On this podcast, we speak with Mavericks - creatives, visionaries and gamechangers who make their own rules, do work they love and live life on their own terms.
Episodes
Friday Aug 31, 2018
Friday Aug 31, 2018
This week we have a very special podcast. On Wednesday I did a facebook live with two of our old podcast guests – Claude Silver, who is the Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia and Bryan Falchuk, the author of Do A Day.
This was a chance for me to catch up with Claude and Bryan to find out what has happened since our interviews. More specifically though, we talk about how to reinvent yourself and start living life on your terms.
This podcast is the audio of that facebook live and what follows are 45 minutes of personal insight, actionable wisdom and some of the best tips for living an authentic life.
We spoke about Claude and Bryan’s personal journeys, transformation vs reinvention, how to manage your energy, falling down and getting back up and a whole host of other things.
It was a joy to spend time with these amazing human beings who are masters in their fields and there is so much learning in this session.
So, settle in, grab a coffee or tea and have a listen...
NOTE - because this is a recording of a Facebook Live, the audio quality is not super top-notch. We have cleaned it up as much as possible and hopefully, it won't get in the way too much.
Links
Claude's social links - LINKEDIN | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Bryan's social links - FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone" - Neale Donald Walsch
Let's face it, the single biggest barrier between you and the life of freedom and adventure you yearn for is inertia i.e. your comfort zone. Most of us would rather stay comfortable than taking risks and pushing ourselves to become the person we know are capable of becoming. Sooner or later, if you want to change, you have to bust out of your comfort zone.
That is exactly what this week's podcast guest, Andy Molinsky, has spent a lifetime studying. Andy is a Professor of International Business and Organisational Behaviour at Brandeis University and has written extensively on moving beyond your comfort zone. For him this was born out of personal experience, having initially suffered from a crippling fear of public speaking. Public speaking is now a huge part of what Andy does for a living and he shares some of the techniques he used.
If you feel like you are in danger of stagnating and aren't feeling as successful as you would like, listening in is an absolute must.
In this conversation, you'll learn:
- How, regardless of our background or profession, the same things keep us in our comfort zone
- The three main roadblocks that keep us in our comfort zone
- How most people avoid expanding their comfort zone..and how that makes it harder next time around
- The three tools that help us to step out of our comfort zone
- Why having a purpose can help you overcome your fear
- How to make a challenging situation just a little more comfortable
- How props and symbols can connect you to your courage
- Why you have more power than you think you do to create change
- How to see taking a leap of faith as a learning opportunity...and how this is the trick to stepping outside your comfort zone
- How to manage your inner state to stop fearing the worst case scenario
- Why you stack the deck for success when you plan and prepare
- Don't underestimate how brave and courageous you can be...and have been many times in your life already
Friday Jul 06, 2018
Friday Jul 06, 2018
Our guest this week is the speaker, writer and chef, Brooke Siem. Brooke describes herself as “categorically homeless”, having created a life as a digital nomad entrepreneur.
Brooke was a highly acclaimed chef and food writer in New York. However, she suffered huge depression and had been on anti-depressants since the age of 15, following the sudden death of her father.
So, she made a massive change by booking a one-way ticket to Malaysia and getting off the meds. Two years and 17 countries later, Brooke's primary focus is on advocating for mental health and wellness without the use of prescription drugs.
What I love about Brooke is her direct approach to life, her joy and her passion. She has wisdom beyond her years and is radically compassionate.
Some of the highlights of our conversation include:
- What life is like as a digital nomad/multi-entrepreneur
- The experience of finding wellness after coming off of anti-depressants
- The impact of being unmedicated while travelling around the world
- How to keep yourself grounded while going through a big change
- How losing the apparent big opportunity can be a blessing in disguise
- You can be in charge of your life but YOU have to take control of your life
- How the use of metaphor can have a transformative effect
- What the process of writing a book is like
- The problem with how we look at anxiety and depression in the modern world...and a more empowering way of looking at it
- Why "selfishness" is actually the key to staying healthy
- The gift of being focused on the present rather than the future
- Between the highlights is a lot of sweatpants and computer time!
- The need to take personal responsibility, even when you feel you are the victim of your circumstances
- The importance of learning to deal with your emotions rather than suppressing them
- An entrepreneurial idea that is just waiting for someone to exploit it!
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Our guest this week is world-renowned yogi, entrepreneur and modern mystic, Daniel Aaron.
Daniel travels the world teaching yoga teachers and in 2012 set up the highly acclaimed Radiantly Alive yoga studio in Bali. He has also taught at Esalen and Omega and studied with many of the modern yoga masters.
Daniel firmly has both feet on the ground and has founded, run and sold several businesses. He works with business leaders using his signature mix of personal inquiry, breathwork and coaching to create transformation.
What I love about Daniel is his wisdom, open heart and open mind. He follows his intuition and sees everything as an opportunity to grow and learn. Something we all could learn from.
In this conversation, you'll learn:
- What the impact of a moment of clarity/epiphany/spiritual awakening can be
- "Before enlightenment, laundry. After enlightenment, laundry"
- "To be well adjusted to an insane society is not a sign of sanity" - Krishnamurthi
- How depression can actually be a gift with big benefit, though often only in hindsight!
- For some people, there is no choice other than to be a Maverick
- Why we need to celebrate confusion/being confused!
- The rituals and routines that can keep you in a good/resourceful state
- The purpose of negative feelings and what we can learn from them
- How to overcome negative feelings and take fuel from them
- Taking 100% responsibility is the key to getting unstuck
- The benefits of taking a cold shower! (Trust me, it is worth it!)
- Why just believing what our senses tell us keeps us feeling helpless and hopeless
- The benefits of living with the principle of "ahimsa" - how can I live doing as little harm as possible?
Links
You can get Daniel's FREE download - The Top 10 Tips for Living Vibrantly - at danielaaron.com
Tuesday May 29, 2018
Tuesday May 29, 2018
On this week’s episode, I am speaking to positive psychology coach and author of the book, “Ditch Your Inner Critic At Work” - Susan Peppercorn.
Like all of us, Susan battled her own inner demons. However, she has studied with some of the world’s leading authorities on positive psychology and has come up with many evidence-based practices to really kick that critic into touch.
Susan has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and US News amongst others.
What I love about Susan is how down to earth and human she is. She really walks her talk as she has put everything she talks about into practice. Susan is a real example of “do as I do” rather than “do as I say”.
In this conversation, you'll learn:
- The journey to figuring out what can make you happy and make you money
- The physical impact that listening to your inner critic can have
- How to start to tackle your own inner critic
- A short daily practice that can change your brain to focus on the positive
- Gratitude as an antidote to the negativity bias of the brain
- The mental gremlins that get in the way of fulfilment and how to wrestle them down
- Treating failure like a scientist
- A brilliant exercise to gain a positive perspective
- What the science says about the causes of happiness
- How to understand and use your strengths
- Why it is important to set stretch goals
- The huge impact of giving small moments of attention to other people
- And a whole lot more!
Links
You can download Susan's free eBook, a career-fit assessment called “Are You in The Right Job?”, at her website - positiveworkplacepartners.com
You can buy Susan's book - Ditch Your Inner Critic at Work - on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Wednesday May 16, 2018
Wednesday May 16, 2018
Kathryn Haydon has spent her life figuring out what creativity really is, helping to nurture it and being a passionate advocate for creative strengths.
She believes the troubled kids at school - the class clown, the rebel, the misfit - are actually misunderstood and are actually what the world needs more and more, due to their ability to think differently.
In this fascinating conversation, Kathryn suggests that as a society, we don't really know what creativity is. However, if we can nurture creative strengths, both in school and the workplace, so much more is possible.
What I love about Kathryn is her passion and thoughtfulness. She cares deeply for people who have previously been seen as troublesome and reframes them into creative heroes. Kathryn really is a true Maverick!
In this conversation you'll learn
- Many creative thinkers are being marginalised at a young age, especially at school, because they display behaviours that are seen as disruptive or rebellious
- That pattern is repeated as the divergent thinker goes into the world of work
- What creative thinkers need to thrive
- The difference between many see as creativity, and what creativity actually is
- Many of the 'troublesome' characteristics of divergent thinkers are actually huge strengths that we need in the world right now
- The place where your strengths, interests and values overlap is your creative spark
- One of the best ways to apply creativity in the workplace is the 'creative problem solving process'
- How to apply the creative problem solving process
- How to create an organisation or ecosystem where creativity thrives
- Why routines are crucial for optimal creativity
- How to create rituals and routine for yourself when you hate routine
- Not every creative is energised by every part of the creative process
- The best advice for nurturing creativity
Links
You can download Kathryn free strengths identification tool, mentioned in the podcast, here - www.sparkitivity.com/strengthsspotter
5 Ways To Support Creative Strengths
You can also find Kathryn's book, "Creativity for Everybody", on Amazon (also on Amazon UK, also Creatividad para todos is the Spanish translation)
Wednesday May 02, 2018
Wednesday May 02, 2018
On this week’s episode our guest is life coach, writer and deep thinker, Olivia D’Silva.
Olivia went through had a life changing moment in 2006 which led her on a journey to discover what is truly valuable in life. Through different ups and downs, and moments of thinking “is this all there is?”, she has cultivated an approach to life that really is values based.
This led her to train as a coach and write her book – the Whole Life Economy. As she says, “recognise your true value and improve the quality of your life”.
I love that Olivia has written based on her own experience and experiments. Her work is deep and heart-based yet practical in everyday life. Some of the highlights of our conversation include:
- That moment when you realise that something HAS to change
- Often the first change you make isn't the one that will stick
- The seven resources that we have as humans that we take for granted - and if we valued them more, we would love our life a lot more
- Why your 'Why' is so important for getting you through the nitty gritty
- The importance of the 'attention economy' and why what you give you attention to is so important
- How to increase the value of your time
- When you value your body and physicality, you will want to exercise, eat better etc, meaning your quality of life will increase
- Most people don't actually want more money but rather what money brings (freedom, choice, security etc)
- You increase your wisdom by recognising that you have something unique to bring to the world
- Compassion fatigue and knowing the time to time to give help and the time to ask for help
- Self doubt can be the clue to what you actually want in life
LINKS
Tuesday Apr 17, 2018
Tuesday Apr 17, 2018
Our guest this week is the author, TEDx speaker and C-level executive of a major finance company, Bryan Falchuk.
In this interview, Bryan shares the importance of self-love, knowing your truest deepest motivation and then executing consistently every day...without letting yesterday's baggage or anxiety about the future get in the way.
This has enabled Bryan to lose 100lbs, become a marathon runner, a best-selling author and writer for Inc Magazine, as well as a much sought-after speaker.
What I love about Bryan is his realness, groundedness and presence. There aren't many C-Level execs of major companies you hear talking about self-love, service and helping people. He is a genuinely big-hearted guy with a huge message about how you and truly transform your life.
Some of the highlights of our conversation include:
- The impact of childhood on setting up the changes we need in later life
- Even extreme challenges don’t always trigger the change needed
- Focused execution everyday underpinned by true motivation means you can smash any goal, often ahead of schedule
- Setting up a system means that you automatically achieve goals, especially health goals
- Tackling underlying anxiety is actually one of the most important things you can do
- The starting point of any change is Self-Love - believing that you deserve better and are capable of better
- Your TRUE Motivation is always much deeper than you believe..and you have to dig for it (and it can take years!)
- You need time-based goals which you execute each day
- Do A Day is about wiping the slate clean…staying present in today so you don’t bring in yesterday’s pain or anxiety about tomorrow
- True Motivation (the why behind the what) is what keeps you going when it gets tough and keeps you focused on a day-by-day basis
- Being egotistical is outwardly praising yourself for things that you are NOT doing…everything else that you are doing deserves self-praise
LINKS
Buy Bryan's book - Do A Day
Watch Bryan's TEDx talk - Overcoming Challenges to Achieve Goals
Wednesday Mar 28, 2018
Wednesday Mar 28, 2018
Our guest this week is my very dear friend and a Maverick in the truest sense of the word, Slade Roberson.
Slade launched his blog – Shift Your Spirits – in 2006. Since then he has built a huge following for his gritty, no-nonsense, highly practical take on spirituality that is exemplified by his tagline, “fewer hearts and flowers than other new age blather”.
Slade is also a professional intuitive and mentor to budding intuitives, healers and coaches. He is also a passionate fiction writer and has published two novels.
What I love about Slade is his huge sense of authenticity. In this interview, he shares the ups and downs of his journey as a Maverick with his trademark mix of humour, realism and a healthy scepticism.
Some of the highlights of our conversation include:
- How it is possible to be spiritual and practical at the same time
- The shift from corporate to entrepreneurial to authentic
- How a ‘dream job’ can actually be the worst thing for you
- What can happen when you truly step onto an authentic path
- The journey of one of the Internet’s first bloggers
- How it can be important to say “F*&k you” to all the things you are ‘supposed’ to do to build your business
- The most important thing in building your brand
- There is a power that is connected to your authentic voice in a way that trying to do things for the market is never going to have
- How to find your authentic voice
- The power of doing a little step every day
- How to get unstuck by priming the pump
- Why it is so important to find balance and what feeds and inspires you
Links & Resources
To read Slade's blog on spirituality and personal development, go to Shift Your Spirits.
To find out about Slade's mentoring programme for intuitives, healers and coaches, go to Automatic Intuition.
Slade's novels - Havenwood, The Fairy Killers and Cloudbusting
Wednesday Mar 14, 2018
Wednesday Mar 14, 2018
In the final episode of our “Unleashing Superpowers” season, we talk with Phil M Jones. Phil is an author, keynote speaker and international sales trainer. He has written 5 best-selling books including Exactly What to Say and Exactly How to Sell.
Phil has trained over 2million people in 56 countries with the goal of demystifying sales and overcoming the many negative stereotypes around the subject . He has also grown his own property investment business generating over £240 million in revenue.
In this illuminating interview Phil shows some incredibly practical tips and observations around the psychology of persuasion, whether for sales or enrolling people in your mission. Phil shows a depth of insight and mastery that is intriguing and inspiring.
In this episode, some of the highlights of our conversation include:
- Why figuring out where you don’t want to be can be the key to finding where you do want to be
- You can’t control your success but you can always create opportunities
- How most entrepreneurs are shouting out but no one is listening
- How nobody wants what you have, what they want is the result of what you have
- Go hunting the problem, find the people who are passionate about solving it and show them how your solution is better than what they currently have...and you will have people on the journey with you
- How changing one word can completely change perceptions
- How getting curious about your user base with a purpose is what creates connection
- See influencing and persuading as a game, the learning and growth that come from playing the game is much more important than the immediate outcome
- There is a huge difference between mistakes and failure…and failure needs to be encouraged
- Be on the quest for better rather than best!
- The importance of a person’s WIIFM - what’s in it for them?
- How ‘Just imagine..’ is the key to creating visions that you want other people to move towards
- The phrase that gets almost anyone to agree to just about anything