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The Complexity of Toilet Paper
This is a podcast about the search for simplicity and making life less complicated. A show that dives into both the everyday moments, as well as life's big stuff where we overthink, hesitate, or just get stuck. Through honest conversations, unexpected insights, and a whole lot of potty humor, puns, and hearty laughs - we are here to help you ROLL with it and make life a little less complicated, one conversation at a time. So, come join us in the Stall! Toilet Papewr not provided...yet!
Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment, growth, and informational purposes only. Any opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and do not reflect the views of any organizations we may be affiliated with. We’re not your therapists, lawyers, doctors, or plumbers, just a few folks talking it out with a roll of humor and a splash of real life. Please don’t make any major life decisions while on the toilet… or at least, don’t blame us if you do.
Show Credits:
- Show open music by RYYZN
- Roll Up music by AberrantRealities
- Stall Bridge music by penguinmusic
The Complexity of Toilet Paper
Finding Joy in Life's Journey
What's the connection between joy and opportunity, and why do we complicate both? This question forms the heart of our illuminating conversation with wellness advocate Jean Goldman, who shares her journey from successful advertising executive to health transformation specialist.
"It's not what you gather in life, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you've lived," Jean reveals, setting the tone for a discussion that challenges conventional thinking about success and fulfillment. After witnessing a standing-room-only funeral for someone her age, Jean experienced a profound shift in how she measures impact—moving from accumulation to contribution.
The conversation delves into why we often stand in our own way when opportunity knocks. Fear emerges as a primary culprit—fear of failure, judgment, or the unknown—causing us to overthink and retreat to comfortable familiarity rather than embrace possibility. Jean shares practical wisdom about setting reasonable expectations that challenge without overwhelming, helping listeners recognize how unrealistic goals can sabotage both joy and opportunity.
Health forms an unexpected cornerstone of the discussion as Jean connects physical wellbeing directly to our capacity for joy and opportunity. "You get one body to do all the things you want in life," she emphasizes, drawing from her personal experience of losing her father at a young age. This sparked her passion for preventative health and led to her current mission helping others optimize their wellbeing naturally through LifeVantage.
Perhaps most powerful is Jean's approach to finding joy through gratitude and presence. She describes how listing things she's grateful for each morning and evening physically shifts her energy, creating space for opportunity and joy even during challenging times. In our hyperconnected world, she advocates occasionally putting down our phones to fully experience life's moments—finding that true joy often emerges when we're fully present rather than documenting everything.
Join us for this heartfelt exploration of how simplifying our approach to joy and opportunity can transform our lives, one mindful moment at a time. As Jean reminds us, "If you're not growing, you're dying"—and growth happens when we embrace both joy and opportunity with open arms.
Sometimes I wish we could go back to a time when things weren't so complicated.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Complexity of Toilet Paper, the podcast that dives into the everyday moments where we overthink, hesitate or just get stuck. I'm overthinking, I'm over.
Speaker 1:I'm overthinking, let's hear it for the toilet paper Through honest conversations, unexpected insights and a whole lot of humor. Your hosts, Phyllis Martin, Mark Pollack and Al Emmerich, are here to help you roll with it and make your life a little less complicated. One conversation at a time, that's right, dude. The beauty of this is its simplicity. Speaking of which, it's time to enter the stall, Put the lid down or not, depending Get comfortable and roll with it. Oh worry not, dear friend, it's really quite simple. This is the complexity of toilet paper. The trio is here. Phyllis says she wants to change her name to Cookies McGee. Why?
Speaker 3:Cookies, McGee it is. I love cookies. I think McGee goes with it. Crispy, sweet chewy. That's bringing me joy now.
Speaker 1:Hey, here we go. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and dogs, welcome to the Complexity of Toilet Paper with Mark Pollack, Al Emrick and Cookies McGee.
Speaker 3:And Cookies McGee. I think it works really well, but you know what you realize is.
Speaker 4:You can't say it without a smile.
Speaker 1:No, you can't.
Speaker 4:Right. So if your name is Cookies McGee, I mean, how could you be a sad person?
Speaker 3:How could you ever be upset with me if you had to look at me and know that my name is Cookies McGee Right.
Speaker 1:Hey, if you know of anybody named Cookies McGee in the world, you need to message us and let us know. We want proof. We don't need to say like, oh yeah, that used to be the shortstop in my Little League game. No, it's like, if you really know somebody named Cookies McGee, let's have them on the show so that Phyllis can meet her hero.
Speaker 3:I'm going to fly to wherever Cookies McGee is and we're going to have a great time and we're going to record from there.
Speaker 1:If you ever wanted a snippet into understanding why the hell we named this show the Complexity of Toilet Paper, that was it. Right there, that was it. Hi, I am Al Emmerich, I'm Mark Pollack and I'm Phyllis Martin. So, before I introduce who our guest is, I really want to share with folks and get your takes too when we all thought about the topics for our shows because, again, the star of the show is complexity and simplicity. And what we're really doing just in case you are joining us for the first time is we look at different aspects of life, you know joy, happiness, pain, sorrow, finances, faith, conflict. I mean, really the only thing we leave off the table is politics, shocker and we explore how different people in their lives and their experiences have found complexity and simplicity within those things, what stands in the way, and it's very organic. And I chose the topic of joy, and when we all agreed upon that, we all smiled.
Speaker 1:But the guest today is also going to talk about opportunity, and I think those two fit together, obviously. So, in my mind, if I had to sum up my value, equation, word, why and impact for joy of why we're exploring, that is the word is confusion, word is confusion. Um, I think that a lot of people get confused about what joy looks like for them versus what the world tells them joy is supposed to be, and I think that's the same thing for opportunity. Um, what is opportunity? Uh, it depends on you know. Opportunities is a lot of different things. When you walk into a Starbucks or Panera or a coffee shop anywhere and you meet somebody, that's opportunity. But what is really opportunity? And then do we overthink things or stand in our own way to to achieve opportunities, whether it's a career, job, a job or just friendships, or leaping into a podcast, a job or just friendships or leaping into a podcast? And if you don't leap into the opportunity, then maybe you're limiting your access to joy. That's the way I see it, connected. How about? How about you guys?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think joy is, for me, something that, regardless of what's happening in the world you're, you're able to process it and and it's a, it's a well inside of you and the more joyful and thankful that you are, I think then those bring in those opportunities right, because you find joyful people finding opportunity and growing in different ways. So I'm excited about unpacking this with our guest today and talking through how she's taken this well of joy to go and find those opportunities and have them attracted to her.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you so much. So I've been thinking about this and for me it seems that for some, joy gets overlooked, it's not even on the radar, it's not something that people necessarily think about, and or my own experience for many years was that I was not perhaps entitled to joy, that if I felt that supreme joy, that thing that opened my heart, that just sent me fluttering around, that beauty, then something bad was going to happen to me as if the lack of joy was an insurance policy to something else, safety, insurance policy to something else.
Speaker 3:Safety, I don't know. I don't know. So, the more over the course of my life, that I've been able to get to joy, and that can be in the simplest things running Mark the 5K the other day in the rain, because I love walking in the rain and running in the rain was really joy-filled for me, and I think that that joy is what I think. Joy can open possibility and opportunity For me. It has shifted my lens. It shifts my lens in a very particular way. So, like you, I'm ready to get into it and get started.
Speaker 1:Running in the rain brings me joy. That is about as simple as it gets, and get started.
Speaker 3:Running in the rain brings me joy. That is about as simple as it gets.
Speaker 1:I did get a cold after, but okay, that's all right. Well, that's just the simple truth. Okay, no more waiting for the stall door to open. We are going to invite our guest now, jean Goldman.
Speaker 1:She is not only a friend of mine, who I've known since the early 90s when we were in radio together. We've worked together over the years, but she is one of those really truly dynamic change agent people who lives her life just with passion joy, which is what we're going to talk about and has really made the most of the opportunities the other thing we're going to be talking about. But right now, what you can find her doing is really helping people find the passion in their health and their life, and she's kind of like this personal GPS to wellness, and she'll talk about that. But where she began and where I first saw her joy and learned about opportunity and the connections with people and business and putting it all together, was back when we started in radio together and she had launched her own advertising agency in 2001, grew it into a multimillion dollar business, but deep down she had this oh man, there's got to be more out there, had this oh man, there's got to be more out there and then in 2015, she discovered this non-traditional kind of business model that aligned with her mission to make this bigger impact, and she's going to talk about that. But what she does is help people rewrite their stories, activate their lives, become more of who they were meant to be.
Speaker 1:Kind of one life-changing decision at a time, and I thought, wow, that would be great, because we kind of talk about how you can find simplicity, one conversation at a time. So let's do it. Let's bring Gene Goldman into the stall. On the complexity of toilet paper, gene Goldman has entered the stall. Gene, in 35 years we've known each other. Did you ever think I would say, hey, gene Goldman has entered the stall? That's a little frightening yes.
Speaker 1:It is and I want to make it. I want to state it for the record you and I have never been in a bathroom stall together. Correct, that is correct.
Speaker 2:Correct, absolutely correct.
Speaker 1:Mark and Phyllis look on skeptically.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you've cleared that up for us.
Speaker 4:I actually have photo evidence that Al and I were in a bathroom stall together. We do.
