10,000 NOs

Jay Ferruggia is bald, jacked and tattoed. So it's easy to be intimidated by him or judge him from afar, as I once did.  But scratch the surface and under the muscular build is a sensitive, inquisitive soul who has made it his life's work to strengthen others physically, psychologically and spiritually, as he did for me for a recent role.  Our conversation covers topics as specific as the...

Charlie Rocket ran a multi-million dollar business where he managed hip-hop artists like 2 Chainz into Grammy Awards.  But he weighed over 300 lbs and was diagnosed with a brain tumor so he decided to do what he has done his entire life:  dream the biggest dream and then set about working toward attaining it, regardless of whether his family and friends thought he was crazy.  One of those dreams w...

Sitting  down with Jon Gordon, it became immediately apparent why  he is trusted by Major League managers and players,  asked to speak to NFL teams and sit down one on one  with entire rosters of Pros to ensure that their minds are focused on the daunting tasks their jobs require. He is a force of positivity who doesn't just motivate but encourages with a warmth that few possess (he literally...

Jimmy Jam, along with his producing partner Terry Lewis, has led to too many accolades and awards to mention here (see links in show notes below), but the highlights include 5 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award nomination, the most nominations for Producer of the Year, a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame, and several Billboard 200 No. 1 albums.  The duo was famously fired by Prince, earl...

Seek like-minded folks who can push you, support you and encourage you.  Find the right community for you to strengthen your resolve, sharpen your skills and reduce the chances of giving up on yourself. Monday Morsels are the new weekly companion to the weekly Friday Interviews of 10,000 "No"s podcast where Matt riffs for a short time on topics and themes covered throughout the show to giv...

With guidance from quotes from past guests, Acacia Walker, Bryan Callen and Elissa Goodman, Matt monologues about gratitude for his listeners and guests and discusses the importance of acknowledging our own good fortune, regardless of how it stacks up to our expectations.  He talks about the power of accountability to those we respect (and fear slightly) in the hopes of motivating you to reflect o...

Matt thanks his listeners and riffs on the power of putting gratitude at the center of your life. He revisits lessons from past guests, particularly the recently deceased Rob Whitaker, Author/Speaker and CEO of Happier, Inc. Nataly Kogan and Global Philanthropy CEO Maggie Neilson. An abbreviated episode designed to send you into the holidays with an awareness of all that you already have in your l...

Do you hem and haw?  Spend too much time talking and not enough time doing?  I do.  Usually. But not this time... and it led to REAL change in the form of financial support to the LAFD and victims of the Woolsey Fire 2018. Monday Morsels are the new weekly companion to the weekly Friday Interviews of 10,000 "No"s podcast where Matt riffs for a short time on topics and themes covered throug...

Cathy Heller is the host of the popular podcast Don’t Keep Your Day Job, which was given the #1 spot on iTunes recommend list of shows for the 2017 New Year. In this episode, Cathy encourages you to find purpose in their life, celebrate your milestones and get paid to do what you love full time. She started out as a singer songwriter and first found success licensing her music to TV, film and ads....

Are you allowing yourself to be defined by others?  Or are you limiting yourself from being all that you can be?   Monday Morsels are the new weekly companion to the weekly Friday Interviews of 10,000 "No"s where Matt riffs for a short time on topics and themes covered throughout the show to give listeners some thoughts to chew on as they begin their week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Steven Kane is nearing the end of an incredible run with his very successful post-apocalyptic drama, The Last Ship. But the path to being one of TV's "lucky ones" was anything but smooth. A native of New Jersey, who went to UPenn undergrad, Steven thought he had it made when his USC film school Master's Thesis, a short film entitled Heroic Symphony, garnered awards at film festival...

Often called "The Godfather of Americana", Chip Taylor's songs have been recorded by such musical legends as Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, and many many more.  A 2016 Songwriter Hall of Fame Inductee, Chip's songs are feature in over 115 movies and TV shows.  His career spans over 5 decades and includes iconic hits like &...

