John Lee Dumas grew up believing he wasn't the most talented person in the room. But, he also knew the path to success in almost any endeavor was more about work than it was about innate gifts. So, pretty early on, he made a decision that he'd outwork pretty much anyone to get what he wanted.That led to a string of powerful accomplishments, from athletics to business and led him to follow in the footsteps of his dad and grandfather, serving in the military. But, when he came home, dealing with PTSD from combat, the years that followed led him to a series of false starts, from law school to real-estate, in an attempt to meet what he eventually realized were everyone's expectations and desires but his own.For the first time, there wasn't a clear path, and he fell into a depression. Until he found an unlikely spark in a place he wasn't even looking for it...podcasting.John became fascinated with the medium and set out to launch the first-ever daily business podcast, calling it Entrepreneur On Fire (now EO Fire). Everyone told him the daily format was nuts, it'd be impossible to keep up. But he was not to be dissuaded.In short order, the podcast became a phenomenon and he began to build a powerful business around it, adding on sponsorship and educational offerings. He also decided to break another rule, sharing his company's income reports with his community on a monthly basis.Over more than 1,200 interviews with entrepreneurs, Dumas also began to key in on common patterns of success in business. One of the biggest, he found, nearly every single person who achieved any level of success was fiercely focused on achieving a goal. He realized, he was, too. And he wanted to create a tool to share with others to help move them toward the achievement of a single big goal. So, he created his first physical product, calling it the Freedom Journal. He's actually launching it on Kickstarter right now.In today's conversation, we dive deep into John Lee Dumas' journey and how he's landed in a place where his focus is evolving strongly to one word, significance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of every year, business owners and accountants do something we might want to consider also doing in our personal lives.They "close the books."What does that mean? They look back over everything that's happened in the last 12 months, make sure it's as accurate as possible, understand what went into each debit and credit, then ask what makes sense to continue in the year to come, what makes sense to end and what makes sense to change.They look for any areas where the numbers don't seem to match up, where there's some kind of aberration or question or anomaly and try to figure out what actually happened. They reconcile the numbers and, if they can't, they place a note explaining why.Then, when they've learned what they can learn, fixed what they can fix, explained what they need to explain, they close the books. They let it all go and turn their energy to the next 12-month window, opening a new book and penning the first entry.So, here's my question...What if we did this not just in our financial lives, but in our personal lives, too?What if, at the end of every year, we created a deliberate process of:LearningReconcilingLetting go, andRefocusingHow might that allow us to step into the coming year not snuffed out and battle-scarred, but lit up and filled with possibility?That's what this week's Good Life Project Riff is all about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colin Beavan burst into the public consciousness in a huge way with a documentary and international bestselling book called No Impact Man that documented his yearlong experiment to live in the middle of New York City with his family creating zero environmental impact.That experience opened his eyes to the power daily choices can have not only his own life, but the world around him. But, it also did something else. It triggered a deeper interest in exploring many of the big questions in life, the heart of which is not just how to be a good steward of the planet, but how to live a good life along the way.Consumed by the question he spent years diving into research, interviewing people and began to realize that our ability to live good lives is intimately tied to the way we relate to and serve those around us, and the planet that sustains us. It's about moving away from materialism and toward competence, and so much more. Diverging from convention, he shares much of what he's discovered in a wonderful new book, How to Be Alive.We sat down with Colin to record a deeply-personal and passionate conversation, geeking out on stories, eye-opening studies on rarely spoken about human needs and so much more, all in the name of pulling back the curtain on what really matters as we navigate our time on the planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes your creative voice clashes with others' expectations of what's always been done, and what they think you're "supposed" to do.This has happened a few times with this podcast. Ninety-nine percent to the messages and reviews we get about the guests, topics and format are overwhelmingly positive. Every once in a while, though, we get hit with a "take down" comment, a really aggressive attack on either a guest, topic or the conversational format of the show.I understand the rebuttal against certain guests and topics. Sometimes we offer provocative guests, people who've made choices others don't agree with and we talk about topics and ideas that make some people uncomfortable. I get that, not every person or idea or choice is right for everyone.But, the occasional take-down over the conversational format of the show ("I don't want to hear the host, I only care about the interviewee's point of view), I always find fascinating. Because it reflects a point of tension over a creative choice that we've made in producing our media and the evolution of the media itself.What is that decision? Choosing conversation over interview as the format when we host guests on the show. There is a subtle, yet powerful difference in these formats. Until the emergence of "new media," nearly everything that hit the air was interview-driven. This was a standard that emerged from journalism, where the focus was on "eliciting information" in an attempt to break and tell another person's story. For those long-time media consumers who are locked into a traditional, more journalistic TV and radio "interview" paradigm, our choice of a more conversational format can bump up against long-held expectations of what media "has" to be.The media game is changing, though, and the freedom of podcasting and online video has pretty much thrown traditional constraints out the window. The decision to roll with different formats—long-form vs. short-form, conversation vs. interview, broadcast production values vs. street-level production values— makes a huge difference in both how much you enjoy listening and we enjoying creating. New media creators are constantly pushing the envelope with formats and, at the same time, inviting longtime media consumers to let down the shield and become open to the possibility of everything from three-minute videos to three-hour conversations. Jerry Seinfeld's fantastic, conversation-driven, 15-20 minute "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" episodes are a wonderful example of breaking nearly every rule, and making a lot of people happy.For Good Life Project, we've chosen conversation over