5.4 | Nature-Based Alternative Economies with Lobsterbird Yi

Welcome to Waking Up Wealthy, the podcast for visionaries and rebels

>> Isha Vela: Welcome to Waking Up Wealthy, the podcast for visionaries and rebels who are ready to revolutionize their relationship with money and create powerful collective ripples with the money they make. I’m your host, Isha Vela, trauma psychologist, somatic practitioner, financial professional and minimalist, bringing you practical money tools, unconventional wealth perspectives and Aquarian era business strategy to guide you in building wealth that’s aligned, ethical and empowering. Let’s wake up to the true meaning of wealth together.

>> Isha Vela: Are you ready to take a magical carpet ride into alternative economies? For this episode, I sat down with Lobster Bird Yi, who is a visionary guide, a traveler of liminal spaces, a truly multi prismatic and such a special human being in all the ways. And as a healer, author and wealth activist, they support people to do work that freese their souls while also guiding them towards economic empowerment through holistic finance and just by being themselves in the world, honestly. In this conversation, Lobster Bird shares their path to wealth, to tapping into the magic of money, and specifically how to create systems change from the inside out by mapping natural systems and working inside collectives. If you think you’ve heard this conversation before, I know that you haven’t heard it like this.

M. M. welcomes Lobster Bird to talk about timing issues

All right, let’s get started.

>> Isha Vela: Yeah, we just started this session with this really beautiful, like very spontaneous meditation of just like, like allowing our bodies to be the bridge between the universe or the heavens and then also earth and welcoming the ancestors into this conversation. And so I am just so honored that you’re coming on here, Lobster Bird, to have this conversation because I really feel like, you know, there’s been like timing issues, right? We’ve been like scheduling and rescheduling and it’s like no, no, no, now is the time. Now is the time. M. Now?

>> Speaker D: yeah, yeah, when we were just doing that, it just dropped in that we are just on the heels of the lunar New Year. So Happy New Year. It’s the official real new year. The grid calendar bullcrap thing and also the Aquarius New Moon. so starting this new cycle in Aquarius and we have Pluto in Aquarius now in this huge time of transition. And so this is actually the time like it’s surprise that we landed right here right now because the new is being birthed.

>> Isha Vela: Yes. So perfect. You can’t make the shit up.

>> Speaker D: We try, we try to write fiction better.

Lobster Bir describes his path through wealth work and embodiment work

>> Isha Vela: I would love for you, Lobster Bir, to start with. What’s been your path through wealth work and embodiment work, specifically like wealth embodiment.

>> Speaker D: Oh, such a good question. Because it has been a long and windy and multi dimensional path, through a wealth embodiment, through wealth embodiment, moving through me and through me, moving through a world in which we are not taught and many of us are not encouraged to embody our real worth and our true potential. And so, you know, for me it’s been a very mixed experience. So, you know, my name is Lobster Bird. This will be like the framing for the whole conversation. Y is really what it’s about is holding that tension of opposites, right? These seeming polarities and that when we bring them together, just perhaps they create this transcendent third thing that is something else entirely. Right. And so through the course of my lived experience, you know, I have experienced, so many sides of all these wealth coins, these gold coins, right? you know, my mother is an immigrant, from Korea who up, grew up in post war Korea, super, super poor, like, had to carry her brother on her back, had no shoes to get to the wall five miles away just so they could have water kind of thing. Like real like truth is scenario, you know, and so coming from that and from, you know, her side really like being impoverished and going through some like, tremendously, you know, difficult things and then immigrating to this country during also a hard but beautiful time, you know, so that’s like one part of my lineage, and then the other part, you know, is ah, my father, who is an American, I call him a white dude, ah, you know, European, immigrated here, and so, you know, having a certain amount of privilege, you know, like in my life that that’s afforded me. But then also, you know, his family lines too, grew up, you know, with not a lot of means we say, you know, working in chicken factories and doing things and you know, so then through the course of my family’s history, you know, my father became an entrepreneur, he’s a plumber. So he’s still, you know, like a worker in the field, but started his own business. And so because of his privilege, you know, he was able to kind of changed the course of our, our family’s life in a way. And then my sister and I were the first people in our entire family line, cousins and everything, to go to college and to go to university. Right. And so yeah, we like broug. We’re like, we’re the cycle breakers little, our little crew here. And you know, through that journey, getting what they so called higher education, we can talk about whether or not that’s true. But that actually led to me Getting a real higher education. All right. Which was discovering my spiritual path and my healing path, and then becoming an entrepreneur myself, and then, helping teach and guide other spiritual creatives to do that work as well. And so, you know, I came into this field. I’ve always been, like, a little ahead of my time. You know, I think a lot of your listeners probably, too. And so I came into the coaching and healing what is now in industry. Right. in 2015. So that was, like, 10 years ago. And the field was really different then. You.

>> Isha Vela: Yes.

>> Speaker D: And I had, pretty immediate and large amounts of success, in the very beginning because there just weren’t as many people doing it. Not that I wasn’t amazing at it. I had an advantage. Right. It was new, and people were like, wow. You know, I was also doing things that were really radical, like bringing people on virtual pilgrimages. What is that even, Or real pilgrimages. Right. And combining that with a course and experience so they can do work that frees their soul. Right. I was doing things that were really radical. And so there was a real draw to that. But, yeah, so in those early years, you know, I went from prior to that being an artist in New York City, you know, so also, that’s a whole world of scarcity that I know you’ve talked a lot about. Right. That’s a whole archetype you have.

>> Isha Vela: Right.

>> Speaker D: And I was, you know, working in restaurants, bartending, you know, working eight jobs, you know, going. Working in the theater at night and then getting up and going to school during the day and then working in the bar, you know, so I’ve, like, oscillated between these two different things, because when I became an entrepreneur, I had all this, you know, like, financial, quote, unquote, success. Right? I had this huge incoming, of money and of wealth and of energy that was coming towards me that I hadn’t ever experienced before. And so with. That was like, just. It was a huge activation for me.

In 2019, I was working with elephants in a small Thai village

And then in 2019, I was leading these pilgrimages around the world, and I ended up in Thailand, and I was working with these elephants in a small village. And I was sleeping in this little hut. It was like a little hut. It was almost like a tiny house, except it was just her little room. And, it was hovering above where the elephants lived in their little, pens right outside, or large pens outside. and I could hear them all night, you know, the elephants, ah, making their noises. And they were washing over me. And these were elephants that, traditionally had been used in the tourism Industry know that’s huge in Thailand and so undergone this huge amount of abuse, you know, come from like, you know, a lot of like, environments of poverty, you know, then to go and make actual money, you know, for people who are abusing them, you know, it’s like this whole crrupt system. And this little village though, was so amazing because they basically decided like, that they didn’tn toa do that anymore, that it wasn’t right to the elephants and that they should have a better way of life. Like these particular, they’re called mahouts, which are essentially, you know, the care givers of the elephants. But ironically, a lot of them aren’t actually giving care, right. They’re using them for their own material gain. But this particular group really did care about the elephants and wanted to do things a different way. And so they brought them back home to their home village and they have people come and visit them and stay. And so people pay, but they get to live like these amazing lives and people pay to come, like walk around with them and feed them sugarcane and bathe them in these. Elephants have the best life now.

>> Isha Vela: Y.

>> Speaker D: No, but it was a conscious choice to stop doing it that old, abusive, toxic way. And so while I was there with these elephants and they were literally giving me these transmissions, you know, overnight with their trunks and their sounds and then just being, I was just being with them every day. I was walking with them, I was learning their ways of their culture. And I realized, oh my goodness, you know, that even in these, realms like healing or you know, entrepreneurship, these things are amazing that are meant to change the world, right, and help people. And we’re like, help us be better and do things better together. we’re under that same system. Just like the tourism industry. Like when something become an industry and it becomes about making money, like for certain people in certain ways, it becomes toxic and that I was suddenly very aware that I was operating within a very toxic industry environment situation. And yeah, the elephant activation in me was like, I need to stop. And so basically what I did was I kind of like burned down my business. And then lo and behold, that was in 2019. In the end of 2019, and I got the sold download. I’d been traveling for about seven years straight. And the sole download was go home and be with your family in New Jersey. And I was in India and I was with my Buddhist teacher. And I was like, that doesn’t seem like the right. That must be a cross line. I must not be hearing that correctly. The Dalai Lama is coming in two weeks. Can I go hang out with him? It was like, no go Jersey and with your parents. So we know what happens when you don’t listen to your soul calling. So I went and then a couple months later, Covid happened. and yeah, so our whole world.

>> Isha Vela: Oh my goodness.

>> Speaker D: And so, yeah, in terms of my journey then of course everything fell apart. Right. Lot of my willalth, a lot of my, you know, like my income was coming from travel and from my business. But I purposely already had been needing to find other ways to access that. Knowing that was, ah, I was still a part of the problem if I wasn’t doing the deep colonial work that I needed to do on my healing path, but also finding new ways and structures and systems within my business for it to be sustainable and regenerative. Yes, yes. O yeah. And like to now, since then. So now what is it? 2025? Yeah. Wow. It’s 2025.

>> Isha Vela: What dimension are we in?

>> Speaker D: Yeah. I understand what wealth is in a whole new way. And it’s my devotion now, for us all to understand that for ourselves to really come from a sole sovereign place and what that understanding is and to really have the tools and the skills, to embody that. Because actually it takes a lot of work, you know, as a trauma informed therapist, you know, it takes a lot of somatic work to be able to get to that point where we’re not still, wrapped into those habits and patterns, you know, and it takes a really, really a lot of conscious, work and expansion for our systems to really be able to bring in that energy, to hold that energy and to move out into the world in new ways.

>> Isha Vela: Do you want to stay connected? Go to my website, wwwishavela.com and download Prosper, my three part money course that dissolves money shame and dives into the five most common unconscious beliefs that get in the way of making more of it. You can also sign up for a free financial strategy session where someone on.

>> Isha Vela: My team will guide you through the.

>> Isha Vela: Six steps of financial independence and provide you with a tailored holistic plan to build wealth ethically.

>> Isha Vela: All of those links and more are.

>> Isha Vela: In the show notes.

You grew up on the border of the New Jersey Pine Barrens

>> Isha Vela: Wow, that’s a hell of a story.

>> Speaker D: That’s the short story TR to make it short.

>> Isha Vela: Yeah, but just like, just feel, feeling through your story this, right, this m massive expansion in your healing work and travel all around the world in pilgrimages and then feeling that moment of like, oh, this is, something needs to shift and what was existing or the business that was existing needed to just of collapse for a moment and get rebuilt. And then I’m guessing through the years of COVID that there was reconfiguration process and the shifting and your own decolonial work around, like, okay, what is wealth and how do I experience that and how do I want to teach that? So amazing. Yes.

>> Speaker D: Yeah, I think. Can I add one part of that? Because, it was super interesting to be, like, my soul was right. I did need to come back to New Jersey family, because this is where I grew up. I grew up on the border of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. I’m looking at it right now, actually. So it’s another full circle, because I happen have gotten another still download right now this month to be here. And so I’m looking at. So we have these beautiful woods behind our house, which is where I grew up. I grew up, like, running around barefoot and free, you know, and envisioning a better world and communing with the spirits out there. And so then, you know, when I was here with my family during a global pandemic for. I was here for nine months. You know, Ram D says, like, if you think you’re spiritually enlightene, go stay with your family for a week. But I was here for nine months during shutdown. I was like, this is the biggest spiritual initiation of my life. And also I need to go outside much. And so I went outside a lot. And so during that time, Earth really became my teacher in a whole new way. And I started to really be able to communicate and work with the land again. And so I was doing that, you know, in a healing capacity and in a spiritual and energetic way. But then as a result, I started to get really activated and was like, oh, no, actually, we need to, like, be working more in harmony and collaboration with the Earth. So I became permaculture certified. I started doing herbalism. My mom actually is a folk herbalist, but it’s never really been talked about or acknowledged. And so I started to learn from her, you know, and then eventually got my herbalism certification, you know, and I started growing mushrooms. And then I made a permaculture garden in their backyard. That’s changed my family’s life, actually. because they had a garden when we grew up. I didn’t even really realize this. They had a garden in the back, and we have a massive deer issue, especially because around here, it’s pretty much turned into the suburbs, you know, like this little patch of land they have Here is so precious because, you know, they’re like, stewarding it, you know? but back then, you know, the deer were coming and coming, and they built, like, they tried everything, and they built this huge electric fence that was like. I don’t even know. It was like 10, 12ft tall. It was super high. And they were like, for sure she won’t be able to get in here. So they grew all these vegetables, and they had all these beautiful snow peas. And my mother said to my father, we need to harvest the snow peas. And he said, oh, one. I’ll do it tomorrow. You know, one more night. And overnight, the deer somehow got over the electric fence without getting shot and ate every single one of them. And my mom said, never again. Like, they destroy the garden. They were like, we just can’t. We can’t do it. So I came back here and I just started to do it. I started to restore the soil, and I started to make this sacred garden insp. And I started doing my thing. And then one by one, they started to get involved. And now it’s like, fueling them in their life, you know, that it’s this thing that they are taking care of and they’re tending to, and they’re changing the environment around them. But, you know, so for me, like, it’s equally important to acknowledge, you know, that relationship with the earth and what I was learning during that time, you know, we did need to be still. We did need to be, like, listening more. And that education that I got over those few years, informed. Also my business and my. And my understanding of what wealth is.

>> Isha Vela: Yes. Wow. And you really have, like, you have such an actack to infuse everything you do with such magic that I. I don’t doubt for a second that you started, like, working in that garden. And all of a sudden, like, the plants are like, they’re here.

>> Speaker D: Lobster bird is here. Well, I have to tell you that my father has said me many times. He goes, I never saw a mushroom in this yard ever until you came here. And then you start. Because I was foraging and I was growing them, and he said, and now they’re everywhere the time. And then when I come home, he goes, there haven’t been any for months. And they’re back. So I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve heard that more than once.

>> Isha Vela: Amazing. Amazing.

>> Speaker D: That’s the capacity, I think, we all have to be, like, in that much connection that we greet each other, we grow together, and we. Right. Rise. I mean, the plants literally like so I have this like jade plant you can’t see, but it’s actually like poking me in the head. It’s my mom’s and you know, like this plant, as I exhale, as I’m speaking, the J plants’like getting closer because it’s bringing in the life force from my carbon dioxide that it needs, right? And then it’me the new life and energy. And like we all have that and we very much can communicate with the natural world in a way where like rise, it rises to greet us if we’re willing. Right?

>> Isha Vela: Yes, exactly, exactly.

