Podcasts about Epictetus

You haven't done anything yet, and the voice is already running its commentary. Too slow, too weak, not enough. The day hasn't started and you're already failing in advance. This guided Stoic practice works with the inner critic directly — not to silence it, but to strip it of the authority it doesn't deserve.You'll practise the Stoic technique of examining your impressions: separating the bare facts from the judgements your mind adds automatically. Drawing on Epictetus's principle that it's not events but our judgements about them that disturb us, and on Marcus Aurelius's habit of asking "what is this thing in itself, stripped of my story?" — you'll learn to recognise the critic's voice as opinion, not fact.For best results, listen every morning for 30 days. The critic gets quieter when you stop agreeing with it.For mornings when the issue is letting go of what already happened, try "Stoic Morning Practice: Let Go Of What You Can't Control" — part of the same daily series.Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.coThe Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

What is the single most important concept in crisis management? Andy Coulson believes it's control — a lesson he first learned sitting on a plastic mattress in a Glasgow police cell, with nothing to focus on but his own breathing.In this special compilation episode, he revisits four past guests who each arrived at the same conclusion through very different routes.POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEYI know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.FEATURINGRyan Holiday — bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and The Daily Stoic, on why Stoicism is history's greatest crisis management framework, and the remarkable story of Admiral James Stockdale tapping Epictetus through a prison wall in Vietnam.Alix Popham — former Welsh international rugby player, diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE, on how the athlete's instinct for discipline becomes a survival strategy when the stakes are as high as they get.Natasha Silver Bell — international model turned recovery coach, on the moment she stopped blaming her external circumstances and took control of her internal state.Cally Beaton — comedian, writer, and former Viacom CBS executive, on surrender, mayhem, and why she refuses to call herself a stoic — despite sounding exactly like one.Control the controllables. It sounds simple. It isn't. But as every guest in this episode shows, it is learnable — and it might just be the most important lesson crisis has to offer.FULL EPISODES:Ryan Holiday: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000755722247 Alix Popham: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000712166764 Natasha Silver Bell: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000722574377 Cally Beaton: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000717250391FOLLOW THE GUESTS:Ryan Holiday: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/ Alix Popham: https://www.instagram.com/alix_popham/ Natasha Silver Bell: https://www.instagram.com/natashasilverbell/ Cally Beaton: https://www.instagram.com/callybeatoncomedian/

What does it really mean to love your fate? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at one of the most used phrases in modern Stoicism, where it actually comes from, and what Stoic philosophy says about acceptance, fate, and how to show up when life does not go as planned.Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, philosophy is not something you recite. It is something you practice, especially when the difficult moments arrive.Amor fati was never a Stoic phrase. Nietzsche coined it, and his version was radical: a total, eternal affirmation of everything that has ever happened, exactly as it happened. The Stoics had a different relationship with fate. They saw the world as a chain of cause and effect governed by the logos, and they asked a simpler question: Will you walk with it, or be dragged?That is where the real practice begins. Not in the good moments, when acceptance is easy, but in the ones that test you. The rejection, the injury, the plan that falls apart. Those are the moments Epictetus called the exam. The ones that show you how much you have actually learned.This episode will not tell you to love what hurts. It will show you how to welcome it anyway.Want to go deeper? Read the full guide: viastoica.com/how-to-practice-amor-fati/Support the show

Most morning affirmations ask you to declare a future you wish for. The Stoics did the opposite. They began the day by recollecting what was already true.This is a short guided practice built from eight lines drawn from Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. No manifestation, no raising your vibration. Just eight reminders, a little silence between each, a brief rehearsal of one difficulty you expect today, and a single quiet plan to carry into it.Best listened to first thing, before you open your phone. Find somewhere to settle, and let the day start a little steadier. Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.coThe Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

What if, instead of asking which college your teen should attend, you started asking what kind of person they want to become? That one shift changes everything about how you prepare your kids for adulthood — and this episode lays out a completely different path forward.This episode introduces a 16-cycle blueprint designed to build genuine life skills for young adults one quarter at a time — from EMT certification to sailing through the South Atlantic to starting a business and making the first sale. You will hear a father and son tell the real story of what this journey has looked like, how it was funded, and what the outcome has been so far.Discover ways to build character, and create confident, capable adults by age 20.✅The one question that replaces "what college should I attend"✅How 16 hands-on cycles stack real skills and real-world experience✅How one teen earned $600 a day to fund his own real-world education✅Why a personal code of rules and virtues is the foundation of true self-government✅The patron relationship that opens doors traditional mentoring never could✅Why most teens launch into adulthood anxious, unprepared, and waiting for someone to tell them what to doGrab the book mentioned in this episode and start building the kind of young adult your family is proud to launch into the world.Resources for YouThe Preparation by Matt and Maxim Smith Maxim's SubstackMore life skills for teens helpShow Notes:Preparing Your Kids for Adult Life — A Conversation With Matt and Maxim SmithToday I have a long-time friend Matt Smith here with his son Maxim, and we're talking about a brand new book they wrote together called The Preparation — all about preparing young people for adult life. Matt and I met in a mastermind back in 2009, so it's great to reconnect. Maxim is the guinea pig for the whole thing, and he's got some incredible stories to share.What Kind of Man Do I Want to Become?Instead of starting with outcomes like career and college, the book opens with a much bigger question — what kind of man do I want to become? Matt explains why.The whole idea of college is — so that what? So you can pay your own rent? That's not a very motivating vision. So they started thinking about what the real outcome actually is. What would inspire a young man, challenge him, and make him want to come into his own adulthood? The only answer to that question is one he has to find for himself — what kind of man does he want to become?The book is designed as a program that could fully replace college. It lays out exactly what to do, quarter by quarter, and still covers all the academics. But the motivating driving force behind it — the thing strong enough to push you through the hard parts — is that personal vision of who you want to be.Maxim says when he was first introduced to the program, the question took shape through a concept called be, do, and have — the three most important verbs. Most people focus on the have. But be is the most important. And do is where young people have their greatest power, because when you're young, you have unlimited energy and high openness to new experiences. Doing is your leverage.For his own answer to that question, Maxim found inspiration in a fictional character — Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo. Not the revenge part of the story, but the 14 years he dedicated to gaining as many skills as possible. Learning to read and write, sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, economics, math, multiple languages. That was the vision Maxim worked from.Wisdom as Righteousness in ActionThe Preparation focuses heavily on the classical virtues — courage, wisdom, hospitality — and especially stoic thinking, particularly the work of Epictetus. Matt says wisdom is the key to being a happy, healthy, successful individual, but you have to make it practical. Get away from abstract ideas and give young people real examples of what good looks like and how to model it.One of the most powerful exercises in the book is building a personal code. It has three parts.First, they think about their own actions — what are the things I do that make me feel small or ashamed? No one else might even know about these things, but the kid knows. They decide to stop doing those things — not because someone else made a rule, but because they made the rule for themselves. This is the very beginning of identity formation. For the first time, they're choosing not to do something on their own authority.Second, they go through a list of the ancient virtues and find the ones that call to them. Unlike the rules, which are binary — you either kept them or you didn't — the virtues are aspirational. You can always be more courageous. There's no ceiling.Third, they start listing their accomplishments. When you're starting out, you feel like you have nothing. But skills stack up fast in the preparation. After just one cycle, looking back at the actual skills you've gained — not just what you've studied, but what you can actually do — gives you a sense of pride and identity you didn't have before. And that's what young people are missing.Patrons, Not Just MentorsMost people think of a mentor like Gandalf — someone who shows up and offers you everything for nothing. That's not really how it works. The Preparation uses the term patron, drawn from ancient Roman society, where an older established person would come alongside a younger person who had skills, motivation, and hunger but not much yet. It was a two-way street. The patron would publicly say — this person is under my protection. One of us.The key insight is that you can earn a mentor or patron. Young people who are ambitious, smart, detail-oriented, hungry, and virtuous — when Matt encounters young people like that, he wants to help them. But the relationship only works if the young person is adding something to it in return.Intergenerational relationships are often the richest in life — because there's no competition, no status jockeying. You're not trying to prove anything. Matt says the best relationships in his life are not with his peers. They're intergenerational.The Cycles of PreparationThere are 16 cycles in the program, each centered around an anchor course — anything from a cooking school in Florence, Italy, to a heavy equipment operator course in Florida, to an entrepreneur cycle, a sailing cycle, an EMT certification, learning to build a house at the Shelter Institute in Maine, a fighter cycle in Thailand. Sixteen different real-world skill areas.Each cycle also includes activities the student chooses themselves — skydiving, learning guitar, a second language, motorbikes — plus online academic courses related to the anchor activity, and a required reading list. For the entrepreneur cycle, there are about 10 books to complete in three months, along with courses in sales, marketing, and social media marketing.Students are also required to post a weekly update on Substack — for accountability and to build a public record of what they're doing. Maxim now has over 6,000 followers on Substack, which has opened up opportunities he never expected — working on wildfires, a sailing cycle recommendation from a reader, geophysics crew work in Nevada, mule packing.The most memorable cycle so far? Sailing. Maxim had never been on a sailboat in his life when he flew to the Falkland Islands — all the way at the bottom of South America — to join a 72-foot sailing vessel for 21 days. The winds were so strong the bus was swaying on the road. They couldn't leave for several days. He got seasick two or three times. They crossed the South Atlantic through the Strait of Magellan — from the Falklands back to Chile — and he said the moment the water calmed down on the Pacific side, he finally understood why Magellan named it the Pacific.Each cycle, virtually every anchor activity, leaves you with a real skill that has real economic value. Something you could get a job from. And when you stack 16 of those, by the time you're 20 you are the most interesting 20-year-old you'll meet.How to Fund the PreparationYes, some cycles cost money. But compared to college — with one year of college tuition, Maxim has been funding multiple real-world experiences. There's also a work cycle built into the program where the entire three-month focus is earning as much money as possible.Maxim's first cycle was getting his EMT certification. Because of that — and because a reader found him on Substack — he was offered work on wildfires earning $600 a day. That funded his sailing cycle. He also worked at Office Depot and as a pizza delivery driver. In six weeks at Office Depot, he saved over $5,000.And here's a perspective shift — training Muay Thai in Thailand for two months, including room, board, and meals six days a week, costs less than EMT school. Not everything real costs more than college.Maxim's Advice to TeenagersIf you could tell another teenager one thing about preparing for adulthood, what would it be?Realize how limited time actually is. Figure out as soon as possible what you should be doing to make the most of it — not pursuing vices, but pursuing what is actually fulfilling. Gain as many practical skills as possible. Study the classical virtues. Study the stoics. And see how many opportunities open up from that work and that effort.You can find The Preparation on Amazon. Read the reviews before you buy — many of the reviewers are parents who read it first before giving it to their kids, and many say they wish they had this when they were that age.If you want to follow what Maxim is doing, go to maximsmith.com on Substack. We'll put a link right below this video.

We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond. At least, that’s what the Stoic’s say.

