Run Your Life Show With Andy Vasily

Send us a textThis week’s conversation is with Todd Herman, best-selling author, performance coach, and world-renowned speaker. Todd is best known for the work he does coaching top-level people in sport, business, and entertainment. He believes deeply in being a practitioner, so he can create programs, systems, and tools for others, that are proven, practical and precise. He has logged more than 19000 hours working 1-1 with many of the world’s elite in their field. In our conversation, we unpack the main ideas and themes found in his best-selling book The Alter Ego Effect: How Secret Identities Can Transform Your Life. As well, we take a deep dive into the work he has devoted himself to in the field of performance coaching since he first started up his business in 1997. Todd challenges us all to think differently about what is possible in our lives when we break free from self-imposed limitations, imposter syndrome and we get out of our own way by taking action on the things we genuinely want in life. Connect with ToddWebsite: https://toddherman.me/Twitter: https://twitter.com/todd_hermanYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/toddherman1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/todd_herman/You can purchase Todd’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Alter-Ego-Effect-Identities-Transform/dp/0062838636

Send us a textIn this episode, Brittany joins me to discuss her book Next Chance You: Tools, Tips, and Tough Love for Bringing Your A-Game to Life. As well, we speak about her role in the popular Netflix series Last Chance U and the work she did helping more than 200 student-athletes academically quality for nationally respected NCAA division 1 schools.  In today's chat, we unpack the themes of resilience, self-belief, overcoming trauma, and finding purpose in life. It was a honor to have Brittany on the show to speak about her amazing work. Brittany's Bio:Brittany Wagner is a nationally respected athletic academic counselor and motivational speaker best known for her role as the breakout star of the hit Netflix documentary series, Last Chance U. Recognized for her compassion, encouragement, and no-nonsense attitude, Brittany guided many young men to academic/professional success despite run-ins with the law, extreme poverty, abandonment, and often a complete lack of academic preparedness. She has helped over 200 football players academically qualify for nationally respected NCAA Division I schools, and all of the students Brittany advised who are currently playing in the NFL, also hold college degrees. Brittany’s inadvertent stardom led to feature interviews with ABC’s Nightline, The Dan Patrick Show, GQ, The New York Times, The LA Times and Sports Illustrated — to name a few.For the past 4 years, Brittany has traveled all over the country as a motivational speaker. In the fall of 2017, she launched her own company, Ten Thousand Pencils (10KP). Through 10KP, she is able to aid at-risk youth by working individually with high school and college-level administrators, counselors, and teachers to help them build relationships with these students and better support their emotional, social, and academic needs. Brittany’s first book: Next Chance You: Tools, Tips and Tough Love for Bringing Your A-Game to Life is available for pre-orders now and will be published on September 7th of this year. A new, scripted television series based on Brittany’s personal and professional life is in the making! Actress Courteney Cox will be portraying Ms. Wagner in this series. Michael Strahan is also an executive producer on the project. Lastly, she is an adjunct professor in the College of Business at The University of Montevallo and is a boxing coach at Battle Republic. Brittany earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Sports Communication and Administration from Mississippi State University, and currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama with her daughter, Kennedy. Connect With Brittany: WebsiteTwitterYou can find her book Next Chance You: Tools, Tips, and Tough Love for Bringing Your A-Game to Life hereSpecial Credit to: Opening Marching Band SongGood Morning America InterviewPodcast Intro #1

Send us a textThis episode is devoted to exploring how self-imposed limitations can hold us back from performing at our very best. The science is clear on the impact that a negative mindset, fear, doubt and uncertainty can have on human potential. The story of the broken piano is a beautiful metaphor for breaking through self-imposed limitations in order to achieve great things in life. We'll unpack the broken piano story in hopes of challenging each listener to think more deeply about their own life and the self-imposed limitations that they oftentimes place on themselves. We'll look at how we can break through those limitations in order to live a more fulfilled and purposeful life and do our best work possible. Thanks for listening and for sharing with anyone who you feel will benefit from listening. Credits: Full credit to following Keith Jarret performing Bach pieceKeith Jarret and Miles Davis performanceThe out of tune piano pieceKeith Jarret's opening wordsKeith' Cologne concert pieceJanine Shepherd speechJanine Shepherd website

