Beyond the Code: Constantin Morun on Integrating Technology and Spirituality

In this episode of "Conversations with Rich Bennett," titled "Beyond the Code: Constantin Morun on Integrating Technology and Spirituality," sponsored by Elite Power Washing, Rich Bennett delves into the fascinating world where technology meets spirituality with his guest, Constantin Morun. Morun, a holistic life empowerment mentor and coach, shares his transformative journey from growing up in Romania during the Communist era to becoming an advocate for integrating technology and spirituality in personal development. He discusses his career transition from the corporate world to coaching, highlighting the pivotal role of technology in enhancing self-discovery and personal growth. Morun's insights into artificial intelligence and its potential to positively impact humanity provide a unique perspective on modern challenges. Through his story, listeners are encouraged to embrace vulnerability, seek balance, and harness the power of positivity and gratitude in their daily lives. This episode is a testament to the potential of blending diverse elements like technology and spirituality to foster a fulfilling life, sponsored by Elite Power Washing, a company that values innovation and personal growth.

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Transcript

Rich Bennett 0:00
Thanks for joining the conversation where we explore the stories and experiences that shape our world. I'm your host, Rich Bennett, and today I am honored to welcome Constantine Martin. Constantine is a renowned holistic life empowerment mentor and coach. With over 15 years of experience, Constantine has transformed his life from a state of fear to embracing vulnerability and authenticity. He is passionate about personal growth, self-discovery and professional development, utilizing a unique blend of technology, spirituality and mentorship. As the host of the Unleash Thyself podcast, which you all better listen to, Constantine inspires and empowers individuals on their journeys towards growth. So join us as we delve into Constantine's insights and experiences in fostering personal and professional success. How's it going, Constantine? 

Constantin Morun 0:53
Oh, it's going fabulous Friday. I mean, it's cold outside, but it's a beautiful day. Day is beautiful. 

Rich Bennett 0:59
Now, where is it you're located? 

Constantin Morun 1:01
I'm in Canada, on the east coast of Canada. 

Rich Bennett 1:04
Oh, yeah, I know it's cold up there. 

Constantin Morun 1:06
Yes, it is. 

Rich Bennett 1:07
Well, it's about 30 something right now. 

Constantin Morun 1:09
I'm probably like 28 today. 26, maybe? 

Rich Bennett 1:13
Yeah. Keep it up there. Right. I'm in Maryland. We don't want it here. I mean, it's 43 right now. That, to me, that's cold. That's. 

Constantin Morun 1:20
Yeah, that's more pleasant, I would say, than. Than what I have. 

Rich Bennett 1:23
Yeah, it's still coal, although I'd still run out and just a sweatshirt, so. So with you, let's find out who who is. And I'm sure you've gotten this question a million times. Who is Constantine? 

Constantin Morun 1:35
Well, I love the question because I asked myself the same question for most of my life, honestly, until more recently, because I always thought that Constantine was whoever it ended, he needed to be for that group, for that interaction, for the job, for that part of his life. And I talk in third person because that's how I see it right now. I had this multiple personality, so to speak, because I had a fear of rejection, a fear of not fitting in, a fear of abandonment. Let's see what I would be like. Oh, you know, I need to put in this cap on this persona. So then this group accepts me for who I am. 

Rich Bennett 2:11
Right. So now. But you're not from Canada originally, right? 

Constantin Morun 2:15
Oh, no. I was born in Eastern Europe, in Romania during the Communist era, which is one of the reasons I had a lot of imprints of scarcity and fear and not fitting in and the fear of the unknown, really, because I was I grew up in an environment where white fitness capacity were predominant, but also you couldn't be yourself because then you wouldn't fit in the system. And if you're into the system, then obviously you know, bad things will happen. 

Rich Bennett 2:43
So how did how were you able to shape your, you know, growing up there, especially during the communist era? 

How were you able to shape your perspective on personal growth and self-discovery? 

Constantin Morun 2:56
Well, that's that's a great question. I mean, when I was young and growing up with my caretakers, my grandparents and my parents and then the teachers and whatnot, it was just instilled in me very young, this idea that I have to work hard, I have to go to school, I have to get the education goes the specific path right, not the arts, the sciences. And that was instilled very early on in me, which meant that I was a good student, is not necessarily like studying. I didn't necessarily like following the status quo and accepting everything the way I was told because I would challenge you. Sometimes and I would be like, This doesn't make sense to me, but I wasn't allowed to do that. Now, that went on throughout my early life and at the age of 17 is when my parents made the decision to immigrate to Canada to give my brother and I a better future, essentially. 

Rich Bennett 3:44
Right. 

Constantin Morun 3:45
I came to Canada and I realized it wasn't that much different. Of course, I still had to adjust or so many things had to go through. But in terms of the schooling system, it very similar, right? I still had to follow the book. You had to follow what the teacher said. You weren't trained to think for yourself, but more to follow what others have already discovered than they want to teach you. And that does. There's a place for that done nothing wrong because I was an A-plus student throughout my life. And then eventually I made it to university after finishing high school and I have a mathematics degree. I first started in engineering and then moved to mathematics and computer science, and that's what I got a bit more flexibility because when you develop programs in class as a computer scientist, then you have a bit more flexibility with math. Of course you got to follow specific ways, but there was always ways to find different, more clever ways to do things. So that allowed me to develop a bit more of a growth mindset than a fixed mindset, which is what pretty much I was raised with. 

Rich Bennett 4:46
So, okay, so you came from Eastern Europe to Canada? Yes. And went to school in college in Canada, correct? 

Constantin Morun 4:55
Well, I mean, I finish high school in Canada and then went to university in Canada. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 5:00
Okay. Gotcha. Okay. For some reason, I can't think of that. You were here in the States at one point for some reason. 

Constantin Morun 5:07
Well, I travelled a lot for work, but I never lived outside of Canada and Romania. 

Rich Bennett 5:11
Okay, so you're the computer science now. What you. Now you're was a holistic coach, right? So that holistic life empowerment, mentor and coach. Yes. How did that come about? 

Constantin Morun 5:29
Yeah, that's a beautiful question. I mean, before we even get there, it's important to note that I want because I follow the more traditional path, right, to go to school and get a job in the corporate world, get the American dream. So the typical Canadian dream will be on a name that I you know, I went down that path. I did a lot of entrepreneurial things. I mean, I there was a period of my life when I played poker online professionally and coached thousands of people. I played for. I mean, I coached people for about ten years. 

Rich Bennett 5:57
Really? 

Constantin Morun 5:57
Yeah, in my twenties to my early thirties. Yeah. And it was like it was beautiful and it was impossible. But see, everything I've done in life, I learn something and then I cannot wait to share with people. I cannot wait to be like, Hey, this is working for me. Yes, will work for a few people around me. It might benefit you too. It's not going to work 100% for everyone, but some people can give value out of it. So I was coaching soccer since I grew up and I, you know, had my own soccer clubs and teams and whatnot. So all my life then I was tutoring in mathematics and computer science. And the science is really high school university that I had the poker coaching, as I mentioned, gaming coaching. And then in my corporate life I was a mentor and coach for pretty much every every year of my life. And I still, for example, to this day, I work for Microsoft in sales, in technology sales, and I mentor people all the time. So the question you asked, the holistic Life empowerment mentor and coach was just a natural transition. What I'm like while I have all this knowledge, I'm going through a massive transformation myself. It's an ongoing journey. 

Rich Bennett 7:02
Right? 

Constantin Morun 7:03
How can I help even more people? And people keep coming to me say, Hey, we see you're doing so many amazing things. You're transforming yourself. Can can you teach us? Can you, can you show us? Can you guide us, can empower us? And that's kind of how that came about. 

Rich Bennett 7:18
Okay. Because you just blew me away now with especially with the poker thing and, you know, you being a whiz with in mathematics, I take it regular poker, not blackjack. 

