"It All Starts With You": Understanding Yourself Before Others

Israel Diaz spent a decade leading creative teams in advertising. On paper everything looked successful, yet he kept asking, "Is this all there is?" In this conversation with Joanna Trojak, he explains how that question led him to build a framework for understanding what drives people. In this episode: - Why we rarely say what we mean, and how the "supposed to" beliefs we absorb early shape our conflicts - What "persona" originally meant (a mask), and why Israel focuses on what makes us the same rather than different - Common threads across religions and belief systems, and why Israel calls himself an omnist - The layers of being: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual - Six core emotions, nine universal needs and three drives (liberation, growth and happiness) - Joanna's view, as an autistic person, on literal communication and recognising emotions - How the concius framework and the Satori prototype explore aligning technology with human needs, and why Israel thinks AI alignment should work from the inside out - Israel's one takeaway: start with understanding yourself