2 Pages with MBS

2 Pages with MBS is on holiday break until January 10th. I’m cheering you on for the rest of 2022 and into 2023. I hope the holiday break is restful, delightful, and renewing for you. I’ll be back with the next great interview on 2 Pages with MBS on January 10th! Follow Michael on | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook 

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I had two quite different experiences of a library when I was a child. My school’s librarian quite liked books but didn’t really like kids. I was basically scared away from that space. Luckily, my local library was a whole other adventure. There was the kid’s section upstairs where I could wander the stacks and find books I might like, and t...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages What makes you uncomfortable? And, how do you hold yourself when you’re in that space? Some years ago, I noticed that a pair of leather shoes I was wearing was badly creased across the top of the right shoe. A friend of mine pointed out the problem - when I get nervous in a group, I sit on the edge of my seat and jiggle my right leg. When I...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Actor Viggo Mortenson once said: ‘To be an artist, you don't have to compose music, or paint, or be in the movies, or write books. It's just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.’ If you tried on the identity of an artist, how does it fit? Trying it...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages My first job out of university was with a company that specialized in innovation. It was there that I really began to understand how creativity flourishes when there are restraints. We were once hired by Kellogg’s to help do something new for Corn Flakes, but weren’t allowed to change the product, packaging, or marketing. I remember realizin...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I’ve done my fair share of work in organizational development, some of which involved helping big companies set up visions, missions, and values. Most of the time that work honestly drove me nuts. The phrase ‘death by lamination’ sums up the majority of corporate values. They come up with a bland list, stick it on the wall, and hope that it...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Despite its good intentions, activism can be exhausting. Finding motivation to keep the fight going can be a struggle, but connecting with others is key. A small circle of compassion goes a long way. I am delighted to speak with Loretta Ross, an activism pioneer in the human rights and reproductive justice movements, professor, public intell...

Simon Alexander One reading from Brianna Wiest’s book The Mountain is You, and discussing resilience, self-mastery, and expanding your comfort zone. Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages When we think of energy, we tend to limit it to the physical. This week’s guest rejects that narrow view, sharing that energy exists in four dimensions: the physical, the mental, the emotional,...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I am an accidental entrepreneur, and as exhilarating as it’s been, it’s also been really difficult at times. Now, entrepreneurship has been hard for me as a white man and also for one of our previous guests, Bobby Herrera, as a Latino man. However, the statistics are endless when it comes to the struggles of being a woman entrepreneur.  I am...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages What skills do you think an entrepreneur requires? I’ve been mulling it over and I’ve come up with four things: marketing, selling, a tolerance for risk, and persistence. You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking – who wouldn’t benefit from building capacity in those four areas? Perhaps we should all consider ourselves entrepreneurs.  Ashee...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I’m a bit of a geek about models, specifically the ones that reveal patterns and invite new possibilities, helping us expand our understanding of what the world is. My favorites are: the periodic table and its various alternatives, the Roman architect Vitruvius’ three attributes for a building, and finally, the alphabet. A book I love is Edw...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Atul Gawande is a top-notch surgeon, a champion for healthcare reform in the U.S., and an outstanding author. One of his books, The Checklist Manifesto, discusses the power of using a checklist to create better outcomes in hospitals–specifically to stop unnecessary deaths during surgery. It was fascinating to learn about the resistance, from...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I still remember reading my first Nicholson Baker book, The Mezzanine. This extraordinary book slows down the pace of life to one where all the details are able to be noticed. For someone like me–a little bit in my head and moving too fast–reading the book resembles bullet time from The Matrix movies, only with the detritus of everyday livin...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I’m working on a new book about how to strengthen working relationships, so I’ve been consuming a lot of content around the subject. I can divide the teachers I’ve been learning from into two different camps. First are the mechanics; the people laying out what to do. They’re okay, but I prefer the storytellers; the people who realize that st...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I am a charming man. It’s an optimistic view of who I am. But like everyone else, I also have my faults. This means that one of the great gifts of my life are the people who are on my side but aren’t likely to fall for my whole schtick. Do you have people who, in the nicest possible way, hold you to be the very best person you can be?  Tom W...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Bobby Herrera, author of The Gift of Struggle, is the co-founder and CEO of Populus Group. He is also a proud U.S Army Veteran, an unwavering champion for the underdog, and, most importantly, an all-pro dad to three amazing kids. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/  Bobby reads two pages from his...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I’m writing a new book that’s due for release in the middle of 2023, and I was just sitting at a coffee shop reading my editor’s response to the first draft. She’s been reviewing it for about three weeks, and those three weeks have been nerve wracking. I’ve released something into the world but not yet grasped what’s next. Anything is possib...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Keep this between us, but I have an offer for you. There’s this thing called the Insiders Club; it’s amazing and exclusive, and the other people who are a part of it are truly extraordinary, like you. We don’t let anybody in–it’s invite only, and the invites are rare … This doesn’t really exist, but it’s tempting to be an insider, isn’t it? ...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Nir Eyal is a former lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the author of Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. His first book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products explored using the psychology of revolutionary products such as Facebook and Slack to make other products engaging and habi...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages ‘Why bother’ is a question we ask ourselves at certain moments in our lives; moments when life beats us down and we’re finding it harder and harder to keep caring. How do we muster up the will to fight for the life we want? How do we avoid giving up? Jen Louden is a national best-selling author of 9 books and the host of Create Out Loud, a p...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages    What does it mean to be a radical? Karl Marx had this to say about it: “To be radical is to go to the root of the matter. For man, however, the root is man himself.” So, radical compassion, empathy, generosity, leadership, humanity - perhaps it’s time to be a radical.  Pascal Finette is a founder of a boutique advisory firm, Be Radical, a...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages What’s your relationship with ambition? I feel I’m both ambitious, and not. On one hand, I want to grow into the best of who I am and have a life of contentment, but on the other, there are some status-based trophies that just don’t matter to me as they once did. I’ve come to realize that it’s only by having pursued and–in some cases–won som...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages The book I’m writing at the moment is about relationships. I’m neither a relationship expert nor a psychotherapist, but they do say you should write so that you can teach what you need to know. This means I’ve been reading some of the big names: Esther Perel, John Gottman, and most recently, Terry Real, who has a brand new book out called Us...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages One of my favorite questions is simply this: How can I help? The power of it is two-fold. First, it asks the other person to name the help that’s required – that's powerful for them, as it often isn’t totally clear what that is, even to them. The second power – the more important one, in my opinion – is that it disrupts your own assumption t...

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages I’m just back from an extended visit to Australia, and as a farewell treat I took my family out to a fancy dinner. I’m a vegetarian but I decided to take them to a high-end steakhouse. I chose to go there for two reasons: first, most of them are committed carnivores; and second, I knew most of them hadn’t had the experience of the theater an...