10,000 NOs

Matt revisits his very first episode of 10,000 "No"s, from 2017, to share with listeners how every new venture has things to be proud of and things to improve.  Topics covered include:  - Pulling the trigger - The benefits of "doing it wrong" - Course-correcting - Meeting and learning how to be better from Pros along the way - The essential ingredients to any new venture - How doin...

At 22 years of age, Ashley Longo just graduated Loyal University in Los Angeles and she's headed back there for Law school at the end of this Summer.  She's accomplished this and many other things, including mentoring a young girl in San Diego who is newly paralyzed, interning in Senator Diane Feinstein's office, playing basketball, performing in school plays, getting her Driver's...

Matt answers some college students questions about staring into the abyss as they begin their journey into "the real world".  While he loves and encourages the self-discovery and reflection, he offers that there is no substitute for the learning process that comes from experience.  Referencing one of the World's Best Surfers, Laird Hamilton, he examines the role of uncertainty and our...

In a quick riff, Matt discusses the role that consistency has played in his career and his health and offers that it plays a primary role in whatever it is that you're pursuing.      SHOW NOTES:  Recent chat with past guest, Bedros Keuilian, on staying fit, (2:05). “It’s consistency and it applies to everything that we do.”, (2:48). Varying in wanting to go to the gym from day-to-day, (3:19)....

A self-described non-golf-lover, Matt reflects on the lessons listeners can learn from Gary Woodland's dramatic comeback from his previous 0-7 record when leading after 54 holes to win his first Major Championship, the US Open (and admits he may be changing his tune about golf).    At Pebble Beach, the major storyline at the start of Father's Day 2019 was Brooks Koepka's attempt to be...

After attending a 25th college reunion and a 5th grade graduation in less than a week, Matt riffs on the benefits of stopping to smell the roses and acknowledge the progress that one has made in this solo episode.      SHOWNOTES:   Sometimes you just have to take the risk and try something you’ve never tried before, (2:50). Celebrating milestones can help you keep on track, (3:25). Don’t knock dow...

For the past 20 years, Academy Award Winner Sam Rockwell has insisted on working Acting Coach Terry Knickerbocker to prepare for every one of his roles.  An actor himself prior to teaching, Knickerbocker studied at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU before working on stage with an actor who's technique was so specific and consistent that Terry had to seek out the actor's teacher, the lat...

Sam Morris came into this world with severe allergies that set him apart from his peers from the time he was born.  That very feeling of being an outsider is what made him so at ease on the tennis court, where he excelled.  The focus needed for the sport he loved kept him from drugs and alcohol until he was nearly 20 years old, but when the floodgates opened he found himself on the bad side of add...

In this solo episode, Matt riffs on the idea that what you do when no one is watching is what gets rewarded later in public.  Revealing a guest request made by the staff of an Acting Coach to Oscar Winners and Nominees who turns out to be a passionate listener to 10,000 "No"s, Matt talks about the importance of maintaining standards and how you never know who's out there listening, wat...

In this solo episode, Matt answers a passionate listener's letter that asks, among other things, “What if you can’t overcome it? And there isn’t anything better?  And you just have to gracefully let go of it?  What’s your advice for people for whom trying isn’t an option?  A “no” that isn’t a “not yet”, but a “never”.  Without sugar-coating it, Matt sites examples from past interviews with Mat...

Melissa Ponzio is best known to a younger generation for her portrayal of Melissa McCall, mother of Scott McCall, the central character on MTV's smash hit Teen Wolf.  She's also known for her runs on Army Wives, The Walking Dead and her ongoing stint on Chicago Fire.  On social media, her nearly 700K Instagram followers and over 600K Twitter followers are vehemently loyal to her because sh...

Tony Blauer's image has been gracing the covers of Martial Arts and Self-Defense magazines for decades, he teaches tier-one operators,  and he is a big deal in that world, but the reason I wanted to sit down with him for 10,000 "No"s is that his system, and the way he articulates it, is so personal, practical and applicable to each and every one of us.  Contrary to the stereotype that...

Carrie Audino won a Primetime Emmy in 2010 for Casting the critically-acclaimed series, Mad Men.  She was nominated another 5 times.  She also won the Artios Award, presented by the Casting Society of America and was nominated another 4 times, one of which was for her work casting the pilot of NBC's critically-acclaimed series, Parenthood.  But for all of the accolades, she is a workhorse, a g...