Constantin Morun 7:31
Yes, regular Texas hold'em. 

Rich Bennett 7:33
Okay. Yes. I was going to say they probably wouldn't allow. You want a blackjack table if they. 

Constantin Morun 7:38
Well, I did a study, so I wouldn't say. But of course, when you play against a casino, there's always they always have the advantage, right. Texas Hold'em, you play against other people. So there's always a gambling element to it, Right. However, you control your faith more or less. Because if you get to learn how people play, if you get to learn your own game and improve it, you can have a massive advantage because the house or the casino, you're not playing against them. They think they're not living on the money. It's up to you against whatever you play. 

Rich Bennett 8:05
How in the world did you get into? I'm sorry. I just I love I mean, blackjack is my game, but how did you get into that? 

Constantin Morun 8:12
Well, I was playing with my friends throughout university, you know, table poker, right? Like, right after classes, whatever, with play. And I got really good at it. And then I said, You know what? Let me try to play online. And while I had my first job out of university, I would work that it wasn't a very intensive job. And then when I had the downtime, I would study poker and I would play it and I got really good, really fast. And I also got lucky through the process. But then when the job, when that company closed down and I was faced with like normally off, what do I do? I'm like, Right, this poker thing, I might as well try it. I was like, I don't know, 25, maybe 26. And that's what I did. I started that. I'm like getting good really fast. I was getting good results again. There was a bit of luck involved. And then, you know, one thing led to another was becoming successful, making lots of money. And then I was approached by others like, Can you teach me? And I say, Coaching people. And then I just signed on by poker strategy dot com which is the biggest poker said yeah on the on the web and I did hundreds of videos for them in English Romanian did life coaching sessions the equivalent of Twitch almost right I would you know sign up every Saturday and I would livestream either a session or a playing session. And I had. Yeah, well, it was amazing. 

Rich Bennett 9:27
All right, so how often do you go I don't know if they have casinos up there in Canada, but I mean, Atlantic City is not far from, you know, how often Diego to Atlantic City or Vegas. 

Constantin Morun 9:38
Well, I so I specialized in online poker which allowed me. 

Rich Bennett 9:41
Okay. 

Constantin Morun 9:42
Multiple games at the same time. I mean at my peak I was playing 24 tables at the same time. 

Rich Bennett 9:47
Good Lord. 

Constantin Morun 9:48
Yeah, that's insane. Now, when you go and play a live game, that's the equivalent to like one third of one table online. Like, that's how slow the game moves. So it's a lot different now. Any game like blackjack or poker or any type of game that there's a variance element in which variance means that there's a like element to it. You need volume to beat luck, which means you need to play a lot to beat luck. And of course you have to be good as well. But let's assume you are good. You need volume. So if I were to play live, which is a lot slower right? Something like variance or Bad Luck, Candy really hit you and it can get pretty boring for someone that's playing, you know, hundreds of hands. And I want to just playing 50 hands an hour. So while I specialized online, I still play with my friends. There was a casino a couple of hours away from me. I went to Vegas a few times, always had a blast and won a lot of money, but it wasn't really the game. I was super excited about the pace because of the environment. I guess now. 

Rich Bennett 10:54
How in the hell do you play 2014? Even online? I can only do one table at a time. What are you? 

Constantin Morun 11:01
It's a skill to build up over time, right? I started with one, then two, then four, then eight, 16. Now I wasn't playing every day 24. Because that takes a toll on your mind. 

Rich Bennett 11:10
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 11:12
Right. I would say my average at my peak was between 16 and 24 tables. And now, of course, you, you make sacrifices whenever you add more on top, right. Your cognitive abilities and you're not even there, but the amount of time you have to make a decision is reduced significantly, right? So you have to rely on tools. 

Rich Bennett 11:30
So it's a challenge. 

Constantin Morun 11:32
Yeah, of course. That's why you have to gradually build up to it. And it's not for everyone. I mean, four times when I'll play for tables only or eight, depending on the goal of the session that I had. And there were tools that will help you do that because you see the world even now there aren't. But there were tools back then that would track everything that was going on, so you could see numbers on how other people play and I had my own notes on them and I was starting my own game, so it allowed me to get very deep, which meant that my decision making process was much shorter because I was working on my game so much that I knew the path I needed to take to get to an outcome. 

Rich Bennett 12:08
Wow. That I. Yeah, I mean, never to play Texas Hold'em with you. 

Constantin Morun 12:16
When I played with friends and just, you know, I take it easy. It's all about having fun, right? Because if your life I just found this, I mean, I just find I find it a long time ago. It's like you got to have fun. 

Rich Bennett 12:27
I was going to say, your friends are probably like, we've all going to do Poker is constant. Incoming. Yeah. I mean, that we play for money. 

Constantin Morun 12:35
During the time when I was doing that, actually in my basement at the home, I was this was back in Ontario, Canada, some more subtle. I had a poker table, I had professional poker chips and cards and all that. And I would have a poker game every every weekend. But it was for fun, right? Ten bucks to play it. I would just play and it was fun to see everyone try to, you know, get one up on me. And it's like, oh, you know, love doing the hands against something because that's going to make my day. And of course, some I would let. 

Rich Bennett 13:03
Some of that. 

Constantin Morun 13:04
Oh, okay, you know what? I can be competitive. So but it was funny to see. It was it was lovely. 

Rich Bennett 13:09
Then they made me want to get a poker game going. I haven't played poker in years. And you a you worked at Microsoft or you're still at Microsoft. 

Constantin Morun 13:17
So I've been at Microsoft for the last six years. I'm still at Microsoft. 

Rich Bennett 13:20
Okay. 

Constantin Morun 13:21
Actually, six and a half now. And yeah, I work in sales for them and I do the podcast, I do some coaching on the side and it's made me a much, much better person to work with a more compassionate, more empathic coming from a place of people first than anything else. And it's beautiful to see. 

Rich Bennett 13:40
All right. So explain this because, I mean, a lot of when you hear of people working for Microsoft, that's usually in the tech part, but you're doing sales. What type of sales? 

Constantin Morun 13:49
So it's enterprise sales. I so I cover the largest customers in Atlantic Canada and I'm part of a sales team. Essentially. I'm the technical specialist. So while I specialize in the technical side, I have like a high level understanding of all the technology that Microsoft offers. And I work together with the other account executives and other people on the accounts to help customers well get the most value that they can get out of the technologies and digitally transform while providing the people that work for them the best experience possible so they can spend less time in front of a computer and more time with their loved ones so they can get the work done the most efficient way possible. 

Rich Bennett 14:31
So especially if Microsoft left, do you face any challenges while staying true to your spiritual and personal development goals? 

Constantin Morun 14:41
That's a great question. I thought at the beginning I would because I so Russia for those just listening, I have a couple of science behind me that I gathered over the years and I'm like, you know what? That's what speaks to me. And one of them says, Follow your heart. 

Rich Bennett 14:53
Yes. 

Constantin Morun 14:54
And that's something I haven't done for most of my life. I mean, I did it in some to some degree, but not fully. And following your heart to me means finding your why, finding your purpose, whatever it is. And once you do it, try to live that every day in every interaction that you do. So once I found that for myself, then I'm like, okay, so how can I bring it more into my professional life, into my work? Microsoft And to give an idea my personal why or mission is to inspire, empower, guide and support individuals on their life journeys so they too can find joy, fulfillment, success and abundance in life. Okay, so then I ten I said, okay, so it's about inspiring, it's about empowering, it's about guiding a supporting. 

