February 24, 2022 • 41 mins
Agapi Stassinopoulos is best known as Arianna Huffington’s sister, but she is a star in her own right. A gifted orator, Agapi is a motivational speaker and the author of three books, most recently, Speaking With Spirit: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire and Uplift You.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to
What's Her Story? With Sam and Amy. This is a
show about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and
personal journeys. Together, we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors,
and leaders of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every
(00:22):
Thursday or join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's
Her Story Podcast. A gotpy Stas Napolist is best known
as Arianna Huffington's sister, but she's a star in her
own right. A gifted orator, a Goppy is a motivational
speaker and the author of three books, most recently Speaking
with Spirit fifty two Prayers to guide, inspire and uplift you.
(00:48):
One of the things about understanding you and your work
is to really dig into your philosophy on giving and receiving.
So I learned about the principle of giving and receiving
from my mother, Ellie, who raised us, me and my
sister in Athens, Greece, and she had an incredible I
(01:13):
call it Greek hootspah about asking for help because she
also had an incredible generosity. And I have a chapter
in this new book called It's not a trade, It's
an offering, Darling. Because I just sum it up her philosophy.
(01:34):
There was a time that we were at a cocktail
party and in London actually where we studied, and a
lovely woman said to my mother, Oh my god, I
love your pearl necklace. It's so beautiful. And my mother
took it out and said, here, now it's yours. And
(01:54):
this woman said, oh my god, but you hardly know me.
What can I do for you? And my mom that
turned to her and said, it's not a trade, darling,
it's an offering. And to me, that's the philosophy of
how I was raised. It's not like I'll do this
for you, but what you do for me. And it's
this unconditionality. It's what I think, really, Amy and Sam
(02:19):
makes us feel very rich because a lot of times we,
especially women, we don't want to ask because I think
men are more ruthless about asking. We don't want to
ask because we feel we should do it ourselves will
appear needy or weak. But my mother, when she took
(02:39):
Arianna to Cambridge where she studied economics and I started
acting at the Royal Academy, she went to everybody and said,
do you know somebody who has been in the Royal
Academy of Dramaticas that I can introduce to a gappy.
And she she asked ten or twelve people till we
found the person. And we went to meet the person
(03:00):
soon and with such a Greek hoodspa as I said,
She said, Reynow, his name was reyn Can you please
help a gappy get into the Royal Academy? But how
did you do it? I was sixteen years old. I
mean this, This man said, sure, I'll tell you, bang
bang bang. The next thing, you know, five years later
I was in the Academy. So that hospitality that she
(03:24):
had gave her um the courage and the confidence to
ask and to receive. And many times I tell the
stories because you know, people suffered a lot from fear
of money and not having money and feeling ashamed if
(03:45):
you are in debt or you want to get something
but you don't have the money. And my mother went
to her brother's, went to friends when she needed money.
She would ask and then always paid back, but she
had no shame about it. It's extraordinary to me, and
to this day, I feel this freedom about money and
(04:07):
there were many times in my life that I didn't
have the money, and now friends would ask me out
and say, I'll take care of you, And now I
do the same thing for people. So that cycle of
giving and receiving is what I call fundamentally trust in
the life and trust into the human spirit. No shame.
(04:32):
Was there ever a time in your life you felt
that you couldn't trust any human spirit that things would
settle or get better and move forward. Yes, I had
years and years because I started acting, as you know,
and I have to tell you, and I'm very proud
and kind of shameless about it. I'm an amazing actress.
(04:52):
I mean I can blow your way by reciting Shakespeare,
The Greeks Barnard Show, and if we had more time
on your podcast, I would be reciting like crazy. And
I do it at dinner parties. I tell people you
want me to ask for you, and I do this
quick trudged de end, you know, emoting Joe Costa, and
(05:12):
people say, oh my god, you're such a good actor.
Should change you should what happened? I said, Well, what
happened is I wasn't getting the parts for years and years.
I was auditioning in Los Angeles, where I was living.
After London, I went to LA to do a movie.
The movie didn't work out, and then I had what
I called my epic drama of my ulysses of trying
(05:40):
so many venues and and for years and years, my
career wasn't happening. It was like wall hitting a wall,
hitting a wall, hitting a wall, and uh, you know, Amy,
That's when I really started to doubt myself. I started
to doubt life, like this isn't happening? And what taught me?
(06:01):
And what life taught me? Because you know life. Let
me just say this to our listeners and please tattoo
this in your forehead. Life is for you. Life is
for you. People think that life is against you, know
you might have believes that life is against you, but
you must reverse and that trust, the fundamental trust that
(06:23):
no matter what happens. And I'll tell you another experience.
After this, you go, what am I? And what am
I here to learn? Am I learning patients? Am I
learning how to find my confidence? Am I learning how
to reroute? You know, like the GPS which is rerouting
this isn't working? And that creativity was awakened in me
(06:45):
and I said, I had. I was suffocating. I was like,
I'm not going anywhere, I'm not expressing. I'm a talented woman.
What is going on? And I said, you know, I
did a lot of in the work. Let me just
say that also to our listeners, you got to do
your inner work. Life does not come easy and does
(07:06):
not really You don't get happy and fulfilled without the
inner work. So what does that mean. It means you
study the teachers, You study with coaches, you study with um,
writing things down. You find mentors who can teach you
about yourself, what you know. If you have doubt self doubt,
(07:29):
a lot of people are plagued by you. You go
and you go, where did that come from? And you
look at it in the mirror, and you're ruthless with yourself,
you know. And and that's what I teach in my
seminars and in my books. Your story is so powerful,
and in reading your books, I really loved how you
(07:53):
married your personal story with your lessons, and I mean
I found them so riveting and just so inspiring. And
one of the things that was so interesting to me
is your childhood. You grew up so modestly but with
such an abundance of love. Is that what gave you
(08:15):
your confidence? Yes, definitely. And let me just I'll come
right back to that sum just to finish how I
got from the world not giving me what I wanted
two saying I will find my spark. I will create
a one woman show for a copy. I started to
write all the monologues I loved, and I said, I
(08:37):
am going to do the Greek Goddesses. It's gonna be
called Conversations to the Goddesses. I'm going to launch it.
I was living in Santa Barbara at a gallery of
a friend. I'm gonna have all my friends come. I'm
gonna have my mother made Greek dinner. I'm gonna have
a party. I'm gonna celebrate life. Excuse me, and f Hollywood.
You don't want to I don't want to swear in
(08:58):
your podcast. You can. I mean, I say, fuck it,
fuck HollyHood. They're not getting a copy. And every speech
you will hear of that. I've done every speech in
my YouTube channels. If you go in my wake Up
to the joy of View dot com, every single speech
(09:20):
I say. The world didn't give me what I wanted,
not a career, not the man not the money, because
I had to get a copy and then give it
to the world. And once I got me, man, it
was not stopping. It was like here I am unleashed,
here's my heart. Whoever, I said, If I've gone through
(09:42):
this and I broke free, I'm gonna have other people.
And I have held so many people, my friends through
saying let's find your spark, let's find your courage, Let's
not stay in the negativity, the depression and the defeating. Yes, Sam,
my mother there showed me that my mother and I
have endless stories about my mother where she was not
(10:07):
afraid of life. She gave me an Arianna, this permission.
She created miracles, endless miracles for us and infused us
with this trust of life. She demonstrated it. Do you
know what I mean? And and it wasn't a book,
it wasn't words. It was like, right in the midst
(10:28):
of adversity, my mother would rise up. Where do you
think she got that from? Not everyone is like that? Yes? Uh?
