#7 - Olena Severyn: Digital Nomad Life, Community, and Emails People Actually Read

In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Olena Severyn about building a grounded, mobile life through community, presence, and thoughtful communication.

Olena shares how choosing the right environments, cultivating presence, and how writing genuinely human emails support meaningful work, wellbeing, and connection. Drawing on her experience as a digital nomad, email strategist, and wellness practitioner, this conversation explores how calm, clarity, and simplicity create work that people want to engage with.

This is a practical and reflective conversation about community, attention, and designing rhythms that support both performance and optimism.

This episode explores:
• Community as a compass for travel, work, and decision-making
• Presence and self-awareness in a mobile, nomadic life
• The freediving mindset: calm, grounded, and steady under pressure
• Writing emails people actually want to read
• Simple communication that builds trust and connection
• Work rhythms that support focus, wellbeing, and optimism

Guest links:

• Olena Severyn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olena-severyn/
• Network School: https://www.ns.com
• Recommended book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle https://eckharttolle.com/the-power-of-now/

Chapters:
01:02 Olena’s background, destination travel, and community-first living
11:40 Freediving, presence, and calm under pressure
19:00 Staying connected through simple communication
21:40 Writing emails people actually read
30:05 Belonging and contribution
35:00 Building successful communities at Network School
38:00 Productivity, structure, and balance as a digital nomad
41:00 Listening to your body: nutrition and self-trust
43:22 Inner work, optimism, and imagining positive futures

Explore further:
Discover your Natural Genius one-on-one with Sam: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Subscribe to hear future episodes.

Credits:
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Melbourne and Bali, 18 January, 2026
Produced at the Travancore and Violet Town offices, 26 January - 5 February, 2026
Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. The amazing Olena is that wicked combination of strong and sweet. I have this memory of her when we were at network school together arriving at the breakfast table, hands full of franjapannies, and handing them out to people. She is a font of knowledge, all things email marketing and nutrition and fitness. And she's got a really strong inner mindfulness and resilience and focus. I'm looking forward to this conversation. Enjoy hearing from Alena. So very special. How are you? And how are you enjoying your yoga teacher training that you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Thank you, Sam. I'm very pleased to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. Um I am enjoying it very much, like one would. Really, yeah. It's definitely very intense. It's out of my comfort zone to like be waking up before 6 a.m., starting my first class at 6 45 a.m. And it's not even bad. I think in India they start at like 5 a.m. or something, right? So like the fact that they're starting at closer to 7 is already mild. And then we just have classes until 6 p.m. Like very intense, and you know, like lectures and uh physical practice, um, all of that. Um, it's been great. Yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

And one of the many reasons why I wanted to get you on for a lovely conversation was that you're a digital nomad. I saw on your amazing LinkedIn about uh profile that you uh chase sunsets and you're constantly traveling. Tell me more about that. And is the yoga teacher training an example of that? That you saw that come up and you use that as a destination for where you might go next. Tell me, tell me about life.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

