Viral Video Creator & Storyteller Megan Snedden Shares How Kindness Can Battle Depression

Show notes in order of appearance:

• Coworking crashing story by Sebastian
• Megan shares her Spain experience when Covid hit
• Megan shares how she became a successful travel journalist for major publications
• Megan shares travel stories and cultural experiences through her journey
• How her DREAM job was leaving her unfulfilled
• Battling depression and the death of her father
• Creating the Kind Effect
• A first date from a dating app that she filmed & got millions of views on Youtube
• People in corporate jobs can still give back and find a bigger purpose
• Struggling with Perfectionism
• Random acts of kindness
• The kindness challenge
• The science of well being
• 2 Traits for the new Conscious Leader

Connect with the Kind Effect

Kindness Challenge

Free Guide: Changemakers’s Action Plan

Kind Effect Youtube

Connect with Sebastian on Instagram

SebastianNaum.com

Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Sebastian Naum (00:09):
What up people welcome back today. I have a freaking kindness rock star on the show. Megan Sneddon is an Epic storyteller who got her start working as a journalist for many mainstream media outlets, including BBC, the international business times and Buzzfeed among others. She literally had the dream job. She lived the dream life, traveling the world and getting paid to write about her experiences. I mean, who would not want that? Right? But somehow she still found herself unfulfilled. This is when she founded the kind effect and acts of kindness movement and video series that uplifts humanity with the joy of good deeds as a kindness advocate, Megan promotes a mental health benefits of altruism by sharing her personal story about the ways that kindness has helped her through both trauma and depression. In this show, we talk about some of our Epic experiences, including one of my favorite stories about how she filmed a first date with a guy she met on a dating app. She shared it on YouTube and it went full viral. I’m talking like millions of views, which actually helped the jumpstart, her kindness movement. We get into how kindness and just doing good in general can actually change your life and even affect the science of your mental state. Enjoy the show.

Sebastian Naum (01:28):
Tell her,

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (01:29):
Welcome to the show. Thanks, Sebastian. It sounds like you’re laughing. I feel like you were just laughing. You were cracking your knuckles right before the show going into this. Like I’m going to get to a fist fight. I wish I would have been recorded. Cause it was so loud. It was like, I got my breasts, love knuckles, loved Throwdown. I love it. It’s great. You know, I gotta, I gotta tell the truth about how we met. And so I got to tell listeners out there because it’s funny because I, um, well, okay, so cross-campus is this, uh, coworking space and you know, when you’re hustling, you know, and you’re not crushing it yet, like you trying to figure out a way to save money one way or another. So I remember that I had this, this app called, uh, desk pass. So it’s basically like class pass, but for coworking.

Sebastian Naum (02:21):
And so I had this, like, you get to go in, uh, you know, you pay and you get to go in once or twice a week to these coworking spaces. And long story short, I started kind of becoming this regular and then like, you know, the people that worked there thought that I worked there and my good friend, uh, drew Howard did work there. So all of a sudden I’m just like, man, I think I got this, I’m going to start kind of crashing this place and saving a little bit of money. So I started like just going into cross campus, like pretending I’d be on the phone and just kind of wave. Yeah. I’m on the phone, I’m on the phone. It’s cool. Yeah. And then I’d go in and then like for a while, so I’m kind of like some days, you know, they’re being paid for other days, I’m just kind of like crashing this coworking space. And then I’m sitting there in one of those big wide open tables and all of a sudden you come up to me and you’re like, yeah,

Sebastian Naum (03:08):
Hey, I know you like super loud. I’m kind of like

Sebastian Naum (03:13):
Me that she knows me. I don’t know her.

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (03:17):
Hey dude, I know you I’m like, what are you talking about? I’m also crashing that coworking space. Also, unlike others, it’s not like broken up into different opposites. It’s all one big, it looks like a greenhouse because it’s all glass. That thing echoes

Sebastian Naum (03:38):
Does, everyone can hear. And it’s really big. And I was like, Oh my God, don’t draw extra attention to me. Right.

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (03:44):
I’m like, you’re the guy that’s sneaking it by the way.

Sebastian Naum (03:50):
Meanwhile, somehow the I’m sure the CEO of cross-campus will hear this part.

Sebastian Naum (03:56):
We’re not

Sebastian Naum (03:56):
Paid for. Oh, well, you know.

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (03:59):
Yeah. I couldn’t contain my excitement because actually that was my first day at cross campus. Oh really? Yeah. And I couldn’t believe that I actually knew somebody there, so I

Sebastian Naum (04:13):
We’re in class together. So yeah. Long story short, we were in class together at UC Santa Barbara.

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (04:18):
You don’t remember. I do, but it was a big class,

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (04:23):
Um, like, you know, 200 people anyway. So, so Megan, I start the shows by asking my guests when their last Oh moment was whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m actually going to just basically force you to tell a story and tell us about, I mean, you were in Spain when for COVID and man that’s an Oh moment. Like

Megan Snedden (04:50):
Major, major.

Sebastian Naum (04:52):
What made you decide, like I got to get out of it. Cause you were like in this great point of your life and then COVID hit. And then like Spain was in shutdown and over here it wasn’t,

Megan Snedden (05:01):
It was crazy. It was, I think I’m still in a state of shock after that had happened because you know, I had gone over to Spain to do a teaching program for a year. It’s called the auxiliaries. They convert sassy [inaudible] Moinian I was loving it. I was loving Spain and actually my, um, my boyfriend and I had lot like plan this really long trip around Europe. We’re so excited. COVID had kind of hit at that point. It was over in China and we had heard about it kind of coming over to Europe, but I felt like things just moved and changed so fast with this, that there really was no advanced preparation that was able to be made. So he, we were like, yeah, COVID no big deal. So he comes over. Our first destination was Milan, of course. And we ended up leaving the lawn like two days before they had ended up closing the city down and we kind of maybe got an indicator that something was happening when we went to just go buy water at the grocery store and there was no water and there were hundreds of people line we’re like, what is happening?

Megan Snedden (06:12):
This is so we traveled together, have a good time, hear about COVID escalating. And I was like, wow, this is so weird. He leaves, I go back to Spain. I was in school for maybe one more week before they closed on the schools. And then Spain went into like a hardcore lockdown because unlike places in the West, they didn’t allow us to even go outside to go for exercise or watch. Right. So I was covertly sneaking fruit and vegetables into a grocery bag and just, just like go outside. And

Sebastian Naum (06:47):
Not that pretend grocery shopping, just move around.

Megan Snedden (06:51):
Yeah. I mean, I could really only tolerate being in my apartment alone because my roommates left. Um, and at that point for like a week, you know, um, and at that point it didn’t even really matter that I was in Spain anymore because it’s not like you’re going to travel or go get toppers or anything. My most important people to me are over here. Um, then you know, they were, they put in the travel ban and the travel advisory and closing airports. So literally on a Friday evening, I decided to just pack up my life in span and get out. Um, and I’m just like furiously throwing things in a suitcase and left the next day. And here we are, months later,

Sebastian Naum (07:29):
What a crazy time. And for you, like, you know, a travel ban for you is not the same as the travel ban for somebody that goes on vacation from time to time. So we’ll get into that. So definitely a little, yeah, exactly. Yeah. If you’re just listening to the podcast and Megan was doing a show called, uh,

Sebastian Naum (07:48):
Okay.

Sebastian Naum (07:49):
What was your most current hail yam moment? Recent, last thing you can think of came to mind.

Megan Snedden (07:56):
Oh God, last night. Yeah.

Megan Snedden (08:00):
I, so I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of my family dog. Who’s become like my bestie with all this time at home. I realized in my closet, I have a wonder woman costume with a detachable Cape. So I rip the Cape off and actually fits around his neck. So my mom and I put the Cape around his neck and we’re throwing the ball and filming it in slow motion. Hell yeah,

Megan Snedden (08:24):
That was my,

Megan Snedden (08:29):
There haven’t been a lot of like extraordinary hell yes, it’s locked down because you know, we’re all just like at home toilet paper bowling and figuring out how to bide our time.

Sebastian Naum (08:39):
We got to enjoy what we have. So Megan, if anybody looks at your Instagram, like you’re fricking rockstar, right. You live in all kinds of things and things that you do good that you give back. But then even like going back and like just looking at your, your career as a journalist, you know, you’ve got this like, and it’s good because we’re going to get to talk about the realness, but you’ve got this extravagant lifestyle of traveling to the most Epic places in the world getting paid to write about it. Like tell us a little bit first, like how you got into that because that’s a travel, that’s a, um, that’s a dream job for a lot of humans. Like how did you get paid to travel the world and write about it?

Megan Snedden (09:24):
Isn’t that the million dollar question I I’m it’s, it’s not a perfectly formulaic thing. I, I think I’ve always just been someone that when I consider a vision or an idea, I think, well, you know, if someone else is doing it, it’s got to be possible somehow. So I’ve always been a big like figure outer person in general. And somehow I just kind of stitched it together. I, I double majored in international relations and writing in college and worked as an editor at the school paper. And then I actually graduated into the recession in 2008. Wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do because everyone’s like, ah, journalism’s done, everything’s done. You’re not going to have a job. So it’s like, wow.

Sebastian Naum (10:15):
On that same year, Megan, you know how smart that was 2007. Yeah,

Megan Snedden (10:21):
It was, it reminds me a lot of what people are saying about this moment too, with the effect that the pandemic has on the economy. It was very like, it was hopeless and hopeful because my dream, I had not really traveled internationally at that time. So I took my camera and I was like, you know, what, if there’s no jobs, I’m just going to move to South America because this is my version of rational. Decision-making by the way, where I’m like, Oh, I’ll just move to South America. That makes way more sense. Um, I was lucky enough at that point to have one friend who worked at a very tiny and now dead publication in some no-name town who I had said, Hey, I want to like write a little short story about my travels with pictures, for your newspaper. And they gave me 75 bucks for it.

Megan Snedden (11:13):
Yeah. I was like, Oh yeah, I’m a travel journalist. So, um, I felt very inspired by that. Started blogging had kind of started to come on board. So I started my first ever blog. Then when I I’d spent, you know, a couple of years, um, learning Spanish, volunteering, wandering around South America, practicing the art of taking pictures and just taking terrible photos. Then when I decided I had enough moment of like wandering around the world aimlessly, I said, okay, I really want to take this seriously. New York seems like the place to be, to make this happen. And I just, I went directly from Argentina, the North of Argentina.

Megan Snedden (12:01):
It was like snowing in Northern Argentina when I left. And it was summer in New York city. And I showed up there with my suitcase and it was just like super hot. Um, and then I don’t know. I, I moved to, I had like no money. I moved to Brooklyn to this little apartment that was like right over the subway, the subway, like running red underneath it. And I just started sending emails to anybody that would have it asking, like who would go to coffee with me, like trying to make all the right connections and eventually got, you know, one publication after another, after another and built my career. That way I was determined,

Sebastian Naum (12:43):
Determined. I love it. How many countries have you visited? Do you know the number

Megan Snedden (12:47):
Close to 40

Sebastian Naum (12:49):
Close to 40? How many like different publications or magazines or digital publications have you written for any idea?

Megan Snedden (12:56):
I actually don’t know the count, but, um, I used to work for BBC, uh, international business times, Newsweek, Yahoo, buzz, feed, all of the, all the places.

Sebastian Naum (13:11):
What was like the strangest weirdest cultural thing that you experienced. And that doesn’t mean that like it’s, that you’re judging it and as an experience, but I mean like, what was the strangest from as a westerner? Was there something that sticks out that was like, man, I was not expecting that.

Megan Snedden (13:29):
I think every country has a moment like that. You know, like traveling in Latin countries, like the people just stand really close. They just are close talkers. Like when I got to Argentina and everyone has no problem, just like being this close, like super close to your face and you’re talking and you’re just like, can I have some space?

Sebastian Naum (13:52):
Well, I, I talked to my friends and family in Argentina and you know how hard it is for them to social media.

Megan Snedden (13:57):
Oh, I bet it’s pretty darn all put their hands on each other, like close. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was, that was, um, and then it was funny because after living in South America for so long, I came back to the States, just very comfortable with being close to people. And so people kind of like, uh, non-verbally back up a little and then I would find myself like leaning on me. I’m like, what are you talking about? That was uncomfortable for you. I am very touchy feely. So that’s that vibes with me, but it doesn’t always vibe with other people.

Sebastian Naum (14:35):
So nothing sticks out as something crazy. Like you didn’t see like a, you know, like a goat get, uh, you know, murdered in the name of like the rain to come or something crazy like that. Like,

Megan Snedden (14:44):
I don’t know. I have plenty of memories when I was in, I was backpacking around Peru and were like at the me and two girlfriends, I can not believe that I did this, by the way, it goes on the list of like, wow, I’m happy to be alive. That was dumb. Um, me and the two girlfriends, we were ready to go home. We flagged down what we thought was a cab. It was just some person in a Cadillac that was like jump on in. I’m a taxi. So we’re like, okay, whatever, get in this rattle trap tasks, the taxi. And we’re in this area of Pru where there’s no paved roads. So we’re driving down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. And the, uh, the trunk is slamming up and down. Cause it’s just tied with a bungee cord and then all I’m sitting in the front seat and the guy’s like, Oh, Hey, I need to like make a delivery on the way home.

Megan Snedden (15:31):
And I’m like, all right. So he’s like, Oh, will you help me get it out of the trunk? I’m like, Oh my God, I’m going to die. I get out of the car. We like unroped the trunk and open it up. And it’s like literally a dead cow. Oh, hacked to pieces. And he’s like, yeah, help me carry all this raw meat to this person’s front door. And I’m like, Oh my son. Yeah. So I, you know, helping unload this guy’s car and then we rope it up and then he just drove us home and dropped us off. And that was it. Farm to table, baby, true farm to table.