Okay, how can I do that more with every interaction with Microsoft? So now when I approach a conversation with a customer, with a partner, with a colleague, it's coming from a people force, not from like a now come this are, oh, I want to get this sale done or I want to get this favor out of you or I want you to get something done. It's more like who's the person first, building that connection, bringing that people. So first, can I support in any way? Can I go? Can I inspire, can empower? Sometimes I can do all four or just combination of them. And it's changed not only how I am viewed with Microsoft, but the quality of the relationships I've been able to foster since implementing that idea. So you hear people say things like, My work is separate from my personal life, so I don't need to align my my vision and my why, my purpose with my work, because I can do that in my personal life. But the reality is that work takes up a significant amount of your time, and what happens there will absolutely influence what happens in your life. And you cannot necessarily keep the two so separate that you can be one person at home and then one person at work, which, by the way, I tried to do and I did it for many years and it brought me depression, anxiety, burnout, stress, overwhelm, procrastination, you name it. 

Rich Bennett 16:57
Wow. So have you ever thought about writing a book about all this? 

Constantin Morun 17:01
Yes. Books are in the future for me. I definitely want to. The good. 

Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 17:08
Good. I mean, those self-help books and especially this because you can tie it into business. Yeah. Helping those, you know, especially working in corporate America. Yeah. Stresses there big time. 

Constantin Morun 17:20
Oh, yes. 

Rich Bennett 17:22
Oh, I've been there. Done that. Won't do it again. 

Constantin Morun 17:24
Oh, 

but here's a beautiful partridge. Mm hmm. Same as you've been there, done that before, done that. I would be like, I'll never do it again. Now I have the tools to not only become aware of it, but deal with it, which means that, yeah, I mean, stressful things will happen in our life. It doesn't have to be in work. It can be in life. Right? People will in your life. People will pass away. Accidents will happen. It's how we deal with them that defines really who we are. It's nothing else in my mind anyway, know, in my opinion. And now I have the tools and those are the tools that I've learned over the last few years, and that's what I'm passing on to people, to my podcast, through my coaching, through my mentorship, eventually books, right, published right in all these things because I'm like, you reach as a as a beautiful individual and everyone else listening. You have the power not only to do anything you want in life, but also the power to change absolutely everything you don't like in your life. You don't like your job and your career. You can change that, but you may start with fuel. Finding more ways to appreciate a first and your best while you're prepared to find a new career for yourself. 

Rich Bennett 18:34
Huh? 

It just so I would have never thought 

that, you know, the way you're doing it because you're mixing the technology and the spirituality with it. 

Constantin Morun 18:48
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 18:49
I, I would have never thought that. Yeah. Usually it's one or the other. Yeah. It's not. 

Constantin Morun 18:56
Exactly the. 

Rich Bennett 18:57
Big I've never heard of anybody when it comes to coaching, putting the technology in there 

actually. How do you maintain a balance and ensure each aspect complements the others when you're doing it? 

Constantin Morun 19:11
Oh I another question. It's such a beautiful question. Balance in life is definitely important across all areas, and I'm someone that's learning that lesson the hard way in every aspect because I'm someone that goes all out, or at least in the past, went all out on things. It's like if I, if I go eat out, I might as well go to a buffet because that's what really it means to go out and enjoy the ride, which of course has had a face. 

Rich Bennett 19:36
I think that way too sometimes. Right. 

Constantin Morun 19:38
Or, you know, if I, if I go play a game with some friends, I'm very competitive and I go all out, even though it's supposed to be fun and enjoyed, right. So sometimes I catch myself. So to bring it back to the question you had, everything is about balance. Now. What is technology? To me, technology is a tool that can be used by anyone for the betterment of themselves, the people around them and the world at large. So when you think about it, if I'm working on myself and I really, truly want to improve myself, why would that not bring technology into it? And what's technology could be as simple as I mean, we're having a conversation. There's not a lot you I know across the globe, 71 is bringing technology to some degree, but to your point, there's no real balance there because some people shy away from it. And a good example is I specialize in artificial intelligence with Microsoft, where really intelligence is big nowadays. So I, for good reason, is technology you can bring into your life to do what? To help you do less of the things you don't want and more of the things you want. What do I mean by that? You can have it help you with mundane tasks, like if you need to summarize things, if you need to get better notes, if you need to get ideas, you can have something or someone. If you want to look at that way with some energy to talk to by text or voice nowadays, and you can get feedback back. It saves you time and it's all about time in the end because that's the resource we don't have an infinite amount of. 

Rich Bennett 21:11
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 21:11
Right. So that's how I bring technology in now those are self-discovery and the spirituality piece of it we can touch on later if you'd like. 

Rich Bennett 21:19
Yeah, well now that you mention it that way, because I love meditating and think about it, I'm using technology when I meditate as well because I am asking Alexa to play the Tibetan bowls source 

with the okay. And you mentioned artificial intelligence, and I'm glad you mention that because 

it's been around for decades and a lot of people don't realize that. But you hear more and more about it and for some reason, a lot of people seem to be afraid of it. Tell people, please tell people why you don't need to be afraid of it. 

Constantin Morun 22:05
Well, here's the funny part. First off, I love the question. Second of 

someone telling people not to do something or do something doesn't have to go very far unless they themselves want to believe that they'll want to do that. So you you hear people say why you should be afraid, why you shouldn't be afraid. There's a bunch of people in the middle. I would say it's balance. I'm in the middle. I know that there are reasons to be afraid of it, and I know that there are reasons to not be afraid of it. The question, though, comes down to every individual is like, What do I want to focus on The things I should be afraid of or the things I should be happy about? And this expands to not just, yeah, this expense to your entire life. Yeah. Because whenever something happens in your life, do you want to focus on the negative, which is what most of us do, or do you want to focus on the positive? And that's going to change your entire mindset? 

Rich Bennett 22:51
Yes. Yes, absolutely. 

Constantin Morun 22:53
Now, to answer your question, why you shouldn't be afraid. Well, again, this there's two sides of the same coin. You shouldn't be afraid because this is here to help you help humanity get to the next level, whatever the next level is for you, that's up to you. Now, second of all, can it be used for, quote unquote, bad things to take jobs away? It has been. 

Rich Bennett 23:21
To. 

Constantin Morun 23:22
Conduct cybercrime. It has been and it will be. But isn't the Internet the same thing like when the Internet came around the end of the same thing? Yep. And, you know, the the boom of the websites and all the when we invented electricity as we know it today, that was a big boom. And some farmers lost jobs, horses less. They lost jobs because they were replaced by machines. You see this throughout history. Now, of course, we're in a time when we have access to so much information, so much news and social media where one story can be taken. You get on very far with it and it doesn't really have to be based in truth for it to or in all truth for it to take off. Right. So for me, what I understand that there is a risk, what I will take over. But at the same time, I see the benefits of what's allowing us to do right now. Like for me, if I have access to a I, I wouldn't be able to work my 8 to 9 hour job, then do a podcast with two episodes a week and all the things I want to do. So I use I to essentially be my assistant. Do things I'm not a say the best at, nor do I feel like doing like crafting emails. That's a simple one, right? 

Rich Bennett 24:36
Right. 

Constantin Morun 24:37
Or not even crafting them because I start is just refining them, redoing them. Or maybe I want someone to ideate with. Those are things I wouldn't normally have access to and would take me significantly more time to do. Show notes is another example for my for my show. Yeah, right. Like it's like I fill the transcript, I get show notes and then I refined them and then I put them up again. Saves hours and hours every week. Yeah. Why does it allow me to do sit in my zone of genius, which you, your sort of genius is the zone in which you are at your best. Whatever your best is. 

Rich Bennett 25:10
Thank you for that. Because and people don't understand the way I explain as well, because I always tell them, you know, people were afraid of cars when cars came out. People are still afraid of cars. But look at all the good things that cars do. Your explanation is a lot better. 

