Podcast appearances and mentions of Dan Heath

Dan Heath hosts ⁠What It's Like to Be…⁠ In every episode, he interviews someone from a different profession: a mystery novelist, a couples therapist, a rancher, and more. He's also the #1 New York Times bestselling author (or co-author) of six beloved business books, including Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Moments. --- What do you find Weirdly Helpful and/or what shenanigans do you practice at home? Call me at 844-935-2378 ⁠⁠THE WEIRDLY HELPFUL MERCH STORE!!!!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Become a WH Patron and listen to the show ad-free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Athletes get all the glory, but there are countless people around them making the games happen - from referees making judgments, to vendors in the stands hawking snacks and beer. In this episode from The StoryCorps Podcast, drawn from our archive of the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded, you'll hear from the people on the sidelines.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Untangling who gets to speak for a dying patient, weighing a treatment's benefits against its burdens, and searching for clarity in the grayest corners of healthcare with Esther Berkowitz, a clinical ethicist. What is the "dignity of risk"? And how do you know which "version" of a person to trust?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

How can public health leaders make meaningful progress when priorities, funding pressures, and public expectations are constantly shifting? Lindsey Myers, ASTHO vice president for public health workforce and infrastructure, talks about a new installment of the Insight and Inspiration webinar series featuring New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath. Myers shares why Heath's work, including his books Made to Stick, Upstream, and Reset, could resonate so strongly with public health professionals navigating today's complex environment. The conversation explores ideas like “ruthless prioritization,” finding leverage points for change, and why building alignment may matter more than seeking “buy-in.”Developing a Policy Action Plan to Improve Access to STI Medications WebinarLeading Change Workshop - July 2026

John continues his conversation with Kelly Chase. They discuss how saying "no" can create better opportunities and Kelly's personal faith journey, from being "spiritual but not religious" to developing a deeper relationship with God, and how it has shifted her mindset, habits, and work. In Part 1, Kelly talked about her experience on Netflix's "Love Is Blind," the emotional struggles that came after the show aired, dealing with online hate, people pleasing, anxiety, and learning how to rebuild her life and mindset. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - The connection between pain, purpose, and platform [01:59] - Your story matters, even if you don't think it's big enough [04:24] - Collaboration over competition [05:31] - Using your gifts is an act of service [06:21] -  How changing perspective helped John handle losing a big client [07:35] - Helping Kelly to define her ideal client [10:32] - Why saying yes to everything can keep you stuck [13:09] - Kelly's growth and its ripple effect on others [16:10] - Why inspiring people works better than forcing change [17:08] - Impact of Kelly's faith on her life and work [26:53] - Faith, religion, and being a follower of Jesus [31:32] - What success means to Kelly [33:19] - Bible app recommendation [34:42] - #1 daily habit [36:51] - Traits of a great leader [38:20] - How Kelly invests in her own growth [39:10] - Best way to connect with Kelly [42:46] - Book recommendations [47:37] - Wrap-up NOTABLE QUOTES: "There is probably something significant that you've been through. You are important, and you're worthy of whatever you want to create. Your story matters too." "If it's not in perfect alignment with who you are and where you want to be, say no." "Rather than viewing them (people in the same business or industry as you) as competition, view them as collaborators." "We just can't shame people for who they are. We have to accept them for who they are, and we can't make someone think a different way, or make someone show up a different way, or believe a certain way as you do. But you can inspire them through your actions without forcing it down someone's throat." "At the end of the day, it's having radical faith that the thing is already here, it's happening, what you're desiring, that or something even better. Maybe you do have to go through a hard and challenging time, but at the other end, there's purpose after pain." "Success is being happy and grateful with where you're at, because if you can't be happy right now, you're not going to be happy at $5 million or $20 million, or with five kids and a house in Vermont." "We can create our own beliefs and our own stories. That's what helps us get through and create our own reality." BOOKS MENTIONED: GOD Works Through You by Robert A Russell (https://a.co/d/0dyNN0KU) Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (https://a.co/d/0ck9reeI) The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz (https://a.co/d/0ekeXxHG) The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod (https://a.co/d/02VngcBf) The 7 Love Agreements: Decisions You Can Make on Your Own to Strengthen Your Marriage by Dr. Douglas Weiss (https://a.co/d/00lnfOVD) The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (https://a.co/d/01lo9n1p) APP MENTIONED: YouVersion Bible App (https://www.youversion.com/bible-app)  USEFUL LINKS: https://www.chaselifewithkelly.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-chase-220a796/ https://www.instagram.com/chaselifewithkelly/ https://www.facebook.com/kelly.chase.161 https://tinyurl.com/ChaseLifeWithKellyPodcast https://tinyurl.com/LoveIsBlindTrailer https://www.cameo.com/chaselifewithkelly https://www.youtube.com/@chaselifewithkelly CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen    X - https://x.com/johnhulen    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX_NchE8lisC4NL2GciIWA    EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/ 

Grinding through 16-hour shifts, standing behind inmates (never in front), and trying to stay human in an inhuman environment with Bill Farrell, a correctional officer in Massachusetts. What happens when an officer gets "frozen"? And why does the sound of scuffling sneakers stop him in his tracks?LINKS & REFERENCESBill was the co-creator of a short documentary about the physical and mental toll of being a correctional officer. It's called "Behind The Wall".WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Bạn có biết tại sao chúng ta luôn khổ sở vì không thể thay đổi bản thân, không thể bền bỉ với những thói quen tốt? Chúng ta quyết tâm giảm cân, nhưng không cưỡng nổi vị ngọt ngào của những chiếc bánh.Chúng ta hứa sẽ tập thể dục đều đặn, nhưng rồi lại tự nhủ: “Thôi, để mai hãy bắt đầu”.Chúng ta muốn ngừng việc liên tục lướt điện thoại, muốn dậy sớm, học thêm kỹ năng mới… nhưng tất cả vẫn chỉ dừng lại ở ý định. Thế rồi ngày qua ngày, chúng ta vẫn mãi sống trong vòng luẩn quẩn: quyết tâm thay đổi → nhưng không thể duy trì → rồi lại trách móc bản thân → cuối cùng thỏa hiệp với cám dỗ. Nếu bạn cũng đang ở trong vòng xoáy ấy, hôm nay, BV xin giới thiệu một cuốn sách nổi tiếng tiếp theo trong chủ đề KỶ LUẬT, mang tên “Thay đổi – Bí quyết thay đổi khi thay đổi trở nên khó khăn” của hai anh em Chip và Dan Heath.Mời bạn cùng lắng nghe!-------------------------Nếu bạn muốn mua sách giấy để đọc, có thể ủng hộ Better Version bằng cách mua qua đường link này nhé, cám ơn các bạn! ❤️ Link tổng hợp các cuốn sách trong tất cả video: https://beacons.ai/betterversion.vn/books ❤️ ỦNG HỘ KÊNH TẠI: https://beacons.ai/betterversion.donate

Harvesting five million bushels of wheat and corn from Texas to Montana, outrunning hailstorms that decimate a year's income in 20 minutes, and running a multimillion-dollar convoy of equipment down the highway with Josh Beckley, a third-generation custom harvester from Kansas. Why do farmers outsource the harvesting of their own crops? And what happens when you drive a combine into a ditch?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Guiding grieving families through arrangement meetings, orchestrating meaningful memorial services within days, and preparing bodies for viewing with Heather Hill, a funeral director in North Carolina. What's different about doing makeup on a dead person? And what is it like to field a death call?LINKS & REFERENCESHeather writes about her work on her website.She's a funeral director at Renaissance Funeral Home in Raleigh, North Carolina."The Future is Female" - American Funeral Director on the surge of women graduating from mortuary school WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Do you have people in your team pushing back on change? It might not be because they're difficult, but they're just exhausted by it. With constant, overlapping demands coming from every direction, it's no surprise their motivation dips and their resistance grows. Instead of trying to force people to get on board, there's a simple step you can take to get them started. It doesn't instantly remove resistance, but it starts to change how people feel about what's possible – and that's where real momentum begins.https://swiy.co/go-small-wins-big-changeAs a leader, are you finding your people are resistant to change?In a recent online presentation, I was talking about building a culture of change agents, and one person said their team is going through constant change. And not just one change at a time, but multiple overlapping changes – and it's creating uncertainty, instability, and change fatigue. His biggest challenge, not surprisingly, is sustaining motivation during this time.I'm hearing that a lot.Leaders tell me their teams are change fatigued, and often it's from external change completely outside their control. Sometimes it's even imposed from higher levels of the organisation, but it's still outside their control.So what can you do?First, accept there's a lot of change, and there will be a lot more in the future. This isn't a temporary state that will eventually revert to normal; this IS normal.So, what can you do about it?Recognise that not everybody is going to be open to change at the same level or at the same time.So, one of the first things you can do is what Chip and Dan Heath, in their book “Switch”, call “finding the bright spots”:Find positive examples of change, share them, and amplify them.Ideally, find examples from within your own team. Even the smallest stories, anecdotes, and case studies can help.This doesn't mean those people who are resistant to change will magically change. It probably takes more before they're full open to change and embrace it. But at least they can see examples of successful change.So, invite people to think of success stories, give them a place to share them (such as the regular staff meeting or an online bulletin board), and celebrate their success.For practical ways to put this into action, download my worksheet, which is all about finding, sharing, and amplifying bright spots in your workplace. Use it with your team to help people move from resistance to starting to believe that change is possible — and even positive.Download the worksheet:https://swiy.co/go-small-wins-big-change Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to turn latent motivation into fuel for change.If you want to be a changemaker, you'll have to convince others to join your cause. But according to Dan Heath, persuading your audience isn't about creating new motivation — it's about leveraging the motivation that's already there.“The most important fuel for any change effort is motivation,” says Heath, the number-one New York Times bestselling author of Reset: How to Change What's Not Working. Instead of struggling to persuade people to want what you want, Heath suggests finding where your goals overlap with the things they already desire. "Before you even get to persuasion, if you can just tap and unleash the energy that's already there, you've already catapulted yourself toward success,” he says.In this Rethinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Heath and host Matt Abrahams explore how to create more compelling communication using “leverage points,” or as Heath says, “where a little bit of effort yields a disproportionate return.” Whether getting buy-in from one teammate or achieving change across an entire organization, Heath shares practical tips for turning latent motivation into an engine for change.Episode Reference Links:Dan HeathDan's Books: Reset: How to Change What's Not WorkingDan's Podcast: What It's Like To Be Ep.190 Motivation Matters: How to Leverage What People Already WantEp.49 Make Numbers Count: How to Communicate Data Effectively  Connect:Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart PremiumEmail Questions & Feedback >>> hello@fastersmarter.ioEpisode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart WebsiteNewsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.ioThink Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTubeMatt Abrahams >>> LinkedInChapters:(00:00) - Introduction (03:59) - The Power of Storytelling (07:09) - Crafting Powerful Stories (12:08) - Finding Great Stories (15:27) - Leverage Points For Change (18:39) - Wasted Resources & Motivation (23:06) - Latent Desire in Systems (25:15) - The Role of Systems in Communication (29:04) - Communicating Progress (32:26) - Lessons from Hosting a Podcast (34:58) - The Final Three Questions (43:00) - Conclusion  ********Thank you to our sponsors.  These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.This episode is brought to you by Babbel. Think Fast Talk Smart listeners can get started on your language learning journey today- visit Babbel.com/Thinkfast and get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription.Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be. 

