“Fitting In” vs. “Belonging” – The Mindset Shift You Need to Hear | Ep. 115 with Gina Casazza
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What’s the difference between "fitting in" and truly "belonging"?
In this remote No Grey Areas interview, children’s author and speaker Gina Casazza shares her powerful journey—from chasing acceptance to finding real belonging. Her curiosity led her to train with Navy SEAL candidates and sparked a mindset shift that changed everything.
Gina opens up about why fitting in is exhausting, how belonging frees you, and the role of curiosity, identity, and authenticity in finding your purpose.
🎧 Don’t miss this inspiring episode on belonging, self-worth, and embracing who you are—it might change how you show up in the world.
No Grey Areas is a motivational podcast with captivating guests centered around how our choices humanize, empower, and define who we become. This podcast is inspired by the cautionary tale, No Grey Areas, written by Joseph Gagliano. Learn more about the truth behind his story involved with sports' biggest scandal at https://www.nogreyareas.com/
Transcript
Host
What if true belonging has nothing to do with fitting in and everything to do with showing up as yourself. On this episode of No Gray Areas, we sit down with Gina Zaza speaker, Navy Seal prep grad and author of the children's book. You really, Truly Do Belong. She shares how curiosity can fuel resilience, how stories can connect us, and why belonging starts from within.
::Host
Let's get into it.
::Pat McCalla
Gina, because as a thank you so much for joining us on the No Gray Areas podcast.
::Pat McCalla
I'm so excited about our interview today. For one thing, you're a children's author and a participant in the Navy Seals training training program, which I'm
::Pat McCalla
like, going, wait, what?
::Pat McCalla
How did those go together? Which we're going to come. I want to circle back to that a little bit later.
::Pat McCalla
But let me start by asking you this. If someone were to go to your website, the tagline right it up at the top says Inspiring Minds, building belonging and Sparking Imagination. I love that I think all three of those are valuable.
::Pat McCalla
I think you're specifically talking about children with those, probably you can speak into that,
::Pat McCalla
those are so important for adults too. So can you share why that's your
::Gina Casazza
So you're right. It's very important. I do do speaking to adults as well. I mean primarily children, but I do speak with adults. And one of the big topics that I talk about when I'm speaking to adults, not with children, I talk about how curiosity fuels resilience and how we stopped being curious at a certain point in our lives.
::Gina Casazza
And I don't really talk about this with kids because I don't need to because they're super curious right there, you know, and
::Gina Casazza
when you could just lean into that curiosity, like you, I mean, we talked about it with when I mentioned Harry Potter, my love of Harry Potter, and in the world that she created. Right. She leaned into being curious and creating this world.
::Gina Casazza
And I wonder what it's like to be an author. Oh, you know, on all these things, I have so many people that come to me and they're like, I, I haven't book idea or I wish I could do that, or, I have a book, but I have no idea where to start. It's like, well, you're not getting curious enough.
::Gina Casazza
Like, you know, you're just ending it right there. I don't know where to start. And there's the ending and it's like, but if you could get a little bit curious, how can I do that? You know what you know and ask yourself all these questions. I guarantee you within the year.
::Gina Casazza
You will be doing that.
::Gina Casazza
You know, and we stop asking questions because, you know, we get tired, we're lazy, we have too much going on. You know, we don't want to, you know, add another thing to our plate or we just don't want to fail, right? We don't want to screw things up. You know, as an adult, when you mess things up, it's expensive sometimes.
::Gina Casazza
You know, and that's another fear, you know. And with kids, they don't have any of that. They don't have any of those worries. The only thing really is, is everyone going gonna be laughing at me? And that's a big one for kids, you know. And that carries on into adulthood
::Gina Casazza
as well. And that's one of the reasons why I just feel like being curious.
::Gina Casazza
Increase is your imagination. It does everything for you. And that's one of the things that I feel like we need to never lose.
::Pat McCalla
Man, I so agree with that. And it's fascinating when you watch kids like, you know, my kids are grown now. And now I have seven grandkids and I'm watching them as little kids y. Right. Like, especially like 2 to 5. It's why why why they call me Poppy. It's like, why Poppy? Why does this work? Poppy? Why does it do that?
::Pat McCalla
That's that curiosity that you're talking about.
::Pat McCalla
lose that. Do you think we start to lose that? You mentioned, kids, really, their only fear is being laughed at. Is that where it starts? Where we start to lose it?
::Gina Casazza
I think as we get older.
::Gina Casazza
The.
::Gina Casazza
Education system that we've created really stifles creativity.
::Pat McCalla
agree.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah. And I think that, you know it becomes more about.
::Gina Casazza
Facts quote.
::Gina Casazza
Unquote, you know, and tests and, and and all the scores and all that stuff where it's not about like I just found out this morning from and I didn't look into this, so don't quote me. But I was just talking to somebody this morning and he was talking about how I live in South Carolina, I live in Orange County.
::Gina Casazza
And they mentioned how a friend of his has been fighting against the school board because they took away recess.
::Gina Casazza
because their test scores are down and they want to, you know, have them work longer. And I go, that's going to do the opposite, because,
::Gina Casazza
and I told this to to him, I said, adults have the best productivity day on a Monday because they just get back into work.
::Gina Casazza
And they just had this nice little two days off and they're ready to go right. By Friday they have their worst productivity day because they're ready for a break. They're exhausted right. How they need their recess. How do you think a child feels? You know, it's the same thing.
::Gina Casazza
and so I feel like it's the education system that really kills the kids curiosity.
::Gina Casazza
that's where I think it begins.
::Pat McCalla
Gina, I would agree. I, I
::Pat McCalla
would agree. And by the way I
::Pat McCalla
educator for, for ten years. So I, I think I have a right to say this
::Pat McCalla
but
::Pat McCalla
I totally agree with that. I mean, I've always wondered how you take a 4 or 5 year old who for the last, the first five years of their life have learned social skills, have learned a language, have learned motor skills, have learned all of these things.
::Pat McCalla
But they're not in a classroom. And they just love to learn. They're curious, like you said. And then once we put them in school, usually within a year or something, they they, they don't even really want to learn anymore. We've done something that stifled that a lot. So I, I would agree with that a lot.
::Pat McCalla
you made a statement that I loved.
::Pat McCalla
You said curiosity fuels resilience.
::Pat McCalla
speaking to that because that's that's a fascinating comment.
::Gina Casazza
Well, I mean, we're going to go there. We'll we'll go into how I figure that out. And that was, you know, within the Navy Seal program that I joined. So I joined a Navy Seal prep program and I leaned into being curious because I
::Gina Casazza
wanted to to test my mindset. And I remember walking up to these guys and seeing them and, you know, their arms are the size of my entire body.
::Gina Casazza
And I'm super intimidated. And I leave. And I said to myself, Gina, you know, like you're not even you. You just stopped. You wanted to know how strong your mindset is. Will you just you just found out your weak. If you can't go up there, you got to get a little curious and find out, like, let's test this out.
::Gina Casazza
So then I,
::Gina Casazza
went and I put one foot in front of the other. I said hello, and I joined the program. And then, you know, we were doing push ups and you don't know when it's going to end. He doesn't know when it's going to end. The Navy Seal that that's in charge of this whole entire program, he's just laying down.
::Gina Casazza
And you go down and up and you go up. And I remember wanting to quit seven times in the first minute. I was like, my gosh, I'm exhausted. My arms are going to break. Then I was like, but what if I could do another one and another one? And what if I could keep going? And what, you know, how strong am I going to get?
::Gina Casazza
And I leaned into that curiosity, how fast can I go, you know, and I asked myself all these questions to then find out that I am way more capable. And I thought, you know, I'm way more stronger than I thought. And then it just went to, well, now, how much further can I go? How much can I do?
::Gina Casazza
And it's the same thing as a as a business owner. It's like in a nonprofit founder and all this other stuff that I do, it's like, well, how much can we raise and how many people can we impact? Oh, we just impact a five, right? Like what? How can we impact ten? It's just little questions like that that get you curious.
::Gina Casazza
And it's just making sure you're asking yourself the right curious questions. You know, you want to you want to be in the positive of of the curiosity.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
For example, you use the word what if several times,
::Pat McCalla
some people use what if and it's a negative,
::Gina Casazza
Yes.
::Pat McCalla
What if I. But you were using what if to your point in a positive way. Like what if I can do one more push up? What if I can? Well, that's so interesting though, because I don't think very many people in me included.
::Pat McCalla
I would not have thought of curiosity and resiliency to go together. But
::Pat McCalla
you explained it so well. They really do, don't they?
::Gina Casazza
yeah. It's you know, and like I said, that's why I said the whole positivity. Because I heard myself saying, what if? And I know people are going to be like, saying the negative because that's where we normally go. It's like we are more hardwired to go to the negative than we are to the positive. And you need to really re wire that mindset.
::Pat McCalla
and circling back to what we started talking about. But that's what children do so well. Right. A 3 or 4 year old is like what if I can climb on top of this couch and jump off of this
::Pat McCalla
So much of their learning is coming out of their what ifs, right?
