July 7, 2025 • 48 mins
Dr. Wendy Guess is a dynamic individual, passionate about inspiring others through joyful expression, and harnessing the power of movement to overcome generational patterns. As a Marketing Professor and an emotional wellbeing facilitator, she advocates for transformation, using the art of dance and moving metaphors. Driven by her love for travel, exploration, dancing, and her role as a grandmother, she continually encourages others to break away from the chains of the past and embrace change.
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Dr. Wendy Guess: https://drwendyguess.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast.
Today, I'm joined by Dr WendyGuess to explore healing through
movement, sound and ancestralwisdom.
We discuss breakinggenerational patterns, taking
responsibility for healing andhow constellations reveal hidden
truths.
We also touch on AI, corevalues and the universal forces
that connect us all.
If you're ready to embracechange, this episode is for you.
(00:22):
Thank you, it's so good to seeyou.
I haven't seen you in a longtime, so it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's been a few years .
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, it's been a couple of years, so I'm glad we
were able to schedule this andget this on on on the schedule
and and being able to connect.
And you know you've I've seenyou go through.
You know we've been in in sameconstellations and in different
workshops together over manyyears and I was very interested
in what your origin story of howyou got to this modality was.
(01:01):
So can you tell me a little bitabout how that happened?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The simple answer is when the student's ready, when
the teacher appears.
Yeah, I think, and that'shappened to me multiple times.
As early as college I was takinga movement for theater class of
(01:27):
all things, and the instructorbrought in Tai Chi and brought
in all the Eastern philosophyabout the meridians and chi and
the elements.
(01:48):
And we use those elementsbecause you know, they all have
like a voice and a sound and acolor and a movement style and
he brilliantly brought that inas an analyzing tool for
developing a character fortheater stage and I was
(02:10):
introduced to stuff like the TaoTe Ching and I think that
started, probably planted theseed for the journeys, and so
(02:34):
everywhere I went I wouldconnect with the healing arts,
if you will, just quite byuncoincidence.
And so when I first came toMiami I joined a local yoga
studio and there just happenedto be this workshop going on
that was called CommunityAcupuncture and of course you
(02:57):
know that had my little antennaegoing.
That sounds really interesting.
But then the incredible I don'tknow how deep to go into this,
because the story of my gettingthere is a story in and of
itself.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I love to hear it yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I love to hear it right.
But I find frequently that whenwe're supposed to be somewhere,
we tend to find resistance ingetting there, and true to form.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, ain't that the truth?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I read about that event and of course part of me
is going oh, that sounds reallycool, I should go.
And the other part of me isknow event and you know, of
course part of me is going oh,that sounds really cool, I
should, I should go.
And the other part of me isgoing, you know, no.
And all week long I'm like yes,no, yes, no.
The morning of I'm like do I go, do I not?
(04:00):
I got in the car, I go, do Inot?
I got in the car, I went, eveninto the studio.
I'm like no, no, no, yes, I gotto the counter and it just so
happened that I had this I don'teven remember why, but I had
(04:20):
this credit for a free workshop,and so I'm like okay yeah, I'm
supposed to go, Okay, I somehowin a way prepaid and so I walk
in.
Finally, and this was twoacupuncturists and in the
(04:49):
process, you know, they kind ofhad a theme and then so they
needled everyone in the same waybecause it was supporting this
particular theme of the day.
And while we were, you know,after we were all, I guess,
needled, then we're all doingthis sort of meditation and they
brought out this instrumentcalled the Mona Lina.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Which are you familiar with that at all.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I had such a visceral reaction to it when they
started playing and it was like,you know, I'm like, and in a
good way I'm like what is thisinstrument I?
Afterwards, I went up, I, youknow, like I got to play this, I
got to say what, what is this I?
So I have one.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Maybe we can play it some today.
And you know, and that was likethe next step, I needed to
connect with that level of soundhealing, healing.
(05:52):
And then they also did privatesessions.
So I went to a private sessionand she has the big tabletop
version which is like a fullsize chiropractor table size, so
you lay on top, the strings areall underneath and the
practitioner is playing thesestrings, so literally your whole
entire body is vibrating, andthat I also had a huge reaction
(06:21):
to.
There was this sort of energythat was sort of I guess for
lack of a better word it wasstuck and it needed to be able
to be released, and so it wasthat instrument that released it
.
And then afterwards she saidyou really need to go to a
(06:43):
family constellation.
And I'm like a who and the what.
Well, we're going to go on thestar hunt, what?
And so she's like no, here,call Michelle, schedule one.
Okay, this was in 2015.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And so you know I'm like okay.
Well then I think it was ashort, a very short while later
there was I can't even rememberwhat the trip was that I was
planning to go on and for somereason I got this, like we used
(07:21):
to call it, a spiritual pinch.
It's kind of like a little bootand going you need to go see
Michelle.
So I'm like okay.
So I took the you know thecoward's way out and I emailed
her.
I'm like, oh, michelle, I saw,you know, so-and-so recommended
(07:42):
you and I see that on yourcalendar because somehow I'd
gotten hold of her timeline.
Your calendar says XYZ,wednesday night is supposed to
be a constellation and I'mleaving town the next day and it
just feels like I should, youknow, try to visit.
(08:04):
And she writes back as onlyMichelle can.
And you know it's like well,apparently you are supposed to
have this constellation becausethe calendar was incorrect.
It was actually supposed to bea meditation night.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh, wow, okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And so she graciously had me come over.
They did a constellation thatnight and, you know, in the
process of it, you know settingup all the family and everything
, and finding out maybe therewas, you know, a miscarriage
somewhere that was never talkedabout, or this or that.
(08:46):
And then there was, you know,the grandmother, and all of a
sudden it wasn't my grandmotheranymore, it was my
great-grandmother, and in thatmoment I recognized that same
dense energy in her that I hadjust released, the one.
(09:11):
Had you previously felt that inthe guitar.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Not the guitar, but the music table.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And so I'm like there's something to this.
And then, of course, you know,I go on my trip.
It's a great trip, come backfor more and more and and you
know, then I'm in in constant,like, okay, my academic brain is
trying to take over to toexplain this, because my, I
(09:38):
guess my passion or my thing istake difficult concepts and make
them understandable, you know,for my students.
And so, you know, I'm liketrying to put logic to this.
Like I go, you know I'd getthere, and I'm like, okay,
there's something woo-woo goingon here.
It doesn't make sense, how doyou?
(10:01):
But then you stand up in thefield and it's like stuff
happens and we, you know, youknow, michelle, we had the joke
you cannot make this stuff up.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You can't make this stuff up yeah.
And for the listeners, theperson that we're, the Michelle
that we're referencing.
Her name is Michelle Blechnerand she's, you know, for many
years down here in South Floridahas been doing family
constellations and it started inher apartment over many years
and a lot of us met throughMichelle doing those workshops
(10:34):
in her apartment and really kindof people from all different
walks of life you know collegeprofessors, you know kind of
like yourself and you knowpeople from all different walks
of life have come, come throughand all over the world yeah, and
all over the and from all overthe world, yeah, really from all
over the world.
so how, now that you know it's Iprobably a couple years removed
(10:57):
from that how do you explain tosomebody and, from very from an
academic perspective, how doyou explain to somebody the
family constellation?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm always, I'm always curious about how that
that is also went with Michelleand several other people over to
(11:30):
Netherlands for training in thesystemic or organizational side
of things, because it was likeI felt so deeply about that.
I've brought it back.
I've I've used some of theexercises and concepts with my
students.
You know little things thatthey can do either in an
assignment or a class and stuff,and so it's been.
(11:52):
You know I've gotten into it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, yeah, really.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A bit of it, and so you know, with the students I
kind of just leave it at likethis is this work that I do,
that you know, to helpbusinesses.
It's just systemic, but in thelast few years I was just
(12:20):
telling sorry, ian.
