Be Better Than You: You Already Have Everything You Need to Take Your Life To The Next Level With Shay Stone

Don’t get stuck in the same place you have been, especially if it’s not making you happy. Always strive to be better. In this episode, Shay Stone shares with us her book, which is a movement aiming to empower people to be better. Be better in different areas of your life. Shay believes that for people to have a better focus and perception, people should always be mindful of the present. People can learn something from their past to have a little foresight, but it will always be important to know how you treat and react to your present. Be a better you by diving into this episode!

FREE Resources:

Need Clarity? 3 Simple Questions to boost your clarity and make authentic decisions that lead to fulfilling outcomes. You also have journaling space for each question so you can capture your insights.

Starting your day without direction? Start your morning on purpose with my go-to 5 mins routine.

Let's Connect!

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

LINKEDIN

YOUTUBE

---

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Be Better Than You: You Already Have Everything You Need to Take Your Life To The Next Level With Shay Stone

I am beyond excited now because I have an inspiring guest that I'm going to interview. Welcome, Shay Stone. She is an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studio. She’s the author of the Be Better Than You book, and the creator of their movement because this is a movement. She is a life coach also. You have a full portfolio, and we will love to learn more about it. Welcome, Shay. We are super excited to have you.

Thank you so much. I'm super excited. We already started with a good conversation. I'm excited to continue with it.

I'll give some background on how we met each other. This is the first time we have seen each other on video. Shay reached out because she found the show on iTunes or Spotify, and she is all about purpose-driven lives. We connected with that concept and term, and she is here to share her story, so she can inspire all of you to live an empowered life. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where were you born? What do you do?

I'm originally from Los Angeles, California. I have never lived in Los Angeles as an adult. I have traveled around since I was a child. My mom moved us to Virginia when I went to high school. After that, I went to Florida for college. I went to New Zealand. I lived in Vancouver, Canada. I lived in New York. I'm in San Diego. I have traveled around so much that it is weird to say that I'm from Los Angeles, but that is where I was born. That is my background.

I'm a nomad. I'm from everywhere. I have such meaningful experiences at all these different places that it is hard to pinpoint one. I'm an animator. I have been an animator for several years. I work at Disney and we just wrapped up Encanto, which was cool. It was my first Disney movie. I’m excited. It was a hit and I had a lot of fun working on it.

Over the past several years, I have transitioned into creating this brand, which is Be Better Than You, and writing a book. I published it on May 15th, 2021, which is my mom's birthday. Since it has been out, it has gained a lot of traction and a lot of emotional feedback, which is something that I could have never dreamed of.

This is something I hoped for. When you start to receive it, it is a little surreal and different. I could not be happier with the response that it has gotten and everything that I'm doing with this brand and this movement. Hopefully, this will empower those who feel powerless, give them what they need to shine and move forward.

We are going to talk about all of that. These are going to be more of a conversation. I'm excited to learn the story behind the book and you being an animator. You traveled around the world as you were growing up. Are you with your mom and your family in general, or just your mom?

Just my mom.

It's the same here. I'm a mama's girl. I spent all my life with my mom, and we traveled too. That is something we have in common. What do you learn being exposed to the many cultures, people and stories growing up?

One of the biggest things I learned in traveling and living in different countries and different areas is it is not just me. I'm not the only person in this world. How things are done and how people operate is further than my imagination and perception. Traveling around, understanding and experiencing different cultures and people opened my eyes.

It has made me extremely receptive and challenged even parts of myself in real-time as I'm having conversations with people and learning their stories. Whether I'm in Thailand, New Zealand or Australia, having these conversations and witnessing their lifestyles humbles you. It makes you very open and curious.

Understanding and experiencing different cultures and different people will open your eyes.

 

One of my biggest things is it gives me options. I'm absorbing many different people, how they operate, what they believe in, their story, and all those things. I'm a sponge and I take that in. I have been like that since I was a kid. I take it all in, and I see what I can do with it. It is like a bunch of puzzle pieces and I'm like, "Oh." I have all these different things.