Sebastian Naum (16:05):
So I remember seeing this post, um, you were like traveling first class, Australian airline, Austria airlines to Austria. So, you know, just want to touch on this. Like everything from the outside has this one perspective. So it’s like this, I mean, is that, is that like the biggest brand you’ve worked with or kinda like one of the most extravagant things you’ve done in terms of like travel, like an airlines paying for you to travel first?

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (16:27):
Yeah. Funny thing is they actually didn’t pay me to do that. I want it in a raffle. Oh, I didn’t know that I did. I won that trip in a raffle and I, but of course, you know, I think they had expected maybe some social love and exchange. I, that was definitely a Holy moment because I was like, I I’m very much a, a budget traveler, a backpacker. I still to this day stay in hostels and I’ve just never really had that much money, but I’ve always lived a very rich life. I did not sleep through that entire first class experience because I had never flown first class before and my friend just passes out and I’m just, I’m just like, I can’t sleep because I just need to get this into my head, like there’s class. And this is amazing. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum (17:22):
So there’s, you know, you’ve got these first-class experience. You’ve been traveling all over the world. You’ve written all these huge publications, somehow this dream Epic job is at some point not fulfilling you. So tell us a little bit about why you were starting to feel unfulfilled, the, what was it that drew you to kind of take the next step in your life that moved you into the kind of,

Megan Snedden (17:50):
You know, I think with a

Megan Snedden (17:52):
Decision or a feeling like that of not being fulfilled anymore, it’s not ever really about just one factor in your life. It’s about a combination. There’s always a confluence of things going on. Right. And at that time I was turning 30 and traveled to so many places. And I was a very, in my twenties, just like a really independent woman and was going around the world by myself and it was exhilarating and it was really fun. And I think part of that was inspired by losing my dad, um, and brother and I both unexpectedly when I was younger. And that had kind of given me this drive of, you know, I need to live now and experience life to the fullest. And you know, when I was younger, I’m still young. But when I wasn’t at the last decade of my life, that was what living life to the fullest meant to me at that time, going around the world and, you know, making the most of my career and everything.

Megan Snedden (18:53):
But then as I got older, um, and I had checked some things off my bucket list, the idea of living life to the fullest just started to look different to me. You know, I really, I was craving being in partnership with somebody. Um, you know, I, I really wanted to be a little bit more settled down somewhere, um, with the opportunity to travel still regularly. Um, and things like adding another pot, um, publication to my roster or adding, checking another country off my list, just really, wasn’t going to scratch that fulfillment itch for me, if you will. And I really noticed within myself, you know, what’s missing is feeling like I have a purpose in life because I’m giving back to other people. I have always felt like I want to be of service and I want to leave behind a legacy of contribution and giving back in some way.

Megan Snedden (19:57):
So I’m thinking about these things. And then I definitely overthought a lot because I’ve always been like a big vision person when I’m like, okay. You know, when I think about purpose and giving back, making a difference to others, like what’s going to be then the next big thing, you know, because I’m very much also about a challenge. Like, how am I going to make this challenging? How am I going to figure this out? Like a puzzle, the way that I did with my journalism journalism career. Um, and then I really just kind of, um, I just kind of drew a blank because I had just over-thought it, you know, and when I talked to other people and they asked me, you know, well, what actually does make you happiest when you give back to others? And I had ever since the time I was young, I’ve always loved the element of surprise.

Megan Snedden (20:49):
And I’ve always loved making people feel special and very simple ways. And then I had it kind of in my head that maybe I would travel around the world, um, doing acts of kindness and engaging in service. And again, the picture was overwhelming to me because I was like, Oh, I don’t have any like hosting or production experience at all. I have, no, I didn’t have much of a social following at that time. Um, and just over complicated and it in my head again, and tell a friend was like, why are you making this so difficult on yourself? Why don’t you just, if you want to do acts of kindness, like forget the big picture, thinking of making this a show and traveling around the world,

Sebastian Naum (21:36):
Et cetera, you wanted to show

Megan Snedden (21:40):
You that with that I decided was like my next big challenge. You know, that was the vision, but my friend was just like, you know, start small and just see where it goes. So I, I came up in my head with a few different acts of kindness that I wanted to do. And at that time I didn’t have any film skills either, so I just filmed it on my iPhone. Um, and just that really did it for me. It was really exciting and really fun. And I used my background in journalism and a little bit of PR to then pitch this video out to

Sebastian Naum (22:18):
What was the first one.

