The Kevin Miller Podcast

Understanding and becoming our authentic selves may be our greatest life quest. And I’d pose that it is just that, a lifelong quest. To expect less is to minimize and miss it. Honestly friends, it’s not something I really gave gravity and focus to till…recent years. I’ve been pursuing personal performance most of my life, but I missed personal understanding and awareness. I see a lot of high performers who this is the case for. And it catches up to you, unless you want to settle for achievements only and miss true peace and fulfillment. I don’t want to settle, which is a big reason why I’m here, studying the best of the best in self-help and bringing my findings to you so we can learn and grow together. This aspect of authenticity was brought to me by Vienna Pharaon, renowned NY therapist and author of The Origins of You. She has been my muse and this is part four and my wrap-up of the series. It’s left me with five key takeaways that I’ll be grappling with and striving to apply to my own life. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Get free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store when you sign up at insidetracker.com/HELPFUL.If you’re looking for a simpler and cost-effective supplement routine, Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/SELFHELP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve been talking about authenticity. The authentic you. Who and where is it? First off, it’s not a totally unfiltered you. It’s not just a raw you. It’s a you who has become self-aware and at peace by resolving your hurts, wounds, angers and voids. And in that, it’s a journey to becoming authentic, to the greatest degree you can. Our muse is Vienna Pharaon, who I’ve been talking with. Vienna is a licensed marriage and family therapist and one of New York City’s most sought after relationship therapists. Her new book is called, The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love. Vienna has nearly 700k followers tuning in on Instagram at her @mindfulmft account to get help discovering and becoming their authentic selves. This is part 3 where I bring a peer on to co-host with me. Someone who has experience in this topic. I chose Broadway and film star Renée Marino. I brought Renée on the show a few months ago to talk about her book, “Becoming A Master Communicator,” and we just hit it off. This is the second time I’ve asked her to co-host with me because it’s a topic she is close to. As you’ll hear in a moment, when hardship hit Renée’s life she realized she was repeating negative patterns and she started therapy with a counselor on “inner child work.” And right there. If the phrase, “inner child work” rubs you wrong in any way, I feel you. At face value I have no desire to waste my time looking backward and trying to uncover feelings from my past. I struggle to even remember how I felt as a kid. But please listen, the point is to figure out how you may have reacted unhealthfully to events in your early years, and brought them forward into your adult life. And…you did. So did I. This is an audit. If you’ve ever bought a used car in recent years, you’ve likely gotten a CarFax so you can know the history of the car. How it’s been maintained, any wrecks or recalls, how many owners and more. What occurs to me as I continue looking into the origins of me, is how unaware I’ve been about some wrecks along the way that have not been resolved and are impeding my progress. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Get free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store when you sign up at insidetracker.com/HELPFUL.If you’re looking for a simpler and cost-effective supplement routine, Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/SELFHELP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even if we are being authentic, we often put on different faces for the roles we have in life. I’d like to think I’m the same guy all the time, but how I interact with my 10 year old daughter is different from how I interact with a podcast guest. I’m still me, but I have different expectations and engage from different orientations based on who I’m in front of. Sometimes we can struggle to switch gears. This is my part two session, Values, Motives, and Habits with Vienna Pharaon, licensed marriage and family therapist, one of New York City’s most sought after relationship therapists, and now author of her first book, The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love. Vienna has nearly 700k followers tuning in on Instagram to find their authentic selves. It is in the beginning topic of Spirituality where Vienna discusses her efforts to “de-role” in her life, a concept I’ve not heard defined quite like this before. You’re also going to hear a special insert in this episode, as at the end of the show, Vienna asked to share something else that greatly altered her spiritual life. The death of her dog and holding him as he took his last breath. She shares how it shifted her relationship with death and made it less scary. I was really honored Vienna was moved to share this. Honestly her candor and relatability touched me as well. She really engaged in our conversation much more like a patient than a counselor and I felt I was just talking with a friend. I’d say this is why she has such a massive following of people who feel the same. Other highlights you’ll hear, regarding Relationships, Vienna works to accept limitations and strengths in her relationships. With Health & Wellness she says for her, “Movement is salve.” Mind & Mental Health are her profession and she shares she learned to like alone time because she was a single child, yet also shares she’s an introvert and I press in as to which she gives more credit to regarding wanting alone time…it’s a bit of nature vs nurture discussion. With Work/Career Vienna said she loves being in meaningful conversations with people, and with Money & Finances she shares how her relationship with money has changed throughout her life and makes a quip that I found really interesting and asked her to explain, when she said, “Wounds and gifts are neighbors.”The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Get free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store when you sign up at insidetracker.com/HELPFUL.If you’re looking for a simpler and cost-effective supplement