This episode reflects on the quiet evidence of resilience we carry with us: the fact that we have survived every difficult moment that once seemed unbearable. Seneca's image of the scar reminds us that old wounds are not just records of pain, but proof of endurance. Epictetus adds to the lesson by showing that external events only truly threaten us when our judgments give them power.

Bill Lampton: Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy, bringing you tips and strategies on communication that will boost your business. Now in our eighth year of producing this video, audio podcast. And as you know, I do not just share my on— my own wisdom about business communication, but I bring on an expert and our conversation will enlighten you and me both with tips and strategies that will help us boost our business. Today it’s a wonderful privilege to welcome a long-time friend, colleague, associate, mentor, Terry Brock, coming to us from Orlando, Florida. Terry Brock is a communicator and I can underscore that. Since he was a kid, in fact in second grade, he has been writing. He worked as a journalist for many years and his undergraduate degree is in communications working with radio, TV, and newspaper. Today Terry and his partner and fiancé, Gina Carr— and Gina was a recent guest on the Biz Communication Show— Terry and his fiancé, Gina Carr, have a membership program called Stark Raving Entrepreneurs where they help people build their business, leveraging the daylights out of AI and other tech. Today he joins us again to talk about what is happening and how you can move your business to the next level. So, I know you’ll join me in welcoming Terry Brock. Hello, Terry. Terry Brock: Great to be with you, Bill. Thank you for having me on board. Bill Lampton: Well, your— your introduction, which you kindly provided, did not even begin to describe your uh immense qualifications, which I’m very familiar with. Not long ago, Terry, you and I were having a visit, as a matter of fact, you and Gina came to see me here in my home in Gainesville, Georgia, and I remember asking you how many countries you had spoken in, directed seminars in, or done training in. What is that latest number? I know you’re a global presenter, what is that latest number? Terry Brock: Well, the latest as of now is uh 44 countries and counting. So, they would include um places like England and Canada and France and Dubai, and even Texas. And so, you know, a lot of different places there. Bill Lampton: Well, truly, you— you— some people call themselves a global speaker because they made one presentation outside the country, but you definitely are a global speaker. And in recognition of the great impact you’ve had globally, you have received the highest honors available from the National Speakers Association. And I still remember in 1998, I believe it was, you and I met at a National Speakers Convention, and then I had other encounters with you when you lived in Georgia and we were both members of the Georgia Chapter of the National Speakers Association. This was before you set your business and your residence in Orlando, Florida. One of the great traits that you have, and there are many as a presenter, is that you involve your audience. It’s not just [laughter] it’s not just what I would call a— a mannequin with a mouth. [laughter] Just somebody who spews out a message and hope people are getting it. And also, you’re not a novice who, when you want to get your audience involved, you say, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” and there’s this [laughter] there’s this frightening deadly silence. Share with us, please— many of us are presenters, whether we’re professional or whether we’re business and professional people— share with us some of the strategies and techniques that you use, Terry, to get your audience vocally and physically involved in the presentation. Terry Brock: Well, that’s a good question because I think that’s important when you’re connecting with people. You want to find out what it is that’s on their mind. One of the things I found a change that I’ve done recently that helps, maybe this will help some of the viewers and listeners here, often I would ask for, “What would you like to hear about? What topic do you want to hear?” And that’s good, not bad, they might say, “Well this or that.” We work do a lot with AI. So, they’d want to know about using Chat GPT for this or maybe using Gemini for this or how does this tool work, etc. Those are good, but even better is when you can do your research and then lean forward and ask people, “Where are you having problems right now? What are some of the big frustrations you’re having with technology? What’s the biggest problem you bump into with Chat GPT or what are your biggest concerns or worries about it?” Something like that, those kind of questions that are tailored for the market, whatever it is that you’re serving, does a lot better. I think in terms of what a surgeon, a physician would do, when you go into this physician’s office, the physician often doesn’t say, “Well, would you like to know more about this medicine or would you like to know about this medicine?” No, they say, “How you doing? Any pain, any hurt, anything I can do to help you out?” A really good physician will do that and so, I’ve been thinking that’s a probably a good way to do it, and I think then you respond back to the people based on where they’re hurting. And by the way, as you know this very well, Bill, today, we’re in a great shape as better than ever before. That sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true because now we can do the research and find out where are they hurting. Where are they bumping into problems? With tools like Perplexity, it does great work with research. So does Chat GPT now and Gemini and particularly Grok. Grok is giving you real-time information of what’s going on right now, particularly relevant in some areas when there’s say a crisis or an emergency going on. So, I think what we want to do is be aware of what’s possible and then always be oriented toward how do we solve their problems. Nice to talk about a topic and we’ll mention that, okay fine if it’s relevant to them, but more importantly, find out where they’re hurting, where they’re bumping into real-world pain and how we can grab a tool over here that’ll help that or a tool over here that’ll solve that problem. Bill Lampton: Audience analysis is absolutely a vital key because the presenter, whether you’re an executive or whether you’re a professional speaker, the presenter, if— if it’s a solo act, audiences today are— are not um they’re not going to stick with you, and so you need— and I see perpetually, you and I both know Lois Creamer who advises us so often about what is happening in the speaking business. And one of the points that she makes repeatedly is that we must be problem solvers. We must not just be topic experts, but we must be problem solvers. And carrying this just a little bit farther, Terry, you’ve done your audience analysis and you get up to present, and knowing you, you do not talk for 60 minutes or whatever is allowed without really getting the audience involved. And as— and as I said a few minutes ago, the old way is saying, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” [laughter] and of course, usually no one will be the first one, and there— there are none. So, how do you get true involvement, feedback, maybe a Q&A? How do you get the audience stimulated to do that, guided to do that? Terry Brock: I don’t think there’s any one particular way to do it, but there’s some things we can do today that help a lot. Like for instance, I recently spoke uh out in Texas uh to a group of people that are in landscape and in nurseries, that working with those and earning with, out of the green industry, growing just wonderful, wonderful people. And I wanted to study their industry and find out what are they going through. So, I used my buddies, as I like to say, my buddies Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok, and some other tools out there to find out what is going on, what is bothering people in those industries out there in Texas right now. And so, I knew some of the issues that were going on, and I had some fun with it, Bill. You’ll appreciate this. What I did is I looked at what was going on, and one of the issues they’re having concern with right now is with labor— getting people to come and work for them, what the prices are going to be for labor, etc., etc., and the shortage. And so, what I did is I say, “I understand that in your industry right now, here in Texas, you’re going through uh labor issues trying to find out,” and they’re kind of shaking their head going, “Yeah, he knows what he talking about.” I say, “Let me show you a way we can figure that out,” and what I did is I reached over, grabbed my phone, went over to Chat GPT, popped it into voice mode and I said, “Chat GPT, need you to act as an expert here in Texas in the area of nursery and with grooming and growing shrubs and things like that. What is going on right now that is causing problems in labor? What are— do you see happening in that?” And it came back and gave me an extensive conversation there about what’s happening, the issues, etc. I cut it off saying, “Okay, okay, that’s real good. Hang on just a minute.” And I paused, I looked at them, I say, “Is what Chat GPT told us accurate?” And they said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s true, but uh we all know that.” I said, “Yeah, that’s right. And you want to know what he can do to tell you to get around that and work around it.” They go, “Yeah.” I say, “Okay, we just confirmed though that he knows what he’s talking about. He,” because I was using the male voice at that time, “he was there, uh give me the information to that what was said. Is that correct, correct?” And they’re all going, “Yeah.” I go, “Now, the other issue is what?” And they told me some of the issues. I said, “That’s right.” And then I said, “I repeated that back into Chat GPT, and it came up with some solutions for them, some of which they had heard, some they had not. They’re writing it down, they go, ‘Oh, this is great.’ And I said, ‘This is what’s happening right now in the industry and this is how you can do it.’ If we had more time right now, we could go further in-depth on it, but here’s how you can do it on your own.” And I gave them the instructions on what to do with Chat GPT or other LLMs. So, Bill, cycling back around to what you’re asking about, find those areas where they’re hurting, where they, your audience, has pain, and then customize it. And today, we can leverage the daylights out of these tools to help us find out what’s really going on underneath the surface because people will go— go out on Reddit, and they’ll type, “Boy, I’m really mad with this company because they did this and this and this.” And then you start watching that, does that replicate in other areas? “Oh, okay. Now we know something that’s good here.” This company has been doing this in a couple areas, people don’t like that. Guess what we need to tell that company? “Hey, yeah, listen to what people are talking about.” So, it’s like you’re getting a sneaky way to do it, but using it right here with our phones, our LLMs like Grok, Chat GPT, Gemini, and some others, Claude also a very good one. Bill Lampton: Audience analysis is absolutely a vital key because the presenter, whether you’re an executive or whether you’re a professional speaker, the presenter, if— if it’s a solo act, audiences today are— are not um they’re not going to stick with you. And so, you need— and I see perpetually, you and I both know Lois Creamer who advises us so often about what is happening in the speaking business. And one of the points that she makes repeatedly is that we must be problem solvers. We must not just be topic experts, but we must be problem solvers. And carrying this just a little bit farther, Terry, you’ve done your audience analysis and you get up to present, and knowing you, you do not talk for 60 minutes or whatever is allowed without really getting the audience involved. And as— and as I said a few minutes ago, the old way is saying, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” [laughter] And of course, usually no one will be the first one and there— there are none. So, how do you get true involvement, feedback, maybe a Q&A? How do you get the audience stimulated to do that, guided to do that? Terry Brock: I don’t think there’s any one particular way to do it, but there’s some things we can do today that help a lot. Like for instance, I recently spoke uh out in Texas uh to a group of people that are in landscape and in nurseries, that working with those and earning with, out of the green industry, growing just wonderful, wonderful people. And I wanted to study their industry and find out what are they going through. So, I used my buddies, as I like to say, my buddies Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok, and some other tools out there to find out what is going on, what is bothering people in those industries out there in Texas right now. And so, I knew some of the issues that were going on, and I had some fun with it, Bill. You’ll appreciate this. What I did is I looked at what was going on, and one of the issues they’re having concern with right now is with labor— getting people to come and work for them, what the prices are going to be for labor, etc., etc., and the shortage. And so, what I did is I say, “I understand that in your industry right now, here in Texas, you’re going through uh labor issues trying to find out,” and they’re kind of shaking their head going, “Yeah, he knows what he talking about.” I say, “Let me show you a way we can figure that out,” and what I did is I reached over, grabbed my phone, went over to Chat GPT, popped it into voice mode and I said, “Chat GPT, need you to act as an expert here in Texas in the area of nursery and with grooming and growing shrubs and things like that. What is going on right now that is causing problems in labor? What are— do you see happening in that?” And it came back and gave me an extensive conversation there about what’s happening, the issues, etc. I cut it off saying, “Okay, okay, that’s real good. Hang on just a minute.” And I paused, I looked at them, I say, “Is what Chat GPT told us accurate?” And they said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s true, but uh we all know that.” I said, “Yeah, that’s right. And you want to know what he can do to tell you to get around that and work around it.” They go, “Yeah.” I say, “Okay, we just confirmed though that he knows what he’s talking about. He,” because I was using the male voice at that time, “he was there, uh give me the information to that what was said. Is that correct, correct?” And they’re all going, “Yeah.” I go, “Now, the other issue is what?” And they told me some of the issues. I said, “That’s right.” And then I said, “I repeated that back into Chat GPT, and it came up with some solutions for them, some of which they had heard, some they had not. They’re writing it down, they go, ‘Oh, this is great.’ And I said, ‘This is what’s happening right now in the industry and this is how you can do it.’ If we had more time right now, we could go further in-depth on it, but here’s how you can do it on your own.” And I gave them the instructions on what to do with Chat GPT or other LLMs. So, Bill, cycling back around to what you’re asking about, find those areas where they’re hurting, where they, your audience, has pain, and then customize it. And today, we can leverage the daylights out of these tools to help us find out what’s really going on underneath the surface because people will go— go out on Reddit, and they’ll type, “Boy, I’m really mad with this company because they did this and this and this.” And then you start watching that, does that replicate in other areas? “Oh, okay. Now we know something that’s good here.” This company has been doing this in a couple areas, people don’t like that. Guess what we need to tell that company? “Hey, yeah, listen to what people are talking about.” So, it’s like you’re getting a sneaky way to do it, but using it right here with our phones, our LLMs like Grok, Chat GPT, Gemini, and some others, Claude also a very good one. Bill Lampton: I remember, uh Terry, that [laughter] I was not the most technical guy ever to go into this business, and I would imagine that you remember a publicist, Raleigh Pinsky. Raleigh wrote a book on how to become highly influential, how to publicize yourself. And I go back to a time, and I’ve told this on the Biz Communication Show before, but it’s highly relevant. I go back to a time when I was just starting out and Raleigh Pinsky’s and I got on a phone conversation. She was in Arizona, I was in Georgia, and I said, “What do you think I need to learn to get started?” And she mentioned a couple of things and I said, “Oh, oh, no. That’s— that’s just way too complicated for me.” And she said, “Bill, we’re not hanging up this phone until you get this right.” And I finally did, Terry, and guess what? It was how to copy and paste on the computer. [laughter] Terry Brock: I’m thinking you still use that little ditty now every— every so often. [laughter] Bill Lampton: So, we’ve come a long way. And what amazes me so much about artificial intelligence and the particular tools that you mentioned is that when you ask a question, which is the way to really find the information, the second that you stop typing the question, AI begins giving you the answer. [laughter] And— and and um I wouldn’t— I wouldn’t try to sell an— an Encyclopedia Britannica today, Terry. [laughter] You know, we get our answers uh much more instantly, much more specifically, and there’s nothing at all outdated about them. One of the points that we observed at the start is how you’ve spoken in so many countries, how you have been awarded the highest award of the National Speakers Association. And Terry, there are people who are listening, I’m sure, who are curious about the speaking profession today. And there are some who have had some speaking experience and they’re thinking about becoming a professional speaker. So, right after this message, we want your advice on how we would go about doing that. Be back in a couple of seconds. [Commercial Break] Bill Lampton: We’re here on the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy, welcoming the opportunity to speak with Terry Brock, one of my long-time friends, associates, mentors, and certainly a role model. Terry, just before that short break, I mentioned that there are people who are wondering, how do you get started today? Not 20 years ago or 30 years ago, when you and I started. How do you get started today to become a professional, full-time professional speaker? Terry Brock: Well, there’s no one way to do it because it varies from a lot of people, but a way that I have seen and we’re seeing with many, many professional speakers is you want to be knowledgeable and an expert in a particular area, so that you can solve problems. As you were saying before and our friend Lois Creamer talks about that extensively. So, you want to be able to solve problems and do it in a way by presenting. But people need to know about you. Right now, competition is white-hot. There’s so many people that are speaking, that are giving information, and doing a very good job of it, too. So, you’ve got to stand out in a real good way that solves their problems. A good way that I have found works for me, works for you, Bill, and is working for many other people as well, is make sure you have a very good professional appearance on YouTube, regularly. Regular communication that you send out, being able to stay in touch with people solving their problems. If people want answers, they often go today to YouTube. YouTube has exceeded the viewers on the traditional networks, long ago. No longer are we tied to ways that it was years ago when we’d have the three networks, or then the cable stations. Today, we’re doing it on the net and YouTube is there because it can get fine-tuned. I’m amazed, and Gina and I sit and watch YouTube and are amazed at the kind of specificity and degree of influence that is out there for many different people in given fields. We have certain people that we follow in AI, certain people that we follow with um improving our lives, certain people— I like following uh the Stoic philosophy, and seeing what they’re doing. I’m a big fan of Miyamoto Musashi, the Japanese samurai warrior long ago, and people like that. I like to see those and they have a lot of channels for that. This is the beauty of it. So, I would say to get started, think about the problem you can solve first, not just what you can do or what you think is a nifty groovy idea. “Well, that’s real good, Sparky, but uh [laughter] it doesn’t really matter what you think, what matters is what they think.” So, this is where the LLMs, those large language models, AI tools can show us people are looking for help in this area, and they’re not getting enough of it. And by the way, that’s an area that you know about that’s really good or you could learn it because it’s very close. It’d be like if a medical doctor needed to learn about a given disease but she hadn’t studied that yet, she hadn’t studied as much about that, but she could easily come up to speed on it, studying on her own, studying at the University of YouTube, we call it that euphemistically, [laughter] going out there, taking in some college courses, some extra medical courses to learn that disease if a lot of people are there and it ties in with her background. That’s the way to do it today. You find out those areas where people are hurting, where they have a need, you find the— well like they told us in business school, you find a problem and you solve it. You want to find out what’s going on, and today we’ve got the research to be able to do that as never before. I was just doing some research uh before our call today on some areas that are going on and what you can trust online and what you can’t trust. And it was really revealing for me. I’m going to be sharing that later today at our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs meeting. It happens to be today we’re going to be talking about things, and showing this tool that has shown what was going on, and we knew that it was going on then, but there were other tools that were saying something different. And then they were even saying what is happening now, that’s not true, that’s misinformation, that was a term they were using, or disinformation. And yet, it really was happening and now we can look back and go, “Okay, this is good to know for the future.” That way when you know what is right, and you know what is accurate and a reliable source, and you know how to use that tool, now you got a real edge and that gives you the ability to get out and speak as a speaker. And another thing, Bill, if I could mention, right now, again I agree with you, the market has changed. It’s no longer the way it used to be in the field of professional speaking. Yes, there’s still is a place for a person standing on a stage with a microphone, real people there, talking to them. There is a place for that. We like that, we like that human connection. But also, there’s other ways we communicate— that we communicate as you and I are doing right now with video. We’re communicating with one person to many so you can do that. Our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, we do that where we have people around the world that join us and we get a chance to solve problems and have feedback as if we were in the same room. Find out how you can do that, how you can communicate in other ways. We’re also doing a lot with writing, now more than ever, and it’s easier than ever because we can get the LLMs to help us write— not writing it for us, but as an assistant giving us the raw material that we then take and craft along with what we want. Audio is still very strong with podcasts. You can do audio-only or you can do audio and video that would be on say YouTube, where you might have an interview. This is a great way for you to solve problems. Often people talk about what we are as a professional speaker and I say that we all need to aim for being a CSP. Now, CSP has a meaning within the National Speakers Association of a Certified Speaking Professional. That’s a good thing to have for professional speakers. I encourage them to look into it. I have one myself, but I don’t mean that in this case. Here I mean CSP is a communicator who solves problems. That’s what we need to go for. Find out what the problems are, how you can solve it, and then have the skills in communication to use that, and you can learn a lot about that from the Biz Communication guy, Bill Lampton. Those of you watching this, I’m going to embarrass Bill a little bit here but uh he is incredibly good. He also has his doctorate, a real doctorate in communication. He has helped many people with this, and he can help you with these kind of areas and more. So, get in touch with this young man. He’s got some real wisdom. Bill Lampton: Thank you for that very kind endorsement, Terry. I am— I am a— a true devotee of YouTube. To me, this is a visual encyclopedia that— that is— it’s in your and my price range. [laughter] We get so much free advice there on practically any topic from a great range of experts. And I remember you and I were having a conversation, as we do often sharing ideas, about a year and a half ago. I mentioned to you that I had started doing YouTube Shorts, which is 60 seconds or less. And you said, “Bill, that’s a good idea.” Well, Terry, I now produce, while I continue to host interviews such as this, I now produce three 60-second-or-less YouTube Shorts a week because you and I know and all of our viewers and listeners know that our attention span is not what it was even 20 years ago. There was a time when people would listen to very long monologues or even very long dialogue, but we want it quickly now and so, I— I have found value in YouTube Shorts and I assume you’re producing those as well. Terry Brock: Oh yeah, I find them really helpful because people want information quickly and you can get a lot of views that way. People get a chance to know you and then it can lead to your long-form videos which would be there and what they do. Actually, the way YouTube does it now, it was 60 seconds and now they say it can be three minutes or less, which is okay, but Bill, you’re right on target once again. 60 seconds and less gets more views because people think three minutes, boy, that’s a long time. Huh? [laughter] But they’re thinking of it that way. So, we’ve got to adapt and change to the market. And that’s the important whenever we’re alive, we’ve got to say not— let me— don’t let me tell you about what’s happened in the past, I mean, that’s— we— that’s nice, but when you think about it, Bill, when you and I were younger, when I say think of uh like 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s around in there, there were things that people were looking at that were in the past at that time. Well, what we’ve got to always do throughout history is say, what are people looking for now? Right now, right now. Now, we can bring in what we had in the past, you and I talking about uh Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, Seneca, and people like that, the Stoics like that, that’s good. Their wisdom is still good today and that’s what we can bring in versus some of the styles and customs that might have been valid in the 1820s or the 1840s or the 1900s. Whatever it is, that’s okay. What we’ve got to do is focus on what people want right now. Bill Lampton: Terry, we have time for one more question. I invite you to tell us about something I mentioned in the introduction, Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, which is your weekly grand training opportunity. Tell us the format, what happens, and also, how do we get access to that? Terry Brock: Well, thank you for asking. It’s a program that’s designed to help entrepreneurs who uh want to get out there and do things on their own, serving a market by using technology particularly. Using video was one thing we did, we were actually called Video Rockstars before we became Stark Raving Entrepreneurs. But now what we do is we show people every week, like today we’re going to do that, how to use certain tools and how to make that work to translate into business. How to use AI, how to use Grok, how to use Chat GPT, how to use these. Matter of fact, today, I’m going to be talking about Grok in key areas where you can use that tool to generate business, to do research, to create magnificent videos more than you can in other places, and the audio as well. These kind of things that are available. So, Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, we give people an opportunity to build their business the way they want and we build it on a rock-solid foun— philosophy that we both, Gina and I, embrace and that is, live and let live. Do whatever you want in life. Bill Lampton: How do we— how do we access uh that? Is it a membership deal or is it just come in and— and watch or what— what’s the deal on that, Terry? Terry Brock: Yeah, it’s a membership and we offer the opportunity for people to get involved. Come over to starkravingentrepreneurs.com. If you go to starkravingentrepreneurs.com, you’ll find the information there, all of it’s there. And uh let us know and if you got a specific question, drop me a note. I’m terry@terrybrock.com and be happy to help you and work with you on that because you need to ex— do the things you want to do in life. As long as you’re not harming someone else, get out there and have fun, learn it and build your business. It’s really the best way to secure your future and those of your loved ones is to have your own business where you’re not dependent on anyone else, but you can do it on your own and make the world a better place. Bill Lampton: I certainly endorse Stark Raving Entrepreneurs and I encourage every viewer and listener to check into that. Terry, as always, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing you periodically on the Biz Communication Show and always, you’re not contemporary, you’re way ahead of contemporary. [laughter] You’re a— you’re a pace setter and anytime important change comes along that we need to be aware of, you’ve— you’ve got on the leader’s cap. You learn it and then, very fortunately for the rest of us, you translate it into our lingo and you help us learn these vast new accessories, or I’ll call them really necessities, that we need for success. Certainly, we have viewers and listeners who want your contact information, so will you share that with us, please? Terry Brock: Yes, and you can reach me at terry@terrybrock.com. And those of you that might be joining with audio, Terry and Brock can be spelled different ways, so Terry is T-E-R-R-Y and Brock is spelled the right way, B-R-O-C-K. So, terry@terrybrock.com, and I answer all of those requests that I can get to, which is usually 100%, so I’ll look forward to hearing from you on that. Bill Lampton: Thank you, Terry. And I— I believe that Terry Brock, if I were to look back over three decades, if I were to look at the top three coaches, mentors, colleagues who have taught me and who have encouraged me and who have supported me, Terry Brock would be in that top three, there’s no question about it. Terry Brock: Thank you, Bill. Bill Lampton: And now I’d like to give my contact information. My YouTube channel is Bill Lampton, PhD. On there, you— in fact, I go back, Terry, to 2007 when I started recording instructional videos about communication. And many of those are solo presentations, but in the last eight years, the Biz Communication Show has been hosting experts. So, I hope and encourage you to, when you go to my YouTube channel, Bill Lampton, PhD, to subscribe there. Then, my website, since my tagline is Biz Communication guy, logically, my website is bizcommunicationguy.com. When you’re there, you’ll have an opportunity, which I invite you to take, to subscribe to my podcast, which I hope you will do. And then I welcome telephone conversations so that I can hear what your communication problems and challenges are, explore solutions, find if I’m the resource that you need to work with, or do I refer you to someone else. And an initial call like that has no financial involvement. That number, 678-316-4300. Before we close, I want to recognize the co-producer of the Biz Communication Show, Mike Stewart, Nashville-based. He’s been a marketing and technology guide for me for many years. And his website is localinternetpresence.com. Terry Brock, again, so many gems of wisdom, so many guidelines from a genuine unquestionable expert, and that’s you. So, please tell us how you would sort of pull together our conversation today and leave us with a minute and a minute and a half of what I might say are— are some nuggets or some gems that we really ought to remember and act on? Terry Brock: We are living in an exciting time right now. It’s also very scary when we see AI changing our world profoundly, really every day, new things happen, it can get scary, but there’s great opportunities for those who can understand what’s happening and then be able to take that and use it to do good for others. Helping others out, helping them to achieve their goals is the way to do it. When you can help others get what they want, you’ll be able to get whatever you want, my buddy Zig Ziglar said that long ago, that you can get anything you want if you help enough other people get what they want. Take the power that’s available with AI and all these other little tools that are out there, that can help you to serve others better, to help them meet their needs, and by doing that, you’ll have the lifestyle that you want, the future that you want. The more you can help them, the better off you’ll be. Bill, it’s an honor to be with you as always. I appreciate you and for those of you watching it, get to know this guy. I know him one-on-one, he is genuine, sincere, and he really knows his stuff with a real PhD. I mean, he earned it and all that. So, he’s a guy you want to get to know for your communication, to get better and better. Bill, thank you so much for having me with you today. Bill Lampton: My privilege and keep that calendar handy because as you know, I will call on you again. And three months from now, we— we will have other remarkable changes that you have mastered and we’ll be calling on you, so keep that calendar handy. Terry Brock: You bet. Bill Lampton: Thanks to those of you who joined us for this dynamic conversation with Terry Brock on the video and on the audio portions of the Biz Communication Show. Invite you to be with us again next week for another informative, interesting, exciting, and beneficial version of the Biz Communication Show. I’m Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy.