I try to put them together and see how I like them and where it fits for me. It has been very valuable for me. I always recommend that people travel if they can. It's the lessons that you learn. You do not want to get put in a box. Even if you drive from your area where you are, visit different neighborhoods and stuff like that. You’ll learn a lot. It is extremely valuable.

You mentioned, "There were parts of myself that were challenged." Those may be things that you used to believe that after traveling and getting exposed to many cultures, you do not believe anymore. What were those key learnings for you?

I would probably have to put more thought into giving something else. The first thing that pops into my head is there are certain things that we go through being Black in America, and certain prejudice that we experience. I do not speak for the entire Black culture but for me, in general, you see people look at you a certain way.

Here in America, it is a little threatening. Maybe they are staring at you because they feel like you are going to do something to them or you are up to no good. That is the context when people stare at you for a significant period of time here. They are thinking you are up to something. Something that has changed my outlook on that is when I started traveling to these different countries, especially Thailand. They do stare at you but they are more so staring at you out of admiration. They're like, "Beautiful." They love you.

They do not see people like us often. When they do, they marvel. They want to talk to you. The hospitality is great that it is a little uncomfortable. It’s like, "I'm okay. I can do this by myself." They want to do things for you and stuff. They are filled with love, and they want to be there. I'm sure there are many, but that is one thing that came up at the top of my head. They are staring at me, but it is not taken in the same light here in America. It is different. It was challenging for me when I first experienced it because I was like, "Do they not like me?" That is your first thought process.

It's because you are used to the opposite.

It's experiencing and being open to that too. It’s not necessarily, "They are staring at me, run." It was more on experiencing why they are and opening yourself to their energy. That is something I learned. It is the same action but different background, thought processes and energy. The more you travel, you open that box.

You say, "Curious." It’s asking questions instead of assuming, because it is hard to know what people are thinking, even with the same action. It is a different context.

The more you travel, the more you experience that stuff. If it is something deeper, it starts to hit you. I would challenge myself all the time. I will interrogate myself on certain things that I feel and come to an agreement about it with myself. I was like, "Maybe this is how we feel now about that." It is great because it gives you options. You are never in a stuck place. You continue to grow and expand as a human being.

That is something we can apply even in the day-to-day because we may be in different situations where people are acting the same, but they mean different things. Asking questions instead of making assumptions is an important thing for us to continue growing and be better than ourselves. What about animation? You are the first person I ever met that is an animator. I'm curious about it. I have seen your Instagram, and I know you are passionate. I was reading a post of your mom saying, "I have never seen a woman this old." I'm like, "That is so cute." Tell us because part of the show is helping people gain clarity and direction on what they are passionate about, and align what they do on their day-to-day to experience more of that. How do you know that animation was something that you were passionate about? How do you gain that clarity?

I knew I wanted to be an animator since I was seven years old. I had clarity at a young age. It was more so on the passion. I love watching Disney movies and drawing the characters. I was fascinated with it. I was obsessed. I would draw my characters and show my mom. She would say, "You trace this." I'm like, "No, I did not." I compete with myself and try to get better. I will show her like, "Look."

I loved acting out the songs and characters. I'm emulating the characters. I was that obsessed. The great part of it is that my mom knew that I was obsessed with animation, but she did not hold me to it. She said, "You said you liked the animation. I'm going to make sure you do it for the rest of your life." I was only seven years old.

She allowed me to evolve and get involved in a lot of different other activities, which I did passionately. I love basketball, playing in the band, playing instruments and things like that. She was very open with all of that. The moment that I knew animation was like, "This is it. I want to be a part of this." It was when Toy Story came out. I love all the classics and the 2D stuff. It was great. Aladdin is my favorite movie of all time.

I tell people all the time. I was like, "Aladdin is my favorite movie. Not my favorite cartoon, it’s my favorite movie." When Toy Story came out, everything went nuts for me. I loved everything that I saw. I did not know what animation was. As a seven-year-old, you do not know animation, but I knew what I was experiencing was something beyond happiness. I knew I wanted to be a part of that.