And finally enough, Actually, I had a friend of mine
was an actor, said to me, if I had your mother,
I would have been mirror strip. And I said, no,
if you had my mother, you would be you and
totally loved being you because my mother never said to me,
(10:48):
go be merror strips. She would say to me, you'd
just be a copy, you know, you'd just be we we.
I hated math. I was lousy in math, and uh,
every every day I used to pray my teacher would die,
as if as if you know, well, if he died,
they wouldn't bring another one. You know. I hated math.
I thought, you know, have you ever been in face
(11:12):
with something that you feel an incredibly inadequate? You know?
I felt, this is crazy? What is algebra about? And
my mother used to write me notes and let us saying,
we didn't bring you here for the math. We brought
you here for the joy. I have them. I still
have her letters. So that's If you have children, please
(11:32):
don't compare your children to each other. Don't say, well,
look at your brother, he's such a good um a student.
Maybe your son is not an a student, maybe he's
fabulous at sports, and maybe he's great at art. Not
find the gift of your child and infuse that. Don't
ever compare your one child to the other. Arianna was
(11:52):
an incredibly brilliant student, as you know, I mean, a
brilliant woman studied economy, said Cambridge with honors. I had
no idea about all that world. But my world was different.
It was about connection and love and joy acting. And
coming back to your question, Amy, where did my mother
(12:13):
get it? Was that your question? Yes, I I really feel.
Let me see. I'm going to call on my mother's spirit.
She's totally here, hi, mom Ah. She said she was
an advanced soul, doesn't make sense. She was an old soul.
My mother also, I'm a very old sort old old,
old old aldso and then their new beasts, you know,
(12:36):
their new souls who we must love and nurture. My
mother was a very old soul, and she went through
very difficult times. You know. She fought as a nurse
the Second World War where the Nazis came in the
Red Cross cabins. She was in the mountains in Greece,
in northern Greece, and she was hiding Jewish people, of course,
(12:57):
and they marched in with guns with the machine guns,
and three machine guns burst in and started to shoot,
and my mother spoke German. She was a very educated woman,
and she stood up and she said, put down the guns.
You have no right to shoot with red Cross and
she saw three machine guns go down, and she faced
(13:20):
the Nazis face to face and said to me, after that,
I was never afraid of life again ever, because the
life force spoke to me. And this is what I
want to encourage Sam and Amy and our listeners. Whatever
it is you want to say, say it, whatever it
(13:40):
is you want to do, do it, whatever it is
you want to you want to cry, cry, you want
to shout, shout, find the ways out of your what
I call your closed doors to yourself, because what causes
us the down o entery g you know what I
(14:00):
mean by the down energy when you start to feel down.
What causes that is the unexpressed. If you want to dance, dance,
whatever it is you need to do, to write it down.
I you know. In this new book, as you know,
I have fifty two prayers on everything for those of
us on YouTuber watching our YouTube channel. It's called Speaking
(14:23):
with Spirit. It's a really beautiful book, but it's also
a gorgeous gift book. Thank you, Thank you, Sam. I'm
very proud of this book because um fifty two prayers
to guide inspired and uplift you. Because I wanted to
bring prayer down from the pedestal to our everyday life.
You know, prayer has a bit of a stigma. Oh
(14:44):
I pray, I should go to the temple, to the church.
I should um, you know, have a priest or a gathering.
And I wanted to say, prayer is your intimate relationship
with your spirit. You can pray anywhere, you can pray
at any time. You can pray well, you're making your coffee,
when you're getting dressed, when you're driving. It's your communion.
(15:08):
And my mother taught us that because my mother used
to say, our church is our home. Our communion is
eating together right now, and that presence. What prayer really is,
my friends, is opening that awareness that we are being
(15:28):
breathed right now right Nobody is making this breath. You
can't make it, amy, I can't do it. Some can't
do it. It is freely given to us. So every
everybody right now, unless you're driving, please take a moment
and focus on your breath. You can put your heart,
your hand in your heart, and feel your breath. As
I'm talking, just feel the rising and the falling of
(15:52):
your breath and come present. As my yoga teacher used
to say, be in awe of your breath. Okay, and
come present with your breath and ask yourself, oh my god,
I don't even have to take my friend my breath.
It is really given to me. And allow you know.
Most of our interrupting that energy is that we live
(16:17):
in our heads, we live in our thoughts, and we're
not our thoughts, were not our emotions, we are not
our circumstances. We are who we are beyond all that.
So when you come present to that, the spirit in
you starts to awaken, okay, and starts to come. We
put the the zoom light on it. We put the
(16:39):
spotlight on the spirit. Okay. Not the amy story, not
the sum story, not the gappy story. We've got the spirit.
And the spirit is the same in all of us.
And you put the spotlight there and you and you basically,
if I may say so, you basically shut up, because
we are going I'm worried about this, and I'm afraid
(16:59):
about it, what about this? And I didn't do this right?
And we judge the hell of ourselves. We judge so
much life, ourselves, each other. And you go, basta enough,
no more, shut up. And as a beautiful monk said,
he was praying to God, and he said, what can
I do to serve you? What can I do to
serve you? Can I feed the poor? Can I go
(17:21):
you know, to Tibet and help people? And he heard
the inner voice of God or whatever you call God,
inner spirit, intelligence say shut up and let me love you. Okay.
So in that moment we open our hearts. Prayer is
a heartfelt experience. We open our heart and you go,
(17:42):
I want to receive. Now, I want to listen. That's
what it's called speaking with spirit. It's not thinking with spirit.
You speak it and you say, show me, show me
what can I do about this or about my son
or about my daughter? But my my my business? And
you be and you are quiet, and you stay present,
(18:04):
and you start to feel that you are not alone. You.
If there is one message that I want to communicate
every single person who is listening, please open the door,
whatever door you find inside of you, to know that
you're not alone. Do it in the day, in the moment.
(18:27):
It's not when you're wearing your Sunday best. It's not
sitting on ceremony and people say, oh, I don't pray,
I don't, I don't I feel silly when I pray,
or well, you pray when you're in crisis, of course,
but pray for everything, and don't pray only asking pray
to listen, pray for others. And now a quick break.
(18:49):
So let's talk about your relationship with Arianna, your sister.
It sounds like your mom lead an incredible foundation for
that relationship and now you two lived together, which sounds
so amazing. Her sisters to live together. What is that like?
It's the Greek tradition. You get married, you get divorced,
(19:11):
and you moved back with your family. I tell you
how that came out in London when we lived when
we were both studying. We all lived together, my mother
and my sister and I, and then we kind of
we were this trio, you know, everywhere. We moved from
London to New York and we lived together, and then
(19:31):
we moved to Los Angeles and we lived together. And
at some point my sister got married and she moved
to Texas as she moved to Washington, but then she
moved to Santa Barbara where she had her beautiful daughters.
And uh, I was in and out of Santa Barbara.
My mother moved in with her to raise the kids.
(19:52):
So you know, it's a very Greek habit, you know.
And then there was a period in my life that
I left I think, yes, I left Santa Barbara and
went to New York to write my book, my first book,
Conversation to the Goddesses. And I lived for eight years
on my own, and Arianna was living with her husband
(20:14):
and the children and my mother, and I lived on
my own. And in that time I really formed my
own confidence in my own self because I was so
emerged with my mother and my sister. And at some point,
and I don't remember chronologically how it happened, my mother
(20:34):
and my father died. My father was in Greece. My
mother died in Los Angeles. Arianna then got divorced and
was living in Los Angeles with my mother, and my
mother died, and about six months later she was in
l A. I was in New York. We missed each
other terribly. We missed my mother, we missed my father.
