This week we wrapped up our year. We took a look back at all of the exciting podcasts we've done, all the incredible things we've learned, and how much we've changed. We talk about what is coming to Changing the Rules and The Luckiest People in the World in 2022. We announced our new book coming out in the Spring of 2022. We have a lot of exciting things coming up, you don't want to miss!! Happy Holidays from All of us at Changing the Rules!!
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:01
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:13
Good Morning, everybody, and welcome to change the rules. This is Ray Loewe that quote-unquote, lively host, and Kristine kind of set me up with that. And we had a Christmas party last night, Kristine, I'm not so lively this morning. So you're gonna have to fill in for me.
Kris Parsons00:34
Yeah, too, too much, too much eggnog?
Ray Loewe00:36
Yeah well, I hope we always do better than eggnog. So So anyway, changing the rules is our show that's been going on for a couple of years now. And it is about the fact that we have to many rules in our life and rules, clutter our life. And rules allow us to do two things and only two things we either have to obey. And there are things that we must do or we can't do. Or the smart people in the world, the luckiest people in the world, change the rules so that they can create a life of their own and live it under their own terms. So last year, we had a great year, we talked to some incredible people. And Kristine Parsons of Parsons, PR Welcome to changing the rules and introduce yourself and then kind of kick-off by talking a little bit about what you thought we accomplished last year.
Kris Parsons01:39
Sure. Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Ray. Yes, I'm Kris Parsons, Parsons, PR. I've been doing this since 2015. I did it before I met Ray. But Ray has given me some great pointers through the years on how to strengthen your sole proprietorship and small entrepreneur businesses because that's, that has its ups and downs with it and the luckiest people in the world always find a way to solve things. So that's what I learned. I do know we have done a lot. We've been very, very busy this year. And it's been a pretty crazy, different strange year, we, we've done about 95 this year, almost 100 episodes total of what you've done with changing the rules. And this year alone, you did 45. So this is our last one. We'll start up in January. But they've been fascinating. I was looking through some of the episodes. And I think we started out the beginning of the year, January of some very interesting people. One is a master barbecuer in Georgia, but he grew up in Africa, among wild animals and a lot of conflict in the country. So that was fascinating. And then we ended, I think, just last week with a woman who was a high-powered corporate executive, who live who lived the real high powered strong life. Now she's braving the world of entrepreneurism and doing her own business. And just some of the interesting things she's learned. It's really fascinating people, there's so many stories out there. And every day, I'm fascinated every week, actually, when we do this, to see some different things. And Ray, you do have a wonderful knack of bringing out things in people and we learn things about people that you would never even imagine by meeting.
Ray Loewe03:28
Yeah, so let me tell you what we're going to do next year. This is a prequel. We're not in the next year yet, but really quickly. Yeah. We're going to skip our 100th Episode, you know, changing the road, everybody has a 100th episode, sooner or later, we're not going to have one, we're going to go right from 99 to 101. So Taylor's got to figure out how we do that. Because why should we have a 100 when it's just what everybody else would do. So I found a couple of interesting things that came up last year, we did a series on this idea of where we're going to all live as we get older. And we had some people come in and talk about lifestyle settings. They talked a little bit about long-term care kinds of things, and the things that we have to make sure that we continue to feel lucky. And you know, one of the things that keeps coming out of this luckiest people in the world is that that they have a vision and a plan. Now the plan is not a 100% Guaranteed plan. It's a plan that allows for a lot of pivoting. But they have a sense of where they're going to go and what they're going to do and we found that people who don't think that way, all of a sudden run into roadblocks where things change and they have no idea where they're going to go and they waste huge amounts of their life. So um we talked a lot about that. We interviewed a number of writers last year and they were writers of different things. We had a young lady writing children's books, who based them on a dog that she had that died and we have the stories of Moe and, and how he traveled the United States. And this is all geared towards helping younger children get a sense of where they are in the country and getting a sense of directions.
Kris Parsons05:29
Nobody seems to know how to go anyplace these days.
Ray Loewe05:32
Yeah, we had a bunch of people who write on memoirs and telling their stories. So we had Donna Luboo, from Chicago, and she talks a little bit about the theater that she runs where people can write a five-minute story and stand up in a bistro and read or tell their story in front of a group. And it's amazing how many people come up with great stories and we had Clemence, a writer of memoirs, she helps people write their memoirs and things like that. We have filmmakers. We had a couple of them this year. We had Arielle Nobile She's a filmmaker, that filmmaker that talks about stories about America. And she was working about some exciting things about we're all Americans, why do we think we're different? You know, and interestingly enough, talk about people who break the rules or change the rules. I just got an email from her the other day, she just picked up and moved to Argentina. Wow, really? Yeah. So you know, you want to break some rules? Let's go. Right?
