The Pocket with Chris Griffin

Koa Smith, a professional big-wave surfer and explorer of fear, meditation, and healing, dives into the psychology of high performance. He discusses using fear as a guide, releasing stored emotion, quieting life’s noise, and returning to the present. He also shares lessons from mentor Ben Aipa, a near-death underwater experience, and his powerful perspective on love, commitment, pain, and injury.

Jefferson Fisher is one of the most respected voices on communication, and in this episode he breaks down why most relationship problems come from the conversations we avoid, not the ones we have. I sat down with him to unpack the right way to have hard conversations, why telling someone they’re wrong only makes them hold on tighter, and why avoidance almost always comes back to a fear of being known. We also get into how to break up with someone with kindness, why disappointing people is a skill worth learning, how to make a disagreement bring you closer instead of pushing you apart, and why self improvement means nothing if it doesn’t help you connect with the people around you. Key discussion points: Why “you’re wrong” backfires Identity and defensiveness Paper cuts and missed moments Matching the message to the medium The right way to break up Fear of being known Having hard conversations with care The skill of disappointing people Self improvement vs self worship Follow Jefferson: https://www.instagram.com/jefferson_fisher/ 00:00 Why big goals matter at every stage of life 00:33 Overestimate one year, underestimate ten 01:34 Borrowed goals vs your own goals 02:28 Why fulfillment matters more than happiness 04:08 Life is a long hike, the peak is fleeting 05:30 Buddhism, balance, and choosing the right goal 09:02 Finding peace inside the suffering 11:18 In great pain comes great alignment 13:00 Selling a business and realizing life barely changes 15:01 Fail fast and change your mind with new data 17:37 Why your 20s are for exploration 18:21 Take care of the basics first 20:13 Working at his family's steakhouse at ten years old 22:39 Leading by example and the scarcity mindset he inherited 24:27 Reprogramming from scarcity to abundance 26:59 Dreams cost nothing, goals have a real cost 28:54 The timeline from divorce and debt to the exit 31:01 The bottle of scotch and deciding "this is my low" 34:21 Anyone can decide right now that this is their low 35:43 Why you must stop playing the victim 37:12 The Warren Buffett trade that shows what you already have 39:26 The 3 minute gratitude meditation 41:45 The lottery ticket exercise 44:08 Be a better tipper and act like the person you want to be 47:19 Start small and measure the actions 48:14 Why lottery winners lose it all 50:20 What does a big number actually unlock for you 55:46 Why more data is not always better 57:18 Track a few things, and why sleep comes first 1:00:17 Annual reviews and thinking in ten year goals 1:01:45 Matthew McConaughey and chasing the future version of you 1:03:38 The jagged line nobody sees on social media 1:05:35 Play your own game 1:06:22 Growing up as the youngest of six in the middle of nowhere 1:09:23 What he wants to instill in his own kids 1:11:08 The parenting balance between freedom and guidance 1:16:40 Faith, Catholicism, and fulfillment 1:20:34 Your 20s are for discovery, your 30s for figuring it out 1:22:29 What we can borrow from every religion 1:24:51 His new podcast and mission to get more people building businesses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Wystrach, entrepreneur and founder of a billion-dollar company, shares the mindset shifts behind his transformation. He explores choosing personal goals over borrowed expectations, why fulfillment outlasts happiness, and how pain, gratitude, and faith reshape ambition. He also recounts rising from divorce and debt to a billion-dollar exit, while discussing family, parenting, money, and playing your own game.

Khalil Rafati, entrepreneur, author, and founder of SunLife Organics, recounts his journey from homelessness and heroin addiction to building a wellness empire. He reflects on desperation, personal responsibility, escaping victimhood, and turning pain into purpose. They also explore gratitude, service, protecting employees, abundance, spirituality, and the standards that shape a life.

Jack Goldberg, hospitality entrepreneur and co-founder of Yes Chef Group and Jack’s Dining Room, explores what makes experiences unforgettable. They discuss hospitality in the details, the rise of wellness-driven socializing, and building community through food and run clubs. Jack shares his leap from PwC consulting into entrepreneurship, while the conversation tackles passion, patience, action over research, and redefining success.