Speaker 1:We do. Hey, we need to drop that photo in the show notes we do, we do. Yes, let's do that, because that's the only reason people would listen to this show is to see you and I in a bathroom stall together. Um, I want to quote something here, gene goldman it's not what you gather in life, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you've lived yes that is your statement.
Speaker 1:What does that mean to you? Because that is, that's pretty simple, but yet I'm sure there's a lot of complexity behind it. But what does that mean to you? It's not what you gather in life, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you've lived that tells what kind of life you've lived.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it is simplistic but it's true, because I think we spend a lot of time in our earlier careers gathering stuff and that makes us, gives us status or it gives us whatever you know. But we feel like the more you have, the more successful you are. But the reality of it is is, the more you give and the more people, the more lives you touch is what really makes you successful, in my opinion, and so it's not what I gather, it's not all the all I can grab. It's more about what I can scatter, how I can impact another life, how I can be a friend to somebody, how I can be a better life partner to my husband, how I can be a better example for my kids, and I think it's really.
Speaker 2:I attended a funeral years ago when I was 46, and this really hit home at that time because I was 46 and the person who passed away was 46. And it was standing room only in this church. In fact, I was outside listening on the speakers. There was that many people and it really kind of touched my heart that that many people showed up to his funeral and that he made that much of an impact in people's lives and that they wanted to attend that, and that really was, at the end of the day. No one's ever going to say, well, because you work so hard for me, or you did this or you do that, it's really because of her or because of him. They changed something in my life. That's what matters to me.
Speaker 1:So, jean, I'm just going to ask you directly give us a little background about your life today and what joy looks like in your life today. Because your work with LifeVantage, you're giving health to people and you talk a lot in your posts when you're speaking to people, to the folks that work with you, to your friends, about your joy. What does joy look like and how do you define that for yourself today?
Speaker 2:I think, for me, joy is enjoying what you do. No, I've hated to use the word twice, but I really think it's what brings you, what makes you happy. I feel like my life hasn't always been what I consider rainbows and unicorns, but I certainly try to. Always I feel like when you get what you focus on, and so there's some oh, I'm going to do it again there's crap in our life and um, and I just think that we could stay there or we can actually say, okay, what's good in my life, what can I do? How can I change the energy in my body to be grateful for what I have? Because we all have wonderful things in our lives, In spite of the fact that we feel like we're probably at our lowest low sometimes. And so that's how I find joy, even in the day-to-day is that I focus on gratitude.
Speaker 3:I list things I'm grateful for every morning when I wake up, and I do it when I go to bed, and I just do my best not always successful, but I do my best to stay with an attitude of gratitude. That's really how. There's always something I don't know if that answered the question but create barriers to joy, and again, subconsciously or sometimes consciously. And what have you seen throughout the course of your professional life in terms of those barriers and how, from your perspective, have you seen people work through them to find their way to joy and opportunity?
Speaker 2:I think you have to have a good circle of people and if you don't, then you know maybe a spirituality about you, that actually something that you, someone you can talk to. I think that's important. But I find that people get stuck in their own head and they get stuck where they are. They think you know. I mean, I think we've all been there, including myself. I've been there. Oh, woe is me. Why did this happen to me? You know, and we get stuck there.
Speaker 2:And you know I had a training one time years ago, back gosh, late 80s, where they said you know, when you're in a rut, it's a shallow grave. And so it's like when you're there you're like, okay, I have options. But I like to be that friend that can share options. I like to be that friend who can listen to people and say you know, tell me about what you've tried, tell me about you know what's going on. Let's try to collaborate and figure out a way to get you out of this rut that you're in so you can at least start making steps in a positive direction. But I think people really just get in their head. I think they get, you know, they feel like they're the only ones and they play that you know comparison game. Or you know social media is probably the worst about it. You know they play that comparison game. They can't stay in their own lane. They don't know None of us know what everybody's life is like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what do they say? Comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is Exactly and it is. And we and I, I've been guilty of it. You know, oh, she's, she's doing so much better than I am, or whatever. You know, we all go there and it's really it's kind of like you just have to stay in your lane and know that your journey is your journey and everybody's journey is different.
Speaker 2:And just because my journey might right now be at a good spot doesn't mean it's always been there, and I think that we just have to remind ourselves to. If you want to wallow in it, wallow in it, but the world stops for nobody. You got to get back on and you got to find a way to get out of that rut and find a way to be, you know, be grateful again. And I don't know, I kind of go in circles when I talk about that, because it's hard to explain that, but I really just try to be a good, you know, for me. I think people get stuck in their head and for me I like to, if you don't have a circle, or maybe I can help in a way. I mean, I've had conversations with a lot of people recently where they're just stuck and it's like you know, well, let's figure out a way to get out.
