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In this episode of Excess Returns, Graeme Forster of Orbis joins us to discuss two major research papers: Six Courageous Questions for 2026 and Sunrise on Venus. We explore how long-running global trends may be reversing, what that means for U.S. dominance, the future of international and emerging markets, the risks and opportunities created by AI and massive CapEx spending, the dollar's shifting role, and how investors should think about valuation, humility, and navigating a world where the economic “water” is changing. This conversation is packed with global macro insight, long-term investing lessons, and practical frameworks for building more resilient portfolios. Topics Covered:• Why long-term market “water” becomes invisible to investors• Self-reinforcing global cycles and how China's WTO entry reshaped the world• Signs the 25-year U.S. outperformance cycle may be breaking• How tariffs, political shifts, and corporate reforms change the global landscape• Why international and emerging markets may now offer better expected returns• Why U.S. large caps are not the entire story of American exceptionalism• How to think about valuation, margins, and discounted cash flow models across markets• The AI boom, bubbles, capital cycles, and asymmetric outcomes• How AI CapEx constraints influence winners and losers• The shifting role of the U.S. dollar and why market shocks may behave differently• Maslow's hierarchy, needs vs. wants, and the return of state-driven capital investment• Deglobalization, reshoring, and the national-security lens for investing• How to evaluate China and Taiwan inside emerging markets• Why humility is an investor's greatest edgeTimestamps:00:00 Introduction01:02 Why Orbis wrote Six Courageous Questions for 202603:44 The David Foster Wallace “water” analogy and investing06:12 How a 25-year self-reinforcing cycle powered U.S. outperformance10:12 Signs the cycle may be breaking12:00 Corporate reform and opportunity in Asia13:55 Why active share, benchmarking, and incentives distort investor behavior17:31 Decomposing S&P 500 returns: margins, valuations, fundamentals20:20 Expected returns inside and outside the U.S.22:34 Why international stocks offer richer opportunity sets24:25 Currency implications and weakening dollar dynamics26:18 American exceptionalism beyond the top 10 mega caps28:49 Where Orbis is finding value today30:25 Biotech, healthcare, and post-COVID dislocation31:05 How Orbis thinks about valuation in an intangible-heavy world32:09 Is AI a bubble or the beginning of something bigger?34:30 Game theory of AI CapEx and right-tail outcomes36:00 CapEx cycles, history, and who benefits38:00 Indirect AI beneficiaries and the SK Square example40:35 Maslow's hierarchy and the shift from wants to needs42:32 Deglobalization, national security, and domestic reinvestment44:00 Capital returning to home markets and strategic industries46:00 Can anything reverse these structural trends?48:00 Balancing bottom-up investing with macro awareness49:45 The deeper risk in emerging markets: owning vs. avoiding51:00 Valuation still matters for long-term returns52:29 Corporate behavior, dividends, and re-rating cycles53:52 How Orbis views China vs. bottom-up opportunity55:34 Why great investors must be right 90–95% of the time in decision quality58:00 One lesson Graeme would teach the average investor
Who on KVJ Can BS the best on topics like- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs or Lazy Suzannes?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
11-30-25 Elder Mills takes us on a journey of Maslow's Pyramid and breaks down how the world attempts to box in our identity, but also how we can break out of that box by knowing how we operate in the world while not being of the world through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
277. Breaking Through Addiction in Marriage with Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith *DISCLAIMER* This episode is intended for adults. 1 John 1:9 AMP "If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].” *Transcription Below* Thank You to Our Sponsor: Leman Property Management Company Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith are clinicians, speakers, and authors with over 20 years of combined experience in counseling, coaching, and guiding couples toward healing and transformation. Their mission is to help couples navigate the complexities of relational challenges, particularly in the aftermath of sexual addiction and betrayal trauma, fostering deep restoration and growth. Matthew is a Professional Certified Coach (ICF) with a background in pastoral leadership, while Joanna is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, EMDR practitioner, and Certified Clinical Partner Specialist through APSATS. Both hold Master of Divinity degrees and have served together on multiple church leadership teams. Currently, they co-lead their private practice, The Raabsmith Team, where they specialize in helping couples rebuild connection, trust, and intimacy. Their passion for this work stems from their own journey of restoration. After experiencing the devastating effects of sexual addiction and betrayal in their marriage, Matthew and Joanna embarked on a years-long pursuit of reconciliation. This transformative experience led to the creation of tools like The Intimacy Pyramid™, a practical model for relational restoration and growth co-created with colleague Dan Drake. Their first book, Building True Intimacy (2023), has sold over 1,000 copies and provides practical guidance for couples to use the Intimacy Pyramid to create enduring connections. They also founded Renewing Us Recovery™, a comprehensive program designed to support couples in the later stages of relational restoration. In November 2025, they will host the inaugural Renewing Us Couples Retreat, offering workshops and connection opportunities for couples on similar paths of recovery and growth. Matthew and Joanna live in Memphis, Tennessee with their three young children. They prioritize self-care through shared adventures, new experiences, and a weekly game of pickleball. Free Resource Mentioned in Episode Building True Intimacy book Questions and Topics Discussed: What were the warning signs that you noticed when you were newlyweds that tipped you off to believing things weren't quite as they seemed? Are there any common life circumstances, whether nature or nurture, that predispose someone to be more likely to struggle with a sexual addiction? As couples seek to thrive in marriage, will you give us an overview of the intimacy pyramid you wrote a book about? Other Episodes Mentioned During Episode: Pornography: Protecting Children, Personal Healing, Recovery, and Victory in Christ with Sam Black Pornography Addiction and Helpful Recovery with Crystal Renaud Day Additional Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce: Anatomy of an Affair with Dave Carder Protecting Your Marriage Against Unfaithfulness with Dave Carder Stories Series: Recovery From Sexual Sin in Marriage with Garrett and Brenna Naufel Supernatural Restoration Story with Bob and Audrey Meisner Special Patreon Re-Release Wholehearted Quiet Time with Naomi Vacaro Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“ Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” *Transcription* Music: (0:00 – 0:12) Laura Dugger: (0:13 - 1:38) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. Today's message is not intended for little ears. We'll be discussing some adult themes, and I want you to be aware before you listen to this message. Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at lemanproperties.com, or connect with them on Facebook. Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith are my guests today. They are clinicians, speakers, and authors with over 20 years of combined experience in counseling, coaching, and guiding couples toward healing and transformation. Our conversation takes a few turns, from getting to hear their incredible and vulnerable story of healing and then getting tips for talking to our children about topics like sex, and also even receiving some practical wisdom and tips for enhancing our own marital enjoyment. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Matthew and Joanna. Matthew Raabsmith: (1:39 - 1:40) So good to be here. Joanna Raabsmith: (1:40 - 1:42) So glad to be here. Thanks for having us. Laura Dugger: (1:42 - 1:51) Oh, truly my pleasure. And let's just start here. Can you share your story going back to meeting and falling in love and your first part of marriage? Matthew Raabsmith: (1:53 - 2:17) Sure, yeah. It was a little bumpy at first, actually. So, I knew Joanna through her brother. Joanna's brother was one of my best friends, and I got to meet her whenever she would come in town and visit, and she would invade guy night. He would usually bring her along to like a Lord of the Rings movie or something, and I would be a little frustrated because I would be like, oh, you brought your sister. Great. That's wonderful. Joanna Raabsmith: (2:18 - 2:24) A little off-putting, not super friendly. And I was like, your friend's kind of a jerk. We did not like each other at all in the beginning. Matthew Raabsmith: (2:24 - 2:54) Not big fans. And eventually over some time, we started to realize we had a lot in common. We liked to do a lot of the same things. And one summer that Joanna was in town, we started hanging out, started doing more and more together, and really just kind of developed a friendship, which was really fun. And at the very end of the summer, realized that there was something between us. And so, we went on one date. Our first date, we entered a golf tournament. We won it, and that was a good sign. Joanna Raabsmith: (2:54 - 2:55) That's a pretty good sign. Matthew Raabsmith: (2:55 - 3:02) And we went on three more dates over the course of two months and got engaged. Joanna Raabsmith: (3:03 - 3:07) And then two months after that, we got married. Matthew Raabsmith: (3:07 - 3:16) Yeah. So, her brother went from like, yeah, it's cool you date my sister, to like, you're not ready to get married. But he's come around now. Joanna Raabsmith: (3:17 - 3:19) 15 years later. Yeah. Matthew Raabsmith: (3:19 - 3:40) And, you know, a lot of it was, I think we had a definite sense of being kind of called together, being, you know, something special about who we were as a couple. And also, a recognition that we wanted to figure out what a good marriage looked like. We were really excited about marriage, but we didn't really know what we were doing. Joanna Raabsmith: (3:41 - 4:15) Yeah, I've had a really great model of healthy relationship. My parents have a wonderful marriage. They work really well as a team. And so, I knew, like, I want something like that. But as soon as we got married, we realized, but how do you actually build that? There's no, like, instruction manual for, okay, here are the things to do to have a great relationship. And so, we read books. We went to conferences. You know, we did what we could, but we still found ourselves getting stuck, not able to really create, like, that deep sense of, like, connection intimacy that we really wanted. Matthew Raabsmith: (4:15 - 5:17) And we started kind of hunting more and more for resources. We found some incredible resources that really changed our understanding of the way relationships work, the way people work, and really, for us, shifted our entire focus of kind of what we wanted to do, even with our life. And as we started to do that, though, we still kind of found ourselves at this kind of glass wall. We felt like no matter what we tried, there was always this kind of distance between us. And that started to grow kind of over the years that we were together. It wasn't getting better. It was actually kind of getting worse and worse and worse. And so, Joanna had actually decided to, after we finished our first grad degree together, the idea was we were going to go be pastors. And so, we had finished our kind of theological training. Joanna decided she wanted to get a master's in marriage and family therapy so we could do some work around marriages and ministry in that way. And her very first-class kind of just set our life in a completely different direction. Joanna Raabsmith: (5:17 - 6:26) Yes. So, my first class in the MFT program was a two-week intensive called Shame and Guilt. So, that's a really fun two-week intensive to be a part of. And as a part of that, though, they had an anonymous pastor come and share his testimony of struggling with sex addiction, becoming sober, getting into good recovery, healing and restoration in his marriage, kind of like that whole journey. And as he was talking, something inside of me started stirring. And I knew, OK, what he's saying is resonating way too much with me right now. I think this is the thing. This is what is keeping us stuck, not able to really create the relationship we want. And so, that day I went home and first I just kind of started talking about my class, what I learned, what this pastor had shared. Right. And nothing. Right. We're just kind of talking generally about it. And so, finally I couldn't do it anymore. And I just stopped and I looked him square in the eyes and I said, “Are you struggling with this in our marriage right now?” Matthew Raabsmith: (6:26 - 8:03) Yeah. And for the first time in my life, 20 years, I had been struggling with pornography, sexual addiction, and acting out in our marriage. And for the first time in my life, I was honest. I had lied for years, both with Joanna and everyone else. And the kind of floodgates just kind of opened up. And I finally said yes. And it was really hearing the story, I think, is what did it for me. I think it was knowing that somebody else had made it, that their life hadn't come crashing down because that was the greatest fear for me. That the moment anyone found this out, everything in my life would be over. Everything that I loved would be gone. And so, this kind of story of hope gave me a little bit of courage that day, to be honest. But that started a really long journey for us because there was a lot of damage that was done in both of my hiding. And now kind of this revelation, all the pain kind of came crashing down on Joanna and kind of her shoulders. And so, we started a quite intensive recovery process. We talked about it being kind of a full-time job. I went to recovery for my addiction and for kind of my acting out behaviors. Joanna had to begin a process of healing from the trauma of this discovery. And that process took us a number of years. It really was a long kind of arduous journey, but one that we ultimately survived and now thrive in our marriage and get the incredible luxury and the kind of gift of helping other couples do that. So, that's kind of where we find ourselves. Laura Dugger: (8:04 - 8:30) That is incredible. I just really appreciate you sharing your story. Clearly, stories are so powerful and that's what led to some healing for you and hopefully can open the floodgates for somebody else listening. So, if we go back in your story, then, Joanna, I'd love to start with you. What were some of those red flags in early marriage that things aren't quite as they seem? Joanna Raabsmith: (8:31 - 10:28) Yeah, there are a few. You know, I think that, you know, one of the pieces we kind of talked about, like, OK, we knew we're still getting stuck because there's 90 percent that felt really good. But then 10 percent that was extremely chaotic, really destructive. Right. We would get we call the pain cycles when we get emotionally dysregulated. And there would be some things that, right. Sometimes we would get into pain cycles, get dysregulated. And I kind of understand why. Right. Like something happened. There was the disagreement. But other times I couldn't put my finger on it. Right. Matthew would just get really angry and really shut down. And I wouldn't be able to connect it to anything that had happened in our life. And so, it was very confusing. It was really hard to understand what was going on. And I think kind of in the same way, when I would pull too close into that connection, that intimacy, he would pull back. Right. And it felt like even though we both named this goal and this desire, he would never actually partner with me in it. And so, again, that was really confusing because the actions were not matching up with reality and what was happening. And I think the other piece that was kind of true for us and true for a lot of other people is that our own sexual relationship was fraught with pain. And so, there was, again, a lot that was really good, but also a lot that was really painful and confusing. And some of the pieces just didn't connect. Right. And I would wonder, OK, what's going on? Well, I guess this is just the reality that like this is how much we get to expect in this area of our life, right. In our relationship. And so, it was when the pastor started describing his life and addiction and what that looked like emotionally, sexually, relationally. I was like, oh, those are all the things that I'm currently experiencing. Here's one thing that would answer all those questions that I have. And so, I think that was part of it. He kind of told me, like, OK, this is it. Laura Dugger: (10:28 - 11:00) That would be so eye opening. And my heart's going out to the couple who is maybe starting to identify with this. Was it and share whatever you're comfortable with from your story or the person's story who opened things up to you? So, sexually, I'm wondering if it was for you, Joanna, if you were hoping to connect sexually and that wasn't happening and that was confusing. You didn't feel pursued. But I don't want to fill in the blanks. So, could you elaborate? Joanna Raabsmith: (11:00 - 12:03) Absolutely. Yeah. And we find it a lot of different ways than couples that we work with. Right. And so, it can be sometimes on either side of the extreme. And so, for us, it was where there would be kind of times when he'd be fully present and interested and engaged. Right. And then all of a sudden, kind of like I described emotionally, he would just withdraw and not be there. And I would reach out to connect. And that was this like non-response. And which, again, didn't match up with those other times when he was engaged and wanting to connect. And he would give some sort of excuse that didn't totally make sense. Right. But I was kind of like, what else? What was I left with except that? So, I would kind of believe that and go with it, even though it didn't sit right. And so, yeah, I think that was part of it. We will see on the other side for some other couples. It's the opposite. And maybe that spouse is hypersexual in the relationship. Right. To the point where there might be pressure, even pressure to do things sexually that people aren't comfortable with. And so, yeah, it can look a lot of different ways. But that was kind of what our disconnect looked like. Laura Dugger: (12:04 - 12:33) That's so helpful. And there's two different directions I want to go, Matthew. So, I'll set it up. I guess I'm thinking of the guilt and shame and how those are usually so present. So, I have two questions. Were you when Joanna came to you, were you at a point where you recognize something was off and you wanted freedom from this and or had tried freedom before? Let's start with that and then I'll go into the other one. Matthew Raabsmith: (12:34 - 14:40) Yeah, it really was holy timing in a lot of ways. I, you know, for a lot of years I had I hated what I did. I didn't feel like I could stop it, but didn't have a lot of interest in kind of doing anything to stop it. I kind of just like would just say, “OK, this is going to be the last time.” And then, you know, of course it would come back. But I think at this point I had really started to see the damage that was happening to our relationship. I could feel us growing close, growing further apart. I could see kind of Joanna and the confusion that she was having. And like she couldn't understand things. She would ask me a lot of questions that I didn't have answers to. And so, I actually a couple of months earlier, we were at a worship service, and they had said like, “hey, if you are ready to give something up, if you feel like there's something holding you back, come forward and confess it.” And Joanna and I were sitting next to each other, and I remember feeling like the Holy Spirit just like pulling me to like get up out of my seat and I wouldn't move. I was like, no, because she's going to ask me what I went down for. I'm going there's you know, there's a random kind of prayer partner at the front. I'm like, I'm not going and confessing this to some random person. And so, I was ready. But I think like I said, I think there was no path forward. It was kind of confess this and everything stops and ends. But everything like marriage ends, life ends. And so, when she when she brought this, it really did feel like God had kind of been answering a prayer that I've been praying of like, if you give me a way out, I'll take it. I'm desperate. I want it to stop. And it felt like that. I think it was both this kind of terror and this hope that day. And even when I said, yes, it was a little bit like, what have I done? Like, could this have been different? Should I have just gone and told someone else privately? Right. But I think ultimately that it was out between the two of us and that we kind of knew it. We knew what we were dealing with made a huge difference. But I mean, God had been working in my life, offering opportunities for so long. I just been saying no, no, no. And then finally, you know, I think my heart just broke and it was like, yes, OK, I'm ready for this. Laura Dugger: (14:40 - 15:14) I love how the Holy Spirit equipped you with that humility and courage to be brave in that moment. And it's such a blessing for all of us to get to see the end or I guess not the end of the story, but you at this point in your story where you're thriving. And so, I hope that offers a lot of hope to people listening. But let's also pause. And so, going back further in time, Matthew, this was the other part of my question. What was life and attachment and your growing up journey like? Matthew Raabsmith: (15:15 - 18:09) Yeah, I didn't know that at the time. Right. I a lot of this I figured out in the last couple of years of recovery. You know, if you would have asked me, you know, as I was growing up about my life, I would have told you I had the perfect family. I had the perfect life. I think I did not realize that some of the things that I was going through weren't perfect, were harder. And part of that was because I think the way my family dynamic worked was we just swept everything under the rug. You know, whatever happened, we just kind of went, OK, and moved on from. And I learned to do that as a kid. And that meant a lot of emotional chaos. There was a lot of physical chaos and kind of volatility in our house growing up. And even though I had parents who are still married to this day, have stayed together and have tried to create kind of a stable life. There was a lot of emotional and kind of relational instability. We moved around a lot. And then once we started moving, I found myself more and more kind of isolated at school. I