Constantin Morun 25:31
So it's funny you mention that, because I don't necessarily I mean, I see all expressions as good now. It's almost like you're planting seeds in someone's mind. So, like, someone will hear our conversation and they'll take my station, but I can't. That's interesting. So I'll be like, Oh, yeah, that makes sense. And others will be like, I have no idea what he's talking about. Right? And all these ideas that we listen to, all the things we listen to, they get planted the seeds in our minds. And what happens is, as our life progresses, maybe you come on over and you expand a bit differently, and then now it finally clicks for someone. It's like, Oh yeah, I did that, like this, like this. And now this makes sense. And sometimes some seeds don't go anywhere because they're not watered, they're not in fertile soil, whatever the case may be. So we do need to hear things sometimes many, many times before we acknowledge them and be like, I guess that's all of this. 

Rich Bennett 26:20
And I encourage everybody to try it, play around with it. Hell, you may be playing around with it now and not even know it or think about it. 

Constantin Morun 26:30
I mean, you do because I mean, you said something important that has been around for decades. Yeah, that's because it hasn't been talked as much. Just because generative AI, which is charge you and others have not been around this much, it doesn't mean that it hasn't been in your life. I mean, you just talked about Alexa. What do you think Alexa is using to interpret your language, converges the text and into binary code, and then for it to understand what you meant and then give you what you wanted. I mean, that's A.I.. 

Rich Bennett 26:58
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 

Constantin Morun 27:01
You have it in your life. I mean, most of us have it in our vehicles, right? Like if I use Google Play or Apple Play and then I press the button to talk to it. I mean, that's. 

Rich Bennett 27:09
A.I. even in your phones, your GPS. 

Constantin Morun 27:12
Even better. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:13
Yeah. I mean, it's it's every. Well, you get it. When computers first came out, basically that's what a computer is and we're we're inputting this stuff into the computer is basically similar because it's learned from all the data that's being input imported everywhere else, but still. 

Constantin Morun 27:36
Has let's call it. I mean, some people say it's intelligence, but it's not really. It's just the list of versions that we work with right now. They're trained on a lot of knowledge. Right. Because let's look at the difference. Let's compare Google like the Google browser and the search engine with lesser charge. Pretty. Google is a database of sorts, let's say. Let's keep it simple, right? You're typing a search and then it looks into the database and says, Well, this is what they have. And then it has its own rules for how to rank things. 

Rich Bennett 28:04
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 28:05
No charge. But if you were to look at the same example, it is not a database, but it has access to a database. It can read all of it and it has and then it can start to put two and two together. Now that's one part. Then you type it a sentence like you would in Google, but instead of just here's, you know, merely a result of what you could be talking about is trying to understand what you said based on everything else that he knows and provide you with the result. And that's why sometimes it's not accurate, because the question was not formatted properly or maybe it wasn't trained on that model. And that's really the big difference is because you're using a more advanced version of a search engine that's pretty much powerless. 

Rich Bennett 28:54
I found that out because I was playing Ram Chat GPT three and I use Bing a lot and then I tried it on Google Chrome and it's big and it will tell you this is what we it's search and those search engines Search in new search engines. Yes, exactly. It's it's funny. I was like, oh, okay, so we need some little robot back. 

Constantin Morun 29:20
But yeah, so like engines like Bing, for example, I use it. I was at all the time because it's Microsoft, right. Yeah. Let's have the there's two versions, right? There's the being enterprise for the companies that secure the search use oriented and also there's the being available for all of us and that has charge a pretty foreign ad right now. So essentially it takes your search to the next level. 

Rich Bennett 29:42
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 29:43
Right. Because now we can understand your context and it can bring you more specific results and answers. And what I found really beneficial, I mean, check this out. This is beautiful, especially with the new releases of Chargeability. You can have a summarize YouTube videos, articles, you can have a search for articles and on the web before you were stock up to, you know, 2021. So again, a similar, as you said, of me spending hours on Google trying to find a research paper on a specific topic. I can ask Chargeability or take a few minutes to go browse the Internet for me and do it. But what it does that I can do something else, which is huge in time. So I mean, all of course that also brings in issues of ethics and morality because it could be biased, right? Because it could bring only a select number of articles in and it doesn't look at the whole gamut of it. So you always have to do a bit of due diligence at the end and verify the information it provides you with. 

Rich Bennett 30:45
Yeah, yeah. Was one of the things you mention too is was there Shownotes? Yes, that has been a godsend. 

Constantin Morun 30:54
Exactly 100%. 

Rich Bennett 30:56
Oh God. And even with the marketing, you know it's going to 

create little blurbs, whatever, for social media. 

Constantin Morun 31:08
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 31:10
It's amazing 

spirituality because that means 

something different to a lot of people. 

Constantin Morun 31:19
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 31:21
Let's get into that. What actually what is it? What's it mean to you? Because you hear people say, you know, to them, like don't pray to the certain gods. Some people won't even some people pray to somebody else. But what is spirituality to you? 

Constantin Morun 31:36
Yeah, I love the question. Thank you for asking that. So spirituality to me is essentially an understanding that I am connected to everything around me. So every person to nature and everything in nature because we are part of nature and there is something more out there that I don't understand necessarily that I don't necessarily get to see, but I get the feel and I get to connect with not like you said, some people call it God, some people call it the universe, some call it the divine right. Whatever name you give it, that doesn't really matter. We all feel that connection at times with, let's say, the Divine, but we're not may not realize it, and for most of my life. So I grew up Christian Orthodox. That's was the religion back in Romania. Then I moved to Canada. I didn't really practice. I was mostly agnostic through all my twenties and early thirties with some spirituality trying to creep in. And it wasn't until, I want to say probably four or five years ago when I really was like, Wow, there's something here. My analytical mind can't really figure out what it is yet, but I have an open mind, so I'm going to go with any really took a turn for the better one for the better like parabolic turn in 2022 when I went to Ecuador. 

Rich Bennett 32:52
Oh, I mean. 

Constantin Morun 32:53
That Amazonian jungle 10,000 feet up in the mountains. Beautiful place. It was a mental health retreat. But one of the things you could do that I saw is you could partake in plant medicines. These are medicines that the ancient civilizations of. 

Rich Bennett 33:09
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 33:10
A lot of all over the world have used. Right. Like you may have heard of mushrooms very psilocybin. The ones I worked with were ayahuasca and St Pedro. Those are the plant medicines I had a chance to. To sit were very sacred medicines. The shamans that were doing this for, you know, generations, generations built into exactly those practices. And keep in mind, I was someone, again, very analytical, very much in my mind, someone that's never been drunk because I do drink occasion, but I never had the reason to get drunk. 

Rich Bennett 33:42
Right. 

Constantin Morun 33:43
I have never done drugs. Right. So for me to go and do something as extreme as this, where my control is not given to some something else to someone else was very outside my comfort zone. But there was this calling within me because I was very depressed, very anxious, very burnt out, because even though I had the American dream, amazing job at Microsoft, amazing family, something was missing and I couldn't find like not no shiny toy would bring joy beyond the initial first few days. Nothing would make me truly happy and fulfilled. So I went searching for stuff, and that's kind of what came in my way. 

Rich Bennett 34:19
Wow. How did you manage end up figuring you have to go there? 

Constantin Morun 34:25
So they they say that ayahuasca talks to you. So it's like you hear a calling. Yeah. First time I've heard about this plant medicine was when I was doing poker coaching very early in my coaching career. So probably like 12 years ago. And one someone on one of my students was telling me about that he's going to go do it. I like coffee. It's like, Wow, that's crazy. I would never do anything. 

Rich Bennett 34:48
Like, right? 

Constantin Morun 34:49
And then I forgot about it. But then during the pandemic, I was working crazy hours, I was getting burnt out and I was looking. I was like getting this calling. You know what? Maybe you should look into something like this. It's almost I can't even my medical mind couldn't even make sense of it. It's just, you know, I would I would go to bed, then I would wake up and I'm like, Huh, Why did the why do I feel like I need to be doing this? Any happening throughout my weeks and months? And eventually I said, let me do some research. And the more research I did and I did thousands of hours of research, I'm someone that always goes deep. If something interests me, you. 

Rich Bennett 35:22
Have to. 

Constantin Morun 35:22
Go do it. Exactly. And then by the end, I wanted to go in 2021, by the pandemic, still had the borders locked, especially in Canada. So then I said, You know what? I'm just going to book it for 2022. And at the end of 2021, I booked everything for April 2022. And like I said, I've done thousands of hours of research. I'm like, You know what? I have no idea what I'm walking into. I know that I should trust this. I have an open mind. Then we'll see what it goes. 

Rich Bennett 35:49
Wow. Yeah. How long were you there for? 

Constantin Morun 35:51
I was there for 12 days. Okay. I participated in five different ceremonies. And I tell you this because, I mean, we could talk about that for 5 hours, and I've done it before. But here's. 

Rich Bennett 36:03
The. 

Constantin Morun 36:05
I want to call it crazy, because crazy has a negative connotation, but I call it crazy right now. For that, for the sake of all the discussion, I met so many amazing souls that at least 12 of them are really close friends to me. To me right now, based on a 7 to 12 day stay over two years ago, and they're all over the world from the States to Asia to Australia, Europe all over. And I'm closer friends with them than many other people in my life that I've known for 610, 15 years. 

Rich Bennett 36:34
Wow. 

Constantin Morun 36:35
Because of what we went through and I've with my own eyes, I witnessed some transformations that I cannot explain. I'm like, I have no idea how that works. Now, I experienced a lot of transformation myself, but I've seen others experience phenomenal things. Now, keep in mind, plasma medicines, ayahuasca, mushrooms. Doesn't matter what you do, like alcohol, like any drugs, they're not for everyone. That not a magic pill to solve anything. I thought they were. But they're not right that some people will feel cold too, as some people will feel like that's what they need to do. And they should. But that is a lie that goes into, like you said, you have to do your research. It doesn't matter what you get into if it's therapy, if it's plain medicine, any type of alternative stuff, do your research, look into it, talk to your doctors. I mean, I talk to my doctors. They ought to be skeptical, but they're like, Hey, if you write that, what on the blood work, we see that you're good and off you go. 

Rich Bennett 37:33
I bet you felt like a new person afterwards, didn't you? 

Constantin Morun 37:36
I did for a month. And then I went into the heaviest depression of my life. 

Rich Bennett 37:41
Really? 

Constantin Morun 37:42
See my eyes, my mind and my heart. When I opened it, I knew who I wanted to be. I knew how the world should be. But yet none of that was true. Because, you see, I changed in those 12 days, but no one else around me did. So when I came back, you know, the honeymoon period, I was excited. But then the reality sank in and it was a they they talk about this a lot with any type of therapy and come on the and it's the integration piece is the most important I the journey self is hard. 

Rich Bennett 38:14
Mm. 

Constantin Morun 38:14
But the hardest part comes in the integration. So how do you take everything that you've uncovered and integrate into your life. So now that becomes your life, or at least it augments your life. Now see, for me, the door to door to conflict involves right now and I was depressed most of 2020 to like severe, depressed, suicidal. But you're burnt out, right? Like it was. It was bad. But keep this in mind, there were a lot of amazing things that happened, yet I wasn't aware to them until much later, like in 2022, after I was okay. It allowed me to really see with myself and uncover my purpose, my mission right. The following year, Heartbeats. But it wasn't until much later when I could put it into action. So. Wow. But then, of course, once I pull myself out of it with a lot of help, looking back, I'm like, Yeah, I needed to sit in that I needed to see so I could see with my emotions, my feelings, things that I have suppressed all my life trauma, emotions I didn't allow myself to feel. All those things had to come up. And that's uncomfortable. I'm sure you can relate to that, right? Yeah. I'm something comes up from from inside were very quick to push you down because normally were not shown or trained or taught how to actually handle it properly. 

Rich Bennett 39:28
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Holy. I didn't realize that. I mean, you went through all that, the anxiety depression you mentioned earlier, but even suicidal. 

Constantin Morun 39:40
Yeah. And I've never been suicidal myself. And I'll keep in mind that it wasn't like I had thoughts. I'm like, Oh, it might be better if I just, you know, ended because there's so much I can't handle. It. It never got to the point where I was planning anything or do anything crazy about it. It was enough to be like, part of me is like, Why are we even talking about this? Why are we even looking at that? Like, that's never been an issue. Yeah, I've been on this beautiful journey. So, you know, the way I tell people right now is it's almost like there are two sides of me back then. We're kind of fighting to see which one wins. And you can call one the ego. You can call it the analytical side, the brain, whatever I call it. The other one was my heart, essentially. All my soul then was like, okay, how can we work in unison versus fighting against each other, one trying to trump the other? And it's the same idea of balance you mentioned earlier. 

Rich Bennett 40:27
Yeah, that's just 

and I can understand that too, because you're you're going down there for that experience. But then when you come back, you're right back in the thick of all that negative. And you know, for a fact, negativity will breed negativity quicker than positivity breeds positivity. 

Constantin Morun 40:48
And that is that's that's a good reason. You know, before we jumped on, I had you mentioned that you had a chance to listen to my last episode on Success, and I talk about negativity bias, and that's something I got to study a bit more now as I was doing research for my episodes. And negativity bias is believed by science. Now that is part of evolution. So what does negativity bias mean, first of all? So we can allow people to to relate to this to be more is the idea that essentially your thoughts anything that you're doing in life, anything that's perceived as negative, will make it quick up to your brain? MM Either in the moment or one you recall memories because it's meant to protect you, because you see it 100 years ago or more, the world wasn't very safe, which meant that if you weighed positive or negative the same, you had a much higher chance of dying or being injured, and then that would lead to dying. So allowing these negative negative thoughts and negative patterns to come up quicker and to be recalled quicker, that means it's allowed us to survive longer. Now, in the modern world, it doesn't mean that we don't have negative things around us, but they're not. The threats are not as big as they were many years ago. 

Rich Bennett 42:00
Right. 

Constantin Morun 42:01
Which means that there's not as much of a need for it. So what it also means is that to think positively, to always look at the positive side that requires work, that requires you to actively go do that versus just expect that they will happen. 

Rich Bennett 42:18
Something tells me when you get up in the morning before you and even before you go to bed. You have a set routine, don't you? 

Constantin Morun 42:24
I do. I do. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 42:27
I'm the same way. Can you walk us through your routine? Because I think everybody needs to do that. I think they all need to have a set routine because it just makes your day go by so much better. 

Constantin Morun 42:39
I would agree with that. And at the same time, I would say that the routine looks different for every person I've talked to and I find to be different. Some people do better with a longer evening routine than a morning routine, or vice versa. And I'm someone that likes to sleep in, right? So it was all it was only stuff up with a proper morning routine in. And I mean, most people, what, they wake up, they go take a shower, they brush your teeth, maybe they drink some coffee, prepare lunch or breakfast, whatever the case. Right. So that's usually a traditional that's not something ever 

really adhered to. And I had all the routines. My right now looks like this. I wake up first thing I do before I even get out of the bed. I have a grateful nurse or a go to practice, and that's part of my day. I look up and I say, Wow, it's a beautiful day. I'm grateful for my dogs because they're always in the room with me and they're always happy to see me and be with me for my partner, for the bed I'm sleeping on for my body because it's allowing me to get up and walk to my office or walk in the nature or whatever. So I so it's a practice around five or 10 minutes around that. Then if I need go to the washroom, I'll go to that, brush my teeth, do all of the stuff and I do something a bit more crazy that some people will offer this and I'll offer this to as soon as I get into the washroom. I look at the meter, have a big smile on my face, and I say, Konstantin, I love you those forwards. Right you are. 

