Create with Franz

How can simple food traditions help us build everyday independence? In this episode, author and nutritionist Zuza Zak (@zuzazakcooks) joins me to explore how fermentation, foraging, and small-scale preserving can transform both our health and our self-reliance.

Zuza shares easy, practical ways to nurture our gut flora, cut down on food waste, and create fun, wholesome recipes using what we already have—from purple sauerkraut to dandelion pesto. We also dive into the gut-brain axis, how to pass these empowering skills down to kids, and why taking care of your gut is one of the most effective wa...

Think you don't have enough space, time, or a green thumb to grow your own food? In this episode, kitchen-garden coach and herbalist Corinne Beirne (founder of The Nourished Garden) joins the show to debunk the myth that self-reliance requires an acre of land.

Corinne shares simple, stress-free strategies to help you get your hands in the dirt today—even if you only have a sunny balcony, a patio, or a single container. We explore how starting small with foods you love can save money, calm your nervous system, and build true everyday confidence.

We co...

Are you a woman in your 40s or 50s losing your words mid-sentence?

Are you struggling to start simple tasks, feeling unexpectedly fragile, or noticing that the organization strategies you relied on for decades have suddenly crumbled? You aren't losing your mind, and you aren't just "getting old"—your biology changed underneath you.

For many women—especially those navigating ADHD—the tools used to manage life up to this point suddenly seem useless. This shift can quietly erode your confidence, independence, and self-reliance, leaving you feeling like you're no longer enough.

In this episod...

Ever find yourself stress-shopping at midnight or avoiding your bank account?  It's not a lack of discipline—maybe your emotions are hijacking your wallet!

In this episode of our Self-Reliance series, licensed financial therapist Kiki Jacobson drops by to teach us how to emotional-proof our finances.

You'll learn:

Stop letting anxiety run your bank account. Click the link to...

If you feel constantly exhausted and like life is spinning out of control, you are not failing—your system could simply be overloaded.

Our guest Oscar Trelles knows this battle firsthand. After spending over twenty years leading global teams in high-pressure tech and advertising industries, he hit a wall of severe, life-altering burnout.

Determined to recover, Oscar spent years studying human physiology and nervous system regulation to rebuild his own health from the ground up. He went on to found Breathing Flame, create the 'Reverse aging challenge', and write the human OS manual.

In...

You can store years of food and repair your own roof. But if you hand your body over to a pharmacy, that is not self-reliance, says Axay Shah. That is a well-stocked dependency.

At age 50, exhausted and pre-diabetic, Axay decided his diagnosis was not his verdict. Today, at 67, he is on zero medications, has zero chronic disease, and has participated in eight marathons.

Tune in to learn how to stop outsourcing your health and build the most neglected form of preparedness: physical independence.

In this episode, we discuss:

When we talk about self-reliance, we often focus on physical survival skills or financial security—but what happens when the biggest obstacle to our independence is our own lack of self-trust? How important is it to know yourself before you even begin to tackle self reliance?

In this episode, I have a great conversation with TEDx speaker, coach, and author Christine Samuel to explore the deep psychological roots of self-reliance. Drawing from her transition from a 20-year corporate tech career to counseling psychology, Christine breaks down why so many of us struggle to trust our own judgment. 

At 36 years old, Judy Armstrong was a Registered Nurse, a Director of Nursing, and a busy mom of two. Then, her body slowly shut down. Eventually diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus—an incurable autoimmune disease—Judy went from a strong, physically capable caregiver to a patient who couldn't even open a jar of juice for her children.

But Judy refused to let her diagnosis define her.

In this episode, Judy shares her incredible 10-year journey of "active waiting." Instead of putting her life on pause, she kept her nursing license active, invested in personal growth, and...

Financial self-reliance isn't about earning more; it's about owning what you have.

When we talk about self-sufficiency, we often focus on our mindset or physical skills—but true independence is impossible without getting a grip on our finances.

In this episode, we sit down with professional accountant Kayon Graham, founder of K. Graham Accounting & Advisory, LLC. With over 14 years of experience, Kayon reveals why traditional budgeting keeps people trapped in a reactive loop, treating predictable life events like sudden emergencies. 

She introduces her signature framework—Temporal Lens Budgeting—which teaches you how to look at y...

What does a world-renowned opera star, actor, and international producer know about self-reliance? Absolutely everything. Having performed on the world's biggest stages in over 50 countries, Mark Janicello has lived a life of high-stakes pressure, massive creative reinventions, and raw survival. He knows firsthand that when the curtain falls on a crisis, there is only one person who can get you through: the person looking back at you in the mirror.

In this high-energy, no-nonsense conversation, Mark strips away the fluff of modern self-help and delivers a street-smart blueprint for taking back your power. He challenges us to...

Mindset and money are crucial for self-reliance, but eventually, you have to build something with your own two hands.

In this episode, we sit down with Dave Gulas, co-founder of EZDC 3PL and host of the Beyond Fulfillment Podcast. After 20 years in corporate sales, Dave decided to build a podcast from scratch with zero budget, zero tech skills, and zero permission. Today, nearly 300 episodes later, his show ranks in the top 1.5% globally.

Dave joins us to expose the "permission trap"—why we hide behind endless research, courses, and credentials instead of just doing the work. He...

What if sound is more than just a background track to our lives, but a fundamental tool for building brain function and human connection? Join us for an immersive conversation with Emmy-winning composer, jazz saxophonist, and educator Hayes Greenfield. With a career spanning over 70 film scores and decades of live performance, Hayes explores the "Human Premium"—the raw, tactile power of sound that transcends language barriers. 

Beyond the stage, Hayes is transforming early childhood education and neurocognitive care through his Creative Sound Play initiative. Supported by leaders in neuroscience, his work demonstrates how intentional listening and sound-making bri...

Are you a middle aged woman on the top of your career in a high-stakes environment? Maybe you are the one everyone depends on—meeting deadlines and managing teams with outward grace. But internally, the cost of "over-functioning" and now redesigning your role with AI in mind, has become unsustainable. If traditional productivity hacks like time-blocking and mindset reframes are making you feel worse,  if rest makes you feel guilty, it's time to look beneath the surface.

In this episode, Dr. Julie Merriman explains why midlife burnout is a nervous system injury, not a lack of discipline. We...

I had the great experience of sitting down with Jeralyn Glass, an internationally acclaimed opera star turned sound healing pioneer and author of Sacred Vibrations. Following the tragic loss of her son, Jeralyn transitioned from the stages of Broadway to the forefront of holistic medicine, discovering how crystalline sound can act as a powerful healing tool for the mind and body.

From a scientific perspective, sound healing is rooted in the principles of entrainment and vibro-acoustics. Every organ and cell in the human body vibrates at a specific frequency; when we are stressed or ill, these frequencies...

As the world debates if AI will take our jobs, playwright and CTO Doug Clarke is worried about something much quieter:

is AI taking our humanity and replacing our friends and therapists?

In this frank chat, we dive into the meaning of our relationship with artificial intelligence through the unique intersection of Hollywood innovation and the Off-Broadway stage.

Doug shares his journey from building high-level tech systems at DTS and IMAX to writing deeply vulnerable plays like Soulmate and Anxious Attachment. We explore the seductive danger of AI companions—tools that never tire, ne...

Is ADHD creating a gap between you and your partner? 

Maybe you cannot organize household tasks and chores, bills, appointments and shopping. You then get blamed by your partner for 'not caring', forgetting everything that is not written, being 'lazy' and 'not being there.' The accusations escalate and you become offended and defensive. Your partner might act like your parent taking over all the duties that you seem unable to take responsibility for.

In the end, your relationship cracks. You stop taking holidays together and doing anything with your partner because it ends up i...

Have you ever looked at a piece of art in your home and felt… nothing? In a world of fleeting trends and mass-produced convenience, many of us end up with spaces that look "correct" but feel completely disconnected from who we actually are.

We buy what is fashionable or what fits the sofa, yet we remain spiritually hungry for a deeper connection to our surroundings.

The solution isn't to buy more art, but to understand the "why" behind your own intuition. Sonya Sparks, founder of the Sparks Gallery in San Diego, believes that art is th...

If you've ever felt unwanted or stuck in the shadows of your past, there is a way back to your center. Today, Nathaniel Allenby shares how he used a 28,000-mile cycling journey across ten countries to transform survival into artistry and find the purpose he thought was lost.

For those who have suffered from abuse or low confidence, the world can feel like a turbulent place where finding your path feels impossible. After surviving muggings in London and the physical toll of global travel, Nathaniel returned to found Cirque Quirk, San Diego's highest-rated circus entertainment company.

Have you heard the "autopilot" fear currently running through the creative world? It's the nagging thought that says: Why bother training for a career in voiceover when an AI can clone a voice in seconds? Many aspiring artists are stalling before they even begin, convinced that the machine has already won the race.

But is a cloned voice actually the same as a human story? Or are we confusing "data" with "connection"? Let's make the case that while AI can create realistic digital avatars, it currently lacks the emotional depth, spontaneity, and "soul" that define human performance. 

So, you want to be an artist. But there is a "but" here, isn't there? A chorus of internal voices holding you back: I'll never get paid for this. Nobody will like it. I don't have time. It isn't a "real" career.

If you've listened to our previous conversations on the "autopilot" brain, you'll recognise these as the classic scarcity narratives—the mental traps that lead to analysis paralysis before you even pick up a brush. We convince ourselves that in a world of Canva and AI, the human artist is obsolete. But what if that's just a...

