Work Besties Who Podcast
Building a bold community of work besties 💼👯♀️ to bond 🤝💞, banter 😂🎉, and bloom 🌸✨
🎙️ Listen to the Work Besties Who Podcast: where workplace friendships get real! From tea spills to relatable laughs, we’re unpacking everything about work life's ups, downs, and unforgettable moments.
✨ Join us for candid chats, relatable stories, and a sprinkle of chaos—because what’s work without a little drama and a lot of fun?
💼😄 Hit play, and let’s dive into the messy magic of workplace connections together!
Work Besties:-)
Work Besties Who Podcast
Brushcapades & Belly Laughs : Creativity as a Workplace Wellness SUPERPOWER with Anjl Rodee and Rob Rodee
🎨 Brushcapades with Anjl Rodee & Rob: A Creative Work Sibling Duo of Work Besties!
In this inspiring and colorful episode, Jess and Claude welcome Anjl Rodee, founder of BrushCapades, and her brother Rob Rodee, who doubles as her work bestie! Together, this sibling duo shares how they’ve built a thriving business combining art and wellness through creative events. From transforming paint nights into corporate workshops to fostering connections through humor and creativity, Anjl and Rob prove that art is about much more than just painting—it’s about self-expression, connection, and joy.
💡 What to expect in this episode:
- The origins of BrushCapades and how it brings art to life.
- The therapeutic benefits of art, especially in corporate settings.
- How humor and creativity can break down barriers and foster connection.
- The power of mindful doodling as a meditative practice.
- Insights into the dynamics of working with a sibling in a creative business.
🎙️ Key Takeaways:
- Art is inherently tied to our existence as humans and isn’t about perfection, but expression.
- Creativity can thrive in corporate environments and help break down personal barriers.
- Humor can alleviate stress, enhance creativity, and foster stronger team dynamics.
- The journey of creating is more important than the finished product.
- Sibling partnerships bring unique dynamics that can enrich a business.
Whether you’re an art enthusiast, entrepreneur, or someone who loves a good sibling success story, this episode is packed with inspiration, humor, and heart. Don’t miss it!
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Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband
Hi everybody, welcome to Work Besties who podcast season two focused on wellness. We are super excited for today's episode because this is a wellness opportunity that I believe you and I probably were most excited to reach out to and have conversations with. It's these two individuals, Anjl and Rob, and Anjl has a company called Brushcapades. It is a what sip and paint type style, but she brings in humor and that kind of moment of zen and pause that we love to do and laugh nonstop on our podcast.
Claude:Hi, I'm Claude and I'm Jess. We are corporate employees by day, entrepreneurs by night and work besties for life.
Jess:Join us as we explore how work besties lift each other up, laugh through the chaos and thrive together in every industry. Work besties Welcome Anjl and Rob. Do you guys want to give a little bit of background on yourselves?
Anjl Rodee:No, yeah, yeah yeah, okay.
Claude:That was great. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Anjl Rodee:It's the only mystery I have in my life. Jess, I'm just going to, I'm a blank slate, I'll give you, I'll give you a little bit of history about the business.
Jess:You're a blank canvas, Anjl Blank canvas.
Anjl Rodee:Why didn't I say that, yes? Why didn't I say that, yes, I'm a blank canvas we all are, aren't we? Yeah, we just went there, we all are. Yes, it was a paint and sip what I do.
Anjl Rodee:I first heard of Paint Night back in 2014, and I was doing comedy and working as an illustrator and I thought, oh man, I am uniquely qualified to do that for a living, as an entertainer and an artist. I'm going to call paint night to let them know. And they said awesome, you can do it on Tuesday nights at this bar. And I thought I'm just going to buy easels. So I did and started this company, not knowing what I was doing. I just kind of practiced on friends and then jumped in and it went well. And then pandemic happened, and then my work went virtual. Oh, and I was in Seattle at the time and doing the paint nights.
Anjl Rodee:And somebody asked if I do corporate events. And I'm thinking what is a corporate event? But a paint night during the day? Yeah, yeah, I do that. And the difference is there is a big difference. Paint night, everybody signs up, they register, they know why they're coming, you know, and they're excited to go With a corporate event, your boss is telling you where to be at 4 pm on a Thursday.