::Gina Casazza
Definitely. You know, and I also think I, I speak to a lot of children. I do a lot of author visits, I go to a lot of schools and stuff.
::Gina Casazza
And I just remember myself being a child in school miserable. I mean, I went to the to the nurse's office every single day,
::Gina Casazza
just to get a break from class.
::Gina Casazza
I was like, oh my God, this place is miserable. And I hated reading, I hated learning,
::Gina Casazza
I it's also because I wasn't very good at it because they don't teach you how to learn.
::Gina Casazza
They just expect you to learn. Right? And
::Gina Casazza
how can a child learns? I don't know, they're just not interested in, you know, just, you know, we are and they have a curriculum that you need to follow right.
::Gina Casazza
And
::Gina Casazza
I say to the students all the time, I go, you know, if you're struggling to read, you're just and you don't like reading, you're just not reading the right books, you know? And it wasn't until I discovered The Outsiders that I became a reader, because that book was life changing, and it was like, oh my God,
::Gina Casazza
this is a book that just I wanted to know everything about, like, I was in that world.
::Gina Casazza
I was in seventh grade, I was 13,
::Pat McCalla
grade. Something sparked with you. Like you found something that you were really interested in.
::Gina Casazza
The outsiders, I was it. I wanted to read everything. And then and then there was a movie. And then I'm fascinated by the movie, and then I'm like, look up like I would read the book once a year. I mean, I still do. I watch the I watch the movie and I study it, and I got, I mean, I went into the film business and then I got an opportunity to work for Ralph Macchio, and all I did was talk about The Outsiders.
::Gina Casazza
I was like, I had to ask him. Everything is just it changed my course of learning and reading and it just made it fun. And then I just stopped caring about. My parents were never big on test scores, like they didn't care, you know, as long as you just put in an effort, right? You showed up, you know, there's no excuse to not doing homework is like, that's your job.
::Gina Casazza
But it's not about it's okay if you can't pass a test. Right? And so for myself, that's just how I looked at things where I would just read books on my own that I loved reading and I loved learning about. But I don't think kids really give themselves that opportunity because again, everything so focused on test scores.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah. Man I oh.
::Pat McCalla
I can't even tell you. You're getting me on my soapbox
::Gina Casazza
Before.
::Pat McCalla
soapbox I'm passionate about this. And
::Pat McCalla
my story is similar to years I, I kind of lived on my own because of my family dysfunction situation. I kind of lived on my own for part of high school. So to take someone who hates school at that point in their life and they're living on their own and they don't have anybody making you go.
::Pat McCalla
So if someone looked at my, grade point average from high school, they would probably be shocked how low it was. But someone would make the assumption at that time, oh, he doesn't like to learn. What they didn't know was I was going home at night and I would be up till two in the morning sometimes reading a book, because I was fascinated with learning.
::Pat McCalla
But to your point, it was something that that I was maybe interested in. I've loved
::Gina Casazza
Right.
::Pat McCalla
my history grade wasn't good because all history was is asking me to regurgitate dates.
::Pat McCalla
But I'm going home reading a history book that's
::Gina Casazza
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
that could somehow make history come alive.
::Pat McCalla
yeah. So interesting.
::Pat McCalla
So I, I agree, I think there is something to, really sparking that curiosity with kids. Is that what made you get into, being a child author?
::Gina Casazza
No. That just kind of happened on a whim. I trained in the Navy Seal program, and I found belonging. It was something I was searching for for 31 years. And I finally found it in the most unlikely of places. And at the second to last week of training, I decided I just had this idea. I think I'm going to write a book about belonging that will.
::Gina Casazza
That's when I the second last week of training is when I discovered belonging. And then during that week it was just kind of like this. Whoa, moment. And then the last day of training, I looked at my teammates and I said, thank you so much. You guys taught me belonging because I was moving. That's why I left the program.
::Gina Casazza
They continue, you know, until they go to buds.
::Gina Casazza
But for myself, I was a civilian, you know, wasn't going anywhere, but, you know,
::Gina Casazza
But,
::Gina Casazza
I said,
::Gina Casazza
I'm going to write a book. And really, it was a letter to my younger self. It was a book for little me and I and, you know, seven year old me who longed to belong. And I wish I knew that meaning. And then next thing you know, I published it and it just like blew up in terms of schools were asking me to come to teach that message and read the book.
::Gina Casazza
And then adults were asking me if I would speak to them like the teachers were like, can you come and do a speaking with us about this? This is an amazing topic. And then next thing you know, it launched a whole speaking career and that's what happened. But
::Gina Casazza
you know, it's all because I leaned in.