started dealing with bullying and some things that really kind of left me not knowing how to deal with the pain that I was going through. And so, my way of stuffing things under the rug was getting, you know, escaping, you know, kind of escaping into anything that I could. I watched a lot of TV. I was a latchkey kid, so I would come home. I'd watch TV a lot in the afternoon and then TV kind of just turned to more and more. And I was exposed pretty young to pornography, actually at a church camp. I was at a summer church camp. Someone brought a Playboy magazine, and I was exposed to pornography. And I kind of felt that high, that rush. And that just became kind of a mode of my escape. Right. Of whatever I could do to engage sexually, whether with my mind or with others. That's how I could get out of the pain I was in. That's how I could stop feeling kind of the chaos that I was having and not realizing that it was becoming this kind of adaptive habit, that it would just be this thing I would go back to more and more. And I grew up at a time that technology was still emerging. So, I can remember when we got our first computer and no one was talking about safeguards or anything. And so, it was just kind of exposure. Here you go. Here's everything you could ever want and don't need. And that really became my life. And the more and more that I did, the better and better I got at lying and hiding and even being kind of vulnerable in kind of fake ways. I would mention things like, yeah, we all have this struggle. And even Joanna, I had told like, you know, that was a struggle of mine in the past, but I've moved on from it. Right. I told myself and other people just kind of lie after lie after lie so that I could have really this double life. I could appear one way and then I could be acting a completely different way, kind of in the dark. Laura Dugger: (18:10 - 20:41) Yeah. And that makes sense. I'm thinking back to two episodes. We did one with a male, Sam Black from Covenant Eyes, and he speaks so much of the origins of pornography and that foothold that Satan gets. And so many times it is in childhood, unwittingly you're exposed and then what it can turn into. And then Crystal Renaud Day came on to share a lot of females struggle with this as well. And so, I'll link to those if those are a help. And now a brief message from our sponsor. 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For me, I had to figure out what had really gone on in my life and what was really happening. Because, like I said, I had become such an expert at hiding from myself and others that I didn't really know how to live any other way. And so, I, you know, Joanna kind of handed me a list of everything this pastor had done. She was like, here you go. Right. She kind of handed me that list and was like, good luck. And so, I dove in. I went to a men's intensive. And I think that was probably one of the key places for me to tell my story for the first time. I really took a look at my life and had some people help me take a look and recognize the trauma that I had as a kid exposure that I had experienced and what that really meant to me and helped me understand what I was doing. But also, kind of what I was doing to myself, how I was really kind of killing myself from the inside out and preventing myself from having the kind of relationship I wanted with God and other people. And so, that discovery was in really ways kind of invigorating for me. I felt like I was living for the first time. I think I had started to kind of get out of this kind of burden, this fear of always being caught. I told Joanna kind of the history of everything that had happened in my life and our relationship. And so, I was feeling this kind of renewed sense of like energy and excitement of like, this is good. I want this life. I want the life there that I'm not in constant kind of fear and in constant kind of connection to this thing I hate. And so, which is really different than what Joanna was experiencing. Joanna Raabsmith: (22:30 - 25:07) Yeah. So, for me, it was very jarring in the beginning. Everything I thought was real came crashing down around me. And that was especially jarring because I had left kind of the direction, the path that I was on. Right. We talked about our story earlier. It included two months of dating, two months of engagement before we got married. And that also included me dropping out of law school, getting married and moving to California to pursue a ministry degree so we could work as pastors together or do something together. And so, in that moment, all of that came crashing down. And I kind of was very lost, not just in our relationship, but in kind of what in the world am I even doing here? What am I going to do moving forward if he doesn't choose recovery? Right. And so, just all of those question marks, all in that one moment of him answering that question affirmative. And so, so there was like that heaviness on one side and then on the other side was this relief of finally everything I've been experiencing makes sense. Right. Finally, I feel like I actually know what's going on. And because of that, there could maybe be a path forward for us as well. So, is this very, very weird dichotomy in that moment? And so, but I think I knew right away, like, I can't be vulnerable. I can't be intimate with him anymore. Right. I have to step back in our relationship and wait and see what he chooses to do. Is he going to choose to do the work of recovery and get healthy and start to be honest and safe or not? And so, that's so we kind of did kind of there's some space for a very long period of time while we focused on our own individual recoveries. And that, again, was a little bumpy for me. This is over a decade ago. And so, there is very little information about what partners experience. We call it betrayal trauma, and that just wasn't a very common word at the time. And so, some of the resources I plugged into came from a more we would call it codependent, co-addict focus, which just really didn't fit. So, I struggled to find resources that felt like they fit for my journey. But once I did, it all again, my own healing process started to make sense. And it was so like freeing and liberating to understand. Like, oh, OK, this is what I'm going through. This is why I feel this way. This is what it looks like to heal and move forward. And so, kind of beginning that process was so important because then when Matthew was kind of in a healthy, safe place, I was as well, and we can start to step in towards each other on that kind of more couples' journey at that point. Laura Dugger: (25:07 - 25:17) I love how you did that wisely, though, separate first, not rushing into couples at that time. Absolutely. Matthew Raabsmith: (25:18 - 26:33) Appreciate you calling it wise. I think we were terrified. Yeah, we'll take God's help. I think he was like, you guys just work on your own stuff for a while. And in some ways, like I said, it was we didn't know what we were doing. But I think we knew we wanted there to be a future between the two of us. But we knew it had to be completely different in some ways than what we had before, which was scary because we liked what we had before. Like we had a really great marriage in many ways. Right. There was this portion of it, this hidden portion that was really infecting and killing it all. But what we did have together, we didn't want to totally lose. It just was really hard to know, especially early on, what's going to come forward. Like, who are we still going to be as we go forward? Are we still going to be a couple who does things together? Right. Who works together? Or is that all kind of going to have to be different? Is that the only way that we have kind of moving forward? And so, that was that was probably the hardest part was having like this sense of like not wanting to lose us. We were like, if we lost that, that was going to be miserable. And I think a lot of our work was about how do we eventually reclaim this marriage that we want, that we love? Laura Dugger: (26:34 - 27:04) Yes, because from what I'm sensing, you're friends with each other, you're on purpose or on mission with God. He did a course correction change, putting you on this path to help couples. But your desire to work together, it's like He still honored that in the ministry of reconciliation. And I'm assuming abundantly blessed it beyond what you could ever dreamed up what we're doing now. Joanna Raabsmith: (27:04 - 27:42) Right. It's been amazing to see what God has done, how he's used our story, which is so fitting because it was someone sharing their story that brought our healing. And I think because of that and it wasn't right away; it took some time to get to the place where we felt open to God using our story to bring healing to others. But we found as we stepped into that, that we have received such a blessing. Right. And just being able to sit with other couples in that journey and see them go from that place of pain and confusion to this place of restoration and thriving. Like there is no better work that we could have imagined for ourselves. Laura Dugger: (27:42 - 28:09) Love that. And really, you did have to pioneer a path. There weren't many resources at that time. So, that's another reason I'm grateful you can share your story, because I hope it unlocks freedom for others. So, if we're turning more outward now and you're helping as you work with couples, how do you help them identify the difference between sexual struggles and sexual addiction? Matthew Raabsmith: (28:10 - 30:15) Yeah, that's a great question. And I think that it really kind of exists on a spectrum. And so, everything kind of exists under what we call problematic sexual behavior or unwanted sexual behavior. Whenever someone is acting in a way sexually that doesn't align with their values. And then the question is, is how often, how compulsive, right? How habituated, right? How really embedded is that practice? Because the more and more embedded it is and the more and more that I continue to act on that, seeing the damage that it's doing, that's really what qualifies as the addiction. The addiction is when I know that this is causing harm and I and I feel that even though I want to stop it and I've tried to stop. Right. I can't stop the 12 steps has a great line. They say addicts, you know, addicts have no problem stopping. It's staying stopped. That's hard for an addict. Right. And so, that's usually a sign that there's an addiction. And really what that means is that just means that I'm going to have to be even more kind of thorough and scrupulous in my willingness to change a lot. Because if I have built an addictive lifestyle, that means everything I do kind of functions to support that lifestyle. Right. And so, my part of that was this hiding. I lied about everything. I would lie about anything just to make sure that I was in control of the narrative. And so, for me, it was recognizing that if I was going to move forward free of my addiction, then it had to begin with honesty, with this kind of radical honesty and transparency and growing in that consistently, because that was the way that I manifested this addiction and kind of kept it going. And so, that's really what the addiction is about, is recognizing what are the kind of pieces in my life that are supporting this addiction to continue to exist? And how is God going to dismantle those things? Right. And how am I going to be a part of that dismantling? Laura Dugger: (30:16 - 30:33) That's well said. And also, I'm curious, are there any common life circumstances, whether that's nature or nurture, that are more likely to predispose someone