Watch the video episode here: https://youtu.be/_CKtK4ajc2M----The manosphere has been quoting the Stoics to young men for years. Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus. Seneca. The version they've been selling — anger as strength, dominance as virtue, emotion as weakness — is the exact opposite of what those philosophers actually wrote.In Meditations 11.18, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his private journal that gentleness is more manly than rage. Seneca, in Letter 63, wrote that we may weep but must not wail — and admitted he had been overcome by grief himself. Epictetus, in Discourses 2.10, said that the man who becomes a wild beast has lost something essential. Musonius Rufus argued in Lecture IV that virtue is the same in man and woman, and Cleanthes — Zeno's successor as head of the Stoic school — wrote an entire treatise titled On the Thesis that Virtue Is the Same in Man and Woman in the 3rd century BCE.This video walks through what the original Stoics actually said about being a man, why the manosphere reading of Stoicism is a misreading, and four traits of the Stoic version of manhood you can use to test whether you're actually living the philosophy.

Everyone talks about letting go. But what about the side that actually demands something of you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at what Stoic philosophy really asks of us when it comes to control and why most people stop at the easier half.Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, Stoic philosophy isn't a wellness tip or a productivity hack. It's a serious and urgent call to examine who you are and who you are becoming.The dichotomy of control is one of the most recognized ideas in Stoicism. But the way it gets used today, mostly as permission to detach and move on, misses the deeper point entirely. Epictetus wasn't inviting passivity. He was demanding self-awareness, character work, and the kind of daily practice the Greeks called askesis. What is yours to work on is not just a short list. It's everything: your judgments, your habits, your values, your reasons for acting. That's where the real work of Stoic philosophy begins and where most people quietly step back.If you've ever felt like you understood Stoicism in theory but couldn't quite connect it to real life, this episode is a good place to start looking at why.Support the show: viastoica.com YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com

Using Dante's opening in the “dark wood,” host Chad Prevost frames midlife as waking up to being lost after sleepwalking through socially prescribed success, and reframes “abandon hope” as an instruction to stop relying on the old self and tools that created the crisis. He describes needing guidance beyond oneself, like Virgil leading Dante downward into the inferno to see the patterns that trap people, which he links to coaching clients' pervasive belief “I am not enough,” shaped by culture or family systems. Drawing on Epictetus, Adler, Auden, and the Greek concept hamartia, he argues the ego's protective adaptations become traps, and Dante's hell illustrates suffering rooted in lies, from unconscious “errors” to willful avoidance; the series explores this descent as a path to a freer, fuller creative life.00:00 Saturday Series Intro00:58 Waking in the Dark Wood03:10 Midlife Lostness04:08 Abandon Hope as Instruction06:02 Virgil and the Descent07:45 The Not Enough Story10:43 Separating Self from History11:49 Hamartia and Ego Armor13:40 Truth Lies and the Circles15:35 Series Purpose and FarewellFREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDEEight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up.→ crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf—WHERE TO FIND MESubstack — new essays Wednesdays, the Working Publisher news digest Fridays→ chadprevost.substack.comThe Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts→ chadprevost.com/the-difficultyCrossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, the Iris Blackwood mystery series→ crossroadspublishing.group—“The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

Most advice for overthinking has you focus on the thoughts themselves. Journal them. Replace negative ones with positive ones. Breathe. Meditate. Run. But what if the thoughts aren't the problem?Epictetus taught that it's not events that disturb us, but our judgements about them. Overthinking isn't a volume problem — it's a judgement problem. Somewhere in the loop, you added a meaning to something that was otherwise neutral. And that meaning is what's keeping you awake.In this episode I walk through phantasia — the Stoic science of impressions — and three exercises for catching the judgement before it spirals: stripping back to the first impression, applying the dichotomy of control to your thoughts, and the rational observer technique.Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.coThe Stoic Vault (weekly practice + coaching): stoicvault.com

Today's reading of The Screwtape Letters focuses on Chapter 3, a letter about personal/family relations and the importance of managing your impressions regarding facial expressions, tone of voice and other mannerisms. Things can break down rapidly when a relationship drifts toward enmity and assumed bad faith, and Lewis's warning here is to reflect on how you let yourself off the hook for grating mannerisms—while scrutinizing those of everyone else. When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother's eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy — if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.It's a distinctly Stoic letter, almost like Lewis drew directly from Epictetus. It is not the only time Screwtape Letters offers blocks of wisdom that parallel the Stoics. In this video, I also draw on a book called Jesus & Stoicism by Brittany Polat, which compares Bible verses with lines from the Stoic philosophers, to show where these “virtuous pagans” were on the right track when it came to ethics that Christianity made mainstream in the West. I highly recommend it for your bookshelf. You can buy it at the link above. This video is free for everyone to enjoy as a thank-you for being on the newsletter. We're glad you're here, and every subscription helps us keep Geeky Stoics going. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.geekystoics.com/subscribe

In this video we will be talking about 7 Ways to Stop Worrying About Money from the writings of Epictetus. Epictetus was one of the most influential teachers of the later years of the school of Stoicism. So here are 7 ways from Epictetus's discourses, that will help you to stop worrying about money - 01. Apply the Dichotomy of Control Rigorously02. View Property as a Temporary Loan03. Calculate the "Price of Tranquility"04. Shrink the Denominator05. Recognize Money as a "Preferred Indifferent"06. Perform the "Worst-Case" Analysis07. Refuse to Play the Comparison GameHope you enjoyed this video and find these insights on how to stop worrying about money helpful. Epictetus was a Greek/Roman philosopher of the Hellenistic period. He managed to overcome huge obstacles in developing from a crippled Roman slave to become one of the most popular and sought after philosophers of his time. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. Even though it is over 2000 years old, more and more people are discovering how Stoicism is not only relevant to modern times, but can be applied in very simple, yet strong ways.Narration/Audio Editing: Dan Mellins-Cohen https://www.dmcvoiceovers.comSubscribe To Philosophies for Life https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp1mRTkVlqDnxz_9S0YD9YQ

It's Wednesday, May 13, 2026. Today, I'm revisiting a topic that struck a chord with many of you: the razor-thin line between confidence and arrogance. Inspired by a recent entry in The Daily Stoic (April 7th), we explore why the most dangerous thing you can do for your career—and your happiness—is to stop being a student. We discuss Epictetus's warning against "arrogant opinion" and why changing your mind is actually a sign of elite leadership, not weakness.I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon.

It's Wednesday, May 13, 2026. Today, I'm revisiting a topic that struck a chord with many of you: the razor-thin line between confidence and arrogance. Inspired by a recent entry in The Daily Stoic (April 7th), we explore why the most dangerous thing you can do for your career—and your happiness—is to stop being a student. We discuss Epictetus's warning against "arrogant opinion" and why changing your mind is actually a sign of elite leadership, not weakness.I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon.