Anjl Rodee:So you get the gamut of emotions in there right From oh this is going to be awesome to I would rather be anywhere, but here right now. And I found that fascinating Like who doesn't like to do this Because this is awesome? And people come in saying don't expect much out of me. My third grade teacher told me I will never be an artist, and my sister got all the talent I can only do stick men. And so my talking points during this event really geared toward do this because it's good for you, not because you're good at it, because you will get good at it.
Anjl Rodee:Because art is like yoga You're way better on day 800 than you are on day one. And it's a journey. And the reason to do it is because it is scientifically proven to help with anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, outside of the box thinking, self-esteem, all of the things. And that is what I stress during my events. That's the difference. It is a wellness thing because we are all artists. That's a hard word to own. We're the only living creature that does this and it's inherent to what we are as a creature, and we've been. You know, cave art is 40,000 years old. Proof of agriculture is less than 5,000 years old. It's been more important for us, as a creature, to express ourselves than to eat on the regular. That is inherent, and we're moving further and further away from that. They're not even teaching people how to write cursive anymore. We're moving further and further away from that. So that's why doing this as an intentful thing is just super important to just who we are, what we are.
Rob Rodee:A brief backstory for me is I was working in the corporate world for 30 years or so, and so I was around 2017, the head of training for a large national corporation, and they just happened to move their headquarters from my current hometown to somewhere else in the country. And so the decision was you know, do you? Do you move and potentially be away from your family, your loved ones, your support network and live by yourself in an apartment with, hopefully, at least a dog, till the end of your corporate career, or do you cut ties and start a new challenge? And that's what I decided to do. Joel touched on it briefly.
Rob Rodee:A step between the thing is you've got pain and sip sort of situations, and then you've got corporate events right, and, just from my background in corporate environments, there's a dichotomy there where, if you work in a corporation, the key is standardization. In order for everybody to be the most productive, you have to have a certain set of rules that everybody abides by, and that is counterintuitive to what we call creativity, for the most part, being an individual, expressing yourself and going down that sort of path. So interesting to me was the fact that corporations try to include activities like this in their corporate offerings to kind of bridge the gap, I think, in between creativity and conformity. Basically.
Jess:You bring up a good point, Rob. When it comes to this type of an activity, it is meant to foster creativity and provide that ability for individuals to be more of their authentic, unique self. So as you do these corporate events, what's kind of been the most shocking to you, or the thing that's really been eye-opening as you are hosting these events?
Anjl Rodee:that's really been eye-opening, as you are hosting these events. For me it's when somebody goes from the extreme of do not expect much out of me to I didn't know I could do this, what else can I do? That is my goal to have everybody have that thought in their head, and every once in a while somebody will go to the trouble of, after an event, actually reaching out to say I didn't know I could. Thank you, thank you, I didn't know I could do this. There was one girl in particular who worked for Spotify in Sweden and she signed on late. I didn't pay much attention because she signed on late and she wrote me a very long email the next day and said I wasn't going to join, but my work friends kind of bullied me into it. So I joined. I told them when we were planning an event I'd want to do anything but art, and art is what they chose. So I just wasn't going to show up.
Anjl Rodee:Because when she was young, during an art class, her teacher held up her painting as an example of what not to do, because she painted her sky pink. What so? She said, so I did it. I was just kind of only half-heartedly doing this and then all of a sudden I realized I was enjoying it. And then all of a sudden I realized I was really into it and I surprisingly really loved what I came up with. And she sent me a photo and it was not lost on me that she made her background pink. We painted abstract guitars and she sticks out in my mind. So the color pink, which I'm not normally a fan of, now is very symbolic.
Claude:That's something. Remind me that my son is more into math and each time he had to do an art project or painting, it had to be perfect. And I was telling him that's the beauty of art, it doesn't have to be perfect. And I was telling him that's the beauty of art, it doesn't have to be perfect. That's where you can unleash your creativity and do whatever you want. That's the beauty of it.
Anjl Rodee:That is the beauty. It's exercising that other half of the brain that someone who is a perfectionist People think, when they're following especially elite artists, that their thing needs to look like what mine looks like. And I keep telling them if Picasso or Andy Warhol and Van Gogh were both on your team and they were both in here trying to paint like each other, they'd both feel like a failure because their stuff would be so different from each other Just because your personality is on your canvas, so it is not going to look like mine. And if yours looks like mine, they have done you a disservice. And if you are very analytical, then your lines are going to look a whole lot different than mine do, and I admire it and wish I was capable of it.
Rob Rodee:And that's the beauty of it, too, right, I am not, and that's okay. Even if you are forced into a creative event by your corporation, god love them. If that is the gateway to finding your individuality and your creativity, it's all good.
Jess:Yeah.
Claude:All good, For sure it brings to the problem solving too, right yeah? Absolutely, you need to think outside the box. Absolutely true, so it can help to unleash this yeah.
Rob Rodee:Corporations and corporate events are trying to tap into that way At least that's what they tell you right, care about you. We want you to grow and dig outside of the box and quote, quote, quote, quote. You know, insert your your glory statements there. You know it's a. It's all good though, if, if you know, if anything the bottom line is get to know that you are a creator.
Jess:When you start these classes, do you find so, as you mentioned, like some people show up late or some people are not fully kind of focused on you. What has been ways to kind of break those barriers to get some of those individuals that maybe aren't at in their comfort zone feel more like it's a comfort zone thing?
Anjl Rodee:the first thing I have that we have people do when they start a painting is to get rid of the white of the canvas. So if we're doing a landscape, the top half is blue, the bottom half is green, then you're just kind of storytelling. On top of that right, a blue streak is a river and you're storytelling on top of the background that you have laid. But soon after the background is on, you see, in some people's eyes this is not going well. So I have everybody at the same time show their art. Everybody's in time. We're a third of the way in, maybe, and everybody puts it up.
Anjl Rodee:And then I sit back a minute and everybody starts doing this Jan, I love your trees. Steve, oh my gosh, your clouds are so gorgeous. I love the color. They just start doing that and then I say do you notice that your brain is doing this? Mine sucks, but everybody else has something so creative and so different. I don't have that left lobe that we just talked about, but I know that that math doesn't check. If everybody's thinking mine is the only sucky one, then it can't be true. Yours are all different because of your personalities and I make comparisons sometimes. At that point it's like I can really tell your lines are your sky doesn't blend really well from the dark blue to the light blue. Sky doesn't blend really well from the dark blue to the light blue. You paint like Modigliani or you paint like Matisse, and I start comparing them to famous people, which is true which is a genuine, honest truth.
Anjl Rodee:And then they're like okay, I don't know who Matisse is, but yeah, you know what I mean, sounds legit, sounds legit, yeah, yeah, and it is I. I, I don't ever lie, but it is inherent to me to look for what is what is working which is another great life lesson instead of perseverating on what's not working, what is working right. It's such a great place to practice that self-kindness and that neuroplasticity that is a buzzword today. We've got this little voice in our head that is telling us where we're going wrong all day long, but something is also going right, you know, and this art that is outside of yourself is such a great place to start practicing. My Eiffel Tower isn't wonky, it's playful, because I have a playful personality. Yes, yes to that.
Jess:So that's that's where we try to go with it. I love that. That's something that I think we talked about, too. Is we're so quick, when somebody gives you a compliment, to deflect it or to knock it down?
Claude:yes, and that's something I'm actively working on this year is trying to say thank you and appreciate it, not just yes brush it off because so many of us do it, and especially in the work environment.
Anjl Rodee:We definitely exactly exactly a fun little exercise is yes, anding any compliment you get like your painting is awesome. Yes, and I like my color choices. Yeah, how can you? Yes, and a compliment yeah, do that. Join in, join in the fun of that compliment.
Jess:I see how you just parlayed the improv into this.
Anjl Rodee:Well done. As I started that sentence, I thought maybe we're going to talk about this later. Maybe I should shut up right now. Too late. I'm on a roll. No, no.
Jess:I am curious, because you have that comedic background, in addition to doing this amazing company that you have, where you do corporate events and also personal events around the painting from your perspective, have you ever incorporated any of those other improv tactics into some of the corporate events? This yes and thing.
