Closing The 18 Inch Gap Podcast

Every journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning is exciting. It's where dreams are born. Energy is high. Hope is overflowing. You can't stop talking about where you're going because you can already see it in your mind. The end is exciting too. It's where victories are celebrated, sacrifices finally make sense, and people suddenly notice all the work they never saw. But almost no...

There is something fascinating about a chessboard.  Sixty-four squares. Thirty-two pieces. Endless possibilities. Most people only notice the king when the game is over. They celebrate the queen because she's powerful. They admire the knights because they make impossible moves. But very few people stop to appreciate the pawn. That's exactly how people treat themselves. They compare their journey t...

Last week I sent an email out about a memory that resurfaced after many years.  After I sent the email, the message still stuck with me and will not leave me so I decided to expand on this in this podcast episode and dive deeper into this message.  A memory I have carried a long time resurfaced again this week. I thought about this man many times before but this time it was different. When I met m...

Last week I released an episode with my amazing guests and Donna Ricardo were we spoke about….   well about speaking.  This week I decided to continue the topic. Today's topic is dos and don'ts about communicating with confidence. It's important to be able to communicate confidently what you want. If you want to go from dreaming to doing, you need to be very clear about what it is that you want fo...

Today is a special episode titled Speaking with Confidence- An Interview with Donna Riccardo. She is an expert speaker and speaking coach that helps others break into speaking the right way. She has a vast resource of knowledge and today she shares some of this with you.  In this episode Donna shares: How she started as a hairstylist which led her to speaking- a story you do not want to miss Exper...

In today's episode I go into nine things that have been bothering me for some time. I share these as a way to not only be vulnerable but to also bring points I want to share because you  can also relate to them. It's certainly not a place where I complain and carry on. Far from it, instead it's a way of expressing what has been running in the background of my mind as I invite you to also join me a...

There's so much that can be said about habits. There's a book called, Atomic Habits.  It's written by James clear that  has sold millions upon millions of copies. Habits are constantly being studied. It's habits that make or break you. Good ones are hard to establish but have greater rewards. As the bad ones that are not so good for you but the reward is its instant gratification but not necessari...

This is being recorded on Memorial Day. It's a day to remember those that have fallen in all the wars that have been fought on behalf of our country, on behalf of you and me. An ultimate sacrifice, lives given for the cause of freedom. I have never served in the military but have the most respect for those that have. In this sacred moment, ask you to take a moment with me as I pause for a moment o...

In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the twenty-six miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. As she began, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if she got hurt or grew tired. After about fifteen hours a thick fog set in.  Florence began to doubt her ability. She told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she did not...

In all of us we all have one mind however every mind you take one of two paths. Each path goes a completely different direction. It is something that everyone deals with. Which path you take? That will determine where you will go. These two mindsets are constantly battling each other. It's not a matter of completely dominating one over the other. They are both present at all times. Some days one h...

Are your dreams being drained and you don't even realize it?  Your time and energy is similar to your paycheck. You work for a week or two, perhaps you have some over time, but you never exactly know how much tax is going to come out.  Even if you are a salaried employee and have a steady predictable income, you're still paying taxes in different ways that you may not realize. The same goes for yo...

In today's episode I want to ask you something. Are your dreams drifting away from you? In today's episode I'm going to go into 15 signs your dream could be drifting away from you and what you can do about it. Let me show you a real-life example. In 3 hours, a plane traveling at 500 mph covers 1,500 miles.  If the plane is off course by 3° the plane would be approximately 78.5 miles away from its...

In today's episode I want to continue my conversation on mental and emotional health.  I was interviewed on someone else's platform for the second time in less than a week.  It was a very special time as the interviewer is someone I have known for a long time. We spoke more than anything about the inner being and some of my story. So, this inspired me to go deeper this week on the journey of emoti...

In today's episode I want to bring something that's coming from many conversations I've had this past week.  It started with a conversation with the photographer friend of mine. He lost a major job at Microsoft and started taking his photography from a hobby to something serious. He wanted to build upon it. He   had an old camera and decided that he being a tech guy that he is it needed to be upgr...

I will be doing what is called a freestyle recording with no specific outline or steps to follow per se. I want to take a pause from the what to do, how to do, etc. I want to go into a personal deep dive of what life looks like when you put the things I'm saying into action. If you have been following for some time you know I have shared my devastating job loss three years ago. I will be sharing w...

You may recall in last week's episode as I was speaking with my wife about a pottery class. She said she's really enjoying it, but she is working really hard on learning how to center the clay so she can work better with it. Being centered is a way of being balanced. And when I thought of the clay being centered, it made me think of the potter's wheel as it spins and spins. She has since made a tr...

I was having a conversation with my wife this week.  I gave her a pottery class this past Christmas and she finally started three weeks ago. I asked her how it was going and she said something that really got my attention.  She said she's really enjoying it, but she is working really hard on learning how to center the clay so she can work better with it.  Being centered is a way of being balanced....

Last week I talked  about pivots and having a pivotal moment.  Simply put, pivotal means extremely important or crucial, like a key turning point or the central part on which everything else depends, similar to a door's hinge that makes it work. It describes something vital that influences the success or direction of a situation, event, or person. Today I want to go even further and bring 6 stages...

Today I want to talk about pivots and having a pivotal moment.   Simply put, pivotal means extremely important or crucial, like a key turning point or the central part on which everything else depends, similar to a door's hinge that makes it work. It describes something vital that influences the success or direction of a situation, event, or person. A pivot is not surrender. A pivot is wisdom in m...

Today I want to challenge you, I want to challenge you about how you see time. We all say we don't have enough time. But do we? I want to get into today about how to see this differently, get into the mental blocks that get in the way of us saying we don't have enough time. I have heard a lot about time management and that it's a myth. That there's no such thing. That school of thought says that y...

The Olympics just wrapped up a few days ago. For those of us in the US it ended on a very high note with the men's hockey team winning gold for the first time since the famous miracle on ice back in the 1980 Olympics. I can guarantee you that everyone there  had an unshakeable belief that they could win! In your journey to keep your dreams going, you need A LOT of belief to keep going. When I was...

Introducing the Personal Growth Cycle.  It's only 5 points and a step away from my usual long list of points I bring.  It's not something I created by rather something I found and want to share with you today. They are, "Define → Align → Flow → Grow → Evolve" isn't just a cycle — it's a living framework for dreamers. It's how transformation actually happens. Not in one leap, but in layers.   This...

I have been captivated all week regarding a FB message I saw. It was a post that talked about what people do when it's quiet and get inpatient or desperate. It made me think a lot, so much that I had to make an episode about this. What I'm referring to is the time between the preparation and the success.  The quiet time is the preparation time, the ground work, the laying down the foundation in th...

If there is a question that is impossible to answer. A question that many ask but no one ever answers.  The question?  How long? How long until: My dream comes true How long until: I can get out of this job How long until: I'll see my breakthrough How long until   fill in the blank. Time is something we treat as something negative as an enemy. We live in a culture where a lot of pressure is put on...

What is a crucible?  It's a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. But for purposes of this episode it's a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new. Let me start with a truth most people never hear: Just because no one sees your potential… does not mean...