Embracing Self-Compassion for Growth

My guest this week is Brent Franson, an entrepreneur and founder and CEO of a company called Most Days. I met Brent a while back when he had me on his podcast. I really wanted to talk with him after I listened to an episode of his podcast where he described the things that led him to the work he does now, which is focused on helping people make positive changes in their lives. Brent talked about his history of addiction and what helped him overcome it. We talked about self-compassion, which is built into the Most Days approach, and the limits of self-improvement.

Topics we got into included:

• The events that led to Brent’s interest in and motivation for positive behavior change
• Brent’s history of addiction
• The destructive dynamics of addiction
• My guest’s experience in rehab
• Honest with oneself as an essential starting place for change
• The importance of self-compassion
• Balancing self-compassion with structure and discipline
• The important difference between self-criticism and self-critique
• The limits of self-improvement
• Allowing yourself to have some off-days
• The influence of meditation and mindfulness on my guest’s life and work
• Learning about one’s “inner talk track”
• Focusing on consistency before intensity when building new habits

Check out the Most Days Show and the Most Days app, and contact Brent here.

You can hear Brent tell his story on his podcast: Part 1: The Story of Most Days and Part 2: The Importance of Big Decisions.

Brent Franson is the founder and CEO of Most Days. A serial entrepreneur, Brent’s interest in entrepreneurial endeavors began in high school when he founded a full-service search technology marketing agency.

After moving to Palo Alto in 2005, Brent was on the founding team of Reputation.com, the worldwide leader in online reputation management. Reputation.com was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and was backed by Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer Venture Partners, and August Capital.

Most recently, Brent was the CEO of Euclid Analytics, a leader in retail data and analytics backed by Benchmark Capital, NEA, Harrison Metal, and Groupe Arnault. Under his leadership, Euclid was acquired by WeWork in 2019. Brent has been named a LinkedIn Top Voice, and has regularly contributed to Forbes, LinkedIn, Inc, Entrepreneur, and other publications.

Brent is a father, and an athlete who enjoys his routine, reading, running, skiing, skydiving, and anything that involves pushing his own boundaries.