Ian, our producer, yeah, that,or I was about to tell we had
gone on a family history tripwith my father and my siblings,
just, you know, a few yearsbefore he passed, and for him,
(12:45):
he had been working on hispersonal memoir or life story
for probably the last 20 yearsof his life, and so there was
something that sparked there,you know, with this idea of the
family history, understandingyou know more about our lineage
and you know, and then,traveling, like from there I
(13:06):
went to Romania and did you knowthe traditional dances there
that I had learned in college?
And so it was like so amazingto actually go to the country
(13:27):
and experience the dances thatpeople were dancing, with the
people that were dancing them.
And one thing that reallystruck me was that, you know, in
spite of all of the differentkinds of trauma, that this
country and other countries havegone, through.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
It's that aspect of dancing together.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That has, in a way, helped them survive Wow, and
helped them feel some identitywhen all the other outside
forces were literally trying toremove their identity.
And through cultural justwiping out their culture any way
possible, but they kept italive through their dancing.
So back to your question thatI'm sorry, I had a little
(14:13):
journey to take before I couldget to the question this idea of
understanding that you know, inevery country there's been some
kind of trauma and so for now Ijust say I work with healing
generational trauma becausepeople connect with that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah, and the zeitgeist really seems like it's
ready for that conversation,because people are starting to
say like, you know, first itbecomes pop culture, you know,
and then it goes into likeactual interaction.
You know.
They say like then it, and thenit goes into like actual, into
action.
You know.
They say like, oh well, I havegenerational trauma.
I was like, well, now you cando something about it.
Right that you can.
Now that you've identified it,you can do something about it.
(14:53):
And so I'm fascinated by that.
You know that aspect of howit's starting into pop culture.
And then you get almost like alike wielding it as a shield in
a psychology talk, in your poppsychology talk, that people use
it as an excuse, but then thereality is that using it as the
way to heal is the appropriateapplication of it.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, because right now, kind of like the beginning
of the Me Too movement, it waslike finally people are able to
speak out in some way about it,and then unfortunately, um, in
some areas it kind of took onthis sort of a badge of honor,
(15:38):
like, yeah, me too, it's mybadge, you?
And then you know, in a way itlost.
Well, victim, perpetrator, hoodright.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
The victim energy became so strong that it almost
turned.
It did in some instances turninto a perpetrator energy, and
so then we lose the healing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, that's such a good point that you know it's
almost like a new, like a newcrack happens and there's like
this big evolutionary force,right, like that we know from
Jan Jakobsen, like thisevolutionary force comes in,
like the, like this movement,right, the Me Too movement is
like, yes, so many people havebeen hurt by the perpetrator,
energy, right, and that's thatstory's um very vast and wide.
(16:26):
But then what do you do withthat?
Information is like, do you useit to heal or do you use it to
craft your own axe, to grind andthen further perpetuate that
cycle of, of of pain, you know?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
yes, yes, yes, yes.
And that just reminds me ofthis beautiful quote, and I wish
I had written that down before.
I've shared it somewhere, but acouple years ago I went togo I
think it was Ego and it was.
(17:09):
The book was called the Choice.
There's more to it.
Are you familiar with it at all?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So she was a gymnast, ballerina, da-da-da-da, and
then also a Jew during that timetime and was taken to auschwitz
oh, wow and you know she saysno, sorry.
Back to the dance analogy it'sa theme.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, it's a theme, right it's a.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
It has been a theme for my life.
Yeah, because she had thatskill.
She feels, you know, like shementioned in her book, that's
probably what kept her alive,because she was basically
commanded to perform for whoeverand because she could they
(18:03):
didn't kill her that day, butthat was kind of like her
lifeline, you know, is that shecould distract the guards, I
guess you could say, or distractsomething from.
Because she had that skill, um,and you know, she survived.
She went on to um and she was astudent of oh gosh, he was
(18:36):
another writer, and I just drewa blank, was it Victor?
Another writer, psychologist,survivor of Auschwitz.
But she tells her story too,you know, of not just surviving
but then figuring out how tothrive.
(18:58):
Afterwards she went on tobecome a psychotherapist, which
was a fairly new field, I guessat the time in the 50s and 60s.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Can I ask you a bit about the shift between family
constellations and systemicconstellations, because I know
you went to Slovenia, right?
Is that correct?
I didn't go to that one.
No, I went to the systemictraining.
(19:30):
Jan Jakob Stam is a systemicconstellations facilitator, and
systemic constellations are alittle bit different than family
constellations, but of the samefamily.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Same umbrella it's the same umbrella.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
At the end of the day , it's all constellations.
But can you talk a little bitabout what you learned during
that process and some of thekind of highlights of that?
Some of the kind of highlightsof that?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Sure, sure.
So a little bit of context.
So when Michelle had gone toSlovenia and she came back and I
was like telling her group shehad the whole mosaic idea, and
then she mentioned, you knowthis work that Jan Jakob does,
and that he was having atraining.
So I'm like yes, and that hewas having a training?
(20:18):
So I'm like yes.
Now, for me at the time andstill I'm a associate teaching
professor and my topic ismarketing, so I'm in the College
of Business so for me it waslike oh, there's like
constellation stuff forbusinesses.
How cool is that?
So I was very drawn to thatbecause I could see, you know,
(20:42):
direct correlation for passingon tidbits to my students and
impacting not just their livesbut everybody.
They ever touch right and so,yeah, so he was trained also
with Bert Hellinger, who was theoriginator of this amazing work
, and he went, you know, heworked with that.
(21:05):
He was, I think, a biologist bytrade, but then, as he was
doing the constellation work, hekind of ended up developing
this focus more on the businessaspects.
So all over the Netherlandsit's quite widely practiced and
(21:27):
a lot of businesses come in andresolve things, not unlike
family stuff.
You know, somebody's excluded,somebody's this, somebody's that
Managers keep leaving.
Why?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Some position keeps having turnover.
What's going on with that?
And you know it's all aboutuncovering that underneath layer
, like what's there that's notbeing dealt with or acknowledged
or spoken about or healed youknow, because businesses are
(22:09):
like an entity as well.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Hi guys, I'm John, host of the Zulu One podcast.
At the Zulu One podcast wefocus on having conversations
about unresolved trauma andcultural and family systems.
If you like what you're hearing, please consider becoming a
monthly supporter.
The link is below Thank you, Ilove how you can take in.
You can take like conceptsright.
It's like the old pattern, theblockage.
(22:32):
You know the team profit.
You know you can take all theselike super interesting.
You know more esoteric than momRight.
It's like mom is, you know, onall the wounds and all the stuff
that comes with mom Right andall the stories that come with
mom that you can really takelike the community or the
product and focus it that wayand and see it.
I love that aspect of systemicwork, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, and I think, well, I mean there were so many
exercises that came out of thattraining that I'm like, ah, I
just love this stuff and so somethat I've been able to actually
apply to both students andgroups that I've worked with is
the one is recognizing what JanJakob calls leading principles,
(23:25):
or sometimes guiding principles,which is, you know, a lot of
students go, oh, isn't that justyour mission statement?
No, it's a little bit more.
And you, you might see somecompanies actually using that
language.
I'm not sure if it's the same,but it's kind of.
It's this exercise that has yougo through you know, a series
(23:51):
of reflective questions to kindof go why are you here?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
You know, like, get back to that and I call it that
original spark of like when thatcompany idea first happened, or
when maybe somebody firststarted working for that company
, or like.
You know what was that originalspark that said, oh, this is it
.
You know, I got to do this andand then taking that spark and
going.
(24:19):
Now you know what was thethought process, what was like
you know your DNA of a companyLike what is your purpose beyond
just the products you sell?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
And so from there they kind of developed this.
Two to three general keywordsthat kind of you could say are
their theme or their principlesthat guide their decision making
.
One example of that that I feltwas really profound there was
this fitness company, and theyhad been primarily training
(25:06):
fitness instructors, right, andthen they had diversified,
coming up with this app thatthey wanted to actually end up
developing that would gostraight to the customers.
But you know, there was allthis back and forth and back and
forth, and so we did thisexercise and it came out that,
(25:32):
oh, we are an education company,so it really helped them kind
of circle back around andre-identify their purpose for
existence, in a sense, and theirservice to humanity is that we
are education.
(25:52):
And so the app is maybe not inour alignment, and so they went
back to focusing on educationrelated oh, that's powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, and those guiding principles, like such a
such a powerful concept, like wecan find our guiding principles
that are in our DNA, that wehaven't identified yet, that
that if we misplace those, ifthe CEO is not in alignment or
the COO or the executive team orthe whole company is not aware
of that, you can, you know, itjust resonates right.
(26:29):
It'd be like we're an educationcompany that just happens to do
fitness or you know, whateverthat is.
The people are like the lightbulbs go, boom, boom, boom,
everybody's like light bulbs gooff and everybody comes into
alignment.
Do you see?
Is that kind of the the effectthat you would see?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
yes, yes, because they're like it.
You know it sounds, it speaksto the heart.
Oh yeah, this is who we are,this is how we're serving
humanity.
And then, even though that appfor them was a cool idea and had
all the bells and whistles, itwas like it's not actually the
(27:05):
way we're aligned and so theywere kept having trouble with it
because they couldn't see howto get from them to the customer
and yada, yada, yada.
And I'm like, because that'snot your direction and you can
(27:26):
do that as a professional foryourself, as an individual for
yourself.
He's saying I do this exercisewith my students every semester
because here they are, inwhatever degrees they're in,
because not all of them aremarketing students, they're
coming from other departments,in the College of Business
(27:49):
mostly, and they're all tryingto.
You know, they're just gettingstarted in their life story
right.
And so I actually just thissemester I'm really excited
about this too took it a stepfurther.
And so, you know, with all theAI stuff going on, I'm like you
(28:11):
know what, the AI stuff going on, I'm like you know what, yeah,
and this was right in the middleof a lecture, like we're
talking about the assignment,and I'm like, oh, students, I
just had a download and we'regoing to add this.
So I added some AI languagingin there.
So you know, I had okay.
(28:31):
So first they do their spark.
They do this like set of threeor four questions that guides
them to those two to threekeywords.
So then I created a, an AIprompt that added that all in
there and with their keywords,and I said, okay, in this, you
(28:52):
know, do this, this, this, this,this in this prompt, now create
a really you know, I don'tremember the words I use, but,
like you know, create a reallyuseful bio that students could
use for their resume.
Wow, whenever they're asked fora bio.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
And then, of course, I did it on myself, just to make
sure you know it was gonna workright, and I was like, wow,
that came out that's odd it cameout really good.
So you know, here I'm.
You know it's about a servicethat the students can then take
with them and they have now somepowerful language to describe
(29:31):
themselves in their you know,upcoming gazillion interviews
that they're going to go through.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah.
And finding you know what yourcore guiding principles are.
You can, when you find out yourguiding principles, you can see
if you're in alignment withthose guiding principles right
With the company that you'rejoining right.
It's like like my guidingprinciples are peace and harmony
and balance.
It's like, probably Raytheon orGeneral Dynamics is not the
(29:57):
right company for you to workfor.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You might look at a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
It's like I'm going to go workfor Halliburton, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
There's not always real harmony in the nonprofits
either.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And they're done that ?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, exactly, and they're done that.
But you find that you know,depending on what your style is
and what you're resonating with,you have the right fit with
where you are in the company.
It's such a powerful tool for astudent, somebody that's just
exploring who they are andthrough this marketing class,
that they're learning how tomarket themselves, their true
(30:33):
authentic self.
You know they're marketing thetrue authentic self, not the.
You know who they think theyare Not.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
the here's what you think I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah exactly, or who mom and dad wanted me to be, or
who all my friends think that Ishould be, or you know, whatever
that looks like, that's a verypowerful exercise and I bet
you've found you know profoundinsights in your students.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Oh, goodness, I bet you found profound insights in
your students going through that.
Yeah, we did this and this wasa live class, which a lot of
mine are online, so this waskind of that fun experiment,
even just going through thefirst part of the AI not the AI,
because that happened after,but the spark, you know, guiding
them down to their key words.
(31:15):
You know, I actually playedsome you know meditative kind of
music while they're writingSome of the stuff.
These kids I'm just callingthem kids, but you know, these
young adults like some of thestuff that they were writing
blew me away.
I mean, it's like they actuallyallowed themselves to play.
(31:39):
And what was so cool is okay.
So, granted, you know, thefirst couple of times one or two
hands, you know.
Okay, I'll share.
By the time we got to thekeywords, the two to three
keywords, they were on board.
I think it went from like twoor three to now there was like
at least 10 that were willing toshare their keywords and I'm
(32:03):
like oh, that's so cool I mean,I said this out loud I'm like
you know our future's in goodhands.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Our future's in good hands.
Yeah, that's beautiful, and sohave you.
It sounds like you've almostintegrated facilitating into
teaching in some way, right.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
That is actually my teaching style.
After years and years ofteaching and being a dancer
mover, I'm like I don't want tosit and listen to me talk.
I want to have discussionsbecause, if anything, I learn
more from my students.
I mean because they all comewith such amazing, rich
(32:44):
experiences heartaches,tragedies, successes, you know.
So it's like who am I to thinkI've got all access to the only
knowledge they need?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, and marketing is such a evolving thing as well
.
It's like constantly evolvingand they're being marketed to
right there, they're the,they're the current gen.
It's like the best feedbackloop that you would have,
because you know, you get someof these textbooks and it's
already three years old, Right,and they're like three years old
.
Three years old in currenttechnology standards is like
(33:17):
there might.
They're not even talking aboutthe like.
There's this emergingtechnology.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's like a whole nother decade.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, exactly, called social media, and you're like,
they're just like they'redecades behind and not TikTok or
the new next thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And in fact in that class I dropped the textbook and
I just wrote some stuff with AI.
Yeah Well, AI consulted with meMakes sense.
You know, and that's a bigthing in the college campuses
too, not to digress.
But you know, just like withany new big tech, I remember I
was going to college when theinternet was first becoming a
thing, right, and back then allthe professors, oh my gosh,
(34:01):
students are going to cheat, youknow, and they're going to find
all these workarounds, yeah,and yeah, exactly.
And so now same thing.
Oh, ai, now the students arecheating and they're they're
having ai write the answers forthem, and you know.
So it's like, okay, well, maybeyou want to think about your
(34:23):
teaching style maybe needs tochange.
Maybe stop asking them to writethese mundane research papers
and find out different ways tofigure out what they know.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That's powerful.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
I've boldly gone in and I'm like with every one of
my classes, just about I'mintegrating in each class now
that I've added to theassignments suggested AI prompts
to help guide them through theinformation.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, and it's not like it's going away right, it's
like it's not.
It's here to stay.
It's going to get moreintegrated into our lives.
You might as well maximize theutilization of it.
And you know, if it can, if itcan kill the soul crushing
repetitive tasks that kill yourcreativity right, why not?
Right, If somebody's doing dataanalysis, it's like probably
(35:16):
their best life isn't to gothrough and do data entry.
Right, if you can have an AI todo that and you can have them
connect to their creativity andtheir marketing and their great
ideas problem solving you canreally maximize the people's
potential.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Exactly, and so many of our students.
Students, their first languageis not English.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And you know English is not the easiest language for
all the different kinds ofwriting that we're asked to do.
So when they can add AI, itmakes our life a little easier
too.
But yeah, it's not to be tacky,but it's kind of like the sex
talk.
You know they're going to learnit from somewhere.
(36:00):
Where do you want them to learnit from?
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yeah, and you might as well like, give them the
prompts that are going tomaximize their creativity,
especially in marketing.
Right, it's like all right, I,you are now a you know,
marketing producer.
Now ask me 10 questions thatare going to create the best
commercial or the best pitchdeck for this product.
And we want to make it likeearthy and like authentic and
kind of hip, and we want it tobe like a little with, with you
(36:26):
know, rock and roll music in thebackground and do this stuff.
And then you, it asks you allthe questions and they'll create
this awesome scene.
And then you, you become aneditor and a curator and then
your brain like all thepossibilities in the world
rather than sitting there infront of a blank screen and like
where do I start?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I mean, exactly the hardest place for people to
get started is oh, what do I dofirst?
And so you know, you got thisbest buddy.
Now that's AI going.
Hey, here's some ideas to getyou started.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
And then you know I go okay, you're close, but I
want more of this.
Okay, that's closer, but moreof this.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
I bet it's revolutionized how you teach and
how you can unlock potential inpeople, right, yeah, yeah.
So what's kind of the thingsthat you're seeing from students
now?
Are they more trauma informed?
Are they more?
Are they?
Are they seeking more of theirauthenticity?
Are they?
Are they still blocked?
Are they?
What's, what's the?
(37:24):
What are you seeing out therein the, in the wild?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I love it All of that .
Okay, and now I've got you knowtwo kind of really cool classes
that actually invite.
The one is internationalmarketing, and so I'm going to
(37:59):
say the first and most importantpiece of any of that is
creating, you know, a safe space, making it, allowing it to be
okay, Right, which you know, andyou know we talk in the, in the
constellation world, about theholding space.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Which, from from an educator perspective, you know
that there's a lot of holdingspace that goes on in the
classroom that we don't evenacknowledge that we do Right,
because we're trying to yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Especially with like initial, something like
international marketing, right,that you'd be like there's so
many cultural nuances that maybeyou haven't traveled or you
haven't been exposed to it.
And you've other people'scultures and you know, like
selling, selling, you know whatdo they call it like, uh, in in
(38:48):
venezuela, they talk about thislike you could sell a ketchup
popsicle to a lady with whitegloves.
You know, it's like thatability to it, right, just the
cultural nuances of what'shappening with with somebody,
right, it's like depending ontheir cultures.
Like you know, kellogg's goinginto brazil.
My dad worked for kellogg's,right.
So how did they enter thebrazil market.
(39:08):
It's like eating cereal wasn't athing.
That happened right.
And how do you market that?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And you know you usually have how do you make it
a thing?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, how do you make it a thing and it's just and
that's a terrible examplebecause we found that, you know,
food has been a big issue,right, yeah, exactly so.
But I would imagine that, likejust having you know those
nuanced conversations andcreating a safe space, right, a
location where they can play,like what you said, where they
(39:37):
can play with these ideas andnot feel like they're going to
get shut down or, you know,voted off the island because
they said something wrong thatthey're learning about, right,
or whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Right, that survivor island right, or whatever that
is Right, that's Survivor.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Island.
Right, yeah, exactly Exactly.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Well, you know, and that's what I'm really enjoying
actually about this course,because there are so many, you
know, like examples, like youmentioned, of US companies or
other companies going into newcountries and we can laugh about
them now, but the epic fails,like the things that didn't
(40:14):
translate too well, such as Nova, the Chevy Nova.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, it doesn't go.
That's what's in Spanish itdoesn't go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
And then there was one.
What was it?
Braniff Airlines, I think.
Think way back when they firstintroduced leather seats as a
luxury class oh, okay and so thelogo, or the, the tagline, was
fly leather.
Well, when you start trying to,you know, translate that to
(40:44):
Spanish.
It came out fly naked, becauseyou know.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
It's like, oh, that doesn't no,that culturally doesn't make
sense.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
And then there was there's a whole bunch of
examples of, of like taglines,especially that try to translate
into other languages where youknow like oh, finger licking
good became, eat your fingersoff.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And so you know I start off with the humorous side
of the themes and then we cankind of gently touch into even
the nuances of the Spanishlanguage across South America,
which so many of them are from,and you know they bring up
examples.
Now they're feeling empoweredto talk about that because it's
(41:35):
like, oh yeah, there's this andthis word means, you know, like
girlfriend or nice girlfriend inthis language, but the same
word in this other country overhere means like you know, not a
nice girlfriend, yeah so you'rekind of going wow, and just
that's the same word, but it hasa completely different you know
(41:57):
, opposite context yeah, thecultural nuances of of each
region and reach each.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
You know each dialect , almost you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
and then you, like I'm, I'm sensitive towards the
idea, or unaware, that there arestill um, how would you say?
You know they're, countries aretaught not to get along or not
to like each other around southamer, and you know I've got
students coming from a wholebunch of countries and so, you
(42:32):
know, this becomes almost thatplace to talk about some of the
these like delicate nuances, tocreate awareness.
You know it's like, oh well,you know, maybe instead of
looking for all the differencesthat your parents told you you
have and why you shouldn't likethat country, maybe we could
(42:55):
start seeing what's similar.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
And that brings me back to another dance story.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Oh yeah, I'd love to hear it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So in college I did traditional dance as well as
ballroom dance, and in thetraditional dance we had the
opportunity to representAmerican folk dances, which
basically are borrowed Europeanones, but except square dance no
, we still borrowed that, but weput our own spin on it, anyway.
(43:31):
So we were taking American folkdances with our musicians and
going to different stops inEurope where there was these
huge dance festivals, and theywould literally they were
bringing dances in from multiplecountries.
We even had one, I think, fromChina, we had Turkey, we had
(43:52):
well, back in the day it wasYugoslavia.
So we had Irish, German I thinkwe had one that came from
somewhere in South America, wehad a couple from Africa, so it
was like.
So it was like you know, thiswild group of people, and it was
like you know, it was generallylike five days long and there'd
(44:14):
be parades, and then there'd beperformances, and then they'd
have activities for all thedancers to do, you know, to
socialize.
And so, you know, we're at thisone little town in Germany
called Schlitz.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They claim they created the beer.
I don't know, but you knowwe're all doing this Well, so
(45:04):
we've done all our dances andparades and everything, and then
at the social gathering for theperformers you know, musicians
do what they do, right?
Oh, hey, you know this tune webasically poured out into the
street and we started forming upour little circles and squares.
And I can still remember likeit was yesterday.
I'm in this group and we're outin the street.
We literally shut down thestreet.
(45:24):
The cars were like what theheck?
Down the street, the cars werelike what the heck.
And I remember there was.
It was like a like a couples orpartners, but you're in a
square circle or something.
So there was a guy fromYugoslavia, german couple, an
(45:50):
Italian, a French, an Irish oh,it was the next week.
There was the Turkish, but itwas like you know, literally we
had the whole world dancing.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
And it just I mean, it was like just like it hit me
oh, here's a little grandchildit just like hit me so strongly.
We don't know the samelanguages, we don't practice the
same religion, we don't havethe same politics.
Some people are like at thattime it was still the early 80s,
(46:23):
so Yugoslavia was not a freeplace.
Yugoslavia was not a free place,yeah, and yet, in that moment,
because we all knew the samedance, we were like the best of
(46:43):
friends doing something together, and it was like such a
powerful even, however, manyyears later, such a powerful
moment in my life, that it waslike, wow, that suit, that dance
, silly little dances supersedeeverything, or they, they go
(47:04):
beyond everything the power ofyou know, because we could all
hold hands and recognize that wewere fellow humans who loved to
move, who loved music, wholoved joy, who wanted to be
joyful, and that was soempowering.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
I think that's a great place toland our plane.
So, wendy, if people want toget a hold of you, how do they
do that?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
So I can be found on the handle at Dr Wendy Guess,
like I'm on LinkedIn or Facebookor Instagram or Facebook or
Instagram, so just search methere.
I'm also on YouTube.
All the handles same DR WendyGuess, like guess who?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Perfect, perfect.
Wendy, thank you so much.
This has been awesome.
It's great catching up with you.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Thanks, John.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
All right, bye.
Thanks for tuning in to theZulu One podcast.
If you found value in today'spodcast, please don't forget to
like, share and subscribe.
Your support means everythingto us and thank you for being
part of this journey.
Welcome to the podcast.
Today, I'm joined by Dr WendyGuess to explore healing through
movement, sound and ancestralwisdom.
We discuss breakinggenerational patterns, taking
responsibility for healing andhow constellations reveal hidden
truths.
We also touch on AI, corevalues and the universal forces
that connect us all.
If you're ready to embracechange, this episode is for you.
(00:22):
Thank you, it's so good to seeyou.
I haven't seen you in a longtime, so it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's been a few years .
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, it's been a couple of years, so I'm glad we
were able to schedule this andget this on on on the schedule
and and being able to connect.
And you know you've I've seenyou go through.
You know we've been in in sameconstellations and in different
workshops together over manyyears and I was very interested
in what your origin story of howyou got to this modality was.
(01:01):
So can you tell me a little bitabout how that happened?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The simple answer is when the student's ready, when
the teacher appears.
Yeah, I think, and that'shappened to me multiple times.
As early as college I was takinga movement for theater class of
(01:27):
all things, and the instructorbrought in Tai Chi and brought
in all the Eastern philosophyabout the meridians and chi and
the elements.
(01:48):
And we use those elementsbecause you know, they all have
like a voice and a sound and acolor and a movement style and
he brilliantly brought that inas an analyzing tool for
developing a character fortheater stage and I was
(02:10):
introduced to stuff like the TaoTe Ching and I think that
started, probably planted theseed for the journeys, and so
(02:34):
everywhere I went I wouldconnect with the healing arts,
if you will, just quite byuncoincidence.
And so when I first came toMiami I joined a local yoga
studio and there just happenedto be this workshop going on
that was called CommunityAcupuncture and of course you
(02:57):
know that had my little antennaegoing.
That sounds really interesting.
But then the incredible I don'tknow how deep to go into this,
because the story of my gettingthere is a story in and of
itself.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I love to hear it yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I love to hear it right.
But I find frequently that whenwe're supposed to be somewhere,
we tend to find resistance ingetting there, and true to form.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, ain't that the truth?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I read about that event and of course part of me
is going oh, that sounds reallycool, I should go.
And the other part of me isknow event and you know, of
course part of me is going oh,that sounds really cool, I
should, I should go.
And the other part of me isgoing, you know, no.
And all week long I'm like yes,no, yes, no.
The morning of I'm like do I go, do I not?
(04:00):
I got in the car, I go, do Inot?
I got in the car, I went, eveninto the studio.
I'm like no, no, no, yes, I gotto the counter and it just so
happened that I had this I don'teven remember why, but I had
(04:20):
this credit for a free workshop,and so I'm like okay yeah, I'm
supposed to go, Okay, I somehowin a way prepaid and so I walk
in.
Finally, and this was twoacupuncturists and in the
(04:49):
process, you know, they kind ofhad a theme and then so they
needled everyone in the same waybecause it was supporting this
particular theme of the day.
And while we were, you know,after we were all, I guess,
needled, then we're all doingthis sort of meditation and they
brought out this instrumentcalled the Mona Lina.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Which are you familiar with that at all.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I had such a visceral reaction to it when they
started playing and it was like,you know, I'm like, and in a
good way I'm like what is thisinstrument I?
Afterwards, I went up, I, youknow, like I got to play this, I
got to say what, what is this I?
So I have one.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Maybe we can play it some today.
And you know, and that was likethe next step, I needed to
connect with that level of soundhealing, healing.
(05:52):
And then they also did privatesessions.
So I went to a private sessionand she has the big tabletop
version which is like a fullsize chiropractor table size, so
you lay on top, the strings areall underneath and the
practitioner is playing thesestrings, so literally your whole
entire body is vibrating, andthat I also had a huge reaction
(06:21):
to.
There was this sort of energythat was sort of I guess for
lack of a better word it wasstuck and it needed to be able
to be released, and so it wasthat instrument that released it
.
And then afterwards she saidyou really need to go to a
(06:43):
family constellation.
And I'm like a who and the what.
Well, we're going to go on thestar hunt, what?
And so she's like no, here,call Michelle, schedule one.
Okay, this was in 2015.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And so you know I'm like okay.
Well then I think it was ashort, a very short while later
there was I can't even rememberwhat the trip was that I was
planning to go on and for somereason I got this, like we used
(07:21):
to call it, a spiritual pinch.
It's kind of like a little bootand going you need to go see
Michelle.
So I'm like okay.
So I took the you know thecoward's way out and I emailed
her.
I'm like, oh, michelle, I saw,you know, so-and-so recommended
(07:42):
you and I see that on yourcalendar because somehow I'd
gotten hold of her timeline.
Your calendar says XYZ,wednesday night is supposed to
be a constellation and I'mleaving town the next day and it
just feels like I should, youknow, try to visit.
(08:04):
And she writes back as onlyMichelle can.
And you know it's like well,apparently you are supposed to
have this constellation becausethe calendar was incorrect.
It was actually supposed to bea meditation night.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh, wow, okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And so she graciously had me come over.
They did a constellation thatnight and, you know, in the
process of it, you know settingup all the family and everything
, and finding out maybe therewas, you know, a miscarriage
somewhere that was never talkedabout, or this or that.
(08:46):
And then there was, you know,the grandmother, and all of a
sudden it wasn't my grandmotheranymore, it was my
great-grandmother, and in thatmoment I recognized that same
dense energy in her that I hadjust released, the one.
(09:11):
Had you previously felt that inthe guitar.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Not the guitar, but the music table.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And so I'm like there's something to this.
And then, of course, you know,I go on my trip.
It's a great trip, come backfor more and more and and you
know, then I'm in in constant,like, okay, my academic brain is
trying to take over to toexplain this, because my, I
(09:38):
guess my passion or my thing istake difficult concepts and make
them understandable, you know,for my students.
And so, you know, I'm liketrying to put logic to this.
Like I go, you know I'd getthere, and I'm like, okay,
there's something woo-woo goingon here.
It doesn't make sense, how doyou?
(10:01):
But then you stand up in thefield and it's like stuff
happens and we, you know, youknow, michelle, we had the joke
you cannot make this stuff up.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You can't make this stuff up yeah.
And for the listeners, theperson that we're, the Michelle
that we're referencing.
Her name is Michelle Blechnerand she's, you know, for many
years down here in South Floridahas been doing family
constellations and it started inher apartment over many years
and a lot of us met throughMichelle doing those workshops
(10:34):
in her apartment and really kindof people from all different
walks of life you know collegeprofessors, you know kind of
like yourself and you knowpeople from all different walks
of life have come, come throughand all over the world yeah, and
all over the and from all overthe world, yeah, really from all
over the world.
so how, now that you know it's Iprobably a couple years removed
(10:57):
from that how do you explain tosomebody and, from very from an
academic perspective, how doyou explain to somebody the
family constellation?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm always, I'm always curious about how that
that is also went with Michelleand several other people over to
(11:30):
Netherlands for training in thesystemic or organizational side
of things, because it was likeI felt so deeply about that.
I've brought it back.
I've I've used some of theexercises and concepts with my
students.
You know little things thatthey can do either in an
assignment or a class and stuff,and so it's been.
(11:52):
You know I've gotten into it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, yeah, really.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A bit of it, and so you know, with the students I
kind of just leave it at likethis is this work that I do,
that you know, to helpbusinesses.
It's just systemic, but in thelast few years I was just
(12:20):
telling sorry, ian.
Ian, our producer, yeah, that,or I was about to tell we had
gone on a family history tripwith my father and my siblings,
just, you know, a few yearsbefore he passed, and for him,
(12:45):
he had been working on hispersonal memoir or life story
for probably the last 20 yearsof his life, and so there was
something that sparked there,you know, with this idea of the
family history, understandingyou know more about our lineage
and you know, and then,traveling, like from there I
(13:06):
went to Romania and did you knowthe traditional dances there
that I had learned in college?
And so it was like so amazingto actually go to the country
(13:27):
and experience the dances thatpeople were dancing, with the
people that were dancing them.
And one thing that reallystruck me was that, you know, in
spite of all of the differentkinds of trauma, that this
country and other countries havegone, through.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
It's that aspect of dancing together.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That has, in a way, helped them survive Wow, and
helped them feel some identitywhen all the other outside
forces were literally trying toremove their identity.
And through cultural justwiping out their culture any way
possible, but they kept italive through their dancing.
So back to your question thatI'm sorry, I had a little
(14:13):
journey to take before I couldget to the question this idea of
understanding that you know, inevery country there's been some
kind of trauma and so for now Ijust say I work with healing
generational trauma becausepeople connect with that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah, and the zeitgeist really seems like it's
ready for that conversation,because people are starting to
say like, you know, first itbecomes pop culture, you know,
and then it goes into likeactual interaction.
You know.
They say like then it, and thenit goes into like actual, into
action.
You know.
They say like, oh well, I havegenerational trauma.
I was like, well, now you cando something about it.
Right that you can.
Now that you've identified it,you can do something about it.
(14:53):
And so I'm fascinated by that.
You know that aspect of howit's starting into pop culture.
And then you get almost like alike wielding it as a shield in
a psychology talk, in your poppsychology talk, that people use
it as an excuse, but then thereality is that using it as the
way to heal is the appropriateapplication of it.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, because right now, kind of like the beginning
of the Me Too movement, it waslike finally people are able to
speak out in some way about it,and then unfortunately, um, in
some areas it kind of took onthis sort of a badge of honor,
(15:38):
like, yeah, me too, it's mybadge, you?
And then you know, in a way itlost.
Well, victim, perpetrator, hoodright.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
The victim energy became so strong that it almost
turned.
It did in some instances turninto a perpetrator energy, and
so then we lose the healing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, that's such a good point that you know it's
almost like a new, like a newcrack happens and there's like
this big evolutionary force,right, like that we know from
Jan Jakobsen, like thisevolutionary force comes in,
like the, like this movement,right, the Me Too movement is
like, yes, so many people havebeen hurt by the perpetrator,
energy, right, and that's thatstory's um very vast and wide.
(16:26):
But then what do you do withthat?
Information is like, do you useit to heal or do you use it to
craft your own axe, to grind andthen further perpetuate that
cycle of, of of pain, you know?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
yes, yes, yes, yes.
And that just reminds me ofthis beautiful quote, and I wish
I had written that down before.
I've shared it somewhere, but acouple years ago I went togo I
think it was Ego and it was.
(17:09):
The book was called the Choice.
There's more to it.
Are you familiar with it at all?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So she was a gymnast, ballerina, da-da-da-da, and
then also a Jew during that timetime and was taken to auschwitz
oh, wow and you know she saysno, sorry.
Back to the dance analogy it'sa theme.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, it's a theme, right it's a.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
It has been a theme for my life.
Yeah, because she had thatskill.
She feels, you know, like shementioned in her book, that's
probably what kept her alive,because she was basically
commanded to perform for whoeverand because she could they
(18:03):
didn't kill her that day, butthat was kind of like her
lifeline, you know, is that shecould distract the guards, I
guess you could say, or distractsomething from.
Because she had that skill, um,and you know, she survived.
She went on to um and she was astudent of oh gosh, he was
(18:36):
another writer, and I just drewa blank, was it Victor?
Another writer, psychologist,survivor of Auschwitz.
But she tells her story too,you know, of not just surviving
but then figuring out how tothrive.
(18:58):
Afterwards she went on tobecome a psychotherapist, which
was a fairly new field, I guessat the time in the 50s and 60s.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Can I ask you a bit about the shift between family
constellations and systemicconstellations, because I know
you went to Slovenia, right?
Is that correct?
I didn't go to that one.
No, I went to the systemictraining.
(19:30):
Jan Jakob Stam is a systemicconstellations facilitator, and
systemic constellations are alittle bit different than family
constellations, but of the samefamily.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Same umbrella it's the same umbrella.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
At the end of the day , it's all constellations.
But can you talk a little bitabout what you learned during
that process and some of thekind of highlights of that?
Some of the kind of highlightsof that?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Sure, sure.
So a little bit of context.
So when Michelle had gone toSlovenia and she came back and I
was like telling her group shehad the whole mosaic idea, and
then she mentioned, you knowthis work that Jan Jakob does,
and that he was having atraining.
So I'm like yes, and that hewas having a training?
(20:18):
So I'm like yes.
Now, for me at the time andstill I'm a associate teaching
professor and my topic ismarketing, so I'm in the College
of Business so for me it waslike oh, there's like
constellation stuff forbusinesses.
How cool is that?
So I was very drawn to thatbecause I could see, you know,
(20:42):
direct correlation for passingon tidbits to my students and
impacting not just their livesbut everybody.
They ever touch right and so,yeah, so he was trained also
with Bert Hellinger, who was theoriginator of this amazing work
, and he went, you know, heworked with that.
(21:05):
He was, I think, a biologist bytrade, but then, as he was
doing the constellation work, hekind of ended up developing
this focus more on the businessaspects.
So all over the Netherlandsit's quite widely practiced and
(21:27):
a lot of businesses come in andresolve things, not unlike
family stuff.
You know, somebody's excluded,somebody's this, somebody's that
Managers keep leaving.
Why?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Some position keeps having turnover.
What's going on with that?
And you know it's all aboutuncovering that underneath layer
, like what's there that's notbeing dealt with or acknowledged
or spoken about or healed youknow, because businesses are
(22:09):
like an entity as well.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Hi guys, I'm John, host of the Zulu One podcast.
At the Zulu One podcast wefocus on having conversations
about unresolved trauma andcultural and family systems.
If you like what you're hearing, please consider becoming a
monthly supporter.
The link is below Thank you, Ilove how you can take in.
You can take like conceptsright.
It's like the old pattern, theblockage.
(22:32):
You know the team profit.
You know you can take all theselike super interesting.
You know more esoteric than momRight.
It's like mom is, you know, onall the wounds and all the stuff
that comes with mom Right andall the stories that come with
mom that you can really takelike the community or the
product and focus it that wayand and see it.
I love that aspect of systemicwork, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, and I think, well, I mean there were so many
exercises that came out of thattraining that I'm like, ah, I
just love this stuff and so somethat I've been able to actually
apply to both students andgroups that I've worked with is
the one is recognizing what JanJakob calls leading principles,
(23:25):
or sometimes guiding principles,which is, you know, a lot of
students go, oh, isn't that justyour mission statement?
No, it's a little bit more.
And you, you might see somecompanies actually using that
language.
I'm not sure if it's the same,but it's kind of.
It's this exercise that has yougo through you know, a series
(23:51):
of reflective questions to kindof go why are you here?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
You know, like, get back to that and I call it that
original spark of like when thatcompany idea first happened, or
when maybe somebody firststarted working for that company
, or like.
You know what was that originalspark that said, oh, this is it
.
You know, I got to do this andand then taking that spark and
going.
(24:19):
Now you know what was thethought process, what was like
you know your DNA of a companyLike what is your purpose beyond
just the products you sell?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
And so from there they kind of developed this.
Two to three general keywordsthat kind of you could say are
their theme or their principlesthat guide their decision making
.
One example of that that I feltwas really profound there was
this fitness company, and theyhad been primarily training
(25:06):
fitness instructors, right, andthen they had diversified,
coming up with this app thatthey wanted to actually end up
developing that would gostraight to the customers.
But you know, there was allthis back and forth and back and
forth, and so we did thisexercise and it came out that,
(25:32):
oh, we are an education company,so it really helped them kind
of circle back around andre-identify their purpose for
existence, in a sense, and theirservice to humanity is that we
are education.
(25:52):
And so the app is maybe not inour alignment, and so they went
back to focusing on educationrelated oh, that's powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, and those guiding principles, like such a
such a powerful concept, like wecan find our guiding principles
that are in our DNA, that wehaven't identified yet, that
that if we misplace those, ifthe CEO is not in alignment or
the COO or the executive team orthe whole company is not aware
of that, you can, you know, itjust resonates right.
(26:29):
It'd be like we're an educationcompany that just happens to do
fitness or you know, whateverthat is.
The people are like the lightbulbs go, boom, boom, boom,
everybody's like light bulbs gooff and everybody comes into
alignment.
Do you see?
Is that kind of the the effectthat you would see?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
yes, yes, because they're like it.
You know it sounds, it speaksto the heart.
Oh yeah, this is who we are,this is how we're serving
humanity.
And then, even though that appfor them was a cool idea and had
all the bells and whistles, itwas like it's not actually the
(27:05):
way we're aligned and so theywere kept having trouble with it
because they couldn't see howto get from them to the customer
and yada, yada, yada.
And I'm like, because that'snot your direction and you can
(27:26):
do that as a professional foryourself, as an individual for
yourself.
He's saying I do this exercisewith my students every semester
because here they are, inwhatever degrees they're in,
because not all of them aremarketing students, they're
coming from other departments,in the College of Business
(27:49):
mostly, and they're all tryingto.
You know, they're just gettingstarted in their life story
right.
And so I actually just thissemester I'm really excited
about this too took it a stepfurther.
And so, you know, with all theAI stuff going on, I'm like you
(28:11):
know what, the AI stuff going on, I'm like you know what, yeah,
and this was right in the middleof a lecture, like we're
talking about the assignment,and I'm like, oh, students, I
just had a download and we'regoing to add this.
So I added some AI languagingin there.
So you know, I had okay.
(28:31):
So first they do their spark.
They do this like set of threeor four questions that guides
them to those two to threekeywords.
So then I created a, an AIprompt that added that all in
there and with their keywords,and I said, okay, in this, you
(28:52):
know, do this, this, this, this,this in this prompt, now create
a really you know, I don'tremember the words I use, but,
like you know, create a reallyuseful bio that students could
use for their resume.
Wow, whenever they're asked fora bio.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
And then, of course, I did it on myself, just to make
sure you know it was gonna workright, and I was like, wow,
that came out that's odd it cameout really good.
So you know, here I'm.
You know it's about a servicethat the students can then take
with them and they have now somepowerful language to describe
(29:31):
themselves in their you know,upcoming gazillion interviews
that they're going to go through.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah.
And finding you know what yourcore guiding principles are.
You can, when you find out yourguiding principles, you can see
if you're in alignment withthose guiding principles right
With the company that you'rejoining right.
It's like like my guidingprinciples are peace and harmony
and balance.
It's like, probably Raytheon orGeneral Dynamics is not the
(29:57):
right company for you to workfor.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You might look at a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
It's like I'm going to go workfor Halliburton, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
There's not always real harmony in the nonprofits
either.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And they're done that ?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, exactly, and they're done that.
But you find that you know,depending on what your style is
and what you're resonating with,you have the right fit with
where you are in the company.
It's such a powerful tool for astudent, somebody that's just
exploring who they are andthrough this marketing class,
that they're learning how tomarket themselves, their true
(30:33):
authentic self.
You know they're marketing thetrue authentic self, not the.
You know who they think theyare Not.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
the here's what you think I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah exactly, or who mom and dad wanted me to be, or
who all my friends think that Ishould be, or you know, whatever
that looks like, that's a verypowerful exercise and I bet
you've found you know profoundinsights in your students.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Oh, goodness, I bet you found profound insights in
your students going through that.
Yeah, we did this and this wasa live class, which a lot of
mine are online, so this waskind of that fun experiment,
even just going through thefirst part of the AI not the AI,
because that happened after,but the spark, you know, guiding
them down to their key words.
(31:15):
You know, I actually playedsome you know meditative kind of
music while they're writingSome of the stuff.
These kids I'm just callingthem kids, but you know, these
young adults like some of thestuff that they were writing
blew me away.
I mean, it's like they actuallyallowed themselves to play.
(31:39):
And what was so cool is okay.
So, granted, you know, thefirst couple of times one or two
hands, you know.
Okay, I'll share.
By the time we got to thekeywords, the two to three
keywords, they were on board.
I think it went from like twoor three to now there was like
at least 10 that were willing toshare their keywords and I'm
(32:03):
like oh, that's so cool I mean,I said this out loud I'm like
you know our future's in goodhands.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Our future's in good hands.
Yeah, that's beautiful, and sohave you.
It sounds like you've almostintegrated facilitating into
teaching in some way, right.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
That is actually my teaching style.
After years and years ofteaching and being a dancer
mover, I'm like I don't want tosit and listen to me talk.
I want to have discussionsbecause, if anything, I learn
more from my students.
I mean because they all comewith such amazing, rich
(32:44):
experiences heartaches,tragedies, successes, you know.
So it's like who am I to thinkI've got all access to the only
knowledge they need?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, and marketing is such a evolving thing as well
.
It's like constantly evolvingand they're being marketed to
right there, they're the,they're the current gen.
It's like the best feedbackloop that you would have,
because you know, you get someof these textbooks and it's
already three years old, Right,and they're like three years old
.
Three years old in currenttechnology standards is like
(33:17):
there might.
They're not even talking aboutthe like.
There's this emergingtechnology.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's like a whole nother decade.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, exactly, called social media, and you're like,
they're just like they'redecades behind and not TikTok or
the new next thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And in fact in that class I dropped the textbook and
I just wrote some stuff with AI.
Yeah Well, AI consulted with meMakes sense.
You know, and that's a bigthing in the college campuses
too, not to digress.
But you know, just like withany new big tech, I remember I
was going to college when theinternet was first becoming a
thing, right, and back then allthe professors, oh my gosh,
(34:01):
students are going to cheat, youknow, and they're going to find
all these workarounds, yeah,and yeah, exactly.
And so now same thing.
Oh, ai, now the students arecheating and they're they're
having ai write the answers forthem, and you know.
So it's like, okay, well, maybeyou want to think about your
(34:23):
teaching style maybe needs tochange.
Maybe stop asking them to writethese mundane research papers
and find out different ways tofigure out what they know.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That's powerful.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
I've boldly gone in and I'm like with every one of
my classes, just about I'mintegrating in each class now
that I've added to theassignments suggested AI prompts
to help guide them through theinformation.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, and it's not like it's going away right, it's
like it's not.
It's here to stay.
It's going to get moreintegrated into our lives.
You might as well maximize theutilization of it.
And you know, if it can, if itcan kill the soul crushing
repetitive tasks that kill yourcreativity right, why not?
Right, If somebody's doing dataanalysis, it's like probably
(35:16):
their best life isn't to gothrough and do data entry.
Right, if you can have an AI todo that and you can have them
connect to their creativity andtheir marketing and their great
ideas problem solving you canreally maximize the people's
potential.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Exactly, and so many of our students.
Students, their first languageis not English.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And you know English is not the easiest language for
all the different kinds ofwriting that we're asked to do.
So when they can add AI, itmakes our life a little easier
too.
But yeah, it's not to be tacky,but it's kind of like the sex
talk.
You know they're going to learnit from somewhere.
(36:00):
Where do you want them to learnit from?
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yeah, and you might as well like, give them the
prompts that are going tomaximize their creativity,
especially in marketing.
Right, it's like all right, I,you are now a you know,
marketing producer.
Now ask me 10 questions thatare going to create the best
commercial or the best pitchdeck for this product.
And we want to make it likeearthy and like authentic and
kind of hip, and we want it tobe like a little with, with you
(36:26):
know, rock and roll music in thebackground and do this stuff.
And then you, it asks you allthe questions and they'll create
this awesome scene.
And then you, you become aneditor and a curator and then
your brain like all thepossibilities in the world
rather than sitting there infront of a blank screen and like
where do I start?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I mean, exactly the hardest place for people to
get started is oh, what do I dofirst?
And so you know, you got thisbest buddy.
Now that's AI going.
Hey, here's some ideas to getyou started.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
And then you know I go okay, you're close, but I
want more of this.
Okay, that's closer, but moreof this.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
I bet it's revolutionized how you teach and
how you can unlock potential inpeople, right, yeah, yeah.
So what's kind of the thingsthat you're seeing from students
now?
Are they more trauma informed?
Are they more?
Are they?
Are they seeking more of theirauthenticity?
Are they?
Are they still blocked?
Are they?
What's, what's the?
(37:24):
What are you seeing out therein the, in the wild?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I love it All of that .
Okay, and now I've got you knowtwo kind of really cool classes
that actually invite.
The one is internationalmarketing, and so I'm going to
(37:59):
say the first and most importantpiece of any of that is
creating, you know, a safe space, making it, allowing it to be
okay, Right, which you know, andyou know we talk in the, in the
constellation world, about theholding space.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Which, from from an educator perspective, you know
that there's a lot of holdingspace that goes on in the
classroom that we don't evenacknowledge that we do Right,
because we're trying to yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Especially with like initial, something like
international marketing, right,that you'd be like there's so
many cultural nuances that maybeyou haven't traveled or you
haven't been exposed to it.
And you've other people'scultures and you know, like
selling, selling, you know whatdo they call it like, uh, in in
(38:48):
venezuela, they talk about thislike you could sell a ketchup
popsicle to a lady with whitegloves.
You know, it's like thatability to it, right, just the
cultural nuances of what'shappening with with somebody,
right, it's like depending ontheir cultures.
Like you know, kellogg's goinginto brazil.
My dad worked for kellogg's,right.
So how did they enter thebrazil market.
(39:08):
It's like eating cereal wasn't athing.
That happened right.
And how do you market that?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And you know you usually have how do you make it
a thing?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, how do you make it a thing and it's just and
that's a terrible examplebecause we found that, you know,
food has been a big issue,right, yeah, exactly so.
But I would imagine that, likejust having you know those
nuanced conversations andcreating a safe space, right, a
location where they can play,like what you said, where they
(39:37):
can play with these ideas andnot feel like they're going to
get shut down or, you know,voted off the island because
they said something wrong thatthey're learning about, right,
or whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Right, that survivor island right, or whatever that
is Right, that's Survivor.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Island.
Right, yeah, exactly Exactly.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Well, you know, and that's what I'm really enjoying
actually about this course,because there are so many, you
know, like examples, like youmentioned, of US companies or
other companies going into newcountries and we can laugh about
them now, but the epic fails,like the things that didn't
(40:14):
translate too well, such as Nova, the Chevy Nova.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, it doesn't go.
That's what's in Spanish itdoesn't go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
And then there was one.
What was it?
Braniff Airlines, I think.
Think way back when they firstintroduced leather seats as a
luxury class oh, okay and so thelogo, or the, the tagline, was
fly leather.
Well, when you start trying to,you know, translate that to
(40:44):
Spanish.
It came out fly naked, becauseyou know.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
It's like, oh, that doesn't no,that culturally doesn't make
sense.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
And then there was there's a whole bunch of
examples of, of like taglines,especially that try to translate
into other languages where youknow like oh, finger licking
good became, eat your fingersoff.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And so you know I start off with the humorous side
of the themes and then we cankind of gently touch into even
the nuances of the Spanishlanguage across South America,
which so many of them are from,and you know they bring up
examples.
Now they're feeling empoweredto talk about that because it's
(41:35):
like, oh yeah, there's this andthis word means, you know, like
girlfriend or nice girlfriend inthis language, but the same
word in this other country overhere means like you know, not a
nice girlfriend, yeah so you'rekind of going wow, and just
that's the same word, but it hasa completely different you know
(41:57):
, opposite context yeah, thecultural nuances of of each
region and reach each.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
You know each dialect , almost you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
and then you, like I'm, I'm sensitive towards the
idea, or unaware, that there arestill um, how would you say?
You know they're, countries aretaught not to get along or not
to like each other around southamer, and you know I've got
students coming from a wholebunch of countries and so, you
(42:32):
know, this becomes almost thatplace to talk about some of the
these like delicate nuances, tocreate awareness.
You know it's like, oh well,you know, maybe instead of
looking for all the differencesthat your parents told you you
have and why you shouldn't likethat country, maybe we could
(42:55):
start seeing what's similar.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
And that brings me back to another dance story.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Oh yeah, I'd love to hear it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So in college I did traditional dance as well as
ballroom dance, and in thetraditional dance we had the
opportunity to representAmerican folk dances, which
basically are borrowed Europeanones, but except square dance no
, we still borrowed that, but weput our own spin on it, anyway.
(43:31):
So we were taking American folkdances with our musicians and
going to different stops inEurope where there was these
huge dance festivals, and theywould literally they were
bringing dances in from multiplecountries.
We even had one, I think, fromChina, we had Turkey, we had
(43:52):
well, back in the day it wasYugoslavia.
So we had Irish, German I thinkwe had one that came from
somewhere in South America, wehad a couple from Africa, so it
was like.
So it was like you know, thiswild group of people, and it was
like you know, it was generallylike five days long and there'd
(44:14):
be parades, and then there'd beperformances, and then they'd
have activities for all thedancers to do, you know, to
socialize.
And so, you know, we're at thisone little town in Germany
called Schlitz.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They claim they created the beer.
I don't know, but you knowwe're all doing this Well, so
(45:04):
we've done all our dances andparades and everything, and then
at the social gathering for theperformers you know, musicians
do what they do, right?
Oh, hey, you know this tune webasically poured out into the
street and we started forming upour little circles and squares.
And I can still remember likeit was yesterday.
I'm in this group and we're outin the street.
We literally shut down thestreet.
(45:24):
The cars were like what theheck?
Down the street, the cars werelike what the heck.
And I remember there was.
It was like a like a couples orpartners, but you're in a
square circle or something.
So there was a guy fromYugoslavia, german couple, an
(45:50):
Italian, a French, an Irish oh,it was the next week.
There was the Turkish, but itwas like you know, literally we
had the whole world dancing.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
And it just I mean, it was like just like it hit me
oh, here's a little grandchildit just like hit me so strongly.
We don't know the samelanguages, we don't practice the
same religion, we don't havethe same politics.
Some people are like at thattime it was still the early 80s,
(46:23):
so Yugoslavia was not a freeplace.
Yugoslavia was not a free place,yeah, and yet, in that moment,
because we all knew the samedance, we were like the best of
(46:43):
friends doing something together, and it was like such a
powerful even, however, manyyears later, such a powerful
moment in my life, that it waslike, wow, that suit, that dance
, silly little dances supersedeeverything, or they, they go
(47:04):
beyond everything the power ofyou know, because we could all
hold hands and recognize that wewere fellow humans who loved to
move, who loved music, wholoved joy, who wanted to be
joyful, and that was soempowering.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
I think that's a great place toland our plane.
So, wendy, if people want toget a hold of you, how do they
do that?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
So I can be found on the handle at Dr Wendy Guess,
like I'm on LinkedIn or Facebookor Instagram or Facebook or
Instagram, so just search methere.
I'm also on YouTube.
All the handles same DR WendyGuess, like guess who?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Perfect, perfect.
Wendy, thank you so much.
This has been awesome.
It's great catching up with you.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Thanks, John.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
All right, bye.
Thanks for tuning in to theZulu One podcast.
If you found value in today'spodcast, please don't forget to
like, share and subscribe.
Your support means everythingto us and thank you for being
part of this journey.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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