Zoomol: I’ve learned about wealth and abundance from gardening

Now that you’re talking about garden, something that I’ve learned so much about wealth and abundance and receiving from gardening. I have this like I work or I steed land with a group of people in New Haven. And that’s been such a rewarding experience because it’s like there’s always more. There’s always more. Even in the winter in the greenhouse, there’s kale, the fig tree is asleep. But you know, it’s like it’s incubating energy. And it’s like when things were expensive in the supermarket, I was like, you know what? No, I’m just going to go to the garden and see what’s available. And there was always something to harvest, always something to eat. There was never, like I didn’t buy greens in the supermarket for forever, for I don’t know, six months or seven, because there was something I was always being provided for. And it was like, oh, this is the energy. This is the energy of always being provided for, no matter what. And it hit. I got it.

>> Speaker D: ye. Right. Because this is why embodiment is so important, right? Because literally you’re putting it in your body and when, when you’re eating the things you’re getting from the garden, there’s a transmission, you know, there’s an energy, there’s a wisdom transmission, right. That comes in and we get it in a visceral, embodied, lived way. Not just a, oh, I could be growing a garden, right? Thinking about it.

>> Isha Vela: Yeah, exactly.

>> Speaker D: The garden. Yeah. And so, you know, for us all, ah, personally, to be able to connect in that way is one of the hugest wealth transmissions, you know. And then also kind of inv. I’m often thinking about the infinity spiral of everything. On the other side of that is that it’s also up to us to understand exactly what you’re saying, that nature is wildly abundant, right? It’s always in symbiosis. There are always things Feeding one another. So, like, everything is well resourced in nature, right? Because it’s all part of this sharing and it’s rebalancing that’s happening. And so when we look to nature, you know, to replicate, or I would even say, like, embody that in our systems, right, Then we have systems where everyone can thrive. Then we have systems where there’s resource sharing and we have, you know, of course, like, there’s always going to be some level of kind of competition, right? There is a nature as well. It’s not just this, like, idyllic utopia thing, right? There’s life. It’s a matter of life, right, that there’s death and there is change and there is, you know, competition. But in the same way, you know, the systems that we live under have been so disconnected, right, and so unconcerned with the natural world that we’ve been suffering, you know, needlessly, at the hands of that. And so when we start to really hone in on that, when we start to understand that, like you’re saying, in a very embodied way, then we can go out and we can create systems in our own life. We can create systems for our business, we can create systems for our community, right, that more mirror and embody the way that nature does it. And like, moving. I think we are doing. We’re doing it already. I actually, I know we’re doing it, but as we move into this new world, you know, it’s like when you’re in the garden or when you take a walk out in the forest, you know, or when you go to Costa Rica and you’re in the rainforest, or you’re out of the ocean and you can breathe in the ocean air, you know, it feels good. One feels alive. And we have this understanding that everything is interdependent and we’re all okay, what’s happening, because we’re in this interdependent web of care and reciprocity. And so, as our systems start to mirror that, we start to live that. And I. And for me, like, one of the things in myolonial work was, you know, like, if, you know, if someone is saying they’re wealthy, but we look around the world all around us and we see how all of these other people are not. Then we’re not truly wealthy. Yes, because we are mirror of our external world and vice versa. and so, you know, it for us to be making money, our lives, for us to be cultivating wealth, right. Isn’t enough. We have to also have that Zoomed out view, you know, that we are doing this as part of a greater ecosystem. And as such we need to really tend to the system. Right?

>> Isha Vela: And so like. Right. And this is sort of where this piece around individualism versus collectivism comes in. Where you see, you know, usually like individualism, we just see ourselves, right? We’re sort of like self focused and self involved. But in collectivism you really see yourself as being like, oh, I’m inc. Interconnected. Like there’s an ecosystem of not only family, but community and neighborhoods and where there is this exchange. Like you talk about the symbiosis between the carbon dioxide and with the trees and nature and everything. Yeah. Just feeling like that breathing of in and out between you and the community, body and land, all of those pieces. Yeah, we are all interconnected. But you can know that on an intellectual level, but you have to really know that in an embodied way to then live. Live that experience or practice it in order to experience it.

>> Speaker D: Exactly. And you know, what you’re pointing to, which I love, is another glorious polarity. Let’s talk about it. Individualism, collectivism, right? Both of them are sides of the same gold coin, right? And so you can go too far into collectivism, right? And then it turns toxic still. It turns into things like codependency, right. And it turns into martyrship and it turns into all these things. And so there is this secret third thing, right? Which is when we fully understand what it means to be an individual, right. To be fully soul sovereign and like me, in my own selfness and authenticity and all that is. Right. And also can I hold space for that and the collective, right. And what it means to be able to be building something that it is, you know, geared towards the collective thriving, but one isn’t, sacrificed for the other, right. When we can come to that liminal space, that’s when we can start to just evolve right. Into this next phase of whatever that is we don’t know yet.

>> Isha Vela: Yes, yes, that’s perfect. Perfectly put.

So the first alternative community that I entered into was very accidental

And so I would love us to shift into or for you to share. You know, you talked about systems and collective systems and I would love for you to share your experiences in systems of wealth that feel more regenerative or that are an alternative to what we see, for example, in capitalism. I would love for you to share your experience with those m. Yeah.

