Liz Hernandez - Creating WORDAFUL & The Importance of Communication

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All right, what's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have Liz Hernandez here with us, the founder of Wordiful. Thanks so much for coming on.

Oh, Casey, thank you for having me. This is so exciting. It's nice that we are finally able to connect. I know we've been going back and forth through social media and we have one degree of separation with so many people. So it's really nice to talk with you. Yeah, absolutely.

And it's funny because, you know, like I just said, I've been following you for quite some time. I love what you're doing. I love your story. And I saw you on Drama's podcast and with Kevyon and all the good friends of mine that have been on the show. But real quick, for those who may not know what Wordiful is, could you give us some insight into what that is and what you're building?

Absolutely. So Wordiful started as a passion project I wanted to create. I come from a background in radio where we're storytellers. We would connect with our audience. I was talking to Los Angeles, millions of people, and you come in and we had what our show was called Big boys neighborhood. And we were a neighborhood of people. And we would share our stories, things we're going through, things we experienced good and bad. And there was so much power in that connection of being able to say something off the cuff. And all of a sudden the phones light up and everyone's going, me too. I've experienced that. And so when I moved into primetime television, it became a one way street of communication where I was talking to the teleprompter, I was telling stor about celebrities, and I felt this huge disconnect. And at the same time, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she was beginning to lose her language, her speech, and I Just thought, you know, this is a really beautiful opportunity to not only create that communication and that community again, but all these elements came together where it made me truly understand what a gift it is to be able to communicate. So. So to make a long story short, wordiful then turned into these. It was a live event first. Well, even before it was like called wordiful, I was doing these live events because I wanted again to create that sense of community. It then morphed into this passion project which became wordiful, which is now 60 second videos that I release online that talks about the power of one word. And it could be anything from, you know, the word isolation or the word home or because all. And it's either a word I'm struggling with, a word I'm growing from a word that has taught me a powerful lesson, are different definitions of that word. And then I have live events every month. Every month I do small events, and then quarterly I do big events which bring out to like 300 people. The smaller events are about 30 people.

Love it.

So, yeah, it's really about bringing. It's really about bringing awareness. So I'm kind of explaining the big picture of wordiful, but really when you break it all down, wordiful is about connecting through the power of our words.

I love that. And I know that you have a background and you worked at Access Hollywood and E. News, and when did you get into the broadcasting world? Especially at an early age. And how did that come about?

I got into radio. It's one of those things, Casey, where I have to look back and ask myself, was this part of my destiny? Was it part of just. I don't know. There were so many synchronicities that it was almost unavoidable. So I'll give you the really short rendition. But when I was in college, I was actually a psychology major, communication minor. But I had to fulfill my communication internship in classes. And so my media teacher one day said, everyone needs to do an internship for, you know, college credit. And I got in the car and this radio commercial came on. It was like, do you need an internship to graduate? Call now. And I literally called, got the internship. And it just opened my eyes to how much I loved that environment of seeing these people talk to a huge amount of individuals and having such a. Such a profound impact of making them laugh, of making them smile, of creating a connection like no other, you know, so when I realized that could do some good, even though, like, like I said, I love psychology and I thought I wanted to be a psychology child psychologist, but it's so funny how life works out because wordiful is very much in alignment with what self help self, you know, psychology is.

Yeah, very cool. And those, the 60 second clips that you create with these words, where did that idea come from? Because I, you know, I'll look through and see them and listen to it and it's impactful stories. And where did you think of that idea to put out content like that?

Well, it's out of necessity because I've realized as we are growing in the digital world, we don't have very much of an attention span. You know, we scroll so quick through things and if a video is longer than two minutes, that's dedication to really sit down and watch it. So I just decided to make them almost like little digestible food fortune cookies where you crack it open, you get the, you know, you, you get the. I don't want to say advice or wisdom because that's. I try to stay away from ever sounding like I'm on a soapbox. I never want to be like, you should do this. That's my least favorite thing in the world. What I'm trying to do is share my experience of things that I've been through, things that have hurt me, things that I've grown through, and hopefully someone can relate and say she was able to take a negative and turn it into positive. Maybe I can do the same thing.