Erinn Hayes is funny.  There's no way around it, as I discovered at the table read of the newly released Netflix Comedy Series, Huge in France.  But less than a year before that day, she was inexplicably killed off a very lucrative gig, where she played the wife of Kevin James on his CBS sitcom, Kevin Can Wait.  They say that success is the best revenge and, after the initial shock and depress...

Gad Elmaleh has been voted the Funniest Man in France, named Night of the Order of Arts and Letters by France's Minister of Culture and named Night of the National Order of Quebec.  He's also worked with such giants as Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen and Al Pacino... but you may know him from his hugely popular Netflix comedy specials, Gad Gone Wild, or American Dream, if you don't know...

For those of you who have been with me and the show from the beginning, you may remember Kimi Culp - Episode 2, my first guest back in 2017.  If you haven't heard that one yet, you need to go listen, but here are the highlights:  Kimi was a journalist of the highest quality, having had long stints working for Oprah, and then Diane Sawyer.  She got burnt out on the kinds of stories she was repo...

Suzy   Batiz has been featured by leading business publications including  Forbes, CNBC, Fast Company  and   Entrepreneur . She has also been interviewed for  Leaders Create Leaders, Modern Hero, Marie  Forleo , Girl Boss Radio  &  The   Skinny Confidential  podcasts and has given presentations for HustleCon, Emerging Women, The Summit Series, Conscious Capitalism & the In Goop Health Summ...

Rob Grupe is now the owner of one of the largest Crossfit Facilities in the country, leading men and women to be their best selves, inside and out.  But a 20 year prison sentence for a first-offense, after years of dodging danger while addicted to pain-killers and running drugs from Mexico, could have caused him to rot away in jail.  Instead, he made a decision, saying "This the reality, but I...

As a physician, attorney, speaker, author, and lifelong quitter, Lynn Marie Morski founded Quitting By Design, wrote a book about it, and is now on a mission to help people carve out a successful life through strategic quitting.  At first blush, this might sound like an odd pairing for a podcast about Perseverance, but the truth is that it wasn't until I quit playing Division I Lacrosse at Bos...

Heath Evans played fullback in the NFL for 10 seasons and has a Superbowl Ring to show for it, from his time with the New Orleans Saints.  Four of those seasons were with the New England Patriots and football royalty Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, for whom he has tremendous amounts of respect and many lessons on leadership.  So it's no wonder that he can talk about grit.  But what may not be ex...

It's hard to imagine how Simonetta Lein accomplishes all that she does. She has over 1 Million extremely engaged Instagram followers who find inspiration in her messages of female empowerment and fashion. She's a successful model and journalist, and she runs a charity, The Wishwall Foundation, that helps others express and experience their wishes. But when we spoke, I learned that all of t...

Sahara Rose is still only 28.  Which is why she had to overcome heaps of criticism en route to becoming the #1 Internationally Best-Selling Author of Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda.  But her fresh take on an Ancient philosophy is also why her podcast, Highest Self Podcast, is ranked #1 in Religion/Spirituality on iTunes.  Her story of seeking out Deepak Chopra is worth the listen alone.  In his for...

Artie Tobia is a prolific singer-songwriter, with a catalog of over 100 songs he has written over the past two decades, while performing over 200 nights a year. Continually working on his craft, his fourth album Aberdeen was the CD of the month pick by Thomas Greener of KVMR Los Angeles and and his 5th album, Driven, hit # 2 on the APD Americana National Album Chart in January, when it was release...

Jesse Bradley was a self-defined atheist from a family full of non-believers and mixed faiths, as a kid.  He dreamed of being a professional basketball player, but it never happened. He did, however, become a pro soccer player.  He also almost died, when soccer took him to Zimbabwe, where he was tutoring students as well. What he never imagined as a kid is that he'd end up a pastor, leading ot...

In 2002, 'The Exonerated' took Off-Broadway by storm.  It was written by Jessica Blank and her husband Erik Jensen and I remember being riveted, as was everyone else, by the real-life transcripts of death-row inmates that were artfully spun into compelling monologues for actors.  Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon eventually helped it become a feature film.  Here, I sit down with the amazingly...