Good Life Project

Aleksandra Scepanovic was born into a nation soon to be at war.Growing up in then Yugoslavia, she found herself entering adulthood in the middle of the Bosnian war. While she lived in the relative safety of Belgrade (at least in the early part of the war), she left to head into the heat of the war zone, on a quest to discover not just the highly-filtered stories being reported by a state-controlled media, but the truth on-the-ground.Scepanovic joined local media efforts, became a reporter, then editor and analyst, where she spent years documenting and sharing what happened as her country divided itself, became decimated from violence, leaving so many lives destroyed and entire areas riddled with broken “Swiss cheese-like” buildings. The experience left her not only longing for truth, justice and peace, but also with a belief in architecture as a symbol of perseverance and the human need to rebuild and move on.Aleksandra eventually made her way to New York, where she discovered a love of design and pursued a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. That program awakened her inner eye for detail, and also invigorated her passion for architecture and interiors. Blending the experience of seeing a brutal war destroy so many homes with her renewed passion to help people find and create beautiful homes, she co-founded Ideal Properties Group (https://ipg.nyc/), which has now grown into a leading residential real estate firm in New York's Brooklyn neighborhoods.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 38, Suzy Batiz (https://suzybatiz.com/) was depressed and struggling through her second bankruptcy. A handful of years later, she'd built a $400-million company around bathroom odor, with zero-debt.But, the journey was anything but traditional. Standing in the eye of the storm, Suzy experienced what she calls "the surprising luxury of losing everything." She'd lived through poverty, sexual and domestic abuse, depression, multiple bankruptcies and a suicide attempt. Seeking deeper answers, she decided to try something completely different. She turned to a therapeutic ceremony with plant-based medicine, Ayahuasca in particular, as a path to processing and letting go of her past and awakening her sense of possibility and freedom.While not fun, in fact, she describes the early ceremonies as largely horrific, Suzy began to experience shifts, lightness and freedom she'd been seeking for years. Along the way, a deceptively-simple idea for a new venture dropped. Surprisingly, it was about blending her love of essential oils with entrepreneurship and a simple, near-universal need. This led to the creation of the Poo~Pourri (https://www.poopourri.com/) bathroom spray, along with a massively-viral ad campaign and a company that she's now grown into a behemoth with no debt and complete control.As we sat down to record this conversation, Suzy was in the process of shifting gears, devoting a portion of her energies toward the launch of a new conscious, plant-based cleaning products venture called Supernatural (https://supernatural.com/). And, along with that, she's become deeply-focused on teaching entrepreneurs the feminine approach to business—how to tune into intuition, turn on your body intelligence and dive into creative energy to achieve a naturally abundant flow state she calls resonance.--------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if there was a pill that would give you instant access to your greatest potential every time you needed it most?What if that pill was free, had zero side-effects and worked in nearly every domain of life. Especially the ones where so many struggle, from public-speaking and socializing to high-stakes decision-making, sports and nearly any other endeavor where being at your best mattered? And, what if you had an endless supply in your pocket, 24-7, for the rest of your life?According to this week's guest, founder and elite-performance advisor, Todd Herman, there is. But, it's not a pill. It's something you do, a peak performance power-tool he's taught his clients for decades, from Olympic and pro athletes to CEOs, founders and performers. It's what he calls the "Alter Ego Effect," and it's all about tapping the power of secret-identifies, creating and stepping into them to change not only the way your brains works, but also the way your body performs in an instant.Todd shares the entire Alter Ego methodology, along with the science behind it and a wide-array of case-studies in his new book, The Alter Ego Effect (https://amzn.to/2RECL1n). In this week's conversation, we explore what shuts so many of us down when we most need to be at our best, how Todd came to understand and then develop the power of alter egos, and how we can tap their power in work, play and life.For a deeper-dive into Todd's "origin story," check out our 2016 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/todd-herman/)----------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 18 years old, Maggie Doyne, decided to take a gap year that turned into her life’s work.Traveling to India and then Nepal, she felt called to make a difference in Nepali children’s lives. So, she took her life’s savings, then $5,000, moved to Nepal, bought property there and co-founded the BlinkNow foundation (https://blinknow.org/pages/our-history) along with a Nepali friend, Top Bahadur Malla. Their vision, to provide kids with a safe home, medical care, an education and love, so they will grow up to be adults with a social conscience and the skills to continue the mission of ending the cycles of poverty and violence in the world.Working hand-in-hand with Top, and a team that is 90% Nepali, they built a children’s home, where Maggie and a team of caregivers, cooks, “aunties and uncles” take care of their family of more than 50 kids. They then built a school, staffed by an all-Nepali faculty that serves more than 350 kids, along with a health clinic and women’s center for the Kopila Valley area in Nepal. Maggie received the 2015 CNN Hero Award and her work has been recognized by the Dalai Lama for her work.In today’s conversation, we explore Maggie’s decision to take a gap year that turned into a life she never imagined living, what drew her to Nepal and the moment that awakened her to a deeper calling. We also explore the challenges along the way, the importance of working in close collaboration with the community. We also talk about a moment of profound loss that incapacitated her for months, how that experience changed her and shifted the direction of her life.It’s also important to note that, while this conversation is largely about Maggie’s personal story, and the life and contributions she’s made in Nepal, Maggie is also very clear that, from the beginning, everything has always been a collaborative effort, working hand-in-hand with her Nepali co-founder and their local team on the ground playing a huge role in every aspect of what’s been built.---------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased (https://amzn.to/2CioQ7k), now also a major motion picture (http://www.focusfeatures.com/boy-erased).Growing up in a small town, immersed in a faith-based community, Conley survived conversion therapy before becoming a writer, activist and speaker (http://garrardconley.com/). He lectures at schools and venues across the country on radical compassion, writing through trauma, and growing up gay in the complicated South. He works with other activists to help end conversion therapy in the United States and abroad. He is also a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Ukraine as an ESL instructor and HIV/AIDS educator.Conley's writing can be found in The New York Times, TIME, VICE, CNN, BuzzFeed, Them, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Huffington Post, among other places, and he is currently at work on a novel about queer 18th century lives.In today's conversation, we explore Garrard's personal journey, his career as a writer and advocate, and how it feels having your story told in a major motion picture featuring Nicole Kidman, Lucas Hedges and Russell Crowe.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samin Nosrat is writer, teacher, and chef (http://ciaosamin.com/).Her New York Times bestselling book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (https://amzn.to/2BsSc2x), received the James Beard award for Best General Cookbook and was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Samin's recent Netflix series of the same name (https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/) is a stunning exploration of food, culture, travel and life.Called “the next Julia Child” by NPR’s All Things Considered, Samin has been cooking professionally since 2000, when she first stumbled into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant. An EAT columnist for The New York Times Magazine, Samin lives, cooks, reads, and gardens in Berkeley, California.In today's conversation, we explore her journey, growing up the child of first-generation immigrant parents in southern California and feeling like the outsider. We dive into her lifelong love of writing and books, her experience with anxiety and depression and work to be present and joyful in her life. And, we track her "strange left turn" into the world of food and, now, with the massive success of her book and Netflix series, how she's navigating the pace, exposure and opportunities coming her way.-------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Success is not just about knowing what to do. It's about doing it.Information, plans and goals will not get you where you want to go. Nor will willpower. Success is about something bigger.To succeed at anything worth doing, you must make key shifts in your environment, mindset and community that "turn on" the actions needed for game-changing results.I call this "Success Scaffolding." It applies to everything, from weight loss to business, and relationships to careers.In today's episode, instead of our traditional guest conversation, I'm sharing and in-depth walk-through of my "8P Success Scaffolding™" framework.Every element, every step, nothing held back. Why? Because it is that time of year when millions commit to big, new, deeply-meaningful goals, only to walk away or fail by the time we hit February. Not because we don't want it badly enough. Not because we're not smart enough. But, because we do not have our Success Scaffolding in place.This is my New Year's offering. I shared it for the first time in 2017, but have continued to research and develop it since then. And, this year, you'll discover a new, greatly expanded version. It is about helping you make this year different, bridging the gap between hope and reality.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Ferris has been on a mission (http://tim.blog/podcast/) to deconstruct excellence his entire adult life. It began with his own relentless experimentation and documentation, which yielded #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef.In more recent years, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite-performers and share the conversations on his award-winning podcast (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?mt=2). Tim and I recorded a Good Life Project conversation back in 2016 which you can listen to here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/tim-ferriss/).Today, we go in a very different direction. After the loss a number of close friends and mentors and passing the 40-year mark, Tim found himself in a contemplative and emotional space. In this week's conversation, we drop into the deep end of the pool quickly. When we sat down, he'd recently returned from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat. While gone, he lost yet another close friend. He was, in his own words, in an incredibly "porous" place, leading more from the heart than the head, which is a bit of a major turnaround for him.We spent time deconstructing Tim's 10-day silent meditation experience, his struggles and awakenings and contrasted it with his earlier psychedelic experiences. We also talked about his experience with death, his decision to append audio of his most recently departed friend, Terry Laughlin, which was recorded by Terry's daughters in the hospital during his final days of life to the end of Tim's recent podcast interview with Terry (https://tim.blog/2017/10/29/terry-laughlin/).We explore why he "threw out" the TED talk he'd prepared minutes before stepping onto the stage and, instead, talk about something deeply painful and personal from the heart. And, we explored Tim's awakening to a "softer" set of metrics to measure a life well-lived and his evolving definition of what it truly means to live a good life.I'm so excited to share this final "Best Of" episode of 2018, as a powerful prompt to explore ways to be more intentional and proactive in the year that awaits us.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2009, Bronnie Ware (http://bronnieware.com/) published a short essay entitled Regrets of the Dying (http://bronnieware.com/regrets-of-the-dying/) It revealed the top 5 regrets people had shared with her in the final days of their lives, when she worked in palliative care.That short essay went massively viral, leading to an international bestselling book, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying (https://goo.gl/eWJr2t) along with a frenzy of attention, travel and the start of a new career as a writer.But, what about Bronnie? Who was this Australian artist turned banker turned palliative care-worker? What led her to do such soulful work, in a field so many others could never imagine embracing? What were the deeper drivers, hidden passions, big dreams and, also, profound and dark struggles? What happened to her after the global phenomenon took hold, shaking her existence in a powerful way, both for the better and for the worse? And, what is she up to now?I asked Ware these questions and more when she came to the Good Life Project studios in NYC during a monthlong trip from Australia. The conversation got very real and deeply truthful. She was incredibly generous with both her inner thoughts and beautiful lens on life.I'm so excited to share this timeless "Best Of" episode with you now, as we reflect on the year that is winding down and explore how we want to create the year to come.--------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the surface, Casey Gerald (http://www.caseygerald.com/), was living the dream.Growing up in Oak Cliff, Texas, he broke from the binds of an addicted, imprisoned dad and mentally-ill mom to become a star athlete, scholar, then a student at Yale, where he majored in political science and played varsity football.Heading next to Harvard Business School, while pursuing his MBA, he co-founded a foundation, MBAs Across America, that landed him on MSNBC, at TED and SXSW, on the cover of Fast Company, and in The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Guardian, among others.But, when you scratch the surface, things weren't as they seemed. As he shared in this week's conversation, everyone wants to make you into a nugget, a simplified soundbite. Gerald was anything but. Struggling with everything from his sexuality and faith, to his fierce desire to carve his own unique path, to live his own life, Casey, decided to walk away from it all, begin to write, and follow a path of self-discovery and revelation. His journey is laid bare in a stirring new memoir, There Will Be No Miracles Here (https://amzn.to/2QHjyvE)-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.