Anjl Rodee:I'm going to say yes is a thing for sure, other than that I don't like literally do any comedic training with it, other than I mean, improv is good for everybody. Just that yes, and thing that I just talked about, just yes, and everything, yes, and got helped this business really take off during the pandemic. Once I'm like, well, not doing it in person anymore, what can I do? How can I get? This is my reality now. How can I get paint into people's hands? And then we went worldwide.
Anjl Rodee:So there's nothing but a positive, you know, instead of allowing yourself to be stuck in a thing, just like, well, I'm here now, so how am I going to get over there, not from where I was, but where I am now? And that and I think probably inherently, that's something that we also always infuse into thinking when it comes to art, because it's fascinating to me how, if we had met on a tennis court today and you have not played tennis before, you would not expect yourself to be good and you would not say I'm not going to do this because I'm not good at it. Well, you never tried it. You know what I mean. And art is the same way, and it's fascinating to me how it's really personal for people and that's just proof to me that this is inherent to everybody and that's why we prejudge ourselves about this, where we don't prejudge ourselves, like I said, with chess or tennis or any other thing that we've not tried before.
Jess:But this is an inherent thing and that's why it's personal and that's why or even bring it back to the work environment too, like a lot of tasks you are assigned you probably haven't done before or done routinely. So it does give you that reminder that it's okay to mess up or to struggle or to do something differently.
Rob Rodee:Exactly, and I think humor, putting a wash up humor over all of that just makes it go much, much better, right?
Anjl Rodee:Yeah, absolutely yeah yeah.
Jess:Yeah, yeah. One of the things that we've found is that humor tends to really alleviate a very stressful day If you are really in the thick of a project, sometimes just taking that five, 10 minutes or having something like this type of a corporate event to remind you of more positive elements can help them get you back on track with whatever you previously were challenged or working on, and that's how we really connected over back a year and a half ago where we were very stressed and we just started to laugh and to use humor to decompress.
Jess:Yeah, To take that five minutes to giggle about something ridiculous and then get back into it.
Rob Rodee:Humor just kind of clears the decks about something ridiculous and then get back into it.
Jess:Humor just kind of clears the decks right, Especially if you're in a negative spot, as you guys are using this Brushcapades opportunity to have those conversations in companies and corporations. What are the leave-behinds or ideas that you provide to individuals in these corporate environments to do on a weekly or more of a routine basis?
Anjl Rodee:The reason to do these things, and even if it's not doing a full painting but just doodling on a piece of paper, just drawing your breath, is meditating with a parting gift, right, when I just try to sit and meditate, my ADD brain just can't let go of a to-do list. It just won't refuse it. But I can art or I can doodle, and a couple of hours can go by and that's a real meditative reboot. That is the important thing to take away from this. One of the biggest things to take away is we're not doing things for Etsy.
Anjl Rodee:I said before Cave Art is 40,000 years old, plus. We've only been selling art to each other less than 500 years. That is a blip in time, but that's the measure everybody uses as to whether or not they should do art is if it's good enough to sell, and that's the message we're trying to turn around. Is you do it and put it in the trash can if it makes you feel better, but the doing it is the thing is the thing, and and also emotional distance is also a thing, and this is also a really important lesson.
Anjl Rodee:I think when people are like, oh, my work sucks, but then when they show it in the camera. They're like Whoa, it looks way better on camera than it does in person. I'm like that is your emotional distance right there. If today you're thinking I'll bet my art looks really good 60 feet away from me, tomorrow it's going to be 40 feet and the next day it's going to be 20 feet. In a week you're going to go hey, I did a pretty good job here. Emotional distance and that's not only works for art, it works for a lot of other disagreements and work problems and all of that as well. So, just being conscious of the fact that it is a thing nugget there, the emotional distances.
Rob Rodee:Yes, a huge learning opportunity for people when you're in the moment versus just taking a couple step backs yeah, a good technique is just take your phone, stand back, take a picture of it, look at the picture right and now, this art it's not connected to you and a brush and a little paint and about six inches to a foot away. It's arm's length, literally arm's length, and just going from that 100 to 30,000 foot view is really helpful and to give you that emotional distance.
Jess:Yeah, I feel like that's a good call to attention to the work bestie community out there to take that as an idea of something to incorporate into your life whether it's a personal or even work related thing, because you're right. There's so many things that, when you're in the heat of it, your mindset is not able to disassociate from truly what's happening.
Claude:Yeah, and it's so interesting. It's the same when you're on a project, a lot of times you say like you're stuck. They say, just get away from it. You know, take five minute break and this, like this, is it yourself from that project and it's actually can go with art, which I never thought about. That it's a great point great place to practice.
Jess:I want to bring up again is your the comment about doodling, because when you think of doodling, I'll be honest, I think of like grade school, right, you were doodling the cover of your notebooks yeah, while your teacher's talking, and I never really doodle though, oh well, that's good, and I never really.
Jess:I still doodle though, well, that's good, because I never really linked. How that actually does calm your mind. It might actually help you pay attention better, 100%, because remember, your teacher would call you and be like are you doodling? That's a bad thing, but it actually is almost like a form of meditation. It is.
Anjl Rodee:There are studies that if you are doing that hand to paper connection while somebody's talking, you will retain 15% more of what they're saying than if you are just staring at them watching, because your brain can multitask. So it does. But if you give your hand something else to do, it's scientifically impossible to worry about yesterday and have anxiety about tomorrow. When you're doing this, when you're hand to paper, we have something called mindful doodling Anjl.
Rob Rodee:Do you want to talk about that? Maybe a little bit.
Anjl Rodee:Yeah, it's, it's. We start with drawing our breath, just drawing the breath, and then I give people just the five elements of all art is a dot, a circle, a parentheses, a curvy line. I like to call it parentheses because I work with a lot of tech people that relate to the parentheses and the backslash and the forward slash. I use that technology, that phraseology, when I'm teaching things and I tell them you put enough parentheses together. You got the Mona Lisa. She was born of a lot of parentheses, and then just making repetitive patterns of these five little drawing elements is how you create pattern and how you create anything, really, just breaking everything down to the smallest thing that is attainable, a parentheses, so attainable, and so is a tiny little straight line. So is a dot, right? And you put, you put, you make repetitive patterns with those. Then you've got these, these really beautiful things, so that. So that's, that's what it is, yeah.
Jess:That's pretty cool, clyde. You know what I'm thinking, what I feel like that mindful doodling class would be amazing to do with some of our work. Bestie community Cause that's one I mean to your point. Like painting in general is for everyone too, but doodling I feel that's like a nice easy win for everybody to take on Absolutely. I feel like we should come up with some ideas and send out to our Work Bestie community to join a class with us and doodling.
Anjl Rodee:I'm yes-handing that it's so fun and doodling.
Jess:I'm yes-handing that, it's so fun. Okay, so we know doodling is a nice form of kind of meditation and way to kind of alleviate, maybe, stress but also retain information. Is there any other tips and tricks for the WorkFesty community out there, because this season we're all about wellness and trying to help our community incorporate little things and tips and tricks into there.
Anjl Rodee:Levity is good, humor is good. Rob and I were reminiscing last night about our favorite work meeting and I didn't talk much about all the different ways that Rob works with me. Not only is he a teaching artist, he's also my tech advisor and my business advisor and all the things that my minuscule little left brain I shouldn't down myself. I got a huge left brain. It's just got a lot of space for growth. We'll say that.
Jess:Your right side is just that much bigger, that's all.
Anjl Rodee:Rob comes from so much opportunity. I'm excited Rob comes from the corporate world. He's so invaluable as far as what that mindset is like and how to as this business grows, how to standardize and other things like that. He's been invaluable to me like that. But because we are also siblings, sometimes I will resist his offerings where I maybe wouldn't if he wasn't somebody I was related to. When we have these difficult conversations and they are over Zoom because we live in different parts of the country, we will hit the little feature on Zoom or FaceTime that adds a little French beret to your head or a little mustache or sunglasses or makeup.
Rob Rodee:Yeah, it's like okay, I'm a bunny now.
Anjl Rodee:Having Having.
Claude:It's so hard to be mad at a bunny, I'm so happy you say that, because I wanted to know, because you know, Rob, you were saying that you came from corporate, so I did figure. I mean, I thought that there would be one has more of a left brain than the other, one more of a right brain. And how do you incorporate working together Because, yes, you may be sibling, but you also work best the balance, I think is beautiful in the sense that she's got that artistic free spirit.