Kris Parsons06:49
Yeah, I'll go to Argentina. That's great. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Ray Loewe06:53
No, go ahead.
Kris Parsons06:54
No, I was just gonna say what also was interesting this year is there was quite a lot of pivoting, you know, because of this pandemic, which we're not totally out of yet. And that was fascinating to see. And I go back to what you said, having a plan that makes sense. Because they don't get flustered. They don't, you know, curl up, and, you know, don't know what to do and panic, they just find a way to pivot. And I think all of us, you and I included, learned a lot more about technology and zoom calls and how to communicate virtually to the point where I enjoy it more now. I mean, it's kind of nice to do things in your pajamas and not have to get dressed up all the time. But what I learned how to communicate differently.
Ray Loewe07:36
You know let's think about that a little bit. Because there are two major things that I learned out of doing these podcasts last year. Number one is that we're probably living in one of the most fascinating periods ever, of time. You know, we sit there and there's two groups of people, there were those that dwell on the kind of terror of COVID. You know, the fact that it's been awful. We've had uh 800,000 People die in this country. And yes, it has been an awful experience. But there's another group of people that have taken this. And they've just made it into one of the most vibrant periods ever. So I remember talking to Skye Bergman um Skye is a filmmaker from California. And she put together a film last year that aired on PBS. And it was about a whole bunch of people in their 80s and 90s. And how they talk about life. And one of the comments that she came up with is she said, you know, if we had been in normal times, I never could have introduced this film to all of the people I had a chance to introduce them to because I would not have flown to Europe to do a showing of the film. I would not have flown all over the country and yet with zoom, I was able to do these things. And a whole lot of people got the benefit of what I did that otherwise wouldn't. So I think again, the luckiest people in the world just think this way, and they it's one of the big things that I learned.
Kris Parsons09:22
I found it fascinating that I you know, I'm a little older. I didn't think I could do some of these things. And I could and now I feel a little bit more proficient than a lot of the technology and that's a wonderful feeling.
Ray Loewe09:37
yeah, you're fading out Kristine. Oh, I am. so talk into the mic.
Kris Parsons09:42
Okay, I'm talking into the mic. Can you hear me now?
Ray Loewe09:45
Okay, there we go. There we go. Just like that add, I can hear you now.
Kris Parsons09:48
You can hear me now. Like I just feel like I learned a lot more technology-wise than before. And it gives you a wonderful sense of confidence that now you can you know Master newfangled things.
Ray Loewe10:03
you know, and there's more to it than just the technology and just the fact that you know, we can do these things we run in, we've run into some people that have made changes, because of what we went through. So you mentioned Paula a while ago, and Paula is a perfect example of it. Here, here is a person who was successful by all means she's, she's a partner in a very, very large consulting firm. She's making gobs of money. Okay, she's generally excited about what she does. She's working on interesting things. And then one day, she sat back and said, you know, enough is enough. Yep. And I'm gonna make this change. And we're seeing people do this, you know, the Gallup poll people came out a long time ago, a couple years ago. I guess that's a long time. And they said that 80% of the people in the United States, quote, hate their stupid jobs. Now, I think hate is probably a little bit straddling that is a word. But I certainly have met a lot of people that are not totally happy with their jobs. Well, look at what's happening. In society right now, we all learned we don't have to go to the office anymore. So now companies are coming back and say, Okay, it's time to get back to the office and people are saying, No, I'm not going. Okay. And I'll quit my job if I have to. Well, you talk about exciting times, and about it and exciting opportunity to follow what's fascinating and motivating to you and to do what you want to do in life.
Kris Parsons11:46
Be happier. That's, that's what it's all about. What do they say? Nobody puts on your tombstone. You know what you did at work? They talk about the things you did that you enjoyed in life?