This episode examines anger through the lens of Seneca and Epictetus.Seneca warns that anger harms us first, clouding reason and undermining self-control, while Epictetus reframes wrongdoing as error rather than malice.Together, they suggest a practical response: pause, question the impression, and consider the cost of reacting.

Watch the video version of this podcast here: https://youtu.be/cY4AMcWhSko---For most of my adult life, I had this low-level hypervigilance running in the background. I tried everything to fight it — books, breathwork, control techniques, willpower. The harder I fought, the worse it got.In this episode, I share the breakthrough that came when I stopped fighting and started welcoming. It's a Stoic-Nietzschean reframe called amor fati — the love of fate — and it changed my relationship with anxiety completely.We'll explore:— The two layers of suffering, and why fighting anxiety creates the second one— What Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus understood about welcoming difficulty— Why Nietzsche called amor fati "the formula for greatness"— The Stoic concept of indifferents — and why anxiety isn't intrinsically bad— A daily practice for treating anxiety as a training partner rather than an enemy—If you'd like to go deeper into Stoic practice, the Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge walks through the core practices step by step.→ stoicchallenge.co—Sources referenced:Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Hays translation)Epictetus, Discourses & Enchiridion (Hard translation)Nietzsche, The Gay ScienceDonald Robertson, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor—Thanks for listening. Go well.

Entrepreneurial self care isn't optional—it's the success mindset habit that separates remarkable success from burnout. In this episode, Tracy reveals the ancient practice that's saving modern founders from exhaustion and how to integrate it into your daily routine for sustainable productivity and authentic achievement. https://YourSuccessDNA.com This comprehensive episode reveals how Stoicism - the 2,300-year-old philosophy born from a shipwreck - has become the secret operating system behind today's most successful entrepreneurs. From Marcus Aurelius to Tim Ferriss, discover why ancient wisdom is solving modern business problems and how you can implement the same mental framework that helped a POW survive 7 years of torture. What if a 2,300-year-old philosophy was the secret weapon behind today's most successful entrepreneurs? In a world where 87.7% of entrepreneurs struggle with mental health, burnout rates are 60% higher than traditional employees, and stress levels run 2.5 times above average — the question isn't whether you need a mental framework, it's which one actually works. This video goes beyond the Instagram quotes and surface-level inspiration to deliver the complete architecture of Stoicism applied to modern business. By the end, you'll understand exactly why founders, CEOs, and visionary leaders are turning to this ancient operating system to navigate chaos, build resilience, and lead with clarity. From the painted porch of Athens to the boardrooms of today, Stoicism's influence spans Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus — three dramatically different men who mastered the same philosophy under radically different circumstances. In this deep dive, we break down how Stoic principles integrate into real entrepreneurial decision-making, emotional intelligence, leadership, and mental performance. Whether you're building your first business or scaling your tenth, this is the mindset framework designed for the actual conditions of entrepreneurship. Hit play and discover how Stoicism doesn't just help you survive the grind — it helps you master it.

Greek philosopher Epictetus once said, “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” That insight may be more relevant today than ever. We live in a world constantly urging us to want more, upgrade more, and pursue more. But what if that endless pursuit is costing us something far more valuable than money? What if wanting less is one of the most powerful financial decisions we can make? On today's episode of Faith & Finance, financial coach and author Bob Lotich joined the show to discuss why contentment creates freedom—and how learning to want less can reshape our financial lives. A Better Financial Question Most people make spending decisions by asking one question: Can I afford this? That's not a bad question—but it may not be the best one. Bob suggested a deeper question: Can I afford to want this? That shift matters because some things we own eventually begin to own us. A purchase may fit the budget, but still bring new pressures, obligations, and distractions. The issue isn't always the price tag—it's the grip that desire can have on our hearts. Bob shared the story of Roman general Manius Curius Dentatus. When enemies attempted to bribe him with gold and expensive gifts, they found him roasting turnips for dinner. Seeing his simple lifestyle, they realized a man content with so little could not be bought. The lesson is timeless: contentment removes leverage. When we need less, we are less vulnerable to manipulation, fear, and compromise. The fewer things we depend on for identity or security, the freer we become. How Desire Can Become a Chain Every unchecked desire can create a new chain. A larger lifestyle often requires a larger paycheck. More possessions usually mean more maintenance, more bills, and more commitments. Debt can magnify that burden even further. Scripture warns, “The borrower is slave to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). While that may not mean literal slavery today, the principle still stands: financial obligations can reduce flexibility and limit our ability to respond when God leads us in a new direction. Bob shared the story of someone who sensed a clear call into ministry but couldn't accept the opportunity because debt payments made the lower salary impossible. That's more than a budgeting issue—it's a discipleship issue. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). That warning is not only about greed. It is also about control. Financial obligations demand time, energy, and attention. When too many of them pile up, they begin directing our choices. As Bob put it, sometimes our possessions end up possessing us. Two Very Different Responses to Wealth The Gospels give us two striking examples. The rich young ruler walked away from Jesus because he could not release his wealth (Mark 10:17–22). Zacchaeus, on the other hand, responded to an encounter with Jesus by joyfully giving away half of his possessions and making restitution to those he had wronged (Luke 19:1–10). The difference wasn't the amount of money involved. It was the hold that money had on their hearts. The Secret of Contentment The Apostle Paul wrote: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Paul had experienced abundance and need. Yet his joy wasn't tied to either one. That kind of contentment is true freedom. It means we can live faithfully in seasons of plenty or scarcity because our confidence rests in God, not in circumstances. Wanting more often begins with comparing more. Social media can intensify this struggle by putting everyone else's highlight reel in front of us every day. It becomes easy to feel behind, dissatisfied, or pressured to keep up. One practical step Bob shared was limiting social media use. Sometimes reducing the voices shaping our desires is one of the fastest paths to peace. How to Start Wanting Less If you long for greater freedom, begin here: 1. Evaluate Your Desires. Ask what you deeply want right now—and why. 2. Count the True Cost. Look beyond the purchase price. Consider the time, maintenance, stress, and financial commitments attached to it. 3. Be Careful With Lifestyle Upgrades. Every increase in lifestyle can quietly become a permanent monthly obligation. 4. Explore Simpler Alternatives. Sometimes renting, borrowing, waiting, or doing without can provide more joy than ownership. 5. Practice Gratitude. Contentment grows where gratitude is cultivated. True financial freedom is not measured by what we have, but by what no longer has a hold on us. When we learn to want less, we create more room to live generously, respond obediently, and walk closely with God. And that may be the richest life of all. Want to Go Deeper? You can read Bob's full article in Faithful Steward Magazine called The Surprising Power of Wanting Less. When you become a FaithFi partner, you'll receive helpful resources designed to equip you for faithful stewardship. Learn more at FaithFi.com/Partner. On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions: I'd like to put a power of attorney in place, but I don't have a family member I can ask to serve in that role. What would you recommend? I'm recently widowed and trying to determine how to grow what remains of the insurance money after I pay my bills. What would you suggest? Resources Mentioned: Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner) Simple Money, Rich Life: Achieve True Financial Freedom and Design a Life of Eternal Impact by Bob Lotich SeedTime The Surprising Power of Wanting Less by Bob Lotich (Article in Faithful Steward, Issue 5) Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-Day Journey to Faithful Stewardship by Rob West Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and Anxiety Rich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich Fool Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA) FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every workday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this Satsang, Swamiji shares from the teachings of Epictetus before continuing a question and answer session.  This podcast was recorded live at The Ashram in Mount Eliza on the 2nd of May, 2026. Watch the full Satsang program with Swamiji and Devi Ma at The Ashram with a weekly subscription to The Ashram Online! This subscription will give you access to a library of over 100 hours of Swamiji's talks, meditation and chanting programs, hatha yoga classes and more. Click here to learn more.

In this episode, I chat with Claudia Mills, an emerita professor of philosophy and award-winning author of more than sixty books for young readers. Her new novel, Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for Wisdom, is about a difficult young student who joins a philosophy club seeking the wisdom she needs to keep her beloved but equally difficult dog.Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Highlights* To what extent do you think children can benefit from learning about ancient philosophy?* Do you think there are any ways in which children have an advantage over adults when it comes to learning about Greek philosophy?* How can parents help their children to learn about and benefit from philosophy?* What is wisdom?* What drew you to Epictetus in particular for this story?* What about Socrates and Plato?* What are the problems faced by Calliope, and how does philosophy help her?* In what ways do you think children could potentially benefit from ancient philosophy in terms of their psychological well being?Links* Goodreads profile* Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for WisdomThanks for reading Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life at donaldrobertson.substack.com/subscribe

This episode explores how much of our distress comes not from events themselves, but from the interpretations we layer on top of them. Marcus Aurelius reminds us that opinions are optional, while Epictetus shows how easily appearances can mislead us. By sticking closer to the facts and examining our impressions carefully, we reduce unnecessary mental noise.

Most people read Marcus Aurelius the wrong way. In this episode, Ryan sits down with philosopher William Stephens to discuss why the title "Meditations" may be misleading, what these writings were actually meant to be, and how that changes the way we read them today. William O. Stephens is a philosopher specializing in Stoicism, ethics, and ancient philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and spent over 30 years teaching at Creighton University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. His work spans topics like friendship, ecology, and human nature, with a focus on Stoic thought. His latest book is Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King (2025), and he is also the author of Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed, Epictetus's Encheiridion: A New Translation and Guide to Stoic Ethics, and Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom. Check out more of William Stephens' work at https://WilliamOStephens.com/

This episode is a replay from The Existential Stoic library. Enjoy! Will meditation make you happier? Do you feel burdened by social obligations? Do you place unreasonable expectations on yourself? In this episode, Danny and Randy discuss happiness, meditation, and more.Subscribe to ESP's YouTube Channel! Thanks for listening!  Do you have a question you want answered in a future episode? If so, send your question to: existentialstoic@protonmail.com

