What's the value?

It's amazing the types of conversations you can have when both people go in with a strong foundation of humility, curiosity, and thoughtfulness. There is such an opportunity to explore each other's beliefs, question our assumptions, examine interesting aspects of life, in honest and open ways. I say it all the time, because it is true--this is where the learning happens. This is where I uncover in...

This episode feels fitting coming off of the Christmas holiday, since my guest Johnathan and I spent a good bit of the episode talking about Jesus Christ. Johnathan was a triple major in college in Philosophy, History and Political Science and currently hosts his own podcast, "The Truth Of The Matter Is" (https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1575310563 - focused on providing an honest, contextual,...

This was a fun conversation with my guest Flobo. As you will hear right out of the gate, Flobo is high energy and an entertainer. He is a professional comedian, an esports commentator/caster, a DJ, he runs his own podcast network, and he’s personal branding thought leader. He stated “time management” as his number one value but as we worked through the conversation it became apparent that creating...

It is not a mistake or a typo that the title of this show has a "blank" for the value selected. And that is also not a knock on my guest, Alex, suggesting he was indecisive or unable to commit to one value. As we discussed during the show, leaving the value blank was the most honest thing I could put after the conversation we had. Anything else would have felt forced or contrived. To back up for a...

Paul stated "Catholicism" as his most important value and to be honest that threw me for a loop at first. It seemed like such a specific thing to pick as a value, that I wondered if he understood the point of my question. His thoughtful approach and explanation quickly allayed those concerns but I then assumed this would be a very closed minded discussion. This might be one of those where it even...

In 2018, Jason found out his wife had stage 4 colon cancer. They had two young kids and thought they were doing all the right things in life, so they couldn't understand how this could happen to them. After 9 months of doctor's appointments and treatments Jason found himself at his wife's funeral trying to figure out where to go next. Maybe the key phrase from all of this, that highlights the them...

I knew I was going to like talking to my guest, Barbara, because she is super passionate about history (as am I). But I was not sure what direction the conversation would go and what aspects of history we would discuss. Given her background (she is an author, educator, historian, and parent) we ended up spending a good bit of time talking about education, while using history as the framing. For Ba...

There are some people who are just natural observers in life. We never really know why-- maybe genetics, maybe their environment, maybe a spiritual purpose? But what we do know is that they are able to see our world in a unique way. My guest Austin fits directly in this category for me. He grew up around dogs and probably started to hone his skills by trying to understand their behavior. He eventu...

“Real joy happens in a broken world.” What a phrase. It taps into the more Buddhist view of joy, which is much less binary than how I typically think of it. It is in that vein that my guest, Ciahnan (PhD and author), stated “joy” as his most important value. He explained this version of joy as something that allows you to see through the darkness, fear, and tension to truly understand yourself and...

My guest today, Adelia (links to her work and podcast here- https://www.itsdeelz.com/), chose "authenticity" as her most important value. Some people might be thinking, "ehh I'll skip this one because I've seen authenticity come up a lot already." Firstly, I think that might be a bad idea because everyone's perspective is unique and there is something to learn from them. But even more so in this c...

Truth and certainty. These two words come up time and time again in my conversations. It's not that I intentionally find ways to bring them into the discussion, it is more a testament to how fundamental they are to forming any belief or value system. We need some objective grounding that we can rely on to develop an approach for life. But therein lies the problem. What is this truth we speak of? H...

I'm not sure what the take-away of this is, but these are hard conversations. Maybe hard isn't the right word, maybe it is scary. I know fear is the root of a lot of our problems, but I also know sometimes fear is functional. When it comes to a conversation like this, with my guest Lori, I am not sure if the fear is functional or not. Lori is director of Include LGBTQ Empowered Life Coaching and C...

When Tamara and I first connected and I heard about her podcast "The Recovering Liberal", I thought this should make for a juicy conversation. There is a part of me that loves talking to people with really strong views, to see if we can find some common ground even though we see the world so differently. I also enjoy the "intellectual sparring" part of it, that usually comes with those types of em...

