Dream Big Podcast for Kids

At the beginning of the school year, we had a conversation with Eva about her classes.  Our advice was simple: Take the easy wins!  So many kids struggle at school academically because they fail to turn their homework in on time, they have missing assignments, they don't take advantage of extra credit assignments when offered.   We explained to Eva that her classmates who don't take the easy wins...

Rachel Hollis is the best selling author of Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing and host of the Rachel Hollis Podcast.  In a recent interview, Rachel explained how early in her career before she had written her 1st book, she believed that she just had to finish a book and then it would get published.  But when she finished it, no publisher was interested.  Michael Jordan, widely consid...

This summer Eva was fortunate enough to go to a sleepaway camp for a few weeks.  When she sent us letters in the mail, she would sometimes include a playing card that she had shot with an arrow during Archery, which turned out to be her favorite activity at camp!  In fact, Eva loved archery so much that her #1 request for the upcoming Holiday season is her own set of bow and arrows.  In discussing...

You may not know the name but Bobby Hall, but if you have followed the music scene for the past decade you likely know of the multi-platinum recording artist known as Logic. Logic is Bobby Hall (or I guess Bobby Hall is Logic depending on how you look at it!). Logic has a new book out called the Bright Future which is a memoir of his journey from a horrifically abusive childhood to becoming one of...

Dr. Susan David, the bestselling author of Emotional Agility, has identified a powerful difference between "Have to" Goals and "Want to" Goals.   Eva shares that difference in this episode, and offers some examples of "Want to" and "Have to" Goals in her own life.  This includes the recent experience of hatching baby quail from an incubator (definitely a "Want to" goal).  But more importantly, Eva...

Michaela DePrince was born in the midst of a horrific civil war in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Her father was killed by rebels, and shortly after her father's death, her mother died of fever and starvation.  As if life was not already difficult enough, Michaela has a skin condition which causes patches of her skin to lose its color.  In her village, this was considered the curse of the devil and sh...

We've told our kids on numerous occasions to "Be Patient. Things Take Time." or even the good ol' phrase "Patience is a Virtue."   But we recently stumbled across a quote from the great Tom Bilyeu that challenged our views on patience, especially when it comes to teaching our kids about how to accomplish their Big Dreams.  Tom shared: "Stop being patient and start asking yourself, how do I accompl...

What really matters most in life?  The shoes that you wear?  The latest video game that you own?  The care that you drive?  Material items might bring us temporary joy but when you really think about the things that matter most in your life, what comes to the top of your mind?  Sergey Young has achieved great success in life. He founded the Longevity Vision Fund to accelerate life extension throug...

Lizzie Velasquez was born with a rare syndrome that makes it impossible for her to gain weight.   As a result, even though Lizzie is an adult, she has never weighed more than 65 pounds.  A number of years ago, a terrible cyber bully posted a video on Youtube titled "World's Ugliest Woman" and the video was about Lizzie.  Not only was this a horrible, horrible thing to do, but unfortunately the vid...

A few years ago, a UCLA gymnast named Katelyn Ohashi captivated the world with a viral floor routine that has amassed over 190M views on Youtube.  If you are one of the few who has not seen Katelyn's performance, we are including a link to the video in the Resources section of our show notes.  You will literally feel Katelyn's positive energy and fun-loving attitude come through your device when y...

Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest tennis players of all time and currently ranked No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).  As of this publication, he has won 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles (a record shared with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal) and based on his play in recent years most tennis fans believe he will own that record before the end of his career.  In a recent int...

On October 3, 2012 at the age of 24, Lauren Wasser's life changed forever.  As a result of a medical condition called toxic shock syndrome, Wasser was placed in a medically-induced coma. Doctors pumped her with 80 pounds of fluids to get the toxins out of her body and conducted several blood transfusions.  Lauren miraculously survived but doctors were not able to save her right leg, which had to b...

Like most content creators, Joey Schweitzer started making Youtube videos just for fun not really thinking it would become a full-time career.  But his videos, which are mostly about self-improvement, were so well made and he is such a talented storyteller, that his channel quickly amassed a huge following and as of this writing, over 1.3 million subscribers enjoy his videos that inspire you to li...