Landing the Perseverance rover on Mars, working in clean rooms to minimize the microbial bug count, and slogging through hundreds of engineering trade-offs with Swati Mohan, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. What are the "seven minutes of terror"? And is there evidence of past life on Mars?LINKS & REFERENCES:Watch Swati voice the landing of Perseverance in 2021.Swati's official NASA bioMore about the Perseverance roverSwati Mohan spoke with us in a personal capacity. The views expressed in this episode are her own and do not represent the views of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or any other organization.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

John continues his conversation with Garrett Maroon. In Part 1, Garrett shares his journey from a low-paying job to building a successful business, the struggles he faced in the early days, how his mindset changed, and why relationships became the core of everything he does today. In this episode, they talk about date night as a non‑negotiable, being truly present with your wife and kids, and much more. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - Why John coaches men [03:24] - What to talk about on date night [05:09] - Loving your wife is the best gift to give your kids [05:33] - How Garrett and his wife work through feeling disconnected [09:26] - Why you should have regular dates with your kids too [10:20] - How Garrett's faith shapes everything in his life [14:57] - Garrett's definition of success [17:07] - The two lenses through which John views life [18:29] - #1 daily habit [19:06] - Traits of a great leader [20:00] - Experiences over things with kids [22:41] - How Garrett invests in his growth & marriage [25:34] - Creating memories with his family [31:25] - Best way to connect with Garrett [33:46] - Book recommendations [35:45] - Wrap-up NOTABLE QUOTES: "The best gift you can give your children is to love your wife well and show them what that looks like." "My clients can get another agent … but my four-year-old is not going to get a new daddy." "In business, you control things. You have to get things in order. But in marriage, it's about humility. I still want to lead and lead well, but it means asking, 'What are we doing? How do we do this together? What do you need from me? How can I be better?' And that's not easy." "You don't need to be silent about who you are and what you believe … it's not a backpack you take on and off if you truly believe what you believe." "The most important thing I'm going to do is not build a business … it's how I show up for my family." "Care doesn't come from how much something costs. It comes from showing up and being present." "With your kids, don't worry about the things you get them. Create opportunities for them to be with you as you're doing things, because that's what they'll hold on to forever, memories." "We misunderstand, as if our clients and consumers need us to spend a lot of money. What they're really lacking in this world is a genuine relationship with people." "We have no excuse not to be learning and growing." BOOKS MENTIONED: The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life by Justin Whitmel Earley (https://a.co/d/06pkT5ux) Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms by Justin Whitmel Earley (https://a.co/d/0iwZ49cl) The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (https://a.co/d/03b2Eg6P) Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by R. C. Sproul (https://a.co/d/0iLD8aBv) Redeeming Money: How God Reveals and Reorients Our Hearts by Paul David Tripp (https://a.co/d/01gbiMuB) Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek (https://a.co/d/09jZthlL) The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber (https://a.co/d/0hbwrSc9) USEFUL RESOURCES: https://www.garrettmaroon.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-maroon-50b06135/ https://www.instagram.com/garrettmaroon/ https://www.facebook.com/gmaroon/ https://x.com/MaroonGarrett https://www.youtube.com/@faithfulagent The Faithful Agent Podcast - https://tinyurl.com/FaithfulRealEstateAgentPodcast The Balanced Breakthrough: Winning at Work Without Losing at Life (https://a.co/d/03rzNUkF) CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen    X - https://x.com/johnhulen    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX_NchE8lisC4NL2GciIWA    EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/ 

John continues his conversation with Garrett Maroon. In Part 1, Garrett shares his journey from a low-paying job to building a successful business, the struggles he faced in the early days, how his mindset changed, and why relationships became the core of everything he does today. In this episode, they talk about date night as a non‑negotiable, being truly present with your wife and kids, and much more. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - Why John coaches men [03:24] - What to talk about on date night [05:09] - Loving your wife is the best gift to give your kids [05:33] - How Garrett and his wife work through feeling disconnected [09:26] - Why you should have regular dates with your kids too [10:20] - How Garrett's faith shapes everything in his life [14:57] - Garrett's definition of success [17:07] - The two lenses through which John views life [18:29] - #1 daily habit [19:06] - Traits of a great leader [20:00] - Experiences over things with kids [22:41] - How Garrett invests in his growth & marriage [25:34] - Creating memories with his family [31:25] - Best way to connect with Garrett [33:46] - Book recommendations [35:45] - Wrap-up NOTABLE QUOTES: "The best gift you can give your children is to love your wife well and show them what that looks like." "My clients can get another agent … but my four-year-old is not going to get a new daddy." "In business, you control things. You have to get things in order. But in marriage, it's about humility. I still want to lead and lead well, but it means asking, 'What are we doing? How do we do this together? What do you need from me? How can I be better?' And that's not easy." "You don't need to be silent about who you are and what you believe … it's not a backpack you take on and off if you truly believe what you believe." "The most important thing I'm going to do is not build a business … it's how I show up for my family." "Care doesn't come from how much something costs. It comes from showing up and being present." "With your kids, don't worry about the things you get them. Create opportunities for them to be with you as you're doing things, because that's what they'll hold on to forever, memories." "We misunderstand, as if our clients and consumers need us to spend a lot of money. What they're really lacking in this world is a genuine relationship with people." "We have no excuse not to be learning and growing." BOOKS MENTIONED: The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life by Justin Whitmel Earley (https://a.co/d/06pkT5ux) Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms by Justin Whitmel Earley (https://a.co/d/0iwZ49cl) The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (https://a.co/d/03b2Eg6P) Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by R. C. Sproul (https://a.co/d/0iLD8aBv) Redeeming Money: How God Reveals and Reorients Our Hearts by Paul David Tripp (https://a.co/d/01gbiMuB) Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek (https://a.co/d/09jZthlL) The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber (https://a.co/d/0hbwrSc9) USEFUL RESOURCES: https://www.garrettmaroon.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-maroon-50b06135/ https://www.instagram.com/garrettmaroon/ https://www.facebook.com/gmaroon/ https://x.com/MaroonGarrett https://www.youtube.com/@faithfulagent The Faithful Agent Podcast - https://tinyurl.com/FaithfulRealEstateAgentPodcast The Balanced Breakthrough: Winning at Work Without Losing at Life (https://a.co/d/03rzNUkF) CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen    X - https://x.com/johnhulen    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX_NchE8lisC4NL2GciIWA    EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/ 

Defusing a crisis after an ambassador hinted at a preemptive strike on Russia, delivering demarches in multiple languages, and surviving the frantic evacuation of the Kabul embassy with John Johnson, a retired diplomat who spent more than twenty years in the US Foreign Service. Do diplomats still send "cables" in the 21st century? And what does "not/not" mean?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.comFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.comWANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions:1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