The great thing was that my mom noticed all of this, but she still allowed me to do other things. Once I got to high school and was about thirteen years old, it was probably earlier than most parents, but my mom gave me the conversation like, "What are you going to do with your life?" At thirteen, she is giving me that talk.

I say this in the book too. I love the story that her talk came at the same time as I had this big project at school. The big project was about figuring out what you want to do with your career. During this time, we had to choose something. That was the moment that I chose animation. It came at the same time I got that talk from my mom, "What do you want to do?"

At the age of thirteen, I knew I wanted to be an animator. I knew what school I was going to and everything there was to know about that career. I say more about it in the book. I had that all figured out. Through the grace of God, faith and putting one foot in front of the other, now here we are. I do not want to make it sound it was super easy. There was a lot going on.

I cannot wait because you are here to back all of that. I'm reading this book called Mastery by Robert Greene. He said, "One of the ways you can find your passion and purpose is to look back at your childhood." We are in the purest form. We are unconscious in anything. We have not received all the programming we have for a few decades, then we are old. That is awesome that you were aligned and you had that conscious awareness since you were a kid. Your mom was a huge enabler.

She was the driving force and I was the passenger in my own life until I became an adult. She did a great job driving what she knew that my dreams were. If it was not for her, there is no way I would be where I am now. As far as clarity, that is it. Passion and purpose are something I'm very passionate about. It is serious to me because I have been an animator for the past several years, but now my focus is more on Be Better Than You. I’m building that brand and using this book as a foundation to do more, serve, and empower people across my community and the world if I can.

We talk about passion, purpose and clarity. A lot of people, when they have been doing something for a long time, they feel like they have to keep doing it, even if they are successful at it. Whether they are not or they are, they feel like they are obligated to continue forward. It does not have to be that way. That is not the rule. We do not have to.

When it comes to animation, some people look at me and are like, "Why would you want to retire from animation and focus on this brand and this book? You do not even know anything about this industry." I was like, "I do not have to do it. I'm comfortable with what I do with animation." I get paid differently. I get paid in gratitude.

You have to travel if you can.

 

I have told people that is a currency that I'm much more interested in. I get paid in fulfillment. It is about sending the elevator back down once you make it on the top. There are people who want to be in my position now. Some of those people are even older than me, and they want to be in my position. It is my job now to serve those people. This is what I know that my purpose is.

I have been listening to Tony Robbins. He was my first personal development speaker ever. He is a foundation. I feel that guy took massive action that no one has ever made. He said, "Fulfillment depends on two aspects, growing and giving." You talk a lot about serving, which we are here in this world to serve, empower others to be themselves. Whoever they are, they have to remain flexible, but the why always stays the same.

Serving is such an element in my life too. I studied Engineering. In my first year working full-time in a corporate company, I was like, "This is not it." I was successful outside. Achievement-wise, I was at six figures and supporting my mom financially. I wasn’t great and I felt empty inside. I was like, "This is not it. Forget about it."

It took me nine years to make the decision to transition fully into being a mindset and clarity coach. It was the same process as you, experiment and see what connects with me. How can I help myself and people? One of the limiting beliefs I had to let go of is that my past does not define my present and future. My future, I create now. It is the thing that you touched on. Some people believe that because they have spent several years doing the same, they have to keep doing the same. How are you going to grow?

That is what I said before when we talked about traveling. I talk about this in-depth in the book. We throw these labels on ourselves. We fight for freedom, not realizing we already have freedom. We are already doing everything that we want to do, whether we have the capacity to recognize it or not. You are doing what you want to do.

It is more of a decision-making process, where you need to reflect on the things you are doing and ask yourself, "Is this what I want to do? Why am I doing it?" At that point, you can start to reshift. As far as freedom, we box ourselves. We throw all these labels on ourselves. We say, "I'm this kind of person. I'm that kind of person. I do not believe in that," and we hold onto it. Us holding onto it, we have taken it as if it is our identity.