to more likely have this struggle with sexual addiction? Matthew Raabsmith: (30:34 - 32:30) I mean, there are, I think, you know, the things that we tend to look for are trauma and trauma comes in so many different forms. So, trauma is more it's rare that it's a single event. It's often more a kind of consistent occurrences. As I mentioned, you know, I can't speak to kind of one event in my life that I say this was the traumatic moment in which everything changed. But it was more of the chaos. And so, I grew up in a family that could be really, really, really loving and incredibly encouraging and fun and silly and in a heartbeat switch into one that was verbally and physically just chaotic and terrifying. And it was that chaos that kept me on edge. What it did was it created in me kind of a system of always wanting to be on high alert. And that would exhaust me. That would kind of wear me out. And I would want to kind of numb that kind of feeling away. And so, I think those traumas, I do think early exposure. Right. I mean, I was exposed early before my brain was ready to really understand what it was dealing with. And I think the third component that we often see is a low level or a kind of really a void of sexual education. There was I'm sure I had a small talk with my dad at some point, but we were not talking about pornography. We weren't talking about bodies. We weren't talking about sex from a kind of healthy, good way. I grew up in the church, and it was kind of don't do this until you're married and then you'll be fine. Right. That was the sexual education message. And so, those things, right, trauma, exposure and lack of kind of education usually forms in someone a difficulty of knowing what they're doing, knowing that it's destroying them before it's really kind of gotten a deep hole. Joanna Raabsmith: (32:30 - 33:20) I think like the brain. The brain aspect to when we talk about addiction, there are usually chemicals involved in addiction being formed, being created. And so, I think also co-occurring disorders, right, that emotional pain, also things like anxiety, depression, ADHD, where my brain really likes the dopamine it gets from sexual acting out. Right. And you can actually need it to feel OK. That can also be a factor in kind of especially that addictive side of these behaviors. When my brain gets really attached to that dopamine release that it's getting because maybe I have some other things going on or I just have emotional pain. I don't know what to deal with, how to handle it, how to regulate that in a healthy way. Laura Dugger: (33:20 - 34:30) There's so many good points there. I'll just highlight one because there's a profound piece that you were talking about with early exposure to evil and the corruption of it is extremely harmful. And yet not being exposed to God's good design for sex and hopefully being coached by our parents, that is both of those play a part in the addiction. And so, I'm thinking even as we shift to think about parents, I know I've had parents come to me and just say, I don't want to talk about this with my kids. I don't want to rob their innocence. And my approach is if God made it, this is good. We can talk to them. You're not robbing their innocence when you're sharing the good age-appropriate parts of sex. And it's so great to be that first one to share with them. And I think it does the opposite of what we would expect. We're afraid that that might make them hyper sexualized. But would you speak to that? Any encouragement for parents? Matthew Raabsmith: (34:30 - 36:37) Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, even as parents, we've got kids and its still kind of navigating it. But I do think what it does is it lets someone learn the things they need to in the timeline they need to. I think part of one of the things is that, you know, really good sexual education starts young. I mean, they start six and seven years old or even younger, just talking about our bodies. Right. Because I think that's part of it. Really, this is about understanding the goodness of our bodies. This body was created by God, the maker of heaven and earth, and he called it good. And so, I think part of a good sexual education begins with that. And then, what's really nice is once you've started the conversation, that means if your children are exposed or if they're presented with things that don't line up with what they've been hearing, they now feel safe to come and talk about that. Because that's really what this was about. I didn't feel safe to talk about what I was exposed to, what people were doing. Right. And what people were encouraging me to engage in. And so, you know, my parents would ask me how it's going. I would not tell them anything because it wasn't a conversation that they were having with me. And so, I didn't think it was a conversation I was going to have with them. And so, that meant that as I found myself further and further away from my values, I felt like, who am I going to share this with? And so, part of having the conversation is it normalizes with our kids that this is OK to talk about, which is actually what adults need. I mean, part of our work with couples as adults, we have to get them talking about sex and body parts. I mean, it's amazing to have 30, 40, and 50-year-olds in our offices and in our sessions. And they're so uncomfortable. Right. They don't want to talk about sex. They don't want to talk about their bodies. They don't want to talk about what their bodies do. Right. And we keep being like, this is God's good stuff. Right. There is goodness here. But you have to begin by talking about it. Right. Having these conversations. Joanna Raabsmith: (36:38 - 37:54) I tell all the parents I work with, your kids are going to pick up a narrative about what sex is and what sexuality is, whether you want them to or not. And so, would you rather be the first person to step in and give them a healthy view, a healthy narrative to understand? Right. And this is beyond kind of the nuts and bolts that everything our kids are learning. They're trying to find a deeper meaning. They don't think it's unconscious when they're young. Right. But they're taking it and they're going, what meaning does this have for me? How does this inform my self-worth, my view of my own value as a human in my body? And how does it inform my experience of the world and my safety in the world? And am I empowered to make decisions? Am I connected? Do I belong? Right. All of those questions are asking. And so, as they're confronted with issues of sexuality, it's going to inform those things. And the world will not give them a healthy narrative about it. Right. And so, being able as a parent to step in and give them that healthy meaning, that narrative, that understanding of their worth and their safety as they're piecing together kind of sexuality, again, at that age-appropriate level is so important. Laura Dugger: (37:54 - 38:30) Guess what? We are no longer an audio only podcast. We now have video included as well. If you want to view the conversation each week, make sure you watch our videos. We're on YouTube and you can access videos or find answers to any of your other questions about the podcast when you visit thesavvysauce.com. And I love that you're talking about this with couples you work with. So, will you give us an overview of the intimacy pyramid that you actually wrote a book about and you teach to couples? Joanna Raabsmith: (38:30 - 38:31) Absolutely. Matthew Raabsmith: (38:31 - 39:15) Yeah. I mean, it was born out of our journey because, as you said, we wandered for a while and we felt a little bit like Israel, just kind of, you know, knowing that the Promised Land was out there, but never really feeling like we could find it. And when we started to piece together, I think the kind of relationship that we had dreamed of reclaiming, we really ask ourselves, how can we make this a more direct, a simpler process, not just for couples who went through what we went through, but really for any couple who's hungry for this, for the couple like us when we were first starting. It really wants an amazing marriage. And so, we really focused on a kind of simplistic idea of what are the core kind of foundational levels of building really healthy intimacy. Joanna Raabsmith: (39:16 - 40:10) Yeah. So, the intimacy pyramid, it's actually a triangle. There's a visual that goes along with it. So, if you imagine the different levels of the triangle, very similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, starting at the bottom, you have to start with honesty. And so, we definitely experienced that reality in our own relationship. Right. This is something we learned from Couples in Betrayal, but like Matthew said, we realized this is where every couple starts. Am I willing to be fully open, fully honest and transparent in this relationship? Am I being my authentic self? Right. And after that level of honesty, that's when we start to build safety. And that has to do with our ability to communicate in really healthy, constructive ways. Even when it's hard, even when we're disagreeing, even when we feel like yelling at each other. Are we able to show up with that belief that we both have the same goal? We're trying to build something together. Matthew Raabsmith: (40:10 - 41:57) And with honesty and safety, that's where we get to work on trust as a couple. That's that next level. And trust is where we start to be more partners, where we're really starting to kind of lean in, work together, kind of be courageous and saying, “Hey, this isn't just my life anymore, right?” This is our life together. And as that trust is established, this is what allows for the incredible work of vulnerability. And there's been all these studies about vulnerability over the last few years and how important it is. What we recognize, though, is vulnerability on top of nothing is actually really risky and kind of even dangerous. It's vulnerability that's built on healthy trust where we step in and we do share some of those deeper pains in those wounds, those fears. We start to really heal some of those kind of early traumas that we experience. It's in that vulnerability. That's what allows a couple to be truly intimate. And it's when they've worked through each of these levels, what we find is these couples, when they reach this kind of this intimacy level, they're passionate about who they are as a couple. They love kind of their relationship itself. They have a purpose to it. They have a sense that like our marriage, our relationship exists for a reason, but they're also really playful. They're silly. They're really kind of comfortable in their own skin. And it's those five levels really working together that allows them to experience a relationship that gives life. I think one of the things we know is that when God creates, it gives life. And so, God created marriage not to burden us, right? Not to kind of, you know, not even just to get us through, you know, kind of surviving life, but actually to bring more life. Right. And not just life within the relationship itself, but life outside of it. Laura Dugger: (41:58 - 42:22) Oh, I love it. And you're also working with couples. I've heard you speak before about the working on offering your spouse the gift of self-awareness. And so, what could couples expect? How do you actually work with them to grow in self-awareness and recognize things like the emotional process they go through in marriage? Joanna Raabsmith: (42:22 - 43:48) Absolutely. So, awareness. So, in our book, we obviously detail the intimacy period much more. And that's Building True Intimacy is the name of the book. But