>> Speaker D: So I know one other thing you and I, both love is the idea of sacred economies and gift economies and like alternative economies, right? So we hear these words a lot. And so let’s unpack them. Like, what does that mean? And so, you know, after my whole, Phoenix threw the fire thing of 2019 till whenever that ended, several years later, you know, I started to move out in the world again because like I said, I was doing all of this really internal work, internal healing work, and then mostly working with the earth. And then I, like, really didn’t talk to a lot of people. It was basically in hermit mode for, I don’t know, four years, five years. And when I started to move out into the world again, you know, it was a different place because a lot of people had had tremendous experiences during that time.

>> Isha Vela: Yes.

>> Speaker D: And, so one of the things that happened for me, like, I’m like, yeah, this was really the beginning. So the first alternative community that I entered into was very accidental. I tell this story in other places, so I won’t go into the whole thing, but long story short is that I received an email, from a company in North Carolina called SES of the Carolinas, which was a wilderness therapy company. And at the time I had been really defining. So I was actually, I was doing caregiving work for my friend Lindsay, who has als, and I was living with her. And I was really, bringing through and honing in on community, what that meant to me, what that looked like, you know, what I wanted. And I knew several things very specifically. Like, one, I needed to be really immersed in nature, like, real, real nature. And, the other one was like, I needed to be in a community of, like, spirited people who were actively co creating this new thing together, that I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I would know when I found these people. And we did this, winter solstice ceremony and m. I led everyone in creating these sigils. And so my sigil was all about that. And so then I wrote down this list. Then I was like, okay, if the universe is going to send me to this community, I need to know where it is. Right? And I wrote down a few places. One of them was Pisca National Forest. I was like, that’s weird. No one lives in a national forest. But okay. And then two days later, I got this email from sue that said, we’re located in the heart of Pisca National Forest, and we found you on this random, queer environmental job board that I’d never heard anything from before or after ever. Just this one email. And they said, and we want you to come down to North Carolina and work with, you know, a, challenged youth. Most of Them were what I call neuro emergnt neuro spicy neurodivergent kiddos. and, yeah, and I just went. Basically I went. And so this was my first time being, okay, I’m in this community now. And what is this like? And we lived out in the woods for half the year, with these kids, you know, who are, really, you know, they were kids who either were like, basically about to go to juvie or to go to a mental institution. Like, that’s when they send someone to wilderness therapy, right? It’s like the last. This is our last chance. So we’re all out there and we’re all trying to figure out how to live to together. Like, literally we were doing survival skills and emotional coping, you know, work and. And being out in the woods. And so that was really my first time. And I learned so much from Seuss because, you know, like, I realized like, oh, wow. Okay, so first and foremost, like, we’re all here. Like, we’re literally, like, we have no cell phones, right? We’re here for weeks at a time alone in the woods. Like, what do we do? And okay, well, we’re doing. We’re learning how to really live with the earth. Like in the most really, like, present and pressing and like, important way possible. and then also’just we’re doing the inner work, right? So we’re working on ourselves inside and we’re working with the earth. And through that commitment to that, right? I was witnessing these amazing transformations happening for the kids there, for the field instructors, myself included, you know, and then I was like, o, right, okay. So the basis of these communities, right, that we’re co creating, because let me like, historically place this too, right? Is that we’re doing the secret third thing. So a lot of what a lot of us want to do right now is actually in the 60s and 70s, people were trying to do that then, right? People want to start ecovlage and intentional communities and live together anyway. And then we saw what happened. That all kind of fell apart for a while. But now we’re doing it through a whole new lens, through a whole new embodiment. We’ve learned from the wisdom of our ancestors, previous generations, mentors, ###wards, et cetera. All right? So we’we’re attempting to do it again. And so my first learning was like, okay, when we do the work, we need communities that are doing the work together, right? And like we talked about, the work is internal and the work is with the earth, right? So that was my first experience. and it was really amazing. And then that led to my next one, which in part. So I got another soul download that my time at Seuss was over. This was like a year. It was like, you’re done. and I had called them, and I said, you know, I have to give my leave. And then, I think a week after that, I got a phone call, and I was like, oh, no. Are they gonna try to get me to come back? Like, what. Why are they calling me? And they called to tell me that CE had closed permanently. I think it’d be around since 1981. Like, this was not a flash in the pan. It was like, one. It’s one of the oldest and most renowned wilderness therapy companies in the country had just suddenly closed. There’s this whole. It’s happening to a lot of them for reasons. But I was like, okay, so can’t go back to that. Like, I thought about it. I thought, maybe I should just keep doing this. I was like, okay, that’s not it. So now what next? Right?

Healy is an interface between quantum field and the physical world

And I was praying a lot, doing my inner work. and then at the time, I was also dealing with a lot of chronic illness, which had been happening over the years, but it had started to come up more and more. Like, as I started to do this deeper healing work that actually, it was like this purification that was happening, you know, and there was a lot of, like, chronic fatigue, and there was migraines. Right? There was, like, all this stuff coming up in my physical body that was also being cleared. And so, you know, I’m praying about that. And I’m praying. And I’m also like, and I need to make money, like, the job. What do we do? and this. Then this other thing fell in my lap, which, was this frequency device, which I know we both have a relationship with. It’s called Healy. and it’s basically an interface between the quantum field and the physical world. And it, can help support in any area of your life from, like, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, energetic, financial career. This little thing does everything. And I had heard about it several years ago, and when I heard about it, I was like, nope. Also, because coming from. Remember I told you, like, I came from what had become a toxic, you know, health, personal growth, like, environment.

>> Isha Vela: Yes.

>> Speaker D: I was like, oh, wait. Like, I’d always been anti MLMs and network marketing. And I was like. And I. And I saw it then, and I was like, nope. Just. It’s a big no. Huge no. And I’m like, not. I’m not even go goingna use the thing. Like, that was several years ago, but now as I’m praying and I’m opening, you know, like, up to, like, what’s next? You know, this comes through, through Jenn Ror, who is now mentor, friend. Like, you know, we work together in several ways. But, you know, she mentioned the Healy, and when she said it and she talked about it, I got this, like, strike of lightning through my body. And I was like, oh, no, this is the next thing. And then I said to myself, okay, fine, I know I need this for my own personal healing, except that I’m not. I’m not ever going toa sell the thing. Like, I’m not, you know, I’m not getting involved in the business. And I started to use it, and before it even came, experiencing all of these things, like, changing in my system. And I was like, I just. I have to talk about this. Like, I can’t not talk about, right? And then it turned into a thing. But the reason I mentioned that is because this was like my first activation into a new kind of community. Now, that was doing business, right? and community together. Because coming through Inana and watching the way that she’s crafted our community and has built it, I realized, like, oh, this is amazing, actually. So we have all of these healers, we have medical practitioners, we have, like, teachers of all kinds. We have people from every walk of life within our Healy community. And we’re all engaged in this, gift economy, right? Where we’re all sharing our gifts. We’re like, teaching each other different things, right? Like, we have meetings all the time, and we’re just, like, sharing info and wisdom and gift. And, like, you know, if someone has an issue and they come into the group, there’s like five people. They’re like, hey, I can help you. You know, like, and we’re all helping each other, right? And so it’s like, you know, we got this device originally, but what we really got was a gift economy, which then for me was so. So the thing itself was healing, right? And then the personal work I was doing was healing and then healing in community. And, I was like, okay, so now we’re at next level, right? So that was my next understanding of wealth and community.

>> Isha Vela: Ye.

>> Speaker D: So then after that, I was like. And. And then also, let me say, so there is the business model, right? Which technically is network marketing for it, you know. But what I saw, I was like, oh. So the reason why I feel okay with this is One, like, I mean, I’m literally just talking about the device and what it did for me and people are like, I want that. So I’m not going to say like, no, like, I’m not going to help you access your own. And no, I won’t receive. Because like, also we have a lot of education around it. It takes a lot to get someone set up with re. Right. It’s a big investment of energy to teach someone how to use it and to keep them, you know, like to keep informed ourselves. So I was like, okay, so I’ll receive. And then when I became a part of that business ecosystem, I realized, okay, here’s the difference. Right? any kind of system is neutral. Just like anything in this world that you encounter, like this water is neutral. Right? But this water could be poisoned, which would make it bad for us. Right. Or it could be filtered or pure. Right. And good. Like everything is neutral and it depends on how we relate to it and cultivate it. Right. And so what I saw within that community was like, okay, we can use that structure, the network marketing structure. And if it’s being led with integrity, right. By the people that are upholding that structure and constantly working to negotiate, and transform it and change what it means depending on people’s needs and is really looking out for the people in the community and not just profit for a small amount of people. The structure is fine. This structure is great. It makes so much sense.

>> Isha Vela: Right? Yes. Just.

If network marketing is devoted to everyone having wellness, suddenly it’s bad

And this interweaving, right? Yes.

>> Speaker D: Yeah. Because, you know, the reason why network marketing doesn’t work historically, why they call it a pyramid scheme is because generally there’s like 1% of people that actually, you know, succeed at it. And it’s geared towards, right, just like our economy, by the way, 1% of the people. Right. Holding most of the wealth. But if you have a system like that’s devoted to everyone having wellness, right. On all levels, including financially, suddenly that system isn’t so bad anymore. Actually, people can use it to all experience.

>> Isha Vela: Okay. Love. I love the reframing of that and the.

>> Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.

So then the next one that led me into that, um, is a community,

So then the next one that led me into that, is a community, called Dreamweaving, which I can’t really even talk about that much because it’s a little bit of a secret society. So if anyone’s interested, let me know and we could talk privately. but similarly, here we go again. Like here we have, ah, healing. It’s like, almost like a shamanic healing experience, right. With a group of people and we’re moving through these elements. And we are contributing our energy, which includes, you know, somewhat financially. And we in the end of it are able to, like, we receive so much by being in this process together because the process itself is very clear. and it has a long lineage and it’s just like, yeah, it’just it has a lot of integrity. That’s I think the key word here. It has an integrity in the system and the people that are upholding it. And so you go through this incredibly healing process, and then, like, you end up receceiving while you’re in the process of it. And so now, like, this was mind blowing to me because I was like, this is technically, like, we don’t talk about it. This is a sacred economy is what they call it, right? These are based on, like, sacred principles. And we’re doing very sacred healing work within it. But it’s also an investment strategy, right? You put your money into something and then it grows by eight times or whatever. Like, you know, but in this, I was like, oh, my gosh. But now, so for people. So there’s a lot of people, right, who we know working in the financial industry who are terrified of investing, right? Don’t even touch it with a ten foot pole, right? Because it’s complicated and because there’s a lot of toxicity within that system. And it’s like, o. But so now let’s just think about, like, what if there was a system? spoiler alert. There is. I’m talking about right now, where instead of investing in, like, oil and blah, blah, blah, all these, like, gross things in the stock market, right, that you don’t want to put your money in, you’re investing that money in other humans, right? You’re investing that in other humans for them to live their dreams. And through so doing, you receive for living your dreams. And now we’re creating a culture of people that are invested in each other’s dreams.

>> Isha Vela: Wow.

>> Speaker D: Right’s like, okay, next level. Here’s what we can do, right?

Community, um, and then moving into the final, I think 1. But it’s not final

Community, and then moving into the final, I think 1. But it’s not final, but the last one I’ll talk about for now, you know, was coming into community with you, dear Isha, and with our crew, of financial professionals, you know, and that happened also somewhat accidentally. You know, actually it was not without Healy, right? So being in that community actually led me to other community members that led me to find you all. And through so doing, I was in this really precarious place once again, like I said when you asked me about my wealth experience. It’s like huge amounts burning, crashing down, right? Old story. That was the old story. And I was very much purifying that old story when I met you. And I knew it, you know, like, through every single cell in fiber of my being. And so I know when we met for a financial strategy, you know, I was like. But I was like, what’s going on? I was like, what’s going on in that collective? And, I got super. You know, like, the way I came into that was starting to learn about financial literacy, you know. And so I got this sacred rage thatited within me because I was like, why didn’t we learn this in school? Why doesn’t anybody know about this? And it was just like the healy, right? I was like, frequency can, like, help with every single aspect, right? From the physical to the spiritual. And I was like, financial literacy, like, can help with every aspect of, the physical to the spiritual, right? And I was like, I. I’m going to start talking about this. So, like, can I join your. Like, what is this? Who are these people? What are they doing?

Being a part of our collective is a trap, right?

and so it so happened, and now here I want to just, like, input, you know, I want to bring us back to that, infinite spiral, right? That uning spiral. Because what I realized through, you know, being a part of our collective is that it’s a trap, right? It’s a spiritual trap on the path to be constantly, like, okay, well, we’re creating these new communities where we’re investing in each other’s dreams and we’re coast stewarding land. And we’re doing all this stuff, right? As, If we can get away from what is happening in the world right now. Which, like, right now happens to be a really intense time politically. It’s economically, right? I mean, we’re like ushering in the Age of Aquarius. Like, shit’s burning to the ground, right, As I say this. And so what I want to mention here, which is super important about our collective, is that. But, you know, yes, there’s like, so much healing that we do with people in their personal finances. we show them how to actually accumulate, wealth in their lifetime and for future generations to change the world with, like, yes, all of that’s happening. And what I realized is that we can’t do that without participating in the old system to some extent, right? And so I want to equate this as being people that are in the Matrix, like the movie, right? Ne Morphus. And we’re all these characters, right? And we have to go into The Matrix. But be able to go in with a certain level of consciousness. Right. to be able to go in and like this to the bullets. Right. Define bu. Fly past us, but also still take it down from the inside out. We’re never going to be able to create the world we want to see if we don’t participate in this one and its downfall, the process. Because if we don’t participate, right. Like it can’t possibly go anywhere. It just stays going. And it’s got a tremendous amount of power right now. But we have the power actually to participate to the extent that it doesn’t harm us and it doesn’t harm others. We’re going in very consciously aware and we’re making decisions knowing that we’re going to do it so that these systems crumble. And it’s only if we do that. And while doing the other things, while doing the dream weaving, while using the frequency. Right. While doing all of that other work. That’s the only way that we are going to see that wealth in our lives and in our ecosystem as well.

>> Isha Vela: I love that you just said all this because I’ve been talking to other people about that, like about breaking it open from the inside and I. The visual that I’ve had is different. I’ve had sort of like, you know, like the root of a tree growing and sort of breaking up the concrete, you know. But the way that you described it now just felt so like the, the matrix analogy just made so much sense to me and it’goingna make so much sense to the listener.

>> Speaker D: yeah, because we’re plugged in like you know that visual where everyone’s plugged in, the are plugged in still. We have to take the pill, we like. So if you want to get to the telephone, right. That you need the call to get to that other place, you have to go through the weird building and be shot by the guy.

>> Isha Vela: Yes, exactly.

>> Speaker D: And so that means like you have to participate in the financial system. Right. Like you have to put your money into something where it grows. Right. All of that’s going to be connected to this larger system that is very, very flawed. Like I recognize that, that while I’m participating in it, it is super flawed. But I’m not doing it blind. Right. I am doing it knowing that my participation is what is going to make it crumble.

>> Isha Vela: Yes, yes. And then the vision that you have for what is possible is so way beyond what we, what we see here and what we’re participating in right now.

>> Speaker D: exactly. Because we’re participating either way. Right. But when we go in and we consciously participate, that’s how we get to unplug ourselves from those little egg pods and everybody else around us. Right. And we’re well resourced. Like, then as individuals and as the communities that we’re co creating together, we’re well resourced to make the changes that we need to see. Right. To me, there’s no other way. it’s because, like, bring it all back in.

>> Isha Vela: Right.

>> Speaker D: It’s that secret third thing that we’re looking for. So it takes a certain level of participating in the old thing and a certain level of participating in the new thing. And if we can strike that very delicate and tricky balance and be in that liminal space, we’re going to see a new world with, I believe, within our lifetime. You know, and if not, most certainly, like, you know, the generations of kids that are growing up, it’s all happening very fast.

>> Isha Vela: Absolutely. Like, I keep thinking about the kids as like, part of this about, like, the work that we’re doing now is like, we’re in the birthing process and you. There are parts of the birthing process that are very messy and some of them are, like, very painful, you know, and it’s also a beautiful process and the product is obviously, like, you know, like, amazing. But, yeah, like, to really understand the realness of what we’re doing. Yeah.

>> Speaker D: yeah, I love that you brought it back to that too. Because when we first opened this up, we were talking about being this bridge, right. Between bringing in the heaven information, bringing in the earth. Right.

>> Isha Vela: Y.

>> Speaker D: we are, we are the bridge generation, you know, like, and so many of us, you know, who were born before this technological explosion, who weren’t so called digital natives. Right, yeah. have this experience of what it was like to exist before that happened, which has changed our entire world and is going to continue. The law of accelerated turns returns indicates. Right. That technology grows at an exponential rate. Like, there’s going to be a moment where suddenly the world looks like completely different y. You know, in overnight. and so there’s superp. Power. There’s superpower. There’s a superpower. Right.

Isaac: Thank you so much for having me on your podcast

To understanding how to navigate within this technological landscape that we live in, you know, which is like a whole other podcast we could get into, but also understanding what it means to have existed before it was like this, you know, and so, like, we are this bridge. And sometimes, you know, like when you walk over a bridge, like, if it’s one of those bridges, it’s made from like ropes and it’s like swinging high above the water. Like it’s shaky and it’s, and it might fall apart and if it’s old, it might be crumblingm. but it’s like you have to cross that bridge. You know, you, at some point you have to be in the center of that. Right. To get from one side to the next.

>> Isha Vela: Yes. Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. Thank you so much for just bringing this incredible energy to this conversation. And I, I want to let listeners know how they can, how they can find you.

>> Speaker D: Yeah, come find me, Conn. Let’s co create community together. well, taking down the system. So I’m pretty easy to find. My name is Lobster Bird. I’ve had people that say like, I tried to Google what a lobster bird is and you’re the only thing that came up. So I have a website, it’s so aptly named lobsterird.com. do you can find me there? I’m on social media. yeah, so on some of them I had to be the Lobster Bird because I don’t know how someone ever took Lobster Bird. But but yeah, type in Lobster Bird into wherever you are. and we will find each other. And, and yeah, I mean this is it. Like that’s my whole thing of this moment is really, thank you so much for having me on your podcast, Isa, like, I think it’s so important for us to be able to continue expressing in our authenticity. Right. Sharing what we’re learning along the way. What works and doesn’t work. Like, you know, Neo couldn’t just go into the Matrix by himself. He need mentors, he needed a team. Right. People, them sometimes. Right. We need each other. and so yeah, I think it’s so important that all of us know really, send out our transmission of who we are right now, what we’re looking for, what world we’re co creating and building. Because like, also I just want to say that right now there’s a lot of distraction, there’s a lot of chaos, right? And there’s going to be a lot of things that are going to try to take you off center and have you getapped into that old thing. And those of us who want to co create a new way, we have to find each other. Yes. We have to actively be holding that vision together and doing the things together that are actually going to bring that new world into being. So come find me and let’s do that together.

>> Isha Vela: Yes. Oh my gosh, I love it. I love it.

>> Speaker D: I love you. And I love I this world together.

>> Isha Vela: Yes, me too. Me too. And having being able to do this with you is like, what? But it just is like. It’s just such a huge bright spot. It really, like, keeps me in here in such a passionate way.

>> Speaker D: So.

>> Isha Vela: Thank you.

>> Speaker D: Likewise.

>> Isha Vela: Thank you.

>> Isha Vela: Thank you for listening to today’s episode. Remember to hit the subscribe button to get notified of new episodes dropping on the new and full moons of each month. And if you haven’t already, leave us a five star review on itunes to make sure that everyone who needs this transmission receives it. Until the next episode, I’m sending you fierce, fierce love.