Building Stacklist
Dani Jines - Director of Happiness and Gratitude
Episode Stack: https://stackl.ist/4bYzGBc Surfbreak has a job title that is quite different than most: Director of Happiness and Gratitude. Dani is that Director of Happiness, and the role is less abstract than it sounds. Her problem was that answering "where should I eat" was eating the hours she needed for the rest of the work. This episode is about what she did with that problem, and what a 608-member community in Hawaii decided its local knowledge was worth organizing. Dani joins Ivanha to talk about Surfbreak, the digital nomad community founded five years ago by RJ Martin, now running in Honolulu and Puerto Escondido. She explains how the community screens for values instead of resumes, what happened when Stacklist co-founders Kyle and Martina stayed at the Hawaii house, and how one hike turned into a hub: restaurants, cinemas, and places worth the drive, built as stacks of cards and handed to every arriving member as a QR code. IN THIS EPISODE Why Surfbreak runs an application and a background check, and what they are actually screening for The economics of a "Director of Happiness and Gratitude" role, and why Surfbreak funds one What 608 members over five years produced, including three marriages How a half-hour hike with a Stacklist co-founder became a company-wide decision The pauhana where former members built the first stack of recommendations together Why the QR code changed Surfbreak's relationship with local restaurant owners, not just its guests Dani's three-part answer on what makes a community worth joining: gratitude, teamwork, laughter CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome and what a Director of Happiness and Gratitude does 0:26 Surfbreak, RJ Martin, and the ohana principle 1:18 608 members and three marriages 2:46 The job: making success conscious 4:27 How to join: application, background check, two locations 6:41 How Surfbreak uses Stacklist 8:38 Meeting Kyle on a hike 13:14 Keeping the stack alive 15:39 Advice: gratitude, teamwork, laughter 19:23 The Puerto Escondido location 21:15 Aloha ABOUT THE GUEST Dani Jines is Director of Happiness and Gratitude at Surfbreak, a community of digital nomads with locations in Honolulu, Hawaii and Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Surfbreak was founded roughly five years ago by RJ Martin and now counts 608 members. Membership runs through an application and a background check.