And Arianna said to me, Darling, where did you come
and live with me and the children? And uh and
(20:57):
the children were young, and we need you, we need you, know,
to be a family again. I was promoting my goddess
as I was traveling everywhere, and we have a beautiful,
beautiful house in l a that has enough room for everybody.
And so that's how it happened. And then we had
an amazing, amazing life. You know, I'm very very close
(21:20):
to my nieces Isabella and Christina. I adored them and
they called me their second mom. So it was like
it was never a decision. It was like in the
flow of life. And then of course Arianna was running
Huffington Post and we got an apartment here and again
(21:40):
we were living together. It was like a natural flow.
The girls were at college and we have our own lives,
you know, obviously, you know, and I'm very very involved
with Right Global, but you know, we know, we don't
have dinner together every night, but we are together. You know.
It's like it's not like we flow together, like all
(22:02):
right now, Arianna's in Los Angeles doing some of her things,
and she's coming back here. Then she's traveling, so it's
in and out. You know, we are together because we are.
We have a partnership. I tell you, the most comforting
thing is that we talk every day. We talk about
everything about life. But Arianna can call me and say,
(22:24):
oh this and this just happened. Can you call so
and so and tell them about this great done you know?
Or can you make sure that when you go in
the market you get fetter cheese? You know, it's like
it's like it's like everything you know. Or she would
say to me, you know, oh, I just met this person.
I think they would be wonderful for your book. I'm
(22:46):
sending an email to them. So we think of each
other in our lives and that's the most beautiful. And
and we send each other text about messages and I
love you. We never finished a text without saying I
love you. And I tell you the greatest secret that
Arianna and I have we pray together. So how do
you resolve context with Arianna, with anyone with your nieces? Oh? Yes,
(23:10):
the conflict is there all the time. I mean, disappointment
is there all the time. First of all, the conflict
with other people. And you know, there are many situations
where friends don't react the way you want to, or
they do something that hurts your feelings, or um, you
have a disagreement with somebody, And I think the most
(23:35):
important thing is if you can come to accepting it
and loving yourself, because the thing we do, we judge
the hell of ourselves. Because when you're in judgment, you
can't see the answer, the solution. Okay, and it would
be I forgive myself for judging myself for this thing
that just happened. I forgive myself for judging myself for
(23:58):
this disagreement. I forget of myself for judging myself for
feeling out of balance. I've forgiven. And then you don't,
you don't take you to sleep. You kind of release it.
I have this great phrase, I love I'm letting go
of this disagreement because you know, the disagreement is mostly
the ego. Okay, the ego hurts, the ego fights. The
(24:21):
ego says I don't like this, I hate this, I
hate you. I am right, you're wrong, you know. So
if you can work with your ego and and surrender
your ego, which is not easy, and you bow down,
and if you have to ask for someone to say
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I yelled, I'm sorry, I was
(24:41):
out of sorts. I let's bring back the peace and
the loving and and that's one of the things I
encourage everybody to do. But for me, you know, before
before my book was coming out I and I was
promoting it, and every think I got out of the blue,
(25:03):
I got singles in my right eye. I mean I
got I mean it was horrific. It was like right
in the middle, I just suddenly started to move in
on me and uh, I mean you can see, as
you can see, my eyes still not perfect. I'm still
have my eye is still a bit swollen, but nothing
like it was. So it was extremely painful. And here
(25:25):
I am promoting the book about spirit and love and God. Right,
so I was mad at I was mad at God. Well,
you know, you know a guppy I once had shingles,
and shingles is really stress driven, and having a new
book come out is one of the most stressful possible things.
It sounds so romantic if you're not an author, but
(25:47):
having a book come out is incredibly difficult. And so
I'm sure that it was not a coincidence. It was
the stress that was induced from it. Yes, thank you
so much for saying that. And let me just tell
you it wasn't just that I had just come back
from Los Angeles. I was like a kid in the
(26:08):
candy store. I was going to the theater I was
going to ballet, seeing my friends, having dinner with my friends.
I was so happy, and suddenly bang Omicron came and
we couldn't do anything right. So I had Omicron, I
had the book. I had Christmas, which is stressful and
(26:30):
you know, just challenges that and I I should have said,
I should have totally said to myself and to my family, maybe, um,
I can't handle this great phrase, by the way, everybody,
I can't handle this right now. I cannot handle another
person to that. We have to get Christmas. I mean,
(26:51):
we have a huge Christmas list, you know, and Christmas
is always a big thing around here. Or I can't
handle the round. I can't handle it, just accepting that vulnerability,
and and the book was coming up, and all the
things we had to set up for the book, and
my you know, my publishers going I'm gonna do this launcher?
(27:12):
Who are going to have for the launch? And I
remember getting up with angst, you know, and I it's
it's like, okay, come on, a guppy. You know, God,
you know the light, you know how to go. But
we are human, you know. The emotions were overwhelming me.
And the singles came and it was horrible, absolutely horrible.
(27:33):
I mean, I to cancel things. I felt terrible. But
let me tell you two months later, now I'm two
months into it, I feel amazing. I feel so calm,
I feel I feel exactly what I said to you
at the beginning. This is so much more about the book.
(27:53):
This is about this beautiful message that I want to
share with all of you. This is so heartfelt and
I have felt. First of all, my vanity went out
the window. You know, I had to wear glasses. I
didn't have to look perfect a guppy miss you know,
you know how we all want to look perfect. I
(28:14):
didn't care. I mean, I did my launch and my
eye was very worse than that, and it was amazing
because what matters is the energy that came through. And
so that's what I want to share that the conflict
is what did a guppy learned. I became more patient,
more loving. I had no energy throughout the day. Sometimes
(28:35):
I would just sleep and rest. And how many times
do we feel it's okay to rest and rest and
rest till you're good? I mean, I know, you know,
Sam and Amy, you work so hard, you have kids.
If you ever have a call to push yourself don't you.
So I became very loving to myself and right now
(28:57):
I still am not a and uh, I'm still patient
and loving with myself and said I can't do anything
about it. I guess I did everything I could. And
now a quick break, now a copy. I have two
favorite stories. Oftentimes, when when I've seen you in person,
you just make me laugh because almost out of nervousness,
(29:20):
because I don't know that many people who are as
confident in who they are and as comfortable as you,
and I'm in awe of it, and I love it.
And I have two stories about you. One of the
stories is that we were at an event together. We
were both speaking at in Newark, New Jersey, at Oprah's conference,
(29:41):
and it was time for the speakers to meet Oprah.
And I think you body checked like ten people to
get to the front of the line because because you're
got to you right, You're just you go for what
you want right and and then and then another story
is um we were both at a wedding. We were
(30:02):
both guests at a wedding and you came over to
me and you said, how is your drink? And I said, oh,
it's it's really good and I start talking about it.
Before I know it, you grabbed it and you took
a sip. Yes, because I but like I just I
admire how comfortably you just kind of are fluid through
the world. And I think that so many, especially women,
(30:26):
hold themselves back from being who they're meant to be
and from from taking up space in the world. And
one of the stories, you know, one of the stories
in your book was about how you were raising money
for that one woman show you did on PBS and
how you were you would hit a wall in your fundraising.
And I think that the story, that story, if you
(30:46):
could share it with our listeners, would be so meaningful
to them because so many of them are in business
and they're selling something or they're going for something. Absolutely,
and my god, fundraising can be such hell and pressure
and everything. I was raising money for the Gods of
Greece six million dollar p PBS, and I went to
(31:07):
every single Greek I knew. I mean, that's a lot
of Greeks, and nobody would give me money in New York.