Speaker 4:You know, jean, it's one of those things where it's a self-fulfilling prophecy a lot of times, right. So you're depressed and it's tough to see the light. And then you spend some time and you see, listening to the show, who are either situationally depressed, clinically depressed, maybe just sad, and they don't have that circle of people Would you share with us? Maybe, if you were to give someone a piece of advice you didn't know, something that they could take away, what would you tell that person who maybe doesn't have anybody to go to? Let's say you were their friend. What would you tell them would be the first step in helping see that joy, that light.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, I don't know if I can go here or not, but I have a strong faith and so I think that's where I would go first. I think every person is a miracle. I think every person has their own unique gifts. We're not all alike, and I think that I would probably say to them that I would encourage them on all the things that they bring to other people's lives. We all are so unique and I like to.
Speaker 2:I write it every morning I am a child of God and I'm fearfully and wonderfully made because I do get stuck there, I do get you know where. You know it's like okay, because I'm hard on myself and so I pick. I'm always wanting to improve. So for me, I've been there, I've been in that doldrum, I've had a lot of, I've had some tragedy in my life, and I would just tell them I would be their friend and I would just say listen. And I would just tell them I would be their friend and I would just say listen.
Speaker 2:You know God loves you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, you are perfect just the way you are, and we just have to find a way to climb out together because you were always in this spot and you don't have to be here. You just don't have to stay here. So let's work together and let me help you. I mean, I could tell you things. It's hard because everyone's situation is different, but I think that every person is a gift to us. We just have to be aware of and be that person that reminds people what a gift they are.
Speaker 1:When you were in radio. I'm sorry, it's hard. No, don't be sorry, I mean there's no sorries.
Speaker 4:There's no sorries.
Speaker 1:Mark just went for the jugular of joy right away.
Speaker 2:I'm going for the joy. I'm getting depressed. Yeah, Every person's different, though I mean you just.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every person's different though. I mean you just yeah. So I want to zoom back out with you for a minute to to opportunity and enjoy. Right in your career in radio you were an account executive and eventually management and all that. But at the end of the day, there, as well as with your advertising agency, you were dealing with people whose businesses they were relying on you to help them promote. So that to them was they were wallowing joyfully at first in opportunity like radio was an opportunity for them to grow their business that would lead them to joy, business that would lead them to joy. Today you work with a lot of other individuals who are following their dreams, just like you do, to help other people to make money and to make a living through health. But you also see people stand in their way and when we were preparing for the show, we talked a little bit about people getting in their own head. You just mentioned it. Why do people overthink things Like? What are the things that you've seen specifically that people overthink?
Speaker 2:I think people overthink, including myself, that, you know. Fear it's fear. Fear of what people will think, fear of can I do it? Fear what if I fail? Fear people. You know what will people say? It's just all of those things that we start doubting ourself. We start losing our confidence and our ability to go after the opportunity because we're comfortable. We're comfortable and we are comfortable because we know where we are. We know, okay, yeah, I make a certain amount of money and I'm comfortable, I'm good. But we always have these dreams somewhere else that we really wish we could do them and I think we just doubt them. I think we just don't believe that it's possible. Because I hear sometimes on my end but I think I've said it to someone else too you know, well, I'm not like you, I don't have your circle, I don't know these people, I don't, you know, and we just give ourselves all these excuses. It is storming here.
Speaker 4:We hear that I thought you were just adding that for dramatic effect.
Speaker 2:quite honestly, Since, while the flesh was not available, I wanted to bring you the storm.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking. God heard your quote and Mark's question and was like oh, I agree, yes, he is fearfully and wonderfully.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think we just doubt ourselves. I think we get again what you said. You get stuck and you're like, well, I don't think I can do it and I'm not like you, and we start that comparison game again, and or someone somewhere along the line has told us we can't.
Speaker 1:What about the business decisions? Though you know you're you're making a buy, you know your clients are making a buying decision, don't you think also that there's so much information out there I mean, there's more now than there was back in the day when we were in radio? You have way. You know you didn't have the internet like you have now Google. Way, way back then you didn't have artificial intelligence. So when, on people's ways to making a decision, whether it's a buying decision or a critical decision about their business, what was standing in their way besides fear? And how did you simplify things for people, if indeed you felt you did?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know about the fear that they felt, other than they didn't want to give up their money because the fear wouldn't work. And I would just tell them I can't control that. All I can do is spend your money like it's my money, which I hope gave them some belief that I just wasn't in it for the long haul. But I think it's also building a relationship. But I think there is no way we can predict how it's going to come out, the outcome. We can't do that. Even when they spend a lot of money, I can't predict whether someone's going to buy. There's so many other elements into it. I mean Al, you know, I mean there's that record, it was the spot. Does the spot convincing enough? Does it get somebody to take action? You know? Does it on a car dealership? Does it rain all weekend and they don't sell any cars? You know there's just so it's managing expectations for one and just knowing that, you know the alternative is, if your name isn't out there, no one's going to come.
Speaker 4:You know, jean, that's an interesting thing that you mentioned. As far as managing expectations, I think from a business perspective we use that quite a bit when we talk with leadership or we talk with clients or we talk with whomever it's managing expectations. But in a personal life, I don't find that we manage our own expectations, like what can we accomplish in a year, what can we accomplish in five years, what can we accomplish in a lifetime? And we set these unreasonable expectations on ourselves and likely on others, trying to get joy from someone else when it's something that you've got to bring to the table first. And so I'm curious from your perspective and the things that that you've had to overcome and likely what our listeners are trying to overcome in their own world, how, how do you set those expectations, those realistic expectations, so you can continue to have joy and opportunity come into your life?
Speaker 2:Well, I was always. That's one thing I was good at. I like to plan my goals and then I reverse, engineer them into what's possible. And so, for instance, if I said, like when I was in sales, if I said I was going to make 10 calls or see 10 people a day, have I ever done that before? I don't know. So you kind of like, well, if I've not done that before, then can I do that every day?
Speaker 2:Because chances are, if I try to set a lofty goal like something like that, I mean because you know you get stuck in someone's office for two hours, you're not seeing 10 people in a day. And so if I've never done that before, is that a reasonable expectation on myself? Because I'm pretty sure if that's my goal, to do that every day of the week and do 50 calls a week, I'm going to fail the first week if I've never done it before. So I think it's important that we set goals, that you know, when I do my best and I do my best with my team, to say, okay, what's reasonable and then go higher, cause you know there's that saying. You know, shoot for the stars and you'll, you know, or shoot for the moon, hit the star, whatever that is that one.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I think and that's true, I think you can have very good goals, but they have to be. You'll stop working if you keep missing, and so you have to. You know you'll just stop doing it. Then you'll never get your goal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that's a great point because a lot of people you know they like, we'll take the gym, for example They'll set this goal that I'm going to go every day for two hours and they've never been in their life, and then, you know, they're great the first week, maybe even the second week, and then they miss a day and they're like, yeah, you know, forget it, I wasn't going to be successful at it, and it steals that joy, rather than setting a realistic expectation and saying I could go two times this week and meet that goal and celebrate and get some joy from that and and and build upon that. So no, I appreciate that, thank you.
Speaker 3:You know, there's a there's like an underarching question that I have, or or maybe statement or premise, and it's some combination, um of mark and gene, what you've been talking about, but it it seems to me that part of the equation, if we're talking about achieving joy, you know, and how to simplify our lives, to do that would be some understanding or knowing of what brings you joy. And I'm wondering how often, or from your experience, people take a minute to. Sometimes you just don't know until you're absent it or until you're in a particular situation. So there's that. And then there is this toggle between expectation and joy for me.
Speaker 3:And I can remember a time my husband, tim, and I had just bought this house. I didn't love the house. I was all famished about what am I doing in this world? How did I get here? And I sat outside two days after we bought the house and said, oh, this is your life, which was game changing for me, because then it was a reset, you know. And then I had a choice Can I accept it and find the things in it that bring me joy, or I don't even know what. The other thing is that? So I think my like part statement, part question is this even identification of knowing what brings one joy of?
Speaker 2:knowing what brings one joy. I think we all. I think that's a great question and I'm not sure I have the right answer, but I think that for me, I usually ask people and in doing that this is how I get through it myself is asking myself you know, what do I want? You know, I did an exercise years ago. Someone literally said you know what do you want? And I'd say this I'm like, well, what do you want?
Speaker 2:And you had to keep kind of digging and digging. It's kind of like the you know what's your why, whatever, and then why? Why is that your why? And you keep digging until you peel all the layers of the onion back and you really do figure out you know what you want, and I think there's a lot of people. I think people have trouble finding what they really want. I think they get into this routine and this you know cycle and they settle because they think that's as good as it's going to get and they stop dreaming and they stop thinking about what they really want. And so I do think that, you know, I think it becomes a problem and I do think some people do lose sight of what brings them joy.
Speaker 1:Jean, before we shift into our speed round here, I want to ask you one more question and bring it more current in the standpoint of the work you're currently doing with LifeVantage, and real quickly, just tell folks. You know what is LifeVantage so we understand you know this business that you're in.
Speaker 2:So LifeVantage is a nutraceutical company, publicly traded, and they have products that help people heal their body inside and out. Naturally, I am a big health and wellness person.
