MKE Press Release – The One You Feed Podcast

Episode Transcript:

Joe Guidali 00:00:00 It’s amazing, really, how beautifully our existence has been orchestrated, if we take hold of some simple truths, and make them a part of every aspect of our lives.

Chris Forbes 00:00:17 Welcome to the one you feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like garbage in, garbage out or you are what you think ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don’t strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear.

We see what we don’t have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it’s not just about thinking our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good Wolf.

Eric Zimmer 00:01:02 I used to think that knowledge of psychology, listening to spiritual thinkers, thought leaders, and tightly controlling my mind would bring me happiness. There’s a version of ourselves that isn’t weighed down by fear, uncertainty, anger, and resentments but finding that version can seem impossible.

My guest today, Joe Guidali, brings a layman’s perspective of finding real joy and happiness through consistent spiritual practices, shadow work, and, most importantly, helping others, and he has been successful in building wealth so that he has been able to expand his reach to help even more people. Hi, Joe. Welcome to the show.

Joe Guidali 00:02:20 Hey Eric, thanks so much for having me on.

Eric Zimmer 00:02:27 I am really excited to talk with you about your journey and how you have found your path to true happiness and joy. First, though, let’s start the way we always do, which is with the parable.

And in this parable, there’s a grandfather who is talking with their grandson, and they say, in life there are two wolves inside of us that are always fighting. One is a good wolf, which represents things like love, kindness, and courage, and the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear.

And the grandson stops and thinks about it for a minute, and they look up at their grandfather and ask which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So I’d like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work you do.

Joe Guidali 00:03:28 Well, it seems that after maybe adolescence that most of my life was a state of lack. I never felt truly like other people and while I knew that I was of above average intelligence I was never happy. And knowing I was unhappy, that followed me through life.

The bad wolf was my constant companion because I focused on being unhappy. And there were times in my life where I did have happiness, which drowned out the bad wolf. But life being life, the bad wolf always returned.

So, I guess my take on the parable is about the struggle between the good and the bad and finding balance between what we conceive as the things we strive for versus those things we push away. And those things that we disavow goes into our shadow, but it is ever-present and affects us in ways that are not conscious of.

Eric Zimmer 00:04:41 Yeah. I mean, that’s one of the things that I love about this parable. The constant struggle between the wolves and how we integrate those aspects into our beings.

Joe Guidali 00:04:55 Absolutely! You know, during my journey I either heard or figured out who knows which, that I needed to evaluate the motives behind my every desire. And at first this was exhausting to put every thought through a filter of ‘why am I wanting to do this thing’.

Is it because I am actually honorable, or is it because there is something that I want in return and if so, is that ok, or am I feeding some deep dark desire? But over time, as any muscle is exercised, it becomes easier to filter though thoughts to determine the ‘why’ behind them.

Eric Zimmer 00:05:21 That’s so powerful.

Joe Guidali 00:05:28 Like I said (laughs) I don’t know that I came up with it. I guess that was the beginning for me, that realization.

Eric Zimmer 00:05:34 You had mentioned to me that you had found a sure-fire way to find your own personal happiness?

Joe Guidali 00:05:45 Yeah, in addition to filtering my motives, and this will sound so simple, but I promise it works, is to practice gratitude.

Eric Zimmer 00:05:51 Oh, yeah absolutely. I agree! I have a lot to say about that but tell me more.

Joe Guidali 00:06:01 Well, at the time, I was experiencing some really deep depression, anxiety, and even periods of depersonalization and derealization. A friend not only recommended keeping a daily gratitude list, but to just do it even when it seemed disingenuous or silly.

And I did. Every single day, without fail, I would write down three to five things that I was grateful for. And initially, while in a deep depression, I really couldn’t think of things that I was that grateful for, so I started with what was simple. “I’m grateful I have thumbs”, for example. And it did feel disingenuous. But I did it anyway.