Jeff Gould (“America's Storyteller”) sits down with Thadeus Amadeus Giedd for a conversation that starts light—misheard names, funny mix-ups, and Jeff's signature “JEFFARDY” question board—and gradually deepens into faith, leadership, fatherhood, and the power of living with intention. Thadeus, the longtime organizer behind TEDxSiouxFalls, shares what he believes makes a truly great TEDx talk: it's not a lecture—it's a story arc. The best speakers don't try to cram in everything they know; they deliver one unforgettable insight, one unexpected moment, and one powerful takeaway in just 15 minutes. From there, Thadeus opens up about the ideas shaping his life right now—especially his love for Stoicism (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca) and how he's combined its virtues—courage, wisdom, justice, and temperance—with what he believes Stoicism lacks most: love. For Thadeus, letting Christ into his life didn't replace the discipline of Stoicism—it completed it. The conversation also turns personal as Thadeus talks candidly about depression, identity shifts, and how becoming a father changed him. Jeff and Thadeus explore modern parenting styles, the difference between gentleness and permissiveness, and the importance of accountability—especially the humility of admitting when you're wrong. Later, the interview shifts to leadership lessons from a recent men's summit featuring John Maxwell and Tim Tebow. Thadeus shares what stood out most: Maxwell's idea of making an impression from afar but creating impact up close, and Tebow's consistent message of living with urgency and intentionality—waking up each day asking, “How do I be a vessel today?” They close with a surprisingly emotional final moment: Thadeus gets one question to ask Jeff, and he chooses a question about memory—if Jeff could relive one day, what would it be? Jeff's answer lands like a quiet gut punch: a return to a simple moment at the table with his mother, fully present, noticing what he couldn't appreciate at the time. The episode ends with a shared reminder that gratitude and attention are not optional if you want a meaningful life. A funny, thoughtful, faith-forward conversation—anchored in story, grounded in real life, and full of practical takeaways. #JeffGould #AmericasStoryteller #PodcastInterview #ThadeusGiedd #TEDx #TEDxTalk #Leadership #Stoicism #FaithAndLife #ChristianPerspective #IntentionalLiving #Parenthood #LifeLessons #PersonalGrowth #Storytelling00:00 Introduction and Name Confusion 04:10 Exploring Biblical Parables 06:59 The Role of TEDx Talks 09:45 The Application Process for TEDx Talks 12:43 What Makes a Good TEDx Talk? 14:57 Stoicism and Love in Life 18:05 Parenting Perspectives and Lessons Learned 24:10 Exploring Connections with Influential Figures 27:10 Reflections on Wealth and Influence in Heaven 29:11 Making Impressions vs. Impacting Lives 32:06 Navigating Personal Struggles and Mental Health 35:57 The Power of Authenticity and Generosity 38:11 Dream Lunch with Heroes and Influencers Learn all about America's Storyteller on his website: https://www.ilikethatstory.com

Send us Fan MailEpisode 206Sorry I am late today -love yaThis week, I'm opening up a conversation that many of us avoid—but all of us feel.Money.Not the polished, curated version we see online… but the real, behind-the-scenes truth about what's coming in, what's going out, and the quiet stress it can carry.If things feel tight right now… if you've been avoiding your numbers… if you've ever wondered whether you need to earn more or spend less—but haven't wanted to face the answer—this episode is for you.We're not talking about complicated strategies or financial jargon.We're talking about honesty.The kind that changes everything.I'll walk you through the two levers we actually have, the one question that can shift your entire financial direction, and why understanding who you are with money matters more than any perfect plan.We'll also connect something we don't talk about enough:how money stress shows up in our bodies, our eating, our sleep, and our relationships.Because this isn't just about dollars.It's about your life.If you've been feeling the weight of it all…this conversation might be the place where things start to feel a little lighter.Press play when you're ready to tell yourself the truth.Quote of the Week“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” — Warren BuffettCitations Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Research on financial habits and automatic savings systems.American Psychological Association (APA). (2023). Stress in America reports on financial stress and health impacts.Epictetus. Enchiridion (translated works on Stoic philosophy).Let's go, let's get it done.Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org

A stoic philosopher assembles a coven of middle aged single women in her Manhattan apartment building, she is working for an uber-wealthy family and feeling “wide and well," when she is suddenly drawn into a mysterious romance that takes her into the world of possible art thieves, weapons dealers and double agents, one of whom she happens to be falling for. This all goes down while she desperately tries to reconcile her beloved Epictetus and Seneca with her increasingly emotional choices. Okay, maybe you haven’t heard that one. That’s understandable, because Maria Semple’s new novel, Go Gentle, just came out this week. Semple is the bestselling author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Today Will Be Different, both set in Seattle. And Semple will be appearing at Town Hall Seattle on Saturday, April 18th. Guest: Maria Semple, author of Go Gentle Relevant Links: Maria Semple with Ken Jennings at Town Hall Seattle on April 18th The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Sharon Lebell Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Today's reflection was inspired by the April 5th entry of The Daily Stoic: "Trust but Verify." We often pride ourselves on our "gut instincts," but as Epictetus warned nearly 2,000 years ago, our first impressions can often carry us away into unnecessary anger, anxiety, or judgment. I'm diving into why taking a "beat" to interrogate your own emotions—especially in the face of a frustrating email or a missed expectation—is the ultimate tool for owning your life.I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon.

It's Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Today's reflection was inspired by the April 5th entry of The Daily Stoic: "Trust but Verify." We often pride ourselves on our "gut instincts," but as Epictetus warned nearly 2,000 years ago, our first impressions can often carry us away into unnecessary anger, anxiety, or judgment. I'm diving into why taking a "beat" to interrogate your own emotions—especially in the face of a frustrating email or a missed expectation—is the ultimate tool for owning your life.I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon.