Have you ever wanted to speak up for yourself and for whatever reason stayed quiet?  Eva used to be so shy that she didn't even want to place her own order at a restaurant.  Today Eva shares why it is so important to be willing to raise your hand, to ask for help, and to stand up for yourself.  This episode was inspired by Maria Menounos. Maria has been a primetime TV personality for many years, s...

There are so many experts out there claiming to be able to teach you a shortcut to building confidence.  These "hacks'' might temporarily help you pump yourself up and act confident, even if you really may not be.  Recently we heard Chris Bosh, former NBA all-star, champion and Olympic Gold medalist, describe how he developed his confidence on the basketball court.  It may not be the most popular...

When we stumbled across a video on Matt D'Avella Youtube channel entitled "The truth about chasing your dreams," we took the bait and had to watch.  After all, this is the DREAM BIG Podcast and Eva's mission is to encourage young Big Dreamers to believe in their dreams and take massive action in pursuit of those dreams.  In the video, Matt shared his " 3-year rule" which is that in order to find s...

This week Eva shares lessons she learned from Luvvie Ajayi Jones' Ted Talk entitled "Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable."  Luvvie is a bestselling author and world renowned speaker, but for many years she refused to publicly admit she was a writer.  She had grown up dreaming of being a doctor, and feared that as a writer she would not be able to make ends meet.  When she was turning thirty,...

We were thrilled when Rebecca Zamolo's publicist reached out to see if Eva was interested in interviewing Rebecca, who is promoting her new book "The Game Master: Summer Schooled."  Rebecca is one of the most innovative content creators in the world, with multiple award winning Youtube channels with over 30 million subscribers.  She also has had a fascinating life story, as Eva discovered while pr...

Daniel J. Watts is a legendary Broadway performer, appearing in nine Broadway shows including Hamilton, In The Hnines and Memphis.  So it should be no surprise that Daniel used performance art when he delivered his recent TedX talk.  He literally painted with his feet while masterfully sharing his life experience leading up to and during the pandemic.  Daniel uses the metaphor of paint, sharing th...

Sara Blakely is an inventor and entrepreneur who created the clothing line Spanx.  For the younger Big Dreamers who may not be familiar with Spanx, ask your mom because chances are she knows and can explain better than Eva can! Joking aside, with the incredible success of Spanx under Sara's leadership, in 2012 Sara became the world's youngest female self-made billionaire.  In today's episode, Eva...

Candace Parker is one of the most decorated female basketball players to ever put on a uniform. Candace was the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft,  A WNBA Champion, WNBA Finals MVP, 2x WNBA MVP, 2x Gold Medalist, and WNBA Rookie of the Year. But that incedibe legacy was definitely not guaranteed, and in fact could have easily been cut short by a devastating ACL tear during high school that...

We were listening to Lewis Howes interview Rich Roll, a man who transformed his life from being an alcoholic and drug addict to one of the fittest men in the world.  Lewis was asking Rich about how to achieve your big dreams.  Rather than just giving the stereotypical answer like "you have to go for it, be bold, take massive action," Rich gave a much more practical answer that Eva thought was supe...

This week's episode is inspired by Amberley Snyder, who as a young girl developed a love of horses and was on her way to becoming one of the world's best in rodeo.  In 2009, she won the National Little Britches Rodeo Association All-Around Cowgirl World Championship.  Amberley's life changed forever on January 10, 2010.   She was driving her truck and sadly not wearing a seatbelt.  She took her ey...

Jeff Bezos was once asked what makes someone successful.  Jeff is uniquely qualified to answer this question, considering he founded ecommerce giant Amazon.com and is one of the wealthiest people on the planet. In this episode, Eva shares Jeff's response which to paraphrase was that successful people have a combination of gifts (e.g. natural-born talent) and a strong work ethic (e.g. the grit to d...

This week's episode is inspired by Amy Purdy.  Amy's childhood and teen years were filled with fun and adventure. She was an incredible athlete and especially loved snowboarding.  At the age of 19, Amy had a medical emergency caused by a bacterial infection.  The doctors gave her a 2% chance to live, and had to remove her spleen and amputate both her legs below the knees. Her father also had to do...