Heart-Centered Marketing: Unleashing Spirituality in the Workplace

Robin [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Aphantasia Experiments. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm so sorry. It's been so long since I've recorded my last podcast. Oh, I just slipped my finger in the door. Speaking of which, this has nothing to do with the podcast at all, but I had started a new job like a couple months ago and the day before or a couple days before I split my head open on a cupboard door, and I asked all my friends if they'd ever done this before. So what happened was I was giving my dog food and I stood up really quickly, and the cupboard door wasn't even open. It was just the edge of the cupboard.

Robin [00:00:41]:
I hit my head against it, like, blacked out, bleeding everywhere. I had to get glue in my head to cut, like, to to close my scalp shut. It was really a bad injury. But I asked my friends, and they were like, no. I've never done that before. And so I was like, how is this something that's happened to me multiple times throughout my life? Like, I have so many memories of me hitting my head on cupboard cupboard doors. So my question to you if you're listening to this podcast, because so many people email me and say, oh, man. You're just like me, my dogs are gonna bark because I'm getting Amazon right now so be prepared.

Robin [00:01:17]:
Anyways, like the most the most feedback I get for my podcast is, oh my god you're just like me, oh my gosh it's like you're in my brain, blah blah blah. Right? So I'm wondering to all my listeners out there, have you ever hit your head on a cupboard door? Is that an aphantasia thing? Do you forget that cupboard doors exist? No I don't think so. I think it's an ADHD thing. I think that I just forget forget about my surroundings or I'm so in my head about other stuff, like I'm processing so many other things in my head that I'm not processing my surroundings properly. Anyways that, has nothing to do with this podcast. It just kind popped in because I just slammed my finger in the door. This is how things come to me. So I wanted to give a quick update in this podcast about what's going on in my life because I haven't been podcasting.

Robin [00:02:05]:
Mainly the most main reason is because my kids have been home for the summer and it's really hard to get some quiet time. Right now my kids are swimming in the backyard as I watch from the window. So if you hear shrieking or giggling or yelling or anything, it's because that is what I'm doing right now. And this is how I'm getting a podcast in. So it's not ideal, you know, studio circumstances. It's just it is what it is. So, I wanted to to let you know what's been going on, where I'm at, what like, what is happening. So I last I podcasted I was still working with a company called Irene Cremations.

Robin [00:02:46]:
I I'm gonna say their name now. I never said it before on the podcast, but I don't work there anymore. So I don't feel like I need to kinda like hide my identity or whatever. They're not really they're no longer a cremation company, so when I was working for them, they were this new innovative exciting company that's they came on like the digital space, and they were offering direct, like, cremation services. So we would go pick up, not me personally, but we had a a company, like, a transportation company go pick up the deceased loved one and then we would cremate and then, one of the death doulas would deliver the remains to the person. So, they had hired a bunch of compassionate workers, death doulas that that would do this work and go to the families and deliver the remains. And so I did that for 6 months and it was literally the most fulfilling work I've ever done. It didn't feel like work.

Robin [00:03:50]:
It felt so, gosh. It it was just my heart. Every every family I visited, you know, even if it was a short interaction, my heart was just so, lit up. And, Yeah. There's just something in talking to people. So a lot of the times people would open up to me about their their family member that they lost. And and after by the time someone's been cremated, it's been about 5 days, maybe a week, when you get the when you get the remains back. And so people have had a bit of time to process, but they're also, still kind of in that deep grief.

Robin [00:04:29]:
But they I it's something, I don't know if it's me personally, but I feel like something about having a stranger to talk to during the, that time period is like really important. And I don't know. Every time I went and visited, they would tell me these, like, deep stories or, like, confess something to me or tell me something about their loved one. And it felt it felt like I was, like, a therapist almost, but I didn't give any advice or anything. It was just like I was there to to hear it and listen. And like one of my favorite things to do is just to listen to people's stories because I think we can learn so much from other people's stories and experiences. I love, you know, reading stories. I love autobiographies.

Robin [00:05:13]:
I love memoirs. I love I just love stories in general. And this job was all about hearing people's stories, the good, the bad, the ugly, you know, the regrets, all that stuff. It was so great and I really felt like I was making a difference. There were so many times I left and people were giving me like the biggest hug saying I'll never forget your face, I'll never forget you. You know? One woman said every time I see a Robin I'm gonna think about you. And, like like, just those little like, you don't get that in most jobs. Right? You don't get those kind of interactions.

Robin [00:05:43]:
But, unfortunately, something went wrong, I don't know, along the way with with with the company, and I don't know if I I'm not gonna get into the finances because I don't actually know and I'm that's not my job to talk about, but they're basically decided to stop doing the cremations and now they're just an online platform for for different types of death services like death doulas and cremation, whatever. It's like a Google hub for that. And they're also offering, like, grief support, but it's AI. And this is where they lost me because I was like when I was working there, I I understood my values so much. I understood why I was important in on this earth, like, as a human being to make those, like, have those meaningful conversations with people and just, like, be that, sounding board for people. I knew it. I felt it so deep in my body that, like, I was fulfilling something important. But then they they decided to just go completely AI, and now they're a grief support AI tool, and I feel like that completely takes out that that important part, which is the heart.

Robin [00:06:50]:
Right? When you take away the heart, it's like on star trek, Data, you know, he was an android and he just wanted to be a human. The thing that he lacked was the emotion, and you can't get that from AI as much as, like, you can tell them exactly what to say. You need a human being who actually cares about you and has that heart to heart connection. So they removed that and then that's where they kinda lost me. But before that all happened, I wasn't being paid and, like, I hadn't been paid. I was a contract worker, so I know with contract stuff, sometimes it takes forever to get paid. So I was just like, whatever. This is weird.

Robin [00:07:28]:
But I started looking for other jobs. And as I was looking so just to go back a little further, before I got my job at Irene I had written down all this stuff that I wanted in a job. I wanted to be able to podcast still, I wanted to be able to listen to podcasts, I wanted to be able to meet people and hear stories and like I had all these ridiculous things and I got every single thing on my list of things that I wanted from a job. So I got this job, but then of course I didn't put on my list, pays me regularly on time and, you know, has consistent hours and blah blah blah. Like, I so there's stuff that was missing and and as I as I was, like, the work there was dying down, I started, like, evaluating what I wanted at this point in time, like, the the next stage. Right? So I had been off work for a while, so part time was perfect for me. But now I had been working for a while, and I was like, I'm getting into it. I'm enjoying it.

Robin [00:08:23]:
I think I'm ready to work full time again. So I started looking when I was working. Still working in Irene for a job. And I just went on this job board one day and I'm scrolling and I swear this is what happens during tarot for me too. Sometimes a card will kind of, like, glow out at me. It's like an energy thing. It's like it's it doesn't actually glow, but it feels like it's popping out at me. So this one job pop was popping out at me, and I was like, okay.

Robin [00:08:52]:
I'm gonna apply for it. I put all my effort into this job post, and I ended up getting an interview. Interview went great. I did an assignment for them. That went great. Blah blah blah. Bob's your uncle. I got the job.

Robin [00:09:05]:
Bob's actually my dad just in case you were wondering about my family. My uncle is not named Bob. It's my dad. So I got this job, and now I'm working full time as a digital marketing specialist, which is like back what I was doing before. I mean, different. I was a marketing director before, and now I'm just doing digital marketing, although I'm doing all marketing really. But I'm working for a women's shelter, and I cannot tell you how fulfilled I feel in this role. And I wanna I want to talk about that because when I left my job in publishing, I was like I felt so disconnected, and and I didn't know what I wanted to do next.

Robin [00:09:55]:
And I felt like giving up completely on marketing because I was so traumatized by the toxic work environment that I had been part of before that I just wanted nothing to do with it. And I wanted to to take this spiritual path. And so I started to do, you know, I've been learning as much as I can about psychic development and meditation and sound healing and all these things. And I keep thinking I have to do something in spirituality because this is where this is the thing this is what I love and this is what I feel pulled towards, right? But, there's this there's also this part of me that loves the marketing and the design and all. Like, I spent 20 years of my career designing and and being really good at it. And I just I'm I'm throwing that all away because of this toxic experience that I had. It totally tainted my my desire to continue marketing or or doing anything, design oriented. So this job came up as the digital marketing specialist and for the swimmer shelter, and I was like, I don't know.

Robin [00:11:03]:
Can I do marketing? Can I, like, can I whatever? But as soon as I started, I was like, oh my god. I missed this so much. I missed it. And what I've realized while doing this work is that you don't if you're a spiritual person and you are, you know, you're learning all the spiritual ways and and intuition and manifesting and all this stuff, it doesn't mean that you need to work in spirituality. It doesn't mean that you need to start a Reiki business. It doesn't mean that you need need to, you know, drop your job and and, you know, start a Reiki retreat. It it can and that's amazing and it's wonderful and it that is part of my journey as well because I I'm into the Reiki and all this stuff and that's all side stuff. But what I didn't realize until now, because I'm in it, is that you can bring your light in your spirituality to any job.