each of those levels we just walked through have different components that go into that. And awareness is kind of like one of the most important components of that honesty foundation. So, we have to start with awareness and we can't really build anything if there's a lack of self-awareness. And so, when we work with couples, one of the first places we start is we kind of look at the past. Are they aware of what they've been through, what those experiences are, and how those experiences have shaped them into the person that is now in the present, showing up with their spouse. Right. And so, once I start to have that insight from my past, from those experiences, how they shape me, I can better understand my present. What are the things that I feel and why do I feel those things in particular? Right. And then when I feel those things in a relationship, and these are typically those kind of heavier, more challenging, more painful emotions. How do I respond? How am I showing up? Because the reality is that all of us cope with emotional pain the same way we cope with physical pain. We go into fight or flight. That part of our brain gets triggered and we respond with these kind of destructive relational coping behaviors that then hurt my partner. Matthew Raabsmith: (43:48 - 46:22) Yeah. Like, for example, I told you about that chaos I experienced as a kid. And so, those would always happen around conflicts. My parents would disagree about something. There would be some type of argument about, you know, and it could be anything where we were going for dinner or what color the curtains were. Right. But it would create this chaotic environment. So, as I got married, the thing that I didn't like the least was any type of conflict. Joanna and I would get in when I could sense us disagreeing and we are both passionate. We have opinions and we believe things and we get into this kind of disagreement and argument. It would freak my system out. And I didn't realize that because I didn't really know my past. I didn't know what was going on. I would just really do anything to shut it down. I get angry and I try to get loud, or I just walk away in the middle of a conversation. As Joanna was talking, I would just leave the room and my acting out was just a further manifestation of that kind of leaving the relationship. And so, part of my healing journey was to learn about my story and recognize, oh, OK, I can see what's happening. And what's really interesting is it still happens in our life today. I've been in recovery for 12 years. I still feel the same things. Now it's more like when my kids are getting involved. Right. And there's energy in the room and people are online. And then I go, oh, yeah, there it is. There's my system again. It's starting to feel unsafe. It's starting to feel alone. And I know what it wants to do. It wants to get angry, or it wants to just shut down and walk away. And what's incredible is that we've learned the ability to see where we're at but also speak directly to that. And so, what I get to do for myself now is I get to go, “OK, I know I'm feeling unsafe and I know I'm feeling alone. And I know I want to get angry to solve it, but it won't do it. But here's the truth. The truth is that I'm safe in God's economy. I'm empowered. I have an incredible partner in my life. I've never been alone. I've always had someone there for me. And Joanna is the perfect example of that.” And that totally changes my sense of really kind of where I am. And it changes how I show up. I tend to be much more calm. I ask questions rather than make demands. And it's that ability to kind of see where we're at and shift. That's just been such a game changer for our family and just for our own relationship. We still have to work on it. You know, it doesn't always look that pretty. Right. But when we do, it's amazing how different it goes. Laura Dugger: (46:24 - 46:44) And then I just think of the generational impacts that has when people are willing to do the work. And so, if there's a brave couple out there who wants to seek their own help and healing, can you share where they can go for help, including the Raabsmith team and all that you have to offer? Matthew Raabsmith: (46:46 - 47:30) Yeah, you know, we would love them to connect with us because I think one of the things we recognize was having guides along the way. I mean, we had to figure a lot out ourselves, but we also had some really incredible guides, some mentors, some coaches, some therapists. And so, we always just say, hey, connect with us. You can find us at raabsmithteam.com. We have a heart for couples who want restoration and reconciliation because that's what we're getting to live and experience. And what's cool is our whole team, they're couples who've been through this work, but who also have been professionally trained to help other couples to just continue to guide and to grow relationships so that they're thriving and they're kind of giving that life. Joanna Raabsmith: (47:30 - 48:10) Absolutely. We also love to give out resources. And so, we have the kind of we call it the honest connection. And so, again, if you're starting this journey or even this is for any couple who wants deeper connection, deeper intimacy, learning how to do that on a daily basis in small ways is so important. And so, we have a worksheet that couples can take and use. We're happy to provide that for them for free and kind of try this for 30 days and notice the changes that you experience in your relationship. And so, that's a great starting point wherever you are in relationship to begin that journey of connection. Matthew Raabsmith: (48:10 - 48:14) And you just go to raabsmithteam.com/free and that resource is all yours. Laura Dugger: (48:15 - 48:26) Wonderful. Add links for that in the show notes for today's episode. And is this then for any couple worldwide, nationwide? Can you work with people? Matthew Raabsmith: (48:27 - 48:55) We have we've got couples across the world, which is really fun. It's been really neat just to see the way that God has used our work. One of the things when we first started this journey, we started getting couples calling us saying, “Hey, I don't have anybody in my area that specializes in this, that understands this journey. Can I work with you?” And so, we kind of felt a calling to say we want to make sure that we connect with people wherever they are. And so, absolutely. If you can hear our voice, you can work with us. Laura Dugger: (48:55 - 49:14) I love that. And just as a little bonus practical tip, you kind of mentioned being proactive to thriving in marriage. Is there any encouragement that you could share or a specific practical tip that anybody could start to incorporate if they want to take their marriage to that thriving level? Matthew Raabsmith: (49:15 - 50:12) Yeah, I think just the ability to slow down. We have a nine, seven and six-year-old. We own our own business, and we like life and life can get incredibly fast. And I think what we have found is when, as I was mentioning, when I learned the ability just to slow down, even if I don't fully just know myself slowing down and checking in, just where am I at right now? Where's my heart? Right. Where do I want to be? I think I realize that so often my values and my actions aren't aligned when I'm moving too quickly. I'm not being the person that I want to be. And we see that in so many couples. We meet so many couples and there are two really great people who have a hard time working together. They have a hard time kind of being a team. And it's usually because they're working so fast. They don't realize they're kind of working against each other. So, slowing down, I think, is such a big thing. Joanna Raabsmith: (50:12 - 51:18) Another piece that's, again, really easy to start right away. A lot of couples we work with, and I think probably even us when we start a relationship, was there were two individuals in a relationship, and it was kind of either me or you. And starting to understand there's this third thing between you, the relationship. There's a third almost entity that really needs care. It needs nurture. It needs you to focus on its needs from time to time. And so, beginning to approach the day, even approach conversations with this question of like, what does our relationship need right now? And even as you're trying to make decisions, what is the way we can decide this in a way that's good for our relationship or what decision benefits our relationship rather than does it benefit you or me? Because when you get into that struggle, it can become a competition. It can become transactional really quickly. So, starting to ask that question, starting to talk about the needs and caring for the relationship very intentionally can be a way to shift that. Laura Dugger: (51:20 - 51:38) Thank you for sharing that. I think that leads into my last question, because you already know we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so, as my final question for both of you, Matthew and Joanna, what is your savvy sauce? Matthew Raabsmith: (51:39 - 52:22) I kind of mentioned this, but I think it's the willingness to be honest. I was so willing to lie to myself and kind of really hide from other people. And I didn't even know that I was doing it. But as I have learned to be more honest in really kind of healthy ways, right. You can dump, you can whine, you can complain, you can get angry. But truly being honest meant just looking at what I was feeling and trying to kind of figure that out and name that. As I have learned that ability to be honest with myself and with others, it has just opened up a new world of possibilities. And it has shown me how many people care for me; how much God cares for me. So, I think that honesty is something I just want to practice more and more every day. Joanna Raabsmith: (52:22 - 53:30) I think for me, just in my own journey and working with so many partners, that importance of being able to make empowered decisions in my life. Right. That I am really intentionally choosing the direction I'm going in life. Realizing that instead of going into this more helpless, powerless victim stance is such a difference. And really the only thing that changes a lot of times is mindset. You don't have to overhaul your entire life. Right. You have to add in like four hours of self-care and all of these things. But starting to shift that mindset into, wait, I have power in the decisions I make. And one of the ways that's really important to do that is growing that self-awareness. I cannot make empowered decisions if I'm not aware of where I'm at emotionally, physically, spiritually. Right. If I'm not aware of my needs on a regular basis. And so, slowing down to check those things in, sometimes even multiple times in the day if you're not used to that. So, you're more connected to yourself, to what you need, what you want. So, you can start making those empowered decisions. Laura Dugger: (53:32 - 54:00) I love that. It's just so enjoyable to host a very lively couple who's humble and you've done your work. And then you're willing to share all this overflow of goodness with all of us. So, I think my prayer is that the Lord would richly bless you for this open-handed generosity of wisdom and your story and experience that you've shared with us and modeled for us today. So, thank you to both of you for being my guest. Joanna Raabsmith: (54:00 - 54:03) Thank you so much. It's a joy being here. Laura Dugger: (54:05 - 57:47) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started. First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process. And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.