This is an analogy. I do not know if you know Home Depot, Lowe's or a certain store. There are construction stores here in America. One is Lowe's and one is Home Depot. You will hear people say, "I'm more of a Lowe's person. I'm more of a Home Depot person." They only go to Home Depot. They need something from the construction store. They can drive past Lowe’s and they won't go because they are headstrong on the fact that they are a Home Depot person. A Lowe's is right there, but they won't go. They will keep going and try to find a Home Depot.

Bringing it back to reality, this is what I'm talking about. People say, "I believe in this." They hold onto it, and they box themselves into that. When opportunities come along, you can't participate. You do not take advantage of it. It goes right behind you because you are locked in on what you believe and what you think is right. What you are doing is stunting yourself. There is a great quote that I love. I do not know who it is from. It says, "Most people die at 25 and are not buried until they are 75." This is along the same lines because you stop yourself right here.

When opportunities come for you to flourish and grow, and for your benefit, you shut it out. You do not even understand that you are shutting it out because you are dead set here. You stop yourself there, and you continue to get older. As time evolves and you do not. Time is evolving. We like to assume that because time evolves, we automatically do too, but that is not the case. You are here and time is evolving. You are staying right there. You have to open yourself up. Freedom is there. We are already doing what we want to do. It is up to us to open up and be receptive and receive it.

We do not have a guarantee of time. We are here talking and we do not have a guarantee of 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 5 years from now. There is a quote from Buddha that says, "The problem is that we think we have time." We are not valuing this only moment we have, which is you and I talking now.

I have a whole chapter in the book called Be Present. I talk about the break it down as far as what Be Present is. I even had trouble with not remembering things that happened in high school. I'm a kid but I was not present. I was just going through the motions. Some of my high school friends were like, "You do not remember when we used to do this." I'm like, "Are you sure I was there?" They were like, "You were right there." I'm like, "I do not know."

The thing about it is it started to bother me that people would say that I was into something, and I did not remember that. Especially if you feel like that was special to them. You can't even relive it with them because you do not remember. This started to bother me. Being present is a great trend and it is necessary. People are trying to preach being present and practice being present, but it is not easy. It does take a level of consciousness, awareness and reflection.

Sometimes it is hard to be present if you are not sure and stable in who you are. You are like, "What is happening here?" It is hard to be present and stay in this when I'm not comfortable with who I'm in the moment with. That could easily be yourself. Being present, for me, I have gotten so good at it. This is my life. Me and you now having this conversation is the only thing I'm worried about and think of. This is my focus. I have no idea what is happening around me or in my life now besides this moment.

I'm super passionate about this topic. What practices do you have for those who are like, "I want to be more present and I want to tune in to my own input for the first time in my life?" What practices can you recommend?

In the book, I go through a lot of different things. One of the things I can give you here that I still do even more when I was practicing, trying to get better and being present, was looking at objects and staring at them. It could be your camera or laptop. It does not matter what it is. Pick something in the room around you and be with it and look at it.

Even on your keyboard, notice all the details on your keyboard. Look at every single key. You see the number four, and then you see the dollar sign on top of it. Take notice of that. Think about the people who have to make this, who designed it, everything that went into this keyboard on the laptop. Dive in and immerse yourself into the details of that. Who spent their time designing this? Who created this? Think about the thought process and the planning they had to go through, the engineers, and how people work in general. Your mind could blow just talking about a damn keyboard.

Now we are talking about a keyboard and how much goes into that. Think about life and experiencing life with someone else, especially a loved one. You talk about fulfillment. It is a power and art because you are experiencing this energy that is already strong. You have the power and the capacity to absorb all of it. Your mind can blow from the keyboard. Imagine having experiences with your mother, with your husband, and being present in that.

I was getting excited. You were talking about the keyboard. I'm like, "I'm grateful." It is linked to gratefulness because when you are in the present moment and appreciating the keyboard or your relationships, there is an instant trigger for you to be grateful for everything at that moment.

It also promotes just looking beyond what you see. We look at something like a keyboard, and we are like, "It is a keyboard. Why would I spend so much time thinking about that?" When you start to put some attention to it, you are like, "Wow." When you start to look at other stuff, it is easy to be present, absorb details, and see further than the eyes. This is where you start to get powerful.

