The Great Unfamous

In this episode, we meet former Major League pitcher Corey Gearrin who relays a 20-minute conversation that changed his life. As an un-recruited, un-drafted ballplayer who beat the odds at every level, this piece of advice not only launched his professional baseball career, it taught him something priceless about himself.   Cory spent 10 seasons in the bigs with the Braves, Giants, Yankees an...

In this episode, we shine a light on a woman who changed the life of her niece. It may not sound that remarkable until you consider the fact that before she could do that, she had to navigate the worst nightmare most of us could imagine. Dr. Johnette Hartnett is the aunt of Kate Bradley Chernis who we met on the A-side of Episode 5. That’s where we learned that Johnette’s support sparked Kate to c...

Kate Bradley Chernis is one of the smartest, most creative and downright likeable founders in technology today. I had the good fortune to work with her in 2019 when we used her technology to launch a new social channel for Gary Vaynerchuk’s personal brand. Kate, aka Kately, is the co-founder of the remarkable AI-based technology, Lately. But she’s more than that. She was a music director and on-ai...

In this part 2 interview we meet the most influential person in Max Ivey’s life. If you haven’t heard Max’s backstory, I urge you to check out Episode 4a. His tale of life in a carnival family, losing his sight and how he turned his greatest challenge into his greatest calling card is a uniquely inspirational ride. His transition from carnival ride broker to published author was due in large part...

In the A-side of Episode 4 we meet a true original, a one-of-a-kind maverick whose story is one of adversity, positivity and fearlessness. The chapters of Maxwell Ivey's life include growing up in a Texas carnival family, losing his sight in high school, launching his own business and authoring three books with a fourth one on the way.  Max has been a mentor, a role model and a confidante for...

Ty Smith, has a calm, warm demeanor that suits him. When someone teaches what to do when white water meets the unexpected, that's the kind of guy you want. But Ty was impacting lives long before he graduated university with a masters in Environmental Science. Before he started guiding people down dangerous rivers, he guided a 7-year-old boy down a path to appreciate the outdoors and what it meant...

Canadian Ty Smith, is a river expert. He earned a BScH and MSc in Environmental Science, teaches white water rescue and has guided on rivers from Ottawa to Chile. But when Stewart Hillhouse met him at the age of 7, Ty was just a camp counselor at Camp Hurontario. His impact on Stewart sparked his passion for green spaces, the wilderness and a commitment to something Ty refers to as "being woodsy"....

In this Part 2 segment on Aziz Rahman's lessons, his grandson Mir Shithil, now a practicing physical therapist in Edison, NJ., translates his grandfather's words of wisdom about how caring for people is the only way for you and your community to move forward.  These are his lessons.  2:50: Why were you considered the village leader? 3:25: Why did you help so many people? 4:13: Why did pe...

Aziz Rahman has taught many lessons to the people of Haragach, a small rural community on the outskirts of Rangpur in Bangladesh. But no one soaked in more knowledge more quickly than his 8-year-old grandson Mir Shithil, now a practicing physical therapist in Edison, NJ. Mir shares the tales of his greatest influence and how he learned to wield and not wield a machete while building bamboo shelter...

Alex Sullivan is the first in our series of The Great Unfamous. Trained as an occupational therapist who practiced for more than 20 years, Alex impacted the lives of more than 300 children and their families. But this is the story of her impact on me and my family and how it served as a roadmap for the decades that followed. She is one of the most talented, funny, creative, fearless, insightful pr...