Ray Loewe11:56
Yeah. Okay. So I learned another batch of things here. Okay. And I'd like to hear your take on it. But let me kind of get through this. We have great stories all around us. All we got to do is listen. Right. So we did a series last year on storytelling. We had Bonnie Shay, come on and talk about photographs. We had Rebecca Hoffman come on and talk about the power of the story. And one of the things that Rebecca said in her interview, she said, I go to parties and I don't ask people what they do. I asked them, tell me a story. So I did that the other day. Sounds really stupid. But we were at a Christmas party. All right. And I'm sitting there and there's this lady sitting across from me and uh She's one of my neighbors. I hadn't really met her before. And I would guess she's in her 70s, 80s, maybe an older, but a vibrant young lady, and I said Jane, so what's your story? And wow was I impressed? So Jane has a 1912 EMF? No, I didn't know what an EMF was. But it's a car. It's a car. And you have to crank it to start it. Now, she's got a real car, too. But all of a sudden, we got into this great story about old-time cars. And I think I'm gonna get a ride in one of these. I can guarantee you that Jane will be on one of our podcasts, and we're going to talk about following what's fascinating and motivating and some of the things that you can do in life. And you don't get this if you don't ask the right questions to people. So at dinner last night, okay, I'm talking to a friend of mine. And my friend, Dick Coyne, said, come on over to my table over here, Ray, I've got a guy I want to introduce me to and I met John. John is well into his 90s. He is an incredibly lucid guy. He tells stories great, and he was telling us last night about his father, and how his father was getting out of the service in World War One. Okay. And a colonel came up to him and said, Al Al, was his father's name and, and I said, No, what's your plan for what you're going to do when you leave the service? And Al came up and said, Gee, I don't know. And the colonel came back and said, That's not an acceptable answer Al. Okay. And, and, you know, he gave out his ABCs of life. And I'm excited now to hear more about this. So I can guarantee you, John will be on our podcast in the future, and he's going to tell us about these ABCs and how He used it to structure his life and how we used it to help and help his kids and other people around them. And the whole idea comes back to if you don't have a plan, and you don't have a vision, you're not going anywhere. You're going to run around in circles. Right? That's listening to the stories is one of the things I learned. So what stories did you hear Kristine?
Kris Parsons15:23
I was also gonna I'm already jumping ahead with you saying plan is. So what is the plan for 2022? You know, we, we finished here this year. Very, very exciting. What what do we want to do for 2022 with changing the rules?
Ray Loewe15:39
You mean, you actually want me to have a plan, I don't have a plan?
Kris Parsons15:44
Hey, go back to John and get the ABCs.
Ray Loewe15:47
Well, yeah, it's true. So I think we've got a great plan going forward. So we also did a kind of a test this year, we had our first kind of coming out party.
Kris Parsons16:01
Yes, that was fun. We actually got an in-person event which we were very safe and careful. But it felt really good to get about what maybe 20 people together, I think.
Ray Loewe16:11
Yeah, so tell us about it because you did all the work putting it together.
Kris Parsons16:15
Yeah, it was great. Well, one of our people that we interviewed in 2021 was Jeff Lincoln of the Passero's coffee in Philadelphia. And he went through a real change because he has several stores in the Philadelphia region. And like every other city in the United States that closed down, and he had to pivot and figure out what to do. And he always had a plan. His plan as we go back to that was to strengthen his online business, sell more coffee online, get some more memberships going. And also to he has this great little package, it's a coffee adventure, where literally, you can send your loved ones or your friends a coffee package. And then you can get him to do a virtual kind of conference with everybody and you kind of do a coffee tasting. And so that was really fun, what he worked on in 2021. And then what we did is we got a couple of people together to go to his warehouse where he actually brews his coffee and his roastery. What did he name his roastery? What was her name? Lulu or something. He had a name for it. It was great. But we got a wonderful tour of this roastery in the heart of Philadelphia, really a lovely place. And we learned so much about coffee, all about the difference between organic coffee and non-organic and how you brew it and what you look for in the taste. We even learned that cream and sugar in your coffee were never for flavor. It was because they ration coffee during World War II. That's how
Ray Loewe17:46
It was so bad.
Kris Parsons17:48
Yeah, that was so bad, right? Because they had to weaken it and ration it.
Ray Loewe17:53
Oh, we learned we learned a lot about coffee. But we also learned we can actually have a coming-out party. Okay,
Kris Parsons17:59
right, cuz it was fun. And it was great to see everybody. And it was great to get everybody interacting. And even though the virtual stuff is really fun. And I think I still feel good about it. It still does not replace standing next to somebody talking one on one. It doesn't replace that. And we can't lose that because that is important.
Ray Loewe18:21
And nobody got sick. Nobody got sick. Because we use some precautions we were careful about we did and we're able to get back out. So what are we going to do next year? Well, we're going to try and have a little bigger one. Now we're going to plan something. More people. Yeah, we don't have the date yet. But I'm going to get a whole bunch of people to my new home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I'm finding this as an exciting little city and I'm anxious to share it with other people. And we'll be announcing the date of when we're going to do that. And obviously, we're taking precautions. You know there's a chance if this stuff goes wild, we may postpone it for a while. But the whole idea is we're ready to get back out. Do it carefully do it consciously. But I missed people.