I began to notice a shift. I was less depressed. I was less anxious. And over time I was able to find more and more to be grateful for. Fairly quickly, honestly, all of the symptoms began to lift and I began to experience periods of peace! And then I started thinking, why not attach a feeling of deep gratitude to this in addition to just making a list.

And voila! It was like the scales that I viewed the world through were lifted and that for the first time in my life I could actually see.

Eric Zimmer 00:07:21 That’s absolutely amazing! I know that in my own journey that I also experienced a similar shift. That I was able to deal with my own trauma and depression in a similar fashion This reminds me of what the Buddha said about the eightfold path and that once we detach from craving how we are free from it.

Joe Guidali 00:07:44 Yeah, one hundred percent. By not focusing on what I did not have, and not focusing on being unhappy I gained enough mental distance from it to start replacing it with something positive.

It kind of reminds me of the quote by William Bennett about happiness where he basically said that chasing happiness makes it run away; ignoring it brings it back. So this was the start. I gained enough peace and wonder about how the world works to be open to some other ideas.

Joe Guidali 00:08:34 Two more things that really shifted my perspective were love, and the Master Key Experience. First, again, I either heard it somewhere or I came up with it, and does it really matter? (laughs) But I started focusing on feeling and displaying love in my every interaction with other people.

Stopping myself from interrupting people. Making sure that they felt heard. All the things that we always wish other people would do for us, I started doing for them. In this world of hurrying, it’s easy to get away from that but it really has helped me, and I have had many other people thank me for it as well.

As a matter of fact, I think that in a large part to exercising the muscles required to treat each person with love and respect I met my now wife, and we have a really wonderful relationship.

Joe Guidali 00:08:52 Then, in addition to the love thing (laughs) I guess it was, during the summer of 2025. One of my then new friends Kelley had posted something on Facebook about the Master Key Experience and finding the true purpose in life.

Which, as I was already receptive to ideas that I had been closed off to before, sounded like it was absolutely synchronicity that it showed up when it did.

Eric Zimmer 00:09:36 Yeah, I recall you talking about how the Master Key Experience changed your life. I know we’ve talked about it, but I’d love for you to tell our audience what it is and how it has affected you.

Joe Guidali 00:09:52 The Master Key Experience is a six-month long course that helps people to find their true purpose in life, joy, and to clear out the baggage of a life’s worth of living wrongly. It helps people to slough off the concrete that covers the divine God-given person and frees them to experience life as they never imagined they could.

I know in my own situation that it freed me from a lot of fear and uncertainty in life. I was 50 years old when I started the course and I had lived a life like a dandelion instead of like an olive tree and I was sick and tired of it.

But it wasn’t easy. I had to put in the work. And the work of reprogramming 50 years of reality was not easy. And I didn’t do it perfectly but, just like the gratitude list, I did it consistently. And I think the results speak for themselves.

Eric Zimmer 00:11:04 Yeah I think you’re right. You have been able to gain financial liberty and use your time to help people. Tell me about how that feels.

Joe Guidali 00:11:20 Well, it was about that time that I realized that chasing money wasn’t the point anymore. It was just the means to an end and the end was to just be free of it. And, thanks to the MKE, I am free. I have everything I need from a financial perspective but more importantly, I have discovered my bliss.

I now know intrinsically that God put me on earth to find and pursue my happiness and to complete my mission, which is to help others. I am ecstatic about helping people, which is not something that I thought I would love. And being financially free has enabled me to help a lot more people than I was able to before.

Financial freedom is absolute peace to me. Just being free from the ratrace, which in the grand scheme of things has been a means to an end really just means that I am free to focus on the things that really matter.

So, realistically, from 2025 when I started the practice of gratitude and the MKE until now, in 2029 I have been able to find, grasp, and grow myself to being financially free and everything else that I ever wanted in life and more! It has been a wild and wonderful trip!

And it’s amazing, really, how beautifully existence has been orchestrated, if we take hold of some simple truths, and make them a part of every aspect of our lives.