If you want to know how to think on your feet, you need to understand something most advice on this topic gets wrong: Thinking on your feet is not a talent. It's a trained response. And the training required goes far deeper than memorizing a few “power phrases” or practicing small talk at networking events. Real mental agility, by which I mean the kind that serves you in a boardroom, on a stage, in a heated conversation, and even in physical danger, is something you earn. And to earn it requires systematic preparation across multiple domains. I know this because I've spent decades training for exactly these moments. As a university professor, I've lectured in multiple languages to rooms of students who didn't always want to be there. And to get my PhD, I had to sit for a dissertation defense in a room where some of the examiners delighted in throwing hardball questions. As a performing musician, I've improvised solos on stages where the set list changed mid-show. While performing card magic, I've recovered from botched tricks in front of audiences who were actively trying to catch me out. And as a martial arts practitioner, I've used my training to escape three real-world physical confrontations without throwing a single punch. Then there was my TEDx Talk where I had to make real time adjustments when the audience failed to even smile at my scripted laugh lines, but chuckled substantially during parts I had not planned to be funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqtDy68-gkY How to Think on Your Feet: The Complete Training System for Mental Agility Under Pressure What I've learned across all of these experiences is that every domain of “thinking on your feet” shares one foundational requirement. It's not intelligence. It's not quick wit. It's often not even confidence. Rather, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that thinking quickly and responding in the best possible way comes down to the systematic reduction of ego. That might sound philosophical, but it's intensely practical. And it will become the thread that connects everything in this guide. From how to recall information instantly in a conversation to how to physically escape a threatening situation without freezing. Here's what we'll cover today: Part 1: Why “Thinking on Your Feet” Is a Trained Skill, Not a Personality Trait Part 2: The Ego Problem (Why Your Self-Image Is Your Biggest Obstacle) Part 3: Mental Recall Under Pressure (How to Access What You Know When It Matters) Part 4: Verbal Agility (How to Sound Smart, Pivot, and Recover in Conversation) Part 5: Performance Under Pressure (Lessons from Music, Magic, and the Stage) Part 6: Physical Composure (How to React When Your Safety Is at Stake) Part 7: Daily Training Exercises for Mental Agility Part 8: Loading Your Mind (Why What You Memorize Determines How Well You Think) Part 9: The Paradox of Mental Silence Let’s dive in with why most people struggle with the skill of spontaneously responding in optimal ways in the first place. Why “Thinking On Your Feet” Is a Trained Skill, Not a Personality Trait As Freud pointed out, civilization is not our natural state. In Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, which is usually translated as Civilization and Its Discontents, he argues that much of our inner tension comes from how our social training represses our instincts. “Discontents” is not really a great translation for the title of this book. “Unbehagen” means something more like “unease” or “discomfort.” And since languages and skills are something we learn, we literally have to undergo a process of discomfort to learn most things. That's not a political statement. It's a neurological one. Your brain's implicit memory system, the part that handles automatic behaviors, gut reactions, and how you repeat social patterns on autopilot, was shaped by millennia of environments that looked nothing like a conference room or a dinner party. It was shaped by physical survival, tribal dynamics, and the need to read danger before it arrives. This means that when you're put on the spot in a modern context, your brain defaults to patterns it learned through observation, not through deliberate training. And those patterns were modelled on the people around you growing up. Especially in contexts like: Being asked a question you weren't expecting Getting challenged during a meeting Having someone force you to improvise a presentation at school or work In such situations, you might find yourself freezing under pressure and not realizing that you’re actually repeating how you saw a parent go cold when you were young. Or you might find yourself getting defensive in arguments the way a sibling did, or going blank during presentations based on someone else’s blip you observed. When you repeat this behavior yourself, it’s not a character flaw. That's implicit memory doing exactly what it was designed to do: replicate observed behavior. And if you’re reading this and don’t have problems thinking on your feet, chances are that you were a lucky observer of someone who could when you were young. Combatting Implicit Memory’s Hold with Reconsolidation The problem is that your default patterns are not optimized for the situations modern life throws at you. They're survival patterns, not performance patterns. Since you’ve learned to react like those you’ve observed instead of how you’d prefer to act as a fully realized being in this world, what can you do? Fortunately, quite a bit. Neuroscientists call the mechanism behind how you can shift the hold of implicit memory on your behavior memory reconsolidation. Here’s how memory reconsolidation works in brief: Every time you recall a memory, it temporarily destabilizes. Researchers call this destabilization a “labile state.” And while the memory is transitioning, the memory can be modified before your brain stores it again. This includes modifying behavioral patterns, not just facts. So when you clam up after being put on the spot and then reflect on what happened, that freezing response is briefly open to revision. This process was first demonstrated in landmark research by Karim Nader and Joseph LeDoux at NYU, which you can read about in Memory Reconsolidation. As part of their investigation, Nader and LeDoux demonstrated that even deeply encoded fear memories could be altered during reconsolidation. Unlocking Transformation Bruce Ecker and colleagues later applied this principle therapeutically. I recommend their discussion in Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Memory Reconsolidation and the Psychotherapy of Transformational Change. As you’ll read, they discovered how long-held emotional patterns can be rewritten. Not through willpower, but through a specific process of activating the old pattern, introducing a contradictory experience, and allowing the brain to re-encode. Monica Khosla explores a parallel idea in The First and Last Belief. This fascinating book is written by someone who experiences non-dual states similar to those I shared in The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being. Khosla discusses how our earliest family-formed beliefs become the templates for how we respond under pressure as adults. Her work in family therapy suggests that these templates aren’t permanent fixtures. Rather, they’re “reconsolidatable,” provided you understand how they were formed and deliberately create new experiences that contradict them. This is precisely what the training in the guide you’re reading now is designed to do. Every exercise, every practice, every discipline I’ll share works by activating your default pattern (the freeze, the defensive reaction, the blank stare) and replacing it with a trained alternative in the moment it’s most labile. The Catch But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch, isn’t there? The pattern that most resists reconsolidation is your self-image. It’s also your self-image that most aggressively defends itself against change. People literally argue for hours with therapists that they cannot change. I know because I made this argument myself for years in front of my own therapists. This is precisely why thinking on your feet requires training. You cannot simply decide to be quicker, calmer, or more articulate under pressure. You have to deliberately replace your default patterns with trained responses. And use deliberate practice to ensure those responses become the new default. The training looks different depending on the context: In conversation and debate, it means learning frameworks for organizing thoughts rapidly and practicing with real people. In professional settings, it means memorizing key information so thoroughly that recall becomes effortless, freeing your mind to think rather than search. On stage or in front of an audience, it means thousands of hours of performance practice that builds a reservoir of recoveries and pivots you can draw on automatically. In physical danger, it means martial arts or self-defense training that bypasses conscious thought entirely and produces trained physical reactions. Each of these contexts has its own training methods. But they all share the same underlying principle: the trained response must be so deeply encoded that it fires before your conscious mind has time to interfere. The single biggest source of that interference? Your ego. But never fear. As big of a problem as the ego can be, you’re going to learn how to solve and resolve it. Part 2: The Ego Problem (Why Your Self-Image Is Your Biggest Obstacle) Here's the uncomfortable truth that almost no “how to think on your feet” article will tell you: The reason most people freeze, fumble, or fail under pressure is not that they lack information or intelligence. It's that they're managing their self-image at the same time as they're trying to perform. They experience serious cognitive drain as a result. Why? Well, when you're in a meeting and someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to, your mind doesn't just process the question. If your ego is not well-managed, your mind simultaneously processes: “What will they think of me if I don't know? Will I look incompetent? How do I maintain my status?” That parallel processing consumes the very cognitive resources you need for actual thinking. The Additional Cognitive Drain of Fantasizing Your Own Wit The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan made an observation that I've found profoundly useful in this context. He once pointed out that our fantasies are almost always better than the reality. For example, when we fantasize about being the quick-witted person everyone admires, we're constructing an idealized self-image that the real moment can never live up to. At least not all the time. You’ve probably heard the phrase “the gods have clay feet.” Well, spend enough time with accomplished performers, and you’ll start to see why. No one always has: the perfect response the devastating comeback the elegant pivot But we fantasize that some people do. And then when we don't perform like our fantasy, we experience not just the failure of the moment, but also a painful collapse of our self-image. That's why a stumble in a presentation can feel catastrophic even when the audience barely notices. The ego is experiencing a much larger injury than the situation warrants. How to Reduce Ego Before It Costs You There’s no quick fix for the ego. And ego reduction exercises so you can respond with greater self-satisfaction in the moment require: Practice in advance Consistent application in a variety of situations And in a variety of ways until responding off the top of your head from a clear mind becomes your default orientation. Then you maintain the practices that get you the spontaneous mastery you want over time. Here is a powerful place to start. Practice Stoic Premeditation The Stoics called it premeditatio malorum or negative visualization. Basically, you deliberately imagine everything that could go wrong related to the situations that regularly require your response. If you regularly visualize yourself going blank in a meeting, stumbling through a presentation, or being publicly corrected, the actual event loses its power to destabilize you. You've already experienced the worst in your imagination. The real version is almost always milder. It’s the flipside of the point from Lacan we discussed above. You’ve now made the reality much better than the fantasy. Modify the Classic Stoic Exercise You can modify premeditatio malorum in two key ways. I suggest you experiment with both techniques I’m about to describe. One: Transform Old Memories of a Disastrous Performance First, you can excavate through your memory to find situations you recall where things have already been bad for you. Then, you can “cleanse” those memories by placing them in a “Happy Memory Palace.” The scientific basis for this process comes from research showing promise in therapy for trauma, such as this study of memory reconsolidation specific to declarative memory. And there is the now classic Tim Dalgleish-headed research on using Memory Palaces or the method of loci for successfully reducing depression. For more on this kind of research, the following livestream replay gives you an exact exercise and more about the memory science behind the positive outcomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9UHz4pVuM In terms of how I’ve used this approach personally, I sometimes wince at one particular memory from when I sang a song during show-and-tell one morning when I was in grade two. I don’t know why I used to feel embarrassed when the memory would arise as an adult, but I could feel the sting in my cheeks. And later when I first started sharing the Sanskrit phrases I’ve memorized, that little flush of shame would arise again. So to forgive that kid whatever my memory was holding against him for his squeaky little voice, I turned the classroom into a Memory Palace and used it to memorize a delightful poem. From the point that I finished learning the poem (you can learn the process from this poetry memorization guide), I can think of that episode without that old embarrassment reviving any of its sting. And I’ve used this approach to transform other lingering memories I don’t like as well, something I’ll share more in-depth in a forthcoming book. Releasing old negative memories that involve shame makes me feel more spontaneous. And I’m confident you’ll enjoy a similar benefit too. Two: Memorize Stoic Quotes Memorizing poetry is one thing, but it takes time. You can commit quotes to memory a lot faster. I share one of my favorite quotes from Seneca in this YouTube short, one that took only a few minutes to memorize, even though it’s in Latin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISvX0-CfRkk I found this quote in Kevin Vost’s Memorize the Stoics! Although it’s not on my list of best Memory Palace Books, it provides a great look at memory training through a Stoic lens. And Vost is right: The value of having ancient wisdom on tap cannot be exaggerated. Not just for correcting your ego. You’ll also find that you have more things to say when pressed to speak on the spot. Things that have stood the test of time. Meditate Specifically for Ego Reduction Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now, often says in his talks that if you are empty of thought, you don’t have to worry about what to say next during a conversation. You’ll spontaneously produce the best possible reply. I often wondered how it was possible to empty my mind of thoughts until I encountered Gary Weber’s Happiness Beyond Thought and Evolving Beyond Thought amongst other works. Although Weber’s full program requires a fair amount of time, it’s worth it for the mental space and spontaneity you’ll enjoy. Two Other Tactics for Detaching From Your Ego for Greater Spontaneity While you’re experimenting with Stoicism, here are two other tactics to explore. They’re both counterintuitive, but powerful. Embrace ignorance as a position of strength Saying “I don't know, but I'll find out” is not a failure. It's a demonstration of intellectual honesty that most people find more impressive than an imaginary answer. If your ego tells you that not knowing something is a form of weakness, push back. Admitting when you don’t know something and then doing some research and following up, builds trust at the same time as it builds your knowledge base. Detach from Needing Any Particular Outcome Your job in any high-pressure moment is not to be brilliant. It's to be present and responsive. Almost as if there is no “you” longing to be perceived in any particular way. Or desiring things to play out for or against you. When you stop trying to produce the perfect response and instead focus on actually hearing the question, understanding the situation, and responding honestly, the quality of your thinking improves dramatically. And it happens largely because you've freed up the cognitive resources consumed by your egotistical needs. You’ll also enjoy your perception of the present moment much more. Part 3: Mental Recall Under Pressure (How to Access What You Know When It Matters) One of the most common experiences of “not thinking on your feet” is this: You know the information, but you can't access it in the moment. You know your mind possesses the answer. But the pressure of the situation has locked the door. There's a neurological explanation for this. Researcher Amy Arnsten has documented how stress signalling pathways in the prefrontal cortex effectively shut down under acute stress. As we know from studies in anxiety-induced memory loss, during stress, the amygdala takes prominence over the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for working memory, reasoning, and flexible thinking. As a result, your brain redirects resources toward fight-or-flight responses that are useful for physical survival but terrible for articulate speech. This is a major reason why you can know something perfectly in a calm environment and go completely blank when asked about it in front of an audience or in a heated discussion. The information hasn't disappeared. Your brain has simply redirected resources away from the systems that retrieve it. The Alphabet Retrieval Technique When I suddenly can't recall something (a name, a fact, a point I wanted to make), I have a technique that works more often than I'd expect: I mentally run through the alphabet from A to Z. It doesn’t always bring back the information. But the technique works often enough to make it a reliable first move, hitting the correct first letter while scanning through the alphabet triggers the retrieval. When it works, it’s because the first letter acts as a cue that unlocks the rest of the word or thought. It’s also the basis of how associative memory operates. As Dr. Gary Small has explained, your brain stores information in networks that somewhat resemble neighborhoods. And the first letter of a word is often enough of a “key” to unlock the door on a full node of information. It's the same principle behind why a song's opening notes can bring back the entire melody. Or how just a word or two of a lyric can bring back an entire verse. The “Let It Go” Retrieval Technique If scanning the alphabet doesn't work, the next best strategy is counterintuitive: Stop trying. In other words, deliberately release any attempt to search your mind for the content. Instead, move on to the next point, the next topic, the next question. Often, within 5–10 minutes, the information you were grasping for will come racing back to mind. This form of recall happens because your subconscious continues processing the retrieval request even after your conscious mind has moved on. Releasing the conscious effort actually accelerates the process, because you've removed the stress that was blocking retrieval in the first place. The Anti-Digital Amnesia Discipline You Need In order to ensure your memory gets stronger over time, you need to break the habit of immediately reaching for your phone or a search engine when you fail to recall something. Every time you outsource mental retrieval to a computer, you weaken the neural pathways that perform recall. You're training your brain that it doesn't need to do the work — and over time, it stops trying. This is the phenomenon I've written about as digital amnesia, and it's one of the most insidious threats to mental agility in the modern world. Preloading: The Real Solution to In-the-Moment Recall Both alphabetical retrieval and simply letting go are recovery strategies. They're useful when recall fails. But the real solution to thinking on your feet is to ensure that recall rarely fails in the first place. This is where a variety of memory training techniques enter the picture. Not as gimmicks, but as the foundational infrastructure for mental agility. The Memory Palace Technique Using Memory Palaces provides a core means of preloading information into your mind. Because this technique allows you to encode very large amounts of information, retrieval under pressure becomes qualitatively different from trying to recall something you passively read or heard. You literally own that information, forwards and backwards. It works because the spatial structure of the Memory Palace gives your brain a retrieval path that works even when the prefrontal cortex is under stress, because spatial memory is processed partly by the hippocampus. This is a different system than the one stress shuts down. In practical terms: If you've memorized the key points of a presentation using a Memory Palace, you don't need to “remember” them under pressure. You just mentally walk to the next room. The information is there, waiting. But it’s not merely attached to a place you know as well as your own home. It has also entered long-term memory. To learn this approach, check out The Memory Palace Technique: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide. Memory Wheels and the Art of Combination Retrieving facts, quotes, even entire passages under pressure is one thing. But what about those moments when you need to synthesize information on the spot? Such as when someone poses a complex question and the right answer isn’t a single piece of information but a combination of ideas you need to assemble in real time? This is where most people’s recall fails them entirely. They might remember one relevant point, but they can’t pull together the three or four ideas needed to construct a substantive response on the spot. I use a technique for this that dates back to the 13th-century philosopher Ramon Llull, later refined by the Renaissance memory master Giordano Bruno. It’s called ars combinatoria or the art of combination. It works by pre-organizing your knowledge onto mental structures called memory wheels so that you can rotate through ideas rapidly and recombine them in novel ways during live situations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opmb-mU-KPI Here’s the simplest version of how it works in practice: Imagine a circle in your mind with the letters A through Z arranged around it. For each letter, you’ve pre-assigned a thinker, a framework, or a principle you know well. A might be Aristotle. B might be a breathing technique. C might be a core value you hold. M might be Marcus Aurelius. S might be the Stoic concept of premeditatio malorum. When a difficult question hits you in conversation, instead of grasping for one perfect answer, you mentally spin the wheel. Instead of searching randomly for something to say, you approach the task of coming up with something to say by scanning an organized inventory of your best thinking. Because you’ve pre-loaded and spatially arranged all of it, your mind can traverse what you’ve already learned quickly. Memory Wheel Example One of my favorite Memory Wheels is populated with philosophers (one for each letter of the alphabet). When I’m confronted with a complex topic, I rotate through and consider what Aristotle would say and then move on through as many philosophers as I like, all the way to Zizek for Z. I know this technique sounds elaborate and it requires having read the best philosophy books, but once you have a Memory Wheel built and practiced, the rotation takes seconds. Here’s a rapid fire discussion with a few more examples from one of my YouTube shorts from the road in Brisbane: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/29nOib2ZS_4 Please don’t overlook this technique. It produces responses that are genuinely multi-perspectival, not just whatever my default opinion happens to be. The deeper history of this technique and detailed instructions for building your own memory wheels are covered in my full guide to Ramon Llull’s memory wheel method. But the principle you can apply immediately upon developing your own memory wheels is this: If you pre-organize your knowledge into a spatial structure rather than leaving it scattered across your memory, you gain the ability to not just recall individual facts under pressure but to combine and recombine ideas on the fly. That is the difference between someone who can answer a question and someone who can think through a problem in real time. It’s not speed without purpose. It’s architecture with a sense of direction based on the shoulders of giants. Part 4: Verbal Agility (How to Sound Smart, Pivot, and Recover in Conversation) Verbal agility isn't about having a quick tongue. It's about having a calm mind with a deep well of material to draw from. The people who seem effortlessly articulate in conversation are rarely making it up on the spot. They're drawing on vast reserves of pre-loaded knowledge, practiced frameworks, and rehearsed transitions. What looks like spontaneous brilliance is actually the visible tip of an enormous iceberg of preparation. Frameworks for Organizing Your Thoughts Rapidly When someone throws a topic at you and you need to respond coherently, having a mental framework prevents the rambling that makes people sound unprepared. Here are several that work, provided you practice using them before they’re required in real-life situations: The PREP Framework PREP stands for: Point Reason Example Point It’s a very powerful formula to practice during debates as well as in conversation. When using PREP, you state your position, give one reason, illustrate with one example, then restate your position. This takes 30–60 seconds and helps keep your replies structured without sounding rehearsed. The WRAP Technique I learned this one from Chip and Dan Heath's Decisive. WRAP stands for: Widen your options Reality-test your assumptions Attain distance before deciding Prepare to fail I placed WRAP on a memory wheel and demonstrate how to run through it mentally in this ars combinatoria video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cYDmaBXvJg What to Do When You're Stumped Even with the frameworks we just discussed or tactics like running through the alphabet, you will experience situations where you simply don't have a response. Here are more strategies you can try. Pause Peacefully Although falling silent can feel painful when you first start practicing it, rest assured that it barely registers to the person listening. And in many cases, a two or three-second pause before responding signals thoughtfulness, not ignorance. Most people rush to fill silence because their ego can't tolerate appearing slow. But a measured pause followed by a substantive response is always more impressive than a rushed response followed by backtracking. Seek Clarification There’s nothing wrong with asking people: “Can you say more about what you mean by that?” or “Are you asking about X or Y specifically?” Such questions will not stall the conversation. It's genuine intellectual engagement, and it often reveals avenues for further conversation that would not be revealed any other way. Use the Truth You might not know this, but many people find it refreshing when someone admits that something is outside of their area. Nir Eyal did that on my podcast a few years ago and I’ve never forgotten his willingness to “stay in his lane,” as he put it. The best part? Nobody penalizes honest uncertainty and a request to move on if you really don’t have a settled opinion on some matter or any expertise. Practice Physical Awareness Sometimes when we’re stumped, our body tenses up. Shoulders rise, the jaw clenches and breathing shallows. This physical tension feeds back into your mental state and makes mental freezing worse. But deliberately dropping your shoulders and taking one slow breath can help break the cycle. More on this kind of physical solution is coming up in Part 6. Practice Steelmanning One of the most powerful exercises for verbal agility is practicing steelmanning. Related to the principle of charity in rhetoric, steelmanning is the practice of arguing for positions with which you disagree. But not half-heartedly. No, you make the argument in the strongest possible terms. One simple way to practice steelmanning involves getting a friend to throw topics at you randomly. Your job is not to argue your own position, but to construct the best possible argument for the opposite side. This practice accomplishes three things simultaneously: It forces you to think through ideas from perspectives you wouldn't naturally adopt, which builds cognitive flexibility. It trains you to separate your ego from your position, because you're explicitly not defending your own views. It prepares you for actual debates, because you've already rehearsed the strongest version of your opponent's argument. For more tips that will help you in this department, check out my guide to preparing for debates. The Improv Principle If you take one thing from this section and act on it, let it be this: Take an improvisation class. Why? Improv comedy training provides you with the single most transferable skill for verbal agility in any context. The core principle of improv is quite easy. You simply answer everything with either “yes, and…” or “no, but…” This simple structure teaches you to accept whatever is thrown at you and build on it rather than blocking or deflecting. This is the exact skill you need in meetings, conversations, presentations, and debates. Improv also provides the one thing you can't get from reading articles: Real-time practice under social pressure while receiving immediate feedback. No amount of theory replaces the experience of standing in front of a group with nothing planned and having to produce something. It’s been a long time since I took an improv class, or any class. But you really only need one round to create a permanent transformation. Part 5: Performance Under Pressure (Lessons from Music, Magic, and the Stage) If you've never performed music, theatre, magic, public speaking, or any other form of real-time presentation, you may not realize how much of “thinking on your feet” is simply having enough trained material that you can recover from anything. The principle applies far beyond the stage. But the stage is where the principle is most visible, so let me share what I've learned from three performance disciplines. Music: Improvisation Is Built on Structure & Self-Awareness When I studied music, I learned something that most non-musicians find surprising: improvisational soloing requires more preparation than playing a written piece. A written piece has every note specified. You practice it, you perform it, you're done. An improvised solo, on the other hand, requires you to internalize the underlying structure so thoroughly that you can navigate it in real time without conscious planning. You need to know the modes, the chord changes, the rhythmic patterns, the phrasing conventions. And you need to know them so well that they're available to your fingers before your conscious mind has time to think about which note comes next. I know this from decades of musical experience. But my life in music almost never happened at all. In grade five, I failed a recorder test. It was given as a prerequisite for joining band class in grade six. The reason, though I didn’t have the language for it at the time, was a condition then called image-deficit disorder, now known as aphantasia. I couldn’t visualize what my teachers were asking me to see on the recorder or the sheet music. And the boring mnemonic sentences they gave us for remembering the notes made no sense to me. The school’s verdict in the face of my supposed failure? No band class. My dad changed that. He rolled up to the school on his Harley Davidson and had a conversation with the administration that I wasn’t privy to. Whatever he said, it worked. I was in. So long as I played the trombone instead of my dream bass guitar. They thought trombone would be easiest for me with its one simple slide. The Art of Coping By Copying But getting into band class didn’t mean I could play. In fact, for the entire first year, I sat beside another trombonist who picked up every note like it was nothing. I survived by watching his slide positions and copying them. I wasn’t reading music. I was reading him. The next year, in grade seven, the teacher gave us separate parts, and my copying lifeline was over. I remember sitting alone in a room with that trombone, sweat rolling down my face, sheet music on the stand turning my brain into wet sawdust. It felt like staring at an explosive I didn’t know how to defuse. But something shifted as my juvenile brain worked to solve the problem. Once I was forced to actually engage with the notation instead of mimicking someone else, I started seeing patterns. The theory behind the notes began to click. My teacher noticed the transformation quickly, both in performance and on my written tests. Later that year, she encouraged me to enter a sight-reading competition. Even though I didn’t win, I remember the thrill of performing music I’d never seen before. And because my teacher saw how deeply I’d started engaging with music, she helped me secure a spot at the local summer school of music before high school. That summer changed my trajectory. I studied with a celebrated trombonist from Canadian Brass. My skills went up substantially, and after a solo I played during the final concert, I was asked to audition for the Kamloops Rube Band. I turned that invitation down and finally retired the trombone for a bass and joined a heavy metal band instead. Over the years that followed, I played in multiple bands, learned increasingly complex music, and eventually realized a lifelong dream: going on tour with an established band. Memory expert Anthony Metivier performing at a concert in Germany. The Lesson That Changed How I Perform And it was during that tour, playing with a sophisticated band called The Outside, that I received perhaps the most important lesson about thinking on your feet that music ever gave me. After a show, our drummer Tito told me I’d missed a few notes. I braced for a critical lecture, but he said something I’ve never forgotten. It was an important tip that has everything to do with the practice of thinking on your feet: “The real problem isn’t missing the notes. It’s looking like you made a mistake. If you look like you made a mistake, it is a mistake.” From that moment on, I trained myself to improvise how I looked just as much as how I sounded. A missed note played with confidence reads as a creative choice. A perfect note played with visible anxiety reads as a near-miss. The audience often doesn’t hear your mistakes, but they do see your reaction to them. This principle extends far beyond music. It shows up in meetings, presentations and conversations. Your stumbles themselves are almost never what people remember. They remember whether or not you flinched. And to tie this all back to the beginning, flinching is an ego response. It’s the visible evidence of caring more about how you appear than about what you’re communicating. Tito didn’t know he was teaching me about ego reduction back during that tour in 2013. But that’s exactly what his lesson was. Card Magic: Multiple Outs and Recovery In card magic, which is especially useful in memorized deck magic, there's a concept called “multiple outs.” I think about it constantly in non-magic contexts. A multiple out is a tactic you might never use, but always have something prepared so that no matter what the spectator does, you conclude the trick successfully. In other words, no matter which card they choose, which pile they point to, which decision they make, you have a prepared path to a successful conclusion. The spectator thinks they're making free choices. In reality, every choice leads to the same place, or to one of several equally impressive endings. This is exactly how preparation works for thinking on your feet. If you've prepared thoroughly for a meeting, you don't just have one argument. You have multiple arguments, multiple examples, multiple pivot points. If someone challenges your position, you have an “out.” If someone asks an unexpected question, you have another “out.” The more preparation you've done, the more outs you have. Magician in Trouble There's also a sub-genre in magic called “magician in trouble” where the performer intentionally appears to make a mistake, building tension before a surprising recovery. What the audience doesn't realize is that the “mistake” was planned and the recovery was rehearsed. But it only works because the performer has done thousands of hours of practice behind the scenes. If you’re having trouble acting spontaneously, learning a few magic tricks is one of the best things you can do. The more tricks you know, the more you can make mistakes and recover. If one trick goes wrong, you transition to another. If a spectator does something unexpected, you have a different trick that accommodates their choice. The depth of your repertoire is directly proportional to your ability to handle anything. Translate this to your professional life: The more tools, frameworks, examples, and stories you have memorized, the more “tricks” you can draw from when a conversation or presentation goes sideways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtYjdriSpM Two Levels of TEDx Improvisation Where Preparation Met Reality Minutes before I was due on stage for my TEDx Talk, a long-time fan showed up without a ticket. From what I gathered, he’d traveled to attend the event in Melbourne. And I could tell he was genuinely excited. But he didn’t have a ticket. And when the venue staff told him he couldn’t come in, due to fire capacity rules, we were both frustrated. Anyone with two eyes could see that the room wasn’t actually full. But there was no time to argue the bureaucracy. I was about to deliver the most important presentation of my career, after all. This is exactly the kind of moment that derails people. Not the talk itself, but the things that happen right before you hit the stage. I’m talking about the unexpected disruptions that flood your system with cortisol at the worst possible time. My ego wanted to fight for this person’s entry. It wanted to make a scene about the absurdity of empty seats and fire codes. It wanted to be the hero who fixes things. Instead, thinking on my feet, I suggested we meet for dinner after the talk. He understood. We shook hands. And then I had approximately four minutes to completely reset my mental state before walking on stage. Here’s what I did, standing backstage where nobody could see: I placed my hands behind my back and began Kirtan Kriya. This is a four-syllable meditation (Sa, Ta, Na, Ma) combined with a sequential mudra where your fingers tap. Gary Weber teaches it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvokeZnXMM By using the technique with both hands behind my back so no one would see, I simultaneously slowed my breathing and brought myself back to center. Between breath cycles, I also ran a quick body scan from my feet to my scalp, deliberately releasing tension wherever I found it. Jaw, shoulders, hands, the major muscle groups. By the time they called my name, I was calm. Not confident in the way people usually mean. I wasn’t puffed up or “psyched” to give my speech. Just calm in the way that comes from having emptied the bowl. The fan situation was gone from my mind. The ego’s need to intervene was gone. What remained was a mind with nothing in it except a memorized talk and the willingness to deliver it to whoever was in that room. What To Do When the Room Doesn’t Follow Your Script Shortly after my talk began, the room did something I hadn’t planned for. A scripted joke that had worked perfectly to create laughter during the dress rehearsal the day before landed in silence. Not awkward silence. Just… nothing. The audience looked at me with interest but no laughter. A few minutes later, during a section I hadn’t intended to be funny at all, they laughed. Genuinely. A speaker working from notes would have been buried in their script at that moment, unable to read the room because their eyes were on the page. But my entire talk was encoded in Memory Palaces using the technique I teach in my guide, How to Memorize a Speech. I didn’t need to look at any notes. I could look at everyone and connect with them directly. So I did and leaned into their laughter. I let it breathe. I adjusted my pacing to ride the energy they were giving me rather than forcing the energy I’d planned. Going with the flow, I made an unscripted joke and it landed. And when the moment passed, I stepped to the next station in my Memory Palace and continued on with the talk. What the Audience Saw vs. What Actually Happened The audience experienced this as spontaneity. They saw a speaker who was loose, present, reading the room. What actually happened was decades of training expressing itself through a four-second decision. The musical performance training that taught me to keep playing through mistakes without flinching. The card magic training that taught me to have multiple outs when a planned effect doesn’t land. The teaching experience that taught me to read a room full of people who may not be responding the way I expected. And underneath all of it, my ego-reduction efforts shone through, including the willingness to let go of the talk I’d planned and deliver the talk the audience needed. After the event, several people told me how natural and relaxed I seemed. One person said it felt like I was just talking to them, not giving a speech. That’s the highest compliment a speaker can receive. And it was entirely the product of preparation. But nothing about that talk was spontaneous other than the joke I made up on the fly. Otherwise, every word of that talk was memorized verbatim. The audience saw someone thinking on their feet. What they were actually seeing was someone falling back on their training. That, and they witnessed someone with enough training to fall back on. That is the difference. And it’s available to anyone willing to put in the work before the moment arrives. Part 6: Physical Composure (How to React When Your Safety Is at Stake) There are situations where “thinking on your feet” has nothing to do with being articulate or quick-witted. Quite the opposite. There are many moments in life when thinking itself is the problem, especially during situations where what you need is a trained physical response that fires before your conscious mind has time to interfere. I've been in three of these situations. Each time, it was my years-long Systema training that kept me safe. In case you don’t know it, Systema is a martial art focused on breathing, relaxation, and fluid movement under stress. To be clear, it didn’t help me fight. It helped me because it stopped fights from erupting in the first place. Let me explain. Incident One: The Attempted Mugging While writing my dissertation, I was living in Washington Heights, a district north of Harlem in New York City. I was walking south, down to the 170s from the corner of 187th and Cabrini, where I’d stopped to use a bank machine. On my way out, a man stood in front of me with something resembling a gun in his pocket. Exactly as it happens in the movies, he gestured in quick spurts of energy so that my eyes dropped and looked at his pocket. “Give me your wallet and all your money,” he demanded. My Systema training kicked in. Instead of having my shoulders shoot up with anxious tension — the default I’d seen in almost every new student Emmanuel Manolakakis worked with, including me during my first lessons — my mind automatically followed the training I’d received. Without willing it, my shoulders dropped and my mind and body synced with my breath. In a way that still completely bewilders me, a smile came across my face. I don’t know what I looked like, but my expression unnerved the mugger. It created the stress in him that should have been in my body. After what seemed like an eternity, the mugger said, “Wipe that smile off your face or I’ll shoot you.” At this point, my smile grew wider and I started to laugh. An instant later, it felt right to move. I took one step forward into his space and angled to the left with the second and third steps. I didn’t break his gaze and watched as his eyes and entire head tracked me as I moved past him. Then, still operating completely on autopilot, I started to run and found myself in a cleaning supplies store filled with mops and buckets. No confrontation. No escalation. No ego. Just a trained body responding faster than a thinking mind would have. My Systema training, from breath coordination to deep muscle relaxation and long hours of practice with dropping into calm during situations of simulated threat, delivered exactly what it was designed for: bypassing the conscious mind that would have frozen me and let the body handle the situation. Incident Two: The Dark Path in Toronto Some time later, walking in Toronto, I approached a path at the end of a high school field. It was too late to be taking this popular shortcut, but there I was during a night that was far darker than I would have liked. There was just one street lamp hanging over that path, and its bulb was barely working. Before I stepped onto the path, I put a dime on my thumb. I didn’t think about why. There was no conscious strategy at work. My body simply did what training had taught it to do: prepare for the possibility of contact without committing to a plan. Sure enough, someone stepped into my path. I flicked the dime. The coin caught his gaze and seized his attention, producing a few seconds of involuntary visual tracking. This is the same reflex that makes every human eye follow sudden movement. Thanks to the distraction created by the spinning dime, I moved past him easily and paced off into the distance before his focus returned. The entire encounter lasted maybe three seconds. There was no conversation, no confrontation, no mental calculation. Just a trained response that created a tiny window of distraction and an immediate exit through it. I still think about the fact that I put the dime on my thumb before anything happened. It wasn’t a decision so much as it was a product of procedural memory — the same memory system that helps a musician’s fingers find the right fret before their conscious mind has named the note. Systema trains you to read environments the way musicians read chord changes. Not by analyzing, but by responding to patterns your body has trained to respond to inside the dojo. Incident Three: Outside the Post Office The third incident was the strangest. Outside a post office, someone with a grievance I didn’t fully understand began yelling at me aggressively. His body language was escalating and the situation felt like it could turn physical. My response was immediate: I raised my hands into a prayer gesture. With my palms together and fingers standing straight up, I found myself saying “thank you” over and over. I wasn’t being clever. I wasn’t trying to defuse the situation with wit. The gesture came from training, and it served two purposes simultaneously that I was only partially aware of in the moment. First, it put my hands in a position to quickly block any incoming strike. The prayer position is a natural guard because your hands are high, elbows close and forearms ready to redirect. I mean, it’s not going to make you bulletproof, but it’s just as disarming as the smile I delivered back during the mugging I survived in New York. Second, my response psychologically short-circuited the man’s aggression. Being thanked while you’re on the offensive is so dissonant that the brain doesn’t know how to process it. This person’s rhythm broke. His volume dropped. The escalation stalled because the script he was running had been interrupted by a response that didn’t fit. He didn’t thank me back. But at least he stopped. And I walked away unscathed. The Common Thread: No Ego, No Thinking, Just the Fruits of Training In all three incidents, the pattern is identical: Because the ego was out of the way, I wasn't trying to prove anything or “win” the encounters. There was also no conscious thinking. The responses were physical, automatic, and executed faster than mental deliberation would have allowed. Plus, there was relaxation under threat. The counterintuitive act of relaxing when threatened, which Systema specifically trains, prevented the freeze response that ego and fear typically produce. Finally, the strategy in each case was oriented toward getting away, not engaging. For anyone who wants to develop this dimension of thinking on their feet, I strongly recommend studying a martial art that emphasizes relaxation, awareness, and movement rather than aggression and force. Finding Your Own Physical Practice If personal experiences make you want to sign up for Systema, I’d encourage it. But I’d also encourage any martial art that emphasizes awareness, breathing, and relaxation over aggression and force. The point is not to become a fighter. The point is to develop a body that responds to threat with trained composure rather than untrained panic. Beyond martial arts, I practice Qigong daily and have for years. It’s not a combat discipline, but it trains the same foundational skills experienced in a gentler format: Breath coordination Bodily awareness Relaxation under tension For someone who has no interest in martial training, Qigong offers many of the same benefits for composure and physical presence without ever throwing or receiving a strike. Whatever physical practice you choose, I’d offer one caution: Don’t romanticize these practices or turn them into a glamorous fantasy. Remember the lesson from Lacan and the Stoic lessons that make sure reality is better than fantasy if and when real situations of trouble land. The three incidents I described above weren’t action sequences. They were awkward, brief, and slightly absurd. I didn’t defeat anyone. I smiled, flicked a coin, and said thank you. The training didn’t make me dangerous. It made me calm enough to exit each situation without a scratch. And that brings me to what I consider the most important physical skill of all, one that doesn’t require any formal training: situational awareness. Train for Situational Awareness In each of the three incidents, there was a moment before contact where my body registered something my conscious mind hadn’t articulated yet. In Washington Heights, I noticed the man’s posture before he spoke. In Toronto, something made me put a dime on my thumb before I entered the dark path. Outside the post office, I registered the escalation in body language before any words were exchanged. To train for greater situational awareness, walk with your phone in your pocket instead of your hand. Move around the world with your ears empty instead of listening to music or podcasts. When you enter a room, notice the exits. When you’re in an unfamiliar environment, pay attention to who is around you and how they’re moving. These aren’t paranoid habits. They’re the same environmental reading skills your ancestors used every day. Modern life has simply given us the luxury of ignoring them. There is almost no better way to think on your feet than the thinking that steers you clear of sticky situations in the first place. When it comes to physical confrontation, the best-trained response is the one you never have to use. Part 7: Daily Training Exercises for Mental Agility Everything discussed so far requires ongoing practice. Here are the specific daily exercises I use and recommend, organized from quick (2 minutes) to involved (30+ minutes). Breathing Techniques (2–5 minutes) Before any high-pressure situation, be it a presentation, a meeting or a difficult conversation, controlled breathing is the fastest way to shift your nervous system from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to parasympathetic (calm and focused). The simplest technique: Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, breathe out for 6 counts. The extended exhale activates the vagus nerve and physically slows your heart rate. Do this for 2 minutes and you'll enter any situation calmer and more mentally available. For more advanced breathing techniques, check out this video tutorial I made for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeO06_uZZcg   Progressive Muscle Relaxation (5–10 minutes) Systematically tensing and releasing muscle groups, from your feet to your face, trains your body to release the physical tension that accumulates under stress. Over time, you develop the ability to detect and release tension in real time — during a conversation, during a presentation, during a confrontation. This is the body scan component that I used before my TEDx Talk, and it's a core element of Systema training as well. The ability to scan your body for tension and deliberately release it is a physical skill that directly supports mental agility. Steelmanning Practice (15–20 minutes) Get a partner. Have them throw random topics at you. Your job: argue the strongest possible case for the position you naturally oppose. Switch roles. Do this twice a week and within a month you'll notice a dramatic improvement in your ability to think through problems from multiple angles under time pressure. Now, you might think about going to Chat-GPT or some other LLM. You can certainly give this a try. However, beware of context-dependent memory and state-dependence issues. If you only train in digital environments with a bot, you will likely find that you perform fine when sparring with a computer, but flounder with a human. As this study found, training in certain environments creates less cognitive fatigue than others. So if you come to develop certain beliefs about the difficulty of discussing things based on experiences with chatbots, you will probably not like the energy-drain you encounter when dealing with humans. Remember: we tend to fight the way we train, so practice all rhetorical argumentation in a variety of environments, never just one. Random Topic Riffing (10–15 minutes) Have someone give you a topic and speak about it for 2 minutes without stopping. What you say doesn't need to be brilliant, but work at speaking continuously. The exercise trains your brain to keep producing output even when it doesn't feel ready, which is exactly the skill you need when put on the spot. Increase difficulty by having the topic-giver interrupt you with new topics mid-stream. This trains your ability to pivot and shift directions without losing composure. Memory Palace Practice (15–30 minutes) Every time you encode information using a Memory Palace, you're doing more than memorizing. You're building the retrieval infrastructure that makes recall under pressure possible. Regular Memory Palace practice is the single most important investment you can make in your ability to access information when you need it. The more you memorize, the more you should seek to incorporate memorized material into your steelmanning and random riffing practice routines. Alphabet Drills and Multiple Mentality (5–15 minutes) One of the most unusual training systems I’ve encountered comes from Harry Kahne, a performer from the 1920s who could write with both hands simultaneously while reciting poetry from memory. He called his approach “Multiple Mentality” because it’s the deliberate practice of running several mental operations at once. His exercises sound deceptively simple. The foundational one: write out the alphabet backwards from memory. Not from Z-A printed on a card. From memory, cold. Most people find reciting the alphabet backwards surprisingly difficult the first time. But once you can do it? That’s when the real training begins. Kahne then asks you to pair the alphabet’s extreme ends mentally: A-Z, B-Y, C-X, working inward. Then start from the center and pair outward in reverse. These are pure concentration drills because they force your brain to hold a structure in working memory while performing various forms of recall. I go deeper into the full Multiple Mentality system and all of Kahne’s exercises in my detailed review of his course, including the parts I think are brilliant and the parts where I respectfully disagree with him. Part 8: Prepping Your Mind (Why What You Memorize Determines How Well You Think) Most of us know that the quality of your thinking is directly proportional to the quality of what you've committed to memory. A mind loaded with poetry, philosophy, scientific principles, historical examples, memorable quotes, and well-understood frameworks will produce richer, more nuanced, more creative responses under pressure than a mind that relies on whatever it happens to recall from last week's reading. This is not about showing off. It's about having raw material that makes you mentally dexterous. And gives you information you can use in an instant. What to Memorize for Maximum Mental Agility As you’ve seen, I strongly recommend memorizing quotes and poems. Because memorized poetry gives you access to compressed wisdom, beautiful language, and emotional resonance that you can draw on in conversation, writing, and thinking. Likewise, you can learn how to remember a story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM4TxD6ez1Y When you've memorized a poem or story, you own the content in a way that reading on its own never provides. The lines and structures become part of your mental vocabulary. I've memorized dozens of poems and passages of verse, and they surface constantly in conversation, in my writing, in my thinking about problems that have nothing to do with literature. Memorize Speeches for Mental Dexterity Likewise, you can seek out speeches from people like Churchill, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Marcus Aurelius. The words of leaders who were themselves masters of thinking on their feet make for excellent training material. When you've memorized their words, you internalize their patterns of thought. You don't just quote them. You begin to think in the structures they used. Learn to Tell Jokes Like improv, humor provides you with one of the ultimate forms of thinking on your feet. And telling jokes is far more learnable than people assume. To get started, commit a few jokes to memory and study their structure. You’ll soon notice that a good joke is a tiny argument: The setup establishes expectations The twist violates the expectations The punchline resolves the violation in a surprising or ironic way This simple structure is not so different from the PREP framework we discussed above. Practice Parroting and Accent Imitation Imitating a famous actor might sound like a party trick, but it's actually a profound exercise in sharing another person’s perspective and behavioral patterns. To imitate someone convincingly, you have to at least try and understand how they think, how they move and how they use language. As a result, the understanding you develop translates directly to the ability to read and respond to different people in different contexts. I’m not particularly good with foreign accents or imitating people. But merely by putting time into practicing a few people, I’ve learned a lot and become more spontaneous on my feet. Reflective Thinking Practice Memorization alone isn't enough. The material you memorize needs to be processed through reflective thinking. This is the practice of deliberately considering what you've learned, connecting it to other things you know, and forming your own positions. I do a lot of my reflective thinking through journaling, through conversation with carefully chosen friends, and through a practice I've maintained for years: regularly re-reading books I've already read, looking for things I missed the first time. All of these practices transform static knowledge into dynamic intellectual resources you’ll draw upon with great ease when you find yourself put on the spot. Part 9: The Paradox of Mental Silence We've covered a great deal of ground today: ego reduction, memory techniques, verbal frameworks, performance training, martial arts, daily exercises, and the art of loading your mind with quality material. And now I want to end with something that sounds like a contradiction but is, in fact, the deepest truth about thinking on your feet: The goal is not to think faster. Rather, it’s to create the conditions where you don't need to think at all. I know this sounds paradoxical. How can “thinking on your feet” require not thinking? It’s because the highest level of performance in any domain doesn’t just look like effortlessness. It actually is, if only in the present moment. I’m talking about the musician who plays a transcendent solo. That performer isn't thinking about which notes to play. Nor does the martial artist who evades a strike sit there thinking about which direction to move. And the speaker who delivers a perfect response to an unexpected question isn't thinking about what to say. They’re drawing upon deep preparation. In each case, the performer has trained so deeply that the right response emerges from a place beneath conscious thought. The preparation started long ago. Practice has quieted your fantasies, both positive and negative. And what remains is a mind so well-prepared that it can be still during the demands and in that stillness, the right response simply appears. This outcome is common in the world of mindfulness and meditation, where practitioners describe the experience of being “full by being empty.” In order to receive the moment as it actually is (not as your ego wants it to be, nor as your anxiety fears things might go wrong), you just have to empty your mind of the noise that normally fills it. Your Next Step If this article has shown you anything, I hope it's this: thinking on your feet is not a gift. It's the product of deliberate, ongoing training across multiple domains — mental, verbal, physical, and philosophical. The foundation of all of it is memory. Not “good memory” as a vague trait, but trained memory — the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information on demand, under pressure, in any context. If you want to start building that foundation, I've created a free course that teaches you the core Memory Palace technique in four video lessons. It's the same starting point my Masterclass students use, and it will give you your first experience of what trained recall feels like. For even deeper training that includes the Memory Wheel technique, ars combinatoria, advanced Memory Palace strategies, and the Recall Rehearsal patterns that make long-term retention predictable, my Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass takes you through the complete learning system. And if you want to explore the meditation, breathing, and muscle relaxation routines I've combined with memory training for maximum mental composure, I go into all of that in The Victorious Mind. So what do you say? Are you ready to stop worrying about what you’ll say next and start training so deeply that the right response arrives on its own? Remember: the secret every performer, martial artist, and memory expert discovers is ultimately the same. You don’t rise to the level of the mome