Rob Rodee:I don't know how to plug things in sort of mentality and I have more of a must march the soldiers down to the coffee room and it's like we just got a memo from marketing and how do we brand this and you know what's our appeal and our audience and our strategy.
Rob Rodee:Let's have a, you know, let's do a competitive market analysis on blah blah, blah, blah blah. I see it as a great balance in between. I'm a little more background and skilled in the corporate and tech world and she is like 100% improv artist, free spirit, and both of us want to get to the other side. I am so glad that she has finally admitted on the airwaves that she resists my opinions Because I thought how can I be wrong all the time?
Anjl Rodee:This is a constant theme to our work meetings. He is wrong all the time.
Jess:I love this. You're wrong all the time. Wow, at least my average is good.
Rob Rodee:I got that on my side.
Jess:He's consistent. I love how we just now moved over into your partnership and how you two are actually work besties as well as siblings, which is very impressive. I have two brothers and I cannot imagine starting and working in a company with them. I love them, but I think that's a really cool idea that you guys have. In addition to knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, you can find that way to create that levity or something to stop the spiraling continuing down the but guess what, rob, you're always wrong. I'm just going to put a beret on you and then I'll remember. Maybe you're actually right.
Anjl Rodee:One thing that helps us humor is very important to both of us.
Anjl Rodee:And so anything that is said like you're always wrong, while it's steeped in truth now that he's gone I can really talk, that's the real deal Is also steeped in deep respect for each other, a deep love and respect for each other, and so humor helps us really quickly. I think I can count on two fingers how many times I've come close to tears and it wasn't because of any. Can I say the word ass? I just did. You can say it Hard butt thing that he was saying it was because it hit some kind of an emotional trigger in me. You can see how our work meetings go.
Jess:You guys might need a mediator. At times this will kill you. Mom was a therapist.
Anjl Rodee:That's so make sense. Man, we survived that. But we do have a really great respect for each, for each other, and I think he, while he, he really does know what is best business wise. But if I'm just feeling like I just can't do that, let's say the V word. Shall we Videos? There are no instructional videos from me out there in the world. I feel like there are a billion of them out there. That's not my place. My place is to encourage people to take the leap, to take the journey. That's my thing. Rob would really like to see me make some Bob Ross-y kind of videos, and whenever I try, the outtakes are way more entertaining than the actual video themselves. So I keep posting the outtakes.
Jess:This is not good. This might be the forest from the trees moment for you, like it's all.
Anjl Rodee:It's. The best part is me going? This is ridiculous, are we?
Claude:still taping. That's when you put all those on tiktok right, that's's.
Anjl Rodee:All I got is little TikTok-y outtake. I don't know. That's the only bit of it that gives me joy. The rest of it does not give me joy. And if it doesn't give me joy I'm not going to do it.
Jess:I mean, in a way, though, it kind of sounds like you are still somewhat meeting in the middle because Rob's asking you to do videos. You do them and you're making them. You.
Claude:You're making them authentic to you.
Rob Rodee:We're all learning and growing, and I am learning. Jill is not the kind of person you put on an instructional video.
Jess:I mean. So we've learned that too in our journey as we started our business. There are so many things that we've assigned to each other as tasks, and then we quickly learned Out of respect for her and who she is, and my failing at completing the task of getting her to do it.
Rob Rodee:I am learning to be responsible for myself and learning that if she is not that thing, I'm okay with it.
Jess:Yeah, I think that's a really good life lesson.
Claude:What is the expression you? Don't put spot on a zebra. You know what is it. Yes, I think that's a really good life lesson. What is the expression? You don't put spot on the zebra. Yes, I think so.
Anjl Rodee:That was enough. Right there. I got the analogy. Yeah, you don't put spots on the zebra.
Claude:And you just have to foster it, or even having something that is not this.
Rob Rodee:Yeah, in hindsight, I wish that Anjl would have just came out and told me she wasn't a zebra would have saved some time I mean in fairness.
Jess:She probably thought you saw that you grew up together after war. Have you not seen the spot?
