EP #167: Five Year Anniversary of Everyday Endorphins

[MUSIC] Hi everyone, welcome to this episode of Everyday in Dorfins. I am your host, Stella Stafnopoulos, and I'm doing a solo episode this week. For those of you who tune in every week, you know that I usually bring on a fantastic guest. But this time I wanted to open up the floor to myself because this week marks the five-year anniversary of Everyday in Dorfins. Technically, 2025 marks this anniversary, but I launched this podcast in October of 2020. So it is only fitting that the first Thursday of this month in 2025, I'm releasing a solo episode to really reflect on my journey of building this brand over the past five years. So what I want to talk about today is a few things. First, I want to share really the story of Everyday in Dorfins for those of you who are new here and how it's evolved over the past five years. Secondly, I want to talk about what I've learned about the process of building creative expression and entrepreneurship through hosting this podcast, building a brand, and doing it all alongside working full-time in consulting. And then lastly, I want to share some of my biggest takeaways and mindset shifts on what it actually means to be happy as I've basically kind of conducted anthropological research interviewing over 166 guests on the show. So let's start with really the origin story of Everyday in Dorfins. Like I mentioned, podcast was launched in 2020, but Everyday in Dorfins actually predates that back to 2014, which existed as where did it existed as an Instagram account for me to blog about healthy living. At the time, I was on a crew team in high school and I wanted to just start a blog that documented my life as a student athlete. Now for those of you who are from New York City, you may know the high school that I went to. It's called Bronx Science and it was a specialized high school here in New York. I was very into science. I wanted to be a doctor growing up and I remember taking a bioclass freshman year. And I was so fascinated by the chemicals and the hormones in the body and we learned about endorphins and then all of the sudden one day it clicked for me. Endorphins find that every single day. Everyday in Dorfins love the eliteration. So that's really how the name came to be. And I always had a knack for self-expression and I loved writing growing up and so at the time Instagram really was, I mean, it's not, it was not what it is today. That's for Seren. But at the time, it was like a photo journalism app in a way. And so I just, I wanted to play around and get creative. So that's what really got me inspired to start the Instagram blog. And once I got to college, I stopped growing because I wanted a social life and I was no longer doing sports and I get to college and I'm like, how the hell do I keep myself healthy when I'm not being told what to do with the gym or out of practice because I don't have practice anymore. And coupled with that, right as I get to college, I'm told that I have a hormonal and balanced condition called PCOS. And I'm like, well, how the hell am I supposed to stay healthy? And naturally balance my hormones. Like, what does this even mean? I never thought I was quote unquote unhealthy. So it was definitely a hard transition for me trying to figure out how to stay healthy, trying to figure out how to manage this condition. And on top of all of this, going to college, transitioning, moving away from home, dealing with the social pressures of being a freshman, like all the things just come crashing down at once. So I share this to say that the transition to college was not the smoothest. But we persist. And over the course of those four years, I got into a cadence, a rhythm of just trying to figure out how to create a healthy lifestyle for myself. And let's fast forward now to 2020, which marks the launch of the podcast. But hits the world is basically shut down and I've got a lot of time on my hands to think about, you know, I kind of want to bring everyday endorphins back. In that period of stillness and slowness with school, with life, with everything, I got the creative itch to explore what it means to be happy and what it means to stay healthy. And that's when I decided to resurrect the Instagram account and launch the podcast and then use the Instagram as really the marketing off-shoot, right to promote episodes and eventually I started doing events in New York, but I'm fast forward forwarding the story. So as you can see through this story, everyday endorphins has always been really a mode of self-expression ever since I was a teenager. And it's taken shape over the years and it's evolved over time to an audio-based platform to now doing events in New York and really finding ways to get involved with the broader wellness community. And this really brings me to some of my biggest learnings from just building a podcast with over 166 episodes, having done over 15 events in New York and now internationally. I really believe that the act of creating is so deeply personal and it's also incredibly therapeutic. Now granted, the podcast for me has always been an opportunity to learn from people to better uncover the secrets to happiness, to joy, like it's always been very self-serving in a way. But when you're putting content out there and building a voice, it is deeply personal. And when you're sharing your ideas and your creativity with the world, you obviously want it to be well received. And I think it is through that process of creating, it's like a mirror is just brought up right against you and it exposes you deeply to your own insecurities, to your flaws, to areas of improvement that you want to work on. It's a very humbling experience to be a creative, let alone balance that with working a job full-time. A lot of people ask me, how do I do it all, how do I find the balance? And the easiest way I can respond to this is, if I wasn't doing this, I would still be doing this in my free time. It's about just developing the awareness when you naturally start to gravitate toward something. Because I do believe that what you choose to do in your free time and what really lights you up is indicative of what you care about. And so for me, doing the interviews was always a hobby, like a creative exercise. But even if I wasn't recording conversations to put on a podcast, I would still be seeking those connections in my free time. So it never really felt like, quote, unquote, work. So therefore, it was never really a balance, like a this or that. It was always, my day is filled with my job. And then the times that I'm not dedicating my time to my deliverables and the work that I have to do for my job, I'm going to fill that time being creative and exploring these concepts. And it just so happened to take the form of a podcast. I think another big takeaway around just the evolution of the show and like really the process of building has to do with navigating imposter syndrome. So for a very long time, I think that I operated from a place of fear and of a lack mindset where I just would create from a place of not knowing if what I was doing was good enough. And