Have you ever felt that a diagnosis—for yourself or your child—was a definitive label of limitation? In the US and beyond, an ADHD diagnosis often arrives with a heavy cloud of fear: fear of academic failure, social struggle, and a lifetime of being "difficult." We fall into the autopilot habit of asking, "What is wrong with this person?" when the real question should be, "What is getting in the way?"

The solution isn't found in a label, but in understanding how the brain processes information. This is the life's work of Dr. Connie McReynolds. With over...

If you have listened to a few episodes of Create with Franz, you probably noticed how many times we mentioned that we often act in automatic mode, without much thinking, and we repeat the same mistakes over and over. You also learned that while habits are hard to break, change is possible for everyone.

This is particularly important when it comes to those youth who, for various reasons, are embracing gang life, criminal behaviour, drugs, drinking, smoking and many other dangerous lifestyles that eventually lead into serious issues.

What if the solution is to retrain...

Have you noticed how easily we fall into "panic mode" when we see technology evolving faster than we can keep up? Many artists and creators are currently operating on a high-stress autopilot, fearing that AI is coming for their livelihoods.

We've been conditioned to think that if we just work faster or lower our prices, we might survive the digital shift. But what if the "race to the bottom" is a habit we can break?

What if the real threat isn't the technology itself, but a lack of structure and a failure in how we...

"Art isn't just for the elite or the political mural; it is a tool for collective liberation and a sustainable career."

Many creators believe that "true art" and business cannot coexist, leading to the "starving artist" trap. Jaelyn Singleton breaks this myth by sharing a strategic blueprint for transforming raw creativity into a sustainable professional venture. This conversation explores how to build a commercial structure around your passion without losing the soul of your work.

We discuss the shift from being a "hobbyist" to a "founder" and the specific mindset required to price your human...

"A CV is not a list of jobs; it is a story of capability."

A CV is not just a list of jobs; it is a story of your capability. Most people believe a degree alone will get them hired, but in an AI-saturated market, academic theory is failing. In this episode, our guest reveals the invisible asset of emotional intelligence—the one skill a machine can never replicate.

I learned about the critical misalignment between education and employment with Dr. Tamara Nall, a Harvard MBA and Global Leader in AI-Human Relationships Movement. 

Tam...

"We are drowning in prose, but we are starving for presence."

We are drowning in prose, but we are starving for presence. Most of us left poetry behind in the classroom, but in a world dominated by data and AI, we are losing the language required to process our own internal lives. Today, my guest reveals why poetry is a biological circuit breaker for the high-pressure mind and how to find your human premium in the noise

In this episode, we discuss the "humanizing" power of poetry with Robert Minicucci, a 25-year healthcare marketing veteran...

Did you know that your biggest mistakes happen in the half-second before you even start thinking? Today, Andreas Reharso reveals how your 'predictive brain' secretly hijacks your judgment and the 10-second micro-rituals you need to stay in Creative Human Mode.

In this episode, we discuss the "billion-dollar half-second"—the tiny window of time between a trigger and a reaction where leadership is actually won or lost. While we think we are analyzing facts, our nervous system is often already reacting, rationalizing a biological reflex instead of leading with intent.

My guest, Andreas Reharso defines how th...

If the rise of AI has you in 'panic mode,' it's time to rewire that fear; today, filmmaker Weam Namou shares how she used her core values to turn technology into a tool that responds to your soul.

Weam spent years breaking through the barriers of Hollywood to become an award-winning filmmaker and author of 20 books. She didn't survive that journey by luck; she did it by using her faith and vision as a vibrant, living filter for every challenge she faced.

In this episode, we discuss strategies to turn the "AI wave" from...

"If you feel like you're working hard but still leaking money, it's not an income problem—it's an architecture problem."

If you are praying for a financial overflow but operating with a leaky system, you aren't ready for the blessing yet. Today, Terence Townsend shares how he went from homelessness to international business by fixing his spiritual architecture—and how you can do the same

In this episode, Terence Townsend—author of Financial Prudence: The Way of the Kingdom—reveals how he went from a homeless minister with a wife and four children to launching internat...

Why do we make decisions we later regret? Most of us live on "Autopilot." We react to emails, stress, and triggers before our conscious mind even has a chance to intervene. In this episode, former Singaporean MP and transformative coach Carrie Tan joins me to discuss her book, Micro Moments. She reveals a startling truth: your brain doesn't see reality—it predicts it based on your past.

Carrie explains that the secret to better leadership and a more peaceful life isn't found in better data or faster AI, but in the "Micro Moment." By learning how to pa...

Are you an experienced professional who feels suddenly overlooked?