Megan Snedden (22:21):
The first one was about, well, I had put a call out on Facebook looking for somebody in the Los Angeles area that deserved a bouquet of flowers. So then a friend told me about this girl who had recently lost her dad, like right before her wedding. And that resonated with me because I had also lost my dad unexpectedly. So I was planning to just show up at her house with the flowers. But then I was also chatting with this guy on hinge and he was like, yo, let’s have drinks this weekend. And I said, I didn’t mind torturing somebody. I didn’t really know because you know, with the dating apps, it’s such a gamble, whether you’re actually going to connect with someone or not. And I’m like, I have nothing to lose by just inviting this person to go have an Epic experience together. So I was like, Hey, actually, I’m going to do this act of kindness. Do you want to come with? And he’s surprisingly said yes.

Sebastian Naum (23:18):
So let me clarify that. I actually remember this really well a long time ago. Now, how long though is this like, like four years ago? So you’re connecting with this guy on hinge

Megan Snedden (23:32):
On hinge, and you’ve got

Sebastian Naum (23:33):
This random act of kindness they’re going to be doing. And so he’s like, let’s get drinks and you’re like, okay, cool. Let’s go on a first date. But instead of getting drinks, why don’t you just go do this random app to kind of with me and give flowers, this girl whose dad has recently passed?

Megan Snedden (23:47):
I mean, I did the film it how great it is for the guy

Sebastian Naum (23:56):
He’s like telling his homies. Y’all bro, I got this chip. She’s hot. I’m going to be like, you know,

Megan Snedden (24:01):
What’s your first date? Oh, we’re going to go

Sebastian Naum (24:04):
Random act of kindness and she’s going to film the whole thing.

Megan Snedden (24:07):
No, no, no. I showed up like rolling it hot because he didn’t know that I was going to film it. I did not tell him that. I was like, I’ll just tell him when he gets here. So then he shows up for the date and I come downstairs with the iPhone rolling and I’m like, Oh, Hey, we’d like hug and I’m holding the iPhone. And then I get in the car and he’s driving and we’re going to drive to the grocery store to get the flowers. And I’m still filming him. I’m like, have you ever been on a first date? We’re so in LA. And he like, you know, like worked in production and stuff. And so it, like, wasn’t a big deal. I got really lucky, really lucky that this guy, I mean, we’re not, we don’t keep in touch and, um, we’re not even homies anymore, which sucks because that would have been cool, but like a few, actually a year and a half ago, I was invited to be part of the Ellen show and they wanted to have me, the girl that I gave the flowers to and the guy from the date come be in the audience and it was sponsored by Cheerio’s and then they ended up giving her whole audience a million dollars to share.

Megan Snedden (25:12):
So he ended up getting money out of this at the time. He was just a kind soul, but yeah, fast forward three years, he ended up getting

Sebastian Naum (25:23):
What gave birth to what is today. The kind of fact that video went viral, a F um,

Sebastian Naum (25:29):
How many total

Sebastian Naum (25:31):
Like views between like the different places that it was posted and all that, did it get multiple millions, multiple millions that’s it’s came out of something that started with lack of fulfillment in this dream career that you have, and to wanting to do something that you wanted to give back and figuring out, like, what can I do? And then you’re struggling with this perfectionism aspect, which I can really resonate with because I’m in marketing and branding, and I’ve got this thing where like, things need to be beautiful and pretty. And like, you’ve got, you had this travel background where like got, you know, travel photography and you wanted this production to be Epic. And at the end of the day, it was far from perfect. It was far from plan in a way, it didn’t have high production, you were shooting it with your iPhone. So your first act of kindness without having the company yet, or the brand kind of effect was a total success. And was that the beginning? Do you think that that was like a, also like an aha moment of like, ah, I feel more fulfilled now. Like

Megan Snedden (26:33):
Yeah, it was very unexpected. Yeah. Because I, you know, I just thought I was mostly doing it for myself too, because in that moment, the other thing that I didn’t mention though, I was also really depressed because I just kind of felt like I had come down off of this, this high of like traveling around the world and feeling like journalism was my mission in life, you know? And then suddenly to just kind of feel lukewarm about doing as much travels before losing interest in journalism, having to deal with all of the crazy stuff with like dating and not really finding anybody that I wanted to be in an authentic partnership with was really hard. And I honestly think that doing a simple act of good was all that I could muster at that time, but it was actually really effective for me. I felt, um, it just felt so good.

Megan Snedden (27:30):
I didn’t even know how those flowers were going to be received from the girl who I’m still really good friends with. That’s what really was like an authentically great moment. And when I shared it and I saw it go viral the way that I, it did the comments that I was getting from people was like, how, Hey, it’s so great to see something really authentic. It’s wonderful to receive good news and see that people in the world care. Um, and so I just really caught onto the idea that like, Hey, maybe there’s other people out there like me who really are starving for something a little bit more real when it comes to content. So then I was like, Oh crap, I need a website and a name. I didn’t have anything. And, um, and then I just decided to give it, you know, a title, which was a process to, and here we are with like a thing that would didn’t even know it was going to be a thing, but now it’s a thing. Hey guys,

Sebastian Naum (28:27):
I just want to remind you, if you want to find more content like this, you can visit Sebastian nom.com. That’s Sebastian N a U m.com. You can also get a ton of other marketing resources for myself and my agencies ranging from SEO to social media, influencer, marketing, branding, web development, and more again, that’s Sebastian nom.com. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of the show. The kind of fact, which is so cool. And you know, I talk a lot about how like scaling profits can scale, give backs and like do good companies and purpose from brands and all this. But I also don’t like, so it’s interesting. Cause a lot of people may get discouraged by that thinking, Oh, well I work for this corporation or I’ve got this job and I make money here, but I can’t change the way my work or my company does business.

Sebastian Naum (29:08):
I can’t make them do stuff, but you can do something on your own. You can make money somewhere else. You can make money with journalism. You can make money with your, you know, a corporate job and then figure out that, Hey, like I’m not fulfilled here. That doesn’t mean that you have to drop your job and dropped her whole career and your life and change it to do something different. You can actually still have that and then do stuff like the things that you’re doing that actually will bring you way more fulfillment that you can even imagine. So like actually doing stuff for others, literally releases chemicals in your brain that will help you with your depression, with your anxiety. So can you talk a little bit to that specifically? Um, I know that recently you’ve been, um, you were studying about the science of wellbeing and all that good stuff. So can you share a little bit about that?

Megan Snedden (29:58):
Sure. Yeah. Rewinding a little bit, rewinding a little bit to the point that you had made. I think it’s really unfortunate sometimes when people, I do see people kind of fall victim, if you will, to the gurus out there that are like, yeah, quit your nine to five, like quit your job and like conquer the world. I don’t think that you necessarily need to do that, to do something that you really want. If you have stable income and you feel reasonably good about your job, I say, keep it and do what you want to do on the side and tell you have this space that like potentially that can take over. Um, I’ve always just been somebody that just like full force jumps into things, but even, even still, I also have multiple side jobs to support what I do because the kind of fact that I’ve received a lot of like in kind donations.

Megan Snedden (30:52):
So companies that want to help me by giving me things to incorporate into content or to gift forward to others. But it’s not necessarily something that I’ve made a lot of money doing. I’ve more supportive myself with taking journalism and, um, turning that more into like content creation. So doing like copywriting and photography for, um, for brands, because unfortunately there’s just not a lot of money in journalism. And so I’m, I’m still doing plenty of other things on the side to keep myself afloat while I do my passion project. And you know, it’s definitely at a pivoting point now where I’m kind of deciding where I want to take it. And there’s a lot of opportunity there I think.

Sebastian Naum (31:39):
And that’s important to say, because that transition, it’s like, you can keep this other thing that’s feeding you and that you can do something you’re passionate about so that you can make that transition. If it does become something that you can do full time then. Great. Um, but it doesn’t, you don’t have to necessarily put that pressure on yourself to like, just quit your job. Like you were just saying, like, we’re both entrepreneurs saying it from one side, but, but yeah. I mean, I, I agree with you on that. You know, people can just do it with whatever works for them, but I think the importance that I’m getting from what you’re telling us is really that there wasn’t a, like something you weren’t fulfilled with and that you didn’t make a change. You made a change, you know, you decided that you were going to try this other thing out, which had to do with giving back and yeah.

Megan Snedden (32:20):
Yeah. I mean, there’s always a trade-off of some kind, there’s always a trade-off of some kind, you know, cause even when I was in that space of deciding like, Oh, journalism is kind of out for me, what’s next, you know, uh, I’ve worked in plenty of restaurants and bars, um, and taught online English classes and stuff. So there’s absolutely no shame and finding ways to continue to support yourself through that.

Sebastian Naum (32:46):
So I’ve seen the kind of fact do some big things you were just saying you had some big brand partnerships. I remember you guys did something with GMC, I think was a GMC. Yeah. Was chubby. Yeah. And then, so these brands, these brands will come to you and in order for them to tie themselves with the give back, they sponsor the production and they sponsor the gifts that you’re giving to people. How does that work?

Megan Snedden (33:07):
Well at that time it was, that was really my first big thing where I was like, Oh my God. Oh my God. Um, and they actually didn’t have budget then at all to pay for production. So the production came out of my own pocket because I was like, Oh, I really want an example with a big brand that’s filmed well and made well, um, even if I have to pay for it, because that was important to me, but they did, you know, provide, uh, a car with gas for the weekend and some other things.

Sebastian Naum (33:40):
So these, these like kind of, um, random acts of kindness. So you gave an example of one with the flowers. What’s like another one that like comes to mind, like what was another big one that one of your favorite ones that you’ve done?

Megan Snedden (33:53):
One of my favorite ones I’ve done, um, was a collaboration actually with the Thai tourism board. And it’s called RCN is like the overarching body in Asia, the promotes tourism throughout the continent, a friend. And I went over to me and Mar and we were doing some volunteer work with monks in the area and made some cool videos about that, but it was just such a, me and Mara is such an incredible and interesting place to learn about. It was a very foreign and different culture to both of us. And same thing where it, it just became a little bit more of an emotional experience being welcomed into a Buddhist center and that through simple, good deeds that you give back, you can really make a big difference in someone else’s life. So we had, um, we had like a big blessing ceremony with rice that we had brought to this monastery that was gonna feed, you know, hundreds of people. And I think that bag of rice was only like $30, which is yeah.

Sebastian Naum (34:59):
Literally feed hundreds of people with $30. Yeah. Yeah. It’s uh, you know, the, the scope of good, like you think that’s something that I’ve gotten caught too in the past. I remember you were earlier, you were saying that sometimes like with the, a little bit of that perfectionism or whatever you get caught into like this huge picture of like, this needs to be this big, um, this will be, you know, like a television show or like, you know, Oh, I want to give back, but I want to be able to help, like, you know, a thousand homeless people in Los Angeles and it’s like, you can’t like just kind of stuff.

Megan Snedden (35:33):
Yeah. That’s it somewhere, but like never underestimate the, the breadth of impact that you can really make on someone’s life when you just do something kind for them. I will never forget when I was in my mid twenties, my dad had unexpectedly passed away. He was an aviation accident and I just, it ruined my life. It really did. It tore me apart. Um, yeah, I mean, I had to, I was actually living in New York when it happened, how to completely abandon everything that I was doing there. And I had so many people helped me in little but really significant ways. Um, there were three girls that had gone over to my apartment in New York and just completely emptied it out for me so I could sublet it. And they divided my belongings among their houses to store them for me while I was gone. And I had a friend back home from elementary school who I hadn’t seen the long time, he just like started coming over and he came over with his toolbox and was like, I can’t fix, what’s really broken here, but I can make repairs on your house.

Megan Snedden (36:38):
And actually her toilet wasn’t working. And it just was, so it’s still is, I mean, that was close to 10 years ago for me. And I still actually feel the sensation of like that support that I received from people at a time that I needed it the most. And I still think about it. I still think about how those people enriched my life. And it’s probably to, maybe to my friend, Michael, who fixed her toilet seem like no big deal. You know, they came over very fixed it, but it was just so like, it was everything to me at that time. You know,

Sebastian Naum (37:12):
That’s so powerful minion to just, uh, I’m so glad you brought that example because, um, I could be on my side or we can be on one side helping others and you get that fulfillment of helping others, you know, it’s important to them, but the fact that you’re telling us that there was things that people help you out with little things that they did for you 10 years ago, that you don’t just remember, you still feel them, you feel those effects. So imagine what, you know, all those other people feel when you help them or when you were, you know, in Thailand or what that $30 bag of rice did for those people. Or maybe that’s, you know, or different examples of little things that we do a lot of the times, even for kids. And when people are young, I think to it, it, it sticks really strong when somebody, when somebody from another country or a different type of culture comes in and does something for you without expecting anything in return. And it probably really sticks.

Megan Snedden (38:04):
It really does. And there’s something to be said. I think about acknowledging somebody and making, because you know, w w back at that time, when my dad has passed, I just, I felt so untouchable or just so isolated in my pain and in my grief, like, you know, maybe nobody would want to be around me because I was just such a mess that having somebody just enter my home and offer to be there and spend time me at one of the worst times of my life just felt that’s what really did it, you know, it wasn’t necessarily about the toilet. It was more like the message that was sent that like, I’m, I still love you when you’re at your worst.

Sebastian Naum (38:50):
Yeah. I think a lot of people freeze in those situations and they end up not saying anything because of like discomfort. And that’s like the worst thing you can do, you know, it’s just, sometimes you just gotta say, Hey, I’m here, that’s it. And, you know, and then actually try to be there even better. But, um, yeah, that’s, that’s powerful. Thanks for sharing that. So what is the kind of fact up to today? What are the latest things that the kind of fact is doing well? What do we got?

Megan Snedden (39:19):
Well, I, you know, I don’t, a lot of my videos live on YouTube and I never really wanted to be like the crying channel, you know? So, cause there’s a lot of like, um, there’s a lot of cry. I shed a tear. You did? Oh, I have, Oh, nice. A lot of crying. So sometimes I try to mix it up with like spontaneous moments of joy, just because it’s like, so, and that’s, you know, that’s the other side of my personality. I’m, I’m not just like a sentimental person.

Sebastian Naum (39:52):
I was remembering the, uh,

Sebastian Naum + Megan Snedden (39:55):
It was all these letters. What was it? Oh, Oh. And for, in Italy, the letter letters to Juliet. Yeah. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum (40:03):
And it was about, tell us a little, what was that about? Remind

Megan Snedden (40:05):
Me of Verona. Italy is the city that is known for Romeo Juliet. And there’s an organization there that collects all the letters that people come to leave to Juliet. A lot of them are about unrequited love or stories of loss or heartbreak. And so you can go to this organization and you can volunteer to answer the letters as if you were Juliet. So I actually thought it was going to be really funny. I thought it was going to be like teenagers writing about people who don’t love them. And I just happened to pick out of the box, the ones that were about like death and losing family members. I was like, wow, this is really serendipitous. Like I still have chills right now because it was such a serendipitous thing. And so I just had to pull from my gut, you know, like what response would I want to give this person? And time of loss that really would have been meaningful to me,

Sebastian Naum (41:00):
Command people to watch that video. It’s pretty crazy. Cause these are like real hardcore letters that people are writing about their heartbreak

Megan Snedden (41:08):
To

Sebastian Naum (41:09):
An organization that they don’t expect necessarily that letter’s going to come back. So you’re going in there as a strain.

Megan Snedden (41:15):
Yeah. It’s very cathartic to what are we up to these days? I think honestly, with the COVID era, it’s more about spreading joy because everyone’s just been at this point, like at home and it’s pretty, it’s pretty blended there. So I bought T-Rex costume and it was relatable T-Rex costume. And I’m going to be doing kind deeds as the kind of sore, the kind of sore. Yeah. The kind of sore

Sebastian Naum (41:46):
Because it protects

Sebastian Naum (41:46):
You, you can’t, you know, it’s like a better than a mask.

Megan Snedden (41:49):
Yeah. It’s like wearing a plastic bubble, basically. I really, honestly, I really just want to like walk around in a T-Rex costume and um, hand out flowers to strangers with a sentences, be kind on it, things like this. I love it. That’s awesome. And

Sebastian Naum (42:07):
What a, what’s going on on your website right now?

Megan Snedden (42:09):
Oh, um, well I have a couple of freebies right now. The first day is a con a three-day acts of kindness challenge. I think what’s really great about this challenge is that I’ve incorporated into a mental health practice. So there’s a couple of different ha happiness and wellbeing surveys that come from Yale that you can take on the first day. And then you do three days worth of acts of kindness. And it has inspiration in there. So you can pick from that list and then you survey your happiness and wellbeing again so that you can see if doing things for others actually increases your state of stave, happiness and wellbeing.

Sebastian Naum (42:52):
That’s amazing. So is the bottom line of that, that doing that is, is helping you release chemicals in your brain, like serotonin or dopamine or whatever that actually yeah.

Megan Snedden (43:01):
Yeah. Cause it actually does.

Sebastian Naum (43:03):
That’s amazing. That’s great. I mean, it just makes me think again, those people out there that are thinking, I, you know, I don’t have it in me to quit my job and start this great do good company and purpose-driven brand, you don’t have to do that. You can actually give back, you can do random acts of kindness. You could go to the kind effect today and take this test first

Sebastian Naum (43:22):
And then do the acts of kindness and then see if it actually works for you. And if it doesn’t work for you, then you can, you can go ahead and go on a Megan’s Instagram and comment and tell her that it didn’t work. But I highly doubt it’s going to happen. Your plan sucks.

Megan Snedden (43:35):
Okay. Kindness. I’m going to go back to being mean, cause it got me further. That’s fine.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
That’s fine too.

Sebastian Naum (43:43):
What do you think are the two traits that conscious leaders today must focus on one or two traits

Megan Snedden (43:51):
Open-mindedness and compassion.

Sebastian Naum (43:55):
Wonderful of it. And so how do people get in touch with you or the of,

Megan Snedden (44:01):
Well, they can go to the kite effect.com

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Number eight, six, seven five three. Oh yeah. contract.com email address.

Megan Snedden (44:18):
This is on there. My social media is on there. There’s a lot of ways to get in touch these days

Sebastian Naum (44:25):
You can search Megan’s then too, if you want to, on Instagram, you want to go look at all of our Epic travels and all of her wonderful kind deeds. So really, really appreciate having you on me. And I really enjoyed it and keep doing what you do. It’s super inspiring and I help people get inspired from everything that you do. Thank you so much for being here. And I appreciate your time and thanks for being you. Thanks Megan.