One thing I talk about a lot is the power of perception. Perception and imagination are the marquees of my life. This is why I'm the way that I am. I am where I am. The more you can be present, the more you are going to see past what is in front of you. You can notice all these details and start to use them to your advantage to create the world you desire.

I love the concept of perception. I always tell my coaching clients, "Perception is projection." Many times while you perceive, you are projecting from the inside. I love what you are saying because a lot of those filters are from past experiences like, "These happened to me." Seeing this person means the past, whatever happened during that past. When you are present, it is true. That is something that I had not thought about before in that perspective. When you are present, you let go of your past perceptions and focus on what is in front of you.

The power to that is the next thing you move to. Now you are seeing it a little bit differently. It's because you have this practice of not letting your past filter into your present when you are locked in, and your focus is on what is happening. Let go of all the other preconceived notions that you have and be here. Once you are here, you can practice that. When you go there, wherever that is, you are starting to gain foresight. You are like, "The past is good."

We're already doing everything that we want to do, whether we have the capacity to recognize it or not.

 

I tell people all the time, "You can visit the past. It is there." It is history like we revisit our history all the time. We think about our ancestors and see what we can learn from them. Visiting your past is not a bad thing. You use it as a resource or a reference. The thing that would be present is that one thing you can do is create this entire library. As long as you are observing it, being receptive, and trying to understand what is happening in your present moment.

I tell people, "I have this huge library in my head." Everything that I observed since I was a kid, I take it, I log it. Perception is my unique power. I can flip and process things quickly. I can see usually what is going to happen before it happens. I'm not always right, but I'm experienced in that capacity and this is why. I logged all these things in my head.

At that point, it is like, "I have seen this before." If you are present in the moment, you are working your way towards an elite level of perception. As long as you are focused and you’re not trying to filter what has happened into what is happening, you can take control of what is going to happen. It is powerful. The more you are present, the more you are going to see other things differently in the future.

That is where the prediction, manifestation, and all that stuff start to come into play. It is all energy. It is very cohesive. As long as you are making these practices, you have these different waves, perception, consciousness, awareness, reflection, and all this other stuff. It is all moving towards the life you want. That is what manifestation is. It’s manipulating the energy to go where you want it to go. This is how you create the life you want.

Do you understand now when I was telling you that we are deep? Perception and manifestation, let's do it. As I transitioned from my nine years corporate career to entrepreneurship, something that I realized was so important was faith and trust. It goes with the manifestation part. Sometimes we get in our own way because we want to control it. What have been your experience? I want to know from you as an entrepreneur and as someone in this world. What has been your experience? What is your perception and perspective of that?

My perspective on faith and trust and how to let life come to you. Is that what you are asking?

Yes, and how to manifest? In order to manifest, you got to trust the process and do the best you can with the resources you have at the moment. There is no guaranteed outcome ever.

You hit it in the head right there. There is no guaranteed outcome. If you can make peace with that, you are already in a position of power. That is where faith and trust come in. I do not know what the end result will be, but I understand what I want. This is where fear comes in because people have a fear of uncertainty. This is why they do not make moves because they do not know what is on the other side. There is no guaranteed result. My solution to that is to understand what you want and take steps in that direction. There's one of the analogies I use. Any topic that relates to this is old-school video games.

Tell me about it.

Back in the day, the graphics and stuff like that were not great. When you would play a video game, you would have the character in front of the camera. You would not see anything in front of the character. Every time the character moves towards that background, you do not see anything at first, but every time you move towards it, you will see other buildings, trees, stuff like that. Other people even start to illuminate from that background the more you walk towards it.

When it comes to uncertainty, where you are in life, and knowing where you want to go, it is important to keep making steps in that direction because the more you take steps in that direction, the more background is going to illuminate, the more end result is going to start forming. At that point, you can make a decision of where you want to go from there. It is not about getting a straight shot path to your destination. You are not going to get that certainty. When have you ever gotten that certainty? When you are hungry and get food, you do not know necessarily that it is going to come out good.

The only thing certain in this life is death and that is it. Other than that, if you can make your peace with that, you are going to be in good shape. Now all you have to do is follow your instincts and understand that as you continue to make those forward, life will illuminate the light around you. At that point, that is where you are empowered because you can say, "I see what is going on here. I do not like it. I'm going to go this way." You start making steps towards that way and say, "I like this. I'm going to keep going that way. Here we go again." It is going to keep happening. It is a process and a cycle. This is what you go through until you die.

Learning and getting better never stops. That is something that some people struggle with because they are like, "When do I get to the top?" Bob Proctor said, "No one ever arrives." You do not stop. No one ever arrived. There is no top. There is no rule book to this life. You never arrived. Can you gain enough fulfillment to where you grow okay and exit this world? Yes, you can. At that point, that is your success, but it still does not stop. You talk about Tony Robbins. Even myself and yourself are fulfilled. Be better than you is not something we had to do, but it is here because we want to keep growing. You never stopped doing that.

Fulfillment is addicting because once you start to receive the level of stuff you are giving, when you grow, you give, and then you receive, it is an addicting cycle, and you do not want to stop. When people have not experienced that yet, when you tell them, "It never stops." They are like, "That sounds exhausting." Some people who know me say, "You never stop. You are always going." I'm like, "It is because I love it. I can't stop it. If you ask me to stop, you are asking me not to be who I am."

That is the force. If you have never experienced it, it is hard for you to understand, but it starts with putting that one foot in front of the other, knowing what you want, making steps in that direction, trusting your instincts, following it, and understanding that your vision will get clearer as you move forward.

Knowing the what, the why, and the how will remain flexible as you keep walking. You are learning. You are like, "There is a tree here. I would take a right, left or whatever."

The how is up to you. The how will remain flexible." It has to be. You are talking about certainty. This is when faith, trust, imagination and perception come into play. One of the things I say all the time is perception creates opportunity. When you are in this space and are taking steps towards where you want to go, you can see the same thing differently, whatever life brings up to you.

Life is going to smack you in the face a million times as it has myself. When that background does illuminate, if you have an elite level of perception, you do not have to look at the background and say, "This is it." You are filtering your past while we talked about it. A lot of things that we have talked about are now coming in here.

If you continue to practice the art of perception, I see that a million different ways. There are a million ways to skin a cat, do a lot of different things, see different things, and see the same thing. You can practice saying the same thing a million different ways. You are always going to have options. You are never going to get stuck. It is my point. You will never see life or the results or the resources you have in front of you. You are going to learn how to be resourceful and use them to your advantage.

Take what you have and understand how to utilize it. I have talked to people all the time. They talk about strengths. People do not want to talk about their weaknesses. I'm like, "Let's talk about your weaknesses. Let's put them at the forefront and figure out how to utilize your weaknesses. It is okay if that is your weakness, but I want you to understand how to utilize it to your advantage."

I love the resourcefulness term because some people think it is a lack of time and money, but it's really a lack of resourcefulness. Whenever you want something, you are going to figure out the way to get there, whatever that is. I love that you brought up that term. There are many good things. I'm so inspired now. I appreciate you.

As I go through this path and I'm doing new things, I'm launching a digital course and I did a founding member offer, I was afraid. I'm like, "This is the first time I will do it. It is going to be okay." I was afraid more of not taking the chance and not knowing what the outcome was going to be if I went ahead and did it. What I have realized about myself is that fear of, "What happens if it works out? If I do it and it works out and I do not take that action, I miss the opportunity I have been waiting for." It is crazy how your mind starts shifting.

The more you being present, the more you're going to see other things definitely in the future.

 

Your mind can start shifting fast. That is where perception comes into play. There are a couple of practices in my book where I talk about that. One thing about me is that I'm a loner. I like being alone. Even where I live now, the closest person to me is about an hour and a half away.

That is pretty cool. Are you in California?

I'm in California, but I'm not in the middle of nowhere. I did that purposely because I operate better when I'm by myself. I have always been this way. I like being alone. Because of that, I have to adopt an elite level of perception. If I get to a place where I feel stuck, there is no one here. It is just me. We can get lost in our minds quickly. Your mind starts to shift, and now you are operating in fear instead of faith. It can happen quickly. There is a fine line. Once you cross that line, it can be easy to fall down into that tunnel. It is like a cliff. It is a fine line and once you cross it a little bit, you go down.

I continuously practice perception. I’m continuously observing and putting that stuff into practice because for me to continue moving forward and have success, I have to be able to see the same thing differently. I have to be able to observe my thought process in a million different ways because I can get lost in my own thoughts. I have to have enough awareness and say, "Let's have a conversation about what is happening here, Shay." I and Shay have a conversation. We discuss what is happening here because now I'm starting to get confused in my own head.

It happens to all of us, but the point is having awareness and being able to manage it. When you talk about self-development or progressing as a human being in personal growth and stuff like that, it is not about never experiencing negativity again. It is not about having success all the time, never experiencing fear, or never feeling dumb. That stuff still happens. What you want is to learn how to navigate through it, learn how to move with it, and learn how to manage it.

Do not be hard on yourself because the challenges are going to become your growth opportunities. Tell us about your book. What was the inspiration for you to take on such a big project? Now it has become your brand. It is such an inspiring one. I love your website and message. It is very cohesive. Tell us about how that came together. I'm like, "Whenever I buy a book, I'm going to reach out to my friends."

It is pretty interesting because I never set out to write a book. This was not a dream of mine or anything like that. It just happened. How that started was my mom planted the seed in my head. One day, we were having a conversation, and we were talking about someone. We were on the phone, and we were going at it like we always do, just gossiping. We were honing in on one person. I was telling my mom, "They should do this. They are not thinking this way. They are not considering this." It is pretty much unpacking and resolving whatever their situation was.

I was going on and on ever passionately. I'm being super cocky. I was like, "I should write a book because I know what they need to do." It was a joke, and she got super quiet after I said that. It was a moment of silence. My mom is a religious and spiritual person. She said, "That is the Lord getting ready to use you." That is exactly what happened with me because I'm like, "What? That sounds scary."

That is what you want. The Lord is using me at this point. I have never thought about writing a book. It is something that I blurted out as a joke. I never still had a goal to write a book, but because her reaction was so piercing, it was always etched in my mind at that point. I moved to New York a couple of years after that. We were having some downtime at the animation studio that I was at the time. Because we had so much downtime, I started to think, "Maybe I can put this into practice."

I have always been the kind of person that people come to for advice. In my personal life and career, people come to me because they know that I'm going to spin whatever problem they have. That has always been the case. I knew I had something to share. When I had this downtime, I was like, "This is a time for me to try it out," and I did.

I started writing down little thoughts that I had and trying to break down what it is that I do because, to that point, it was natural. I did not have a method to my madness that I could write down and help somebody achieve the same thing. I had to study myself intensively. I would write down and interrogate those thoughts like, "Why do you feel that way? At what point did you start to feel that way? What did you learn from there to make you feel this way now?"

I'm taking one thought at a time and asking myself, "Do you agree with it? Is that it? What would someone have to know to agree with this thought here? What would they have to have gone through to achieve this mindset that you have on this particular subject?" This is what I went through to decide what I'm going to write, how I'm going to write it, and the strategy or the structure of how the book is going to go. There were a lot of thoughts. It took three and a half years to write this book. I did not know anything about writing. I had to learn how to write. I had to explore writing in general because I did not read and write. Those were not my hobbies. I took it all seriously, even the design of the book is very strategic.

There is a powerful simplicity to it that makes an individual shine. Be Better Than You, that is what the book portrays, even with the brand. Simplicity sometimes is the hardest thing to achieve and carry the message across. I feel your brand and your book do that. That is awesome.

We spent a lot of time making sure everything had meaning. I'm a storyteller. Everything has to have a story behind it. Even my designer knows that we can't just do stuff. When we first started working together, she would give me some mock-ups and stuff like that. I would ask her, "Why did you do that?" It is not necessarily that she is in trouble, but I want to know your thought process behind it because if you do not have a thought process behind what you have done, it is out. It is trash because we are here to create meaning.