All right, um all right, so the digital nomad thing um came out of something seemingly bad, I guess, which was bad, which was COVID. Um before that I was a bartender actually, and uh I was running my I was working in a restaurant and I started running my bartending company, so it was like a mobile bartending company. I had a few bartenders who would go to the parties, sometimes with me, without me. So that was like picking up. I was pretty good at it, people loved me, but then COVID hit, and obviously I kind of had to shut it all down. Then um COVID kind of lightened up a little. I could have continued, but I quit alcohol during COVID. So being a bartender was kind of like, yeah, I'm not in the, you know, I'm not gonna be more like shots, guys, you know, maybe in integrity with me at that point. Yes. COVID was the time when I started exploring how I can be making money online. And thanks to my partner at the time, he he was already making money online, so he kind of like helped me a lot to transition to uh being a remote worker. And once the COVID cleared up a little bit, we started traveling together. Um, and then we separated and I continued traveling. And uh yeah, so like the cool part, I guess, or like what I always look for when I'm looking for a new destination is always a community. That's how I found network school. Yes, and how we met. Yeah, that's how we met. Um, the best community ever, really. Um yeah, so always searching for community. One of the communities was network school, another community that I was also like chasing in a way was free diving. Where the assets are warm, that's where I'm freediving at that time. Yeah. So like it's like Turkey is great in November or like in October, Egypt is great in December, then it gets cold on that side of the world. You're gonna go to like Bali, that's where it's still warm but not too hot. Um, and just always looking for community because, like, no matter how great the place is, if you are by yourself there, it's often not as enjoyable anyway. And that's what you learn that it's not about like being in new places, new cool places, but in the end, you just kind of like go towards where you know somebody or where there is like an opportunity to meet a community and just connect, connect with people with yoga though, it was a little different. I have not had an intention to be a yoga teacher. I kind of got pushed into it, and I was like kind of like, okay, yeah, sure, I'll do the yoga training. And um, if you remember at network school, I was teaching stretching classes because I'm not a yoga teacher, so I was like teaching stretching. Um, I was getting good response from people. Um again, I did not have intention to become yoga teacher, I was cool with just you know stretching classes, and then I went to Prospera with um Ivan and uh and Taras, and they were like, You can teach uh yoga. I'm like, no, no, I can teach stretching. They're like, okay, and then I see on the schedule yoga, and I'm like, okay, guys, come on, like, I mean, like total imposter, and you know, I'm not qualified.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And as an aside, my interpretation of the uh stretching that we did was there was a lot of yoga-related stretches, so I'm not surprised that our friends at network school teased you in that way.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah, right. So uh, I mean, I watched some videos, I prepared classes, I was like building up, adding a little more flow into the stretching classes, like yoga flows. I even started teaching salutations. There was like, you know, inhale exhale, all of that stuff was very new. Yeah. Um, but then I was like, for a month, I had to teach like three or four yoga classes a week, and it was always like such stress, and I'm like, okay, I need a yoga, like I need a certification because I feel like so underqualified. And then um I was kind of like, okay, yeah, I'll get it sometime somewhere. And then I talked to Dawn, and Dawn was also looking for a yoga teacher certification, and I'm like, Oh, do you have like a recommendation of a school? Because I'm obviously new, I have no idea how to choose a school. I kind of looked at it, I'm like, and she's like, Yeah, like I'm thinking about this school. And I'm like, okay, cool. And I booked myself a uh yoga teacher training, and now Dawn is also here.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I think I was hoping that you were gonna say that um friend from network school, goodness, this is quite the network school conversation, isn't it? All of the links as you say from a great community.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

So kind of like that you have somebody there with you while you're doing it. That's yeah that must make it even more enriching.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, I mean, we honestly we have like completely separate programs because she's becoming a teacher for teachers. I am uh like a beginner, beginner level, so our classes are separately, but I saw her on a motorbike once, and I think today we're gonna finally meet and actually have a coffee or something. But yeah, so to our point of like responding to life, like honestly, I did not choose at this point, I did not choose to become a yoga instructor. It kind of just yeah, like it just um happened and I enjoy it a lot.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Uh and I I wonder also whether you're noticing that the stretching and the other classes that you've done in the past, they're you're on your way already as a teacher. Yeah, great. And you mentioned that you travel uh with the community in mind in the destination you're looking at. How do you assess a great community? How do you know in advance or what do you have like spidey? I jokingly call them spidey senses these days. Do you have a spidey sense around uh like take network school that we both turned up to in March last year? Um what what might have triggered you thinking that that was a good possible community to spend time in?

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Honestly, like I got asked that question just yesterday, and I was trying to remember the answer of like how that happened, but I uh also think that it was kind of a response, and as if I was invited there, just because I was in a place where I was like, I have no idea what I'm gonna do next. And it was after a breakup, and it was just like I I have like no plans, I don't know where I'm gonna be in one month, and I received the email to apply for network school, and I'm like, sure, you know, community, somewhere to go, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Um and what about I mean, Prospero is probably easy because you'd heard about it quite a bit and uh and you knew people going there. What about other places like Egypt that you've been to recently? How might you assess uh the future Egypt's in terms of knowing what the or maybe it is that you get recommended or you get an email or something like that, and that's you've already got the lovely word of mouth working.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

So I had like two options. I could have gone to Argentina because there was a lot of like from uh Honduras from Prospera, I could have gone to Argentina because there was Ariana and like my friends Carol and like some other people that I knew, so that was one option. Uh-huh. Then uh to Egypt, I got invited by my friends that I met a few years ago, and we kind of like been meeting in different free diving spots.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

His 40th birthday in Egypt, and there was like a lot of other people that are his friends, and like people I've been for, so I got invited very much to a 40th birthday party, and I'm like, yeah, Argentina sounds awesome, but it's kind of cold, kind of expensive. And I'm a whole vaccine, and I'm like, I don't feel like getting any you know shots, uh, and I'm like, I'll just go to Egypt. I'll just free dive there. But generally, it's like any like free diving world is very small because there are only like specific spots where you can free dive, and it's like relatively limited and limited to season, limited to just depth. So I just know that you know, after this yoga training, I'm going to Ahmed, which is east of Bali, there will be free diving communities. Some people I've met before, some people I have not met before. Wow. But generally, freedivers are very self-aware people. Like generally, of course, there are like some ego-driven freedivers as well. But I would say that like generally you need to be very much in your body, you need to be very grounded and self-aware. You if you let your ego in, you will suffer a lot in free diving, a lot of injuries. Um, so most people are very like cool people, very chill, very understanding, non-judgmental. Um, so like generally, I'm let's go into you know free diving communities, whether it's in Turkey or in Egypt or in Bali, have not been to the Philippines, but like you know, I I know I'm going to a free diving school, I have a community. Like that's kind of how easy it is.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Oh my gosh. Alena, your free diving impresses the socks off me. I think that I've I've seen your amazing photos of your free diving, of which I think you've got them on Instagram, haven't you? Because I do I hope a lot of people see them. You look beautiful, and it is just such an impressive feat uh to see you free diving. And so uh you just listed off a few different locations where free diving happens, which sounds fascinating. That you the way that you choose community or the way that you choose to live your life and where you end up sounds so amazing. And I wonder if you could tell me more about free diving. So you just mentioned that that the people are grounded and good at sort of putting aside their ego for the moment. And are they high performers? Are they people who get a lot of things done in life as well if they're so self-aware, or are they, as you say, really chilled out and just enjoying life and and free diving a lot, or how does what sort of tell me more?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

That's a wonderful question. I I think there is a good mix of people when I'm free diving. There are definitely people who are all they do, like they're so into free diving that that's kind of like their life, and then they're just making money on the side, you know, because they focus like on competitions and stuff, right? They're like actually performance free divers, so there is that group of people. There is a group of people who are vacation free divers, so they are kind of you know, they have like two weeks there to like come and just you know take a vacation from work and just like free dive, free dive. So what they do in their life, like yeah, they can be high performance, but here they come to just like chill, they do is free dive. Uh, I guess there is a segment of people like me who has a lot of different interests. Free diving is one of them. I kind of like work a little bit, so I can afford free diving and like travel. Yes. Um, and like my work is just means of exploring other areas of living and kind of like sponsoring my hobbies, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Um as an aside, I saw a uh talk the other day, and the um great presenter was saying money is a tool. Sounds like that's the case for you, darling.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Yeah, so at this time, money yeah, is is a tool. I definitely would like it to change a little bit in a way and have money more as energy that I receive back for investing all of my energy um into like what I genuinely see I want to bring into this world, but right now it is a tool for exploring what it is that you know that will allow me to like to find what it is that I want to invest all of my energy into. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

And I know that you're close with your family and friends. How do you manage that as well with uh being in all different places? Do you make sure that you get uh get to see them at different times through the year? What's the how do you keep that close connection or is it a lot of um seeing each other online?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

That one is tough, and it is especially tough with younger family members who grow up and yeah, who like grow up separately and I like don't get to see them. I have a six-year-old brother and 16-year-old brother, and they both love me so much, but somebody told me a very good point. I'm like, I don't know why they love me so much, like they don't even see me, we don't talk much. And somebody made a really good point. Like, you really don't know why they love you so much. I'm like, no, just because your parents, or right, like my father and my stepmother, they speak really good of you. So that's kind of like where it's coming from. It's just they don't know, but like my family are speaking really good about me. So my six broth six-year-old brother sees me a couple of weeks a year and he loves me so much, you know, just because they are like, oh, Alena is coming, like she's so nice, you know, like just because of the way how they talk about me. And that was like a little, you know, heartbreaking in a way, because I don't see my brothers grow up, and I've never been there, not for my 16-year-old brother, because I moved to Canada when I was, you know, 13 years ago, so I did not see him grow up. They were in the Ukraine at the time, and now my six-year-old brother is growing. Also, I'm like traveling now, even though they are in Canada now. I'm not in Canada anymore. Um, and I also have my goddaughter who is gonna be too soon, and every time she sees me, I'm a new person. Like, she I have to take like three days to you know being there with my friend, like staying in their house for her to start like coming up to me and like you know, like interacting with me and like getting used to it. So with like my father, my mom, my friends, it's good because we keep recording voice notes or like you know, the circles, like the ones that you record in WhatsApp, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There are like different threads, different conversations going on at all times with the friends, but um with the family. Um, I'm I would say I'm I'm not my parents are not somebody who I would share things that matter to me, things I struggle with, just because I manage in their emotions oftentimes when I when I'm the one who needs help. So I kind of like to talk to my friends about things that I need help with.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

And you can still do that online, you don't necessarily need to be yeah, I think voice notes are the best. I agree. Yeah, and uh and yeah, I bet in different communities, yeah, from all of the different communities that you're part of now, Alena, WhatsApp seems to be so helpful. And last year when I was at the snow, I had friends. Uh I think probably because I've been going to the same mountain for a same ski hill for a long time. Uh different friends turn up. So oftentimes I'm I've got the people that I'm staying with, and then I've got others staying in another accommodation nearby, which is just a complete delight because we sometimes bump into each other when we're skiing, and sometimes we organise. I saw a group of friends that were about 16 staying in a different place, and they set up this fabulous WhatsApp group, and it was just so fun. It was like two people are over here having a coffee and inviting people there, and then other people have just had a fantastic run somebody else, somewhere else, and then it was just good fun to see that banter and how WhatsApp um groups seem to keep people together, and then they just die or get archived or whatever. But I can understand. I um I think that you must do well to be able to manage those many threads on uh those many message chains on WhatsApp.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