Jess:that's on me but I think that's that's the beauty of um. A work bestie relationship or a relationship in a work environment in general is, and especially with you guys being siblings too, I feel like you learn about each other and you're still going to challenge each other. I don't think what you did was wrong, rob. Like you're saying, hey, I know this will work, this is going to be a success. Try it. Okay, you're not doing it, so now why aren't you doing it? Yeah, and then finding out okay, okay, is there something in between? Then?
Claude:compromise, exactly compromising. At the end of the day, finding it might not be that idea, but it becomes finding something else that incorporate both elements?
Anjl Rodee:yeah, I like that you know so I think that's great.
Jess:I feel like you've given us some ideas and tips, though, on how to work together on something like this I'm going to put little bunny here for you on me whenever I get really angry or mad. Normally for us, though, it's because one of us is super hungry and the other person hasn't like eaten, so then we get you know we get, we get aggressive, and then after we eat we are there.
Jess:Then we're like nice so you, we get, we get aggressive, and then after we eat we are there, then we're like peace and makeup, nice. So you guys mentioned that you don't live anywhere close to each other, so how? Do you keep your company going with the fact that you're both far away from each other.
Anjl Rodee:Since the pandemic. It's it's entirely a virtual company. Okay, it's entirely a virtual company. Okay, there are some aspects that are in person, and Rob has started doing in-person things in his city, which just makes us all look bigger, right.
Rob Rodee:Right. And so the oversight and the management of stuff happens in just two different locations. Now. We communicate on the regular, for sure, yeah, exactly, almost daily. Communicate on the regular, for sure, yeah, exactly. And if we're not doing that telepathy, I can't say I'm using it, if I can't pronounce it.
Jess:I was going to say. Anjl should be able to end that sentence for you. Thank you.
Anjl Rodee:Done, telepathy Done.
Jess:You're welcome. It sounds like you guys have just kind of figured out that rhythm then between you two, because I think, yeah, I mean we, we live close to each other, but I feel like for you and I, as you just commented about rock, we're always talking so yes we have like dedicated times, but then there's also the day-to-day operations you know, yeah, things pop up. Ims and all that. Yeah, that's awesome. So anybody any other?
Claude:questions.
Jess:No, I think I have a. I really there was some. Oh, I do have one question for you, going back to your workshop, just because I'm a big fan of improv and stuff. So I'm curious from your perspective. In any of your workshops you've done what's been like the funniest moment, whether it was something you caused or some something from the, the group themselves, in an improv-y way or no.
Anjl Rodee:It doesn't have to be an improv-y way, but just in general there's anything this was, this was one of my favorite improv-y arty moments was um, we did an enormous event for Amazon Corporation and were most of the participants in Asia I feel like there were, because we were doing this like at 2 am and because there were so many people that were going to be in on this call. Rob was also there and when we do really large events, events, rob will work in the background and manage the chat. If I'm just leading the class, so there are many different ways to do that, but but this was a thing and it was Amazon, so they didn't purchase materials from us. It was a painting class. They were just going to send people stuff and we're like cool.
Anjl Rodee:Well, the people signed on and the art supplies varied from a full like what we send out for an art class, which is the palette and the canvas and the brushes and the paint to downgraded to. Some people got a couple of Sharpies, one guy got a bingo dauber, maybe two bingo daubers, and the thing they wanted us to paint was a painting of a Phoenixoenix rising, because it was the mascot of the event they were having that we were a part of. So phoenix rising with a bingo dauber talk about an improv moment.
Jess:I don't even know what that is.
Anjl Rodee:I feel like I have to go google what that is bingo dauber it's a marker with a round ball on it. So you're just making a mark where b 0, 67 is and b 15 is. It's a magic marker with a round head on it so how in the world did you do that?
Anjl Rodee:right, we just, we just walked through how to draw the thing and, oh my gosh, I just wanted to concentrate on the guy who was the lowest nominator, that guy with bingo daubers, and just tell him how to do the bird in one color and the background in another color.
Anjl Rodee:But being able to hang on to joy while doing that, and it's I'm very lucky in that. That is very inherent to me. I like to tell people that if Bob Ross and Dory the fish had a baby, it would be me. So it's very easy for me to hang on to joy and to figure out how to keep the joy going.