routine, Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/SELFHELP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are at an all-time high of mental health being a mainstream topic. My experience is people are either fairly tuned in to it, or they just don’t have much thought towards it. Similar to spirituality. And in neglecting to audit and tend to our individual mental health we are missing out on key aspects of our performance. I know I have and it’s a constant challenge to make it a priority. Culturally we stay very busy and have very little margin and downtime, if any, in our day to day lives. We think getting a brain-break with entertainment or exercise or sleep is enough. But we’re seeing that this is more like being on a long road trip and stopping for 5-10 minutes at a rest area. It’s a little break for the engine, but not hardly enough for it to cool down. What most of us need is a daily tune-up. Not just to let the engine cool off, but to get fresh fluids, check for leaks and make sure the tires are rotated and balanced. This is what meditation offers. And let me start by admitting this is possibly my least favorite health and wellness effort. I’d honestly rather fast from food. So we’ve brought in a guest. Ariel Garten. Ariel is a neuroscientist, innovator, and entrepreneur on a mission to help people understand how the mind works and empower them to live their best lives through meditation. She is the co-founder and visionary of a highly successful tech start-up called Muse, which tracks your brain during meditation to give you real-time feedback, guiding you into true rest and letting you know when you are actively allowing your mind to recover. Muse is a multi-sensor meditation device, a headband, that syncs with an app on your phone and provides real-time feedback on your brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and body movements to help you build a consistent meditation practice. I use the “desert” mode and as I try to rest, it tells me how I’m doing by the level of the wind. As I slow down and settle my mind I hear the tell tale birds chirping. The app monitors my progress day to day so I can see my accumulative results and progress. It’s really ingenious and takes the guesswork out of wondering if you really have your mind at rest. This episode is about the benefits of resting your mind and being present, not the Muse app and technology, though you can check it out at choosemuse.com. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know this quote, “It's not how many times you get knocked down that counts, it's how many times you get back up.” The quote is attributed both to legendary army officer George Custer and legendary football coach Vince Lombardy. As I said in a previous episode in this series, I get this concept if you’re in the middle of a battle or football game. But otherwise, I feel it’s fairly misleading and has us all missing out on available growth from our challenges. If you are alive, you will encounter something you desired to achieve, not working out, or something negative you didn’t choose, happening to you. And there you are. How you deal with it has to do with your ultimate life success and achievement, and your general well-being…right down to your health and wellness. Just “getting back up again” or persevering may or may not positively serve you any more than being overcome and defeated. This is my wrap-up on the message and discussions with Dr Neeta Bhushan and the message in her new book, That Sucked. Now What?: How to Embrace the Joy in Chaos and Find Magic in the Mess. It brought me to grappling with how we as a society tend to polarize and view someone as an overcomer or a quitter. Like it’s simply two ends of a rope instead of a multifaceted spectrum with a lot of nuances. Walk with me a moment through some aspects I’m pondering and seeking to apply to my life. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being authentic is a big buzzword in our culture today. We want authenticity from others and we want to claim our own authenticity. Yet you’re about to get schooled in a stark, yet hopeful reality, and it starts with understanding and accepting that nobody comes into adulthood being authentically who they are, and discovering your true authenticity is a massive undertaking. The hope in this is in realizing that most of your personal struggles in your relationship with yourself and others and even the world, can only get better from this point as you start stepping into your authentic self. Two big points you are about to hear; You come into this world with an already installed operating system based on your genetics and it is further programmed and hardwired in during your upbringing. So you leave home with a solid OS. You don’t wake up on your own free and authentic. This is realization number one. Two, from the moment you come into this world your natural desire is to attach to others and this is far more important than being the authentic you, to the point you never really experience the authentic you. Right now, whether you are a navy seal, executive, stay at home parent or student you have spent your life with a priority of belonging and being attached to others far superseding being who you really are. And it’s diminished your entire life. My guest, expert, and guide on this subject is Vienna Pharaon. Her new book is called The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love. Vienna has been posting her insights, driven from thousands of patient encounters, on Instagram has nearly 700k followers tuning in to find their authentic selves. Vienna Pharaon is a licensed marriage and family therapist and one of New York City’s most sought after relationship therapists. She has practiced therapy for over fifteen years and is the founder and owner of the group practice, Mindful Marriage and Family Therapy. Pharaon has been featured in The Economist, Netflix, Vice, and Motherly, and has led workshops for Peloton and Netflix, amongst others. The Origins of You is her first book and is endorsed by renowned therapists such as Nedra Glover Tawwab and Whitney Goodman who I’ve had on this show. As of this recording The Origins of You is at the top of the charts in Amazon. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a crux of the show we came to. When bad things happen, hard things happen, we want to know why. We want to figure it out so it doesn’t happen again. This is wisdom. But sometimes challenges and traumas happen that we submit - can’t be reconciled. That may ruffle the feathers of some people’s faith structure, which we’re going to do more of in this episode. This is part 3 on Neeta Bhushan and the message in her new book, That Sucked. Now What?: How to Embrace the Joy in Chaos and Find Magic in the Mess. To discuss recovery from challenge, trauma and even tragedy I brought on a co-host who has been through more than his fair share. Richie Norton was my guest for the second time in October, 2022 where we talked about the message in his book, Anti-Time Management. He has a powerful story which you’ll hear in just a moment, and we use it to tackle some weighty subjects. Richie shares times of literally asking, “Does God hate me?” It was from this we got into grappling with our staunch desire to reconcile everything when sometimes we simply can’t. And how to move past this. We discuss the futility of blame and Richie shares his quest to "Be better, not bitter." We discuss the mental difference of dealing with hard things that happen to us vs when we are the hard thing, meaning, we and maybe others suffer from our personal mistakes and failures. And we dig into Richie sharing how, through his family’s journey they sometimes took considerable time to grieve and recover and didn’t try to rush the recovery process. I think this will be a very hopeful episode for many of you who have endured hard things, and a greatly equipping episode for those of you who will. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store when you sign up at insidetracker.com/HELPFUL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My great friend. My doctor. My co-host here on the Functional Friday episodes. Randy James. Medical Doctor and Functional Medicine expert. For the first years of knowing each other I pestered him with what the core pillars of health were and he’d always push back with the answer that…”It depends! What is core for one person may not be for another. It’s very personal to each person’s makeup and pathology.” So in this episode, I tried to hit him up again, but this time, I succeeded. I posed the question of what aspect of health is #1. I really expected some lively discourse. Instead, we actually came into an answer. At face value it’s an unfair question, which is why I wanted to spar with Randy on it, as again the entire point of Functional Medicine and our show is how individualized and unique our personal health is and there is no one size fits all solution. So to ask what aspect of health is number one is not a fair question. But as we talked about the concept of, “If you can only pick one area of health, which is most important?” we found ourselves coming to an actual agreement and bit of a revelation. To be candid, we recorded this show about a year ago and since then it’s forever altered my outlook on my health and wellness and some specific routines. I’ll give you the answer. It is…sleep. Your recovery. But I implore you to listen in and find out why, as if I had simply been told this without the grappling behind it, I don’t think I would have accepted it to the level I have. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Get free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m betting you would benefit from a getaway. It might be a couple hours. Or an afternoon. Maybe a day, and maybe a few days. But here is the thing. Everyone who knows you will benefit too. Your family. Your co-workers. Your employees. Chances are they desperately need you to get out and fill up some so they get more than the dregs. This is a quick message that I may be more qualified to offer than nearly anyone you know. The Self-Help(ful) podcast is brought to you by Ziglar, your premier source for equipping coaches to help leaders and top performers excel professionally and personally. Visit Ziglar.com and let them inspire your true coaching performance.Get free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the gravest dangers of our lives is, we don’t know what we don’t know. I don’t think I’m dumb, but I will always have areas of ignorance to address. Ignorance is merely - lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about a particular thing. It’s our job to continually pursue our own self-awareness. I’m back with Dr Neeta Bhushan, author of That Sucked. Now What?: How to Embrace the Joy in Chaos and Find Magic in the Mess. This is Part 2 where I walk with Neeta through her personal Values, Motives, and Habits. It was in discussing her spirituality where she talked about RSA; radical self-awareness, and taking responsibility for our blind spots. As time goes on this is where I put the greatest value for myself, and others. I’ve found people with exceptional success in some areas who suffer greatly, especially relationally and with personal peace, because they are forward-thinking and achieving, but not internally focused and aware. I have been one of those people. Neeta and I get more into this shortly. Another topic, relationships, Neeta talked about her desire for authentic relationships. Deep relationships. And I said, yes, we all want that. But many people struggle with how to find and have these and she surprised me with a resource she has on just that, how to create authentic relationships. Sign up at thatsuckednowwhat.com/resources and she’ll send it to you. We cover her personal health values, money and more, and I was intrigued in the work and career section where we ended up, in alignment with radical self-awareness, discussing in our work the need for and opportunity in RPA; radical purpose awareness. This was a rich discussion. Dr Neeta Bhushan founded the Global GRIT Institute and is cofounder of Dharma Coaching Institute. She has over 165,000 followers on Instagram and a popular podcast, The Brave Table where people tune in to hear her guidance on bouncing back. Check out the new book, That Sucked. Now What?: How to Embrace the Joy in Chaos and Find Magic in the Mess. The Self-Helpful podcast was founded by the Zig Ziglar corporation. If you are a coach or consultant and want to add credibility, clients, and impact to your business, go to Ziglar.comGet free chicken nuggets for a Year and 10% off your first box when you sign up today at butcherbox.com/SELFHELPFUL and use code SELFHELPFUL.Go to Zocdoc.com/KEVIN and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices