April 21, 2025 • 65 mins
What happens when you stop giving your power away to other people's opinions and fully embrace your creative self? April Chavez, host of the Wellness Driven Life Show and CEO of Driven Living LLC, shares her remarkable journey from survival mode to creative thriving in this illuminating conversation.
April's path hasn't been easy – navigating systemic lupus since childhood, working in male-dominated fields like law enforcement, and raising three daughters as a single mother. Yet these challenges became the contrast she needed to discover her authentic direction. "I don't know many people who aren't doing extraordinary things in life without having gone through extraordinary difficulties," she reflects. "We have to have that contrast in order to know what we want to do and be and how we want to show up."
The turning point in April's creative journey came when she reclaimed her personal power from others' expectations. That liberation transformed everything: "When you don't care what people think about what you create, you will create fabulous and you will shine so brightly." This mindset shift allowed her to move from merely surviving to genuinely thriving through community and creative expression.
Perhaps most powerfully, April reveals how community became the catalyst for her creative expansion after years of isolation. "We didn't come here to be solo human beings," she shares. "When we're isolated, we're surviving, and when we're in community, we're thriving." This profound insight frames her current mission of building supportive spaces where others can discover their own creative power.
Whether you're struggling with others' opinions, feeling stuck in survival mode, or searching for your creative voice, April's wisdom offers a roadmap to authentic self-expression. What action will you take today to start being your creative, beautiful self and seek the community that will fuel your fire?
April's Profile
DrivenLivin Website
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
For starter, dwight, I don't know many people who
aren't doing extraordinarythings in life without having
gone through extraordinarydifficulties extraordinary
(00:31):
difficulties.
We have to have that contrastin order to know what we want to
do and be and how we want toshow up.
If we don't know, the oppositeof it right, it's the yin-yang
aspect.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello and welcome to another edition of For the Love
of Creatives podcast.
I am one of the hosts, dwight,and I'm joined by Maddox.
We're the Connections andCommunity Guys, and today our
featured guest is the lovelyApril Chavez.
Hi, april.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
April.
Thank you, such a pleasure tobe here with the two of you.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah well, we're really thrilled to be with you
on our show.
I know that you have hosted awonderful show the Wellness
Driven Live show for quite sometime now and you've done a whole
lot of things to really give alot of people a platform.
(01:41):
And with the breadth of all ofyour experiences, I don't think
that I could do justice ingiving you an introduction.
So why don't you share with ourlisteners a little bit about
who you are, so they can have anidea of who you are and what
you're about?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Thank you, dwight.
You know I stem from many hatsbackground and I have three
daughters, so I've done the momthing.
I've been in the corporatecareer aspect, I've been in law
enforcement career aspect.
I have an autoimmune diseaseand so I've lived with systemic
(02:22):
lupus for my whole life.
So I have an array of manydifferent facets of myself,
which we all do, don't we?
When we start to get down to itand you've lived enough life,
then you've done a lot of things.
But right now, in my currentlife, I'm the host of the
Wellness Driven Life Show.
(02:43):
I'm the CEO of Driven LivingLLC, and that is really our big
business and it's the thing thatwe're so incredibly passionate
about.
And so it's community and it'seducational courses, and there's
a lot that we offer really inthe self-improvement aspect, a
(03:04):
lot that we offer really in theself-improvement aspect.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That is awesome.
I really.
I think our listeners wouldlove to know about some of the
things that have brought you towhere you are.
You mentioned a whole lot ofdifferent things being a mom,
lot of different things being amom, a career in law enforcement
, a career in corporate, andthat that seems like a lot of
different things to navigate andto make those pivots.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I would think that it all kind of tap into creativity
when we figure out differentways of doing things and
navigating the course of ourlife right.
So creativity can have so manydifferent ways of expression.
It doesn't always mean you graba paintbrush and you start
(04:07):
painting, you know, with withcolors.
Creativity is really utilizingour minds in order to create new
paths for ourself, bring newideas to life, you know, really
manifest the life that we desire.
And when we come up with allthose bumps in the roads, like
being a single parent of threechildren and needing to put food
(04:31):
on the table so then you'recreating different avenues to do
that, like working a couple ofjobs, and so bringing in
creativity.
With my past, I could go back asearly as childhood and that,
literally is crayon to paper,right, I absolutely loved it.
I loved the colors.
That was my outlet as a child.
(04:52):
Singing was my outlet as achild, and so bringing that
creative piece from our voiceand an expression into the world
, and so I've really been ableto bring creative pieces into my
life on so many differentlevels.
So, that being said, that'skind of where we've gone, but do
(05:17):
you have anything specific thatyou want me to go with that in
the creative ways that I'vebrought into expression.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
You know, what I love about this is we've had many
people on the podcast now, andthe vast majority of them have
been artists or dancers orsingers or architects or you
name it, and I think you'reperhaps, unless memory fails me,
(05:48):
you're one of the first onesthat really has talked about.
I mean, you're describingcreative entrepreneurship, and I
think this is very importantand valuable, because we want
everything we do to appeal tothe full range of creatives, not
(06:08):
just artists or people thatmake things, but people who
dream up things, people who youdo course, creation, and I know
you're working on communityright now, and some of this is
very similar to what we do, andwe haven't even really taken the
(06:29):
time to talk about this, butyou know, neither one of us
necessarily make things Now.
I have painted in my life, I'vedone photography, there's been
a lot of things that I've donethat were in that artistic realm
, but the vast majority of whatwe do right now is creative
entrepreneurship.
All of our creative juices aregoing towards how to make this
(06:54):
contribution to humanity, and soI'm excited to have this
conversation with you and hearmore about that and what that
looks like and how you're doingthat.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Oh, maddox, you know, excuse me, going into
entrepreneurism is one of thebest ways to tap into your
creative state.
And let's take the conversationas far as going into the health
arena.
And so health has always beenat the forefront of my life
(07:28):
because of having an autoimmunedisease, and so when I went into
law enforcement, we learned alot about breath work, calming
the body down during stressfulsituations, and I think most of
us, at some point in our life,have had a point in our life
where we've been very anxietyridden and it's showing up in
(07:48):
the body down.
When you start learning abouttechniques like meditation, that
(08:12):
is when we actually start goinginto a creative state, because
you cannot be creative unlessthe body is calm enough to do so
.
So when we tap into ourselvesin that you know that
meditational state and we aredreaming of different things and
(08:32):
we're calm enough to be like,okay, you know, this is what I
want, this is what I desire,then we really start moving into
that and that creative piece iswhat creates our realities and
our bodies start seeking outevidence of that the more and
the more that we do that.
(08:52):
And when you go intoentrepreneurism, it's living out
your passion and you can't havea passion or be passionate
about something you know unlessyou're excited about it and
you're creatively excited aboutit right.
So stepping intoentrepreneurism has been really
(09:13):
exciting for me, because I getto do what I want, what I want
to bring forth to the world whatI am passionate about, what I
believe in, and you're reallyputting yourself out there.
But at the same time you get tomake it yours and you don't
have to listen to anybody elseor be pigeonholed into something
or be inside that box.
(09:36):
You get to truly express what'swithin that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
This is really good.
I I would love for you to justback up for a minute and expand
on because of all our listenersare creatives what specifically
are things that you can call outthat when we do these things,
it diminishes our ability tocreate?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It diminishes our ability to create when we do
what things, the things that westifle our creativity with.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Perhaps it's doom scrolling on social media, or I
know you probably have a.
You kind of touched on it.
I just want to expand on itbecause I think this is huge and
who doesn't need to hear this?
If you're a creative?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I think one of the biggest things that stifles
creativity is doing the samething day in and day out.
It is the automatic programmingthat we all know very well
because our bodies are designedto do so, that we all know very
well because our bodies aredesigned to do so, and if we
fall into that trap, thatstifles creativity completely
(10:52):
right?
If you're just being theautomatic robot and you're
getting up and you're brushingyour teeth and you're going to
the bathroom and you're taking ashower and you're eating your
breakfast and you're drinkingcoffee and you're, you know,
going to work and driving intraffic and you are not
expanding upon the expression ofyou, you know you're not,
(11:13):
you're not really utilizing lifeas you were put here to to do.
We were put here to express whowe are inside, because we're
all uniquely different.
And isn't that one of thecoolest things in the whole wide
world, right?
Just like how different andunique we all are, and it's a
(11:34):
beautiful thing.
Just like the spectrums of the,of the colors of the rainbow,
which we don't even I mean, Idon't even know maybe you guys
know more about.
Like we can't see so much ofthose colors.
There's just so much that wecannot see and that we do not
know.
But it's like that.
We're so individual and sounique and it brings life to
(11:57):
this world.
It brings joy to this world andI want to live joyfully.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And that's contagious .
I think that the way that yougo out and boldly live is an
inspiration to any that have thegood fortune of being in your
presence.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Now is it scary?
Yeah, if you're not used to it,absolutely.
I mean, we, we all know that Iit's.
It's very, very interestingwhen you start to observe humans
and yourself.
Of course, self reflection is iswhat we have to do continuously
.
If we want to evolve and besomething greater, we have to
(12:43):
observe ourselves and make thetweaks and changes that we want
to evolve and be somethinggreater, we have to observe
ourselves and make the tweaksand changes that we want.
But when we start to observeother people, we really pick up
and notice that we're all sosimilar that we're all feeling
very awkward in this human bodythat we're, like don't really
know what to do, how to actsocially.
And if you take your Um, and ifyou, if you take your um
(13:06):
concentration off of yourselfwhich is difficult for most of
us to do and you really observeyou, you truly do see that we're
all um really trying to arejoyfully expressing themselves.
(13:29):
You can like point them outright away because they don't
look awkward.
They don't look, you know,still, they're really just being
themselves and they feel andlook like they feel comfortable
in their own skin.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I kind of feel like you're describing an innate need
in humans to have a sense ofbelonging.
That's what it sounds likeyou're describing to me, and
when we belong is when we startto move through easily and we
don't look so awkward.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, I think it's funny the chicken or the egg,
right?
And what I mean by that?
In the sense ofself-acknowledgement, self-work
and also engulfing ourselveswith other people and in
community also engulfingourselves with other people and
(14:28):
in community.
So when I say that, when weobserve other people and we
start to realize that, oh yeah,we're all just a human being, no
matter what status they are, nomatter what they're doing in
life and you guys know, the morethat you interview people,
especially at high status, youreally just feel very
comfortable with them andthere's no longer this gap of,
oh my gosh, you know they'relike this, you know they're this
(14:53):
incredible human being, but youreally start feeling like, wow,
we're all so similar.
Or is it where we start toimprove ourselves and then we're
ready to step out and be alongwith other humans.
Like we kind of need a littlebit of both.
Right, you have to have theunderstanding that we're all the
same and yet we're all uniqueand we have to go within in
(15:17):
order to know how to feelcomfortable in our skin.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It sounds like you're hitting on a profound life
lesson here.
It's really interesting how wecan all get a little bit too
wrapped up in the stories thatwe're running in our own heads,
you know, so focused on thethings that might make us look
out of place or awkward or justbe a cause for some negative
(15:47):
attention when, if we were tozoom out, one way of seeing this
is you're just not thatimportant in the grand scale of
things, because so many peopleare telling their own horrible
stories about the things thatthey're scared of and the ways
that they're going to be thetarget for, for ridicule or for
(16:10):
judgment.
What's happening in the worldaround you, or, better yet, to
take an interest in the personthat you're talking to, then you
don't have room to worry aboutthe things that can go wrong and
(16:32):
that's-.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I feel like it.
Yeah, it goes into servitude.
Yes, you know, when we againtake the pressure off ourselves
and we move into an act ofservitude, how can I serve you
or how can I be there for you?
And what is one of the bestways to do that?
It's being present withsomebody, fully present, and
(16:56):
listening to them and hearingwhat they say and letting them
know that you've heard themthrough what they said, by
acknowledging what they've saidand not necessarily going into
advice or anything, but trulyjust being with them and hearing
them you've just connected somedots for me, so thank you very
(17:17):
much.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You know I most of my life I have been very uneasy in
rooms of strangers, veryuncomfortable in room, very
awkward.
If there's ever going to be aplace where I don't feel
comfortable in my own skin, it'sin a big room full of strangers
.
And yet we lead big rooms ofstrangers.
(17:40):
You know, we just had an eventrecently where there were two
thirds of the people in the room.
We did not know and I don'tfeel awkward or uncomfortable in
my own skin, or none of thathappens when we are, when it's
(18:04):
our event, when we're leading,and I don't think that I ever
connect the dots until just thismoment is what enables me to do
that is that in those moments Iam serving, because that's the
way we view it.
We bring people together inservice.
You know, it's our passion tobring people together and we
(18:29):
very much when we think aboutcommunity and leadership.
It is a form of servitude.
You know, I don't ever looklike, oh, look at me, I'm the
big grand poobah.
What is they'll saying.
It's more like you know, I'mhere, yes, yes, if you're a
member of my community, I'm hereto help you, to serve you, and
(18:59):
I think that's what I now reallyfully get, that that's what
enables me to be comfortable inmy own skin and operate from
that place of calm and sense ofbelonging.
And so, wow, thank you verymuch.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, well, very much shifts it.
And what I would invite topeople like your past self,
maddox, is, when you step intothose rooms and you feel so
uncomfortable, shift thatperspective into what do I get
to learn from somebody heretonight?
How do I get to make an impacton them, potentially through the
(19:31):
people or the resources, theconnections that I may have.
How may I support them?
Like, maybe they just need onemore follower on their YouTube
channel or they want somebody toengage on Instagram?
Now, we all know that we'reliving in a day and age that
social media is.
It's pretty vital forbusinesses, for entrepreneurs,
(19:52):
business in general I mean,every business has some sort of
lead on social media, and sosome of those things are really
important for creatives, forentrepreneurs, for people in
business, you know, and so howcan I help other people?
And making switching thatperception is will change
(20:14):
everything for you when you walkinto that room.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I can see that.
I can see that just walking inwith you know how can I serve
anybody that I come across inthis meeting?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, it's a great muscle to build to deal with
those, those halting negativeself conversations that we have
and putting that frame ofservitude over them.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Totally shifted.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful April, I want to
direct the conversation back andmake it about you for a minute,
okay.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Since you're our featured guest.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I would love to know, when you're in the zone when
you're absolutely your mostcreative, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I'm not hearing anything that my husband is
saying to me.
That's for darn sure.
I just I am tuned out towhatever is around me and I am
zoned in.
And my excuse is well, you knowthat we can't actually
(21:24):
multitask, right?
So don't talk to April and tryto communicate with her when
she's in the zone.
But it feels like like likethat you know, it's just you're
totally present with whatever itis that you're doing and you're
(21:45):
concentrating on, and it'sreally.
It flows like thingssystematically go, time is
stopped, time is gone.
You look at the clock later onwhen you snap out of it and it's
like how did three hours justgo by?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I don't even know.
But physically, what are youdoing?
When you're in that zone andyou're creating and you're
having that feeling that we getwhen we love it the most, what
are you physically doing?
Are you creating coursematerial?
What are you doing?
Are you creating coursematerial?
Are you creating?
What are you doing?
Oh the thing that just blowsyour skirt out the most.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That's a difficult one to answer because I am
constantly creating.
We create thumbnails for theshow, we create titles,
descriptions so there's writingthat comes into it yeah,
creating the courses and all ofthe content and the videos.
And.
But you know, I really getexcited with creating my
(22:49):
thumbnails on our YouTubechannel for our interviews with
our guests, and I've done itcompletely different than a lot
of people do, and I've done itcompletely different than a lot
of people do.
Most people, I would venture tosay, are taking the headshots of
the guests that they have, andI've had a lot of top guests.
I don't use their headshot onthe thumbnail.
I create something entirelydifferent.
(23:17):
Where it's a picture, it's aphotorealistic image of
something that really brings mejoy and something that I'm
attracted to, and so I figure myaudience is going to be
attracted to it too because I'mattracted to it, and so I've
gone in a really different waywith that.
But it brings me a lot of joywhen I create those things like
this expression of what ourdiscussion is about and how I
(23:42):
can entertain our audience bygrabbing them first with that
thumbnail.
That image that's reallyvibrant and really telling.
It speaks emotion, and I thinkthat that is really what I want
to bring to our audience.
That's why our YouTube channelis the biggest platform.
(24:02):
Yes, we have the podcast arena,apple, spotify, all of those
but we concentrate on YouTubebecause you get to see everyone
visually.
You know we're on camera, soyou get to see the expression of
the guests when they're talkingabout their story and how they
came to be and why and howthey're doing what they're
(24:24):
passionate about doing today.
So, yeah, I think that that,amongst many other things, I get
really excited when I amfinally in alignment with the
thing I really want to do themost and present to the world
and present to the community.
I get excited about creatingthe things that matter most to
(24:49):
me, like a wellness-driven, lifedriven living.
We have our dog, who is ourmascot.
She's a Doberman and so weutilize Dobermans a lot in our
marketing and it's our brand.
So the expression of our brandand living that out, because we
(25:09):
all know our brand, it's areflection of us and so that's a
long-winded way.
I hope that answered yourquestion.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
No, beautifully, beautifully.
I love the detail and as youspeak, it's very obvious.
You know, as an empath, I canfeel your passion and your
enthusiasm.
I can hear it in your voice andsee it on your face, but I also
can like viscerally feel it inmy beingness.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I'd like to come back to a couple of things that you
talked about before, or actuallyjust kind of open the door to
talk about some of thechallenges that you faced.
You mentioned that you had anautoimmune disease, and you also
talked about being a singlemother of three.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Those are yeah go ahead on their own.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Those would be tough for anybody to deal with.
But yeah, you know, we, we dondon't, we're not able to deal
with the deck that we're dealt,other than just going through it
, and you've done so beautifully.
What's that been like for you?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, for starter, dwight, I don't know many people
who aren't doing extraordinarythings in life without having
gone through extraordinarydifficulties.
We have to have that contrastin order to know what we want to
(26:51):
do and be and how we want toshow up.
If we don't know the oppositeof it, right, it's the yin yang
aspect.
And so with with the autoimmunedisease and I still have it I
still have markers, but I doreally well with it.
(27:13):
So I'm very blessed, but I'vealso done a lot of work.
I continue to do my best to dothe work that I feel helps
manage it.
So I'm very blessed, but I'vealso done a lot of work.
I continue to do my best to dothe work that I feel helps
manage it.
And but I've had symptoms sincebirth and I was diagnosed at 15
.
So being a child diagnosed witha disease or having a disease,
(27:39):
it was a really.
It was better luck for me tohave that.
I think that when we'rediagnosed with things as adults,
it's more difficult.
We've already had a lot of life, we've already had a lot of
issues and sometimes life usdown so much that we create it
into an end.
It is this disastrous thing andthat is it and we are done, but
(28:05):
as a child.
A child doesn't think that way.
They want to live and they wantto express themselves naturally
.
And so I just wanted to be anormal kid.
I didn't want the disease todefine me, and so I went through
(28:25):
life like that, where I wasbound and determined to not be
that.
And so it really shows in mylife, moving forward, going into
male dominant fields, alwayswanting to express myself as
strong, healthy, capable, notweak, not diseased.
(28:51):
And so I think I was really anadvantage as a child.
And then being a parent ofthree daughters, you know I did
not want children.
I was diagnosed at 15, sexuallyactive at 18.
My doctor said, well, you can'thave children.
(29:13):
And I was like, well, what am Ion this birth control for?
So I got off of birth controland I became pregnant and I was
like, well, I guess I'llmiscarry because I can't have
kids.
So that started the stage ofmotherhood for me.
It was unexpected, it wasn'tplanned, it wasn't something
(29:34):
that I had ventured out to do.
Between all my high schoolfriends I was the one who was
like I'm never having kids.
I had a whole plan to go tocollege and universities I
wanted to be a forensicentomologist and study the life
cycle of bugs and all thatforensic piece of how it affects
and timestamps the time ofdeath on cadavers.
(29:57):
I was so fascinated in thatworld.
And then having the kids, thatwas going to take a lot of
schooling.
So I went into law enforcementbecause I figured well I could
maybe go into investigativefields that way and eventually,
if I chose to, I could go toschool and further that
education.
So, yeah, it's brought a lot ofchallenges and especially the
(30:21):
dynamics of being a woman in amale dominant field.
I mean that brought a whole newsort of harsh realities that I
wasn't expecting.
And so all of these things theyreally like they can either
really harden you and where youjust become this hard person
(30:44):
that doesn't want to, you knowyou get stagnated there, you
don't want to expand or grow, oryou can turn it into something
where, wow, I've had all theseexperiences and all of these
lessons that I now call wisdom.
And so when you turn the thingsin your life that have been
(31:06):
traumatic for you in somecapacity into, wow, I'm so glad
I had that experience and now Iconsider it wisdom and now I get
to present myself in the worldand respond in the world in a
different way.
Because of that, you know it'sa beautiful thing, and when you
think of it that way, nothing inlife is by mistake.
(31:27):
It all led you to right here.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I love that.
That is.
That's incredible.
It reminds me of some of thechallenges I've had to overcome.
I was a gay man in the militaryduring Don't Ask, don't Tell,
and the final year of myenlistment was horrifying
(31:52):
because I had to look forward toa day filled of interrogation
every day.
I knew exactly what was goingto happen.
I'd be sitting in a room with adefense intelligence agent and
we would go through the samething over and over.
Experience was something thatwas a really.
(32:24):
It made a really big impressionon who I was.
I didn't feel safe and I wasalways looking over my shoulder,
but I found the support Ineeded in community.
I was able to work with a legaldefense fund that helped
soldiers in my situation andthey connected me to resources,
(32:46):
and I'm curious as to how youwere able to find community when
you were in such amale-dominated field where you
were kind of exceptionalcommunity didn't come until much
, much later in my life, and Iwould say so, within the past,
(33:14):
oh, I don't know five years orunder, I didn't trust people
enough to allow community intomy life and COVID happened and I
didn't need community.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Then, you know, or what have you?
We feel that way, go that way.
And when I said that you canbecome stagnant in those
feelings and in those traumas,you know you were very fortunate
, dwight, to have a communitywhere you found resources, where
(33:51):
you felt like you could trustsomebody again.
And it took me a long time, ittook me time to start building
my own community and, you know,creating my business and start
to learn that there are so manyincredible, beautiful angels on
(34:14):
this planet, you know, that arethere to support you and be
there alongside you.
And so, yeah, it didn't comeuntil much later, sadly to say,
but here we are and I am sograteful for now having that,
(34:36):
having community in my life,having people that are alongside
me on this journey, and it'sreally beautiful, and you know
we've created community.
Maddox, I want to go back alittle bit, because you said
when you were younger you wereterrified to step into a room
and be social, and I too havecreated communities, and so we
(34:58):
bring that to our lives becauseour souls are desperate to have
it.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
For probably the first half of my life, I felt
very unseen.
You know, once again, I cameout as a gay man 45 years ago.
It was at a time when and Ilived in a small town in central
Texas.
It was a time when it wasn'tsocially acceptable, and so I
did everything I could to beinvisible until things started
(35:41):
to change in the world.
Where I could be myself, Icould be myself.
And so, after half of alifetime of being invisible and
not being seen, now much of whatI do is specifically to create
space so people can be seen,because I know how valuable and
(36:02):
how important that is.
Yeah, I kind of want to.
I know that we can't change thepast, but I want to ask a
question.
You came up the ranks a singlemother with three children, and
that had to be incrediblychallenging.
You didn't have you've statedthat you really didn't have
(36:25):
community at that time, becausethere was just a lack of trust.
Not only that, but I oh go ahead, no no, well, go ahead, say
what you were going to say.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I was living in survival mode.
I was working two jobs.
I didn't have time, quiteliterally, to or I didn't create
time, I should say, to havecommunity.
I was just in survival mode.
Go, go, go.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And I know we can't change the past, but I'm asking
this question because I knowthere are people out there that
are going to hear this who arein the place that you were.
Maybe it's different, maybeit's not about being a single
mother and having three children, but they're in a place where
they are in survival, forwhatever reason.
They're in survival mode andthey don't have community.
(37:15):
And so my question is what doyou think might have been
different in your experience atthat time in your life if you
had had community?
Speaker 1 (37:28):
if you had had community?
Oh, I think it would have beenreally important to me as a
mother to be able to shareexperiences with having kids,
and I felt like an outsider alot of the times because it
didn't seem like there was toomany single moms, you know, they
always had a partner by theirside or what have you, or maybe
(37:51):
they were more financiallysecure, and so I allowed all of
those things to really barricademyself away from other people.
But the way that I describebringing in and I'll go ahead
and utilize community for it,but I usually say it we should
(38:14):
always have five peoplesurrounding us that we admire
the most, that we strive to belike, we want to embody their
beautiful aspects, that theybring into the world right, and
I tell my listeners that that issomething you can.
It doesn't have to be somebodyphysical in person.
(38:35):
It could be somebody that youadmire from the past, a
historical figure.
It could be through books, itcould be through, nowadays,
podcasts, right, and people thatyou just really admire.
And I feel that that's at thetime.
That is where I had mycommunity.
I listened to a lot ofaudiobooks, I continued to work
(38:57):
on self-improvement.
I just did it alone, I did itby myself.
I did it without other people,so I listened to other people's
stories via headphones insteadof in person.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
You know, you've just said something that really has
made me think and reflect for amoment, and had an aha moment in
that you talked about the fivepeople that we need to surround
ourselves with, the people thatyou want to be like, and what I
realized.
I was thinking about the peoplethat are in my closest of
circles, and I think that wethink sometimes we have this
(39:36):
perception that those fivepeople need to have all their
shit together.
They need to have their shittogether, otherwise why would we
want to be like them?
But in that moment, I realizedthat every person that is in my
closest of circles, in all of usincluding me, at times are a
hot fucking mess, and so I wasthinking about a couple of my
(40:01):
dearest friends.
I was thinking about one friendin particular.
We've been friends for aquarter of a century, and the
thing about her that Iabsolutely love the most, the
way that I want to be like her,as you were saying is that she
(40:23):
loves unconditionally.
I always feel lovedunconditionally by her and I
always know that in my momentsof of need she would absolutely
be there for me, and that's whatI love about her the most.
(40:49):
Now are there other areas of herlife, as as there are my life
and probably Dwight's life andperhaps your life that aren't
all together and are messy.
So I think that it's importantfor us to realize it doesn't
have to be the full picture forus to love them and to bring
them into our lives and toaspire to be like them.
We're aspiring to be like anaspect of them, and that opens
up the door for a widerexperience.
(41:10):
I think and this is a brand newawareness I mean this is fresh,
hot off the press right here aswe speak because I've always
thought about that the fivepeople you, the closest people
you to, are, you become and I'mlooking at the five people that
I'm close to and that's scaringme a little bit, you know,
because I'm looking at some ofthe messy aspects of their life
(41:31):
and I just realized that that'snot the way it works, because
there's nobody that's got all oftheir shit together.
If they do, they're not human.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, right, yeah, that absolutely goes back to,
you know, saying that noteverybody is perfect.
And you start to realize thatwhen, when you see people, or or
you know you're next to peopleof high status or whatever,
whatever place they've gotten tobe in life, they, if they're
human, they certainly have flaws, but the the best thing about
(42:07):
the people that we, those fivepeople, is, yes, along with the
flaws, they're always driven tobe a better version of
themselves.
You know, they're alwayscontinuing that evolution
(42:33):
evolution.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I do I do that, have that in common with each of my
close friends, as I do withDwight.
I tend to attract now, notalways, but I attract now people
who are working on themselvesand wanting to be more and bring
more to humanity.
Yeah, good, good, call outApril, good call to humanity.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Good, good, call out, april, good call, yeah I.
I'd like to call out anotheraspect that you you mentioned in
that and how, because of whereyou were in life, you didn't,
you weren't able to holdphysical space with some of
these people that were drivingyou forward, and I think that's
okay.
I think that it's a good thingthat we can learn lessons from
(43:12):
people who may not even be withus anymore and, you know, still
be able to in some way have arelationship with those who've
given us the gift of the hardlessons that they've learned
through what they've recorded inbooks or in other media.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
April.
Would you say that now you havemore of a sense of community
than ever in the past?
I'm kind of hearing that, but Iwanted to confirm that.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Oh, a thousand percent.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Okay, and so having a large chunk of your life
without really much communityand now having some community
around you, what has that?
How has that benefited you?
What has that enabled you to doas a creative human being that
(44:10):
you weren't able to do when youdidn't have that community?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Oh well, it's huge.
First off, it feels good to meto give myself some credit that
I am growing.
To me to give myself somecredit that I am growing, that I
have moved beyond a time in mylife that you know I didn't have
(44:36):
a grasp on that, I didn'tutilize the power of that.
We didn't come here to be solohuman beings and we hear the
science, we hear the research ofwhen we are isolated it is not
good for our overall well-being.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Well, you said it earlier, you were just surviving
, and I fully believe when we'reisolated, we're surviving, and
when we're in community, we'rethriving.
It's just that simple.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
It's a signal to me that I'mthriving and what a wonderful
thing.
And now that I'm at this point,how much greater can it get?
And so there's that aspectwhich is huge, huge.
(45:27):
And because it feels good,because I know it's wonderful
you know we just keep evolvingthat and growing that in so many
different ways it gives meconfidence to show up and feel
good about being myself, to feelgood about being myself, to
feel good about being me and nothaving any sort of setbacks
(45:53):
with that.
So we talked about it before.
We're all just being human, andto be our expression of what's
inside us is the greatest thingwe can do and it's really living
life to the fullest.
And so the confidence thing iskey and it gives me this piece
(46:21):
of where I want to serve more.
And I think that that isanother huge, huge key of being
human is that we are here toserve others, to serve our
fellow humans.
And if you don't have communityand you're isolated, it's
impossible to serve, right?
I mean, I guess you're servingyourself, but to be able to to
(46:44):
serve others, and then thatreciprocity is a beautiful
exchange because we're energeticbeings and that is where
there's a lot of magic that'screated.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Beautifully said.
You mentioned there being adefinite before and after, and I
think that you put a pin infive years ago as being kind of
your new origin point.
So what was it like for you tolay that first brick that would
become the powerhouse that wouldlead you to the Wellness Driven
(47:20):
Live show and to build DrivenLiving?
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, oh well, it was stepping out of working for
other people, it was steppingout of the mundane every day and
I had to start becomingcreative to figure things out in
order to survive, because Iwasn't relying on a consistent
(47:43):
paycheck and the consistenthabits of daily life that were
routine and the consistenthabits of daily life that were
routine, and so that's.
I mean, that's really it.
It was venturing out into theunknown and finding a way to do
that creatively, passionately,and yeah, I hope that answers
(48:04):
the question.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
It answers it in spades.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Can we go a little deeper?
Can I ask a deeper question?
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
This is an internal question, not a doing.
It's a being question thattransition from no community to
community, from feeling unsafeand not pulling people in around
you because of that lack ofsafety, that survival mode.
Sometimes we have limitingbeliefs that we have to release
or other things that we need tolet go of or we need to see
(48:41):
ourselves in a new light.
We have to embrace somethingnew.
What is it?
Maybe it's more than one thing.
Feel free to expand.
What is it that had to shiftinside of you?
What did you have to release orlet go?
What did you have to embracethat enabled you this inside
thing, this inside job, to gofrom no community to community?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Oh, primarily, I would say that comes top of mind
is allowing others opinions to,to dictate how I show up, which
I stopped showing up when Iallowed others to dictate that
you know.
So, basically, opinions, theopinions of others and you know
we hear it all the time right,the four agreements, huge on
that, and to not take what otherpeople say personally, and I
think it was very, verydifficult for me to.
It was very, very difficult forme to understand that and start
(49:56):
shifting away from that when itcame to family, because they
were so close, they were soclose and what they said and did
mattered so much that there wasnothing else that mattered
outside of that.
And it took me a long time toshift outside of that and change
that perspective.
(50:17):
And I think it's vitallyimportant that the audience
knows that change does nothappen overnight.
Success does not happenovernight.
Success does not happenovernight.
This is continuous habits,continuously thinking
differently, reminding yourselfto think differently, and it
(50:39):
could take a very long time.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
So I'm going to paraphrase and tell me if this
is accurate or not.
This is what I'm kind ofhearing.
You basically went from aperiod of time of giving your
power away to all those peoplewhose opinions mattered so much
to letting their opinions matterless and taking your personal
power back.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, oh, my God, it feels so good it
does.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
It feels so good to say I don't care it doesn't
matter, and what impact did thathave on your creativity?
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Huge, I kept going.
I mean, that's the impact ithad.
It was like I didn't stop, Ikept going.
I do keep going.
It doesn't matter, and that isso, so important as an
entrepreneur.
If you allow other people tomake you feel bad and you sit in
(51:40):
that and you stay with thatagain, that's what stagnates
everything right.
But you have to be able to movepast that to just say you know
what, I don't care, put it outof mind and start doing things.
I it's so funny because I havethis writing practice that I do
every day and I got, um, Istarted doing it.
(52:02):
I think, well gosh, it's been amonth now, I think at least, if
not a little longer, and wehave this community that we
created route 66 for drivenliving and it's a 66 day new
habits checklist.
So we do these, this list ofhabits, for 66 days, three times
(52:22):
a year and so.
But I started this writingjournal habit a while back and
it's those oh, I can't rememberfirst person, second person,
third person perspectives inreally creating things.
So I, april blah, blah blah,you April blah, blah blah, she
(52:43):
April blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
So where I'm going with this isthis morning I had this writing
down that I, oh man, I lostwhere I was going with this
Maddox and Dwight.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
That's okay, I do that frequently.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
It'll come back in a minute, and if it doesn't,
that's okay too.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, yeah, take a big deep breath, it's good, it's
all good.
It'll come to me, but we weretalking about family.
Can you go back to the originalquestion?
Do you recall what you asked me?
Speaker 3 (53:17):
that might help, jog what you had to give up, what
you had to release in order togo from you know no community to
community, how you had to seeyourself differently, how you
said to see others differently,the world differently, in order
to make that jump from.
(53:38):
I don't need community and I'mjust going to survive to.
Ah, yes, I want communitybecause I want to thrive.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, I well it doesn't jog my memory enough,
but I I just really like thatwriting habit because it it
helps me, it gives you differentperspectives to show up a
little bit differently, and youdid say it was about this
morning's writing, thoughsomething this you were writing
about this morning.
Yes, and I can't remember.
(54:07):
Oh, my goodness, I'm gonna, I'mgonna go downstairs and grab it
maybe, but I won't, I won't dothat.
But I think I think just theoverall point truly again is
going back to not letting peoplestagnate you and just keep
(54:28):
moving forward with what you'recreating, because you're going
to create so much incrediblestuff and you're doing the world
such a disservice by not beingyou and not being your creative
self and not showing up andshining your light, not showing
up and shining your light.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
You joined the no fucks to give club.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
You know we saw a clip yesterday of the Super Bowl
and it was a clip up on the bigscreen of oh gosh, I'm drawing
a blank, Dwight Taylor Swift,Taylor Swift, yes, and people
were booing her Really.
(55:13):
Yes, yes, and people werebooing her.
And, yes, yes.
And you know, she kind oflooked around and saw this and
she looked at her girlfriendsitting next to her and she
smiled and she just shrugged itoff.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
What's that?
Shake it off.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
And.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Taylor Swift is an incredible story just about this
, because she really talks abouther past and not doing well in
school, not being the popularkid.
And look at her now.
I mean she's world renowned asan artist.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
And also an incredible philanthropist.
She gives.
I mean, few people probablygive the way she gives.
I've just read things that haveblown me away about how every
place that she has a concertwhere she performs, she gives to
(56:04):
the local communitiesgenerously, everywhere she
performs.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
That's just like wow, wow, wow, wow she gets it, she
gets it and and I think thatthat is where I I was saying it
feels so good when you thatfinally clicks for you.
Um, if that is something thatyou that is a challenge for you,
which I do believe, it's achallenge for most people.
(56:33):
Most, I agree, yes, majority Iwould say absolutely the
majority of people.
I mean, taylor Swift wouldn'thave a number one song Shake it
Off if it wasn't the majority ofpeople, right?
So because of that, when itfinally clicks and and you know
we come back a little bit toonto right, but but now you know
that feeling of what it feelslike to truly be empowered and
(56:57):
and move forward and not evencare and not give a thought to,
you know those, those negativepieces that hold you back.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
And when you have creativity, creativity, don't
you think, no matter what yourcreative choice is, it's it, yes
, you.
When you don't care what peoplethink about what you create,
you will create fabulous and youwill shine so brightly.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
And you know, look at taylor swift now.
I mean, can you imagine how herhigh school enemies I don't
know if I should say enemies butyou know the people who really
were, yeah, the haters, thepeople who were abusive to her,
what they think now and how theyfeel now and it's, you know,
(57:44):
maybe maybe thinking twice aboutbeing a bully or or what have
you?
You know, don't you never knowwhat people are capable of?
And and, and I think that'sreally the overall essence of
this show, is that when youstart shining your, your light
and being your creative self,you're going to shine so bright,
(58:06):
You're going to blow the worldaway as long you know, and blow
yourself away, and it's reallythat truly is the next step of
evolution for us.
Speaker 3 (58:19):
And you're going to attract, you know, just the
right people to you.
You know, when we let go ofcaring what others think and
just be ourselves, all of asudden the most amazing people
are showing up all around us.
I have lived this.
When I dropped the social maskand started to just be Maddox,
(58:40):
it changed my life in ways thatI could have never even dreamed,
and the people that are drawnto me now are like, oh my God,
just amazing human beings that Ithoroughly enjoy being in their
life and having them in my life.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
I'd like to reflect back to where the thought
derailed the track.
One of the things that you'dsaid before was about how
success doesn't happen overnight, and, uh, I think the opposite
side of that coin was somethingelse that you you spoke to, and
(59:18):
that is there is an inertia, acomfort with doing the same
thing every day, all the time,following the patterns, the same
thing every day, all the time,following the patterns.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Either way, it's a choice, yeah, so that brings me
back to now.
I remember where I was gettingto with the writing habits is
that we're always working on it,because success doesn't come
overnight where it's acontinuous routine, continuous
habits.
So it's interesting, right.
It's because success doesn'tcome overnight where it's a
continuous routine, continuoushabits.
So it's interesting, right?
It's like this contradictorypiece of you can't be doing the
(59:55):
same thing day in and day out.
But then again, it's a choiceof what you do, because we do
like routine as human beings.
So what routine are you goingto create?
That's in benefit, that isexpanding yourself, where you do
continuously grow and you docontinuously seek out the
unknown and be curious aboutlife and be excited about it too
(01:00:22):
.
So that's where I was going andI don't exactly know what I was
writing down again.
But my point of that is is it'sa continuous daily practice
where I am trying to reprogrammy brain so I show up
differently and I responddifferently to the world.
So those things don't, when thetriggers come, they don't, they
(01:00:45):
don't affect me and I don'trespond back to my old self.
I'm responding to my new selfand my excited self and joyful
for the experience self, becauseI now have knowledge and I now
have wisdom from that.
Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
Yes, yes, yes, love it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Well, I think that we've had a pretty far-ranging
conversation and, uh, I think weshould bring things to a close,
and the way we usually do thatis with some rapid fire
questions her rapid fire answersyeah I do my best okay, so
(01:01:28):
we'll we'll have three rapidfire questions.
Uh, first is, what's a creativerisk You're glad you took?
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
stepping onto a stage .
Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Love that.
Um, oh.
What's a memory that alwaysmakes you smile?
Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Oh, kissing my husband.
Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Oh, how does community inspire your work?
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
It makes me want to do more.
It's the fuel, that is the fuel.
Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Oh, please say that again.
That's awesome.
Everybody needs to hear that asecond time, please.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Community is the fuel that sparks that fire, and I
want to keep doing, I want tokeep serving.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
That is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
That's driven.
Living that drove it homethat's driven living Yep, that
drove it home.
Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
That's driven.
Living Yep, that's our brand.
You know, I've got.
I can pump out all sorts ofdriving and safety and words.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Well, before we put it into park, let's uh.
I just want to make sure thatwe um have allowed you to share
everything that you would likewith our listeners have allowed
you to share everything that youwould like with our listeners.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
I feel like this has been a very well-rounded
conversation and yeah, I have.
I feel I truly invite thelisteners if you're not already
inspired and pumped up to youknow, go seek community and be
your creative, beautiful self.
To um, start doing that, orbetter yet.
I, I asked the question whataction are you going to take to
(01:03:21):
start and to begin now?
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
It's a beautiful place to end it.
Where can our listeners bestfind all things April Chavez and
Driven Living.
Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
DrivenLivingcom.
It will be in the show notesApril.
This has been absolutelyamazing.
Of course, I knew it would be.
Actually, it's exceeded myexpectations, which is just
lovely.
Not that I had any specificexpectations, but yeah, this is
(01:03:59):
beautiful and thank you so muchfor your contribution to the
podcast and to all of the peoplewho will listen to your episode
.
Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
It's an absolute pleasure.
For starter, dwight, I don't know many people who
aren't doing extraordinarythings in life without having
gone through extraordinarydifficulties extraordinary
(00:31):
difficulties.
We have to have that contrastin order to know what we want to
do and be and how we want toshow up.
If we don't know, the oppositeof it right, it's the yin-yang
aspect.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello and welcome to another edition of For the Love
of Creatives podcast.
I am one of the hosts, dwight,and I'm joined by Maddox.
We're the Connections andCommunity Guys, and today our
featured guest is the lovelyApril Chavez.
Hi, april.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
April.
Thank you, such a pleasure tobe here with the two of you.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah well, we're really thrilled to be with you
on our show.
I know that you have hosted awonderful show the Wellness
Driven Live show for quite sometime now and you've done a whole
lot of things to really give alot of people a platform.
(01:41):
And with the breadth of all ofyour experiences, I don't think
that I could do justice ingiving you an introduction.
So why don't you share with ourlisteners a little bit about
who you are, so they can have anidea of who you are and what
you're about?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Thank you, dwight.
You know I stem from many hatsbackground and I have three
daughters, so I've done the momthing.
I've been in the corporatecareer aspect, I've been in law
enforcement career aspect.
I have an autoimmune diseaseand so I've lived with systemic
(02:22):
lupus for my whole life.
So I have an array of manydifferent facets of myself,
which we all do, don't we?
When we start to get down to itand you've lived enough life,
then you've done a lot of things.
But right now, in my currentlife, I'm the host of the
Wellness Driven Life Show.
(02:43):
I'm the CEO of Driven LivingLLC, and that is really our big
business and it's the thing thatwe're so incredibly passionate
about.
And so it's community and it'seducational courses, and there's
a lot that we offer really inthe self-improvement aspect, a
(03:04):
lot that we offer really in theself-improvement aspect.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That is awesome.
I really.
I think our listeners wouldlove to know about some of the
things that have brought you towhere you are.
You mentioned a whole lot ofdifferent things being a mom,
lot of different things being amom, a career in law enforcement
, a career in corporate, andthat that seems like a lot of
different things to navigate andto make those pivots.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I would think that it all kind of tap into creativity
when we figure out differentways of doing things and
navigating the course of ourlife right.
So creativity can have so manydifferent ways of expression.
It doesn't always mean you graba paintbrush and you start
(04:07):
painting, you know, with withcolors.
Creativity is really utilizingour minds in order to create new
paths for ourself, bring newideas to life, you know, really
manifest the life that we desire.
And when we come up with allthose bumps in the roads, like
being a single parent of threechildren and needing to put food
(04:31):
on the table so then you'recreating different avenues to do
that, like working a couple ofjobs, and so bringing in
creativity.
With my past, I could go back asearly as childhood and that,
literally is crayon to paper,right, I absolutely loved it.
I loved the colors.
That was my outlet as a child.
(04:52):
Singing was my outlet as achild, and so bringing that
creative piece from our voiceand an expression into the world
, and so I've really been ableto bring creative pieces into my
life on so many differentlevels.
So, that being said, that'skind of where we've gone, but do
(05:17):
you have anything specific thatyou want me to go with that in
the creative ways that I'vebrought into expression.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
You know, what I love about this is we've had many
people on the podcast now, andthe vast majority of them have
been artists or dancers orsingers or architects or you
name it, and I think you'reperhaps, unless memory fails me,
(05:48):
you're one of the first onesthat really has talked about.
I mean, you're describingcreative entrepreneurship, and I
think this is very importantand valuable, because we want
everything we do to appeal tothe full range of creatives, not
(06:08):
just artists or people thatmake things, but people who
dream up things, people who youdo course, creation, and I know
you're working on communityright now, and some of this is
very similar to what we do, andwe haven't even really taken the
(06:29):
time to talk about this, butyou know, neither one of us
necessarily make things Now.
I have painted in my life, I'vedone photography, there's been
a lot of things that I've donethat were in that artistic realm
, but the vast majority of whatwe do right now is creative
entrepreneurship.
All of our creative juices aregoing towards how to make this
(06:54):
contribution to humanity, and soI'm excited to have this
conversation with you and hearmore about that and what that
looks like and how you're doingthat.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Oh, maddox, you know, excuse me, going into
entrepreneurism is one of thebest ways to tap into your
creative state.
And let's take the conversationas far as going into the health
arena.
And so health has always beenat the forefront of my life
(07:28):
because of having an autoimmunedisease, and so when I went into
law enforcement, we learned alot about breath work, calming
the body down during stressfulsituations, and I think most of
us, at some point in our life,have had a point in our life
where we've been very anxietyridden and it's showing up in
(07:48):
the body down.
When you start learning abouttechniques like meditation, that
(08:12):
is when we actually start goinginto a creative state, because
you cannot be creative unlessthe body is calm enough to do so
.
So when we tap into ourselvesin that you know that
meditational state and we aredreaming of different things and
(08:32):
we're calm enough to be like,okay, you know, this is what I
want, this is what I desire,then we really start moving into
that and that creative piece iswhat creates our realities and
our bodies start seeking outevidence of that the more and
the more that we do that.
(08:52):
And when you go intoentrepreneurism, it's living out
your passion and you can't havea passion or be passionate
about something you know unlessyou're excited about it and
you're creatively excited aboutit right.
So stepping intoentrepreneurism has been really
(09:13):
exciting for me, because I getto do what I want, what I want
to bring forth to the world whatI am passionate about, what I
believe in, and you're reallyputting yourself out there.
But at the same time you get tomake it yours and you don't
have to listen to anybody elseor be pigeonholed into something
or be inside that box.
(09:36):
You get to truly express what'swithin that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
This is really good.
I I would love for you to justback up for a minute and expand
on because of all our listenersare creatives what specifically
are things that you can call outthat when we do these things,
it diminishes our ability tocreate?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It diminishes our ability to create when we do
what things, the things that westifle our creativity with.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Perhaps it's doom scrolling on social media, or I
know you probably have a.
You kind of touched on it.
I just want to expand on itbecause I think this is huge and
who doesn't need to hear this?
If you're a creative?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I think one of the biggest things that stifles
creativity is doing the samething day in and day out.
It is the automatic programmingthat we all know very well
because our bodies are designedto do so, that we all know very
well because our bodies aredesigned to do so, and if we
fall into that trap, thatstifles creativity completely
(10:52):
right?
If you're just being theautomatic robot and you're
getting up and you're brushingyour teeth and you're going to
the bathroom and you're taking ashower and you're eating your
breakfast and you're drinkingcoffee and you're, you know,
going to work and driving intraffic and you are not
expanding upon the expression ofyou, you know you're not,
(11:13):
you're not really utilizing lifeas you were put here to to do.
We were put here to express whowe are inside, because we're
all uniquely different.
And isn't that one of thecoolest things in the whole wide
world, right?
Just like how different andunique we all are, and it's a
(11:34):
beautiful thing.
Just like the spectrums of the,of the colors of the rainbow,
which we don't even I mean, Idon't even know maybe you guys
know more about.
Like we can't see so much ofthose colors.
There's just so much that wecannot see and that we do not
know.
But it's like that.
We're so individual and sounique and it brings life to
(11:57):
this world.
It brings joy to this world andI want to live joyfully.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And that's contagious .
I think that the way that yougo out and boldly live is an
inspiration to any that have thegood fortune of being in your
presence.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Now is it scary?
Yeah, if you're not used to it,absolutely.
I mean, we, we all know that Iit's.
It's very, very interestingwhen you start to observe humans
and yourself.
Of course, self reflection is iswhat we have to do continuously
.
If we want to evolve and besomething greater, we have to
(12:43):
observe ourselves and make thetweaks and changes that we want
to evolve and be somethinggreater, we have to observe
ourselves and make the tweaksand changes that we want.
But when we start to observeother people, we really pick up
and notice that we're all sosimilar that we're all feeling
very awkward in this human bodythat we're, like don't really
know what to do, how to actsocially.
And if you take your Um, and ifyou, if you take your um
(13:06):
concentration off of yourselfwhich is difficult for most of
us to do and you really observeyou, you truly do see that we're
all um really trying to arejoyfully expressing themselves.
(13:29):
You can like point them outright away because they don't
look awkward.
They don't look, you know,still, they're really just being
themselves and they feel andlook like they feel comfortable
in their own skin.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I kind of feel like you're describing an innate need
in humans to have a sense ofbelonging.
That's what it sounds likeyou're describing to me, and
when we belong is when we startto move through easily and we
don't look so awkward.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, I think it's funny the chicken or the egg,
right?
And what I mean by that?
In the sense ofself-acknowledgement, self-work
and also engulfing ourselveswith other people and in
community also engulfingourselves with other people and
(14:28):
in community.
So when I say that, when weobserve other people and we
start to realize that, oh yeah,we're all just a human being, no
matter what status they are, nomatter what they're doing in
life and you guys know, the morethat you interview people,
especially at high status, youreally just feel very
comfortable with them andthere's no longer this gap of,
oh my gosh, you know they'relike this, you know they're this
(14:53):
incredible human being, but youreally start feeling like, wow,
we're all so similar.
Or is it where we start toimprove ourselves and then we're
ready to step out and be alongwith other humans.
Like we kind of need a littlebit of both.
Right, you have to have theunderstanding that we're all the
same and yet we're all uniqueand we have to go within in
(15:17):
order to know how to feelcomfortable in our skin.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It sounds like you're hitting on a profound life
lesson here.
It's really interesting how wecan all get a little bit too
wrapped up in the stories thatwe're running in our own heads,
you know, so focused on thethings that might make us look
out of place or awkward or justbe a cause for some negative
(15:47):
attention when, if we were tozoom out, one way of seeing this
is you're just not thatimportant in the grand scale of
things, because so many peopleare telling their own horrible
stories about the things thatthey're scared of and the ways
that they're going to be thetarget for, for ridicule or for
(16:10):
judgment.
What's happening in the worldaround you, or, better yet, to
take an interest in the personthat you're talking to, then you
don't have room to worry aboutthe things that can go wrong and
(16:32):
that's-.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I feel like it.
Yeah, it goes into servitude.
Yes, you know, when we againtake the pressure off ourselves
and we move into an act ofservitude, how can I serve you
or how can I be there for you?
And what is one of the bestways to do that?
It's being present withsomebody, fully present, and
(16:56):
listening to them and hearingwhat they say and letting them
know that you've heard themthrough what they said, by
acknowledging what they've saidand not necessarily going into
advice or anything, but trulyjust being with them and hearing
them you've just connected somedots for me, so thank you very
(17:17):
much.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You know I most of my life I have been very uneasy in
rooms of strangers, veryuncomfortable in room, very
awkward.
If there's ever going to be aplace where I don't feel
comfortable in my own skin, it'sin a big room full of strangers
.
And yet we lead big rooms ofstrangers.
(17:40):
You know, we just had an eventrecently where there were two
thirds of the people in the room.
We did not know and I don'tfeel awkward or uncomfortable in
my own skin, or none of thathappens when we are, when it's
(18:04):
our event, when we're leading,and I don't think that I ever
connect the dots until just thismoment is what enables me to do
that is that in those moments Iam serving, because that's the
way we view it.
We bring people together inservice.
You know, it's our passion tobring people together and we
(18:29):
very much when we think aboutcommunity and leadership.
It is a form of servitude.
You know, I don't ever looklike, oh, look at me, I'm the
big grand poobah.
What is they'll saying.
It's more like you know, I'mhere, yes, yes, if you're a
member of my community, I'm hereto help you, to serve you, and
(18:59):
I think that's what I now reallyfully get, that that's what
enables me to be comfortable inmy own skin and operate from
that place of calm and sense ofbelonging.
And so, wow, thank you verymuch.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, well, very much shifts it.
And what I would invite topeople like your past self,
maddox, is, when you step intothose rooms and you feel so
uncomfortable, shift thatperspective into what do I get
to learn from somebody heretonight?
How do I get to make an impacton them, potentially through the
(19:31):
people or the resources, theconnections that I may have.
How may I support them?
Like, maybe they just need onemore follower on their YouTube
channel or they want somebody toengage on Instagram?
Now, we all know that we'reliving in a day and age that
social media is.
It's pretty vital forbusinesses, for entrepreneurs,
(19:52):
business in general I mean,every business has some sort of
lead on social media, and sosome of those things are really
important for creatives, forentrepreneurs, for people in
business, you know, and so howcan I help other people?
And making switching thatperception is will change
(20:14):
everything for you when you walkinto that room.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I can see that.
I can see that just walking inwith you know how can I serve
anybody that I come across inthis meeting?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, it's a great muscle to build to deal with
those, those halting negativeself conversations that we have
and putting that frame ofservitude over them.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Totally shifted.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful April, I want to
direct the conversation back andmake it about you for a minute,
okay.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Since you're our featured guest.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I would love to know, when you're in the zone when
you're absolutely your mostcreative, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I'm not hearing anything that my husband is
saying to me.
That's for darn sure.
I just I am tuned out towhatever is around me and I am
zoned in.
And my excuse is well, you knowthat we can't actually
(21:24):
multitask, right?
So don't talk to April and tryto communicate with her when
she's in the zone.
But it feels like like likethat you know, it's just you're
totally present with whatever itis that you're doing and you're
(21:45):
concentrating on, and it'sreally.
It flows like thingssystematically go, time is
stopped, time is gone.
You look at the clock later onwhen you snap out of it and it's
like how did three hours justgo by?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I don't even know.
But physically, what are youdoing?
When you're in that zone andyou're creating and you're
having that feeling that we getwhen we love it the most, what
are you physically doing?
Are you creating coursematerial?
What are you doing?
Are you creating coursematerial?
Are you creating?
What are you doing?
Oh the thing that just blowsyour skirt out the most.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That's a difficult one to answer because I am
constantly creating.
We create thumbnails for theshow, we create titles,
descriptions so there's writingthat comes into it yeah,
creating the courses and all ofthe content and the videos.
And.
But you know, I really getexcited with creating my
(22:49):
thumbnails on our YouTubechannel for our interviews with
our guests, and I've done itcompletely different than a lot
of people do, and I've done itcompletely different than a lot
of people do.
Most people, I would venture tosay, are taking the headshots of
the guests that they have, andI've had a lot of top guests.
I don't use their headshot onthe thumbnail.
I create something entirelydifferent.
(23:17):
Where it's a picture, it's aphotorealistic image of
something that really brings mejoy and something that I'm
attracted to, and so I figure myaudience is going to be
attracted to it too because I'mattracted to it, and so I've
gone in a really different waywith that.
But it brings me a lot of joywhen I create those things like
this expression of what ourdiscussion is about and how I
(23:42):
can entertain our audience bygrabbing them first with that
thumbnail.
That image that's reallyvibrant and really telling.
It speaks emotion, and I thinkthat that is really what I want
to bring to our audience.
That's why our YouTube channelis the biggest platform.
(24:02):
Yes, we have the podcast arena,apple, spotify, all of those
but we concentrate on YouTubebecause you get to see everyone
visually.
You know we're on camera, soyou get to see the expression of
the guests when they're talkingabout their story and how they
came to be and why and howthey're doing what they're
(24:24):
passionate about doing today.
So, yeah, I think that that,amongst many other things, I get
really excited when I amfinally in alignment with the
thing I really want to do themost and present to the world
and present to the community.
I get excited about creatingthe things that matter most to
(24:49):
me, like a wellness-driven, lifedriven living.
We have our dog, who is ourmascot.
She's a Doberman and so weutilize Dobermans a lot in our
marketing and it's our brand.
So the expression of our brandand living that out, because we
(25:09):
all know our brand, it's areflection of us and so that's a
long-winded way.
I hope that answered yourquestion.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
No, beautifully, beautifully.
I love the detail and as youspeak, it's very obvious.
You know, as an empath, I canfeel your passion and your
enthusiasm.
I can hear it in your voice andsee it on your face, but I also
can like viscerally feel it inmy beingness.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I'd like to come back to a couple of things that you
talked about before, or actuallyjust kind of open the door to
talk about some of thechallenges that you faced.
You mentioned that you had anautoimmune disease, and you also
talked about being a singlemother of three.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Those are yeah go ahead on their own.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Those would be tough for anybody to deal with.
But yeah, you know, we, we dondon't, we're not able to deal
with the deck that we're dealt,other than just going through it
, and you've done so beautifully.
What's that been like for you?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, for starter, dwight, I don't know many people
who aren't doing extraordinarythings in life without having
gone through extraordinarydifficulties.
We have to have that contrastin order to know what we want to
(26:51):
do and be and how we want toshow up.
If we don't know the oppositeof it, right, it's the yin yang
aspect.
And so with with the autoimmunedisease and I still have it I
still have markers, but I doreally well with it.
(27:13):
So I'm very blessed, but I'vealso done a lot of work.
I continue to do my best to dothe work that I feel helps
manage it.
So I'm very blessed, but I'vealso done a lot of work.
I continue to do my best to dothe work that I feel helps
manage it.
And but I've had symptoms sincebirth and I was diagnosed at 15
.
So being a child diagnosed witha disease or having a disease,
(27:39):
it was a really.
It was better luck for me tohave that.
I think that when we'rediagnosed with things as adults,
it's more difficult.
We've already had a lot of life, we've already had a lot of
issues and sometimes life usdown so much that we create it
into an end.
It is this disastrous thing andthat is it and we are done, but
(28:05):
as a child.
A child doesn't think that way.
They want to live and they wantto express themselves naturally
.
And so I just wanted to be anormal kid.
I didn't want the disease todefine me, and so I went through
(28:25):
life like that, where I wasbound and determined to not be
that.
And so it really shows in mylife, moving forward, going into
male dominant fields, alwayswanting to express myself as
strong, healthy, capable, notweak, not diseased.
(28:51):
And so I think I was really anadvantage as a child.
And then being a parent ofthree daughters, you know I did
not want children.
I was diagnosed at 15, sexuallyactive at 18.
My doctor said, well, you can'thave children.
(29:13):
And I was like, well, what am Ion this birth control for?
So I got off of birth controland I became pregnant and I was
like, well, I guess I'llmiscarry because I can't have
kids.
So that started the stage ofmotherhood for me.
It was unexpected, it wasn'tplanned, it wasn't something
(29:34):
that I had ventured out to do.
Between all my high schoolfriends I was the one who was
like I'm never having kids.
I had a whole plan to go tocollege and universities I
wanted to be a forensicentomologist and study the life
cycle of bugs and all thatforensic piece of how it affects
and timestamps the time ofdeath on cadavers.
(29:57):
I was so fascinated in thatworld.
And then having the kids, thatwas going to take a lot of
schooling.
So I went into law enforcementbecause I figured well I could
maybe go into investigativefields that way and eventually,
if I chose to, I could go toschool and further that
education.
So, yeah, it's brought a lot ofchallenges and especially the
(30:21):
dynamics of being a woman in amale dominant field.
I mean that brought a whole newsort of harsh realities that I
wasn't expecting.
And so all of these things theyreally like they can either
really harden you and where youjust become this hard person
(30:44):
that doesn't want to, you knowyou get stagnated there, you
don't want to expand or grow, oryou can turn it into something
where, wow, I've had all theseexperiences and all of these
lessons that I now call wisdom.
And so when you turn the thingsin your life that have been
(31:06):
traumatic for you in somecapacity into, wow, I'm so glad
I had that experience and now Iconsider it wisdom and now I get
to present myself in the worldand respond in the world in a
different way.
Because of that, you know it'sa beautiful thing, and when you
think of it that way, nothing inlife is by mistake.
(31:27):
It all led you to right here.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I love that.
That is.
That's incredible.
It reminds me of some of thechallenges I've had to overcome.
I was a gay man in the militaryduring Don't Ask, don't Tell,
and the final year of myenlistment was horrifying
(31:52):
because I had to look forward toa day filled of interrogation
every day.
I knew exactly what was goingto happen.
I'd be sitting in a room with adefense intelligence agent and
we would go through the samething over and over.
Experience was something thatwas a really.
(32:24):
It made a really big impressionon who I was.
I didn't feel safe and I wasalways looking over my shoulder,
but I found the support Ineeded in community.
I was able to work with a legaldefense fund that helped
soldiers in my situation andthey connected me to resources,
(32:46):
and I'm curious as to how youwere able to find community when
you were in such amale-dominated field where you
were kind of exceptionalcommunity didn't come until much
, much later in my life, and Iwould say so, within the past,
(33:14):
oh, I don't know five years orunder, I didn't trust people
enough to allow community intomy life and COVID happened and I
didn't need community.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Then, you know, or what have you?
We feel that way, go that way.
And when I said that you canbecome stagnant in those
feelings and in those traumas,you know you were very fortunate
, dwight, to have a communitywhere you found resources, where
(33:51):
you felt like you could trustsomebody again.
And it took me a long time, ittook me time to start building
my own community and, you know,creating my business and start
to learn that there are so manyincredible, beautiful angels on
(34:14):
this planet, you know, that arethere to support you and be
there alongside you.
And so, yeah, it didn't comeuntil much later, sadly to say,
but here we are and I am sograteful for now having that,
(34:36):
having community in my life,having people that are alongside
me on this journey, and it'sreally beautiful, and you know
we've created community.
Maddox, I want to go back alittle bit, because you said
when you were younger you wereterrified to step into a room
and be social, and I too havecreated communities, and so we
(34:58):
bring that to our lives becauseour souls are desperate to have
it.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
For probably the first half of my life, I felt
very unseen.
You know, once again, I cameout as a gay man 45 years ago.
It was at a time when and Ilived in a small town in central
Texas.
It was a time when it wasn'tsocially acceptable, and so I
did everything I could to beinvisible until things started
(35:41):
to change in the world.
Where I could be myself, Icould be myself.
And so, after half of alifetime of being invisible and
not being seen, now much of whatI do is specifically to create
space so people can be seen,because I know how valuable and
(36:02):
how important that is.
Yeah, I kind of want to.
I know that we can't change thepast, but I want to ask a
question.
You came up the ranks a singlemother with three children, and
that had to be incrediblychallenging.
You didn't have you've statedthat you really didn't have
(36:25):
community at that time, becausethere was just a lack of trust.
Not only that, but I oh go ahead, no no, well, go ahead, say
what you were going to say.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I was living in survival mode.
I was working two jobs.
I didn't have time, quiteliterally, to or I didn't create
time, I should say, to havecommunity.
I was just in survival mode.
Go, go, go.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And I know we can't change the past, but I'm asking
this question because I knowthere are people out there that
are going to hear this who arein the place that you were.
Maybe it's different, maybeit's not about being a single
mother and having three children, but they're in a place where
they are in survival, forwhatever reason.
They're in survival mode andthey don't have community.
(37:15):
And so my question is what doyou think might have been
different in your experience atthat time in your life if you
had had community?
Speaker 1 (37:28):
if you had had community?
Oh, I think it would have beenreally important to me as a
mother to be able to shareexperiences with having kids,
and I felt like an outsider alot of the times because it
didn't seem like there was toomany single moms, you know, they
always had a partner by theirside or what have you, or maybe
(37:51):
they were more financiallysecure, and so I allowed all of
those things to really barricademyself away from other people.
But the way that I describebringing in and I'll go ahead
and utilize community for it,but I usually say it we should
(38:14):
always have five peoplesurrounding us that we admire
the most, that we strive to belike, we want to embody their
beautiful aspects, that theybring into the world right, and
I tell my listeners that that issomething you can.
It doesn't have to be somebodyphysical in person.
(38:35):
It could be somebody that youadmire from the past, a
historical figure.
It could be through books, itcould be through, nowadays,
podcasts, right, and people thatyou just really admire.
And I feel that that's at thetime.
That is where I had mycommunity.
I listened to a lot ofaudiobooks, I continued to work
(38:57):
on self-improvement.
I just did it alone, I did itby myself.
I did it without other people,so I listened to other people's
stories via headphones insteadof in person.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
You know, you've just said something that really has
made me think and reflect for amoment, and had an aha moment in
that you talked about the fivepeople that we need to surround
ourselves with, the people thatyou want to be like, and what I
realized.
I was thinking about the peoplethat are in my closest of
circles, and I think that wethink sometimes we have this
(39:36):
perception that those fivepeople need to have all their
shit together.
They need to have their shittogether, otherwise why would we
want to be like them?
But in that moment, I realizedthat every person that is in my
closest of circles, in all of usincluding me, at times are a
hot fucking mess, and so I wasthinking about a couple of my
(40:01):
dearest friends.
I was thinking about one friendin particular.
We've been friends for aquarter of a century, and the
thing about her that Iabsolutely love the most, the
way that I want to be like her,as you were saying is that she
(40:23):
loves unconditionally.
I always feel lovedunconditionally by her and I
always know that in my momentsof of need she would absolutely
be there for me, and that's whatI love about her the most.
(40:49):
Now are there other areas of herlife, as as there are my life
and probably Dwight's life andperhaps your life that aren't
all together and are messy.
So I think that it's importantfor us to realize it doesn't
have to be the full picture forus to love them and to bring
them into our lives and toaspire to be like them.
We're aspiring to be like anaspect of them, and that opens
up the door for a widerexperience.
(41:10):
I think and this is a brand newawareness I mean this is fresh,
hot off the press right here aswe speak because I've always
thought about that the fivepeople you, the closest people
you to, are, you become and I'mlooking at the five people that
I'm close to and that's scaringme a little bit, you know,
because I'm looking at some ofthe messy aspects of their life
(41:31):
and I just realized that that'snot the way it works, because
there's nobody that's got all oftheir shit together.
If they do, they're not human.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, right, yeah, that absolutely goes back to,
you know, saying that noteverybody is perfect.
And you start to realize thatwhen, when you see people, or or
you know you're next to peopleof high status or whatever,
whatever place they've gotten tobe in life, they, if they're
human, they certainly have flaws, but the the best thing about
(42:07):
the people that we, those fivepeople, is, yes, along with the
flaws, they're always driven tobe a better version of
themselves.
You know, they're alwayscontinuing that evolution
(42:33):
evolution.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I do I do that, have that in common with each of my
close friends, as I do withDwight.
I tend to attract now, notalways, but I attract now people
who are working on themselvesand wanting to be more and bring
more to humanity.
Yeah, good, good, call outApril, good call to humanity.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Good, good, call out, april, good call, yeah I.
I'd like to call out anotheraspect that you you mentioned in
that and how, because of whereyou were in life, you didn't,
you weren't able to holdphysical space with some of
these people that were drivingyou forward, and I think that's
okay.
I think that it's a good thingthat we can learn lessons from
(43:12):
people who may not even be withus anymore and, you know, still
be able to in some way have arelationship with those who've
given us the gift of the hardlessons that they've learned
through what they've recorded inbooks or in other media.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
April.
Would you say that now you havemore of a sense of community
than ever in the past?
I'm kind of hearing that, but Iwanted to confirm that.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Oh, a thousand percent.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Okay, and so having a large chunk of your life
without really much communityand now having some community
around you, what has that?
How has that benefited you?
What has that enabled you to doas a creative human being that
(44:10):
you weren't able to do when youdidn't have that community?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Oh well, it's huge.
First off, it feels good to meto give myself some credit that
I am growing.
To me to give myself somecredit that I am growing, that I
have moved beyond a time in mylife that you know I didn't have
(44:36):
a grasp on that, I didn'tutilize the power of that.
We didn't come here to be solohuman beings and we hear the
science, we hear the research ofwhen we are isolated it is not
good for our overall well-being.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Well, you said it earlier, you were just surviving
, and I fully believe when we'reisolated, we're surviving, and
when we're in community, we'rethriving.
It's just that simple.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
It's a signal to me that I'mthriving and what a wonderful
thing.
And now that I'm at this point,how much greater can it get?
And so there's that aspectwhich is huge, huge.
(45:27):
And because it feels good,because I know it's wonderful
you know we just keep evolvingthat and growing that in so many
different ways it gives meconfidence to show up and feel
good about being myself, to feelgood about being myself, to
feel good about being me and nothaving any sort of setbacks
(45:53):
with that.
So we talked about it before.
We're all just being human, andto be our expression of what's
inside us is the greatest thingwe can do and it's really living
life to the fullest.
And so the confidence thing iskey and it gives me this piece
(46:21):
of where I want to serve more.
And I think that that isanother huge, huge key of being
human is that we are here toserve others, to serve our
fellow humans.
And if you don't have communityand you're isolated, it's
impossible to serve, right?
I mean, I guess you're servingyourself, but to be able to to
(46:44):
serve others, and then thatreciprocity is a beautiful
exchange because we're energeticbeings and that is where
there's a lot of magic that'screated.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Beautifully said.
You mentioned there being adefinite before and after, and I
think that you put a pin infive years ago as being kind of
your new origin point.
So what was it like for you tolay that first brick that would
become the powerhouse that wouldlead you to the Wellness Driven
(47:20):
Live show and to build DrivenLiving?
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, oh well, it was stepping out of working for
other people, it was steppingout of the mundane every day and
I had to start becomingcreative to figure things out in
order to survive, because Iwasn't relying on a consistent
(47:43):
paycheck and the consistenthabits of daily life that were
routine and the consistenthabits of daily life that were
routine, and so that's.
I mean, that's really it.
It was venturing out into theunknown and finding a way to do
that creatively, passionately,and yeah, I hope that answers
(48:04):
the question.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
It answers it in spades.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Can we go a little deeper?
Can I ask a deeper question?
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
This is an internal question, not a doing.
It's a being question thattransition from no community to
community, from feeling unsafeand not pulling people in around
you because of that lack ofsafety, that survival mode.
Sometimes we have limitingbeliefs that we have to release
or other things that we need tolet go of or we need to see
(48:41):
ourselves in a new light.
We have to embrace somethingnew.
What is it?
Maybe it's more than one thing.
Feel free to expand.
What is it that had to shiftinside of you?
What did you have to release orlet go?
What did you have to embracethat enabled you this inside
thing, this inside job, to gofrom no community to community?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Oh, primarily, I would say that comes top of mind
is allowing others opinions to,to dictate how I show up, which
I stopped showing up when Iallowed others to dictate that
you know.
So, basically, opinions, theopinions of others and you know
we hear it all the time right,the four agreements, huge on
that, and to not take what otherpeople say personally, and I
think it was very, verydifficult for me to.
It was very, very difficult forme to understand that and start
(49:56):
shifting away from that when itcame to family, because they
were so close, they were soclose and what they said and did
mattered so much that there wasnothing else that mattered
outside of that.
And it took me a long time toshift outside of that and change
that perspective.
(50:17):
And I think it's vitallyimportant that the audience
knows that change does nothappen overnight.
Success does not happenovernight.
Success does not happenovernight.
This is continuous habits,continuously thinking
differently, reminding yourselfto think differently, and it
(50:39):
could take a very long time.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
So I'm going to paraphrase and tell me if this
is accurate or not.
This is what I'm kind ofhearing.
You basically went from aperiod of time of giving your
power away to all those peoplewhose opinions mattered so much
to letting their opinions matterless and taking your personal
power back.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, oh, my God, it feels so good it
does.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
It feels so good to say I don't care it doesn't
matter, and what impact did thathave on your creativity?
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Huge, I kept going.
I mean, that's the impact ithad.
It was like I didn't stop, Ikept going.
I do keep going.
It doesn't matter, and that isso, so important as an
entrepreneur.
If you allow other people tomake you feel bad and you sit in
(51:40):
that and you stay with thatagain, that's what stagnates
everything right.
But you have to be able to movepast that to just say you know
what, I don't care, put it outof mind and start doing things.
I it's so funny because I havethis writing practice that I do
every day and I got, um, Istarted doing it.
(52:02):
I think, well gosh, it's been amonth now, I think at least, if
not a little longer, and wehave this community that we
created route 66 for drivenliving and it's a 66 day new
habits checklist.
So we do these, this list ofhabits, for 66 days, three times
(52:22):
a year and so.
But I started this writingjournal habit a while back and
it's those oh, I can't rememberfirst person, second person,
third person perspectives inreally creating things.
So I, april blah, blah blah,you April blah, blah blah, she
(52:43):
April blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
So where I'm going with this isthis morning I had this writing
down that I, oh man, I lostwhere I was going with this
Maddox and Dwight.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
That's okay, I do that frequently.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
It'll come back in a minute, and if it doesn't,
that's okay too.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, yeah, take a big deep breath, it's good, it's
all good.
It'll come to me, but we weretalking about family.
Can you go back to the originalquestion?
Do you recall what you asked me?
Speaker 3 (53:17):
that might help, jog what you had to give up, what
you had to release in order togo from you know no community to
community, how you had to seeyourself differently, how you
said to see others differently,the world differently, in order
to make that jump from.
(53:38):
I don't need community and I'mjust going to survive to.
Ah, yes, I want communitybecause I want to thrive.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, I well it doesn't jog my memory enough,
but I I just really like thatwriting habit because it it
helps me, it gives you differentperspectives to show up a
little bit differently, and youdid say it was about this
morning's writing, thoughsomething this you were writing
about this morning.
Yes, and I can't remember.
(54:07):
Oh, my goodness, I'm gonna, I'mgonna go downstairs and grab it
maybe, but I won't, I won't dothat.
But I think I think just theoverall point truly again is
going back to not letting peoplestagnate you and just keep
(54:28):
moving forward with what you'recreating, because you're going
to create so much incrediblestuff and you're doing the world
such a disservice by not beingyou and not being your creative
self and not showing up andshining your light, not showing
up and shining your light.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
You joined the no fucks to give club.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
You know we saw a clip yesterday of the Super Bowl
and it was a clip up on the bigscreen of oh gosh, I'm drawing
a blank, Dwight Taylor Swift,Taylor Swift, yes, and people
were booing her Really.
(55:13):
Yes, yes, and people werebooing her.
And, yes, yes.
And you know, she kind oflooked around and saw this and
she looked at her girlfriendsitting next to her and she
smiled and she just shrugged itoff.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
What's that?
Shake it off.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
And.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Taylor Swift is an incredible story just about this
, because she really talks abouther past and not doing well in
school, not being the popularkid.
And look at her now.
I mean she's world renowned asan artist.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
And also an incredible philanthropist.
She gives.
I mean, few people probablygive the way she gives.
I've just read things that haveblown me away about how every
place that she has a concertwhere she performs, she gives to
(56:04):
the local communitiesgenerously, everywhere she
performs.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
That's just like wow, wow, wow, wow she gets it, she
gets it and and I think thatthat is where I I was saying it
feels so good when you thatfinally clicks for you.
Um, if that is something thatyou that is a challenge for you,
which I do believe, it's achallenge for most people.
(56:33):
Most, I agree, yes, majority Iwould say absolutely the
majority of people.
I mean, taylor Swift wouldn'thave a number one song Shake it
Off if it wasn't the majority ofpeople, right?
So because of that, when itfinally clicks and and you know
we come back a little bit toonto right, but but now you know
that feeling of what it feelslike to truly be empowered and
(56:57):
and move forward and not evencare and not give a thought to,
you know those, those negativepieces that hold you back.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
And when you have creativity, creativity, don't
you think, no matter what yourcreative choice is, it's it, yes
, you.
When you don't care what peoplethink about what you create,
you will create fabulous and youwill shine so brightly.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
And you know, look at taylor swift now.
I mean, can you imagine how herhigh school enemies I don't
know if I should say enemies butyou know the people who really
were, yeah, the haters, thepeople who were abusive to her,
what they think now and how theyfeel now and it's, you know,
(57:44):
maybe maybe thinking twice aboutbeing a bully or or what have
you?
You know, don't you never knowwhat people are capable of?
And and, and I think that'sreally the overall essence of
this show, is that when youstart shining your, your light
and being your creative self,you're going to shine so bright,
(58:06):
You're going to blow the worldaway as long you know, and blow
yourself away, and it's reallythat truly is the next step of
evolution for us.
Speaker 3 (58:19):
And you're going to attract, you know, just the
right people to you.
You know, when we let go ofcaring what others think and
just be ourselves, all of asudden the most amazing people
are showing up all around us.
I have lived this.
When I dropped the social maskand started to just be Maddox,
(58:40):
it changed my life in ways thatI could have never even dreamed,
and the people that are drawnto me now are like, oh my God,
just amazing human beings that Ithoroughly enjoy being in their
life and having them in my life.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
I'd like to reflect back to where the thought
derailed the track.
One of the things that you'dsaid before was about how
success doesn't happen overnight, and, uh, I think the opposite
side of that coin was somethingelse that you you spoke to, and
(59:18):
that is there is an inertia, acomfort with doing the same
thing every day, all the time,following the patterns, the same
thing every day, all the time,following the patterns.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Either way, it's a choice, yeah, so that brings me
back to now.
I remember where I was gettingto with the writing habits is
that we're always working on it,because success doesn't come
overnight where it's acontinuous routine, continuous
habits.
So it's interesting, right.
It's because success doesn'tcome overnight where it's a
continuous routine, continuoushabits.
So it's interesting, right?
It's like this contradictorypiece of you can't be doing the
(59:55):
same thing day in and day out.
But then again, it's a choiceof what you do, because we do
like routine as human beings.
So what routine are you goingto create?
That's in benefit, that isexpanding yourself, where you do
continuously grow and you docontinuously seek out the
unknown and be curious aboutlife and be excited about it too
(01:00:22):
.
So that's where I was going andI don't exactly know what I was
writing down again.
But my point of that is is it'sa continuous daily practice
where I am trying to reprogrammy brain so I show up
differently and I responddifferently to the world.
So those things don't, when thetriggers come, they don't, they
(01:00:45):
don't affect me and I don'trespond back to my old self.
I'm responding to my new selfand my excited self and joyful
for the experience self, becauseI now have knowledge and I now
have wisdom from that.
Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
Yes, yes, yes, love it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Well, I think that we've had a pretty far-ranging
conversation and, uh, I think weshould bring things to a close,
and the way we usually do thatis with some rapid fire
questions her rapid fire answersyeah I do my best okay, so
(01:01:28):
we'll we'll have three rapidfire questions.
Uh, first is, what's a creativerisk You're glad you took?
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
stepping onto a stage .
Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Love that.
Um, oh.
What's a memory that alwaysmakes you smile?
Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Oh, kissing my husband.
Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Oh, how does community inspire your work?
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
It makes me want to do more.
It's the fuel, that is the fuel.
Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Oh, please say that again.
That's awesome.
Everybody needs to hear that asecond time, please.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Community is the fuel that sparks that fire, and I
want to keep doing, I want tokeep serving.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
That is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
That's driven.
Living that drove it homethat's driven living Yep, that
drove it home.
Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
That's driven.
Living Yep, that's our brand.
You know, I've got.
I can pump out all sorts ofdriving and safety and words.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Well, before we put it into park, let's uh.
I just want to make sure thatwe um have allowed you to share
everything that you would likewith our listeners have allowed
you to share everything that youwould like with our listeners.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
I feel like this has been a very well-rounded
conversation and yeah, I have.
I feel I truly invite thelisteners if you're not already
inspired and pumped up to youknow, go seek community and be
your creative, beautiful self.
To um, start doing that, orbetter yet.
I, I asked the question whataction are you going to take to
(01:03:21):
start and to begin now?
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
It's a beautiful place to end it.
Where can our listeners bestfind all things April Chavez and
Driven Living.
Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
DrivenLivingcom.
It will be in the show notesApril.
This has been absolutelyamazing.
Of course, I knew it would be.
Actually, it's exceeded myexpectations, which is just
lovely.
Not that I had any specificexpectations, but yeah, this is
(01:03:59):
beautiful and thank you so muchfor your contribution to the
podcast and to all of the peoplewho will listen to your episode
.
Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
It's an absolute pleasure.
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