Join us for a fascinating exploration of human motivation and the Masonic path with WB Bull Garlington, author of the insightful paper ‘Maybe Maslow's Pyramid Could Work...' We'll discuss how Abraham Maslow's theory of human development aligns with the stages of growth within Freemasonry. Discover how the pursuit of belonging, esteem, and self-actualization resonates with the journey from Entered Apprentice to Master Mason.Show notes: Join us on Patreon. Start your FREE seven day trial to the Craftsmen Online Podcast and get instant access to our bonus content! Whether it's a one time donation or you become a Patreon Subscriber, we appreciate your support.Visit the Craftsmen Online website to learn more about our next Reading Room event, New York Masonic History, and our Masonic Education blog!Follow the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Spotify.Subscribe to the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow Craftsmen Online on YouTube, hit subscribe and get notified the next time we go LIVE with a podcast recording!Yes, we're on Instagram.Get our latest announcements and important updates in your inbox with the Craftsmen Online Newsletter.Email the host, RW Michael Arce! Yes, we will read your email and may even reach out to be a guest on a future episode.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/craftsmen-online-podcast--4822031/support.
This is an episode I've been pondering a while - how do TCKs perceive their own needs in terms of an internalised hierarchy? I explore where Maslow's ideas and my own observations around need-juggling and autonomy interact here - and specifically around our physiological needs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Team engagement remains one of the most vital—and most challenging—aspects of modern leadership. In today's hyper-digitized and rapidly evolving environment, leaders are inundated with data, obsessed with metrics, and often pressured to drive efficiency at all costs. Yet, despite technological advancements, the roots of high performance still reside in the fundamentals of human connection, trust, and meaningful teamwork. Modern leaders must balance analytics and process with the “soft skills” of conversation, emotional intelligence, and well-being. This episode delves into the why behind poor team engagement, the hidden human needs leaders often overlook, and the practical strategies that foster healthy, creative, and high-performing teams. Listeners will come away with insights into navigating the challenges of AI-driven change, sustaining genuine team connection, and shaping organizational cultures where people feel valued and secure. Timestamped Overview [00:05:31] Why Team Engagement Fails: Exploring causes behind ineffective team engagement and the role of overloaded data in leadership.[00:07:23] Metrics vs. Human Connection: The tension between KPIs and cultivating creative, functional teams.[00:09:04] Human Fallibility and Leadership: Why leaders know the value of teamwork but struggle to "walk the walk."[00:10:37] Crisis, Technology, and Change: Impact of financial crises and technological acceleration on leadership culture.[00:12:47] AI, Modernization, and Workforce Anxiety: Addressing fears around job security and adapting messaging as a leader.[00:14:59] Cognitive Agility and Overreliance on AI: Studies on ChatGPT's effects, balancing efficiency with sustained mental engagement.[00:17:28] The Importance of Conversation: How dialog, brainstorming, and intellectual challenge enhance team performance and thinking.[00:18:40] Observing and Motivating Individuals: Practical ways leaders can notice team members, personalize engagement, and build trust.[00:20:12] Continuous Feedback vs. 360 Reviews: Why ongoing conversations outperform retrospective assessments in fast-paced environments.[00:21:47] Collective Intelligence in Teams: The essential roles of social sense-making and trust for outperforming technically superior but disconnected teams.[00:24:48] Storytelling and Motivation: Using ongoing narrative to inspire teams and move beyond past-focused feedback.[00:26:37] Building Organizational Culture: Cascading social well-being, connection, and trust from leadership throughout the organization.[00:30:51] Maslow's Hierarchy Revisited: How modern workplace needs have shifted, with security and connection now key elements for younger generations.[00:35:39] Volunteering as the Ultimate Well-being Initiative: Research on what truly improves workplace happiness and engagement.[00:37:56] Four-Day Workweeks, Flexibility, and Trust: Assessing trends and best practices for organizational scheduling and respecting individuals' real lives.[00:43:06] The Human Imperative in the Age of AI: Preserving connection, conversation, and true happiness in a rapidly digitizing world.[00:44:47] Ways to Follow Nick and Access Resources: Resources for further learning and professional development. For the complete show notes be sure to check out our website: https://leaddontboss.com/358
Peter Atwater, one of the leading voices on confidence-driven behavior in markets and society, joins Lance Roberts to share how certainty, control, and herd mentality shape every major trend investors face today. Lance and Peter discuss The Confidence Map, why people behave differently when they're in the "comfort zone" versus the "stress center," and how these shifts explain the rise of speculative investing, the bifurcated K-shaped economy, and the growing disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. Atwater explores how consumer confidence is driving AI enthusiasm, why the workplace has split between white-collar and blue-collar realities since Covid, and what it will take to move the U.S. back to a non-K-shaped economy. We also dive into Maslow's hierarchy, the collapse of social trust, and what happens when possibility starts to feel like threat. For investors, Atwater lays out what assets are "ice cold or lukewarm," why scrutiny and confidence move in opposite directions, and what to own when today's hot spots finally cool off. We also examine ETFs, gamified trading, the tragedy of benchmarking, and how declining confidence reshapes moral behavior in the markets. 0:00 - INTRO 0:18 - Who is Peter Atwater? 1:10 - Understanding the Behavior of the Herd 2:32 - More Certainty & Control 3:48 - The Confidence Map - The Box Chart - Comfort Zone vs Stress Center 7:03 - Consumer Confidence Metrics & the AI Space 9:24 - The Bifurcated Economy & The K-Shape; White Collar vs Blue Collar Workers During Covid 12:12 - Getting back to a non-K Economy - Looking at the cumulative impact on the economy Maslow's Hierarchy of Need - we need to start at the bottom, make those at the top more aware of what's happening around them 16:48 - What policy should be implemented to accomplish this? How to create income caps on provider side? The K-shaped economy creates slaves to two masters. 19:40 - The Mandami Effect & the risk to our system - the Bottom is really purple, not red or blue 22:35 - The Problem with the Federal Reserve Re-thinking Trickle-down Economics 24:05 - What Happens when Social Trust Collapses - Concern About AI - the furthest thing away from Main Street; when possibility begins to look like threat. 27:24 - The Economy is like a top-heavy Jenga tower, with a circle of flows instead of columns of support Reconsideration of multi-colored pie charts as measures of mood; 31:11 - What should investors own today that are ice-cold or lukewarm; Plan for what you'd like to have happen, but prepare for what you cannot imagine. Where will the money go when the hot spots cool? Scrutiny & Confidence are inversely related What do you own that's tangible? (How to test for confidence) The tragedy of Benchmarking 34:17 - Looking at ETF creation - how to look at sentiment The creation of a gambling environment in investing - the gamification of the markets 37:00 - As confidence falls, the moral compass changes The more you trade, the less money you make. 39:19 - The industry has moved to preying on investors instead of helping them 40:18 - Plan for what you can imagine, be prepared for what you cannot Panic is a reason to be optimistic 41:38 - How Certainty and Control apply at the individual level - Closing thoughts #PeterAtwater #BehavioralFinance #KShapedEconomy #InvestorPsychology #AIandMarkets
Fully Human/Fully Alive: Fourth Edition SOB" by Lyle SimpsonFully Human / Fully Alive: Fourth Edition SOB is written to help the 70% of all Americans Living today who are stuck on Maslow's social level of living, not realizing that there are three levels above them that would greatly enhance their lives. The book will help them build bridges over or detours around their own barriers that preclude them from fully living their own lives. The book provides paths around your barriers without destroying your current beliefs. They simply no longer control you. Those who read this book with an open mind can find their own path to become one of the one percent of people living today who live a fulfilled experience and are truly Fully Alive.Lyle L. Simpson was president of the American Humanist Association from 1980-1984, AHA legal counsel for thirty-five years is the founder and current chairman of the Humanist Foundation.Book Title "Fully Human/Fully Alive: Fourth Edition SOB" by Lyle SimpsonBook Genre, self-help, philosophyPublished Date Feb 6, 2025AMAZONhttps://www.lylesimpson.com/https://www.studioofbooks.org/ http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/112625ls.mp3