Very cool. You talk a lot about, you know, communication and quality communication. What do you believe makes communication great? And meaning, like if someone's listening to this and they don't believe they're the best communicator, they don't, you know, tell and talk the way that they'd like. How does someone become a great communicator?

Start listening, start. What makes a great communicator is a great listener. When we really take the time to hear what somebody is saying because we already have so many filters that it goes through. When someone speaks to us, we're filtering what they say through our own experiences. We're filtering what they say through our past wounds. We're filtering what they say through our past victories, whatever that is. But if you truly understand and you say to someone, okay, just so I understand, what I'm hearing, you say is. And you repeat to them so that you make sure you're understanding, you're almost. If you appreciate how they communicate or what they're saying to you, it's kind of you're teaching back what you've heard and you're also being really present so that they can say, no, that's actually not what I said.

Yeah.

So to me, yeah, to me, that's a really important skill that I'm still trying to learn and apply.

I love that. It's sort of like when I interviewed Larry King, he said, I never learned anything when I was talking. Right. To emphasize how he listens and how his curiosity speaks for itself. And taking a step back, just with wordiful and everything happening right now, especially coronavirus quarantine, having these live events switching to digital events. I saw you're doing something with Kevyon. How has that transition been like this last month, especially with a, you know, type of company that does live events?

Well, what's really great is, you know, one thing I love about, like, IG, igtv, when it goes live and you see everybody in the comments and you suddenly feel like you're part of a community. Live events. The reason why I even started live events was so we could have that feeling, that feeling of community. We could be seen and be heard. And because we are all in our homes right now where we can't see each other unless we have, you know, a zoom or some other company that's helping us facilitate that, I thought, well, what if I could just go on and bring. Bring on guests that word of the wordiful community is already familiar with. So it's just like coming home. And I. And I wanted to also have the experience that we are in this together. And it's really great because during these Wordiful live onlines, you see everybody in the comments. And because we've had events now for over two and a half years, a lot of the audience is familiar with each other. So they see each other in the comments. They're like, oh, you're in here too. And that just feels so great. It's. I feel even just so connected because I'm seeing all these familiar names. So I just. To answer your question, I feel like the transition, of course it's gonna be different, but as long as it's beneficial, then I feel, then I'm doing my job, you know?

Love that. How long have you been putting out content from a personal brand on social media outside of Wordiful?

Ooh, just like me as Liz Hernandez.

Yeah, like the importance of. Because that's how I connected with you. You know, you're doing these podcasts with drama and these different people that I'm connected with. And, you know, you've built such a great online presence. Like, when did you start doing that in your career?

I mean, as soon as Things started popping up. You know, I'm just the average person who became familiar with all these social apps like everyone else. You know, I remember when Twitter first kicked off, it was like 2009, and my friend's like, there's this thing where you could put out your thoughts and everybody else can see them. And now that just blows my mind, you know. Or before that, it was MySpace. But, yeah, I was really. Actually, I was very late to Instagram, at least from, you know, my point of view. There was a lot of people on it, and I was like, I don't know. And then finally I joined, and then finally I started understanding the power of it. But, yeah, I just think that I guess I've been doing it since, I don't know, my space days.

Yeah. Very cool. I want to take a step back as well, because I know you talked about, you know, college and what led you into broadcasting. What was your childhood like? And, you know, where did you grow up? I'd love to. To get into. To that side of the story.

Oh, funny. I grew up in Riverside, which is about an hour from east of Los Angeles. But I was very familiar with la, with family here, and I grew up. What do you want to know? I mean, that's a big loaded question.

What were some of your hobbies and passions, or what were you pursuing at a young age?