Why Isn't TEAM More Popular? Why Do So Many Therapists Resist TEAM CBT? Featuring Matt May, MD Why has the therapeutic community been so resistant to TEAM? This topic has been a concern to me or many years. To be honest, it isn't new. From the very start of cognitive therapy, when I was first learning it, I began modifying it to make it more dynamic, powerful, and effective. But to be honest, I ran into a small (at the time) of Beck loyalists who branded me as an "outsider," something Beck also did when my book, Feeling Good, began to sell and gain popularity. This saddened and frustrated me, and still does, but it had some great spin-off. On my own, my ideas and approaches grew rapidly, and there was no scarcity of young therapists who wanted to work with me.  Below, you will ready Matt's take on why TEAM CBT has not caught on better, followed by my own thoughts. So read, and enjoy, and feel free to share your own thinking on this topic!  On the live podcast, you will hear our lively discussion with our beloved and brilliant host, Rhonda! Thanks for listening today!  Matt, Rhonda, and David Matt's take: Hi David, I'm excited to discuss this topic!  Also, I agree we would be hard-pressed to cover it in an hour, which I believe is the goal for the podcast. So, why isn't TEAM isn't more popular?  My short answer is that TEAM isn't more popular because many therapists don't want to learn it. Those reasons will vary from one person to another and relate to concepts in the model, itself, like 'process resistance' and 'outcome resistance'. While biological factors, like deficits in cognitive flexibility and neuroplasticity, the 'primacy effect' and age-related changes in the brain, combined with the complexity of the TEAM model, will make it near-impossible for some folks to learn it, these barriers are hard to address with our current technology For the purpose of this conversation, it probably makes more sense to consider the psychological barriers therapists have to adopting a model that is scientifically proven to be superior to other approaches.  As a proponent of TEAM and an instructor, I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong, in presenting the model and how to get more people excited about learning it.  While more research would help us see the problem more clearly, here are some factors that likely play a role: It seems humans have a hard time adopting new truths, regardless of the field being considered. I believe it was Schopenhauer who said all new truths go through three phases on the way to acceptance:  People will ridicule it, violently oppose it, then say they knew it all along as self-evident! One cause of this is something called the 'primacy effect'. People preferentially retain the first version of a story they hear.  If that information is corrected, later, they will continue to believe the first version they heard.  Biological Factors play a role in learning, including genetics, aging, illness and toxic exposure. 'Switching gears', mentally, is more challenging in people with Schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives, for example.  We know that neuroplasticity is greatest in our youth and declines over our lifespan.  Hence the importance of early education and attending to our overall health, habits, nutrition and medical care.       Socioeconomic and Cultural factors certainly play a role.  This is well documented in the book, 'The Emperor's New Drugs', showing how marketing prevailed over science in promoting "antidepressants".  Many therapists in training tell me, 'oh, they wouldn't let me use a measurement tool where I work'.   Lack of 'Critical Thinking'. What people believe often has nothing to do with what is evidence-based or logical.  Many people reject global warming despite the evidence and prefer to believe in conspiracy theories.  We tend to preferentially believe what someone says if we feel a kinship or loyalty to that person or view them as an 'expert'. People might believe RFK Jr. when he says immunizations are dangerous, for example, because he is in their political party and in a position of power, rather than review the science for themselves. Sunk-Cost Fallacy:  People who have gone through training may have a sense that they have invested too much time and money in their education to discard that model and start afresh. Even if we covered this in just a few minutes, we'd still be up against the hardest part of TEAM to learn, Agenda Setting.   Lots of 'Good Reasons' NOT to have open hands, explore topics paradoxically, and reasons this is challenging, technically. So, yeah, we'll have a lot to discuss and I'm looking forward to that! Sincerely, Matt Here is David's list Taking a page out of your book, Matt, our field is filled with so-called "schools" of therapy that function much like cults, most with a narcissistic "leader" at the helm. In a cult, members are required to be absolutely loyal, and to believe in claims the guru makes that have little or no evidence to back them up. For example, most "schools" of therapy claim to know "the" cause of emotional distress, when the causes of depression and other forms of emotional disturbance are still not known. What I have been suggesting is that we get rid of all the schools of therapy and usher in a new era of science-based, data-driven therapy, which would amount to a revolution in our field. This idea, which I feel passionate about, always meets with stiff and hostel opposition / push back. People just don't want to hear it. TEAM integrates high-level empathy and compassion with firm accountability. Give Stanford story with Sunny Choi, and the statement that "Stanford graduate students and faculty cannot be held accountable for doing psychotherapy homework. The need insight-oriented therapy!" This angrily issued statement conveyed, actually, two cult-like (to my thinking) components: First, we KNOW that patients should not be asked to do psychotherapy homework between sessions. Second, we KNOW that "insight-oriented therapy" is the treatment, without ever evaluating them. TEAM focuses on the here and now, and emphasize a "fractal" approach to treatment, where the same distortions and self-defeating beliefs will be embedded in the patient's negative thoughts and feelings every time she or he is upset. So, when you change the present, you have already changed the past. Whereas most therapies have traditionally (and still) focus on the past, thinking they will find the cause of the patient's distress in some pattern or traumatic event. TEAM focuses on rapid change in the here and now, where as many (most?) therapies focus on talk therapy that unfolds slowly, over a period of months, years, or even more. This DOES provide a powerful financial incentive to do "talk therapy," since this drastically provides financial security and reduces the incredible pressure of constantly have to find new patients. TEAM is very challenging to learn. I have taught over 50,000 therapists in the past 35 years or more, through my supervision of graduate students and psychiatric residents, my weekly training group at Stanford, and my workshops, including intensive, around the US and Canada. And one lesson that has emerged is just how difficult it is to learn TEAM. It requires a high level of intelligence and aptitude, and an unusual dedication and commitment. A great many of the most important tools, like Assessment of Resistance, and Externalization of Voices with the CAT, Self-Defense, and the Acceptance Paradox, are extremely difficult to learn and master.  And most give up, and drop out, in favor of some simpler and more formulaic therapy that is easy to learn. TEAM training requires constant role-playing with specific and immediate feedback on your performance, which includes bot a letter grade (A, B, C, etc.) as well as what you did that was effective, and where you fell short and might need to fine-tune your technique with frequent role reversals, always with feedback. This means lots of criticism along the way, which many (most?) therapists do not like. And although we repeatedly emphasize the philosophy of "joyous failure," and "learning through failure," most people do not buy it emotionally. We all want success and compliments! And NOT the "great death" of the self." The "great death" permeates every phase of the T E A M process. At the T = Testing, you will nearly always learn that your perceptions of your patients feel, and how they feel about you, are way off base. This is critically important, but painful for most, as it is a direct body blow to our "need" to be in the role of "expert." Unlike most other forms of therapy, we require therapists to measure patients' feelings, "in the here and now," at the start and end of every therapy session, using brief, highly reliable scales that assess feelings of depression, suicidal urges, anxiety, anger, and also happiness, as well as relationship satisfaction or discord. These scales function like an "emotional X-ray machine," allowing therapists for the first time to see exactly how effective or ineffective you were in every therapy session. Can you take it? On the positive side, this information will allow you to fine tune the therapy and learn from all of your patients every day. On the negative side, you may not want to have to "see" your failures before your eyes at every session with every patient. David: Tell the story of Tuesday group patient who proudly showed me her depression (and other scores) over the previous year with one of her patients. . . But there was absolutely no improvement in any scale. This was shocking and it made me very sad. My goal is to get dramatic changes within a single session. This "great death" continues during the E phase. TEAM therapists are required to ask "What's my grade on empathy" during the session, and also patients fill out the Empathy Scale and other scales on the "Patient's Evaluation of Therapy Session" right after the session. These scales are set up to make therapist failure common, almost universal at first. A warm and curious dialogue about where the therapist went wrong can revolutionize the therapy and deepen the relationship—quickly. But at what cost to the fragile ego of the insecure shrink? The "great death" continues with A = Paradoxical Agenda Setting. You give up your role as the "expert:" or "helper" or "rescuer," which many therapist refuse to do, and instead "become" the patient's subconscious resistance, arguing, with compassion and logic, that there are many GOOD reasons NOT to change. This freaks therapists out! The "great death" continues with the M = Methods phase of the session. I have developed roughly 140 methods to help people challenge distorted negative thoughts and self-defeating beliefs, and have always taught that no one method will work for everyone who's depressed and anxious. So you will have to try many methods, using the Recovery Circle, to find the one that works for each patient. But these methods are challenging to learn, and most therapists don't seem to have the intelligence, aptitude, or commitment to learning how to use them. Many of the methods and insights of TEAM or subtle nuances that many therapists do not "get" or perhaps do not want to "get." Example, the ACT training group, where someone held up the Feeling Good book and said, "We do not want THIS!" They falsely believed that "leaning into" your feelings is always the answer, and wrong believed that TEAM tried to make people happy all the time—called Toxic Positivity—whereas nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I mentioned healthy negative feelings as early as, I think, Chapter 3 in Feeling Good, "Sadness is Not Depression," where I told the story of an elderly man who died on the Stanford inpatient medical service one evening when I was a medical student. Much of what I teach is shocking and at odds with what people are taught in graduate school. For example, the idea that most people with depression and anxiety—NOT everybody!—can be effectively treated in a single, extended therapy session. Curses! That sounds horrible! And even worse-sounding is the idea that change typically happens suddenly, at the very moment patients stop believing their distorted thoughts. Of course, since most therapists have not seen these phenomena, due perhaps to not having the skill, they insist instead that David is some type of fool, liar, or con artis. Okee Dokee! People—therapists and patients alike—do not "get" a great many of the key ideas in TEAM. For example, let's say the socially anxious patient totally believes the thought, "I shouldn't be so screwed up!" the necessary and sufficient conditions for emotional change. The necessary condition: The Positive Thought (PT) must be 100% true. Rationalizations and half-truths have never helped anybody. The sufficient condition: The PT must drastically reduce your belief in the negative thought. And that's when your negative thoughts will suddenly change. There is even more of what I teach is shocking and at odds with what people believe. For example, 2,000 years ago Epictetus stated they key premise of all the cognitive therapies: "People are disturbed, not by things, or events, but by the views they have of them". And recently, our research team has provided proof of this for the first time, in a study of nearly 7,000 users of our Feeling Great app, using sophisticated statistical modeling techniques. So, the three tenants of cognitive therapies, including TEAM, are: First, you FEEL the way you THINK. In other words, all of your positive and negative feelings result from your thoughts in the here-and-now. Second, depression and anxiety are the world's oldest cons. In other words, your negative thoughts, like "I'm not as good as I should be," or "I'm a hopeless case,"—will be loaded with many of the ten cognitive distortions and are extremely misleading—but you don't realize this when you're upset. You will believe these thoughts with all your heart and feel CERTAIN that they are 100% true. Third, you can CHANGE the way you FEEL. But lots of people will won't have it. They keep insisting on theories that simply aren't true—that emotions cause thoughts, for example—and on methods that may have little or no "punch" above and beyond the placebo effect. Story of Tuesday group student who was scolded in her graduate school counseling program for using the words "thought" or cognition during a therapy session. She was told ONLY to focus on feelings. Many people—therapists and patients alike—strongly believe that therapist empathy is THE key to healing. I have developed many powerful empathy tracking and training methods, but our clinical experience and research has shown, over and over, that therapist empathy is NOT the key to healing. They keys involve using TEAM systematically, and the rapid healing happens during the A and M for the most part. But those are the hard parts! Other problems include the idea that we can convert normal human emotional distress into a series of "mental disorders" that are listed in the DSM, the "bible" of the American Psychiatric Association. In TEAM, we consider each patient's patterns of suffering at the start of therapy, quickly and easily screened by the EASY Diagnostic System, but monitor therapy and patient progress with simple tools that measure feelings, like depression, anxiety, anger, and more. But this is an argument for another day. There's a lot more issues, too. Have I, David, contributed to the resistance to TEAM? Absolutely I have. I plead guilty as accused, and I'm proud of it. I'm totally aware that people—maybe even you— get turned off by criticism, and naturally recoil to protect your "in group," as Matt so clearly pointed out, and maintain loyalty to your "leader," whether it's Freud, Jung, Beck, Hayes, Rogers, or whoever. People are more emotional than rational, and people can be intentionally cruel and deceptive, too, all in the name of what they believe. We see that in our politics these days too. People believe things that are totally false, and wildly implausible, because the group or leader says it's true, it's the way things are. I'm a strong believer that science and truth will win out in the long run. Is this inevitable? I'm not totally confident, and have my doubts, but I am also filled with hope, and look to a future with more therapists like our beloved Matt May, MD and others who have dared to venture in a radically new direction, much like the early astronomers like Galileo and Copernicus who dared to challenge the superstitious teachings of the Catholic church. Those brave and brilliant early souls said, "things are NOT the way you think!" And they used data and mathematical modeling to prove their points. But there were a hundreds years of intimidation and suffering until people finally began to catch on to the then-ridiculous and outrageous ideas that the sun does NOT actually revolve around the earth, and that the earth is NOT the center of the universe. Those NOTS changed history. Can it happen again in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy? I hope so, and I've been giving my all, in my teaching, research, clinical work and writing, to make this happen. Sadly, I've fallen far short of my dream, but I'm thankful every day for what I've got, and the wonderful colleagues I'm privileged to know and love. Warmly, David, Matt and Rhonda

Watch the full video of this episode here.--You've quit every hard goal for the same reason — and it's not lack of willpower.The Stoics figured this out 2,000 years ago. Instead of fighting discomfort with more discipline, they asked a single question that bypasses the willpower battle entirely. In this video I walk through the Stoic framework of virtue, vice, and the "indifferents" — and the one question from Epictetus that replaced willpower in my own life, including the 12-pound cut I'm currently on.You'll learn:- Why discipline is a finite resource and willpower always loses- The Stoic distinction between good, bad, and indifferent- The single question that reframes hunger, hard conversations, and difficult training- How to turn discomfort into material for character instead of an enemy to defeat- The preferred indifferents caveat — why the Stoics weren't masochists

In this episode, Dr. Killeen reflects on a simple idea from Epictetus that carries lasting impact: we cannot learn what we think we already know. When we assume we have the answers, we stop asking questions and our growth begins to stall. True progress comes from staying open, curious, and willing to challenge what we think we understand. In dentistry, the most effective clinicians and leaders embrace this mindset. They continue learning, seek input from others, and recognize that confidence without humility can lead them in the wrong direction. By staying curious and acknowledging what we do not know, we keep improving and avoid becoming stagnant.

This is Part 2 of my series We Die of Being Alive. In Part 1, I explored a difficult truth: we don't die because something goes wrong—we die because we are alive. Life includes uncertainty, loss, and things we cannot control. But that leaves a deeper question: How do we actually live inside that reality? In this episode, I explore what happens when fear takes over—when we panic, freeze, or react too quickly—and how, in those moments, we can lose something essential within ourselves. Through a personal story, reflections on thinkers like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, and ideas drawn from poetry and lived experience, this episode moves toward a simple but demanding principle: Stay in the doorway long enough… then move with integrity. This isn't about eliminating fear. It's about learning how to face it without abandoning yourself. I also share practical ways this shows up in daily life—how awareness, boundaries, and what I call “containers” can help reduce overwhelm and allow us to respond more clearly instead of reacting out of pressure. If Part 1 was about accepting reality, this episode is about how to move within it. I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at poetdelayed@gmail.com. My books of poetry are availabe for purchase at Amazon.com ["The Ghost of a Beating Heart", "My Mother Sleeps" and "Haiku Village"]()

We need more love in the world. That was the statement, made quietly on a walk along the river in Granada, that stayed with us long after the conversation ended. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what Stoic philosophy actually says about love, kindness, and where to begin when the world feels like it's moving in the wrong direction.Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode grew out of a real Stoic walk and one simple statement that turned into a genuine reflection on what sincere kindness looks like in practice.It is easy to feel overwhelmed. The news pulls us toward division. Social media rewards performed kindness over the real kind. And human goodness starts to feel like it is losing ground. But the Stoics had a word for what this moment is asking of us: philanthropia, a love for humankind that does not wait for an audience. Marcus Aurelius returned to this again and again. Epictetus located it in prohairesis, that quiet place where self-awareness and personal values meet, where our real choices are formed. The starting point is not out there. It is here, in the small acts that nobody records, done simply because they are the right thing to do.You do not need power or influence to shift something. You only need to start where you are.Support the show

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Modern Meditations, we explore Chapter 7 of Epictetus' Enchiridion, one of the most vivid and debated analogies in Stoicism.Using the image of a ship, a captain, and a shoreline full of distractions, Epictetus gives a framework for how to live while knowing everything can be taken from you at any moment. But what exactly is the “ship”? Is it death? Fate? Something else entirely?Justin and I break down competing interpretations, push the analogy to its limits, and wrestle with what it actually means to “be ready” when you're called back. Along the way, we get into truffles, attachments, whether this idea is anti-stoic at its extreme, and what it looks like to live fully without wandering too far from what matters.This episode is about attention, detachment, and learning when to hold on and when to walk away without looking back.