Even that process of her getting to know me was extensive because she was like, "Good grief." She mastered it. She helped me execute the brand, design, and everything like that. It is meaningful. We spent a lot of time and effort with the story, messages, design, and even our Instagram. Everything that I'm a part of has to have a story behind it.

This is a question that I'm always curious about when people write books. Do you self-published or get a publisher? How did that work?

I did the whole process myself. Someone asked me if I write the book by myself. I was like, "What other way is there?" It is not that I do not know that there is ghostwriting and other things. I do know that. It is like, "Do you know who you are talking to? Have we met? What other way would Shay Stone write the book?"

It will be weird to put your name, and someone else wrote it.

It is not a weird question, but I did the entire process by myself.

I admire you so much for figuring it out, doing it with meaning, and serving with that intention. You have come a long way. I know you are going to be global, and I know that is your vision. Anything I can do to support, I'm here. I love what you are doing. What is your vision of Shay several years from now? It's a big question. What do you envision? What do you dream of?

As far as who I will be, who knows, but hopefully, the five-year better version of who I am now. I do hope to reach as many people as I can. My passion and purpose is to serve. Writing this book is not something I could run away from. Starting Be Better Than You, I could not run away from it. I had every reason to run away from it and for that reason to be justified, and I could not. I know this is my way to serve God by serving those around me and empowering those around me, sending the elevator back down. Hopefully, I can do that and get a reach as wide as I can to help young people and people of all ages. To start, my audience was young adults to help them jumpstart their life.

These decades that I have lived, I helped them not take many decades to go through that. I helped to save themselves the agony, certain experiences, failures or mental crisis. I turned those decades into a year, days, weeks, months, or anything like that, where they jumpstart. Now that the book is out, it's knowing what is in the book and the impact that we have had on certain people. One person reached out to me from China.

My team got an email from this woman from China. She said she has been following me on Instagram. She wants an autographed copy of my book and she wants to pay for it. She has been following me and loves what I do. Stuff like that is a drive to keep going. Using this book as a foundation is a blossom. I can't go into the things that we have going on. It is going to be great, but it is extensive. My hope several years from now is to reach as many people as I can, continue to do that, and continue to put resources out there that come directly from me. I'm not about generic surface-level material. You can't find what I do online.

You are not going to find the process that I go through, the resources that I have, the resource that I am. This is not surface-level stuff. It is very extensive. Hopefully, several years from now, a lot of the things we are working on that we are planning to do as a team now will come to fruition, and people can absorb it and immerse themselves. Be Better Than You can become a hub for intellectuals.

I am the intellectual type. I strive for deep conversations. I want to know the person and the individual. I love that you are creating that movement. Where can they find the book? Where can they find you? Tell us everything.

You can find the book at BeBetterThanYou.com. If you are interested in anything else, everything is on there, coaching, merchandise, and the book. If you want to find me and connect with me, you can find me on Instagram @ShayStone.S

I had so much fun. I will be inspired for the whole week and the whole month. I'm happy we connected because we have a similar mission. Anything I can do to help, I'm here because we are serving the same people. Why not? I appreciate you, Shay, and I hope to have you again in the near future. Thank you to all of our readers. Follow Shay on Instagram. Go to BeBetterThanYou.com, get her book. I'm going to get it right after this interview. I’m excited to read it. Thank you so much, everyone.

Important Links

• Be Better Than You
• Mastery
• @ShayStone.S – Instagram
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/Clarity
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/Wellness5MinsRoutine
• https://www.Facebook.com/YanetBCoaching
• https://www.Instagram.com/YanetBCoaching/
• https://www.Linkedin.com/company/Yanet-Borrego-Coaching/
• https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UCqxL829o0Vk-QdY12F-GgMw

About Shay Stone

Shay Stone, author of a newly launched book titled, “Be Better Than You”. The book, as well as the movement, centers around deep-rooted mindfulness with the mission of reprogramming our community to be more aware, conscious, and become the leaders of their lives. Additionally, Shay is an Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She has been an Animator for over 11 years. Needless to say, behavior and psychology are her passions.