They're all archived though, because notifications are something I try to like stay away from.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yes, yes, um I um I'm amazed, I'm pleased to hear you say that because uh I've often got my phone on silent and most of my notifications are turned off. And I feel like that's and often like even more these days, I'm turning um Do not disturb on a lot of the time so that I can get either get things done or just have my own space. There's a real great gain from spending time turning notifications off because it actually doesn't take that much time, both on desktop and on phone. I really do think that makes a huge difference. This moment is about your natural genius. If there's a spark within you that wants to develop a lighter way, a clearer signal to achieve more, I'd like to work with you one-on-one. If you're after inspired direction in what you have to give, get in touch with me via our website, naturalgenious.com.au. Now back to the natural genius. Elena, I know that you're such a whiz with the work that you do as well. Tell me what you're noticing with internet marketing or email marketing these days and the clients that you have. What sort of things are you enjoying doing the most? What do you think people are really enjoying in terms of working with you and collaborating?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Right. Let's see. Yeah, you're really switching up years and I'm like thinking of all the things that today's Sunday that I need to complete before the next week.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Um Is that working? So it's obviously you just work in different at different times to ch give yourself a chunk and say Sunday is today this or this week or today is when you need to get some stuff done.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um all right, so email marketing. Um I work in e-commerce, so I work with online stores. I have a couple of clients right now, and it kind of keeps me happy uh in terms of the workload. I guess the interesting part of this work is just finding like new creative ways to engage with people because there is just so much going on in the email box. Um I don't know, maybe it's me who is subscribed to hundreds of things just because I kind of like look for inspiration always. But like I would assume that everybody has pretty much a lot of promotional emails going uh going on. So uh just finding the angles that would break like that, um, give that um what do you call it, like uh scroll stopping effect on people. So I think this is the most interesting part of what I'm doing right now, and this is what I'm like focused on is like how to make something that's like completely different from everybody everything else that's going on there. So people actually, instead of like automatic scrolling, they stop. That's what everybody's doing is in marketing, like same on Instagram. And so, what's the Alana secret source?

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Like, you sound like you're fascinated with it, which I think is a good first step. And what uh do you find do you find like ideas come to you in the shower, for example, or what what's um how do you how do you what's the process or the way that you do that?

SPEAKER_00 23:55

I think I just look a lot through inspiration, like what other people are doing, what like catches my attention. Um, and then you just try it and see if it worked. And I mean, designed emails, you know how you like receive all those beautiful emails. They you know, they everybody now has beautiful emails. Like you look like at emails, they're art. Like some designs, the graphic designs are just so beautiful. And like everybody has that now, so it's not really that impressive anymore. Yes, um, but like what I've seen working the most is very scroll stopping, like plain text emails, or like text-based emails. So it's just something so personal, so relatable, something you know, with like, oh, I forgot this as a subject line, or you know, something completely like, oh, what's going on, and then like starting with like it's been crazy, or you know, like something so personal that it just so relatable that people actually stop and like because they feel so this is kind of like trends that I've seen with my clients, is just something personal and simple works better than you need a good mix, like you cannot just be saying sending over to like plain text or text-based, but like you know, design, design, design, and something personal, and if something personal gets a very response. Um, so yeah, I guess like people just want connection, people want to relate, and that's on social media, right? Like if you're scrolling, I hope you don't, but if you are scrolling through your through like uh Instagram reels or stuff. Well, you don't, right? Like you probably don't really scroll through Instagram, I don't anymore.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