You have the track record, the skills, and the work ethic—yet your résumé is hitting a wall, and the rise of AI has you wondering if your "judgment" is still a valuable currency. If you feel stuck or invisible in today's market, it's not because you lack talent; it's because the rules of "visibility" have changed.

Today, we have the pleasure to learn from James Wilkson, Managing Partner at AEC Global Search Consultants. With over 40 years in executive search, James is a true gatekeeper who...

In an era of constant digital "slop" and chaotic noise, our nervous systems are stuck in a perpetual state of "fight or flight." We try to find peace through scrolling, only to feel more disconnected. But what if the secret to recalibrating your body and soul was as simple as a heartbeat?

Today, we are joined by Jerald Simon,  LDS composer, author, and founder of Music Motivation. Jerald doesn't just write music; he builds biological "pacemakers." By composing at a steady 60 beats per minute, Jerald's music mimics the resting human heart, coaching your body to shift from s...

Are you sending out hundreds of resumes only to be met with total silence?

When the responses don't come, it's easy to start doubting your worth. You wonder if you're good enough, and that insecurity starts to bleed into your daily life. But what if the problem isn't you? What if the problem is a "filter" that doesn't even know you exist?

Today, we are joined by Aleksandra Lemańska, the founder of LemanSkills and a powerhouse leadership strategist. A former professional violinist turned Management Engineer and Startup Founder, Aleksandra's journey is one of incredible r...

Are you failing to get hired because you lack talent, or because the system is broken?

In 2026, hiring has become reactive and performative. Companies are chasing titles without defining roles, leaving talented professionals stuck in a cycle of burnout and "hiring failures." Today, we are joined by Stephanie Michelle Pimentel, the "LATAM Whisperer" and founder of Lumena Global Advisory. 

From a background in forensic psychology to building a global advisory firm from scratch, Stephanie has navigated the complex world of U.S.–Latin American expansion with one core rule: Mindset before mechanics.

Stephanie pul...

Are you building a career on autopilot, or are you actually in the driver's seat?

Today, we meet Billy Moyer, a man who started his first company at 21 using his childhood savings bonds and has since founded over a dozen businesses. As the CEO of SOS Leadership, Billy has spent his life answering one question: Why do talented leaders get stuck?

He argues that most of us are leading from the "Upside Down"—focusing so hard on external results and "chasing identity before income" that we forget to check the internal drivers shaping our decisions. Bi...

Is your career stuck because of a skills gap—or a character gap?

In 2026, when everyone is using the same AI tools, the only way to stand out is through your humanity. Today, we're joined by Jim Carlough, the Leadership Identity Architect. Mentored under the legendary Ross Perot, Jim has spent 30 years learning that true success isn't about power—it's about the 6 Pillars of Character.

Jim shares how to navigate the shift from "just an employee" to an indispensable leader who leads with care, integrity, and humor. This episode is a masterclass in reinventing your prof...

What do you do when the plan falls apart? In 2026, we are told that AI will solve everything, but many of us feel more disconnected and overwhelmed than ever.

Today, we are joined by Dr. Diane Dye, a nationally recognized strategist and CEO advisor who turned her own layoff into a doctorate and a groundbreaking framework. Diane is here to help us navigate the heavy emotions of unemployment and reinvent our biggest setbacks into what she calls "Critical Opportunities."

We dive into why AI hasn't actually made office work "better" and how the growing gap...

Is your daily to-do list stopping you from actually enjoying your life?

We've all been there—buried under "grunt work," feeling like a tiny cog in a giant machine. My guest today, Terence Townsend, says it's time to step out of the "engine room."

Terence is back to show us that you don't need to be a tech genius to win in 2026. He teaches us how to move from being an Operator (the person doing all the boring, repetitive tasks) to an Architect (the person who designs a better way to work).

We're ta...

In 2026, the job market feels more like a broken machine than a ladder to success. On one side, we have high-performing professionals drowning in burnout, doing the work of three people just to stay afloat. On the other side, we have brilliant, experienced women—many in their 40s with degrees and decades of expertise—who send out 80 resumes and receive nothing but silence.

Today, I'm joined by leadership strategist and HEART Goals™ creator, Charlene Ridley. Charlene doesn't just offer "hustle" advice; she offers a professional audit for your soul. We dive deep into why 80% of employees are burnin...

What if the only thing standing between you and your success is a "bug" in your mental software?

Blessing Platinum-Williams spent years living under a self-fulfilling prophecy. Told from a young age that she was "stupid" and would never amount to anything, those words became a background program that killed her confidence. Today, she is a lawyer, a software developer, and the creator of Tonely AI—but reaching this level required a total system overhaul.

Blessing reveals the exact roadmap she took to break free, navigating through 80 hours of therapy and a deep spiritual renewal. If...