I never forget it. Finally I had a French friend
of mine who gave me money, and then I was
able to raise the seed money that the project never happened,
but I learned so much and the experience that I
(31:28):
had was very much about perseverance, you know. And the
cut to my one woman show because I was raising
money for that, and that I just that was you know,
hundred fifty thou dollars, so there was not a big
million dollars. And I never forget it. I called a
wonderful Greek man quants a lots of stores in New York,
(31:51):
and I must have called him, you know, a dozen times,
and his secretary would say to me, oh, yes, happy, Yes,
we're trying to try to get John to you. But
and I can. I said, oh yes, it's a happy again.
You know. It was like I became such a pain.
And finally he picked up the phone and he said, listen,
I'm sending you five thousand dollars. Okay, I said, amazing.
(32:14):
And U then I called his best friend and I said,
John is giving you five thousand? Can you match it?
And he said yes? And I never forget. Underneath the
gate the FedEx checks were coming. It was so amazing,
and I think I broke through the nose, you know,
and I kept going, but I kept asking with with
(32:35):
such A. I must say, I kept asking with a
lot of charm. You know. I realized the key to
hearing the no was not to get to feel rejected.
That was and no doesn't mean I'm rejecting you and
a no, man, we don't want to give you any
money right now. But I go, Okay, I'm gonna ask
(32:56):
you again, and it became fun and I U is
the money And that show, you know, was amazing, and
and what I learned from all that is again the
courage to ask a guppy before we go to our
speed round. I realized there's one thing I really wanted
to ask you about, which is how you're thinking about
(33:20):
romance today. Are you online meeting people or do you
have a relationship you're already in No, I don't have
a relationship. I mean I feel very fulfilled in my life.
I feel I have wonderful friends, male friends, I have
um married friends, I have women friends, I have my family,
(33:41):
and I feel very fulfilled. If someone walked into my
life without me striving or I'm not looking, I'm not
looking online. This is not the phase of my life. Remember,
I am in the laterst of my life right, so
this is not for everybody, because I have many chapters
in this book when you want to find love, I mean,
(34:02):
how to pray about that, and when you're divorced and
maybe twice and you want to find love again. It's
all wonderful for me right now, I'm not looking. But
if somebody walked in and you know, became a partner
or someone that I was able to have a relationship with,
I welcome it. But it's not something that I think
(34:26):
about a coppy. What book are you reading right now? Actually,
there is a wonderful book that um, I love and
that's from Lexi's husband Some Yes, I just bought it,
Connecting the Dots. It is absolutely fabulous. I recommend it
and it's actually about how life happens when you let
(34:49):
life happen, and it's his story with Lexi. Is amazing
how they met, right, incredible. So a gappy you live
a very big life. So who is the one person
that leaves you star struck? You've met so many people.
Can I tell you who the person who leaves me
star struck is? Is my niece Isabella. She is thirty
(35:12):
one years old. She's an artist, and about four years
ago she suffered a concussion she hit by bike crossing
the street to have a date and bike. One of
the bikes's hitter and she hit her head on the pavement,
and we thought it would be you know, four weeks
(35:33):
later she'll be fine. Everybody said, there's nothing. There's nothing.
Four years later, she's still managing her concussion and she's
um finding ways to navigate it. She has a new
protocol now of a discipline of doing a few things,
taking a break, doing a few things, and and this
is gonna make me cry. But one of the practitioners
(35:55):
who works with a neurologist she's working with, said to her,
I wish we had met you when when it happened,
because our doctor and I can say the name of
the doctor, because she's an amazing doctor, doctor Chatty, who
would have helped you within the the first three months
of the critical months to help a concussion. And Isabella
turned to the practitioner said, but that would have been
(36:18):
such a waste, because in the four years I have
learned so much about my spirit and God and and
and life, and that would have been a waste. Can
you believe it? She has taken what's going on with
her and advanced herself to become who she is today.
Liu male perspective. Amy asked you a question about your mom,
(36:41):
and as you're answering the question, you kind of like
channeled your mom's spirit. Yes, yes, that was something that
was like, what is going on there? You know? Can
you talk more about that? Absolutely? That because the spirit
and the souls of who we are, uh and who
people are, and we have guides and spiritual guides who
(37:04):
don't see them if they're invisible, but we must evoke them.
And there are so many I mean, you can actually
start to commune with your parents, and I have many
times communed with my mother and my father. You must
allow that spirit they want to communicate with you. It's
not woo woo. It's not like, oh woo, this is
such wool stuff. It's real, my friends. We must be quiet.
(37:28):
And if you want to communicate with the spirit of Beethoven,
listen to the Ode to Joy ten Thou people in
Japan put it on YouTube. If you want to feel joy,
and then ask the Spirit of Beethoven and you will
feel it. You will feel it. And we must have
the courage to know that that is real. That but
(37:50):
before other spirits and we must call our souls forward
and our God, because unless we call it forward, they
won't come. It was so hard to end that conversation
with a Coppy because she's one of those people you
feel like you could talk to for five hours. I
(38:13):
have to say, like there's something about a copy. First
of all, she makes me giggle because she just has
this incredible energy. But she just makes me laugh. I mean,
first of all, I think her next book should be
a parenting book, Amy because whatever her mom did, like
her mom instilled the most incredible confidence in both Ariana
(38:34):
and a Goppy. And it's magical. No, I mean the
fact that like when she has a rejection, she's like,
Guppy is too much for them. They weren't ready for
a copy. Like she's just amazing. I mean, I want
my kids to feel that way. I want to feel
that way all the time. It is seriously remarkable the
way she handles things. And you know me aim like,
(38:55):
I am such a skeptic when it comes to like
woo woo meditation some of it. And I just fell
in love with her book. I really, I thought it
was fabulous. No. I was reading to my oldest daughter
from it over the weekend actually because yeah, I mean,
well it's just you know, like I want my girls
to know you and I can inspire our children, right,
(39:16):
And I think that I got the mother inspired her,
but somehow it got his mother also taught her to
believe in the world. And I think it's part of
what it got his mother, how she lived her own life,
like the story I got be told about, you know,
just kind of money, like there would always somehow they'll
be money, somehow it will come our way. And I
think that like if you because a child can learn
to tap into the universe like that, you'll go through
(39:37):
life in a different way. I totally agree. I mean,
I you know, I have that philosophy pretty much in
terms of like I used to say to my husband
when we had nothing, I'd be like, oh, money grows
on trees and He's like, what are you crazy, Like
where do you even get this? But I would always say, like,
it's just gonna all work out. And that's kind of
what I think in just in general in life. And
(40:00):
he doesn't have that philosophy, and I have to say,
it's it's just so interesting, like parenting next to someone
who doesn't have that philosophy. He's probably more typical or
normal than I am. With my like it's all going
to work out, like kind of Pollyannish idea of life.
But I do think that mindset has such a big
impact on outcome. I mean, I agree, like, if you're
(40:22):
afraid before you begin, it's really hard to get to
the end, right, And I think they're one of the
ways to be less afraid is to just believe that
the universe has your back. And I like, I just
felt so good leaving that conversation with the copy right.
I just felt good. I love her. I can't wait
to have dinner with her New York. She's just she's
(40:43):
the cutest, She's the best. Thanks for listening to What's
Her Story with Sam and Amy. We would appreciate it
if you leave her of you wherever you get your podcasts,
and of course, connect with us on social media at
What's Her Story podcast. What's Her Story or with Sam
and Amy is powered by my company, The Riveter at
the Riveter dot c O and Sam's company, park Place
(41:06):
Payments at park place payments dot com. Thanks to our
producer Stacy Parra and our male perspective Blue Burns h
Hi, I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to
What's Her Story? With Sam and Amy. This is a
show about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and
personal journeys. Together, we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors,
and leaders of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every
(00:22):
Thursday or join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's
Her Story Podcast. A gotpy Stas Napolist is best known
as Arianna Huffington's sister, but she's a star in her
own right. A gifted orator, a Goppy is a motivational
speaker and the author of three books, most recently Speaking
with Spirit fifty two Prayers to guide, inspire and uplift you.
(00:48):
One of the things about understanding you and your work
is to really dig into your philosophy on giving and receiving.
So I learned about the principle of giving and receiving
from my mother, Ellie, who raised us, me and my
sister in Athens, Greece, and she had an incredible I
(01:13):
call it Greek hootspah about asking for help because she
also had an incredible generosity. And I have a chapter
in this new book called It's not a trade, It's
an offering, Darling. Because I just sum it up her philosophy.
(01:34):
There was a time that we were at a cocktail
party and in London actually where we studied, and a
lovely woman said to my mother, Oh my god, I
love your pearl necklace. It's so beautiful. And my mother
took it out and said, here, now it's yours. And
(01:54):
this woman said, oh my god, but you hardly know me.
What can I do for you? And my mom that
turned to her and said, it's not a trade, darling,
it's an offering. And to me, that's the philosophy of
how I was raised. It's not like I'll do this
for you, but what you do for me. And it's
this unconditionality. It's what I think, really, Amy and Sam
(02:19):
makes us feel very rich because a lot of times we,
especially women, we don't want to ask because I think
men are more ruthless about asking. We don't want to
ask because we feel we should do it ourselves will
appear needy or weak. But my mother, when she took
(02:39):
Arianna to Cambridge where she studied economics and I started
acting at the Royal Academy, she went to everybody and said,
do you know somebody who has been in the Royal
Academy of Dramaticas that I can introduce to a gappy.
And she she asked ten or twelve people till we
found the person. And we went to meet the person
(03:00):
soon and with such a Greek hoodspa as I said,
She said, Reynow, his name was reyn Can you please
help a gappy get into the Royal Academy? But how
did you do it? I was sixteen years old. I
mean this, This man said, sure, I'll tell you, bang
bang bang. The next thing, you know, five years later
I was in the Academy. So that hospitality that she
(03:24):
had gave her um the courage and the confidence to
ask and to receive. And many times I tell the
stories because you know, people suffered a lot from fear
of money and not having money and feeling ashamed if
(03:45):
you are in debt or you want to get something
but you don't have the money. And my mother went
to her brother's, went to friends when she needed money.
She would ask and then always paid back, but she
had no shame about it. It's extraordinary to me, and
to this day, I feel this freedom about money and
(04:07):
there were many times in my life that I didn't
have the money, and now friends would ask me out
and say, I'll take care of you, And now I
do the same thing for people. So that cycle of
giving and receiving is what I call fundamentally trust in
the life and trust into the human spirit. No shame.
(04:32):
Was there ever a time in your life you felt
that you couldn't trust any human spirit that things would
settle or get better and move forward. Yes, I had
years and years because I started acting, as you know,
and I have to tell you, and I'm very proud
and kind of shameless about it. I'm an amazing actress.
(04:52):
I mean I can blow your way by reciting Shakespeare,
The Greeks Barnard Show, and if we had more time
on your podcast, I would be reciting like crazy. And
I do it at dinner parties. I tell people you
want me to ask for you, and I do this
quick trudged de end, you know, emoting Joe Costa, and
(05:12):
people say, oh my god, you're such a good actor.
Should change you should what happened? I said, Well, what
happened is I wasn't getting the parts for years and years.
I was auditioning in Los Angeles, where I was living.
After London, I went to LA to do a movie.
The movie didn't work out, and then I had what
I called my epic drama of my ulysses of trying
(05:40):
so many venues and and for years and years, my
career wasn't happening. It was like wall hitting a wall,
hitting a wall, hitting a wall, and uh, you know, Amy,
That's when I really started to doubt myself. I started
to doubt life, like this isn't happening? And what taught me?
(06:01):
And what life taught me? Because you know life. Let
me just say this to our listeners and please tattoo
this in your forehead. Life is for you. Life is
for you. People think that life is against you, know
you might have believes that life is against you, but
you must reverse and that trust, the fundamental trust that
(06:23):
no matter what happens. And I'll tell you another experience.
After this, you go, what am I? And what am
I here to learn? Am I learning patients? Am I
learning how to find my confidence? Am I learning how
to reroute? You know, like the GPS which is rerouting
this isn't working? And that creativity was awakened in me
(06:45):
and I said, I had. I was suffocating. I was like,
I'm not going anywhere, I'm not expressing. I'm a talented woman.
What is going on? And I said, you know, I
did a lot of in the work. Let me just
say that also to our listeners, you got to do
your inner work. Life does not come easy and does
(07:06):
not really You don't get happy and fulfilled without the
inner work. So what does that mean. It means you
study the teachers, You study with coaches, you study with um,
writing things down. You find mentors who can teach you
about yourself, what you know. If you have doubt self doubt,
(07:29):
a lot of people are plagued by you. You go
and you go, where did that come from? And you
look at it in the mirror, and you're ruthless with yourself,
you know. And and that's what I teach in my
seminars and in my books. Your story is so powerful,
and in reading your books, I really loved how you
(07:53):
married your personal story with your lessons, and I mean
I found them so riveting and just so inspiring. And
one of the things that was so interesting to me
is your childhood. You grew up so modestly but with
such an abundance of love. Is that what gave you
(08:15):
your confidence? Yes, definitely. And let me just I'll come
right back to that sum just to finish how I
got from the world not giving me what I wanted
two saying I will find my spark. I will create
a one woman show for a copy. I started to
write all the monologues I loved, and I said, I
(08:37):
am going to do the Greek Goddesses. It's gonna be
called Conversations to the Goddesses. I'm going to launch it.
I was living in Santa Barbara at a gallery of
a friend. I'm gonna have all my friends come. I'm
gonna have my mother made Greek dinner. I'm gonna have
a party. I'm gonna celebrate life. Excuse me, and f Hollywood.
You don't want to I don't want to swear in
(08:58):
your podcast. You can. I mean, I say, fuck it,
fuck HollyHood. They're not getting a copy. And every speech
you will hear of that. I've done every speech in
my YouTube channels. If you go in my wake Up
to the joy of View dot com, every single speech
(09:20):
I say. The world didn't give me what I wanted,
not a career, not the man not the money, because
I had to get a copy and then give it
to the world. And once I got me, man, it
was not stopping. It was like here I am unleashed,
here's my heart. Whoever, I said, If I've gone through
(09:42):
this and I broke free, I'm gonna have other people.
And I have held so many people, my friends through
saying let's find your spark, let's find your courage, Let's
not stay in the negativity, the depression and the defeating. Yes, Sam,
my mother there showed me that my mother and I
have endless stories about my mother where she was not
(10:07):
afraid of life. She gave me an Arianna, this permission.
She created miracles, endless miracles for us and infused us
with this trust of life. She demonstrated it. Do you
know what I mean? And and it wasn't a book,
it wasn't words. It was like, right in the midst
(10:28):
of adversity, my mother would rise up. Where do you
think she got that from? Not everyone is like that? Yes? Uh?
And finally enough, Actually, I had a friend of mine
was an actor, said to me, if I had your mother,
I would have been mirror strip. And I said, no,
if you had my mother, you would be you and
totally loved being you because my mother never said to me,
(10:48):
go be merror strips. She would say to me, you'd
just be a copy, you know, you'd just be we we.
