Beyond the Rut: Create a Life Worth Living in Your Faith, Family, Career

Sparking Positive MomentumBrandon and Jerry interview Cynthia Tripathi, author Escaping Average: 18 Tips to Spark Positive Momentum and Transform Your Life. Cynthia's mission in life is continuous personal development and to help others achieve powerful results for their own life. Achieving fulfillment for her stems from finding momentum. She strives to help people learn how to spark positive mome...

Defining Your Own Reality to Find Happiness"If Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, and Gary Vaynerchuk had a man-child and unleashed him on Medium, he would be Benjamin Hardy." - Quote from a haterBenjamin Hardy is a prolific writer and blogger, who at the time of this episode going live has over 31,000 Followers on Medium, talks with Brandon Cunningham and Jerry Dugan about how he came to blogging, handlin...

Why do people run in a presidential election in the United States? How do we translate that to our own lives?2016 Presidential ElectionJeb Bush recently suspended his bid in the 2016 presidential election. He had the financial support, but could not garner the public support of his party to win the nomination for the Republican Party's ticket. He tried and failed. What can you learn from his exper...

Emotional IntelligenceEmotional Intelligence is the idea that we can be aware of our own emotions and attuned to the emotions of others. This includes the ability to build relationships and keep healthy relationships whether at home, school, or work. The better we can harness the power of relationships at work the more we can see doors open for us and pull ourselves out of a rut. Build Emotional C...

It's Time to Throw in the Towel, Jeb! We hear all kinds of messages and inspiration about never quitting, giving 110%, and many other cliches. The 2016 Presidential Primary Race has shown us that there is a time when it makes sense to just throw in the towel and call it quits. Maybe you have money and your reputation on the line. Things are not going the way you expected. It is possible you are at...

From Good Job to Boyhood Dream Come TrueJody Maberry had a good job as a financial analyst for a commercial bank. One day, he made a decision to hang up that lucrative career to pursue his boyhood dream of working as a park ranger. Maberry shares his struggle with a rut while working as a financial analyst, the decision point to become a park ranger, and the determination to make a dream come true...

Brandon and Jerry discuss lessons learned, insights, and takeaways they gleaned from their interview with Sara McDaniel from SimplySara.com in episode 25 of Beyond the Rut Podcast (BtR 025.)Call in with a question for the show or share with us what you would have liked to have heard us cover in our interview with Sara McDaniel by calling 361-596-3788. Leave us a voicemail. We'd love to hear from y...

Brandon and Jerry interview Sara McDaniel from the blog SimplySara.com about simple living as bigger living, significance from service to others, getting out of our comfort zones, and lifting herself from the rut of divorce. How are you currently living to get out of your comfort zone?"A simple life is a bigger life." - Brandon CunninghamJeff Goins' Wrecked Vision Trip in GuatemalaSara took a leap...

Growth Mentoring OthersYou grow and succeed by helping other people grow and succeed. You can mentor someone right now with the skills, knowledge, and experience you currently possess. As you connect with others sharing that wealth of knowledge, you may find yourself growing as well. People can learn from you even if you do not commit to a 1-to-1 relationship. Sharing what you know through bloggin...

Overcoming fear is a key part to pursuing your dream. Once in a while, even when things are going well, fear may creep up on you. Davidson Young left us with a term in BtR 022 that has had Brandon excited for many weeks, microfears. Shortly after leaving corporate life to pursue his passion as a leadership consultant, he would be in a park walking his dogs when fear would strike. It would last jus...

After a successful stint with Google, Davidson Young began a journey to live life as an entrepreneur for various reasons. Today, Davidson runs his own business as a leadership coach and consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also the host of The Leaders Foundry podcast where leaders are made not born. On a side note, Davidson and Jerry have been friends since the 6th Grade. In some ways,...

Ferris Bueller? Yes, there was a discussion about the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and some of the life lessons we drew from the movie about making your own path against what is normal in our society. While this episode is by no means an analysis of the movie, we gained some insights from how Ferris Bueller refused to be so eager to follow in the corporate footsteps of his dad and how it contras...