Send us a textIn this episode, I discuss what cognitive reframing means and how it can be applied in our own lives. As well, I share several other strategies and resources to help support and strengthen mental health and well-being. I take a deep dive into Dr. Martin Seligman's work related to positive psychology, Dr. Jim Loehr's research into the power of story-telling and personal narrative, Brene Brown's work related to vulnerability and connection, and finally the powerful role that physical activity can have in our lives. Hope you find some valuable takeaway from my solo podcast today and share with anyone who you feel would benefit from listening. Thanks! Resources mentioned in this episode:Dr. Jim Loehr's work: Latest book: Leading with CharacterJim's website: https://www.jim-loehr.com/Brene Brown's work: Brene's website: https://brenebrown.com/Brene's podcast: https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/unlocking-us/John Kabat-Zinn's work:Website: https://www.mindfulnesscds.com/Dr. Martin Seligman's work: Website: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/people/martin-ep-seligmanLatest Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Flourish-Visionary-Understanding-Happiness-Well-being/dp/1439190763

Send us a textMy guest, Dagur Sigurðsson, and I have known each other for almost 20 years. It was great to reunite with Dagur and bring him on my show to talk about his amazing journey in professional sport and playing/coaching the game at the Olympic level. Dagur  represented his country of Iceland in the Summer Olympics held in Greece in 2004 and over the years developed himself into a world renowned coach in the sport. He spent time in Austria before going on to coach professionally in Germany and lead the German men’s national handball team in the world championships and the Olympics. Dagur has a distinct coaching style that sets him apart from others and as you listen to this episode, you will learn about what he believe is most important in leading and coaching others and how he strives to deeply connect with those around him in order the lift them up and push them to be their best. As a family man, he is deeply committed to his loved ones and as a coach/mentor to his athletes, he is equally committed to helping them strive for excellence and through his leadership, he believes that context is everything and that a leader must deeply understand the context of the organization in order to put leadership moves into action that spark continued growth and progress. Dagur is on a mission as the Japanese men's Olympic handball coach and recently had the opportunity to lead his team in the Tokyo Olympics. He has signed on through the Paris 2024 Olympics and everything he is now doing is helping to plant the seeds for slow and continuous growth over time in order to put his athletes in the best position possible for competition. As well, he is deeply committed to spreading a love of the game of handball in Japan. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.  More About DagurRead here: https://www.handball-planet.com/dagur-sigurdsson-leads-japan-until-paris-2024/

Send us a textMy guest today, Rudy Ruettiger, exemplifies what it means to have the deep resilience and persistence needed to make a dream come true. For those who are not familiar with Rudy Ruettiger, his life story was made into a major motion Hollywood sports film in 1993 and to this day, nearly 30 years later, still stands as one of the most inspiring sports movies out there. In fact, in the words of the late, great Kobe Bryant: “If Rudy could accomplish what he did without being blessed with the physical talent to play football at that level, what could I accomplish if I worked as hard as he did? After watching that movie, I decided that I would always work as if I'm the last man on the team that had everything to prove.”Kobe describes Rudy as being the one person who's had the biggest influence on his life and he literally broke down in tears the day he met Rudy in person letting him know what a difference he made in his life and career. As well, 4 US presidents were so moved by the movie that they wrote hand written letters to Rudy himself. The 4 presidents were both Bushes, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama. Rudy Ruettiger was an undersized walk on who earned a spot for two years on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team in the 1974 and 1975 seasons. Although he did not dress for games, he was given the opportunity to put on the uniform and dress in the last home game of his senior year in 1975 and got in the game in the the closing minute to record his first ever tackle in the final moments of the game. The final scene of this movie is a moving tribute to who Rudy was and why he was so loved.His story, however, is about so much more than football which is why Hollywood and Notre Dame deeply supported the making of this movie.  Full disclosure here, as a college football player myself back in Canada in the 1990s, I was an undersized player who had to work very myself to have a chance to be starting quarterback and punter for my university team. The movie Rudy was a great inspiration to me at the time and taught me that I needed to push myself even harder to be the best I could be with the talent I possessed.In our episode today, Rudy and I talk about what it was like for him growing up in the family of 14 brothers and sisters, the loss of his best friend which ultimately sparked his desire to quit his job and move to South Bend Indiana to make the Notre Dame dream happen, and we also talk about his spirituality and the desire he has to make a difference in the world by sharing his story. We also chat about Hollywood actor Sean Astin who played his character in the movie and how he and Sean collaborated in order for Sean to do the very best he could in the role of Rudy in the movie. I was super excited to record this podcast with Rudy, but due to technical difficulties and a poor internet connection, there were a number of glitches that prevented us from recording the entire interview. After editing, I managed to capture only 17 minutes of our 40 minute conversation but there are still some gems in there. Connect with Rudy:Website: https://www.rudyruettiger.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudy-ruettiger-76b46458/Rudy's Documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6824050/Rudy's Movie: https://www.netflix.com/title/60002332