Rich Bennett 44:05
I love that. 

Constantin Morun 44:07
And there's a there's a reason behind all of that, because I always look at, okay, what's the reason for me? What do you do when you put a big smile on your face and you tell yourself you love yourself? I mean, that's part of your self-care, but also start your day on the right foot, because look at what we did. We were grateful for the things in our life. So when you think about things that you appreciate, you are truly grateful. You cannot be in a state of sadness because you appreciate those things. You're grateful for them. And then you go to this in the middle of it with a big smile on your face and you say Name, I love you. You're re-emphasizing the happiness piece. I mean, dopamine gets released in your brain. A lot of these hormones get released and you start your day on the right foot, so to speak, because I would imagine you, Rich and others in the audience can relate to. Imagine, remember waking up in the morning and hitting your toe on the bed frame or, you know, stubbing your toe like that's going to ruin the rest of your day. 

Rich Bennett 44:59
Yeah, right. 

Constantin Morun 45:01
Or turning on the news right away and seeing something else negative that happened in the work that's going to set a tone for the day. And you want to realize you're halfway through a day. It's like, why am I so pissed off? Why so angry at everyone? 

Rich Bennett 45:13
Yep. 

Constantin Morun 45:13
What? That means that we can do the opposite. Sure. I start with a positive and then I'm going to see more positive in your life. And that's what a guided practice allows me to do, is get into a routine where we talked about negativity, bias, what I'm bringing more positivity into my life because I'm bringing awareness to it, and the more I bring awareness to it, the more I find it in my life. Because now I'm not always looking for the negative. I'm also looking for the positive. And it's important to note that this is something that some people would argue with me. It's not that we ignore the negative because negative things will always be in our life and that'll happen but we don't focus on them to the point that we allow them to dictate our life. 

Rich Bennett 45:55
I love that. I'm going to add that to my morning routine now. 

Constantin Morun 46:00
I would look. 

Rich Bennett 46:01
At look in the mirror and just say, Rich, I love it. That is awesome. I've never because I mean, I'm the same way. I have a set morning routine before my before I'm even out of bed and then even when I go to bed. But I that 

that is great because I think everybody should do that every day. 

Constantin Morun 46:24
If they could tell you take 5 seconds. Now, this is something my mentor taught me, and I'll be honest with you, I thought I was crazy at the beginning. I'm like, I'll try it. And then it became part of my time, like, And now literally, I go by any minute, even when I drive. Am I. 

Rich Bennett 46:38
Known. 

Constantin Morun 46:38
For my phone on a selfie mode? And I just say it multiple times a day because if you need a quick pick me up, if you need a quick way to pull yourself out of a I say more of a negative mindset that will do it, that will, among other things, but that would be one of the things that will pull you out. 

Rich Bennett 46:54
Oh, it'll definitely help with your mental health in a heartbeat. 

Constantin Morun 46:57
Oh, yes. 

Rich Bennett 46:57
Without a doubt. Because and unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there today that don't love themselves. And look how they look. How many people are even afraid to say, I love you to somebody else, let alone themselves if you start doing that. And yeah, at first sometimes, you know, people may be like, well, it's just words. I guarantee you, after you start seeing it for a while, those words are going to have the true meaning with it. Yes, it's going to make a difference. Oh, my God. 

Constantin Morun 47:33
This is tough killing it. 

Rich Bennett 47:34
Thanks. I love. 

Constantin Morun 47:35
It. You start doing that and yeah, something beautiful that that all of us lack self-love. And I was the same. I, I didn't love myself. And one question someone asked me a long time ago and now I ask people when I talk to them as if you don't love yourself, how can you claim to love something else or someone else's meaning, you know, my dogs or my family? Because you can only do what you do for yourself. I can fake it. They can be a great partner, like in the past, without with with, without loving myself and hating myself. But they spill out externally. There's all that anger, everything you feel inside, every thought pattern, every limiting belief you have that will spill out in how you interact with others no matter how much you try to hide it. Because I know I was really good at trying to hide it and it was spill out all the time. 

Rich Bennett 48:25
So I think this is something that should actually be taught in the schools as well. 

Constantin Morun 48:29
All I see. 

Rich Bennett 48:30
Cause the other thing, and I'm sure you've seen this, one of the things that you that is lacking is respect. And if you start loving yourself and respect yourself, then you're going to be able to love and respect others. And that's something that this whole world needs more of. Oh, without a doubt. 

Couple other things real quick, because I want to talk about the podcast as well. 

Constantin Morun 48:57
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 48:59
What advice would you give to someone struggling with vulnerability and authenticity in their personal or professional life? 

Constantin Morun 49:08
Oh, I love the question, Eric. So that's something I struggled with back then. And the way I see it is vulnerability is a precursor to authenticity, meaning that if you cannot be vulnerable about yourself, about your struggles, about who you are, and it's very hard to truly show who you are and be authentic 

how it how it came into my life. And I realize that. So the first part is awareness. Realize that you're not being as vulnerable as it could be and also authentic was by simply doing more of it. I was always afraid I'll be judged by others and not accepted in groups if I truly showed all of me. Right. We just talked about my depression, my suicidal thoughts and my anxiety. That's something I would never admit because the way I grew up in that environment and the way schooling was later, people were bullied for this, right? People were put down for this. So why would I want to put myself out there so I can be hurt further? Now, for me, the biggest realization was, I mean, a few of them really is that you're not going to be liked by everyone and you're not going to like everyone either. That's that's a fact. So find your tribe, find the people you connect with and and then be yourself. If they don't like you for who you are. It's not a your problem. It's a damn problem right now. And that means you can move on now. It doesn't mean you don't have things to work on because they may not like you because of certain parts of yourself that you don't like about yourself. And that's that's fine. But you get to learn in that process and continue working. So that was a big one for me. It's like when I when I drop that expectation and the need to be accepted by everyone to be part of as many groups as possible, to be included and just be me. Funny enough, I start to be included more because now people could relate and be like, Oh, should I like this version of Constantino, which is a true version? And then you connect with people on a much, much deeper level, like strangers, literally like I was last weekend. I was at the spa and I like to ask the worst part of myself. It's like a Nordic spa. They have saunas and they have called baths and they have, oh, jacuzzis and, you know, like hot tubs. So I like to do that where I go into the hot tub and then you go to the cold plunge because there's a lot of research into how that helps your body and the saunas. But most people that go there are either couples or with friends, right? So I was there by myself chilling in one of the hot tubs. And then I noticed another gentleman, a younger gentleman. He was there by himself as well. Later on in the day, as we spend about 10 hours, we got talking, waiting in line for like this special sauna ceremony that they were going to do. And then later on and we had a good conversation. Now nothing, just genetic. How your day is, what the part about the spa, nothing crazy. And then I you know, we parted ways. I went to another hot tub and he happened to see me and he joined me and we started talking about travel because that's something that we, I guess both liked. And then one thing led to another and we started to have this deep conversation on mental health. I got to share my stories of depression, which gave him permission to share his own struggles with his own life. And in those 4 hours, we developed a friendship for closeness that I would have never, ever imagined in my life before, because it came from authenticity and no expectation. I'm like, I'm just enjoying myself. Here I am spending time with someone else. Another beautiful human being never met him in my life, even if I don't meet him again. Share some space and listen to his story and listen to mine and that's it. And that's what vulnerability, authenticity comes in. 

Rich Bennett 52:40
Just you pray and you may have changed his life as well. 

Constantin Morun 52:44
Possible. And I'm sure he changed parts of why? Because, yeah, I learned a lot about him and it gave me some thoughts, Oh, maybe I should handle this interaction live in the future and give me some ideas. So that's another part which is like approach every situation with a mindset of What can I learn from this? 