Dan Heath has spent his career helping people think more clearly about change, decisions, and what makes life memorable, and in this conversation with Ginny Yurich, he brings that wisdom straight into family life. Drawing from The Power of Moments and his podcast What It's Like to Be…, Dan makes a compelling case that childhood, work, school, and family rhythms don't have to blur together into flatness—we can intentionally create moments that lift, surprise, connect, and last. This episode is full of fresh insight for parents raising kids toward meaningful work and meaningful lives, and it will leave you thinking differently about everything from school and vocation to praise, transitions, and the small kinds of magic children never forget. Learn more about Dan Heath here . A huge thank you to our sponsors! Check them ALL out below:  BetterHelp: Visit  ⁠www.BetterHelp.com/1000HOURS⁠  today to get 10% off your first month. Quince - Visit ⁠www.quince.com/outside⁠ and get free shipping and 365 day returns Woom Bikes - Go to⁠ woom.com⁠ and use code OUTSIDE10 at checkout for 10% off your bike purchase KiwiCo- Get up to 50% off your first monthly crate at ⁠www.kiwico.com ⁠ and use code 1000hours. Pocket Hose - text OUTSIDE to 64000 to.get a FREE, 360 degree rotating pocket pivot, AND a FREE thumb drive nozzle with purchase. IXL Learning - Head to ⁠www.ixl.com/1000hours⁠ to get an exclusive 20% savings on your membership Wayfair - Go to ⁠www.wayfair.com⁠ and shop all things home Cure Hydration- head to ⁠www.curehydration.com/outside⁠ to find a retailer near you Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wiring a neighborhood back to life after a tornado, coveting the work of helicopter linemen in Faraday suits, and surviving the collapse of a rotten utility pole with Elden Rivas, a journeyman lineman in Houston, Texas. What is the one sound on the crew radio that stops every lineman cold? And why does a squirrel on a transformer mean easy money?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