Send us a textMy guest today epitomizes what it means to follow a dream and to completely transform oneself into an olympic champion. Andrea Proske joins me for a discussion about her amazing life journey. At 27 years old, Andrea had very limited experience with team sport and although an active person by nature, she had never pursued excellence in her life through sport, let alone had never rowed in her life. At 27, She was working in the hotel industry at the time and had the opportunity to compete in her first Tough Mudder race. After this race, she became inspired to change her life and to find something new and challenging to tackle. As she says in this episode, she felt stuck in her life, not sure what to do. She wasn’t sure what this new challenge was going to be, but would go on to give rowing a try and what a story this turned out to be as 3 short years later she earned herself a spot on the Canadian Women’s National Rowing Team. In our conversation today, we unpack the roles of resilience and determination in Andrea’s life and how she was able to overcome numerous obstacles throughout the 8 years that she took up the sport of rowing, including a serious accident in 2015. In Andrea’s own words, Failing forward quickly became her motto…. she braved injuries, underperformance, the firing of an abusive head coach, falling out of the boat more times than she cares to admit,  a global pandemic and a historic Olympic postponement. But along the way she learned valuable lessons on handling failure, burnout, uncertainty… and the power of sisterhood.On Friday, July 30th, Andre Proske’s dreams came true as her and her team of 9 won Canada’s first gold medal in rowing in nearly 20 years. In this episode, Andrea talks about the Tokyo Olympics and what life has been like since winning gold. She also shares the work she is doing now and what her biggest hopes are in moving forward in her life. Wherever you are in the world listening to this, I hope you find value in this discussion as there is so much that we can learn from Andrea’s journey. About Andrea: In her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Andrea Proshe was a member of the women’s eight that won gold. It was Canada’s first Olympic gold in any women’s rowing event since Atlanta 1996 and the first gold in the women’s eight since Barcelona 1992.As a club rower looking to break onto the national team in 2016, Proske attended her first international regattas in Amsterdam (Holland Beker) and London (Henley Royal Regatta). The highlight was winning the senior women’s single sculls at the Henley and by the end of the year she was received her invitation to the national team.She first represented Canada on the senior international circuit in the double sculls with Gabrielle Smith in 2018. In their World Cup debut as a duo, they won silver in Lucerne. Later that summer, they finished sixth at the World Rowing Championships. They won another World Cup medal in 2019, this time a bronze in Rotterdam. They capped the season with a fourth-place finish in the double sculls at the world championships, qualifying the boat for Canada for Tokyo 2020.Connect With Andrea: Website: https://andreaproske.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndreaProskeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreaproske/

