The Kevin Miller Podcast

Listen to those three questions again - Can I Succeed? Do I Belong? Am I Loved? I’m tempted to feel those questions address the root issue of every human on earth. As I continue to research personal identity and how we as a culture seem to be more fragile and threatened than ever, I feel these questions are primary. So I had a conversation with Dr Gregory Walton. Greg is the co-director of the Dwe...

We are at a time when anyone with a message is pushing to have a book and a podcast. I have been in the podcast game a long time and things have changed a lot. But the question of what makes a good podcast and if you should even have one, hasn’t changed. So I’m bringing back a discussion I had a few years ago with Jordan Harbinger. Jordan has an incredibly large and successful podcast with The Jor...

The topic today is courage and my guest defines courage as, consciously choosing to act in the presence of fear and potential risk, real or perceived, and she cites it as a learnable skill. Dr. Margie Warrell is a five-time best-selling author and Forbes columnist. She’s the author of the upcoming book The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action which is what got my attention. This is not looking at...

I grew up with parents who had me reading Dale Carnegie’s book, How To Win Friends & Influence People, when other kids were reading comic books. They modeled being respectful to all people, especially those in the least positions of power. I actually found them to be far more intolerant of those in power. Four years ago I sat down with my Dad, Dan Miller, famous for his career book which has becom...

What is healthy and helpful self-reliance? I submit that few of us know and most of us are falling to one side or another of unhealth. On one side we exercise very little self-reliance, which means if we are not relying on self, we are relying on others. On the other side is an overabundance of self-reliance where we rely almost exclusively on ourselves and hardly at all on others. So is there a h...

Welcome. I'm Kevin Miller and this is a podcast for your personal evolution.  In this episode we’re talking about trust. In today’s culture more than ever, trust is the number one asset of success. But we are often failing to gain people’s trust, and we don’t understand why. We inherently think of trust as something you have and are, or don’t have and are not. Most everyone hearing this will belie...

I find people who are seeking to evolve personally, greatly desire to contribute to humanity. The people in need are endless and there are global plights that we feel impotent to address. What I’ve come to learn is how much good we can do with our simple grocery store purchases. This isn’t an ad, just my normal curiosity in evolving myself and maturing my impact in this world. Paul Rice founded Fa...

I’m skeptical of any claim of a “formula” regarding personal evolution. And you’ll notice I say “a formula” and not “the formula.” But many things can be boiled down to some core ingredients. The difference in my opinion is this formula is less like a cooking recipe you just easily mix and bake and is more like an intense formulaic math equation you must diligently work out. I feel Steven Kotler d...

Sumit Paul-Choudhury shares that in his childhood he somewhat lost faith in mankind after starkly coming to the realization that not everyone is kind, good, and caring. Sumit went on to pursue science, technology, and the future. He became Editor-in-Chief of New Scientist, trained as an astrophysicist, and received a Sloan Fellowship in strategy and leadership from the London Business School. Then...

Just over a year ago, my father died. I was 53. Thousands of people testified to his positive impact in their lives. Me included. And…the event helped me reveal some patterns I’d repeated, that were not constructive for my life. One of the stories I share in my book, What Drives You, is that of Lori Harder. Lori was raised in a very strict, religious family. She cites they were very sedentary and...

Failure is a popular topic in the self-improvement world, but I feel it's generally addressed like a motivational talk. Don't let failure get you down. It's part of life. It's not failing, it's trying. Which is why I was interested when I heard about Manu Kapur (Man-oo kapoor) work on failure, who is a professor at the same university where Einstein attended and then taught. Manu studies learning...

I don’t normally gravitate towards people with the huge followings and big brand personalities. But I also like a good, down to earth story of personal evolution, and this is one I’m bringing back. A few years ago I got to have a long conversation with Chalene Johnson. We recorded a couple of shows and talked for hours longer about our sordid fitness and athletic journeys. Chalene literally holds...