Victim Mentality - When Bad Things Happen to Good PeopleIt's a fact of life. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things also happen to bad people. Bad things just happen. That fact of life does not matter as much as how we respond to it. The worse thing that can happen to any of us is to succumb to a victim mentality, wallowing in that event in a negative, unhealthy way. The victim mentality can...

When the year gets going, people start out the gates excited about their New Year Resolutions, then they start to wane with a few weeks or a couple of months. Let's talk about how you can get the most out of the new year so that you feel accomplished by the end of the year rather than regretful you didn't succeed.45% to 50% of Americans set resolutions for the new year, and only 8% of Americans ac...

Time management is what we will discuss in this episode of Beyond the Rut. There are time traps we all face that can sap us of the time we need to get things done for our dreams. You may find that you're having a hard time balancing the act among working full-time, raising a family, and pursuing your dreams. Whatever your dreams may be, time management is critical for you to reach our goals. We'll...

Why Opposing Perspectives? We're not telling you to go pick a fight at a bar. In fact, we're not telling you to do anything violent at all. Please, do not go out and physically fight someone and blame it on this podcast episode. We're talking about the value of tapping into perspectives that are different, even opposite, of your own point of view. Yes, we have said, and will continue to say, that...

What is the Magic Ratio all about? Brandon and guest host, Jerry, talk about the magic ratio of positive to negative interactions that results in happy, healthy relationships. The Magic Ratio is based on work from Dr. John Gottman, an expert on communication in marriage. While this discussion is grounded in the context of happy, healthy relationships in marriage, the lessons and tips discussed her...

What is Guilt-Free Parenting? Pursuing a dream while also raising a family will sometimes seem to be in conflict. Guilt builds up as our work chips away at the attention we give to our families. Brandon and Shawn discuss four tips on how to have your cake and eat it, too. Guilt-free parenting is about being the best spouse and parent you can be while also pursuing that dream meant to make life bet...

In this episode Brandon and Shawn discuss when and how to share your dream with others. Sometimes, we come out of the gate too soon and are met with resistance from those we expected support us. Other times we hurt our long-term credibility, or build a reputation of having a new crazy dream every six months. There comes a time when we do need to tell others about our dreams, our projects, because...

In today's information economy, your success is propelled by your ability to add value and build relationships with a niche of people. Inspired by Seth Godin's book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Brandon and Shawn tackle the topic of the power in tribes and just getting started."Turn accomplices into friends and you can be two-thirds more likely to succeed," Kerry Patterson, Change Anything: The...

Where do you want to be in five years? Will you be making the change you wish to see in the world at that time? How do you find significance in the work you do now? These are just some of the questions Brandon and Shawn tackle in this episode of Beyond the Rut as they discuss significance versus status. We chase status symbols when we really want significance in our lives. Listen to this episode a...

Your children are never too young to start learning about money. In this episode, Brandon and Shawn discuss the following:Allowances vs WagesIf you don't teach them, who will? AMEX?Savings, Spending, and GenerosityAppropriate advice for your children as they grow into adulthoodJust as it is never too early to teach your children about money, it is also never too late either. Brandon shares money a...

One day you're going to be ready to take the first step toward your dream, but are you ready? Rather than dealing with these issues after you've began your journey, wouldn't it be wise to get things in order ahead of time?  We aren't suggesting that you procrastinate your dream until everything is "perfect" but we are saying that you can start these things today as you plan your dream. There are f...

Striking up conversations with strangers and initiating conversations that end relationships are two of the most difficult and and awkward interactions that many people avoid. However, both of these are necessary and beneficial to anyone trying to pursue a goal. To most people, networking is about as exciting as getting a root canal.  They think of networking as going to "social mixers" and handin...

Tired of being tired?  So are we.  Your family and career will both benefit from you getting healthy.  Most of us have tried and failed a million times.  We fail, get depressed, eat terrible to comfort ourselves, get inspired, re-commit, try for a few days/weeks, then fail again. If you listen to everything the "experts" say about health, you're likely in a constant state of confusion as to what i...