I hated math. I was lousy in math, and uh,
every every day I used to pray my teacher would die,
as if as if you know, well, if he died,
they wouldn't bring another one. You know. I hated math.
I thought, you know, have you ever been in face
(11:12):
with something that you feel an incredibly inadequate? You know?
I felt, this is crazy? What is algebra about? And
my mother used to write me notes and let us saying,
we didn't bring you here for the math. We brought
you here for the joy. I have them. I still
have her letters. So that's If you have children, please
(11:32):
don't compare your children to each other. Don't say, well,
look at your brother, he's such a good um a student.
Maybe your son is not an a student, maybe he's
fabulous at sports, and maybe he's great at art. Not
find the gift of your child and infuse that. Don't
ever compare your one child to the other. Arianna was
(11:52):
an incredibly brilliant student, as you know, I mean, a
brilliant woman studied economy, said Cambridge with honors. I had
no idea about all that world. But my world was different.
It was about connection and love and joy acting. And
coming back to your question, Amy, where did my mother
(12:13):
get it? Was that your question? Yes, I I really feel.
Let me see. I'm going to call on my mother's spirit.
She's totally here, hi, mom Ah. She said she was
an advanced soul, doesn't make sense. She was an old soul.
My mother also, I'm a very old sort old old,
old old aldso and then their new beasts, you know,
(12:36):
their new souls who we must love and nurture. My
mother was a very old soul, and she went through
very difficult times. You know. She fought as a nurse
the Second World War where the Nazis came in the
Red Cross cabins. She was in the mountains in Greece,
in northern Greece, and she was hiding Jewish people, of course,
(12:57):
and they marched in with guns with the machine guns,
and three machine guns burst in and started to shoot,
and my mother spoke German. She was a very educated woman,
and she stood up and she said, put down the guns.
You have no right to shoot with red Cross and
she saw three machine guns go down, and she faced
(13:20):
the Nazis face to face and said to me, after that,
I was never afraid of life again ever, because the
life force spoke to me. And this is what I
want to encourage Sam and Amy and our listeners. Whatever
it is you want to say, say it, whatever it
(13:40):
is you want to do, do it, whatever it is
you want to you want to cry, cry, you want
to shout, shout, find the ways out of your what
I call your closed doors to yourself, because what causes
us the down o entery g you know what I
(14:00):
mean by the down energy when you start to feel down.
What causes that is the unexpressed. If you want to dance, dance,
whatever it is you need to do, to write it down.
I you know. In this new book, as you know,
I have fifty two prayers on everything for those of
us on YouTuber watching our YouTube channel. It's called Speaking
(14:23):
with Spirit. It's a really beautiful book, but it's also
a gorgeous gift book. Thank you, Thank you, Sam. I'm
very proud of this book because um fifty two prayers
to guide inspired and uplift you. Because I wanted to
bring prayer down from the pedestal to our everyday life.
You know, prayer has a bit of a stigma. Oh
(14:44):
I pray, I should go to the temple, to the church.
I should um, you know, have a priest or a gathering.
And I wanted to say, prayer is your intimate relationship
with your spirit. You can pray anywhere, you can pray
at any time. You can pray well, you're making your coffee,
when you're getting dressed, when you're driving. It's your communion.
(15:08):
And my mother taught us that because my mother used
to say, our church is our home. Our communion is
eating together right now, and that presence. What prayer really is,
my friends, is opening that awareness that we are being
(15:28):
breathed right now right Nobody is making this breath. You
can't make it, amy, I can't do it. Some can't
do it. It is freely given to us. So every
everybody right now, unless you're driving, please take a moment
and focus on your breath. You can put your heart,
your hand in your heart, and feel your breath. As
I'm talking, just feel the rising and the falling of
(15:52):
your breath and come present. As my yoga teacher used
to say, be in awe of your breath. Okay, and
come present with your breath and ask yourself, oh my god,
I don't even have to take my friend my breath.
It is really given to me. And allow you know.
Most of our interrupting that energy is that we live
(16:17):
in our heads, we live in our thoughts, and we're
not our thoughts, were not our emotions, we are not
our circumstances. We are who we are beyond all that.
So when you come present to that, the spirit in
you starts to awaken, okay, and starts to come. We
put the the zoom light on it. We put the
(16:39):
spotlight on the spirit. Okay. Not the amy story, not
the sum story, not the gappy story. We've got the spirit.
And the spirit is the same in all of us.
And you put the spotlight there and you and you basically,
if I may say so, you basically shut up, because
we are going I'm worried about this, and I'm afraid
(16:59):
about it, what about this? And I didn't do this right?
And we judge the hell of ourselves. We judge so
much life, ourselves, each other. And you go, basta enough,
no more, shut up. And as a beautiful monk said,
he was praying to God, and he said, what can
I do to serve you? What can I do to
serve you? Can I feed the poor? Can I go
(17:21):
you know, to Tibet and help people? And he heard
the inner voice of God or whatever you call God,
inner spirit, intelligence say shut up and let me love you. Okay.
So in that moment we open our hearts. Prayer is
a heartfelt experience. We open our heart and you go,
(17:42):
I want to receive. Now, I want to listen. That's
what it's called speaking with spirit. It's not thinking with spirit.
You speak it and you say, show me, show me
what can I do about this or about my son
or about my daughter? But my my my business? And
you be and you are quiet, and you stay present,
(18:04):
and you start to feel that you are not alone. You.
If there is one message that I want to communicate
every single person who is listening, please open the door,
whatever door you find inside of you, to know that
you're not alone. Do it in the day, in the moment.
(18:27):
It's not when you're wearing your Sunday best. It's not
sitting on ceremony and people say, oh, I don't pray,
I don't, I don't I feel silly when I pray,
or well, you pray when you're in crisis, of course,
but pray for everything, and don't pray only asking pray
to listen, pray for others. And now a quick break.
(18:49):
So let's talk about your relationship with Arianna, your sister.
It sounds like your mom lead an incredible foundation for
that relationship and now you two lived together, which sounds
so amazing. Her sisters to live together. What is that like?
It's the Greek tradition. You get married, you get divorced,
(19:11):
and you moved back with your family. I tell you
how that came out in London when we lived when
we were both studying. We all lived together, my mother
and my sister and I, and then we kind of
we were this trio, you know, everywhere. We moved from
London to New York and we lived together, and then
(19:31):
we moved to Los Angeles and we lived together. And
at some point my sister got married and she moved
to Texas as she moved to Washington, but then she
moved to Santa Barbara where she had her beautiful daughters.
And uh, I was in and out of Santa Barbara.
My mother moved in with her to raise the kids.
(19:52):
So you know, it's a very Greek habit, you know.
And then there was a period in my life that
I left I think, yes, I left Santa Barbara and
went to New York to write my book, my first book,
Conversation to the Goddesses. And I lived for eight years
on my own, and Arianna was living with her husband
(20:14):
and the children and my mother, and I lived on
my own. And in that time I really formed my
own confidence in my own self because I was so
emerged with my mother and my sister. And at some point,
and I don't remember chronologically how it happened, my mother
(20:34):
and my father died. My father was in Greece. My
mother died in Los Angeles. Arianna then got divorced and
was living in Los Angeles with my mother, and my
mother died, and about six months later she was in
l A. I was in New York. We missed each
other terribly. We missed my mother, we missed my father.
And Arianna said to me, Darling, where did you come
and live with me and the children? And uh and
(20:57):
the children were young, and we need you, we need you, know,
to be a family again. I was promoting my goddess
as I was traveling everywhere, and we have a beautiful,
beautiful house in l a that has enough room for everybody.