I can't even friends found this hilarious last July, which is after I left uh network school. For some unknown reason, I was banned from Facebook and Instagram. Banned, and I think it must have been a glitch in the system, but for 21 days, no Instagram and no Facebook, and I'd already sort of broken the process with Facebook, and it completely broke my interest in the feed. I was so amazed that I I needed that. Like I could have done a I've done digital detoxes before over the years, but really like I look at the Instagram feed now, and uh I definitely I add a few new people to follow. I had this principle years ago that I would keep my Twitter following to under 100 under 100, and I did the same as the same with Instagram, and so obviously there's not a whole heap of um posts coming through, and I've got business accounts where I have I follow more people, um, but I've kept it curated pretty heavily on both platforms, um, and I do add some new people from time to time into Instagram, but I just don't yeah, anyway, so I'm not really scrolling that much these days. And I think I think it's so wonderful because in conversation with a few people lately, we've been talking about role models and influences, and uh you know from your own personal growth work that the Olena inner voice is unique, and I love what you said before about the copywriting because I've been heavily influenced by David Hyatt, who started to do lectures and other entrepreneurial things, and he's a really amazing copywriter, and he's he's getting more and more people interested in his content on LinkedIn, which has just been lovely to watch over the years. Some of his tips are like leave the full stop off, and um maybe do something with the letters so that it captures people's eyes. So maybe the fourth sentence down, it's like in bold or something, and so people's you know, you're helping to direct where the eyes need to go. And then um I love him and another entrepreneur I worked with said the make the simple make make the complex simple and the simple compelling, which has just been my natural way of being through my copywriting and business writing. And when I used to do a lot more work with writing business plans, I'd want to quickly get people first impression, I'd want the first slide or the first set of sentences to really captivate people straight away. And we were lucky because with the teams I worked with on that, we um we definitely achieved that. And then the other day I was following, I've been following this really great guy that's amazing at uh sales and lead generation and LinkedIn. And he's the last he had a very personal, engaging email, and he's getting people to sign up to his uh agency, I guess digital agency um email list, or sorry, not email list, his course. And at the end, because he's in AI automation, he one of the last things was was click on this link, we can together check, you'll help me check the um automation works that I've set up for this. And I thought that's so on point because it was you're helping me check, so you're part of my community, and uh it was down to earth, and it was very much of the time, isn't it, Alana? Like people are are doing, especially those that we knew through network school. So many people are doing these um or setting up automations and learning, and they're not always working, and there's some and they need to be tested. And here's this clever fellow um having others check it as well.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yeah, yeah, people want to be helpful, people want to be needed, right? People want to relate, they want connection. So I think this is like the the the trend. I think Josie made a really good post the other day. I don't know if you saw about like how a lady in the supermarket offered her help, and she's like, in my mind, like I don't need help. This is why I work out, right? Like I got my obliques, but I said yes, sure. She's like put the light on her face, like after she helped me, it was like the card, something, something. She was like, Yeah, reminds me that yeah, I can do it all on my own, but like you give such pleasure to people by like helping you. Yes, and it's it's resonated with me because I'm cool, I don't need help, you know, but I love to help others, but I would not allow others to help me. Yes, taking away pleasure from other people.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yeah, I really do think it's a balance of both, isn't it? I'm sure that you're wise enough to know that in life as well. Um, and tell me um what you just reminded me actually of helping others when we were at network school together. I still I wanted to make sure that I said a big thank you for the most mornings over breakfast, you would turn up with hands full of franja pannies and give them out to people, and it was just like the most endearing, kind, sweet thing to do. And I think you and I have many connections that we have. One of them was that we get uh aspects of building community, and at network school it felt really natural to go up to people and give them morning hugs, and we created such a beautiful community of people at you know from the march that we started um in 2025, and uh yeah, I think that you you naturally have that grace and kindness around being able to notice what's going on for other people and also to uh give friend Japanese what was the equivalent in Prospera?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Well, Sam, first of all, like when I talk about you, like if I am to, you know, yeah, I have this friend that I'm gonna catch up with, it will always be like she is so kind, she's so sweet, she would every morning come to like us and like hug us and give us a kiss on the forehead and like give the biggest smile. So this is like my you know, this is who you are.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Oh yeah, sorry, sorry, sweet.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