Rich Bennett 53:04
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 53:05
Right. Even if you feel like you're so much superior than someone else, which of course comes from the ego and is something that can be worked on. And most of us are guilty to some degree. You can always learn something and if you don't learn, if you don't learn what to do in certain parts, you can learn what not to do. And that's also a beautiful lesson. 

Rich Bennett 53:24
That's all I'm on that side too, where I'll say hi to everybody. I just strike up a conversation and I've mentioned this story before, but 

I remember going to the store here, me and a buddy of mine, and when you leave leaving, there's a lady that at the exit and she looks at your receipt and checks out your cart. Yeah. So we're walking up and I could just tell she was having a bad day and she she said, You guys find everything okay? I said, No, Her eyes just opened up. She said, Oh, I'm sorry. What couldn't you find? I pulled off. I took my hat off. I said my hair, I had nothing, and she just lost it. She started cracking up. 

Constantin Morun 54:07
Oh, that's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 54:08
Constantine I went back the next week. She was there working again, and she recognized me. And as I was leaving, she thanked me. I said, Thank you. As for what she is, I was seriously thinking about going home that night after work and oh, wow. And when you said that to me, you made me laugh. And that just changed. That changed my life. Wow. Yeah. That just if it'll for you if floored you and I get the same thing from the podcast. I'll have people that will either email or leave a voicemail or message me thanking me for an episode that they heard because it helped them. And I'm sure you're getting the same thing. And if you're if you if you're not, you will be with your podcast Unleashed I self I wanted to I want to get into that. What was it that made you decide the light bulb went off? I want to start a podcast. 

Constantin Morun 55:11
I love the question. I love looking back on the story. So it wasn't 2022 in my darkest time when I came up with the idea, and I've always wanted to start a YouTube channel or a podcast, and I was always driven by a motivation to make more money, either, you know, going back to coaching poker or investment strategies or something that could generate money. And that was always in the past, and I never did anything with that. And I remember I was with a dear friend of mine in August of 2022 driving somewhere, and she just mentioned to me an alternative here that she was with. And that healer over 25 years that he's been doing this has been able to help thousands of people cure things like cancers and fibromyalgia and things that that it's like, how can you do that? I mean, even science can heal some of those things. And, you know, at that point, because I did I was I was a bit more of a believer that, you know what, there's more than we understand. I'm sure she's got some skills. So I told her I'm like, So if someone has that ability, how come he has helped tens of thousands, millions of people in that time? Mind you, I have I helped zero people up to that point, right? So I was being very judgmental. But then it got me an idea. I said, Do you think you would be open to jumping on a conversation with me? And we share the podcast and we share his words too, or his methods and his information to the world. And that's how the idea came up, because I'm like, Huh, There must be more people like him that are doing amazing things and more people don't know about this. So how can we get those voices to be heard and make a bigger, bigger impact on the world? Because you see, at that point I had found my way, which was to inspire, empower, guide of support individuals on this life journey. And this was just in line. So I said, you know what? The podcast is the way I'm going to leave my why. But it took me another six months or so to get the things moving because of my depression in the States I was in. But once I got moving, that was a big catalyst to pull me out of the dark time I was in because it brought more passion into my life. It brought more of a reason to actually be alive because I was helping myself while helping others. MM So in January of 2023 is when I made the decision to start doing this and I put my thoughts on in a PowerPoint presentation because it's something I'm really good at building presentations and then I went to any and all friends, acquaintances, co-workers that would give me half an hour. It's like, I have this idea. I want to run it by you. What are your thoughts? And with every conversation and people were super excited like, Oh, this is amazing. They're give me encouragement, which built my self confidence, reduce my self-doubt and push me forward. Then, like the interaction you had with the lady in the store, it was the same thing. Because imagine you're hearing those words having interactions with people on a common topic. You put a smile on my face, so I'll feel like $1,000,000 right after. Yeah, I was still depressed. I was still going through my dark times. But slowly I'll pull myself up with every conversation. And then in March I started recording and I had such literally, I was on one of the websites that allows you to march with people and I put my profile. I had no episodes, no website, nothing. I just put a blurb on the comments about not even who I am, and I got hundreds of people reaching out to me in like a month to be on the show. And I was like overwhelming, like, wow, in a good way, right? Yeah. So having conversation to the point that I had over, I think three, four, three, five interviews recorded before I even went live. 

Rich Bennett 58:45
Wow. 

Constantin Morun 58:46
So that's why I went from like one episode to episode two, because I have so much demand. There's so many amazing people. I don't know what to do. If I could, I would record every day and do like seven days a week. 

Rich Bennett 58:57
That's a lot of work, right? 

Constantin Morun 58:59
That's why I'm not doing that anyway. So that's kind of how I started and how it got going, right? It wasn't like an overnight thing. It took a while because of life circumstances. 

Rich Bennett 59:12
But the good thing is it's it's a very good podcast. It's growing. I think I looked in your and if I'm not mistaken, in the ten in the top 10% globally, which is good. One of the questions I want I want to ask you though, about your podcast, and I mentioned it briefly in the beginning, have you had any listeners contact you? 

Constantin Morun 59:36
Yes, I have actually a few. I mean, some of them are in my life because they're right from my life. So that's not. 

Rich Bennett 59:42
But they're still listening. 

Constantin Morun 59:43
Exactly. But we can count them, right? I mean. 

Rich Bennett 59:46
Yeah. 

Constantin Morun 59:47
My massage therapist, a young lady, never had the conversation in my life with her while, you know, doing massages. I like to meditate and be quiet. And then in their work, they do a fabulous job. I don't interrupt them. And I remember before I ever launched a podcast, she would just randomly asking me, Hey, what are you doing this week? Right? Just to do small talk? And I said, Well, I'm going to work on my podcast. I have this new. And she got really excited. They said, Oh, what? You know, what are you working on? And then one thing led to another and she is one of my biggest fans now. And we, you know, when I we have a massage and even after she reaches out to me on WhatsApp or other tools and she's like, Oh, I love that episode and I love this and I love this and I'm learning so much right then I'm like, This is someone I would have never had the conversation with in the past, Right on, you know, the small talk. And this is and there's more examples of that. But that's one that I, you know, I hold dear to my heart because, again, this is someone young that's looking to invest in themselves, to be on this path because they know that what they're doing, even though they're doing great things, is not sitting well within here and they want to do better. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:49
Something very important you said there that she told you that she's learning from it. And this is something that I tell all podcasters that I talk to or people that want to get into it, ignore the downloads. What's important is when listeners contact you and give you pray, basically praise your podcast and tell you they're learning something. That's why we're doing this to educate people. And that to me is the biggest reward that you can get. And you know, she's going to turn around what she probably already has. She's going to turn around and tell other people, Oh, absolutely. 

Constantin Morun 1:01:30
And that's how it goes. And you're right about the numbers, because I was focused on at the beginning that I had the realization, as you are right, I was doing my my own work. And there's another thing I'd like to offer that that I, I believe you will find to very accurate for yourself as well. That was mind blowing for me. So I say that this idea is about giving back. It's about giving back, not realizing how much I will learn. And I believe I was like maybe four or five recordings in and I'm doing my recording, having an amazing conversation with this beautiful soul, and I'm beaming the entire time. And then I end the recording and I'm like, on cloud nine, I'm so beaming because I'm like, Oh, this was such a beautiful conversation. And I remember growing up, my partner, her brother, were here and I said, You know what? I just had this realization that even if no one listens to my podcast and I know the people well, but even if no one does all the money I put in all the time, all the effort was worth it because I get so much out of it. Now. When you come from that mindset, then everything else is just a cherry on top of the cake. I think it's not just a podcast, it can be applied to any aspect of your life. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:33
Oh yeah, I can't tell you. And I got I don't even know. I think it's over 500 episodes, if not close to it, that I've done. I've learned something from every guest that I've had on. Yes. And that it's just and at my age, that's a good thing. You can teach in a hotel. You absolutely. 