And so that's how it happened. And then we had
an amazing, amazing life. You know, I'm very very close
(21:20):
to my nieces Isabella and Christina. I adored them and
they called me their second mom. So it was like
it was never a decision. It was like in the
flow of life. And then of course Arianna was running
Huffington Post and we got an apartment here and again
(21:40):
we were living together. It was like a natural flow.
The girls were at college and we have our own lives,
you know, obviously, you know, and I'm very very involved
with Right Global, but you know, we know, we don't
have dinner together every night, but we are together. You know.
It's like it's not like we flow together, like all
(22:02):
right now, Arianna's in Los Angeles doing some of her things,
and she's coming back here. Then she's traveling, so it's
in and out. You know, we are together because we are.
We have a partnership. I tell you, the most comforting
thing is that we talk every day. We talk about
everything about life. But Arianna can call me and say,
(22:24):
oh this and this just happened. Can you call so
and so and tell them about this great done you know?
Or can you make sure that when you go in
the market you get fetter cheese? You know, it's like
it's like it's like everything you know. Or she would
say to me, you know, oh, I just met this person.
I think they would be wonderful for your book. I'm
(22:46):
sending an email to them. So we think of each
other in our lives and that's the most beautiful. And
and we send each other text about messages and I
love you. We never finished a text without saying I
love you. And I tell you the greatest secret that
Arianna and I have we pray together. So how do
you resolve context with Arianna, with anyone with your nieces? Oh? Yes,
(23:10):
the conflict is there all the time. I mean, disappointment
is there all the time. First of all, the conflict
with other people. And you know, there are many situations
where friends don't react the way you want to, or
they do something that hurts your feelings, or um, you
have a disagreement with somebody, And I think the most
(23:35):
important thing is if you can come to accepting it
and loving yourself, because the thing we do, we judge
the hell of ourselves. Because when you're in judgment, you
can't see the answer, the solution. Okay, and it would
be I forgive myself for judging myself for this thing
that just happened. I forgive myself for judging myself for
(23:58):
this disagreement. I forget of myself for judging myself for
feeling out of balance. I've forgiven. And then you don't,
you don't take you to sleep. You kind of release it.
I have this great phrase, I love I'm letting go
of this disagreement because you know, the disagreement is mostly
the ego. Okay, the ego hurts, the ego fights. The
(24:21):
ego says I don't like this, I hate this, I
hate you. I am right, you're wrong, you know. So
if you can work with your ego and and surrender
your ego, which is not easy, and you bow down,
and if you have to ask for someone to say
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I yelled, I'm sorry, I was
(24:41):
out of sorts. I let's bring back the peace and
the loving and and that's one of the things I
encourage everybody to do. But for me, you know, before
before my book was coming out I and I was
promoting it, and every think I got out of the blue,
(25:03):
I got singles in my right eye. I mean I
got I mean it was horrific. It was like right
in the middle, I just suddenly started to move in
on me and uh, I mean you can see, as
you can see, my eyes still not perfect. I'm still
have my eye is still a bit swollen, but nothing
like it was. So it was extremely painful. And here
(25:25):
I am promoting the book about spirit and love and God. Right,
so I was mad at I was mad at God. Well,
you know, you know a guppy I once had shingles,
and shingles is really stress driven, and having a new
book come out is one of the most stressful possible things.
It sounds so romantic if you're not an author, but
(25:47):
having a book come out is incredibly difficult. And so
I'm sure that it was not a coincidence. It was
the stress that was induced from it. Yes, thank you
so much for saying that. And let me just tell
you it wasn't just that I had just come back
from Los Angeles. I was like a kid in the
(26:08):
candy store. I was going to the theater I was
going to ballet, seeing my friends, having dinner with my friends.
I was so happy, and suddenly bang Omicron came and
we couldn't do anything right. So I had Omicron, I
had the book. I had Christmas, which is stressful and
(26:30):
you know, just challenges that and I I should have said,
I should have totally said to myself and to my family, maybe, um,
I can't handle this great phrase, by the way, everybody,
I can't handle this right now. I cannot handle another
person to that. We have to get Christmas. I mean,
(26:51):
we have a huge Christmas list, you know, and Christmas
is always a big thing around here. Or I can't
handle the round. I can't handle it, just accepting that vulnerability,
and and the book was coming up, and all the
things we had to set up for the book, and
my you know, my publishers going I'm gonna do this launcher?
(27:12):
Who are going to have for the launch? And I
remember getting up with angst, you know, and I it's
it's like, okay, come on, a guppy. You know, God,
you know the light, you know how to go. But
we are human, you know. The emotions were overwhelming me.
And the singles came and it was horrible, absolutely horrible.
(27:33):
I mean, I to cancel things. I felt terrible. But
let me tell you two months later, now I'm two
months into it, I feel amazing. I feel so calm,
I feel I feel exactly what I said to you
at the beginning. This is so much more about the book.
(27:53):
This is about this beautiful message that I want to
share with all of you. This is so heartfelt and
I have felt. First of all, my vanity went out
the window. You know, I had to wear glasses. I
didn't have to look perfect a guppy miss you know,
you know how we all want to look perfect. I
(28:14):
didn't care. I mean, I did my launch and my
eye was very worse than that, and it was amazing
because what matters is the energy that came through. And
so that's what I want to share that the conflict
is what did a guppy learned. I became more patient,
more loving. I had no energy throughout the day. Sometimes
(28:35):
I would just sleep and rest. And how many times
do we feel it's okay to rest and rest and
rest till you're good? I mean, I know, you know,
Sam and Amy, you work so hard, you have kids.
If you ever have a call to push yourself don't you.
So I became very loving to myself and right now
(28:57):
I still am not a and uh, I'm still patient
and loving with myself and said I can't do anything
about it. I guess I did everything I could. And
now a quick break, now a copy. I have two
favorite stories. Oftentimes, when when I've seen you in person,
you just make me laugh because almost out of nervousness,
(29:20):
because I don't know that many people who are as
confident in who they are and as comfortable as you,
and I'm in awe of it, and I love it.
And I have two stories about you. One of the
stories is that we were at an event together. We
were both speaking at in Newark, New Jersey, at Oprah's conference,
(29:41):
and it was time for the speakers to meet Oprah.
And I think you body checked like ten people to
get to the front of the line because because you're
got to you right, You're just you go for what
you want right and and then and then another story
is um we were both at a wedding. We were
(30:02):
both guests at a wedding and you came over to
me and you said, how is your drink? And I said, oh,
it's it's really good and I start talking about it.
Before I know it, you grabbed it and you took
a sip. Yes, because I but like I just I
admire how comfortably you just kind of are fluid through
the world. And I think that so many, especially women,
(30:26):
hold themselves back from being who they're meant to be
and from from taking up space in the world. And
one of the stories, you know, one of the stories
in your book was about how you were raising money
for that one woman show you did on PBS and
how you were you would hit a wall in your fundraising.
And I think that the story, that story, if you
(30:46):
could share it with our listeners, would be so meaningful
to them because so many of them are in business
and they're selling something or they're going for something. Absolutely,
and my god, fundraising can be such hell and pressure
and everything. I was raising money for the Gods of
Greece six million dollar p PBS, and I went to
(31:07):
every single Greek I knew. I mean, that's a lot
of Greeks, and nobody would give me money in New York.