In this enlightening episode, Neil Harvey, your personal Superhost, shares a profound insight gained from preparing for his 'Superhost Saturdays': the secret to his successful, high-repeat business is unknowingly rooted in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Neil explains the five levels of the pyramid and reveals how a simple, spontaneous act of kindness, a cooking lesson for a withdrawn 19-year-old guest, fulfilled all five needs in a single evening. KEY TAKEAWAYS Maslow's Hierarchy for Hosts: The five levels are Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. Hosts must meet the basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid before guests can focus on higher-level goals. The Power of Showing You Care: Demonstrating genuine care for a guest's well-being beyond just providing a room can move them from merely having their basic needs met to fulfilling their need for Love and Belonging. Food as a Bonding Tool: Sharing a meal is a powerful, ancient, and universal human behavior that inherently signals trust, creates a sense of Safety and Belonging, and makes moments more memorable. Transforming Criticism into Encouragement: By first demonstrating care and helping a guest achieve a small success (like cooking a meal), any future necessary challenges regarding household habits will be viewed from a position of caring, not just raw criticism, which can support their Esteem needs. Catalyzing Community: When one guest's higher-level needs are met, it can catalyze harmony among all the guests, as the secure and comfortable individual is then better equipped to welcome and bond with newcomers, reinforcing Belonging for everyone. BEST MOMENTS "His key idea was that people must meet their more basic needs at the bottom end of the pyramid before they can fully focus on moving up the pyramid to the higher-level goals like creativity, purpose, and personal growth." "He believed that humans are naturally driven to improve themselves, and he wanted to understand the conditions that allowed them to thrive." "By offering to give up my time to show him how to cook, I demonstrated to him that someone cared about his well-being." "Now that he has seen me demonstrate that I care, should I ever challenge any of his futures when moving forward, he will know that it comes from a position of caring, not just raw criticism." "Use food as a method to bring people together and create a home of harmony." CONTACT DETAILS Register your interest in spending a day with Superhost Neil here; https://bit.ly/SuperhostNeil-OpenDay Visit Neil's Airbnb https://bit.ly/SuperhostNeil Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superhostneil/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuperhostNeil TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@superhostneil Email: SuperhostNeil@gmail.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil has led a fulfilled and unconventional life, navigating an extraordinary journey from the Royal Navy to prop-making in London's West End theatres. Born into a military family, it was a twist of fate which led him to the theatre, where he contributed to iconic productions such as Phantom of the Opera. Eventually, Neil transitioned to Corporate Event Team Building, eventually founding his own venture in 1999. Financial challenges in 2017 are what prompted a strategic shift to Airbnb hosting, proving a reliable backup income. By 2021, Neil and his business partner triumphed over significant debt, fuelled by their resilience and the success of Neil's Airbnb venture. Now, Neil has left the corporate world behind, thriving solely through his flourishing Airbnb endeavours. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/
Founders are praised for their grit — but what about their grace?In this powerful episode of The Flourishing Edge, Ashish Kothari sits down with Lisa Mikkelsen, Partner at Flourish Ventures, to explore the hidden mental and emotional costs of entrepreneurship — and how founders can thrive without sacrificing their well-being.Lisa shares hard-won insights from 25 years in startups and venture capital, where she's seen firsthand how “image management,” stigma, and burnout quietly derail brilliant founders. Together, they unpack how the VC world can evolve from “get rich or die trying” to “grow well and thrive together.”This is a must-listen for founders, funders, and anyone passionate about building sustainable success — from the inside out.
In this class series, Rabbi Shmuly will explore the Torah of the mind. We will explore how Jewish thought intersects with modern psychological studies and theories by examining thinkers like Freud, Piaget, Maslow, Frankl, and so many others over 50 interactive sessions. Looking at consciousness, moral reasoning, ego, love, learning, and evil, how can we better understand why humans act as they do? Considering our relationships, traumas, memories, conflicts, and self-esteem, how can reflecting on the deep complexity of our minds help us live more meaningful lives? Further, how might Jewish ethics and Jewish philosophy help us ask not just “how do we live” but “how might we live?” Join us for a deep dive into the collective, individual, and Jewish mind.Attend these classes live over Zoom by becoming a member for just $18 monthly: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member.------------------Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash:• Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash ★ Support this podcast ★
In this episode Ruth and Rebecca speak about human needs. They discuss some of the needs identified in Maslow's Hierarchy, and the interplay between them. They explore why sometimes people are disconnected from their needs, or are perhaps reluctant to identify them, and about the importance of being able to sometimes meet our own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
home—body podcast: conversations on astrology, intuition, creativity + healing
You've probably heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's a pyramid that puts survival at the bottom and self-actualization at the top. But what if Maslow has it upside down?In this episode, grace invites us to imagine self-actualization not as a prize for doing the work, but as the pulse and driving force behind everything you are doing, everything you are trying to achieve.She traces the path to the Desire behind the desire behind the desire. Because it turns out: You have nothing to prove — only layers of longing to follow. “You can't self-actualize through affirmations or self-help books. Who you are can only be actualized in Self through energetic mastery, rigorous self-honesty, and an unmistakeable and unique connection to what is greater than you.” — grace allerdice we discuss —how Maslow inverted an indigenous Blackfoot paradigmunlocking + embodying your fullest, most true expressionthe false promises of Success without Self-actualizationwhy things often fall apart in midlifenext steps for finding your pathIf you enjoyed the episode, check out —finding your true Giftthe gritty synthesis of holistic, soul-led entrepreneurs w— Portia Barnett-HerrinMentioned in the episode—Maslow's hierarchy connected to Blackfoot beliefsJoin the waitlist for MA (our red hot devotional membership)
In this class series, Rabbi Shmuly will explore the Torah of the mind. We will explore how Jewish thought intersects with modern psychological studies and theories by examining thinkers like Freud, Piaget, Maslow, Frankl, and so many others over 50 interactive sessions. Looking at consciousness, moral reasoning, ego, love, learning, and evil, how can we better understand why humans act as they do? Considering our relationships, traumas, memories, conflicts, and self-esteem, how can reflecting on the deep complexity of our minds help us live more meaningful lives? Further, how might Jewish ethics and Jewish philosophy help us ask not just “how do we live” but “how might we live?” Join us for a deep dive into the collective, individual, and Jewish mind.Attend these classes live over Zoom by becoming a member for just $18 monthly: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member.------------------Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash:• Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash ★ Support this podcast ★
Send us a textIn this illuminating episode of the Autonomic Homeostasis Activation Podcast, Tom Pals and Ruth Lorensson explore the rarely discussed—but profoundly important—final stage of Maslow's thinking: transcendence.Most people know Maslow for the “hierarchy of needs” pyramid, but as Tom reveals, Maslow never created a pyramid at all. And he certainly never stopped at self-actualization. At the end of his career, Maslow emphasized something deeper: a movement beyond the self into a state of connection, meaning, creativity, and belonging.Together, Tom and Ruth unpack:Why Maslow's hierarchy was never meant to be a pyramidHow transcendence connects “me” to “we” and restores our sense of belongingWhy love, awe, creativity, and community are essential components of wellnessHow “us and them” thinking blocks transcendence and fragments our humanityWhy every organism in nature thrives through interdependence—and what humans can relearn from thatA practical way to check if your needs are being met or if you're stuck in fight-or-flightTranscendence isn't mystical or unreachable. It's the human experience of rising above survival, reconnecting to the larger web of life, and rediscovering the joy of being part of something bigger.If you're seeking deeper meaning, grounded wisdom, and a more holistic understanding of what it means to thrive, this episode offers a powerful and refreshing perspective.Support the showThanks for listening!You can follow us onFacebook Instagram Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out the Autonomic Healing Website & InnerWorkings WebsiteEmail Tom thomasjpals@innerworkings.orgEmail Ruth ruth@bridgeandrhino.comSupport usWe appreciate you!