A nine-day journey through Dagestan challenges fear-based assumptions and reveals unexpected kindness, peace, and hospitality. Along the way, reflections on solitude, self-worth, material success, purpose, and authentic friendship emerge. Village life, intense shared experiences, and stepping away from the noise all spark a deeper look at what makes life meaningful.

Dr. Shefali, clinical psychologist, author, and conscious-parenting expert, explores why parenting begins with healing the parent’s own childhood wounds. They discuss healthy versus toxic masculinity, boys’ need for guidance and rites of passage, hidden forms of toxic femininity, and why sons and daughters may need different support. A candid look at triggers, challenge, identity, and raising grounded children.

Grayson Hart, former professional rugby player, entrepreneur, and founder of Hart Workshop, returns for a deep dive into relationships, self-worth, spirituality, and becoming a father. They explore finding home within yourself, love versus fear, nature and embodied presence, masculine and feminine energy, surrendering control, and the surprising origins of his barefoot-inspired footwear brand.

Sarah Perl went from a scarcity mindset to millions of followers and a thriving business, she says the shift happened the moment she changed her identity, not her hustle. She unpacks detachment, manifestation, and why your subconscious mind cares more about keeping you safe than getting you what you want, while also opening up about reprogramming her childhood scarcity beliefs, the fear of losing control that comes with wanting a family, and what it really takes to trust another person with your heart. Key discussion points Embodying the version of you that already has what you want, not suppressing the desire for it Chasing pushes people and outcomes away; magnetism comes from not needing something The subconscious mind's only job is to keep you safe, not to help you get what you consciously want Everything in life is a mirror: you change your reality by changing yourself, not by trying to change others Burning the boats and removing your own exit unlocks a level of drive most people never access Spite and pain, reframed correctly, can become one of the most powerful sources of spiritual motivation Feminine energy is surrender and trust Get your FREE Podcast Toolkit here: www.thepodpro.com/toolkit 00:00 Detachment is the real secret to manifestation 00:41 Why chasing anything makes it run away 02:29 Surrendering control lets things fall into place 03:23 Everything in life is a mirror 04:12 The water analogy: same substance, different state 06:07 You see your subconscious in your outcomes, not your thoughts 07:20 The operating system running your life on autopilot 09:54 Belief, not talent, is what separates people who have what they want 10:21 The law of assumption 11:14 Orbits: how changing identity changes your reality 15:32 Burning the boats: removing your own exit 17:00 Manifestation as laser focus and intuition 18:12 The 1 percent survival instinct hiding in you 19:44 How childhood scarcity shapes identity 22:23 Spite as the greatest spiritual motivation 25:54 Building faith through evidence of what you have survived 26:50 Confidence built through doing hard things 27:40 Confidence versus faith versus ego 29:41 Manifestation as feminine energy, control as false safety 32:16 Turning point: adopting a new identity to escape scarcity 33:28 The alter ego experiment that changed everything 34:48 Letting go of how and trusting divine timing 39:28 Why proximity to people who have done it makes it feel possible 50:39 Denying yourself because you never believed it was possible 52:00 What billionaires and old people both teach about desire 55:04 The game of life: wanting to experience everything 56:33 Challenges of being a woman in business 59:21 Working through subconscious resentment toward men 1:01:09 Love and business both require faith and surrender 1:04:07 Love as action, not just a feeling 1:07:31 The leg of the table versus the plate on the table 1:12:16 Reframing feminine energy and pregnancy as power, not sacrifice 1:17:01 A story about meeting the woman he wants to marry 1:21:35 What a man wants: a helper, not a competitor 1:26:04 Fear of abandonment and the risk of wanting a family Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jules Horn, a former model turned breathwork and nervous-system coach, explores why modern life keeps us trapped in chronic stress. They discuss auditing your “stress cup,” the limits of achievement and biohacks, processing trauma through body awareness, and the power of slow breathing, self-love, presence, service, and personal spirituality.