After a month-long hiatus of writing and thinking, Vulcan returns to the microphone to audit the "Aesthetic of Morality." When our values require an audience to sustain them, they cease to be morality and become theater.In this episode, we dive deep into:The Validation Trap: Why we've started treating tribal belonging like Soma—a drug used to satisfy the craving for inclusion at the cost of truth.Tribalistic Hedonism vs. Hedonistic Tribalism: Understanding the difference between bonding over shared joy and the toxic "high" found in the collective attack on an enemy.The Vulcan Check: A practical Stoic audit for your outrage. Is your anger a utility designed to solve a problem, or is it just a flare gun shot into the air to prove to your tribe that you're one of the "good guys"?The Sphere of Invincibility: How social media provides the safety of the mob, allowing us to indulge in aggression without the courage of physical consequence.Drawing on the wisdom of Epictetus, we explore how uncontrolled passion blinds us to reason, turning us into addicts of belonging rather than warriors for justice. If your virtue is merely a tool to annoy your enemies, it isn't virtue—it's hedonism. It's time to lock the screen, quiet the "noise of the tribe," and check your own resolve."If your morality requires an audience to sustain it, it's not morality. It's acting."#TheSundaySmoke #Stoicism #TribalisticHedonism #TheVulcanCheck #ModernPhilosophy #VirtueVsValidation

Epictetus reminded us that he is a slave who depends on the opinions of others for his own peace of mind. When we treat the tribe like a drug, we surrender our reason to the mob. If you need the noise of the "likes" and "shares" to convince yourself you are right, you have lost your freedom. Real morality requires no audience. It is a choice made in the soul, independent of the tribe's applause.#Epictetus #StoicWisdom #Tribalism #SelfMastery

This episode looks at how Stoicism handles insults without turning us into “unfeeling statues.” Epictetus suggests taking a cue from a stone: insults only work if we grant them importance. When we pause and refuse that inner assent, the words lose their grip.

Start here: If you want to build a consistent Stoic practice — not just listen to one — I made a free 7-day challenge. One short audio lesson per day, one practice to try. No fluff. stoicchallenge.co---I used to think discipline was a character trait — like height or eye colour. Some people had it. I didn't. That story is comfortable. And it's complete rubbish.The Stoics didn't treat discipline as willpower. They treated it as a set of five trainable skills that get stronger with reps and weaker with neglect. In this episode I walk through each one, using some of the best lines Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, and Musonius Rufus ever wrote on the subject.The five moves: decide before the moment arrives, do before you discuss, guard what you let in, train in small frictions, and pause before you react. Each one is something you can practise starting tonight.

Sometimes the answers we're chasing in business and life have already been written—centuries ago. In this solo episode, Darius Mirshahzadeh dives deep into four timeless quotes by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, exploring how ancient wisdom still holds power in modern life. Recorded from an Airbnb in Barcelona, Darius shares personal insights and stories on choosing uplifting relationships, living in alignment with purpose, breaking negative patterns, and redefining what true wealth really means. Whether you're navigating business partnerships or personal transformation, this is a philosophical deep-dive that will leave you asking the right questions about your life. In this episode, Darius will discuss: (00:00) Introduction and Context of Stoicism (02:27) The Importance of Uplifting Relationships (05:40) Devoting Life to Progress (08:25) Learning from Books and Applying Knowledge (11:02) Understanding Wealth and Wants Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthedarius/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thegreatnessmachine  Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Write a review for The Greatness Machine using this link: https://ratethispodcast.com/spreadinggreatness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Start here: If you want to build a consistent Stoic practice — not just listen to one — I made a free 7-day challenge. One short audio lesson per day, one practice to try. No fluff. stoicchallenge.co---Most resolutions fail because they're built wrong — not because you lack willpower. Epictetus figured out why 2,000 years ago.In this video I break down three tests from Stoic philosophy that expose whether your goal is real or just fantasy dressed up with good intentions: Control, Cost, and Consistency. Then I take six of the most common resolutions — get fit, save money, get promoted, be happier, quit social media, read more — and show you exactly how each one fails and what the Stoic fix looks like.At the end there's a simple scoring system you can use right now to test whether your goals will actually stick.

The Art of Letting Go #RTTBROS #Nightlight"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." — Philippians 4:11You know, there was a man born into slavery around 50 AD, a man who had every reason in the world to be bitter and broken. His name was Epictetus, and his owner once twisted his leg to the point of breaking it, just to demonstrate his power over him. Epictetus simply looked up and said calmly, "You are going to break it." And when it snapped, he said, "Did I not tell you?" Now here's what's remarkable about that story. Out of that broken, enslaved life came one of the most powerful ideas in all of human philosophy: some things are up to us, and some things are not. And wisdom, he said, is knowing the difference.That is a profound truth. But here's what I find fascinating. About a generation before Epictetus ever said that, the Apostle Paul was writing something even deeper from his own prison cell. He said, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Did you catch that word? Learned. Paul didn't say this came naturally. He didn't say God zapped him with a contentment ray. He said he learned it, the same way you learn anything, through practice, through failure, through getting back up and trying again.Here's the difference between Paul and the Stoics, and it matters. Epictetus said, focus only on what you can control, your thoughts, your responses, your choices, and let everything else go. Good advice, as far as it goes. But Paul goes further. Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Philippians 4:13). He's not just gritting his teeth and white-knuckling his way through hard circumstances. He's drawing on a strength that isn't his own.So what are you gripping so tightly today that it's draining the life right out of you? The job situation you can't fix, the relationship you can't control, the diagnosis that blindsided you? You and I can't change most of what worries us. But we can, like Paul, practice surrendering it to the One who holds all things in His hands. That's not weakness. That's the deepest kind of wisdom there is.Let's pray: Lord, teach us what Paul learned, that real peace doesn't come from controlling our circumstances, but from trusting You in the middle of them. Help us release what we were never meant to carry. In Jesus' name, Amen.#Faith #Contentment #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #TrustGod #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #NightlightBe sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe, it helps get the word out.https://linktr.ee/rttbros

This episode centres on a question from Epictetus: what is there to fear?By focusing only on what's truly within our control—our choices and character—we loosen the grip of anxiety.With fear quieted, attention returns to the present, where even ordinary moments become material for reflection and growth.

Breaking news: Michelle and Lauren deliver their official State of the Being address.Welcome back, WIFs!This week Michelle and Lauren kick things off with their weekly beverage experiment… which quickly turns into a total fail and leads to some classic sister story time (including Lauren's brief vigilante era).Hot TopicThe sisters dive into the current state of being.Official diagnosis? Not well, bitch — but hanging in there.Between nonstop news, conspiracy theories, and the feeling that we're all living inside a reality show we never signed up for, Michelle and Lauren talk about navigating the chaos without completely losing their minds.Reading / Watching / ListeningStoic wisdom from Epictetus, thoughts on Wuthering Heights and Send Help.Simple JoysSuper glue supremacy and snuggling with a human hot-water bottle named Kevin.Press play and get cozy.Please note: This episode was recorded prior to the beginning of the war in Iran, hence why it was not discussed.Resources: Unfiltered CollectionResist and UnsubscribePillars Community HealthOptwellThis episode is sponsored by Posey Law Group, Chicago Private Wealth Group, and Adorn 512.

This episode follows Epictetus's vivid portrait of Diogenes the Cynic—a philosopher who lived as a “spy” on false values, exposing how little we truly need to live freely. From Diogenes' fearless simplicity to Seneca and Gracián's insistence on self-respect even in solitude, we explore what it means to answer to yourself rather than to status, comfort, or applause.

William Green highlights essential truths about investing, business & life that emerged from two of his favorite interviews with Howard Marks and Nima Shayegh. This episode also explores powerful lessons on resilience from Bill Miller & Epictetus. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:31 - How investing legend Howard Marks views the euphoria over AI 00:11:10 - What potential mistakes he warns against in this environment 00:13:23 - What essential lessons William Green has learned from Howard 00:23:00 - How Howard keeps an even keel amid extreme uncertainty 00:26:09 - Why Howard, like Einstein, doesn't think much about the future 00:34:19 - Why investing early & not “tampering” is the key to success 00:38:39 - How Nima Shayegh looks beyond numbers to find great stocks 00:44:19 - How to harness intuition & emotion in the investment process 00:49:13 - How products from Tesla & Amazon inspire “blown-awayness” 00:57:10 - What Nima learned from his famed mentor, Lou Simpson 01:04:38 - How Lou's success was built on humility 01:19:55 - How Lou & Nima inspire William's yearning for a spacious life 01:23:56 - How to handle suffering with help from Bill Miller & Epictetus Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TIP Mastermind Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Inquire about William Green's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Richer, Wiser, Happier Masterclass⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Howard Marks' Memos: The Complete Collection. Edward Chancellor's Devil Take the Hindmost. Allen Benello, Michael van Biema, Tobias Carlisle's ⁠Concentrated Investing.⁠ William Green's podcast interview with Howard Marks. William Green's podcast interview with Nima Shayegh. William Green's book, ⁠⁠Richer, Wiser, Happier⁠⁠. Follow William Green on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Related ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠books⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ mentioned in the podcast. Ad-free episodes on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Feed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We Study Billionaires Starter Packs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow our official social media accounts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Browse through all our episodes ⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TIP Finance Tool⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Enjoy exclusive perks from our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠favorite Apps and Services⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠best business podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our ⁠⁠sponsors⁠⁠: HardBlock⁠ ⁠Human Rights Foundation⁠ ⁠Simple Mining⁠ ⁠Netsuite⁠ ⁠Masterworks⁠ ⁠Shopify⁠ ⁠Vanta⁠ ⁠Fundrise References to any third-party products, services, or advertisers do not constitute endorsements, and The Investors Podcast Network is not responsible for any claims made by them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

On this episode, Travis and his producer Eric riff through classic quotes from figures like Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Jim Rohn, Epictetus, and even the Joker's mom, using each line as a launchpad to talk about money, time, self-education, and what opportunity really looks like in real life. They blend humor, movie references, and personal stories to challenge conventional wisdom and show why rethinking your relationship with learning, work, and wealth is essential if you want to build a life you actually enjoy. On this episode we talk about: Why “time is money” is incomplete and why time is actually more valuable than money How Warren Buffett illustrates the tradeoff between wealth and years of life The difference between formal education and self-education (and why school can make you hate learning) What opportunity really looks like, and why it usually shows up disguised as hard work and skill-building Stoic ideas about wealth, wanting less, and why money is a terrible master but an excellent servant Top 3 Takeaways Time is your most valuable asset, more important than money or status, and no amount of cash can buy back lost years. Self-education, driven by curiosity and discipline, is what creates real fortunes and career breakthroughs—especially once you realize school barely scratched the surface. Opportunity rarely appears as a dream job handed to you; it shows up as hard work, skill development, and adding value long before any big payoff. Notable Quotes "Time is the most valuable asset that we have, so it's actually greater than money." "Most people think education stops, but everything in my career started when I realized I didn't know anything and had to go learn it myself." "People have this idealistic version of what opportunity looks like, but lack of opportunity is not what stands between you and success." Connect with Travis:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travischappell• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/travischappell• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travischappell• Other: travischappell.com Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level – the All-In-One Sales & Marketing Platform built for agencies, by an agency. Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform. Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the core of Stoicism is the idea that our emotions are our responsibility. No one can make us frustrated. No one can offend us either, Epictetus said, not without us being complicit in the taking of offense.