027: How to Upgrade Your Post-Pandemic Workplace to Enhance Engagement and Productivity + How to Create a Life of Abundance by Changing Your Relationship with Money with Dr. Rebekah L. Smith and Ken Honda

In this episode of Saving With Steve, host Steve Sexton is joined by Dr. Rebekah L. Smith, an author, award-winning consultant, and media personality with more than ten years of film festival strategy consulting experience, and Ken Honda, a best-selling self-development author in Japan with book sales surpassing seven million copies since 2001.

Companies are opting for a complete return to work, or a hybrid model, and most office spaces themselves could really use a post-pandemic makeover. But, aside from extra hand sanitizer and plexiglass barriers, my first guest, award-winning consultant and media personality, Dr. Rebekah L. Smith, aka Rebekah the Film Doctor, joins us today to reveal how to create a more welcoming environment post-pandemic that enhances employee productivity and engagement. She shares how you can upgrade your workplace and arrange it in a way that achieves harmony, balance, innovation, and inspiration, incorporates spirituality into daily office routines, and improves workplace wellbeing.

I have a question for you… is your money smiling? Do you wish that you could have freedom, ease, and peace in your financial life? The truth is that money can bring us joy, but it can also be an incredible source of stress, frustration, and unhappiness in our lives as well. The good news is that we can change our relationship with money, make peace with it, and open the channels to happiness and abundance. My second guest, best-selling author and money and happiness expert, Ken Honda, joins us today to discuss the difference between happy and unhappy money, the “myth” of scarcity, why how we feel about money affects our ability to live in abundance, and how we can invite more happy money into our lives.

Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith (aka Rebekah Film Dr) was born in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. From humble beginnings working as a Personal Assistant at lots of corporate companies, she worked her way up to become an award-winning consultant and media personality who now has more than 10 years of film festival strategy consulting experience.

After choosing not to pursue a career in Academia teaching film studies, Rebekah began her film industry career in 2009, working as one of the producers of Wales’ most successful national horror film festival; the Abertoir Horror Festival, and during that time began to develop a great knowledge of the film festival business. This experience led her to become inspired to start her own innovative company in an industry she loved.

Rebekah and the hard-working team behind her company The Film Festival Doctor are creators of success and are committed to nurturing filmmakers in order to help them secure film festival screenings, win awards and a positive recognition within the film industry.

Currently her company has won more than 800 awards for their clients and her team has supported nearly 850 creatives across the world, enlightening and inspiring their journey towards achieving their goals and following their filmmaking dreams. Rebekah’s mission is to help filmmakers get their films seen in festivals around the world so they can gain visibility, get their films sold, win awards, and create more opportunities for their careers.

One of the factors which has led to her success is the blending of both practical business skills and spiritual techniques that infused new life into her company’s growth. She decided to record her hard-won knowledge in her new book, Born to Do It: Becoming the Leader of a Business Niche Using Powerful Spiritual Techniques, to help others who are pondering the leap into entrepreneurship or are already on the journey, but yearning for more success and profitability.

Rebekah now also offers personal mentoring. Described by many of her clients as a deeply knowledgeable and inspirational mentor, she supports individuals to adopt new strategies, mindsets, and communication techniques which produce extraordinary results.

Money and happiness expert, Ken Honda, is a best-selling self-development author in Japan, with book sales surpassing eight million copies since 2001. His latest book is called, “Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money” (June 4, 2019, Simon & Schuster).

Although Ken Honda is often called a “money guru,” his real job over the past decade has been to help others discover the tools they already possess to heal their own lives and relationships with money. Learn how to treat money as a welcome guest, allowing it to come and go with respect and without resentment; understand and improve your money EQ; unpack the myth of scarcity; and embrace the process of giving money, not just receiving it.

Ken studied law at Waseda University in Tokyo and entered the Japanese workforce as a business consultant and investor. Ken’s financial expertise comes from owning and managing several businesses, including an accounting company, a management consulting firm, and a venture capital corporation.

His writings bridge the topics of finance and self-help, focusing on creating and generating personal wealth and happiness through deeper self-honesty. Ken provides ongoing support through mentoring programs, business seminars, therapeutic workshops, and correspondence courses.

Ken is the first person from Japan to be voted into the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of personal and professional development leaders. He is fluent in Japanese and English, lived in Boston, Massachusetts for two years, and currently resides in Tokyo, Japan. Learn more at KenHonda.com.