And I remember how you said that it's like it's not necessarily like what you would do normally, this is what you kind of like were doing, feeling like doing in that community, and you know, it's not always easy, right? So I kind of like this is what I felt like doing in that community is giving flowers, and like when I look back at that, it's just I don't know, maybe as generators, I guess. This is what you're just talking about, it's the human design architect, yeah. Yeah, and this is just adjusting and like being fluid and flexible and like finding what type of situation or like what type of um input is needed in a community because I I mean uh just like you, it's not like I've been doing Frangipani thing before, right? Like it just kind of like there, it felt like balance of everything that's going on there, and like you say that uh, you know, you reminded me about the French Pani like a few days ago, and I'm like, wow, I was like a different person than compared to like how I've been feeling in the past like couple of months with like being more tense, and yeah, that just reminded me how important being in the community is for me personally, how the right community allows me to be more myself, being in the wrong community or being isolated, which I kind of like a bit into because I I did not necessarily align with some people, you know, and I kind of felt like I would rather be by myself, and how that like tensed me up. Sure. Uh, and I'm like, wow, and you know, me in this tense position and like situation, you reminded me about the French panis, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, was that me also? And it's just very interesting to see how like we I don't know if it's all people or it's just my personal trait that's or like your personal trait that like in different environments you just you know with you know you show up differently, and it's not because you're like a chameleon or something, right? It just it's just like how the energy works or something, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Um yeah, I love that you're pondering it because I think many of us are pondering network school, especially in the March and April. Uh there was just such an incredible set of people that started off that V2 version two of network school, and um I think I think it's uh actually um I I think great communities are a combination of things as we well know, and you're such an expert of them having been to been traveling around the world and being part of them. And when I've designed events and experiences, oftentimes I've kind of imagined myself in different players' shoes, like the different people that are turning up, the speaker, the volunteer, the um the ticket holder, the uh team, and imagined um how we can create really great experiences for each different style of person. And at the same time, Late Network School it could have attracted a lot of very rational thinkers, and it attracted a lot of big-hearted, open-hearted, wise, humble people. And I think that that's impressive. Then they got to love each other very quickly, very surprisingly quickly.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

I remember like the two weeks full moon ceremony or something that we did, and then we're just like hugging after her.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah, no, and then we all just got a lot of stuff done as well. Yeah, and then also we got to see different months having with you were there a lot longer than me, but uh for the four months that I was there, I got to see different flow of um uh productivity and little little groups of us. Sometimes we would felt feel really productive and sometimes not. I'm sure there were the people that went the whole way through and were highly productive the whole time. Uh, and also because it's a space where you can work 24-7 and everything's provided, uh, then taking things to being productive, it's it's an interesting nuance. And um, I mean, I guess that's another question for you, Elena. Do you keep a routine with the different travel that you do and being able to get things done? Do you arrive at a place and get the coffee machine out? Very pressed out. I had a feeling that was very present cup than I saw before. Um, it's just so handy. Uh, and but how do you keep the productivity? You were talking about it being Sunday today, and that you would get a lot of stuff done today.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

I I love that I have work to do when I'm traveling and when I'm doing all of these exciting things because again, it's balance.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Like two, three hours of work a day just makes me feel accomplished. So if like yeah, because you know, if I wake up, I free dive, and then I lay on the beach, like this is I mean, and then in the evening I go for dinner and I have dinner for three hours, and then I go dancing or something, like it's I mean, it's beautiful, but it's I need a bit of structure, and knowing that I need to find like three, four hours today to get my work done is a good structure that just I I love it. Like, I'm actually enjoying it a lot to just sit at my laptop in a nice coffee shop and like and then okay, I'm done, you know, good, good. So, yeah, like I cannot work from my hotel room because I get distracted, and I don't know, it's just like a little um I need a bit of a white noise, so I just the very important thing is to find a coffee shop from where I can work and that has good coffee. And uh the goal is to go to a coffee shop, right? And then the work gets done. Um, so this is my routine is to like find the time, you know, that I will be in the coffee shop for like three, four hours. Um, I'm looking forward to go to Ahmed after my yoga training is done. Right now it's kind of like complicated to find work during lunch, but same idea. Like during lunch, you just go to a coffee shop to have lunch to get my work done and then book back to yoga.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yeah, so right. What's the best coffee shop you've ever been to?

SPEAKER_00 39:58

The best coffee shop? Uh the one if you if I'm in Bali, it's the one with the AC. It doesn't matter which one. Uh and in Amet specifically, there is there is a couple, but there is only one that has AC and comfortable seating, and like good height table chair, AC and good coffee. So that one is my favorite. Um, yeah, anywhere where it's you know quiet but not too quiet, good coffee, AC, good chair.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

I've got one final question for you. We didn't really talk too much about nutrition, but I know that you're such an expert in that space. Um I it's a double-hitte question, so answer whichever you like.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Firstly, where did where's your go-to for great tips on nutrition? And secondly, amongst all of the amazing AI stuff and web 3 and uh entrepreneurial activities that you we saw in network school and you've seen since, what um what sort of uplifting version of the future are you living into?

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Okay. Um all right. So, first part of a question, I am not expert on nutrition. I think I think nobody is expert on nutrition, and I think that you as a person is the only expert on your nutrition. Nobody, nobody can really tell you, like, nobody can tell you what's good for you. There are like some you know general practices that you can kind of refer to, but not, you know, like the research, like how the blood sugar works, right? Like, I'm I'm a lot into that, like metabolic health, but like use that as a reference and not as a this is how you should be doing. And if anybody is saying this is how you should, don't look don't listen to them. Like, you're the one the only one who knows your body has different sensitivities, different genetic uh inclinations, if that's the word, different um upbringing and habits and reactions and different even stages of life that you are at, what works for you like this month might not work for you next month or like next year. What works for you as a woman the first two weeks of your cycle doesn't work for you the other two weeks of your cycle. What works for you when you are relaxed doesn't work for you when you're stressed. So, like there are just so many things that need to be accounted for. So, an expert on nutrition, listen to your body is my expert advice. That cannot be really like disproven because yeah, listen to your body. Um, and the other question about where I see the optimistic view at life. Um remembering the question. I'm very optimistic. I I don't honestly, honestly, I don't really think about future a lot in general, first of all, because I can't even plan my next month at this stage of my life. Like I don't know where I'm gonna be in two months, so it's difficult for me to think about like even further than that. Um but I just think people as as like separate individuals doing just inner work, and we're gonna be fine. Um, and I see a lot of people doing it, and you know, everybody who's taking yoga teacher training here, like you know, people who are seeking, people who are going to network school, like people are really yes, they're working on the outside things, they want to make money, but like a lot of people are looking inwards, and I think this is that's gonna save us all. Um Yeah, and like you cannot save anybody, but you know, you cannot maybe like change the world, but you can start with yourself. And I see a lot of people doing that, and I think it's great. And all the pain that's happening around us right now. I am also optimistic about it in a way that sometimes we need pain, most times we need painful experiences to make a change. Um to like shake us up a little and just be like, okay, this is not okay, like this is not working. I need to, you know, change something. And maybe what we are going through right now is just that like we all have personal experiences that hurt us a lot, but then we look at them as you know gifts, hopefully, later on. And maybe what is going on in the world right now is just that experience that we all need, yeah. We have to do something, like something we have to learn our lesson and like integrate it and move on. So I really want to see this. What's you know the pain because like there are some things that very are very difficult to accept. And the only way for me to accept things that are difficult to accept is just to assume that there is a silver line in it, even before the silver line is kind of like visible. Um so I really hope what's going on right now is just the case for us to like suffer so that we can kind of lift back up, be you know, go higher from there because we cannot go any lower and polar. Um but yeah, I think it is it is tough what is happening, but I believe that we will learn from our mistakes and that there will be lessons.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

You are an amazing human. I think the the where we were at network school, that it gave me so much hope whenever people are talking in such a dystopian way about the future with AI. I I like I just remember all the great builders at network school and think, gosh, these amazingly big-hearted people are building these great solutions. And one of the things that came to mind as you were just talking then was about this um through line that I have at the moment. Don't create separation, like be careful that we don't create black and white and us and them, and I really do think that that helps us through. Uh, before we came on to this conversation, darling, I said to you that you are this wicked combination of sweet and strong, and I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast, and I adore you.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Oh my god, thank you so much for always seeing the best in people and just like drilling it out to the surface for them as a I guess reminder. Like, thank you for sweetheart.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Well, you brought tears to my eyes again. I think you're marvelous. All right, thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius podcast. Please share this with anyone who came to mind and visit us at naturalgenious.com.au. Thanks so much.