I often have a debate (sometimes with myself, sometimes with other people) if habits are a good thing for us or not. The conventional wisdom is that they are, that is why we see so many books and such covering the topic. The idea being that there are strategies, approaches, tips, and/or tricks we can use to build habits so that we can do the things we wish we would want to do. That is where it get...

I honestly don't know if anyone will ever value and enjoy these types of conversations as much as I do. Maybe all the questioning, probing, and philosophical thinking is not useful and I am part of a very small minority of people who see any merit in it. But for me, this was a truly beautiful conversation that embodies exactly why I do this show. My guest, Deborah, and I spent 25-30 minutes during...

Ginny is a certified Somatic Life Coach who is focused on helping people address the root cause of behaviors that hold them back. It is not about teaching people how to cope, it is about teaching people how to fix their issues. Ginny explains her work as complete self forgiveness, taking ownership over your perspective, rewiring your nervous system, getting comfortable with the unknown, healing se...

Steven is a co-author (with his dad) of the book "Milestone to Manhood: A Christian Rite of Passage to Help Your 13-Year-Old Son Make the Leap from Boyhood to Manhood." In the book he shares his firsthand experience of his "Rite of Passage" weekend, how it shaped him into the man that he is today, and the tools needed to organize a Rite of Passage for your own son. There was so much in this I foun...

Amanda is an author (Divine. Messy. Human. A Spiritual Guide to Prioritising Internal Truth over External Influence), Kinesiologist, Mentor, Archetypal Life Coach, Mother and more. She describes herself as a recovering people-pleaser and self-flagellator, who walks the path straddling the Divine and Messy daily. Amanda stated "self mastery" as her most important value because she views always grow...

Peace. What a concept. There is so much to unpack in that word. When I hear it I get a visceral reaction to it. It's as if my mind and body are deeply conditioned to appreciate it. I don't know how to explain it other than it feels good. It feels like where we are meant to be. Yet for so many of us, it also feels like something so elusive. We spend so much of our lives searching, fighting, and yea...

Richard is a licensed psychologist, author (The Zero Method), and podcast host (Richard Listens), who spent time working with community leaders and the Los Angeles Police Department on Skid Row to save hundreds of lives on the brink of suicide. He now works with men, women, athletes, teens, and trauma victims in his private practice. Through all of these experiences, Richard has identified connect...

Chancellor is an author ("'14 Days in Beijing', an unforgettable tale of my experience being locked up abroad in China"), an educator, coach, and former collegiate football player. He is a believer that teaching people to think critically is necessary for their growth and allowing them to achieve their purpose in life. No where is it more important to think critically than about yourself. Chancell...

Hami is a husband, father, CEO/founder, & best selling author. He started his company 6AMRun.com to improve the physical abilities of his members by helping them have motion and stay in motion. They've created a really supportive community that helps drive that mission and helps their members be their best selves. As you might imagine, "physical fitness" is pretty important to Hami and is ulti...

Tyler is an accomplished film and stage performer and has appeared in productions including Freddy Vs Jason, Door to Door, Carrie, and the musical Ragtime. One if his biggest passions is helping others confidently take the stage and impact an audience with their stories, which he talks about in his best-selling book "The Power to Speak Naked." As I looked into Tyler and learned more about him from...

Reverend Celeste is an ordained Religious Science minister, an author of books ("Divine Work Play" and “In Spirit, In Love”), articles, and screenplays, a podcast host, and a speaker. Celeste started the episode by stating Love as her most important value. I write it as big "L" Love because her definition of love is kind of all encompassing. It is God, our spirit, our life force, our joy, our moti...

My guest, Michelle, caught my attention right away with her bio/description: "I build high-value men who get what they want. I coach men to achieve their goals by helping them gain greater self-awareness."  I found myself wondering, what is a high value man? How do you coach men to build self-awareness? Why is Michelle focused on only coaching men? And why is she so confident she knows how to...