What if the best way to solve problems… is to stop them from happening in the first place?In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, the Bautis Financial team discusses another book in their Book Club series: Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath.Through real-world examples and insights from the book, the team explores why organizations often get stuck reacting to problems instead of preventing them — and what it takes to shift toward upstream thinking.In this episode, we discuss:Why many problems persist due to the “diffusion of responsibility” — and how assigning clear ownership is critical to preventing recurring issues.How “tunneling” keeps individuals and organizations stuck in reactive mode, constantly solving urgent problems without addressing the root causes upstream.Why changing outcomes often requires redesigning systems — not just asking people within those systems to work harder or behave differently.How identifying leverage points, early warning signals and meaningful metrics can help organizations detect problems sooner and measure whether prevention efforts are truly working.And more!Tune in for a thoughtful discussion on how upstream thinking can lead to better decision-making, stronger systems and fewer crises — whether you're running a business, managing a team or simply trying to improve processes in your everyday life.Resources: Episode Transcript & Blog | Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen | Bautis Financial: 8 Hillside Ave, Suite LL1 Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000 | Schedule an Introductory CallWant to be a guest on The Agent of Wealth? Send Marc Bautis a message on PodMatch, here: https://tinyurl.com/mt4z6ywc

Suspending the licenses of unsafe restaurant operators, hunting down the origins of foodborne illness outbreaks, and eliciting truthful answers from anxious managers with Justin Dwyer, a health inspector in Peoria, Illinois. What happens when a restaurant locks the door on an inspector? And why should you never wash your Thanksgiving turkey?LINKS & REFERENCESUpstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. You can find the audiobook at Audible, Spotify, and Apple Books.The Poison Squad by Deborah BlumThe Jungle by Upton SinclairUSDA: To Wash Or Not to Wash Your TurkeyWANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Hurtling down an ice track at nearly 100mph, perfecting the practice of visualization, and shaving off hundredths of a second with Kaillie Humphries, an Olympic bobsledder. What's the most feared track in the world? And how do athletes practice when there's no ice in the summer?This episode originally aired on December 17th, 2024.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Negotiating cases in which neither spouse wants custody of the cat, setting clients' expectations about what's legally possible (versus what feels "right"), and finding hope in people's ability to bounce back from dark times with Lucy Stewart-Gould, a divorce lawyer in London. What simple question can break open a deadlocked settlement? And what's a "jurisdiction race"?IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: Check out what it's like to be a criminal defense attorney, a forensic accountant, or a couples therapist.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Tuesday's podcast is a book review--Rich doesn't do a whole lot of these, so you can be sure that if he's recommending--and reviewing--a book, it's probably a good one! This one is called "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath… and as the name would suggest, deals with the concept of making ideas stick in peoples' brains. This is the book where the concept of "The Curse of Knowledge" first came from… and it goes through a formula the authors call "Success" which is an acronym for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. S  U C C E S… I guess there is only one S in their success formula… nevertheless, this is pretty good stuff.

Tinkering with the recipe for gingerbread cake until it's right, adjusting to the variability of local grains, and cherishing the quiet mornings when the sun fills the bakery windows with Sophie Williams, a baker in Bellingham, Washington. What happens when you bake all your sourdough starter by accident? And what's a "starch attack"?Links & References:Sophie owns and operates Raven Bakery in Bellingham, Washington.The Economics of Everyday ThingsBullshit Jobs by David GraeberWANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Episode 436 | AI and Automation: What Should School Owners Actually Use? Podcast Description AI is everywhere right now—and for a lot of martial arts school owners, it's either exciting—or overwhelming. In Episode 436, Duane Brumitt and Shihan Allie Alberigo cut through the hype and get practical about what AI and automation are actually good for inside a school. They talk about why tech won't fix broken fundamentals, how to audit your numbers before you start building automations, and the real-world use cases that can save you time without turning your school into a “robot school.” Along the way, they share stories from the trenches—including Allie using AI to create a ninja “we miss you” video, using ChatGPT to rewrite a heated parent message into something kind and effective, and why too many automations can create “white noise” that makes families tune you out. Key Takeaways AI and automation are different tools. Automation is “if/then” triggers (texts, emails, reminders). AI is adaptive and conversational (helping with replies, content, and decision support). AI won't fix broken fundamentals. It can't repair a weak offer, unclear schedules, poor culture, or bad sales conversations—but it can improve speed, consistency, and follow-through. Audit before you automate. Track lead response time, booking rate, show-up rate, close rate, and first-90-day retention before you start adding more tech. Speed still wins. When possible, the best move is still personal contact fast—call or text a lead within minutes. Too many automations can backfire. If families get flooded with emails/texts, it becomes “white noise” and they opt out. Use AI to communicate with more care. Allie shares how he used ChatGPT to rewrite a message to a parent (when emotions were high) and it completely changed the outcome. Must-haves first. Automated lead follow-up, scheduling/confirmations, and no-show recovery are the highest ROI automations. Nice-to-haves next. Content help, review requests, and referral prompts can work great once your basics are clean. Don't automate the important stuff. Billing disputes, cancellations, complaints, and emotionally charged conversations need a human. Guardrails matter. Build a voice guide, set rules (tone, language, escalation), and always offer a “talk to a human” option. Action Steps for School Owners Do a quick audit this week. Lead response time (minutes, not hours) Booking rate Show-up rate Close rate First 90-day retention Fix your #1 leak before adding new tools. If your show-up rate is low, focus on confirmations and reminders. If your close rate is low, focus on sales conversations. Let the numbers tell you what to fix. Set up (or clean up) your must-have automations. Instant lead follow-up (text/email) Scheduling + confirmations No-show follow-up + reschedule prompts Audit your existing automations for “white noise.” Check if families are receiving overlapping offers or too many messages. Clean up old tags, old campaigns, and outdated promos. Use AI as your “calm-down coach” for tough messages. Before you hit send on a heated reply, paste it into ChatGPT and ask: “Rewrite this in a loving, compassionate, clear way.” Build an FAQ/onboarding library to reduce repetitive questions. Put your most common questions in one place (website/app/videos): uniforms, promotions, how early to arrive, what to expect, etc. Create a simple weekly stats habit. Start small: trials booked, trials showed, enrollments, and which program they chose. Then build from there. Set guardrails so you don't become a “robot school.” Create a voice guide (phrases you use/never use) Define when a human takes over (complaints, cancellations, billing, pricing) Always offer a human option Additional Resources Mentioned Spark Membership Software (automations, follow-up, reporting) LeadHunter Media (lead follow-up + AI texting support) Notion (used to track automations and systems) Upstream by Dan Heath (the “stop rescuing people downstream” story) Atomic Habits by James Clear Everybody Matters (mentioned as a book Duane is filtering through AI) Dan Sullivan (concept: “I always have a person between me and the technology”) If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another school owner. And remember: AI should give you more freedom—not more work.

First, Dan Heath reveals how the most effective leaders don't just solve problems — they prevent them from happening in the first place. Then Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg shares research that shows reframing problems is the real key to breakthrough solutions. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/daily