So this is what I was talking about earlier when I said I didn't know if it was a little bit of destiny with a little bit of just divine intervention and fate. I don't know what you would call it. But when I was younger, Casey, I had such an affinity for radio. I loved radio. Loved, loved, love. Like, I was that kid who would stay in her room for hours, call the hotline, try to be caller 10 or whatever it was. And a lot of times I got on. It was so crazy. And when I got into college, I won a radio contest, and they would air my voice on the radio, the local radio station out there. And I'd be like, hey. At the time was like, hey, it's Elizabeth, and you're listening. And the station was 99. 1. That was our local radio station in LA. But when I was even younger, like in seventh grade, I used to make what we call in radio air checks. And air checks is kind of like your demo reel, like what you hand out. But I would make them for my friends, and I had just to age myself a little bit. I had a dual cassette tape player, and I would record with the microphone over my favorite interviews. That my local DJ did. And I would put my voice in and then hand them out to friends.

Okay.

Just to be funny never knowing I was gonna be in radio. But I want to say, you know, a huge part of, I believe, why wordiful is successful, why I've had the career I've had, is because I grew up in a very loving household. I was very fortunate. I had three older sisters. I had a mom and dad who spoke to me very lovingly. I mean, this is really a testament to. To the way they talk to me. They always empowered me with their words, told me I could do anything, be anything. And when I got, you know, when I started making my way through, and not everybody has a tribe of women behind them that, you know, my sisters were very loving and encouraging and like my parents, because we were all brought up in the same house. So that has built me into the person I am today. And I saw my dad speak many things into fruition. And so it has just been one of those things that has made me very self aware. And I'm very mindful that what we say to ourselves becomes our truth.

Yeah. How does someone start, you know, building that internal communication with themselves that, you know, a lot of people, they may have negative thoughts. Especially in a time like this where there's a lot of uncertainty and people are, you know, getting laid off and the economy is just like, what's happening? What would you recommend to someone that may be going through a tough time, a negative situation, and their self talk is just everything, you know, negative. What's your advice there?

Well, there's a few things. So the first one is to be able to differentiate between who you are. Like, I'm gonna use you as an example, Casey, who Casey is and who that self talk is. I call that the inner critic. Because there's the inner critic who's telling you, I don't feel like working like, or kind of barking at you. You're saying to yourself, I really want to work out today. And the inner critic is like, nah, you can't work out. You're tired, you're lazy, you don't want to do it, whatever it is, that negative talk. And when you can say, that's not really who I am, that's a part of who I am. That's kind of like the ego, like I said, the inner critic. You can kind of monitor those thoughts and see, like, okay, there's a lot of negative chatter going on in my head right now. How can I start to change that dialogue? Like anything that we Perfect. It takes practice. So there's a lot of ways you can practice it. You can Write it out 10 times. You know, I call them affirmations. You have to start affirming to yourself, and it's going to be really hard at first, and it's going to be so abnormal. But that's where anything that makes us uncomfortable is usually growth.

Yeah.

So say if your affirmation say you want to, you know, be active and work out, you would say, I, Casey, am feeling energetic today, and I'm gonna go on my run. Or I'm grateful I went on a run today. I always like to put them in present tense.

Got it.

I'm Casey. I'm super energetic, and I did an awesome run today. And if you say that enough times, it's almost to the point where, you know, the body's always eavesdropping on the conversations that we're having in our minds.

Okay.

And it's just waiting. The brain is waiting for a command. It likes commands in present tense. We have so much more control than we realize, but we've gotten so used to, like, saying the negative affirmations, and we're creatures of habit. So think of the things that you've told yourself over the years or the things a conversation you're having with yourself about what this pandemic means to you. Because whatever perception you put on what's happening, perception is reality. So if you're saying to yourself, oh, I'm super creative. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and if you just try to put it in present tense, chances are you're going to accomplish it. But you got to get. You got to practice. And again, I know someone's gonna say something to themselves, and it's gonna feel like B.S.

Yep.

But that's because they're not used to telling themselves that thing.

Totally.

That's why you have to practice.

I love that. Do you have daily affirmations that absolutely. Say, and if so, I'd love to hear them.