then feeling the need to do more and more and more. And in a way, I'm actually glad that gave me the momentum and drive to do more and more more because I also believe that consistency is what will differentiate you when it comes to content creation or just building a business or anything, like the more consistent you're at with your habits, like you'll probably outlast a lot of other people. So that's perhaps a positive reframe, but really what I'm trying to get out is, you know, for a long time, I struggled with not feeling like my voice was valuable or that it was meant to be heard. And it took a lot of work and self-reflection and even at a point in time actually stepping away from the podcast to really come back to my why, like why am I doing this in the first place? And to do a lot of inner work and healing to fundamentally believe in the value that I have and the voice that I'm building. And I think that takes time and it just takes life experience. But once you identify your limiting beliefs and build an awareness to them, you then get to decide whether or not you're going to prescribe truth to them. And it was a very overwhelming moment for me to have firstly identified what those limiting beliefs were. But once I had that awareness, I was able to really make a change in my behavior to not prescribed truth and belief to those thoughts that were in my mind. So now the way I approach creating and building is more from a place of abundance rather than from scarcity or from lack. And I think that's a critical mindset shift for moving into more success in life. And it doesn't have to be if you're an entrepreneur, it's, they think this really applies to anything. Now, where I want to land is really my reflections on what it means to be happy and how happiness really shows up for me in my life. I think two main ideas have stuck with me across all of the episodes that I've recorded, conversations that I've had with the guests on the show and even, you know, off of this platform. And the first main takeaway that I really do believe to be true about happiness is that our ability to tolerate discomfort is what really does predict our long-term happiness in life. So happiness is not to be confused with toxic positivity, which is feeling the need to be happy all the time. Like the irony is that the more that we obsess with needing to be happy all the time, the less happy we actually are. And I think that's because we're just chasing that end state. And the reality of life is that we're never going to be happy all the time. You know, you can't predict what's going to happen in this world. And we live in a very scary, uncertain, unsafe world. So it would be a little odd if you were just walking around super-duper happy all the time. Things are going to be stressful. Shit's going to hit the fan as it normally does. Your boss is going to do something that's going to piss you off. Your spouse is going to do something that's going to piss you off. You're going to do something that deeply disappoints yourself. Like we're only human. And we all navigate really like the complexity and variety of human emotion on a daily basis. So what I really do believe is that the ability to tolerate those really uncomfortable moments to sit in discomfort, but to not let that overcome you is one of the keys to feeling greater happiness in your life. And the good news is that there's strategies you can adopt to learn how to sit in discomfort. As a yoga instructor, I will always say yoga is a great practice, but I recognize that it may not resonate with everyone. So if that doesn't resonate with you, it's fine. I would just encourage you to find things that like work for you. Maybe it's a morning walk that grounds you. Maybe it's, you know, a breathwork practice. Whatever it is, learning how to come back to yourself and notice any uncomfortable emotions, but not let that overtake you is one of the signs of like, I think developing just a lot of strength in life, which brings you to more happiness. So I would say that's big takeaway number one. Big takeaway number two around happiness and what it means to be happy in life is really, you know, I'll have to give credit where credit is due. Arthur Brooks is a brilliant academic writer, researcher. He's at Harvard and his motto and philosophy is that happiness is not about a destination. It's about the journey getting there. And the way I like to think about this is happiness is not an end state. It's not if I do this, then I'll be happy or when this, then I'm happy. There's no contingency to happiness, right? When we think that way, we place too much pressure on an experience, a thing or whatever it is to make us happy. However, when we learn to understand that happiness is really in those small moments, it's really in the process of living, of being present, of moving through every single day with an optimistic and positive mindset, in overcoming adversity, seeking joy and happiness in those moments, that's actually what contributes to greater long-term happiness. We set ourselves up for failure if we place expectation in the future to be happy. And we think that certain things will bring it to us because we often misjudge what's going to actually make us happy in life. And I find that the less we focus on the outcome and the more that we enjoy the process, the more present we are. And in a world where we're constantly distracted and we're on our phones and we are just removed from what's right in front of us, I think we've lost the skill set and the ability to truly be present. So let that be a big takeaway because I think that when we're more present and grounded, we're better able to regulate our emotions. So the two takeaways actually kind of go hand in hand. There's a lot of other life lessons that I've learned through building everyday endorphins, through having conversations with experts, with creatives, with so many different types of people. But those are just a few tips that I want to leave you with today. Also, just get to reintroduce myself to those who are more new to the platform. I hope that you found this episode valuable, helpful, insightful, and if you have any thoughts or builds or questions, I'd love to hear from you. My DMs are always open. And to that point, you can always shoot me a message on social media, everyday endorphins, stellar stuff, nopless, both channels. You can find me at. And if you liked this format, please let me know because after five years of doing guest-based interviews, I am recognizing that maybe the folks who follow along aren't as, you know, aren't as aware of their host and who I am and my story. So I'm really excited to get to share that over the coming weeks and come on here and talk to all of you. But thank you for tuning in and for those who have stuck around since day one and been along for the ride. I couldn't be more thankful and grateful. So all of that support does not go unnoticed. That's for certain. But anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this and I will catch you on the other side. Reminder to find the things in life that bring you endorphins and focus on things like