Momofuku Ando is the father of Instant Ramen. Feeding Japan after the war. But how do you get Americans to eat it? Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is … well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [AirVantage Heating & Cooling Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young. Stephen Semple’s right there standing by, and he just told me what we’re going to be talking about and, man, it took me back to college days. In fact, I was looking at photos over the weekend. I have some photos of when I was in college, and this is way back 20 years before the turn of the century, to tell you how long ago this is. Stephen Semple: I hate how you put it that way. Dave Young: This is 20 years before the turn of the century. That’s a lifetime ago. But there were days in college where it’s like, “Well, gosh, Mom and Dad haven’t sent me any money and I haven’t gotten the job that I told myself I’d get,” so you go to the store, and what do you find? It’s either ramen or, if you want an upgrade, Cup O’ Noodles. And the Cup O’ Noodles, as everyone that’s ever been poor knows, is a noodle soup in a cup, and you take the lid off, put some water in it, throw it in the microwave, voila. Am I right? Is that what we’re talking about, or is this some new form? Stephen Semple: No, no, that’s what we’re talking about. That’s what we’re talking about, not some new Tesla called Cup O’ Noodles. No, no, you’re right, but I want you to hold onto that thought of it as being an upgrade from ramen, because we’re going to revisit that. Dave Young: Not an upgrade? Stephen Semple: We’re going to revisit that whole idea, because that’s brilliant. It was started in the 1950s and it was a new idea then, but today there’s over a hundred billion servings of instant noodles eaten every year. And it’s estimated that Cup O’ Noodles sells between 18 and 25 billion servings a year. It’s inside of a larger organization, so it’s hard to know exactly, but that’s the estimates I’ve come across. Dave Young: Dude, that’s like feeding the planet three times in one day. Stephen Semple: Right? Isn’t that crazy? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So, empire? Yeah. Dave Young: Yeah. There’s some guy sitting on top of that noodle money somewhere, and I guess we’re going to hear the story. Stephen Semple: So in the 1950s in the United States, food is boring. Eating out was like literally going to diners, and international food really only existed in big cities that had Chinatowns. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And, following World War II, there was actually a strong anti-Asian feeling in the United States. Meanwhile, back in Osaka, Japan, there’s a food crisis after the war because basically Japan has been decimated, and bread is being distributed by the U.S. and it’s really plentiful, but people wanted more traditional meals. Dave Young: They’re not used to bread. Stephen Semple: Right. It’s not part of what they normally eat. So Momofuku Ando is a 48-year-old businessperson. He’s lost his company. He went to jail for tax evasion. All sorts of bad things went on, but he’s out of jail and he’s looking to start his new business, and he sees people lined up for ramen, so there is a ramen tie in here. Dave Young: There you go, yeah. Just to be fair, I wasn’t talking about ramen from a store or from a vendor. I’m talking about those little bricks of Top Ramen. Stephen Semple: Yeah, yeah. Hold onto that. Hold onto that thought. We are going to come back to that, yes. So, ramen was created when noodles basically came over from China, and 1910 is the earliest record we could find of a ramen shop in Japan, so it looked like it was around 1910. Dave Young: Yep. The Japanese didn’t have noodles till 1910? Stephen Semple: They didn’t have the type of noodles in ramen, yes. Dave Young: Okay. See, I mean, we could go a whole nother direction on this if you wanted to, in the Japanese industrialization of them going around the world and bringing all kinds of new technology back to Japan in the early 1900s. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Turns out, including noodle technology. Stephen Semple: Including noodle technology, and we forget how closed Japan was. Dave Young: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Basically, the only thing that was imported was silk. Right? That was about it. Very, very closed economy, and then yes, lots of … And when things changed in Japan, boy, they changed in a hurry. It went from basically medieval to industrial in like, that. It was crazy. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: I mean, you and I are both whiskey fans, and we know that the story of Japanese whiskey is the same story. The Japanese guy goes to Scotland, falls in love with Scotch whiskey, figures out how to make it, comes back to Japan and builds the Japanese whiskey industry. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Let’s go back to noodles. I’m sorry. I will distract us all day long. Stephen Semple: No, but it is an interesting thing. Now, the main drawback to ramen is it’s hard to make at home. The noodles need to be fresh. They’re hand-cut. They’ve got to come from shops. And so what Momofuku decides is he wants to make a ramen product that is tasty, non-perishable, easy to make, affordable, and ready in five minutes with hot water. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: That’s his goal. Dave Young: That’s a goal. Stephen Semple: On top of that, he has no culinary training. So he invests every last penny into this, because he needs something he can put into a grocery store as well on the non-perishable, because there’s few refrigerators or ovens in Japan at this time. Dave Young: Okay, yeah. Stephen Semple: And the key is the broth, and it can take days to make the broth. So here was his question. If everyone loves ramen, why is it so hard to make? And so he tries drying the noodles, then he gets the broth dried into the noodles, and he spends several years working on this and nothing seems to work. And one day, he notices his wife tempura-frying food and the batter dehydrates immediately the moment it hits the oil, because what does oil do? Removes water. So now what he does is he drops the noodle into this high-heat oil, and it creates a shell. He then takes fresh noodles, cooks them in the broth until it’s saturated, drops it into the oil, and the water is cooked out. It works. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: It works. He’s now got this dried noodle. Now he needs to get it in the store. So he starts with chicken ramen, and that’s more expensive. It’s about six times the price of regular ramen, but what he finds is people are willing to pay for the convenience. So in 1961, it hits stores in Osaka and it sells like crazy, and it’s called Magic Ramen by customers. Dave Young: Magic Ramen. I like that. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and he gets to the point where he borrows a million yen to open a factory. In the first year they’re doing 13 million packages, and the second year, 50 million packages a year. Now, to put that in perspective, 50 million packages a year, the TV dinners at that time is one half the number of sales of the amount of ramen that they’re selling in Japan, of this instant ramen. Dave Young: Wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: It’s 1962, and this idea is getting very copied. There’s now 70 companies in the space in Japan in a few short years. And some are also cheaper and the economy in Japan is still recovering, so Momofuku decides he’s going to spend a couple of million bucks and he’s going to bring this product to the United States. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Now, the timing is really bad. In 1968, there’s a hoax letter written to the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Kwok that MSG is unsafe and The New York Times reports on it, and this becomes a placebo effect on all Chinese food. Dave Young: What year was this? Stephen Semple: ’68. Dave Young: ’68, okay. Stephen Semple: The letter was written on a bet by Dr. Howard Steele, who was a pediatric who was having a hard time getting published, and there was this bet that, “Oh, I bet you if you wrote something this way, it would get published,” so he creates this hoax and it gets published. Dave Young: And people still believe it? Stephen Semple: Yeah. He created this fake research facility with a made-up name, and it’s amazing. Sounds kinda familiar for the world we’re in today, and MSG is declared unsafe for years later. Dave Young: Well, my wife thinks MSG doesn’t agree with her. Stephen Semple: Well, some people, it may not. Dave Young: Maybe it doesn’t, but I don’t know. Stephen Semple: But again, that could be just a food intolerance, right? Dave Young: You don’t know, yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So Momofuku travels to the United States. Here’s one of the things he figures out. He runs into a bit of a challenge with the U.S. market. He realizes he needs to do sampling, because it became successful in Japan because it was a familiar food that became convenient, right? So it was only one step away, a familiar food that became convenient. It was not a familiar food in the United States, so he decided he needed to do sampling, so he goes over to the U.S., sets up sampling in grocery stores. This anti-Asia movement is so strong, people won’t even try it. It’s too new. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Won’t even try it. Dave Young: And don’t know what ramen is. Stephen Semple: Right. So when he’s done, he’s got all this product left over and he decides, “I’m not going to take this product back to Japan,” so he leaves it for the staff, but what he notices is the staff are eating it, but very differently. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories to Sell Ad] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: So when he’s done, he’s got all this product left over and he decides, “I’m not going to take this product back to Japan,” so he leaves it for the staff, but what he notices is the staff are eating it, but very differently. What he discovers is the staff break up the noodles, and put it in a coffee cup and pour in the hot water, and eat it in the break room. The recipe called for these large noodles to be put in a pot and then you transferred the pot to a bowl. Dave Young: Oh. Okay, yeah. Stephen Semple: So your Cup O’ Noodles, you know when you’re talking about the bricks of ramen? All it is is a brick of ramen, broken up into little bits. Dave Young: Sure. Well, I used to make it. I didn’t like the long noodles, so I would do the same thing just instinctively, because I’m an American from the Midwest. Stephen Semple: Yeah. What he also observed in all of this was that people called it noodles. Yeah. So they took the ramen, broke it up in little bits, put it in a coffee cup, poured in hot water and called it noodles. Dave Young: Noodles. I mean, that’s what Mom made for us when we weren’t feeling so good, right? It was some chicken noodle soup. Stephen Semple: Right. So now we have the familiar, remember? Dave Young: Yes. Stephen Semple: Successful in Japan because it was the familiar made convenient. Now we had the familiar. How do you make it convenient? He goes back to Japan, and he comes up with the idea of a styrofoam cup that you put it in. He added some vegetables, which made it a complete meal. Now, the Asian food scare was still there, but it’s not Asian food any longer, it’s a cup of noodles. Dave Young: Yeah. Brilliant. Stephen Semple: And he stopped calling it ramen. He called it a cup of noodles. And actually, originally it was called Cup Noodle and in 1973 they added the O’, so now it was Cup O’ Noodles. Dave Young: So, I mean, you could start riots in the U.S. There could be millions of idiots, that they’re going to be upset now that they were fooled into eating ramen instead of noodles. Stephen Semple: Well, I’m safely here in Canada. This is your problem to deal with. Dave Young: Yeah? I think you should put some kind of warning label on this episode. Stephen Semple: “Warning, may cause riots.” I like it. We may do that. We may do that. Dave Young: Yeah. “We’re just a victim of Big Ramen.” Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. It’s one more unwanted foreign influence in the United States. Dave Young: Uh-huh. Stephen Semple: Today, the estimate is Cup O’ Noodles is like an $8 billion business, but what I found that was so interesting about this was his innovation all came from observation. Dave Young: Yes. Stephen Semple: He observed that people in Japan were eating ramen but couldn’t eat it at home for a bunch of reasons, so he wanted to make this community thing for home. He observed his wife with the tempura batter, which made for the breakthrough, had this huge success in Japan. But when he came to the United States, it was the whole thing of noticing the people eating it were doing it differently. They’re breaking it up, putting it in a cup, adding hot water. Now, there’s a business innovation lesson here but there’s a marketing lesson as well, because our greatest asset as marketers is observation of people. Dave Young: Exactly. Stephen Semple: It’s observing how people think, observing how people feel, observing how they act, observing how they react to things, and great marketing comes from observation. So does great innovation. Great innovation is seeing something on the right and pulling it over to the left. What I loved was this moment where he suddenly realized, “Wait a minute, ramen was successful in Japan because we took the familiar and made it convenient.” And then once people were looking at it like a soup, he was like, “Ooh, we make this more like a soup. We’re now taking the familiar and making it convenient, rather than making it a new food,” and I thought that was an unbelievably amazing observation. Dave Young: It is. And I think sometimes we get our heads into the books or the business or dealing with the oh, my God, the million little problems that just pop up in front of us every day, and we don’t step back to see the big picture. We don’t step back to observe. Stephen Semple: Well, we lose sight of what’s the customer actually thinking, and really that’s all that matters is what’s the customer thinking, right? What’s in their head? What’s going on in their world? How are they going to react to these things? And the more you understand that, the more you understand the human being on the other side of the … All ideas look great when you’re sitting in a boardroom with four white walls, a dropped ceiling and a spreadsheet. You can make anything work. The real thing is, how about the human being on the other side of that equation? That’s what matters. That’s what matters. Dave Young: I don’t want this to sound … Oh, I don’t care. I don’t care how this sounds. Stephen Semple: We’re already starting a riot, Dave. Go for it. Dave Young: Sometimes I get … I don’t use ChatGPT to write very much, but I will hand it something I’ve written and say, “Dumb it down.” Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: “Make the sentences shorter, make this understandable to a sixth grader,” and it does a pretty decent job of helping me figure that out. Stephen Semple: For sure. Dave Young: It’s not that I’m assuming that people are stupid, but there are some people. Think about this. This is touching on MAGA territory here, but if you think about how smart the average person is, realize that half of the people are less smart than that. When you have a cup of ramen and a word that nobody’s heard, ramen, nobody knew what ramen was in the United States in the 1960s or ’70s. Stephen Semple: No, they didn’t. Dave Young: But they all knew what a noodle is. Stephen Semple: Noodle was. Yes. Dave Young: Grandma’s made us noodles forever. We like noodles. We like them in casseroles. We like them in stroganoff. That’s just beef and noodles, and noodle soup. And so if you change the word ramen, you get over yourself, you get over the fact that, “Well, people need to understand that ramen is not quite the same,” no, no, no, no, no. These are noodles. Stephen Semple: Just call it a noodle. Dave Young: Just call it a noodle. Stephen Semple: And that’s what was brilliant in the name, Cup O’ Noodles. Dave Young: Yeah. I think there are business owners and marketers that feel like the answer is to educate people. Stephen Semple: It never is. Dave Young: Never is. That hardly ever works. You need to associate your product with something they already know and understand. Stephen Semple: Attach the unfamiliar to the familiar, and we’ve talked about that a number of times in this podcast. But one of my favorite business books is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, and one of the things that they talk about is there’s six things that make a message sticky, and one of them is simple. Simple, I have a different take. I hate the term, dumbing things down. I like instead, let’s simplify it, because when a message is simple, it’s easier for everyone to absorb. It actually takes less brainpower to figure it out, and let’s face it. I’m in a world today where I’m competing with 5,000 messages a day. If it’s complicated and it takes time, it’s not that a person’s lazy, it’s not that they’re dumb. It’s, look, there’s just too much coming at them. The brain is like, “I don’t have time for that, because I got too much stuff coming at me.” So the more you can simplify it down, connect it, make it concrete, attach the unfamiliar to the familiar, the easier the brain just goes, “I get that. I understand it.” We need to make it easy because we’re competing with so much. Dave Young: No, I agree. Stephen Semple: As soon as you go down this path of I got to educate the consumer, give me a break, because I’m supposed to be educated on the food I eat, the air I breathe, the water I drink, the education, how I teach my kids, my health, my finances, my car, my air conditioning. Dude, I don’t have enough time to get educated, all that stuff. I have a busy life, and what I want to do is watch the hockey game at night. Dave Young: I agree. I agree 100% with you. And I’ll add this. There are still people that are stupid that eat three times a day. Stephen Semple: Yes, there are. There are. Dave Young: And they eat three times a day and want a Cup O’ Noodles. Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Absolutely. Dave Young: The simplification works in both directions, right? Stephen Semple: That’s the key. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: That’s the key. Dave Young: That’s why it works so well. Stephen Semple: Right, because it wins you actually both ends of the spectrum. What it does is wins you everyone. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Everyone. It wins you everyone. That’s the point I want to make. Dave Young: If the sixth grader can understand it, so can the PhD. Stephen Semple: Correct. Well, and not only that. You’ll attract the attention of the PhD because they too only have so much time. Dave Young: Yeah. Simplify, simplify. Cool. Stephen Semple: This was fun. So here’s the interesting thing, Dave, is going back to your early statement of, “Oh, I didn’t eat ramen, I ate a Cup O’ Noodles.” Dude, you eat ramen. Dave Young: Now you know. You know, I never thought that the ramen had enough carbs in it, so I always crumbled a package of crackers in as well, to make it kind of a paste. Sometimes there’s just not enough carbs in it, so you just add some potato flakes. It thickens right up. Yeah, I was a master at that. Stephen Semple: You there were a connoisseur. Dave Young: You can use it as grout. Thank you for bringing us the story of Cup O’ Noodles, Stephen. Stephen Semple: We’re going to start a riot. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big, fat, juicy five-star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire-building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Sculpting mullets on Havanese, enduring countless bites, and surviving level-five furnadoes with Aaron Williams, a dog groomer in Alabama. Why is the grooming table his most powerful psychological tool? And which part of the grooming process is most dreaded by dogs?You can see Aaron in action at his YouTube channel.Want more episodes featuring professions who work with animals? We've spoken with a veterinarian, a cattle rancher, and a dog trainer.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