Jess:But I would say that was appreciated, that, because if they had such variations of supplies, yeah, I mean that's, yeah, I feel like they gave you an impossible challenge that somehow you figured out.
Anjl Rodee:Yeah, and the joy that I got from the story afterwards. It's also worth the not getting frustrated and stomping the ground on that, because what does that solve Nothing.
Jess:I mean as to be a participant. I'm sure they were giggling.
Rob Rodee:You have to laugh. There's no other choice in this situation to laugh about a situation like that right.
Claude:You know, what I love about those situations is how much it sucks so bad when it happens, but afterward it's like oh, my. God, do we remember that time? And it becomes a good time, you know, laughing.
Anjl Rodee:Yes, and so if you can make the joy from that happen in the moment instead of in the after story that's control you have over any situation, any kind of crap situation you, you've retained control of that situation, then right, yeah, so good and the just from personal experience.
Rob Rodee:The, I can say, funniest thing now that ever happened is I was doing a solo teaching event with a you know about. I love this one probably maybe 20, 30 students or so, and I had the overhead camera on my painting and so they could see what kind of paint are you grabbing from the palette and what's it look like going on the canvas. And I'm like, oh, hang on a second, I need just a little more red paint. And I grabbed a paint bottle. Wait, yeah, I grabbed a paint bottle is a squeeze.
Rob Rodee:Think of a ketchup bottle with red paint in it right and I'm like we're showing, we're showing the uh, the palette and I'm just putting a little on there. And I squeezed a little too hard. The cap came off all of a sudden. I've got a crime scene.
Anjl Rodee:It just it sent me a picture.
Jess:It was on the curtains loaded on the canvas on the on the palette on the and you're like no, I meant that, guys, that was perfect exactly.
Rob Rodee:And and you could hear the, the muted giggles and whispers, all the students in the background like, oh my god, did that just happen exactly? And it's like I'll never forget that event ever
Jess:I think it must have been the best event I, yeah, I feel like you should have branded that one as like a corporate event for those who do like clubs that are only on like serial killers or something you know, being the the good soldier that I am, I'm just like whoopsie daisy, just keep on going.
Jess:It's like, okay, well, I'll go back, I'll just I'll cover that in with white a little later, exactly it's like you're like, so I like to make extra steps for myself. That's amazing, oh my gosh. I I can guarantee that the people that attended that one are still talking about it.
Claude:It's like team building.
Rob Rodee:It must be 101 it's like remember that one time.
Claude:We all yeah, oh yeah, do you remember that guy when he put paint all over his canvas? I?
Jess:love it. You're welcome. Yeah, oh my gosh. Let's see, I did want to ask you. This is about a work bestie podcast, and you two are work besties as well as siblings. So, Anjl, this has been a joy.
Jess:We'll also link your the Brushcapades website, as also your handles, across all the social platforms and our contacts as well for everybody that's listening, contacts as well for everybody that's listening. I just want to say, as a kind of like a wrap up to this, that the thing that I found the most amazing, that creativity isn't about perfection, it is definitely about the connection and the joy and just kind of putting yourself out there, which I think you guys shared multiple stories on that, and it's been very enlightening and really great precursor to our wellness journey.
Claude:with the humor and the creativity, how important it is to bring those in our life.
Jess:So, being that this is our new positioning of our season for being focused on wellness for all the work besties out there, we are going to challenge you to incorporate some of the things that we listened about today. I think the one that I would love to see from people is the doodling. We have a word of the week that we do and we have people tag and send to us, so we'd love to now start seeing doodles. Yeah, start seeing doodles. And what kind of joy that brings you in your meetings and your days.
Claude:And also one thing that I liked also was, rob, when you say you know taking the picture of, you know your art to be able to stick back from a project you're doing and really enjoying it. That is also something that we can learn from doing it.
Rob Rodee:Thank you guys.
Jess:Awesome. Thank you guys. Remember, whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings or just sending that perfectly timed meme, having a work bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.
Claude:So keep lifting each other, laughing through the chaos and, of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive and don't forget to keep supporting each other. Work besties.