Send us a textOn the show today, Dr. Gervais, joins us to take a deep dive into who he is and the work he does. We will explore the themes of personal excellence, vulnerability, self-awareness and pursuing mastery of things that matter most. Dr. Gervais feels fortunate to have worked with some of the most talented people across the globe helping to unpack the guiding principles that they have put into action in their life, with consistency, to have the profound impact that they have through their craft. Michael has done over 300 podcast interviews, as well has worked in the field of high performance psychology for more than two decades. His podcasts are deep, rich and full of wisdom/insight and he not only learns from some of the best in these interviews, he also challenges them, in the healthiest ways possible, to reflect deeply on their own life and oftentimes many of his guests walk away from these conversations with deeper wisdom about themselves. He has changed countless lives through the life lessons he shares not only on his podcast but also through his amazing online course Finding Your Best that he co-designed with his business partner and close friend Pete Carroll head coach of Seattle Seahawks. About MichaelAs a sport/performance psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais is one of the world’s leading experts on the relationship between the mind and elite performance. Over the course of a 20-year career working with world class performers and organizations, Dr. Gervais has developed a  framework for the mental skills and practices that allow athletes to thrive in pressure-packed environments. Gervais’ influence can be felt across many touchpoints of popular culture.  His clients include the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, world record holders, Olympians, MVPs from every major sport, internationally acclaimed music artists, and Fortune 50 CEOs.Gervais has worked across  three summer Olympic Games (Tokyo, Rio, London) and two winter Olympic Games. He has served as the Olympic high-performance psychologist for USA Beach Volleyball,  USA Beach Volleyball, USA Women’s Indoor Volleyball, and, most recently, USA Surfing in Tokyo.  Dr. Gervais is the host of the popular Finding Mastery podcast that explores the psychology of the world’s most extraordinary thinkers and doers. In 2020, Gervais wrote an Audible Original, Compete to Create: An Approach to Living and Leading Authentically, with NFL coach Pete Carroll. He also created a six-week online course to bring the principles and practices of high performance mindset training into businesses and homes. A published, peer-reviewed author and nationally recognized speaker on optimal human performance,  Dr. Gervais has been featured in premier media outlets including NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, ESPN, NFL Network, Red Bull TV, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Outside Magazine, WIRED, Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine.Connect with MichaelWebsite: https://findingmastery.net/Finding Your Best Course: https://competetocreate.net/findingmastery/Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelgervaisinstagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelgervais/Michael's Audiobook: https://www.audible.com/pd/Compete-to-Create-Audiobook/B088ZQ4L1NSpecial thanks to Bronx band Conversing with Oceans for the podcast musichttps://ww

Send us a textWhen Tania Lattanzio reflects back on early days in her life, she has great appreciation for growing up in a bi-cultural family as it helped her develop a deep curiosity of culture and travel from a young age. This love of travel would help open the doors of possibility for Tania and provide her with many wonderful experiences that allowed her to see the world and learn more deeply about people and culture. Tania knew early on that she wanted to be an educator and, after university,  was willing to take the risk to leave Australia to find one of her first teaching jobs in London, England. It was this experience that opened many doors for Tania and as she continued on her path in education, she began to develop a deep appreciation and passion for teaching and for creating classroom environments that inspired young people to take more control of their own learning journeys.Tania’s path in education would continue to evolve for her in many different ways ultimately leading her to take on a position working for the ASIA PACIFIC IB OFFICE as a professional development trainer and It was through this experience that Tania was able to further develop her craft and lead many workshops for teachers around the world. She loved being able to visit schools, meet different educators, and help them to develop their own teaching practice. Tania moved on from the IB and launched her own consulting agency and is now Director of Innovative Global Education. In this role she works as an educational consultant throughout the world helping to develop and conduct professional learning for teachers and leadership, modelling pedagogy in classrooms and working intensively with teaching teams, through mentoring and coaching, to improve planning, teaching and assessment.As you listen to this conversation today, you will hear the passion that Tania has for the work that she does. She shares deep insight in this episode and it is my hope that any educator and educational leader will have take away value that they can apply in the work that they do. I want to thank Tania for taking the time to be on the podcast and for being willing to share her story and the work that she does. And with that, let’s jump right into this discussion with Tania Lattanzio. About TaniaTania Lattanzio is an experienced international educator. Previously a teacher, coordinator, and manager with the International Baccalaureate, she is now Director of Innovative Global Education. In this role she works as an educational consultant throughout the world.This role involves developing and conducting professional learning for teachers and leadership, modelling pedagogy in classrooms and working intensively with teaching teams, through mentoring and coaching, to improve planning, teaching and assessment.A key focus of Tania's work is developing and designing conceptual curriculum for schools, this work involves conceptualising curriculum across subject areas and year levels. This also involves equipping teachers with ideas and strategies to ensure that the learning has a conceptual focus.An advocate of inquiry, she works with educators to provide students with an education that is purposeful, meaningful and relevant to their lives, where students have opportunities to be motivated and have agency of their learning.A passionate educator Tania works closely with educational settings to specifically meet their needs through supporting school reform, making significant shifts in pedagogy and developing conceptual curriculum frameworks in both local and international settings. Tania has worked with schools and teachers from early childhood through to high school.Connect with TaniaWebsite: https://www.innovativeglobaled.org/Twitter:

Send us a textIn this episode, Jacqui  Weatherly, also known as the Tai Chi Lady, shares what early days were like for her growing up in a small rural community outside of Adelaide, Australia. Her father, a former physical education and dance teacher was a mentor to Jacqui and exposed her to multiple different forms of outdoor activities such as rock climbing, hiking and other pursuits. This allowed Jacqui to easily be able to tackle difficult physical challenges in her life from a young age. In her last couple of years of high school, Jacqui transferred schools and went to live with her grandparents in the city. She talks about this being a very difficult transition for her as she went from living in a very small town where she knew everyone to moving to a big city and attending a high school where she did not know anyone at all. Despite the difficulty, Jacqui learned a lot about herself through this experience. Jacqui would go on to pursue a career as a physical education teacher internationally and settle in Nanjing, China for 7 years at the Nanjing International School as head of the physical education department. As you listen to this episode you will hear Jacqui describe some of the mental challenges that she went through over the years and how these challenges truly sparked within her a desire to look within and to seek a major change in her life in order to find more fulfillment and to better understand herself. As well, you will hear the framework that Jacqui applies to combat fear and doubt in her life. She describes tackling fear in her life in a way that allows her to not be controlled by it and to embrace it so that she can constantly grow and learn in meaningful ways in her life. Jacqui speaks openly and candidly about the impact that anxiety has had on her and takes us through how her journey of TAI CHI has genuinely helped to physically and mentally transform her life. What was initially meant to be a year off studying CHEN Tai Chi in rural China has turned into a 6 year journey of pursuing mastery of her craft. Jacqui shares many life lessons learned through TAI CHI and also shares insight into how any teacher, whether they be a classroom teacher or physical education teacher can begin to apply basic elements of TAI Chi with their students. About Jacqui WeatherlyJacqui was born and raised in Australia. After finishing school, she completed a Bachelor of Education Degree in Secondary Physical Education. She taught Physical Education and Health for 17 years in Australia, the USA and China. She resigned from her job as the Head of the PE Department at Nanjing International School in June 2016 after 7 years, to follow her passion to study martial arts. She studied Chen Style Tai Chi full time for a total of 2.5 years at the Traditional Tai Chi School in Yangshuo, China.Jacqui begun competing in Tai Chi competitions in September 2017 and has won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in both taijiquan and taiji weapons events in China, Hong Kong and Australia over the past 5 years.She was an intern teacher for beginners at the Yangshuo Traditional Tai Chi School in 2017/2018. This allowed her to deepen her knowledge, understanding and application of Tai Chi to effectively pass on the culture, skills and theory to other students.Jacqui now lives in Brisbane and is currently working on her own school, "Qi, Myself & Tai Chi", where she hopes to continue teaching Tai Chi to help improve the health and overall wellbeing of herself and others, whilst also passing on the ancient traditions and art of Tai Chi.Connect With Jacqui:Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/tai_chi_lady/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ta