Speaker 2:I sadly watched my father die at the age of 12, which is one of the tragedies. I say I lived my life and that was probably where I really came like. That's where I came up with that, saying the world doesn't stop for any of us because we have to get back on. But I watched that and I really became like why, at the age of 46, would I lose someone so young? And you just start to realize that you know we got to take, we get one body, we get one body and it's all we get and we have. We go back to the joy and the dreams and the goals and all the things you want to do in life. You have one body to do it all in and we screw it up. And I really just want to teach people how to get back on track, to get healthier, to heal their body from the inside out and to live a longer and healthier life so they can do the things they want to do and they can feel good enough to do them.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing that with us, jean. No, the irony is that not only do all of us understand and feel that, we've actually all realized through our own journey together that all of us have experienced loss at an early age of a parent. So well then, let's bring this full circle. Health is anything but simple, and yet it in fact. Most if you say health, they think of health care, and that's what gets complex. But when I listen to you and I read some of the things you share with people, you make it pretty simple, and even the way you just communicated health is pretty simple. You got one body do the things to take care of it, and so I would really be curious why, from a health perspective, do you think that we struggle and make life so much more complicated? Because health is directly related to joy and opportunity. Yes, yes, boy, that he speaks Exclamation point.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, point Wow. Well, I think we've become a society of less is more in a variety of ways, and I want to do less to achieve, you know, health. Or I want to, I don't, I don't want to work hard for it, I just want to take a pill for something, or I want to, you know. Just, you know I get really frustrated with that because it's not that easy. I mean, you're never going to take, and probably it will make some people mad, but you're never. The healthcare industry is not stacked in your favor, it is stacked against you and they're never going to create something that's going to get you better, it's just going to put a bandaid on it. But we have the ability to heal our body and you can take a pill for something and never change your habits and guess what? You're never going to get better. Or you can make an effort to take some positive steps in a different direction to heal your body, and whether that's through my products or it's through just starting to walk again or starting to make better choices in the food aisle of the, you know, eat less processed foods, all of those things, you know, those are steps that people can take to just get themselves healthier Because you know. Then they say well, you know, eating that kind of good food is expensive. I'm like well, healthcare is expensive, you know it's not.
Speaker 2:I would rather be preventative and never have to go through that, and not then I would be to have to go through that and I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen people go through it and I don't want to do that as long as I can. I mean, I'll be 64 next month and I'm on zero medications and I like to think I'm you know, according to my blood work, I'm healthy and I want to stay that way for as long as I can and that's the goal that I want everybody to have. Can I tell you that you're ever going to get off medications? No, but I can tell you that if you do all those, you know as many right things as possible, great things can happen and you can live longer and you can play with your grandchildren or you can go on the trips and you can enjoy your life. And you know, that's what it's all about. I don't want to be bogged down in a recliner, not being able to move for the rest of my life in front of the TV.
Speaker 2:That's just not what I want to do. That may be good for some people, it's just not good for me.
Speaker 1:Sounds to me like what you're saying is we got to really see the big picture. That's really the simplification right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just think that usually people I think the last five or six years, because I've been with this company for 10 years and the last probably five years or so I think people are becoming more and more aware of their health. I think they're becoming more and more aware of our food isn't really food. I think they're becoming more aware of making better choices and education is the key, and that's really what I do and I want to help people just make better choices and or at least expose them to options so they can live longer and have more joy and more opportunity and all the above, because it beats the alternative. Hell yeah, hell yeah, all right, preach, preach.
Speaker 1:I mean, we got thunder and lightning going on.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going.
Speaker 1:Speaking of thunder and lightning, it's time to step into the stall, because this, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call the rollout. No.
Speaker 3:Is it the rollout or the rollup? I think it's the rollup. It is the rollup. I think.
Speaker 1:This, ladies and gentlemen, is called. That's right, because we roll out at the end when we're done with the show, right?
Speaker 2:Do you want me to get your notes for you?
Speaker 4:No, let's not overcomplicate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's just do it have.
Speaker 2:I overcomplicated it. You of all people, no, so let's just do it. Have I overcomplicated you?
Speaker 1:of all people? No, okay. So, jean, this is the speed round where we ask you life-changing questions. Are you ready? Here we go. Yes, when it comes to toilet paper, over or under.
Speaker 2:Over why. Why not? Because it's easier to find the job, because it's easier to pull over than it is to find it under you kind of play with the toilet?
Speaker 1:I don't know it just looks better, it looks better. Okay, design All right, mark soft or hard? Whoa Mark on toilet, whoa Mark On toilet paper? Mark, good Lord, mark.
Speaker 2:We don't know each other that well.
Speaker 1:I mean you just took this show. I mean it's all right, we already have it Edit, edit, edit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let's.
Speaker 2:Wait, where's the razor? Can you?
Speaker 1:you splice, I am not editing that part out oh great hey okay, quick, quick sidebar. Uh, can we? Can we make sure we bring the freaking questions with us? I have them here somewhere all right, so, phil, I have one yeah, you go mark is in timeout now.
Speaker 3:Wet or dry.
Speaker 1:Wet wipe or dry toilet paper. So wet dry or wet dry. You said dry.
Speaker 2:My choice is a wet wipe or dry toilet paper. Yeah yeah, dry toilet paper. This is really personal Okay.
Speaker 1:This is good stuff. All right, one ply or two ply.
Speaker 3:That's what it was.
Speaker 2:One ply or two ply I don't what it was, one-ply or two-ply, I don't know. Two, I don't know. Do they do that?
Speaker 1:anymore. Yeah, I went to the dollar store the other day and all they sold was one-ply. I was like who uses one-ply.
Speaker 2:Oh, I definitely would like a little thicker than one-ply.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, but one ply is cost effective In a pinch you need it?
Speaker 2:No, it's not. Yeah, but it's probably industrial strength, right? No, you have to use so much more.
Speaker 1:Do they make more than one or two ply? I mean, I've never heard of a three ply.
Speaker 2:I guess, if I think they start, they make it quilted. They make them quilted, so it's not really two ply, but it's just a thicker. Yeah See, they milk them quilted, so it's not really two-ply, but it's just a thicker. Yeah See, phyllis knows what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Have you guys shopped for toilet paper. We think about. Let me just tell you, your life is going to change because you're going to go into the damn toilet and you're going to start thinking about things. So here's the last question. So here's the last question. Um, what is, or has been, your favorite potty time activity? Some people play on their phone, some people read, some people whatever what's your? No, you're shaking your head. What?
Speaker 2:she just goes, I go to the bathroom. So I, I, I have two boys. Well they're, they're men now, but I, I grew up in a household of men. It is not a library, it is a bathroom. I don't know how their legs don't go to sleep.
Speaker 4:I just if most of them do, they do.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, it is, it is, it is. Yeah, fortunately we have many bathrooms in our house, so when they were younger I had options. But believe me, it is. It is a place to go to the bathroom and go, you're done all right, I don't linger I don't linger.
Speaker 1:That should be. Can hey make a note? Let's do a t-shirt like with? It has a toilet on it mark and it says I don't linger we could have the cranberries as a background song I was just thinking. There's a song linger, linger oh god, I was thinking of something else.
Speaker 2:Anyway, oh, I don't want to go there. No, it's time to flush it is time to flush.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to close with one last thing. Thank you for being so transparent, for bringing yourself Some things that I kind of heard, we heard you know and really being present. Be reasonable when it comes to expectations. Also, find and define what actually brings you joy, but be willing to dig deep, correct? Am I saying that, correct, jean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you well, you have to make an effort to find joy sometimes, I mean, but not always. I think you know you can have a multiple amount of days, of great days in a row, where you're constantly you know things are all going great and you're always finding joy because you know the sun is shining and life is good. I think it's a question of maybe when it's not remind yourself that how many days you had prior or how many good days you've had and this day will pass. This too shall pass, and I think you just have to focus on the good, Even when.
Speaker 2:If you did an exercise where you were just in the bloss and you stopped to say what am I grateful for? What's something I could be grateful for? Anything, I mean, just pick it. And if you start doing that, you will literally feel the energy shift in your body. It is an amazing. And if you can cut, if you can stack one on top of the other, on top of the other, and then maybe just get, think of three things, but your energy will shift and you'll realize at least I hope so that you know this is something, but it's not forever, it's just something now, and that you just move. You can get past it because you've done it before and you can do it again.
Speaker 1:And also find the joy in the small moments. It's sometimes the in-betweens, that is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to be present too. I think we get stuck on our phone, we get stuck multitasking, we get stuck doing all this stuff and if you're just, you know, put the phone down. Believe me, I do a lot of my business on social media. I have to remind myself to drop my phone and just say I'm present in the moment. I've actually, I think you've even said I was like I didn't take any pictures. I couldn't believe it, because I've always taken pictures. I'm like I didn't take any pictures. I was totally present in the moment and I loved it.
Speaker 2:And I think we do have to really take some time and, you know, fill our own souls with what we need so we can find more in others. Because that's I don't know. I could get poetic, you know. As a child I absolutely loved verses and sayings, so I could go on forever on all the ones I've done. But I've done a lot of personal development and become, you know, someone who wants to continue to grow, because, um, you, you, you, if you're not growing, you're dying. So I want to grow and I want to learn, because I think we could always be better versions of ourself every day.