I have. So Kevyon actually taught me the seven equities, and it's for mind, body, soul, family, social work, and money. And I write those seven affirmations daily. So for me, we can start with the mind. I always say I am, I believe I am are two of the most powerful words we have in our vocabulary because it starts in affirmation, and I just believe there's magic in those words. So I would say I am creative, I am forgiving, I am loving, and I'm Talking about my mind, I'm talking about my thoughts. I am motivated, I am capable, I am talented. Whatever those things are, those words that you need to affirm to yourself until you believe them, that's what the affirmation needs to be. Then I move on to body. My body is energetic. My body loves to work out. My body's in its best shape again. That has to be whatever you want and desire. Then it's soul. My soul is connected to all things through nature, through music, through. It's where you want, through meditation, through prayer. It's where you want to feel yourself come alive. For instance, my mother passed away in November, and the way I connect to her sometimes is I'll put my playlist on shuffle and I'll say, because I've written, my affirmation of my soul is connected to all things. I'll say, whatever my mother is trying to communicate to me right now, let me hear it in this playlist. Let me hear that message. Or if I'm looking for an answer in life, I'll put my ipod on shuffle. Because I've prayed that affirmation to be connected.

That is very cool. I love that. I'm sorry to hear that. But that's such a important takeaway. I'm going to start doing that, just that simple thing. I love that.

And here's the thing. Why I believe it so strongly is because we're all energy, right? And energy can't be destroyed. It can only be transform. So if we're all moving energy, I'm attracting to myself what it is I need to hear, see opportunities, people I need to meet. And I truly believe that whatever we're looking for, we will find, if we're open to it.

Love that you're very spiritual. Is that correct?

Absolutely.

Do you have any? Because I would say I am as well. Do you have any? Your top spiritual books? I love the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. It's one of my favorites. I read it every month. Do you have any books or, you know, places you went to to search and to seek this type of information?

Absolutely. So A Return to Love was huge to me by Marianne Williamson. The Four Agreements. That's like the Pillars of Wortiful. Don Miguel Ruiz. The power of intention. Dr. Wayne Dyer. Life Lessons by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. I have so many, but, like, if I turn, you're gonna see all my books. What else do I have over here? The Art of Abundance. That's by Dennis Merritt Jones. Oh, a New Earth by Edgar Tolle. How we can forget Eckhart. He's like a legend. Even the Five Languages of Love by Gary Chapman. I mean, there's. I love self help books and anything that teaches me about how to understand myself better so I can understand other people better.

Love that. When did you get, like, for example, you brought up Kevyon. I love Kevyon. He's someone that, when I first saw him on the show, I was like, kevy on. You are the man. When did you get connected with Kevyon and people like Drama? I'm just curious because that's how I found out who you are, and I just fell in love with your whole story. So when did that network come into place? I'm curious.

Let me tell you. How crazy. So Drama had me on Short story long and got my whole story. And then I became familiar with his podcast, so I would listen whenever I had an opportunity. And I remember one time I was just stuck in LA traffic and Kevyon was a guest and I was listening to the podcast, and he started saying things that were so in alignment with who I am that everything resonated. It was like a resounding yes, yes, yes. Like, I just. I just could relate and it sat right in my soul. Everything he was saying was the truth for me. And so I remember just scribbling down, you know how sometimes you keep your mail in your car?

Yep.

And so I had my mail in the side of my door and I just took out a pen and mind you, I was in stop traffic. There was like an accident or something, so I just started writing down the seven equities. I took a photo and I sent it to Drama and I just put wow. And Drama, all of a sudden, like, connect me. I don't know if he put us on, like a group text and next thing I know, we were all heading to lunch and. And Kev just asked me one day, like, do you want me to coach you? And I was like, please, let's do this. It's like I've known Kevin a past life or something, but yeah, and we just connected automatic.

Very cool. I was at one of his open houses. I just. I've been so honored to, you know, same thing. Kevin is just. He's so giving and loving, and I'm gonna literally us having this conversation. I'm like, I'm gonna go FaceTime Kevyon after this to stay with shaving. But so how prior to that, how did you get connected with Drama? Is that from the MTV world? Or how did that come about?

No, you know, LA is so small. I mean, it's big, but. It's small. But it's like, I always compare it to one big high school where everybody, you know, you may. We all may be different years, but we all know somebody from different classes.