interview. It was a very intentional choice. In today's Good Life Project Riff, we share the deeper drivers behind that creative choice, exploring the idea of "product-maker fit" and why you might want to apply the same logic in your creative endeavors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sekou Andrews defies every preconceived notion you might have in your head about the voice and role of poetry in business, society and life.In his words, when he "tells people that, before creating a new inspirational speaker category, he was a successful 'full-time poet,' you would think that he had said 'full-time mermaid,' or 'freelance unicorn' based on the reactions he gets."A former elementary school teacher turned musician, national poetry slam champion, Sekou discovered the power of delivering larger ideas, stories, missions and even strategies to audiences not by traditional keynote or slides or visuals, but by meticulously crafted spoken word performances.He calls this "Poetic Voice" and Sekou has now presented to everyone from the world's largest organizations to Barack Obama, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, and Coretta Scott King and family and so many others.In today's episode, we explore Sekou's remarkable journey, his exploration of acting, music, teaching and poetry, how he unbridled words from beat to make the leap from musician to poet and how he literally created an entirely new speaking category and is now turning around and teaching others how to discover their own Poetic Voices. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever done something because you thought it would look good on your resume? Studied at a particular school or with a particular person?What if, instead of trying to pile on credentials from esteemed people and institutions in the name of building a resume, you based your choices on what would let you increase your capabilities, your ability to make a difference, with the greatest speed and depth?Sure, sometimes you can do both, but often times, we get lost in the quest to amass qualifications and forget the end game is not to have a "seemingly" glossy resume, but to cultivate the ability to leave others changed. To make a dent in the universe.That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Janice Kaplan is filled with gratitude. But, it wasn't always that way.Her career in the media has taken her from the TV sportscasting desk to producing dozens of shows, writing more than a dozen books and eventually serving as editor-in-chief of Parade Magazine, which at its height, boasted a circulation of about 30 million readers.Her life was good, still is. But, she noticed that, as good as it was, there was always this feeling of yearning, of it not being enough.Then, a few years back, a research project she'd been working on that focused on gratitude triggered her to reexamine her life and explore nearly every facet of her existence anew.This launched a yearlong exploration of gratitude, with a series of experiments that revealed how profound an impact simple shifts and daily practices could have on her life. Unfolding in "seasons," Janice examines both the growing wellspring of research, as well as the direct effect of so many "gratitude interventions" we've heard about over the years in her book, The Gratitude Diaries.In today's conversation, we dive into Janice's extraordinary career in media, her creative through-lines and fascination with human behavior and why we do what we do, and her values around family, women's voices, relationships, life and the life-changing impact of her year of gratitude. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's been a lot of pushback lately against the idea of mastery, choosing one thing and putting everything you've got into it.Mastery, it seems, has become almost a dirty word. Why choose just one or two things to master, when your interests span four or five or 10 or 20? Why not just do them all? Isn't that a legitimate way to both feel good and contribute to the world? Isn't being a jack of all trades, master of none the type of person who is most in demand these days anyway?For some, maybe. But, for many others, not so much. I wonder...Is the pervasive refusal to say no to many thing and strive for mastery in one more about fabulosity or FOMO?That's what we're talking about on today's GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's that old line. When you're thinking about opening a restaurant, the three most important things are location, location and location.Edward Barnett agrees, but the way he chose the location for his first restaurant in what is now becoming a chain goes against nearly every bit of conventional wisdom and advice.Edward was on a mission. Not just to do well, but to do good. So, along with his partner, Karim Webb, he opened their first Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in one of the toughest neighborhoods in L.A., Crenshaw, a place where violence, crime and lack of opportunity was a way of life.They wanted to offer a dining experience that wasn't available in Crenshaw. But, they also wanted to create a place of opportunity, jobs and community. A place where kids and adults alike could get off the streets, learn a trade and build a career. A place not just to work, but where they knew someone cared about them.Where everyone cautioned them and said they'd fail, they've succeeded. It's still hard at times, but it's worth the effort. They've created a place where people not only come to eat, but come to gather. And for those who work there, they've also created a path to possibility and hope.In this week's episode, I sit down with Edward to explore both his life and the lessons he's learned, along with what it's been like trying to build a sustainable business and an engine of impact in a place that's known so little of both. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We spend so much time trying to "acquire" people and things.In business, we talk about "acquiring a customer," like they're a commodity we're buying at the corner store and we even associate a price with each new person.In our personal lives, we often do the same, thinking about the effort it takes to find and start a relationship with a new friend, lover or partner, yet it feels wrong to call that friend or lover or partner an "acquisition," so we come up with gentler words to remind ourselves no human actually gets to acquire or possess another human.We use that word, acquisition, by the way, because it deludes us into believing "once we've got it, it's ours for life." Hahaha! So, silly!We all know, that's not even close to reality. We don't own anyone. Not for life, not for a year, a month, an hour or a moment. We are gifted with their presence, their investment of love and energy and time and more. And that gift is something that must be nurtured, grown, tended over time or else it goes away, and so do they.We have an opportunity to continue to invest in not only the process of discovery, but the continuing process of deepening and delight. Delight, in fact, is where the greatest magic happens and it's all too often completely ignored once you're past the courting stages.What if, instead of focusing maniacally on finding and starting relationships, then letting them coast into oblivion, we spent equal if not more energy on delighting those we bring into our orbit once they're here.That's what we're talking about on this week's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.