Kris Parsons19:16
Yeah, yeah. There's also another big thing coming next year, right. You've been and I've been working on it for months now. What's the exciting news for the new year?
Ray Loewe19:28
A book you mean? Yes, your book. Okay, so hopefully, mid-March, early April, we'll be coming out with a new book and amply called changing the rules, by the way. And we're going to be talking about people and how they change the rules and live life in a better way. We have a whole bunch of stories that are coming out of a podcast that we're doing, and we actually have how to do it set of worksheets in there so that you can get your thinking in gear. And we talk a lot about the mindsets of the luckiest people in the world. And let me just give you two or three real quickly because I think that they're leading us to where our podcasts are going to go. So the luckiest people in the world follow what's fascinating and motivating to them. They don't get caught in traps. And we're seeing people now all of a sudden leaving jobs where they've been established because it's no longer fascinating and motivating. And it's time to get out and make changes. We're talking about people who know what they want. Now, knowing what you want is very, very difficult to do. But there's a process for it.
Kris Parsons20:46
That's in the book Yeah, kind of help people because we can't assume everybody has a plan. But this book really helps people take the step, just like a fitness plan, you start small with different exercises, we have like mental exercises to help you figure out what your plan might be, you might always have had a plan, but you were never were able to articulate it. And this book will help you we help
Ray Loewe21:07
You know, and one of the biggest ones and we're going to spend some time on it next year because I now have a great source of new people to talk to. But we're going to talk about how the luckiest people in the world stop worrying about aging and concentrate on living. That's great. And, uh, you know, that whole mindset of not thinking about getting older, you don't dwell on what you can't do anymore you dwell on what you can do and how you can do it, great. And it's exciting. So I think I think we've got a great um series coming up, we have the process of a new virtual or not virtual but a live friends conference, we have a book it's going to lay out the mindset of the luckiest people in the world and how they use them. It's a storybook, and or workbook. And we're going to meet a whole lot of new people. And we're going to bring back some of the older people who we wrote about in this book, to find out what's changing in their lives, and how they're coping with the change. And we all know that things are going to change. And we all know that when things change, we have to change the rules in our favor, to make sure that we stay with it all.
Kris Parsons22:28
And you have to almost you also have to kind of get over any fear of change. Because I think that that's what keeps a lot of people in quicksand, they're afraid to change. You know, if the status quo is comfortable, they like well, everything's fine, but change every time you make a change in the positive direction, it just enhances your life. And what's that phrase, I've heard that many times, you better get busy living or get busy dying, you know, I mean, don't think about growing older, don't think about what you can't do think about what you can do. And you'd be surprised at how much things come out. And that's what we've learned with these people, we, we encourage you to come and listen to the podcast, it's very easy it's long but put it in your saves things theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com. Lots it's a mouthful. But once you get it in your computer, you can always go back to it and listen to the episodes. When you're, you know, during the holidays, you have a couple of days off when you're taking your walk put on your headphones and iPods and listen to it. It's these stories are fascinating. And I guarantee you you will find a kernel of something that relates to you.
Ray Loewe23:36
Is that a colonel in the Army or the Navy, or kernel of corn?
Kris Parsons23:42
I sit and watch TV with the popcorn kernel.
Ray Loewe23:44
Okay, so So anyway, that's kind of a recap of where we've gone. And I don't know about everybody else. But I've been asked a number of times why I put forth the effort to interview people and talk to people and do the podcast. And it's because it's incredibly fascinating and incredibly motivating to do this. And one of the things that I encourage everybody else to do is get out there and find those stories that are surrounding you. And find a way to get them out. And the easiest way is telling the story. John, what's your story? Whatever it is, and you'll be amazed at how people are sharing with you. And you'll be amazed at the gems of wisdom and they're exciting and they're motivating. And you wake up the next morning excited about life. So that's what we're all about.
Kris Parsons24:38
More positive than saying tell me what you heard on the news last night.
Ray Loewe24:42
Yeah, we don't want to go there, these days do we. So anyway, we're gonna, we're gonna sign off until next year. We'll see you in January. And with an exciting podcast and we already have it laid out. We've got some great people coming in next year. exciting stories. New Events, a book, how to do this to help you put this together and make sure you listen because the people we interview are telling you how they did it and what they did. And I guarantee it will be fascinating and motivating. So Taylor, thanks so much, Kris Parsons. Thanks for being with us, and all of our people that are listening. Thanks again for supporting us the way you did. Yep.
Kris Parsons25:27
And have a happy and safe holiday. Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do that too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.