Right.

So just mutual friends. I mean, we literally run the same circle of people. All of our friends are each other's best friends.

Love that.

Yeah.

What would you say? Because, and this is, by the way, one of my goals on my podcast is to get more women that empower other women. And I would say I look to you as one of those that I put high on the pedestal of someone that I look to as that. For the. You know, for the female listeners that may be listening to this show, obviously on my show, it tends to be more males, but for the females out there, what do you have to say to them? Because I know you're like, for example, I know I love Drama's girlfriend Karine, what she's doing with her game. That's one of my favorite games in the world. We're not really strangers. I've played it, like, hundreds of times. I just think it's like what you guys are doing to bring up vulnerability and communication. Like, I'm so aligned with that. But what advice would you give to young females who are looking to build a career and they may be confused or, you know, they don't know where to go? What advice would you give them.

To. 100%, get clear on what it is that you want to do. Right. Because first it has to kind of be an idea that you start with, of what am I passionate about? For me, I'm a communicator. I love communicating. I love community. I love connecting with people. I love asking questions. You know, maybe that comes from my reporter days, I don't know. But I think I've always been that way since I was a kid. And so this company obviously makes sense for me, because then it doesn't feel like work. It just feels like something I'm passionate about. And that's the thing. You've got to find something that really. You know, it's like that meme or that quote that says, find something you want to do that wakes you up at 5am Right? That you're just. You want to jump out of bed, basically. And that, to me, is where the idea has to begin. It shouldn't be something that's about making you money. It's about something that you truly love. And it's also super important. What I've noticed more than ever, and a question I get a lot at events is, you know, everyone wants to be an influencer.

Yeah.

But you have to ask yourself, like, what am I influencing? What is it that I want to say? And if you're not impacting, like, look at Kevyon. If you're not impacting the circle around you, the top 10, whether you have a platform or not, you can't expect to get on social media and then impact 100,000 people. You have to start it with, do the people around you like the earrings you're making, the card game you're putting out, the candles you're making what you have to say, your messaging, because that's a great place to start. Right. And then the biggest thing and the most important element I truly feel is you have to be 100% authentically yourself, because everything right now is, I feel, like a stolen dream on the Internet. You know, everybody borrows from each other. There's no real authentic creativity. And I think people can tell the difference between when someone is creating from their heart and what they're actually passionate about, or if you're just trying to, like, stay up with the trends and just not 100% be you. That's what resonates, especially because there's so much noise on the Internet.

I'm curious, just, you know, with times like this, there's so much content consumption. What type of content do you consume on social and where do you spend your time? You know, when you're on Instagram or outside of that, where do you consume content?

You know, I usually consume content. As far as social media, I always like to see what my friends are doing and what they're up to and how they're feeling, because, you know, those are my girlfriends. And if I'm trying to understand what people are feeling and going through, I think that's the best place to start because then you can ask them questions. But I try not to spend too much time on social media because I want to be able to give back. Right. I want to be able to create content that is meaningful. So where I pull from is books, and I do a lot of reading. I research a lot of things. You know, if I'm looking to do a word, say the word is vulnerable, then I'm going to start researching different articles about it and studies that have been done. And I get really deep into it because I want to. I want to make sure that, of course, that it's coming from my personal perspective, but that I'M not missing anything important as well.

Yep. Do you have a word that has recently, like been your favorite word based on the experiences you've been going through?

My favorite word.

As of, you know, maybe the last month or so?

Well, you know the word that comes to mind. I recently filmed, I did a DIY session of wordiful episodes here in my house and it was, yeah, cross your fingers, Casey, that they come out okay. But here's the words that I felt I had to talk about because it's the words I couldn't stop thinking about and that was stress and anxiety. I mean, of course I threw some other words in there, but I was crazy. When you feel stressed about feeling stressed out. Right. So that word kept coming up. Or I felt anxious, anxiety. Like I'm not really a person who suffers from anxiety, thank God. Like, of course we all get a little bit of anxiety. But the amount of anxiety I was feeling was overwhelming. And I thought, well, if I'm feeling this, I know other people are feeling this. And I realized that a lot of it was me opening up the window to. I was inviting it in. I was on my phone and starting to feel anxious about everyone being productive and everyone posting their workout videos and everyone looked like professional quarantiners. And I was just like, oh, this is a lot like, let me go back to the basics. Let me go back to my everyday routine of what feels good for me, not what I think I have to do. Because one thing I've noticed during quarantine is that a lot of us get our value from feeling like we're being productive. And it's kind of a double edged sword. Like, yes, it's beautiful to put out content, but we can't think less of ourselves if we just want to sit and be still at this time.

Totally. I love that. I have two more quick questions, one of them being just when you. I love how you just said how deep you go into these words. What is the significance of deep communication to you and how do you apply that in your life with all your relationships?

The importance for me is about truly seeing someone else and being seen. Right. Because the more say if you and I just talked for ten days straight on the phone for two hours a day, think about how much we're going to know about each other.

A lot.

Think about how vulnerable we're going to feel because all of a sudden I'm asking you deeper questions. I'm getting to know about your family. I'm getting to know about what makes you anxious. I'm Getting to know what your favorite foods are. There's now a bond we're connected, creating. And the deeper we go and the more we're willing to reveal about ourselves, to talk about the things that we're not supposed to talk about. You know, you may tell me your biggest insecurity, and you may have never admitted that to somebody else. Or you may tell me a story about something you stole when you were 14 years old. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, my God. Because you were vulnerable with me, I can now tell you my story.

Yep.

It opens up permission to really be ourselves. So to me, that's what deep communication is all about. It's about truly being seen.

I love that you just gave me a perfect way to wrap this up for everyone listening. If you were to give them a challenge to take into their day or this week, to build more depth in their relationships, what would you challenge them to do?

I would challenge yourself to write down 10 questions that you really wish someone would ask you. Write down those 10 questions like, God, I'd really love to share this about myself, even if it scares you. And then ask. Ask that person closest to you. Ask them those 10 questions.

Okay. Okay.

Because chances are they want. They. They're waiting for someone to bring it out of them.

Yeah, right.

That's why we yearn for relationships. We want someone who's gonna get to know us, accept us, and love us just as we are. But how can that even begin if we're not willing to open up and commun.

So just to recap, write down 10 questions that you'd want someone to ask you, and then ask those questions to someone that's closest to you.

Right. And maybe give them, like, plan it out. Do that assignment with them. You know, say you, I want you to, but don't tell them the catch yet. Like, say I want you to write 10 questions you'd really want someone to ask you, and then you flip flop the questions. So, like, for instance, give me a question, Casey, that you really want someone to ask you.

Oh, I would say. I would say, what has been the relationship with your family growing up? I'm a big family guy, and I think I love talking about my family. So, yeah, that'd be it. Like the relationship with my family.

Perfect. And see, I would want someone to ask me, what have I learned from heartbreak? Because I feel like I've learned so much in the past few years.

I love this already. That's very interesting. I love the way you just. Wow, you're great. I love it. I'm going to do this right after this show. I'm going to go do this. So thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's a lot of fun because you don't know what questions are going to be asked, you know.

Well, Liz, thank you so much for the time. You're inspiring me to go write these 10 questions to FaceTime. Kevi on to say hello. And I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to be with here with us today. And yeah, just where can people follow you follow Wordiful? And where can people stay updated with everything you have going on?

Well, first, Casey, thank you for having me. You are such a sweetheart and I appreciate your time, your energy, just your. I mean, you've got such a great spirit. It's really. Even through, you know, the world we're living in, it really shines through. So thank you. But they can find me at Wordiful, which is W o r D a f u L so its words are powerful and I kind of mushed it all together. And Liz Hernandez Izhernandez through all social platforms. Wordiful through all social platforms.

Love that. Well, everyone listening, make sure you go check her out on Instagram and everywhere else. And that being said, thanks so much for tuning in.

Thanks, Casey.

Legacy of Monsters An Apple Original Series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 7th 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me, the most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

Oh, my God. Go, go, go.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV Plus.