The Kevin Miller Podcast

We are talking about your future self. Who are you becoming? Who do you want to become? And the question is, can you conceptualize and connect with that person right now, and from this connection, drastically accelerate your personal growth and success? I’m with Dr Benjamin Hardy, who you hear me refer to often. His first book, Willpower Doesn’t Work, is at the top of my book referral list. His second book, “Personality Isn’t Permanent” is up there too. His recent book with Dan Sullivan, The Gap And The Gain, is a runaway best seller. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and his blogs have been read by hundreds of millions. Ben is also the intro story in my forthcoming book which you’ll see…sometime in 2023. This is my third time having Ben on the show, and the occasion is his brand new book, Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation. When I talked to him about a year ago he shared his research and piqued my interest with the “End of history illusion”, which we start this episode off talking about, and I think you’ll want to hear about it. As we talked in this episode, what intrigued me as much or more than just trying to become your future self now, was Ben’s concept of how powerful it is for our progress and ultimate success if we’ll connect with our future self. This is something we do pretty well as kids, but after entering into adulthood, we basically lose any perspective on who we are expecting to become. And we so often lose our way. Ben is an organizational psychologist and has devoted significant research to the issue and become a leading expert on the application of the Future Self science. Ben’s new book, Be Your Future Self Now, can be found everywhere, and check this out, if you’ll go to futureself.com/free, those of you in America can get free Kindle codes and get the book…free! No catch. He just bought a ton of codes and offered them to me to share with you. You can connect with him at benjaminhardy.com. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is my Functional Friday episode where we focus on our health and wellness so we have the ability and capacity to pursue all we desire, and the topic of this episodes is Having The Courage To Live Better. People who live with different health habits than the norm often get labeled as extremist.  If you don’t partake of the office pizza or the church donuts or the family potlock and you go for a run during your lunch break or play tennis on your date instead of seeing a movie, you’re a “health nut.” Like you’ve joined a new religion. In truth, this reality and social pressure is enough to deter many people from practicing the healthier habits they would otherwise adopt. A core longing of humanity is to belong, and conforming to our surroundings is a natural desire and reaction. When you join a gang, the entire point is to conform to its ways. We all belong to numerous “gangs” of sorts and we generally accept their subsequent social pressures. Most people have three primary gangs; their immediate family, their workplace, and friends and extended family. Bucking the norms is difficult. But for you to adopt a healthy lifestyle that does not include the norms of our current times, requires seemingly “extreme” choices. We live in a time when characteristics such as kindness, compassion, ethics, and justice seem extreme as well. It may simply come down to the courage to do what is best for yourself and humanity. Which often is not in fact, the norm. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wrapping up my series on Kindra Hall and the message from her new book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life. In this episode I’m joined by my co-host, Randy James, Medical Doctor, Functional Medicine expert, and my dear friend to discuss how we create and accept our stories and the conversation veers towards…striving and aspiring, and the tension between being ok and at peace and in essence, content, with the here and now. With who and how you are and what you have, right now. There is a big piece of all of us who can feel tired of the constant striving and just want to be at peace and have joy, now. And to that, we agree and desire as well. And yet, is that enough? Do we just find a good place of comfort and leave it at that. Coast from there on? Or is there a responsibility, to God, to others, to ourselves, to take what we have, and grow and give? Continually? As you’ll hear, we feel there is. The issue is often simply the spirit of our striving. Like the old religious perspective, do we carry our belief like a song in our heart, or a burden on our back? If your striving gets to feeling like a burden, I’d say…stop. Maybe you need a time of rest. Or recalibration. If you are giving and serving and striving in bitterness, acting as a martyr, and wearing yourself out, you’re likely not helping anyone too much. The goal is to give from a full heart. To grow and strive in joy. This is where you’ll find us discussing and grappling with you in this episode. Find Kindra Hall’s book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life, which was the muse and catalyst of our discussion, anywhere, and connect with her at kindrahall.com. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m back with best-selling author and the former Chief Storytelling Officer of SUCCESS Magazine, Kindra Hall, to walk through her personal values, motives, and habits in the key areas of life fulfillment so we can hear what has driven and does drive her to lead us in the stories we write about our lives, and design a life that fulfills her. In episode 1042, the longest show I’ve ever published, Kindra and I talked about…story. Specifically the message in her new book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life. Here we go behind the scenes into the ever evolving story she is writing in her current life. The Cliff Notes I think you’ll want to hear more about, regarding her spirituality she pondered that her purpose is easy when she understands it, but hard when she doesn’t. A key for her health and wellness is to consider the most essential uses of her time. On mental health, Kindra said she is consistently paying attention to what is working, and what isn’t. And being aware that what did work might not anymore. In work and career we got to talking about our propensity to feel we need to put in a solid week, 40 hours or whatever, when so often, as she said, "I can create magic in only 10." We ended on achievements and I think you'll be curious to hear how Kindra views her own story regarding what she wants to achieve, as she admits that she's currently aware the big achievements so often did not provide as much fulfillment as the achievements she wasn't even looking for, like yesterday's testimonial from a teacher about her child's character. Kindra is the 191st guest I’ve had on my show and is one of the most thoughtful and interesting conversationalist I’ve experienced. Find her book anywhere and connect with Kindra at kindrahall.com.Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cost is one of the primary deterrents many people cite for healthy living. Buying whole foods, nutritional supplements, exercising, and seeking alternative health care simply costs more money and can often lead us to minimizing or abandoning the effort altogether. Then there is the time expense of working out every day and grocery shopping for fresh food and cooking and cleaning. It is not convenient and time is...money. It can all be overwhelming and demoralizing in an already busy life. When it comes to fast food and processed foods, many people who would be willing to eat healthier simply fail due to convenience and time savings. So what do you do? In this episode we talk with empathy, but also with some helpful perspectives and solutions to help you on your journey and desire for health amidst the increased cost of money and time. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all wake up every day and participate in what we feel is simply our reality. Yet it’s truly a storyline we’ve created, or accepted, or feel we are forced to live and in that case, agreed with and submitted to. For you, which is it? This is not some hoodoo guro motivation that life is make-believe and we simply decide to have it be something else better. That is offensive. But it is interesting how we live our daily lives and we let things like marriage, children, getting hired or fired from a job, an injury or even a windfall of money, totally change our story. If that’s the case, can’t we not only do things to change our stories for the better, but can we also change our perspective of our stories right away and make things better? And I have with me, Kindra Hall. Kindra is the best-selling author and the former Chief Storytelling Officer of SUCCESS Magazine, whose work and research teaches individuals and brands to harness and leverage the power of their stories. Her first book, Stories that Stick debuted at #2 on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List and Forbes said it “may be the most valuable business book you read." Inc.com said her newest book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life is "the business book you need to read in 2022." I however read this new book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life and felt it was a must-have conversation for…all of us. As humans. And what follows is my longest interview to date because the topics are so profoundly important. Find her book anywhere and connect with Kindra at kindrahall.com. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wrapping up my series on Elliott Bisnow, co-founder of the Summit Series events, part festival, part personal development conference. His book, Make No Small Plans, gives focus to the entrepreneurial journey, and the power of hosting and attending events. One of the masters in both categories who I know personally, is Dan Miller, author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and host of the 48 Days podcast. I know him personally as…my Dad. I asked him to listen to my show with Elliot, episode 1038, then join me to discuss it. You’re about to hear our conversation. As this is the Self-Help(ful) show and my focus is just that, this episode addresses some of why we want self-help, and it’s to grow ourselves and live out our values, which we do, or want to do, in our work. And being an entrepreneur is a great way to, help ourselves. So here talked about what evidence you look for in being an entrepreneur. We then discussed what makes for great events in this day and age and how Dan has done it with so many events where it was more family gathering than seminar. A week prior to this recording we attended a podcast convention together and we share what we learned and the opportunities in both podcasting and events. Then we dwelled a good bit on just that, opportunity. In podcasting, event hosting, and so many areas of business endeavors, things are evolving at a more rapid pace than ever. The good news is it leaves the door open for innovation and entry for anyone who comes in savvy. A reminder you can find Elliott Bisnow’s book, No Small Plans, anywhere, and connect with him and his events at summit.co. Dan Miller you can find at 48days.com or his podcast, 48 Days. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is my Functional Friday episode where we focus on our health and wellness so we have the ability and capacity to pursue all we desire, and today we discuss the sensitive and actually volatile topic of your health being your fault. Your genetics matter. Heck, you could be born with a severe deformity. You could have been dealt a bad hand. Which means you must do harder and work more than someone else to be at your best capacity. And your best capacity may be less than someone else’s and even less than the norm. The good news here however is simply how much power and control you do however, have over your health and wellness. Why did we get to the place culturally of not wanting control and responsibility for our health? Would you rather know you have significant power to help yourself feel and be better? Also, the biggest area of blame most of us have regarding our health and wellness is simply ignorance. What we don’t know. But again, this is great news, as we are highly capable of learning. I encourage you to brave up and listen to this episode and you may very well find a new level of hope and confidence in helping you feel and perform better, so you can do what you want to do. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m back with Elliott Bisnow to walk through his personal values, motives, and habits in the key areas of life fulfillment so we can hear what has driven and does drive him to produce the massive Summit Series personal development events, and design a life that fulfills him. Elliotts life is spent with the elite of self-help and business success and he has some incredible insight he puts in place for his own success. Such as using meditation as a tuner for the brain. His exercise is being a sparring partner for elite tennis players. On the health and wellness front, he battled bad asthma until doing a dietary cleanse, basically an elimination diet, and his asthma disappeared. His daily decision making process is focused on making decisions that will create less stress in the future. In business he talks about how we do business being more important than what we do in business. And regarding money and his own success he places more value on not wanting things, than what more he wants. It’s a quality discussion. You can get the book, Make No Small Plans, which we discussed in episode 1038, anywhere, and find Elliott and his pals at Summit.co and info on their November 2022 event I’m looking to attend. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We take a bit of a detour from pure self-help in this episode. I started off with the story of a guy who wanted to be an entrepreneur, yet had no idea how to be, and was as he said, “socially uncalibrated,” which in his case meant he was the guy always trying to sell you something that everyone avoided. His first two attempts at being an entrepreneur, completely failed. Completely. Meaning he created a business and didn’t make one sale. It’s a great story for anyone who feels out of their depth or who is meeting literally zero success in some endeavors. My guest, is Elliot Bisnow. Elliott’s somewhat ridiculous story takes him from literally zero, to now being co-founder of Summit Group, which began and still includes the Summit Series events that are as much festival as self-help conference. They’ve held 250 of the events, loaded with celebrities, thought-leaders, billionaires and politicians. And lots of people like you and me. The event has hosted luminaries like Jeff Bezos (bay-zos), Richard Branson, Jessica Alba, Shonda Rhimes, Brené Brown, and Al Gore in some of the most beautiful places on earth like Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Squaw Valley, California, and Washington, D.C. In this talk though, we really got into discussing the nuances of what makes the events so successful, as opposed to all the events you are used to attending. How they focus on who is attending and where the event takes place, even more than who is speaking. So if you have any interest in holding events, whether paid for as a business, or even just socially, you’ll want to hear this. We even talk about what to look for in events as an attendee. Just really intriguing. A little more on Elliott, he’s a startup investor, having made almost 50 early stage investments, including Uber, Coinbase, Warby Parker & Allbirds. At the start of the show in a moment, you’ll hear he’s talking to me from Powder Mountain ski resort in Utah, America’s largest ski resort which he is co-owner of. Elliott and his three biz partners recently published the book, MAKE NO SMALL PLANS, which entails the again, fairly ridiculous story of how four, very average guys, created such a successful company after doing so many things wrong. I think you’ll find great comfort and come away feeling you can be as clueless, and successful, as they have been. The story really inspired me to think bigger than I have as of late. You can get the book, Make No Small Plans, anywhere, and find Elliott and his pals at Summit.co. Self-Help(ful) is presented by Ziglar, the most trusted brand in personal and business development impacting over 250 million people worldwide. Visit Ziglar.com to see how they can inspire your true performance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices