to travel to the future. So just know, anytime you're traveling to the future, the future worries, past regrets, whatever it is, that has zero value to you. It is reflection that has value to you when we are traveling to the past.

Amanda Escobedo (31:28.107)
It is strategic planning that has value to you when you are traveling to the future. Those are just some examples on how to travel, time travel, in a more empowering way. And then the other note I wanted to highlight here from a coaching lens again, and I mentioned this already when I talked about curiosity, within these articles, it's really about powerful questions that shift you from having a reaction to this outage, as an example, to a problem that happened.

and transitioning to creation, creativity. So open, powerful questions, again, they expand our thinking, they generate insights, they lead toward innovative solutions. And so really think of trying to ask yourself questions when you come across problems, when you come across the brick wall for frustration, like what part of this is within my control? What can I influence and do differently next time?

And then the last note that I'll highlight just from this article from both of these articles is both of these lenses, I really, I love give us two different perspectives. They give us a macro perspective and a micro perspective. So we're not just solving for one perspective. We're having the ability to think through multiple perspectives and solve for those. And so again, if we think of the macro lens, it helps us to see larger systems within this incident of this outage.

patterns, relationships, which maybe shape what's happening. And then the micro lens really brings us back to our own actions, preparation and response. And so together, both the macro and micro really help balance awareness and agency, understanding what's happening around you and how you can respond creatively within it. So I always like to have just kind of closing reflection for any type of article. And so,

I want you to think of again, this outage that occurred for 15 hours that affected communication and affected banking and affected a lot more. When systems fail, this happens all the time, not just with AWS. When any type of system fails in technology, in business, in life, they really invite us. And this is a perspective I want to invite you in is that when any system fails, they can invite you. It's an opportunity to invite you in.

Amanda Escobedo (33:51.298)
to pause, to not panic, but to pause. And they really remind us that creativity isn't just about innovation. It's really about awareness, adaptability, and design. So as you're reflecting on this story in particular and your own moments of disruption, I want you to consider the following powerful questions. You know, where...

Am I reacting to disruption instead of getting curious about it? What specifically went wrong here and what would it look like to design a better solution next time? What's the difference between what I can influence versus what I can control? How might I look at this challenge through both the macro lens, the system, and a micro lens, my role within it?

And then what new possibility might reveal itself if I just pause, if I reflect, and if I just ask a better question first in that moment of frustration, in that moment of disruption, in that moment of failure? Because creativity doesn't just build what's next, it really helps us navigate what's right now. So that's your first article or articles. We actually just went through two.

The second and the last one that I wanted to go through is really a story born, creativity born from frustration. And I want to, before I dive into this again, a lot of my purpose with coming into and creating this podcast, the idea I came in with was, I'll say it all started with frustration. I like to talk about that creativity really starts with a powerful question, but why do we ask a problem?

powerful question. really starts because there's a problem that needs to be solved and the problem really stems from the brick wall of frustration. And I have just been very frustrated with the divide of this country. And so for how united we are, we're very divided. For how united the United States is supposed to be, we're very divided. And so one of the purpose and my missions of this podcast is to help open up your mind that

Amanda Escobedo (36:09.038)
brick wall of frustration. Anything that is frustrating to you, any disruption to your life is an opportunity to transform into your sense of purpose. And that's what this next story is really about. So I came across this company called Ground News and I came across this company when I was scrolling through my social media feed the other day and it popped up from I'll say a comedian, an influencer, I don't know what an actress.

And her name is Alana Glazer. So she's actually a comedian actress from the city called Broad City, from a show called Broad City. And I personally think Alana is hilarious. And I feel like I look like her. If you look her up, we both have short curly hair. She's hilarious. I like to think I'm hilarious sometimes. She's very outspoken. I feel like I'm very outspoken. And she's full of fire. And I feel like I'm full of fire. So I feel like I have a lot of to relate to her on.

But I'll be honest, her and I have very different political views. And as much as I love her passion, I'm very passionate. Her perspective that she's often sharing on her social media feed, to me comes off as passionately judgmental on the people on the other side of her belief systems. And so whenever I see her posts come up, I usually just scroll past her posts, because I'm like, ugh, I don't want that kind of energy. Not because I don't respect her at all and her way of thinking.

But any type of side, the left or the right, that's really passionate about posing judgment on the other side, it feels very heavy for me. And so I don't really like to engage with that kind of communication on my social media. And for me, again, that energy, really, it fuels my frustration and it really depletes me. And I wanna come from a place of understanding, but when I'd say passionate judgments are fueling...

out, it really blocks my desire to have a sense of understanding. But this time on Alana's post, she was operating a bit different. Her energy, literally the energy of which she projected is what caught me to pause with how she was starting to communicate. And this post in particular that she did, it was actually an ad, it was an ad for ground news. She was acknowledging in this post how the news we consume

Amanda Escobedo (38:31.658)
is really shaping our mindset and our reality. And she shared this company called Ground News. And Ground News is a platform that really helps people see how the different outlets, the news outlets are reporting the same story, but having different narratives tied to them. And not only does it show kind of like the different narratives that are tied to them, it really highlights blind spots. That one story,

might not see or might be missing completely. And so in this moment when she was kind of talking about route ground news, talking about, you know, how she's getting infiltrated with news, I felt an actual sense of alignment with her again, like I used to feel alignment with her all the time when I watch her comedy and all that. But once we all start talking about politics, this is where I think we start to out of alignment if you're communicating in a way that has strong judgments. Now, again, I didn't

I'd say a lot of her passionate views, we don't necessarily see eye to eye with all of that. But what I appreciated with her in this post and how she was just sharing her experiences with narratives of articles, it's something I've deeply believed in for years, right? That we consume way too much information that is influencing how we see the world. And that's the human side of all of us that's happening right now. When we become aware of how perspectives are being shaped,

This is when we all start to open the door to understanding. And I'll be honest, watching Alana's post, I wasn't sure that she was aware of how the news was shaping her perspective because her passionate judgments were coming through in her post. But to have her energy shift and talk about ground news and talk about a bit of her frustration on how like, how do you know what is reality? I was like, I could get down with that. I feel the same way. And so,

A lot of our realities are getting shaped. And so some people, would say, are aware that the media does carry narratives, while others may not actually realize just how much those narratives, along with everything else we consume, is influencing what we believe. Now, the real challenge today isn't the amount of information being pushed on us, though that is a challenge. It is a lot. It's not necessarily the amount that's being pushed on our brains every single day. Social media.

Amanda Escobedo (40:53.942)
podcasts, headlines, ace, like all of this stuff. Like social media is the hardest I'd say on myself just because you have the ability to scroll through so many different videos and every video is like capturing your attention within like six to eight seconds. You're getting constant streams. And most of this is designed. I think the struggle with all of this is most of the algorithms are designed not to create clarity for us, but just to capture our attention.

So we're getting a lot of information, but the real problem is the design of the systems are there to just capture your attention and keep you there. Again, along with the algorithms that are really taking that a step further. either it's the headlines that are trying to capture your attention or the algorithms that are taking it a step further. They learn, I think all of us know this, they learn what we click on, what we watch and what we like. And then they just start feeding us more and more of it. And that repetition of our own biases

reinforces our beliefs and it starts to color how we interpret the world. And without realizing it our feeds really start to define our realities. And two people can live in the same neighborhood, which I find so fascinating, experience the same event, and walk away believing entirely different truths. Because the stories they're exposed to may not necessarily be the same stories.

And that's what ground news, I'd say, is trying to increase our awareness to that I find very fascinating. So ground news is not trying to tell you what to think. And you've heard me say that in the beginning of this podcast. My goal is not to tell you what to think. And so ground news is really trying to help you see how your thinking is shaped in the first place. And so.

A little bit about the story of ground news. I did a little bit of research. was so intrigued by just again, this post that Alana did. was like, this is what I've been saying. And I had so many thoughts on this before I go into my thoughts a little bit of the background and what ground news really is and the story behind it. So ground news was founded in 2018 by Harleen Kaur. I don't know if I'm saying that name correctly, but Harleen was a former NASA engineer who helped launch a spacecraft.

Amanda Escobedo (43:14.286)
that flew past Pluto and her brother, Sukh Singh, again, I might be butchering these names, but also an engineer, an app developer from the University of Waterloo. Now their story started with a simple realization that we can actually use technology to explore the farthest reach, excuse me, I don't know why I'm not talking correctly. We can use technology to explore the farthest reaches of space, yet here on,

earth we can't even agree on basic facts. Now that paradox really became their brick wall of frustration. They weren't necessarily angry at people they were frustrated by the disconnection and they saw how even the most intelligent people well-meaning individuals were living in different realities because of the information they consumed that was filtered that was framed

and that fed through biases and algorithms. So they asked the kind of question every creative mind eventually asks. If we know the system is broken, how can we build something better? So that last question, that question is what then became ground news, a platform built to bring clarity to a chaotic media landscape. Now, over the past decade, news has become

Increasingly polarized we've all experienced this not just politically but also economically ad driven algorithms made it profitable for new outlets to take a side and the more Emotionally charged for partisan the content became the more clicks it got the more shares it get would get and revenue would generate And so that's the business model behind every mod modern medium

But as outlets start to narrow their perspective to target specific audiences, we lose the ability to see the full picture. We stop getting news and we really just start getting narratives, which is a problem. Even when two outlets report the same event, they often tell completely different stories, not just in facts, but in framing. And when these stories hit our feeds, they start to reinforce what we already believe.

Amanda Escobedo (45:33.102)
And that's what ground news is set out to fix for us. And so ground news, their creative solution, ground news processes about 60,000 news articles a day, over 50,000 sources around the world. And it emerges all these articles covering a single event into one unified story for you. So you can compare how different outlets frame the same issue.

and they build transparency tools so readers can actually check biases. So the biases, the political lean and framing of each outlet, it checks factuality. So how credible the outlet sources and reportings actually are, and it actually checks ownership. So who owns this outlet and whether that ownership might influence the coverage. Now the ratings come from independent organizations. So all sides, ad fontes,

media, media bias, fact check, and are all paired with ground news ownership database of more than 2,000 outlets. So their vision, their vision for ground news, their vision, I would say is simply yet a little radical. It's simple yet a little radical. A world where civil debate is the norm, media is accountable, and a critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption. I love this.

Let's read that vision one more time. A world where civil debate is the norm. We have lost that today. And this is where I'm like, ugh, I miss the day we could just have debates. Because today, if you just disagree, you're a bad person. You're a hateful person. You are this person. can't have civil debates anymore. So a world where civil debate is the norm, media is accountable. We have no accountability right now. And critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption. That's another thing.

where I've mentioned I'm not trying to teach you, tell you what to think, I'm trying to help you cultivate how to think and that's that critical thought that comes into place. And so all of this is not about picking sides, it's really about how do we free your mind. Now what I love most about this story is how it began from awareness, not outrage. So again, they didn't get stuck in their complaint or blame the media, they didn't get stuck at pushing blame at a side.

Amanda Escobedo (47:56.568)
They didn't get stuck in blaming the politicians. They really just solve a problem. They acknowledge their frustration and they built something that helps people think more clearly. That's creativity. In motion, people. It's problem solving fueled by purpose. This is changing the game. Ground News turned their frustration into innovation and that's the kind of leadership

I believe the world needs more of. That's the type of creativity the world needs more of. And so we will leave you with this because if there's one thing this story reminds me of, it's that frustration is always a problem to escape. It's something, frustration isn't always a problem to escape. It's something that really is an invitation. And I want us to start thinking of that. Frustration is really something that needs our attention. It's an invitation to draw you closer. A lot of us want to

avoid frustration, avoid anxiety, avoid our brick walls of frustration. But these founders of ground news, didn't run from their frustration and how divided the world felt. They leaned into it. So that's what I'm talking about. It's an invitation to bring you closer. It's an invitation to what needs your attention. They walked toward the problem. They asked questions and from that awareness, they created something that helps others think more.

freely. And that's the real work of transformation. It's not avoiding what feels heavy or broken. It's asking, what if frustration is showing me where I am meant to create change? So think of it a little, think about this for yourself. So where in your life are you feeling frustrated right now? What's the problem that's tugging at you? Just needs your attention. The one you wish someone else would maybe fix for you.

What is that little tug that you want someone else to fix for you, remove from your life? What is that someone, is that someone you? What if that someone is actually you to solve for it? Could this be the moment, this tension, this discomfort be pointing you towards your next creative breakthrough? Could what you're going through actually become something that benefits others? Because that's what being a game changer

Amanda Escobedo (50:21.814)
is all about. It's turning that frustration into fuel, anxiety into awareness, and awareness into action. And so this week, don't run from the wheels of out of alignment, right? What I want you to do is get curious, walk closer to it, ask yourself, is this frustration showing me where I am meant to lead? Because maybe the very thing that's challenging you right now is the thing that's calling you to change the game.

That's what this podcast is about, folks. It's about figuring out what's eating you inside, where are you stuck, where are you at that brick wall of frustration, what needs your attention, and is there a possibility that what is tugging at your anxiety, what's tugging that little soul that's whispering in your ear that's saying there's more to life, or if you are just as frustrated with the divide of the country, is there something there that needs your attention?

that wants you to help solve, that wants you to help be a contributor, that wants you to help transform this internal frustration you have into your sense of purpose, to create an impact in this world, to create your own legacy. All of these are invites. All of these are your possibilities to step into your sense of purpose. All right, folks, that's all I've got for you.

My name is Amanda Escobedo and you have been listening to Game Changer. If today sparked insights, ahas, or new perspectives, I'd be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, and shared this episode with three people in your network. Share it on your social media. Share it to anyone that is ready to master the inner game and unlock their potential. Your support helps others discover this resource and it invites them

be the next game changer. And join me next time for another conversation on leadership, culture, and creating impact that lasts. Thanks for listening.