Constantin Morun 1:02:56
Can. I mean, you need to continue growing and learning because if you stop, then what happens in nature? Stuff stops growing. He dies. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:04
Yeah, exactly. But definitely keep the podcast going, man, because it is a great, great podcast. Rich So those of you that are listening to this May when you're done this, go listen to Constantino because you're going to be hooked. First of all, you are, without a doubt, even your interviews. You're, you know, I started listening to that one, your most recent one, which I think came out the ninth. Yes. Yeah. Young lady that you had on there. 

Constantin Morun 1:03:36
Although. Which was good. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:38
Okay. Yeah. So I got to finish listening to that one. But and that's another thing because people will ask all the time, Well, if I listen to your podcast, which episode should I start with? I always tell people the first one, because you're number one, you're going to see the transition. 

Constantin Morun 1:04:00
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:01
How gotten better and all the different guests that you've had on, you're just going to learn from it. Oh, God. Before I get to my last question, then, I realize we've been talking for over an hour. Before I get to my last question, Is there anything you would like to add included and of course, your website and how people can get in touch with you? 

Constantin Morun 1:04:23
Well, let's get the last part out of the way. Easiest way to get in touch with me is either through LinkedIn or go to my website. Unleash. They saw that com if you want to send me an email Constantine there's no E at the end, right? So it's Constantine, but at least I saw the com easiest way to get a hold of me. I always love to talk about this stuff, so feel free to reach out. And on YouTube you can find me at least I solve for any major podcasting platforms right now. I do want to emphasize one thing, though. I mean, we talked about it today a lot, which is the positivity versus negativity. And I have a side for those watching that says Love right under the Follow Your Heart. And that was a big realization in my life through my spiritual awakening and before and after that. When you have something happen in your life and that means every second of the day something happens, you always have a choice. Do you come from the life side, which is the happiness, the appreciation, the beauty of it? Or do you come from the opposite of love, which could be fear, hate, or the dark side? You always have a choice. And it's okay to have the moments where you see the darkness, you see the fear, acknowledge it, but look at the positive side of it as well. Because even in our darkest moments, there's always a positive. And I can tell you this, which I am grateful for my depression. I am grateful for my anxiety, for my burnout, because without that, I wouldn't be here. Without that, I wouldn't know how dark it could get and how I could get myself to the other side and how I can potentially help others get over similar problems as well. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:02
Exactly. Yeah, me too. Me too. So I always like to ask people this. You've been in or you probably don't even know how many times you've been interviewed, but it's been a lot harder. 

Constantin Morun 1:06:14
It has been a few, yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:16
Is there anything and it doesn't necessarily have to, you know, do with anything we talked about, Is there anything that a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would that question and what would be your answer? Oh, my. 

Constantin Morun 1:06:33
I've been asked a lot of questions, but let's see something that give me a second here. 

Okay. This is a more recent thing I've started talking about more, and that's not really a question that comes up a a question around control. You see, most of us want to control as many things as we can in our life because that feels safe and that feels known. And a question I would like host to ask more is 

what have you found through or not through about control? Here's what I have found. I have found that the only real thing that we can control in this life is us. And it gets even deeper than that. What within us can we control? Can I control my actions? Can I control my feelings? Can I control my thoughts and beliefs? Can I control the environment around me? There's a bit in that as well, right? I can control who I hang out with. That's part of my environment. I can control if I'm going to talk to you like this or if I want to go faster, I can maybe control a feeling like if I don't feel good, I'll try to change it to feeling better. But none of those usually stick and it's not always perfect. The one I left out is the thoughts and beliefs. That's where you have 100% control, and that's what everything starts. Meaning that your environment environment is your work, the people you hang out with, the people in your life that you have a choice of would not have a choice over the podcast. Listen to the social media. You go on the news, you listen to all of that is your environment. Some of it you have control over, some of it you don't. That influences what your thoughts and your beliefs about yourself, about those around you, and about the world at large. Okay. So that's what influence my belief that I'm not good enough, that I have to put myself down. All those limiting beliefs. They came from my early childhood and then they were reinforced through the years. Then all the thoughts, let's say I'll give you a great example. I was recording the episode. You just listened to the one on the success and I was so excited. I recorded the full episode was like 20 something minutes. I was really happy with how it came out and then I realized I made the mistake where my video was only recorded in a small side of the screen because I was recording my screen and my screen had nothing on it. It was just a Windows background and all me. So that was wasted, right? Like I had the audio, but not the video, which is not good for me and my old me and I saw the pattern come up right away, tried to put myself down, trying to blame myself and be like, Oh, this is fucking stupid. So nice. We can kind of, oh, this is this is fricking stupid I'm not good enough. I always do mistakes, blah, blah, blah. Right. So that's the pattern that was starting to come up. Your father was starting to come up. How do I not know my strategies right now? Out of what then? Have feelings of worthlessness, feelings of not being good enough, feelings of always making mistakes which would lead to actions were also fairly negative, are not as great, which would mean that I would maybe try to record the gamble with not be as good because I would have all these thoughts and feelings in my mind that my and my heart and my body. And then the results would be a weaker episode. But sometimes what those thoughts were, these are the feelings of not being good enough. And then what action would I think I would take an action of doing nothing, procrastinating and being like, You know what? I'll come back to this later. I'm done with this. I'm pissed off. I'm walking away. Hmm And then the results I would have would be that. Yeah, it's really a waste of time. And maybe when I come next time it's going to be in the back of my mind. It's going to affect how I record. So instead what I did is as soon as I use, I sort of catch up. I was like, Nah, I know this story. I did something physical to remove myself from the space and celebrated the fact that I caught myself. So the way I celebrate again is I put my chest and be like, Yes, constantly. We caught the negative thought and now I'm changing it. And then I put a new story in which is true. It's like, you know what? Mistakes happen. It's okay. We learn from them. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:33
Yes. 

Constantin Morun 1:10:34
What's the positive mean? What just happened? Well, it's a practice run. I know what I can change now because. There were a few things in that episode that I recorded I would like to change. Now I have the opportunity. So even though you could paint it as negative, I wasted half an hour. I got these thoughts and these feelings. I've shifted to a positive mindset. And then I went on to record that episode and another one and or also my best recordings yet. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:00
I love that you're you're right. We learn from our mistakes. It's two to say things that you hear all the time. And it's true. We learn from our mistakes and sometimes you have to fail to succeed. Yeah, it's actually yeah, it's, it's education nation. That's what I call education, free education. 

Constantin Morun 1:11:23
I love that you said we learn from our mistakes all these days. I like to rephrase it as we learn from our mistakes. So we learn from our mistakes. If we want to learn from our mistakes, if we allow ourselves to learn from them. MM Right. Because in that mistake I just share with you, if I had gone down the path of old me right, negative thoughts, I would have learned nothing there. Other to continue to beat myself up. So thank you. I guess you all learn something might not be positive, but out of love, nothing to benefit my future self. Am I could have some JS Cassadine. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:02
I want to thank you so much everybody listening again. Make sure you check out this podcast and when he finishes his book that he's going to start. Yeah, well we'll have it back on it before it is. Or we could tell you the name of the book and you know when to, you know where to it and everything. So Constantine, thanks so much, man. It's been a true, true, true pleasure. 

Constantin Morun 1:12:25
Rachel, I can't thank you enough as well. It's been so beautiful to share space with you and your audience. Want to thank everyone for listening in. And yeah, I mean, Catholicism outreach is doing an amazing job here. And I cannot wait to speak to you again in the near term. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:38
Thanks.