Speaker 1:Wow that, mark. I think you have some competition for the mic drop. More information is available in the show notes regarding Jean and her awesome life, thoughts and career and how to get in touch with her. We'll be right back in the stall. Hey there, we sure do. Hope you're enjoying the show and if you are, please tell your friends like it, share it, put it all over the place, because we're not just doing a podcast here, we're trying to start a movement.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was probably a bad pun intended, by the way, but seriously, the complexity of toilet paper is about creating conversations in places where things just don't need to be that complicated. It's about finding the simplicity in life and if we work together, you know what we think we can actually achieve it. So follow us on Facebook, share the show, give us your comments and come back and join us in the stall. You know we just spent some wonderful time talking with Gene and I feel like we opened up another pathway to really understanding what are we really dealing with with this issue of joy. Is it that people aren't finding joy? Is it? Phyllis? I mean, I know you had some real good thoughts on this yeah, I think.
Speaker 3:I think we all want joy, no matter who you are. Joy we. We're on a search, a quest for joy, and one of the reasons we do this show is because we know we've talked to enough people, we share our own stories, that we overcomplicate things that don't need to be overcomplicated, and so it's why we're doing the show. What is it that stands in our way of finding joy, and what does the path to simplicity look like? And that is a struggle from day to day sometimes, and it just depends on everybody's going to do it in a different way and find their own path and have their own issues, if you will, when it comes to finding and being in the space of joy.
Speaker 1:That's what I loved about what you said, mark, when you recapped what Gene had talked about, which was, you know, really making this list. Going through the action of this is what brings me joy, so you can actually have kind of a target right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I think that's the simplest way to do it right Is make a list what, what, how do you define joy in your world and what brings you joy, and then make a list of what brings you joy and then search out those, those things.
Speaker 1:Yes and identify when you're not feeling joy, what's standing in my way of that? Because sometimes it's as simple as reminding yourself I have to have faith and whatever that faith is in yourself and God and a higher power. Sometimes it's stopping and taking a breath.
Speaker 3:And one could conversely ask themselves what steals my joy, which is sometimes for me more identifiable than what brings me joy.
Speaker 4:And she brought up something that is actually very complex, which is comparison, and we compare our lives to everybody else, whether it's through social media, whether it's in a neighborhood that you live in, whether it's a car that you drive, whatever the case may be, you're you're, you're comparing yourself, and and that complexity can be eliminated, um, through taking a look at a at a at a look at the positive things that are happening in your life not someone else's life, in your life and not letting comparison steal that joy.
Speaker 3:She started. Jean started to talk about, um, energy and joy, and I think about that more, and I think about it both ways. But what stood out to me was I know when something is stealing my energy. I am very aware of that, I can feel it. There are physical symptoms. You all probably know it just from hanging out, from us hanging out together. There are things that steal energy. So I think there is this toggle between energy giving and energy stealing, if you will, as we're talking about joy and so much of this as I'm processing out this conversation that we just had with her is around simple old awareness. We're moving so fast, doing a million things. Just simple awareness.
Speaker 1:Life is hard, life is complex and this show is not here to solve the problems. It's here to just oftentimes set out reminders and we I think the three of us have to be always cognizant of the fact that we are guides, because we're going to see the same version, a different version of the same. Answers show up a lot, and that's okay because we have to remind ourselves as much as we want to remind and share the folks that are joining us.
Speaker 4:I would say that growth happens when the light shines on it, and our goal here is to shine a light, and what you do with that is up to you right and up to each of us, and so my hope with the show is that we have guests like Jean who share these methods of simplicity to put that light on it and let it grow into our own lives.
Speaker 1:Well said, how does he always end up being the king of the stall?
Speaker 3:He holds it in, he is beautiful Until the very end, until he can't hold it in anymore, and then he just drops it.
Speaker 4:Wow, you're too kind.
Speaker 3:You didn't drop Phil anymore. And then he just drops it. Wow, you didn't drop phil, phil, you just.
Speaker 1:It's my first potty humor joke I think you know, while we are audio only, there are moments when I think that you should really see um what, what's?
Speaker 4:that go.
Speaker 1:Come on, let it go, phil, I want to see. I'm taking a picture right now. Drop it in the toilet. You know deep down everybody. What you don't know is this is Phil's secret plot to just have her own joy filled because we're here for her. Okay, okay, yes. And with that we are going to put the seat down, flush, close the door and see you the next time. On the complexity of toilet paper.
Speaker 3:Did you say toilet paper? Everything complicated.
Speaker 2:One big, big mess. I'm overthinking. I'm over, I'm overthinking.
Speaker 1:This is the complexity of toilet paper.