I’m thinking of a movie, Stranger Than Fiction. It came out in 2006 starring Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah. In it, Will Ferrell plays a mentally unstable IRS auditor who starts hearing an author's voice in his head and as she writes this fictional story, he is the main character and the events literally happen in his life. So he hears her speak of events, such as s...

We all think we know what self-talk is. But I think we miss the gravity of it. I’m reminded of the joke where one fish asks another fish "how's the water?" The other fish replies, "what the heck is water?" We were never introduced to our own self-talk, it was there since the day we were conceived to varying degrees. We are not necessarily conscious of it. In this episode we expand on self-talk to...

Mentors. Chances are slim you have someone who really fills the role. These days people will tend to cite their favorite authors and philosophers and influences as their mentors. And to that degree, I’d say that almost everyone in my life “mentors” me, as I learn from everyone. But I really define a mentor as someone who literally knows you and is invested in helping guide you. We used to have thi...

We all understand what alignment is in regards to our car. It’s pulling one way or the other, the steering wheel is crooked when we drive straight. Over time it wears our tires out incorrectly, and if you’ve ever had an old, beat up car like I have, you are literally pulling it one way the entire time you drive. I find our lives are often this way in some areas. We are not in alignment. But we, an...

I grew up in the Christian church amongst celebrated Bible verses, such as, “Ask and ye shall receive,” “Knock and the door will be open to you,” and “Seek, and ye shall find.” These concepts and requests were to be aimed at God. Today we hear a lot about manifesting. This often gets friction from the religious crowd as it feels like credit is given to the individual and not God. In this episode t...

We often hear about morning routines and the best time for certain activities. What I mostly hear however, are people’s experiences of what works best for them, and while I’m appreciative they’ve found what works for them, I’m cautious to take anything and say it’s what everyone should do. I am interested in what research actually says though. Dan Pink is one of the most prolific researchers I kno...

In the last episode I talked with Dr Adam Dorsay about the four types of connection we want and need as humans. I hope you listened and got benefit. I’ll list them out in this short episode. But here I want to draw attention to the real type of connection we are talking about, and most of us…missing. If we don’t understand, we’ll miss the concept entirely. Imagine one person asking another if they...

Dr. Adam Dorsay is a licensed psychologist and an executive coach in Silicon Valley where he serves people who have achieved all the big trophies of the world; money, status, possessions, power, and some of them, fame. And yet they are coming to him for help. Why? After all these years, he’s written a book to culminate the primary problem he sees. Lack of true connection. We are all out there tryi...

You may well know of Nick Vujicic (voo-uh-chich), a famous personality with no arms and no legs. He has an incredible message which you’re about to hear. I’m bringing this episode back because of something Tom Ziglar, who was with me when I talked with Nick, said at a later date as we were discussing confidence. He referenced Nick, saying here is a guy with no arms or legs. He is the most physical...

I want to talk through looking at probable threads for looking at some of your propensities. I’ve long been interested, and critical, of personality profiles. How much can I know who I truly am, in regards to how I’ve been programmed, even genetically? I’ve continued to try and understand myself in relation to my nature, and my nurture. Which I used to only relate to my conscious existence, but ha...

That statement I would have not uttered in my past. I don’t align with blaming, accusing, making excuses, and giving any power to anyone but myself. But, I’m changing my tune, thanks to my guest today. If someone runs a red light and smashes into my car, breaking my leg, I am ok to blame them for my broken leg. And admitting I now have a broken leg and can’t go run the next day. It would be dumb t...

As a culture, especially amongst aspiring people, we look at willpower like it’s a tool. Like a hammer. It’s late in the evening, you have a hankering for a snack, so just go get your hammer. Willpower. And smack that desire down. But how often can we not seem to find the hammer when we need it most? There is a reason. Your willpower is not a hammer. It’s more like your phone and all day the batte...

My most recent show was with heavy metal front man, Randy Blythe, who started his music career in the punk rock movement, rebelling against the system. In his new book,  Just Beyond the Light: Making Peace with the Wars Inside Our Head, he talks candidly and humbly about how he now regrets his polarized positions, and today questions his positions rigorously, with a lot more grace for all sides. I...