Are you guilty of thinking or starting sentences with the phrase, "I'll be happier when..." I get my promotion, the market turns, my kids go to college, I graduate High School? When Nataly Kogan's family escaped the Soviet Union, they eventually landed in Detroit.  Not speaking the language, Nataly learned English by watching Alyssa Milano on Who's the Boss repeatedly.  A true...

Matt Mayberry only has two chairs in his apartment.  That way, if a visitor chooses to sit down, they will be likely to engage in a deep conversation with their host.  If it sounds strange, he's in good company, as he later discovered famed philosopher Henry David Thoreau only had three chairs for the same reason.  This is just one of the residual effects of studying Behavioral Design, and app...

How do you take a company from $300 Million in revenue to $3.5 Billion in just 5 years?  Ask Sharran Srivaatsa and he'll say it's simple:  come up with the target number you need to hit and then judge EVERY SINGLE DECISION YOU MAKE by whether or not it will help get you closer to it. Easy for him to say, he has a gift: he can spot anyone else's gift faster than most.  Whether that &#34...

From the womb, Heidi Dean has always been a go-getter. Instinctual by Nature while Methodical by Nurture, Heidi has been able to transition from Childhood Actor to Adult Actor/Voiceover Artist to Entrepreneur, Baker and, ultimately, Mother/Social Media Master.  Her exuberance is contagious and it is aided by her lifelong practice of "following the green lights" when her life and career stu...

Bryan Callen tours the world as a standup comedian. As an actor, one of the original MAD TV cast-members, he will finally have his own show (Schooled, a spinoff from The Goldbergs).  And as co-host of the wildly popular podcast, ‘The Fighter and The Kid’, he is known intimately by millions of listeners. But it wasn’t always this busy. A believer in self-discovery and knowledge-seeking, Callen chos...

Jennifer Todd has been consistently executing on the highest level of Hollywood producing while maintaining her integrity, loyalty and incredibly understated work ethic.  While she has a hard time calling attention to her accomplishments, she is largely responsible for some of the films that have left an indelible impression on our collective conscious: Memento (for which she won an Independent Sp...

Melissa Bernstein is a wildly successful entrepreneur. Along with her husband, she founded the incredibly prolific toy company, Melissa & Doug, which now has over 1,000 employees and has reposrted double digit growth every year.  She has been featured Good Morning America among other impressive media outlets and yet, our conversation was about so much more than success and toys.  In this secon...

  Melissa Bernstein is a wildly successful entrepreneur.  Along with her husband, she founded the incredibly prolific toy company, Melissa & Doug, which now has over 1,000 employees and has reported double digit growth every year.  She has been featured Good Morning America among other impressive media outlets and yet, our conversation was about so much more than success and toys.  In this fir...

Are you afraid of risk?  Have you actually taken steps to break away from the pack and follow your instincts, or are you just waiting, allowing the critic in your head to rob you of your precious days on earth?  It's never too late to take the leap and start moving toward that old dream that's been locked away, stifled and prevented from seeing the light of day.  Or maybe there's a new...

Crack, cocaine, meth, alcohol... the list goes on and on.  It's ripping the very fabric of our society to shreds.  But it's not just drug addicts & alcoholics who can learn from these lessons of rehabilitation.  These methods of building individuals' self-esteem to the point where they can begin to believe they are enough, primarily through a supportive community, is something we c...

Isabel White's resume reads like something out of a superhero comic book for professionals:  After losing her mother to breast cancer as an early teen, she went on to play Division I Field Hockey and Softball at Yale, despite having blown out her knee in High School.  She worked for Bill Clinton in the White House, Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, and then spent two years in Costa Rica, where she...

David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker (his  TED talk  has been viewed almost 2 million times and he delivers keynotes and workshops at HUGE Fortune 500 companies that are household names), and a regular contributor to  Harvard Business Review .  He's an associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University, where he was recently named one of the na...

  Author Paige Davis just released her memoir about her journey through a breast cancer diagnosis, Here We Grow - Mindfulness Through Cancer and Beyond.  She's an entrepreneur who has kicked ass with her green company, Blue Avocado and also talks to me about Universal Winks, those times when we are given signs from the universe that we can choose to act upon or ignore.  It's this dichotomy...