John continues his conversation with Howard Pearl. They discuss how hard times are not our enemies, but opportunities to grow stronger and more compassionate and why mistakes are some of our best teachers. In Part 1, they talked about the importance of the right workplace culture, and how trust, respect, and integrity are the backbone of any successful organization. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - How true gratitude changes everything [01:05] - Turning problems into teachers [04:37] - Howard's plans on writing a book [07:01] - Why failure is actually good [10:25] - Howard's definition of success [13:37] - Top daily habits [19:04] - Buying multiple copies of books to give away [22:07] - Traits of a great leader [25:07] - Best way to connect with Howard [31:58] - How Howard invests in himself [34:43] - Closing remarks NOTABLE QUOTES: "I have no enemies. I have only friends I have yet to meet." "You can't have elation without a little depression. You can't have success without failure." "This thing (pain, problems) that I thought was my enemy turned out to make me work much harder. And the next time I saw a problem like that, I just walked over it because I understood how to deal with it." "The tough things aren't my enemies. Those are the things where I have to do extra lifting." "The school system does not set kids up for success at all. It sets them up to be mindless drones that are just worker bees. This whole grading system, where somehow getting an F is bad and an A is great, I'm like, well, all that tells them is how to take a test. I'd much rather have a kid who struggles with grades but gets it, so that s/he can actually do something down the road with it." "What is life? Life is the experience of experience. It's the doers doing the doing. You can sit on the sideline and watch and say, 'Oh, that's interesting.'" "One of the great experiences of being human is that emotions manifest in the physical. It's why we have this corporeal body." "I have never failed at making a light bulb. I have successfully learned how not to make one 1,000 times." – Thomas Edison "Leaders read and readers lead." – Jeff Brown BOOKS MENTIONED: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara (https://a.co/d/bES9CQh) The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line by David Horsager (https://a.co/d/blPni2p) Nonprofit AI: A Comprehensive Guide to Implementing Artificial Intelligence for Social Good by Nathan Chappell and Scott Rosenkrans (https://a.co/d/6EKwiSc) Moral Ambition: An Antidote to Apathy: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference by Rutger Bregman (https://a.co/d/1pFqkom) The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath (https://a.co/d/2eWO4ca) USEFUL RESOURCES: howardpearl@gmail.com  https://www.careasy.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardpearl/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/charitable-auto-resources/ https://www.instagram.com/cars_charitableadultrides/ https://www.facebook.com/howard.pearl https://www.facebook.com/carsorg/ https://x.com/charitableauto CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen    X - https://x.com/johnhulen    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX_NchE8lisC4NL2GciIWA    EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/ 

Judging the permissibility of real-time battle decisions, advising commanders how to handle soldier misconduct, and assessing "hostile acts" and "hostile intent" with Lieutenant Colonel Susan Upward, a Marine Corps JAG. What does "dispo" mean in military justice? And how do you tell a commander his idea is colossally stupid -- while keeping your job?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Weaving songs and dances into classroom lessons, having difficult conversations with parents, and navigating the second-day meltdowns of kindergarten students with Yaronda Kilgo, an elementary school teacher. What did a backpack full of snacks teach her about empathy? And what makes her "extra"?We're teaming up this month with GiveDirectly to collect money that will go directly to Rwandan families. Dan will match every dollar raised from What It's Like To Be... listeners. Donate now: givedirectly.org/whatitslikeWANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Managing Ebola treatment centers in Sierra Leone, coordinating with government officials and local leaders, and advocating for the radical simplicity of cash aid with Grace Jackson, a humanitarian worker. When low-income families are given money, what's the first thing they often buy? And what is “CMCoord”?This episode is part of a fundraising effort called Pods Fight Poverty. We're teaming up with GiveDirectly to collect money that will go directly to Rwandan families. Dan will match every dollar raised from What It's Like To Be... listeners. Donate now: givedirectly.org/whatitslikeWANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Reinterpreting centuries-old classical music, marking up symphonies with notes on phrasing, and turning mid-performance disasters into unforgettable moments with Carlos Miguel Prieto, a music director and conductor. How do you get an orchestra to pick up the tempo? (Spoiler: Not by waving your hands faster.) And how does a performance of Beethoven's Fifth sound different today from a century ago?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

In this special episode of Book Overflow, Carter and Nathan are joined by Dan Heath, co-author of Made To Stick!A note to all video viewers: Dan Heath requested that only his audio, not video, be used, so while he is speaking a copy of Made To Stick will be shown.-- Want to talk with Carter or Nathan? Book a coaching session! ------------------------------------------------------------Carterhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/carter-m-1Nathanhttps://www.joinleland.com/coach/nathan-t-2-- Books Mentioned in this Episode --Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.----------------------------------------------------------Made To Stickhttps://amzn.to/3UTzcmR (Paid Link)----------------Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5LApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpodCarter on X: https://x.com/cartermorganNathan's Functionally Imperative: www.functionallyimperative.com----------------Book Overflow is a podcast for software engineers, by software engineers dedicated to improving our craft by reading the best technical books in the world. Join Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups as they read and discuss a new technical book each week!The full book schedule and links to every major podcast player can be found at https://www.bookoverflow.io

Today's authors promise to help us transform the way we communicate our ideas. Join Mike & Cory as they dive into what makes an idea sticky. Support the Show Recommend a Book Mike's Personal Retreat video NaNoWriMo The Library Sponsor Games Bookworm 234: Sponsor Magnet by Justin Moore Made to Stick by Chip and Dan […]

Calculating electrical loads, getting zapped by 277 volts, and savoring the freedom of the skilled trades with Doug Powell, a master electrician. Why are blue-collar professions growing increasingly more attractive? And what are the telltale signs of a hack electrician?Doug runs Lumen Brothers Electric Company with his business partner, Josh.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Kevin Muñoz and Kathryn Freeman dive into Dan Heath's Reset, exploring why small, intentional resets often outperform massive overhauls. They discuss how to identify “bright spots” worth replicating, the power of giving your team ownership over change, and why the best time to reset isn't January 1st—it's right now. From Chick-fil-A's drive-thru innovations to archery coaches who let athletes steer their own improvement, this conversation is packed with practical strategies for business owners ready to break the cycle of patching problems and start designing sustainable growth.

Scaling outfield walls to pick off home runs, bouncing between La Quinta hotels and sleeper buses, and chasing the dream of the majors with Trayvon Robinson, a professional baseball player. What superstitions did he live by? And what did he do to make SportsCenter in his major league debut?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Monitoring global networks of seismometers, evangelizing for stronger buildings instead of better predictions, and measuring LA's slow crawl toward Alaska with Lucy Jones, a seismologist in Southern California. Why does she begin counting when she feels the earth start to shake? And how did a nuclear test ban treaty end up boosting the science of earthquakes?Lucy is author of the book The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them). She also founded the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society.The piece composed by Lucy featured at the end of the episode is called "In Nomine Terra Calens: In the name of a warming earth". It was performed and mixed by Josh Lee.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Hosts: Mark Smith, Meg Smith

Butchering whole alligators, costing out every plate down to the garnish, and perfecting grilled sweetbreads with Cindy Wolf, an executive chef. What was it like to cook for Julia Child? And what popular item does she wish she could purge from the menu?Dan's latest book is Reset: How to Change What's Not Working. It's out in hard cover and as an audiobook.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Registration linkTo be presented Sept 30 at 5 pm ET by Tracy O'Rourke.Do you have a painful process, but people don't seem to want to embrace change to improve it? Does it seem that people are comfortable with the status quo? One of the most powerful Change Management tools you have is…Gemba Walks!  Tracy O'RourkeCo-Author "The Problem-Solver's Toolkit" Co-Founder of the Just-in-Time Café Co-Host of the Just-in-Time Café podcast Master Black Belt UC San Diego Instructor Parody Music Video CreatorA process improvement ZEALOT! we'll explore the psychology behind Gemba Walks specificallyrelated to some of the concepts shared in “Switch” by Chip & Dan Heath andwhy Gemba Walks are a MUST when you need difficult change to be easier

Writing for the ear rather than the eye, racing to meet teleprompter deadlines, and recasting lost memories as timeless advice with Stephen Krupin, a speechwriter. What was it like to write speeches for President Obama? And when can a speaker's desire for "authenticity" go too far?WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Dan Heath, author of Made to Stick, The Power of Moments, and other seminal leadership books, talks about the six surprising traits of sticky sermons, how to design church experiences people never forget, why focusing on the problem is the wrong approach to leadership, what he's learned from Chick-fil-A, and getting people to change.

Crafting floral masterpieces that disappear within hours, dealing with the eccentricities of wealthy clients, and making 3am runs to the flower market with Paul Hawkins, a floral decorator in England. Why is it a no-no to mix red and white flowers? And what's it like to design floral decorations for royalty?You can see some of Paul's work on his Instagram page.WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue. GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We'll ask you to answer two questions: 1. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean? 2. What's a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise. We can't respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We'll follow up if it's a good fit.

Episode 233 In this episode, we sit down with speech-language pathologist Linsey Jones, who's leading groundbreaking work in her district by delivering smart, targeted, and manageable literacy interventions to kindergarten students.Linsey shares how her background in speech-language pathology led her to create a data-driven, highly responsive tier 2 intervention program. She walks us through how she uses assessments (think: letter-sound knowledge, early phonemic awareness, and real-time data tracking), what her 15-minute intervention sessions really look like, and how thoughtful collaboration with classroom teachers has created system-wide change.We also talk about how her work has been influenced by literacy expert Julia Lindsey and how their entire district is now seeing almost no students falling behind by the end of kindergarten.ResourcesLearn more about Linsey's Tier 2 Phonemic Awareness Intervention ProgramCheck out Linsey's website: speechlanguageliteracyconnection.com Research-Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills with Julia Lindsey (podcast episode)  Reading Above the Fray by Julia Lindsey (book)Kindergarten TEAM Reaches (nearly) 100% Success Using Evidence-Based Practices (podcast episode)Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath (book)  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Ask anyone if they prefer fresh or frozen fish and almost everyone says – Fresh! But it turns out to be not so simple. A lot of fish you think is fresh may have been frozen at some point. This episode begins by unraveling this issue of fresh or frozen fish and which is better. https://www.thespruceeats.com/frozen-fish-better-than-fresh-fish-1300625 How do you solve a problem before it even becomes a problem? The perfect example is changing the oil in your car. You do that to prevent problems from happening later. And it turns out a lot of problems in life can be solved – or prevented - that way if we just change how we look at them. That's according to Dan Heath author of the book Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen (https://amzn.to/3atB1Os). Listen as he reveals this way of preventing problems that everyone can put into practice. Our tendency is to add. When the government sees a problem, they add a new law. When there is a problem at work, management adds a new rule. We add. But what if a better solution is to subtract? Take away a law or a rule or remove an obstacle. We tend not to think that way, but we should according to my guest Leidy Klotz. Leidy is a professor of engineering and architecture at the University of Virginia and author of the book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less (https://amzn.to/3olHXG5). If you have a sweet tooth you would like to tame – the solution just might be a pickle! Listen as I explain. http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-some-pregnant-women-crave-pickles-and-ice-cream.htm PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! MINT MOBILE: Ditch overpriced wireless and get 3 months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://MintMobile.com/something⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ! FACTOR: Eat smart with Factor! Get 50% off at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://FactorMeals.com/something50off⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ROCKET MONEY: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster! Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://RocketMoney.com/SOMETHING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ QUINCE: Elevate your shopping with Quince! Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Quince.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns! INDEED: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Indeed.com/SOMETHING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ right now! DELL: Introducing the new Dell AI PC . It's not just an AI computer, it's a computer built for AI to help do your busywork for you! Get a new Dell AI PC at⁠ https://Dell.com/ai-pc⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sharing an episode of “What It's Like to Be…” from author Dan Heath. On the podcast, Dan explores the world of work, one profession at a time, and interviews people who love what they do. He finds out: What does a couples therapist think when a friend asks for relationship advice? Is a Secret Service Agent supposed to pretend like they're not there when they're around the president? What are the 3 clocks that govern the life of a long-haul truck driver? If you've ever met someone whose work you were curious about, and you had 100 nosy questions but were too polite to ask… this is the show for you. In this preview, Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa (“Dr. Q”), a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, describes his work: zapping parts of the brain to know where to cut, operating a mouth-controlled microscope, and carrying the weight of life-or-death decisions. How do you preserve a mathematician's expertise when removing tumors? And how did Dr. Q go from picking tomatoes to performing brain surgery? You can listen to more episodes of What It's Like to Be here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Little-known and surprising stories of how all sorts of institutions began. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks to business professor Pino Audia and Fast Company magazine columnist Dan Heath about corporate creation myths and why so many of them involve garages. (7 minutes)Act One: Sarah Koenig tells the story of her father, Julian Koenig, the legendary advertising copywriter whose work includes the slogan "Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking" and Volkswagen's "Think Small" ads. For years, Sarah has heard her dad accuse a former partner of stealing some of his best ideas, but until recently, she never paid much attention. Then she started asking her dad for details of this fight for his legacy, and what she learned surprised her. (20 minutes)Act Two: Producer Sean Cole visits Chad's Trading Post in Southampton, Massachusetts. One person who works there wears a shirt that says "Chad's Brother;" other shirts say "Chad's Best Friend," "Chad's Cousin," and "Chad's Father." Pictures of Chad are everywhere. Chad's dead. The family explains. (14 minutes)Act Three: Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, tells Ira the origin story of one of the worst movie sequels ever made. (5 minutes)Act Four: Reporter Mary Wiltenburg tells the story of a little boy stymied by the question "Where do you come from?" (8 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.