::Pat McCalla
had that out of order. I just thought you were a children's author that then went to a Navy Seal training program there. Reversed. It was the Navy Seal training program that sparked that in you.
::Gina Casazza
Yes. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
So what is it about belonging that connected with you or how or what did you understand about it that maybe you didn't understand when you were younger because you made the reference that you'd you'd always had this sense of wanting to belong, but you never had that.
::Gina Casazza
So if you looked at me from the outside, you'd be like, wow, what a what a well-adjusted child. Like I was involved in everything
::Gina Casazza
my parents, put me in everything they really, like. Wanted me to just experience a bunch of things, figure out passions, figure out, you know, and also, my dad was like, the more the kids do, the less trouble they're going to get into.
::Gina Casazza
They're just, you know, the keep them busy. Right. And we were very busy, like between like volunteering and at from nursing homes and church groups to sports. Sports was the religion of my family like it was the religion and the musical. And I played more than one musical instrument. So like I was like very involved, very busy
::Gina Casazza
and when you looked at me, you were like, wow.
::Gina Casazza
Like she and also I quote unquote, I fit in like I fit, I fit in whatever. I was a star athlete, like all this stuff. So when you look, you didn't like I didn't stand out in terms of like, I fit in with everybody and stuff, but on the inside, I just always felt like I didn't. I wasn't understood or, you know, like I felt a little different or, you know, things like that.
::Gina Casazza
Just it was an inside thing. And that's exactly belonging is a the inside thing. And it really stems from like, I don't feel good enough or I feel a little different or lonely or, you know, whatever. And I learned in the Navy Seal program that it's not about fitting in, fitting in and belonging or opposites, because fitting it means you have to change yourself to be like everybody else, right?
::Gina Casazza
You. And the main thing is you're never going to really fit in because,
::Gina Casazza
let's say you all look the same, you're dressed the same and all that stuff. Right? But doesn't mean you think the same, right? Does it mean you're on the same skill level? Right. All these things matter in terms of diversity. And we don't think that anymore.
::Gina Casazza
We think looks, looks, looks, looks right. It's not about looks. It's about I mean there's there's a part of it. Right. But then there's all these other things that we forget about when we want to diversify our company, diversify our school, all this other stuff, it's like skill levels is a big thing, you know, and,
::Gina Casazza
beliefs. And we want people that, that have different, that are not thinking the same.
::Gina Casazza
Right. That because that's how we're going to grow and all that stuff. So
::Gina Casazza
I learned that I was never going to fit in with these guys no matter what. Like it just wasn't going to happen. I don't look like them. I'm on the same skill level as them, like all these things. Right? But that didn't mean that I don't belong there, because I showed up every single time and I took the same beating as they did every single time.
::Gina Casazza
Right? And I learned that belonging is showing up as your authentic self, knowing that you're enough. And if you know that you belong like, that's a game changer because your skill level is going to get better, you know, because how many times you like run away.
::Pat McCalla
you say that again? That was so good.
::Pat McCalla
Can you give us that definition of belonging
::Gina Casazza
Yeah. Belonging is showing up as your authentic self, knowing that you are enough.
::Pat McCalla
Wow.
::Pat McCalla
So how old do you mind me asking how old you were
::Gina Casazza
I'm 35. I'm oh, today I'm 35. I'm 31. I was 31 when I joined the Navy Seal program.
::Pat McCalla
the Navy Seal program. So it was really it around 31 where you really
::Pat McCalla
first time in your life where you started having a sense of belonging, not fitting in, but belonging.
::Gina Casazza
Belonging. And you take that with you everywhere. So at the time I was also doing comedy, and I just moved from Los Angeles to New York at that time. And now I grew up in New York. So I wasn't a stranger to New York. It was just I was coming back to it after ten years and I was going into the comedy world.
::Gina Casazza
And when you know that you belong, I mean, you just show up, like,
::Gina Casazza
confident, knowing that, like, I could bomb and I still belong, you know, because you all you're not, like, not right. And and that's fine. And it's just like it doesn't mean because so many times, like you bomb and you're like, I don't belong here. I don't know, belonging.
::Gina Casazza
The thing on the inside. Like when you have imposter syndrome, it's because you don't understand belonging. And when you can understand belonging, you will not have imposter syndrome because you belong everywhere.
::Gina Casazza
you just need to know that.
::Pat McCalla
That is so good. I'm. I actually am taking
::Pat McCalla
what you just said. Because I think a lot of people deal with imposter syndrome. In fact, to your point, like when you were in high school, a lot of the people that you're sitting maybe in a boardroom and they're like, oh, they're the ones that have it together, you know, just like you did in high school.
::Pat McCalla
And on from the outward, everybody would be like, oh, she's definitely got it. Feel like she fits in or belongs. But when you start digging in to people and they get a vulnerable and transparent with you, you find out that most people struggle with imposter syndrome
::Gina Casazza
Yeah. Because they don't understand belonging.
::Pat McCalla
understand belonging
::Gina Casazza
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
belonging, which is again showing up in your authentic self.
::Gina Casazza
Knowing that you're enough. That's it. That's like. It's just done. Like, you know, it's just like
::Gina Casazza
There's so many people that, like, quote unquote, made it right. Successful in their mind in terms of I can't believe I got here. It's like, well, you've been working towards it. Why is that hard to believe that you got there? It's like, that's what you you've been working to obtain.
::Gina Casazza
And then you went there or it's like, you know, you decided to go this path and it just kind of blew up for you. Right? But you put in a lot of work there, right? But you have this imposter syndrome. It's because you don't understand
::Gina Casazza
belonging, you don't feel good enough about you.
::Pat McCalla
And trying to fit in is exhausting, isn't it? Because
::Gina Casazza
Oh my God, you can't.
::Pat McCalla
and you got to put this mask on in. This mask on in which goes back to belonging is your authentic self.
::Gina Casazza
And if you're trying to fit in, who are you?
::Pat McCalla
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
Well, now backing up then. That's what gave you a passion to write, a children's book then, because you wrote the children's book about belonging.
::Gina Casazza
yeah. Voted to my little self.
::Gina Casazza
And then, you know,
::Pat McCalla
Yeah. So what did you tell your little self?
::Pat McCalla
I want to peak our audiences, interest to go buy your book, whether it be for themselves
::Pat McCalla
grandkids or nieces and nephews.
::Host
we hope you've enjoyed this episode so far. Be sure to like and subscribe to not miss a future podcast! Okay, let's get back to the episode.
::Gina Casazza
So fun fact, it only took me four hours to write because it just flew out of me. Because I discovered something that I was searching for for 31 years. And when I wrote it, I originally wrote it as me, as the character. But then as a marketing standpoint, I was like, let me do an alien because I have a lot of males in my family, like young boys and
::Gina Casazza
I primarily just like family is going to buy this, right?
::Gina Casazza
So I wanted them to, you know, enjoy the story and not, you know, relate to anybody. So I made the character an alien.
::Gina Casazza
And then the alien goes on to this journey to find belonging. And throughout the book the alien goes to play a sport, the alien goes to play an instrument. You know, the alien goes to, there's a scene where the they're on the beach in uniform and they're, you know, it's the uniform I had in the Navy Seal program.
::Gina Casazza
We trained on the beach, and there's a little image of me,
::Gina Casazza
like, as the character and the alien goes, and, you know, I'm going up there, and then they're going to build a race car and can't, you know, all the stuff. And it's all the things that me as a child was intrigued by. Spock. It's music, you know, working, you know, working out and, you know, the race car thing just fit.
::Gina Casazza
I was just trying to think of everything for every child.
::Gina Casazza
can relate and fit into.
::Gina Casazza
And that's really it just kind of stemmed it just wrote itself, you know, and I wrote it through the eyes of seven year old me. I mean, I literally wasn't a 31 year old writing this. I was writing this for, for at seven year old me wishing I had this message.
::Gina Casazza
And just to simplify it for seven year old.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
And man, if a kid could get that right before you were 31 when you got it. I was much older than I think. I think I'm still learning that to be honest. If I'm if I'm transparent with our audience, I think I'm still learning what it really means to belong
::Pat McCalla
instead of trying to fit in.
::Pat McCalla
which.
::Pat McCalla
I spent most of my because I'm a people pleaser by nature,
::Pat McCalla
I just, I it was easy for me to bend toward trying to fit in, which, again, is an exhausting way to live.
::Gina Casazza
It is. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
you'll never actually achieve it. As you said.
::Gina Casazza
You are there. There's too many factors. You know.
::Pat McCalla
So what a great story I can I would encourage your audience, go grab this book. How would they grab that really
::Gina Casazza
Going on my website Gina because I as a.com you know I sign them in me on the website. There's also copies on Amazon and stuff.
::Pat McCalla
And so we'll put that in the description as well. So people when they're listening to the podcast you can just go to the description. You can click on that link and find this. So
::Pat McCalla
that's why you wrote the book. You talked about storytelling a little bit before we even turn the cameras on and, and got going with this and, and how,
::Pat McCalla
passionate you are about storytelling.
::Pat McCalla
Why is that?
::Gina Casazza
We all have a story. Every single one of us have the story. And, you know, back in the old times, you know, like in you gather around a campfire and you tell a story and it brings people together. It helps you connect with each other. And we don't do that anymore. We connect through technology and I think that there is a positive to it.
::Gina Casazza
I mean, without it, we wouldn't be here right now, right? But there's also something important about connecting with each other. Like I heard some of your story, you know, that you were sharing with me. And it is really interesting, especially for someone that was in high school, like on their own. And look at you today. I mean, I want to know more.
::Gina Casazza
That's really interesting to me.
::Gina Casazza
but I think that growing up in the digital age, we stop asking questions and getting curious, right? Just like now, I'm intrigued by your story. I want to know more about your story. We we don't listen well because our focus and our attention span is just dwindling and dwindling away. You know, we're and I want to get back to that.
::Gina Casazza
And one of the things that I share with the kids when I, when I go into the schools is I say,
::Gina Casazza
you guys just read my story like I'm the the one that didn't belong, right? And
::Gina Casazza
one day I want to read your story because your story is worth sharing. So go out and share your story and I think sometimes we don't want to.
::Gina Casazza
We feel judgment. We feel all this stuff. Well guess what? Like, I mean, the world is full of critics, you know? But the thing is, like, they're not there with you. They didn't go through what you went through. So what does it matter? Like, I have a TikTok specifically for my podcast, and because my podcast is a Special Forces podcast, I also don't just share clips of the guests, I also share clips of me right in the Navy Seal program, and I get all the haters on when I do things like that.
::Gina Casazza
And I have fun with it. And I laugh because I just think you weren't there, like you didn't do it and come join me, you know, or you know, I just it to me, you got to you got to just take it all with the grain of salt and just laugh it out. But stories are meant to be told.
::Gina Casazza
And we gotta stop being so afraid to share them.
::Pat McCalla
r from the stage for the last: ::Pat McCalla
to shift a little bit how I would speak because I saw the power of storytelling. You were saying it.
::Pat McCalla
It's the one thing throughout human history that we have. People would sit around, they would tell stories, they would write books. And so, my if someone were to look at the, old recordings of me speaking from the stage versus the last ten years or so, I really started shifting toward being a narrative speaker, like storytelling, making a story come alive.
::Pat McCalla
And I actually think I improved a lot as a speaker. You captured the audience's attention. Why? Because everybody's interested by a good story. Always have been.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah. And it's funny. I'm doing the same thing now as I'm now moving into the adult speaking world. The reason why I get kids attention so well and I could talk for a little bit is because I share with them a story. I and I show videos to it too, which gives them even more engaged. But for adults, I'm now thinking like I'm moving into that world.
::Gina Casazza
How can I bring story into the lesson that I'm sharing with them? And the main thing that I'm sharing is, how are we going to increase productivity and sales in the workplace? Boring.
::Gina Casazza
it's important is an important thing, but
::Gina Casazza
you've probably heard it a thousand times. So now I got to bring in story in order for you to really understand and hear that message.
::Gina Casazza
Because sometimes the message, we could hear it a thousand times, but the way somebody tells it is going to really impact us versus a generic way, and that way is the story.
::Pat McCalla
Well, I'm wired similar to you, too. I mean, you were talking about being interested in my story the little bit that you heard. This is why I love doing podcasts so much. It's my
::Gina Casazza
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
is I get to just hear people's stories because
::Pat McCalla
As you said, everyone has a story. And I think everyone's story is interesting and there's there's learning that I can do and our audience can do from everyone else's story and how they navigated their journey of life.
::Pat McCalla
And so I think that's such a fascinating part. Help us understand, though. So this podcast is probably going to drop around Mother's Day and so for mothers, but not just mothers, let's say fathers too, or uncles, aunts or anybody who's working with kids,
::Pat McCalla
how would you recommend they use story or leverage story to help teach their kids?
::Gina Casazza
There are so many fun ways, and it really is all about the kids. How are you going to get the kids engaged? I have a I. My my nephew's brother is nine. And one of the things that we used to do together is he loved telling stories. And we would play it. We'd play a game with each other.
::Gina Casazza
I'd start the story and he tag him, and then he would finish. He would. He would then continue the story. And then when he gets that kid, tag me, and then I tag him and then there comes a point where we just stop and he just goes on and on and on and on. And I love it. Like I am intrigued by it.
::Gina Casazza
And he gets into it. Tag with storytelling. And he
::Pat McCalla
Idea.
::Gina Casazza
he loved it. I mean, the thing is, how many of you and I, I'm talking to the listeners right now are sitting down and having dinner as a family. And when you are sitting down and having dinner as a family, what is that like? Because that's a great time for story.
::Gina Casazza
Think of that as the campfire, right? Because nowadays we're losing that. People aren't sitting home for dinner at the table, talking and sharing and things like that. It's a very low number compared to what it was when I was a kid, and then definitely when my dad was a kid. That was what everybody did, right? So that is another way, sitting down and having dinner as a family.
::Gina Casazza
And let's say you can't do it Monday through Friday. Right? But what about Sunday? What about that Saturday or Sunday? Like make it a day. Like, my dad had a rule growing up because he worked Monday through Friday and we did see him. He was very present in our lives and stuff. But Sunday was his day and it was family day.
::Gina Casazza
And it was like, you see your.
::Gina Casazza
Friends Monday through Friday, you.
::Gina Casazza
See them on Saturday. Sunday is my day. And that was a day that we we spent time as a family and get to know each other better. And we're super. My family and I are very, very close, but it's just things like that. Like another thing that I do with,
::Gina Casazza
students, with kids, with the young kids is we make stories together.
::Gina Casazza
We're like, they'll create the character and I'll help them. I'll improv with them where I'll be like, what character? Or creating or creating a human or creating an alien, or we're creating an animal and then, you know, they'll say, what animal are we picking? What color is the animal? It could be anything, you know, like the last class I did did a lion with rainbow fur
::Gina Casazza
there you go.
::Gina Casazza
And then one kid was like, Lions don't have rainbow fur. And I go, it's your story. You're the god of the story. You create whatever you want right then. And they go, well, what's going to happen in the story? Where's the character going to go? And then what I do is then I throw it into ChatGPT. This is one of the beauties of technology because it's quick, it's easy.
::Gina Casazza
Right. And then it creates like a little eight page story and I put it on like a kindergarten grade level. And then I go into Canva and I generate and I put the clip art and stuff like that. And then I actually can go into ChatGPT and say, create a lion with rainbow fur, go to create the character for me.
::Gina Casazza
And then we write a story together and it takes what lesson an hour we get to connect, we get to have fun. We're not sitting in front of a TV and it's just little things like that. There's so many activities and I just started a Substack. I normally don't do this, like shape things like this, but I just started last week for parents to help build resilience and children and help increase literacy.
::Gina Casazza
And I am starting to share little things like this because it's endless. There's so much that you can do. It's just, what is your kid like doing and how can you? It's not about you, it's about your child. And you just have to, you know, because your child might not be into sports and you're into sports, but you have to get on their level in terms of figuring out how you guys can connect, you know?
::Pat McCalla
Gina. Man, I love what you just said. Because it's so fast in your using. You were using. You're kind of going back to what we said. Storytelling. It's been around from for all of human history,
::Pat McCalla
leveraging a tool that's almost brand new to us as humans. ChatGPT. And you're bringing those together. So you so so what I hear you saying is you're sitting in a classroom, you're asking the kids questions, and you're putting that information into like a ChatGPT, you know, we're going to have a lion with rainbow fur and where's he going to live?
::Pat McCalla
And all these things, you're putting it in there, and then you're telling it to create a story out of that,
::Pat McCalla
and anybody could do this at home.
::Gina Casazza
You could do it at home.
::Gina Casazza
It's it's simple. It's easy to do.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah. And you could do like, you know if you have more than one kid and you want to do the story, the story time, you know, where you tag play tag with stories and things like that. You make every I make everything a game
::Gina Casazza
my nephew. Right now he's three.
::Gina Casazza
He's like my little, like, tester in terms of things. And he really does well with music. He loves music as at three. And so Cosmo the alien, my alien from my book, there is a second book coming out. So now. So I branded the character and I created Cosmo the Alien, for YouTube. And I made an animation and I do storytime through animation and music.
::Gina Casazza
And he loves it. It's something he loves. But again, what he likes doesn't mean another kid's going to like, it's just you got to find out what works. And all of this is learning. All this is getting them curious. All all this is building their confidence and their self-esteem. And people say, well, how is it doing that? And I say, well, when you have a kid that's curious, you have a resilient kid, and that creates a confident,
::Gina Casazza
high self-esteem.
::Gina Casazza
Kid is all encompassing.
::Pat McCalla
one of my grandkids and I.
::Pat McCalla
It's,
::Pat McCalla
He's eight, and he and I have been building a spaceship for three years. Imagination, imaginary one, just like you're talking about. So when I see them, because they live, different city than us. But when I see them, sometimes when I put in a bed at night, we'll go back to that spaceship and we'll be like, okay, remember last time we have a whole floor that's got a water slide down to it, and you can, like, breathe underwater.
::Pat McCalla
and it's
::Gina Casazza
Well, yeah.
::Pat McCalla
not only has it been a connecting thing for he and I. So that's one thing that parents or aunts and uncles or grandparents or any but teachers, you're connecting with that child, right. But to your point then you're you're helping them build confidence and resiliency and storytelling all of those things.
::Pat McCalla
That's so good,
::Pat McCalla
Well, Gina, anything that we're missing that you would like to, to, to share. Before we we wrap up.
::Gina Casazza
What a great conversation. I mean,
::Gina Casazza
this has been really fun. Thanks for having me on. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
I'm curious, is there anything you don't do? You've mentioned,
::Pat McCalla
You're an author. The Navy Seals training. What? What else did you talk about?
::Pat McCalla
Comedy. I mean, what don't you do?
::Gina Casazza
I, I don't sit in an office.
::Gina Casazza
Working at 9 to 5.
::Pat McCalla
why you've done all those things. Curiosity. Right?
::Gina Casazza
Yeah, I get curious.
::Gina Casazza
They also tell me you don't have kids at that time. You don't have kids?
::Gina Casazza
You know, there's. I could do all this stuff.
::Gina Casazza
When I'm with my nephew. It's like, I.
::Gina Casazza
I go, oh, my God. Like.
::Gina Casazza
I could never do everything that I do because when I'm with him, he's. My whole entire world is my morning. You know? Everything is you know, with it takes a lot, you know, and you do a lot of sacrificing when you raise a child. And I think it's so rewarding and amazing. And I hope one day maybe I get that opportunity.
::Gina Casazza
But for now, I'm just everything I'm curious about. I'm touching.
::Pat McCalla
sounds like you're having an impact on a lot of other children and people and and adults as well, because I think, like, we've talked about all of those things, inspiring minds, building belonging, sparking imagination that your tagline, those are also important for us as adults. And we lost most of us. Many of us lost it somewhere along the way.
::Pat McCalla
And we can go get it back if we really
::Gina Casazza
Cause, yeah, read my book.
::Pat McCalla
let me finish with this is the fun part of the podcast. So, we've been talking here for about 45 minutes. I'm going to see how well I know you two truths and a lie. So you're going to give me three statements. Two of them will be truths. One will be a lie. I got to try to guess the
::Gina Casazza
Okay.
::Gina Casazza
I went completely deaf in my left ear. I went cage shark diving. I once paid to get kidnaped.
::Pat McCalla
Those are awesome. Okay,
::Pat McCalla
Paid to get kidnaped.
::Gina Casazza
Oh, wait. Hold on. Can I change it? Kind of change one.
::Gina Casazza
get rid of the hearing one.
::Gina Casazza
let's go with, I train my body to function on three hours of sleep for a month.
::Pat McCalla
Wow.
::Pat McCalla
oing to try to narrow down to: ::Gina Casazza
That was true. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
All right. See? Well, all the other stuff you did, I'm like, of course she jumped in the water without a cage with sharks. So the lie
::Pat McCalla
I'm going to say the lie is you trained to function on three hours of sleep for a month
::Gina Casazza
That's true.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
sleep.
::Gina Casazza
That's it.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah, I.
::Gina Casazza
Realized I the thing was, I accidentally give you all truths.
::Gina Casazza
And I went through it. Then I go, no, wait, those.
::Gina Casazza
Are all real. I had to give a lie, I forgot. I'm so sorry. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
So you paid to get kidnaped?
::Gina Casazza
the way he kidnaped.
::Gina Casazza
Yeah, yeah.
::Pat McCalla
and deaf in your left ear. Always from birth or.
::Gina Casazza
at 21. I lost all hearing in my left ear. And then I regained it at ten years later.
::Pat McCalla
Wow. Was that weird when it came back? Because I'm sure
::Gina Casazza
No, because I was training for it
::Gina Casazza
I only regained 85%, but from 0 to 85, that's a big chunk of change. You know.
::Pat McCalla
is,
::Pat McCalla
Well, Gina, thank you so much for joining us. We will have again the contact information that you shared. It'll be in the description so people can go find your book or go find more about you if they want to do that. And, I would really encourage them to do that. Most of us have children in our lives.
::Pat McCalla
And so this is a great way to speak, hope and life and to the children that we have in their lives, but also for us to learn as adults.
::Pat McCalla
And so I would encourage them to do that. So, Gina, thank you
::Gina Casazza
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
::Host
Thanks for turning into the no gray areas with Gina Casa. Whether you're raising kids, leading teams, or just trying to show up more fully in your own life, remember curiosity and authenticity go a long way. Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe for more episodes every other Wednesday. We'll see you next time.