Robin [00:12:04]:
And if I didn't have the time off between my last job and this job, and with the Irene in between, I don't think I would really realize that. So I'm doing this job now that I feel fulfilled and and I'm making a difference and I'm I'm impacting the community in a positive way, but I'm bringing my light to the job. When I don't know, like, I I have such creative freedom at my job, and I love it so much. But when I don't know what to post about, I put my hand on my heart and I listen. And it comes to me, and I'm I'm being so intuitive at my job and so just, like, I just I'm bringing everything I've learned from a spiritual perspective to my current work environment. And it has been the most positive, uplifting, incredible experience I've ever had. And I wanted to share that because I feel like a lot of times that we're we're stuck in our jobs and and we wanna get out so we can pursue this magical new thing. And and sometimes you don't realize that you can actually bring the magic into your job.

Robin [00:13:07]:
I think this is a unique situation because I'm starting in a new job. Like, I started in a new job and right away they're showing me respect and kindness and all this stuff. The stuff that I wasn't getting at my last job. But it's also I'm stepping into a new job, so I'm making it what I wanna make it. It's a little more difficult when you're already in a job, but I do think that it's important to try. If you're in a job, you know, try to look at the positives. If it's toxic, get out, take some time off, learn how to listen to your heart so you can go back into the field if you want to and be your best version of yourself. The version of yourself that lights up and the version of yourself that lights other people up in the process.

Robin [00:13:48]:
So, I just I really wanted to share that because, I've had a really I've I've to be completely honest, I've struggled a lot in the last 2 years. You know, I only share what I share on the podcast. I've developed so much with my psychic abilities. I've developed, my intuition and, I've been I've learned how to channel. Like I've I've learned all these things but from a career perspective, from like, financial perspective, if you're gonna jump ship and and, you know, jump away from your director of marketing position and have no real plan other than to meditate and to podcast, it's a struggle. It it's a struggle. So it was a struggle this last year and, and now I'm working full time, but I'm still, like, obsessed with this podcast and excited to to try new things. But I'm really excited about my career too and learning from different people, and meeting new people and seeing, you know, how I can bring my own spirituality into my day to day, you know, processes.

Robin [00:15:12]:
One of my first meetings at my new job there, they said, oh, we're gonna go around and share something about ourselves. And, I was nervous. I was like, what am I gonna talk about? And then so I decided to share the story about how I found out I had aphantasia. And so many people had questions, and we talked about meditation, and we talked about all this stuff. And I was like, you know what? I just have to show up as me, and and people people typically people typically like that. So, that's also just, like, a random hot tip if you're, like, stepping into a new role in your life. Show up as your authentic self immediately. This is, like, something that doesn't always come naturally to me.

Robin [00:15:58]:
I I'm it's hard not to be authentic these days just because I'm so deep into this new version of myself. But I could've told a different story that day that maybe I would've assume more people would like, be into. Do you know what I mean? Like I was I don't know. I don't know what I'm trying to say here, but basically if you're showing up, if you're starting a new chapter in your life, start it fresh and start it exactly how you want to because if you show up as the person if you show up as the authentic version of yourself, the one that you want everyone to love and the one that you want everyone to know about, then more people who resonate with that authentic authenticity will show up for you. So, like, the more you put out there that's you and great and light and vibrant, the more light and vibrant people are gonna attract themselves to you. So the more I it's it seems silly, but the more you act like yourself, the more you attract people that are like you and appreciate you. That's basically what I'm saying. I mean, and it sounds obvious, but I don't know.

Robin [00:17:18]:
Sometimes we don't we we we don't see the obvious. You know? We really don't. I wanted to share something fun I did last night. So I was working on this campaign with this I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get into full work details here, but I was bringing on a a campaign and I was a bit stuck with an an idea. And so I I decided to last night, to pull some tarot cards, and immediately, it spelled out the entire campaign for me. I had this, like, suffering in silence, heartache and loss, and then light and hope. And, anyways, I I pieced it all together. I told this story, and I wrote out this whole campaign in, like, 5 minutes.

Robin [00:18:12]:
It was so easy, and it reminded me of when I was in high school. My girlfriend and I, we used to send each other like, this is back when we just emailed. We didn't have text. Hotmail back in the day. We would email each other, like, 3 words and we would have to do a creative writing assignment. This is, like, just for fun. My friend and I used to do this. So she would just say, like, pineapple monkey, horseradish, and I would have to write a story that contained those three words, and we would go back and forth.

Robin [00:18:38]:
It was just a fun thing that we used to do. So it's similar. Like, you pull 3 cards, and then you're like, okay. How can I make a story out of this? How can I make a campaign out of this? And you do it. So if you work in marketing and you're like, I'm stuck for a campaign idea, pull out some tarot cards, get some oracle cards. I swear they can help in so many different ways. It's really cool. What else did I have to say? I've also been using meditation, to to get over humps with work, you know, when I'm stuck on on something.