I never forget it. Finally I had a French friend
of mine who gave me money, and then I was
able to raise the seed money that the project never happened,
but I learned so much and the experience that I
(31:28):
had was very much about perseverance, you know. And the
cut to my one woman show because I was raising
money for that, and that I just that was you know,
hundred fifty thou dollars, so there was not a big
million dollars. And I never forget it. I called a
wonderful Greek man quants a lots of stores in New York,
(31:51):
and I must have called him, you know, a dozen times,
and his secretary would say to me, oh, yes, happy, Yes,
we're trying to try to get John to you. But
and I can. I said, oh yes, it's a happy again.
You know. It was like I became such a pain.
And finally he picked up the phone and he said, listen,
I'm sending you five thousand dollars. Okay, I said, amazing.
(32:14):
And U then I called his best friend and I said,
John is giving you five thousand? Can you match it?
And he said yes? And I never forget. Underneath the
gate the FedEx checks were coming. It was so amazing,
and I think I broke through the nose, you know,
and I kept going, but I kept asking with with
(32:35):
such A. I must say, I kept asking with a
lot of charm. You know. I realized the key to
hearing the no was not to get to feel rejected.
That was and no doesn't mean I'm rejecting you and
a no, man, we don't want to give you any
money right now. But I go, Okay, I'm gonna ask
(32:56):
you again, and it became fun and I U is
the money And that show, you know, was amazing, and
and what I learned from all that is again the
courage to ask a guppy before we go to our
speed round. I realized there's one thing I really wanted
to ask you about, which is how you're thinking about
(33:20):
romance today. Are you online meeting people or do you
have a relationship you're already in No, I don't have
a relationship. I mean I feel very fulfilled in my life.
I feel I have wonderful friends, male friends, I have
um married friends, I have women friends, I have my family,
(33:41):
and I feel very fulfilled. If someone walked into my
life without me striving or I'm not looking, I'm not
looking online. This is not the phase of my life. Remember,
I am in the laterst of my life right, so
this is not for everybody, because I have many chapters
in this book when you want to find love, I mean,
(34:02):
how to pray about that, and when you're divorced and
maybe twice and you want to find love again. It's
all wonderful for me right now, I'm not looking. But
if somebody walked in and you know, became a partner
or someone that I was able to have a relationship with,
I welcome it. But it's not something that I think
(34:26):
about a coppy. What book are you reading right now? Actually,
there is a wonderful book that um, I love and
that's from Lexi's husband Some Yes, I just bought it,
Connecting the Dots. It is absolutely fabulous. I recommend it
and it's actually about how life happens when you let
(34:49):
life happen, and it's his story with Lexi. Is amazing
how they met, right, incredible. So a gappy you live
a very big life. So who is the one person
that leaves you star struck? You've met so many people.
Can I tell you who the person who leaves me
star struck is? Is my niece Isabella. She is thirty
(35:12):
one years old. She's an artist, and about four years
ago she suffered a concussion she hit by bike crossing
the street to have a date and bike. One of
the bikes's hitter and she hit her head on the pavement,
and we thought it would be you know, four weeks
(35:33):
later she'll be fine. Everybody said, there's nothing. There's nothing.
Four years later, she's still managing her concussion and she's
um finding ways to navigate it. She has a new
protocol now of a discipline of doing a few things,
taking a break, doing a few things, and and this
is gonna make me cry. But one of the practitioners
(35:55):
who works with a neurologist she's working with, said to her,
I wish we had met you when when it happened,
because our doctor and I can say the name of
the doctor, because she's an amazing doctor, doctor Chatty, who
would have helped you within the the first three months
of the critical months to help a concussion. And Isabella
turned to the practitioner said, but that would have been
(36:18):
such a waste, because in the four years I have
learned so much about my spirit and God and and
and life, and that would have been a waste. Can
you believe it? She has taken what's going on with
her and advanced herself to become who she is today.
Liu male perspective. Amy asked you a question about your mom,
(36:41):
and as you're answering the question, you kind of like
channeled your mom's spirit. Yes, yes, that was something that
was like, what is going on there? You know? Can
you talk more about that? Absolutely? That because the spirit
and the souls of who we are, uh and who
people are, and we have guides and spiritual guides who
(37:04):
don't see them if they're invisible, but we must evoke them.
And there are so many I mean, you can actually
start to commune with your parents, and I have many
times communed with my mother and my father. You must
allow that spirit they want to communicate with you. It's
not woo woo. It's not like, oh woo, this is
such wool stuff. It's real, my friends. We must be quiet.
(37:28):
And if you want to communicate with the spirit of Beethoven,
listen to the Ode to Joy ten Thou people in
Japan put it on YouTube. If you want to feel joy,
and then ask the Spirit of Beethoven and you will
feel it. You will feel it. And we must have
the courage to know that that is real. That but
(37:50):
before other spirits and we must call our souls forward
and our God, because unless we call it forward, they
won't come. It was so hard to end that conversation
with a Coppy because she's one of those people you
feel like you could talk to for five hours. I
(38:13):
have to say, like there's something about a copy. First
of all, she makes me giggle because she just has
this incredible energy. But she just makes me laugh. I mean,
first of all, I think her next book should be
a parenting book, Amy because whatever her mom did, like
her mom instilled the most incredible confidence in both Ariana
(38:34):
and a Goppy. And it's magical. No, I mean the
fact that like when she has a rejection, she's like,
Guppy is too much for them. They weren't ready for
a copy. Like she's just amazing. I mean, I want
my kids to feel that way. I want to feel
that way all the time. It is seriously remarkable the
way she handles things. And you know me aim like,
(38:55):
I am such a skeptic when it comes to like
woo woo meditation some of it. And I just fell
in love with her book. I really, I thought it
was fabulous. No. I was reading to my oldest daughter
from it over the weekend actually because yeah, I mean,
well it's just you know, like I want my girls
to know you and I can inspire our children, right,
(39:16):
And I think that I got the mother inspired her,
but somehow it got his mother also taught her to
believe in the world. And I think it's part of
what it got his mother, how she lived her own life,
like the story I got be told about, you know,
just kind of money, like there would always somehow they'll
be money, somehow it will come our way. And I
think that like if you because a child can learn
to tap into the universe like that, you'll go through
(39:37):
life in a different way. I totally agree. I mean,
I you know, I have that philosophy pretty much in
terms of like I used to say to my husband
when we had nothing, I'd be like, oh, money grows
on trees and He's like, what are you crazy, Like
where do you even get this? But I would always say, like,
it's just gonna all work out. And that's kind of
what I think in just in general in life. And
(40:00):
he doesn't have that philosophy, and I have to say,
it's it's just so interesting, like parenting next to someone
who doesn't have that philosophy. He's probably more typical or
normal than I am. With my like it's all going
to work out, like kind of Pollyannish idea of life.
But I do think that mindset has such a big
impact on outcome. I mean, I agree, like, if you're
(40:22):
afraid before you begin, it's really hard to get to
the end, right, And I think they're one of the
ways to be less afraid is to just believe that
the universe has your back. And I like, I just
felt so good leaving that conversation with the copy right.
I just felt good. I love her. I can't wait
to have dinner with her New York. She's just she's
(40:43):
the cutest, She's the best. Thanks for listening to What's
Her Story with Sam and Amy. We would appreciate it
if you leave her of you wherever you get your podcasts,
and of course, connect with us on social media at
What's Her Story podcast. What's Her Story or with Sam
and Amy is powered by my company, The Riveter at
the Riveter dot c O and Sam's company, park Place
(41:06):
Payments at park place payments dot com. Thanks to our
producer Stacy Parra and our male perspective Blue Burns h
Hosts And Creators
Samantha Ettus
Amy Nelson
Popular Podcasts
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.