Robin [00:19:12]:
If the tarot was new, I just did that last night, but I've I've often I do the thing where the most the most impactful thing I can do for myself to kinda get answers and guidance is to breathe and to put my hand on my heart. And if I do this for more than a few seconds, I connect. It's like I'm connecting to to source or my higher power. I get into this vibration and it's like a direct stream of information comes through me. So, you know, if I'm uncertain of uncertain of something, I will tap into this, and I'll get guidance. And but it took me a while to get to this stage, so I was using tuning forks. If you listen to you can go back a couple episodes. You'll hear me, like, trying to channel with my tuning forks.

Robin [00:20:04]:
So the the same thing with the tuning forks, I can do now with just my heart. It's tuning into my heart energy, and I can I it's very quick now? But if you're, like, trying to learn how to channel or trying to learn how to connect or whatever, maybe it's a process for you too. Maybe you start with meditation. That's how I started. And then you bring in some tuning forks, so you get into that zone. I still use my tuning forks when I feel really frazzled, especially when my kids are being extremely loud. I'll go into my room and tune myself, put it on my chest and kinda feel into that energy. But this I I I kinda it's kinda been a process of, oh, I did the singing bowls for a while too.

Robin [00:20:41]:
That got me into this zone. It's like this there's a certain vibration that you get into. It's like the heart the heart vibration. Okay? Sounds crazy, but it's a real thing. And if you get into it, you have a direct connection to, like, infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom and infinite, like, guidance. It's mostly used for guidance for me when I'm unsure of something. This is what I go to is my heart. And I use it so much at work.

Robin [00:21:14]:
I use it with my family. I I use it all the time. So that's a little random story for you. I think I got that idea. Oh my gosh. Oh, I've gotten it from so many people, but, I've alright. I forget her name. I'm not gonna talk about it.

Robin [00:21:38]:
There there's some intuitive heart healing thing. I've talked about it before where I've compared intuitive heart healing to brachy. It's very similar. It's all about your intention. But the point is, I shouldn't have been on any of this stuff because I don't have the author's name to go back to. So I'm not gonna talk about it. But we all have the ability to connect to our heart. And by connecting to our heart, we have the ability to connect to everything.

Robin [00:22:07]:
So I encourage you to, whenever you have a minute, just take some deep breaths, breathe, just continue to breathe, and put your hand on your heart. Feel your heart, listen to your heart, and just, like, sit there. Don't think about anything else except for your heart. And once you get into that zone, ask ask the questions that you wanna ask. See how you feel. And, yeah. I do it in tarot too. Like, in tarot, whenever I get stuck, I usually, like, shuffle my cards more.

Robin [00:22:36]:
It's like a a feeling thing. I have to keep moving my hands. But now when I when I get stuck, I put my hand on my heart. Instead of feeling frazzled that I don't know what I'm supposed to say, I take a few moments at my heart center and just breathe into it, and then it'll come. It's like you have to, like, let go of the the frazzledness because when you're when you're reading tarot or you're doing any sort of, like, oracle cards or whatever, if you don't have the answer right away, it does it does get freaky. Like, it it it gets scary, but if you can, like, just calm yourself and and realize that the person on the other side is not thinking it's taking you forever. They're just like, oh, she's thinking. Just ground yourself, feel your heart center, and, yeah.

Robin [00:23:21]:
I'm gonna stop talking because my kids my daughter's gonna be home from gymnastics soon, and and I gotta get my kids out of the pool. But, I wanted to give that little update. This really doesn't have anything to do with Aphantasia, just about kinda just what's been going on in my life. If you wanna give me an update, feel free to email me. My my email is rofocreative@gmail.com. That's rof0 creative@gmail.com. I love hearing from people. If you have ideas for new meditation, exercises, please let me know.

Robin [00:23:59]:
I'm always trying to do new things. If you if you haven't checked it out already, I have a YouTube channel where I I make random meditation stuff specifically geared towards people with aphantasia. So I have, like, a mirror meditation where you stare at yourself in the mirror. That's really cool. I like doing that one. I have a walking meditation. I have, spirit box meditation, which is basically, like, white noise with with another frequency, which is supposed to help you connect to spirits. All there's all different types of stuff on there.

Robin [00:24:30]:
So if you search Aphantasia experiments on YouTube, my channel will come up. Subscribe. Check out some of my meditation videos. And if, again, if you have ideas for for other ones, let me know. And, as time goes on, I do plan on improving the sound quality of these things but, you know, every day we have to make choices of what's most important thing we do in our day and the sound quality has just never been the most important. So I'm sorry about that. Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful day, and I hope you continue to listen to this podcast. I hope I can do this more frequently once my kids are back in school.

Robin [00:25:14]:
But yeah. Thanks for sticking with me. Talk to you later.