Hoffman's biography of Maslow: https://shorturl.at/NrQUC _______________________________________ If you appreciate my work and would like to support it: https://subscribestar.com/the-saad-truth https://patreon.com/GadSaad https://paypal.me/GadSaad To subscribe to my exclusive content on X, please visit my bio at https://x.com/GadSaad _______________________________________ This clip was posted on November 12, 2025 on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1936: https://youtu.be/HHKs0fhJUxU _______________________________________ Please visit my website gadsaad.com, and sign up for alerts. If you appreciate my content, click on the "Support My Work" button. I count on my fans to support my efforts. You can donate via Patreon, PayPal, and/or SubscribeStar. _______________________________________ Dr. Gad Saad is a professor, evolutionary behavioral scientist, and author who pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad is a leading public intellectual who often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense. _______________________________________
What if beauty wasn't vanity but a radical form of self-respect? In this recap, Lesley Logan and Brad Crowell revisit their inspiring conversation with aesthetic nurse and rejuvenation expert Rachel Varga, exploring what it truly means to age with confidence. From skincare and collagen to breathwork and mindset, they unpack how honoring your appearance can deepen—not diminish—your self-worth. Tune in to learn why self-care is never selfish and how real confidence shines from the inside out.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:How reframing skincare as self-care redefines beauty and confidence.Why genuine confidence changes how you show up in life.How rejuvenation aligns how you feel with how you look.The role of protein, creatine, and collagen in healthy aging.How breathwork lowers cortisol and slows signs of aging.Episode References/Links:World Kindness Movement - https://www.theworldkindnessmovement.orgOPC Winter Tour - https://opc.me/tourPilates Journal Expo - https://xxll.co/pilatesjournalCambodia Retreat Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.comAgency Mini - https://prfit.biz/miniContrology Pilates Conference in Poland - https://xxll.co/polandXContrology Pilates Conference in Brussels - https://xxll.co/brusselsXFlash Cards - https://opc.me/flashcardsSubmit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsLL on School of Radiance - https://beitpod.com/lesleyonachelsodSchool of Radiance Website - https://www.theschoolofradiance.com (Code: LesleyLogan15 for 15% off one-on-one sessions, tutorial, and membership)Amy Cuddy's TED Talk - https://youtu.be/Ks-_Mh1QhMc100 Acts of Love by Kim Hamer - https://a.co/d/0HLOjhO If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00 You figuring out what rejuvenation as a form of self-care that works for you, which is very different than works for me, very different than anyone else, that is like staying in the power stance. It's an action. It's something that you're doing so that you can show up as your whole self and give the world the version of you that will make an impact. That cannot be bad. Lesley Logan 0:24 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 1:09 Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the rejuvenating convo I have with Rachel Varga in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that episode, you need to do it, because she's amazing, and we've been using her tips, and some of them are extremely effective. I other ones I just haven't tried yet. I'm really impressed. But today, before we get into Rachel's amazing tips for your rejuvenating means, like skin all that kind of stuff, today is November 13th and it is World Kindness Day. Brad Crowell 1:40 Yes, it is. Lesley Logan 1:07 Damn it. That's what my papa Jake would say, celebrating like, meaning like we're gonna do it like that kind of damn it, okay. Celebrated internationally, this holiday was formed in 1998 to promote kindness throughout the world, and it's observed annually on November 13th as part of World Kindness Movement. It's observed in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and the UAE. World Kindness Day presents us with the opportunity to reflect upon one of the most important unifying human principles. Oh, just period. On a day devoted to the positive potential of both large and small, acts of kindness try to promote and diffuse this crucial quality that brings people of every kind together.Brad Crowell 2:17 Yeah, so the World Kindness Movement. Lesley Logan 2:25 Tell us more. Brad, Brad Crowell 2:26 the world Kindness Movement is an organization, and they so well the world kindness movement.org if you're interested in reading more. I found it really intriguing that this is even a day, but I like the idea. I just think it's important that we are being conscious of this sharing kindness generally, because I think that in our extreme split political environment and belief in science and reality versus non science and non reality, it actually creates a lot of frustration. It really creates a lot of frustration for me, and this is a good reminder to that we still have to treat people who, you know, we definitely disagree with. We still have to treat them as humans, as people, even if we don't think what they're doing or thinking or saying makes sense, they're still humans, and we still have to treat them with kindness, regardless.Lesley Logan 3:18 You know, what's interesting about this is like we used to when we lived in LA, many of our neighbors were homeless, right? Like where we lived, and it's so easy. I watch people like they turn their head away from homeless people like they just don't even look at them, but then they wonder why they're not treating the area like with respect. It's like we don't feel like we're human. You know, you're not looking them in the eye. There are simple acts of kindness you can do every day. In fact, Kim Scott wrote a book, 100 Acts of Love, which you can put kindness in there. There are things you can do for people. Obviously, that book was written for people going through a loss, but there are things you can do. And it's really funny, art, art. My dad is like, he like acts like he hates talking to people. But then we go to the gym, which is through a casino, and he talks to everybody. He knows the name of every security guard. He knows every he knows the name of every parking attendant, right? He we now know the names of several dealers at the casino. And you know what I think makes them their day is that we just like, say hi. They're not they're staying there, waiting for someone to come to their booth or whatever, and we're like, morning, good morning. It just makes people feel seen. Like even just acknowledging people with an eye contact and a wave makes people feel seen. And I think that if we did more of that, the world will be a better place. So I think. Maslow hierarchy of needs is really real. Maslow's hierarchy, hierarchy of needs. It's a hard word for me tonight. And we judge people based on like, Oh my God. I can't believe they did that. But if they don't know where their food or meal or health care is coming from, of course they did that. You are in the Enlightened level because. You have some privileges to your life, and I'm not saying that to make you feel bad about yourself, but it is, we have to stop judging people who have less than us. We have to have more kindness. I I'm in. Okay, you take us through the first half of this list. It's long. Brad Crowell 5:13 All right, we're gonna move real quick through our upcoming events and travel y'all so come join us, if you, if we're gonna be near you. Okay, in November this no, this month we are going to do.Lesley Logan 5:22 Right now the month we're in. Brad Crowell 5:24 Thanks. This month we're gonna go, we're gonna have a Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale for OPC only. Okay, for OPC only. It's gonna be the 26th through December 1st. So check your email for more information. We're gonna send you an email on the 19th. Lesley Logan 5:35 We're not gonna tell you what it is, you just have to find out. Brad Crowell 5:37 So that's six days from now. Then next is winter tour. We are actually going to be on the road in December, and we've already made the announcements go to opc.me/tour for tickets, all the things.Lesley Logan 5:50 Days are already sold out, so you got to get in there quick. Brad Crowell 5:53 Yep. Okay. So next is while we're not doing a Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale in for Profitable Pilates at the end of December, we are going to have a sneak peek option offer for you to join Agency. We haven't really made this announcement anywhere except for the pod, so you are the enlightened ones. As we were talking about, we're giving you a heads up if you've ever considered joining Agency, but you weren't quite sure if it was for you. We got we're going to do just a short month where you can, like, figure it out, see if it's your jam, and join us. Lesley Logan 6:24 Well, it's a full month, but it's a short commitment.Brad Crowell 6:27 Short commitment. I mean, it'll be a month. So anyway, it'll be the end of December, December 26th through the 31st and then in January, Les?Lesley Logan 6:35 I'll be the Pilates journal Expo in Huntington Beach. It's the first one that they're doing in the US. And I've got a world premiere of a workshop that they were like, we love that people really want to, just like, ask you questions. And don't worry, there's an actual workshop to it, but it's a space where you can ask me questions. And so you want to go to xxll.co/pilatesjournal to get your tickets to that. Then also, in January, we're going to open up the early bird discount for our retreat for 2026 and many of you asked about it, you need to be on the waitlist if you want the discount. If you want to pay full price, don't get on the waitlist. It's fine. Go to crowsnestretreats.com and February, Agency Mini is happening. It is you want to get on the waitlist for that as well. Different waitlist link. It's prfit.biz/mini. What is Agency Mini? It's like three days of us digging into your business and on like a problem. So you can see what it's like to coach with us. That's for Pilates instructors and studio owners and anyone who's like in that service-based industry. And then in March, we are going to Poland, and we're going to Brussels with Karen Frischmann. There are different workshops at each they are on different days, because we cannot be in two places at once. So if you are interested in Poland, it's gonna be the one that happens before Brussels. And I can't remember the dates of it, but it's xxll.co/poland it's like the third weekend in March, and then the last weekend of March is Brussels. Not only we there with Karen Frischmann, we're gonna be there with Ignacio, whose last name I can't remember at this moment, but he's amazing, and the most beautiful eyes and the most incredible kind instructor. xxll.co/brussels and then in April, P.O.T London will be there with Claire Sparrow and some amazing other people. You're not gonna want to miss it. So there's your links they're in the show notes. Brad Crowell 8:20 Ignacio Rodriguez. Lesley Logan 8:22 Oh, Ignacio Rodriguez, yes, well, anyways, he is a special soul. I mean. Brad Crowell 8:26 He's from Spain, yeah. Lesley Logan 8:27 I know he's like, a Pilates Buddha. Brad Crowell 8:29 Yes, he's awesome. Lesley Logan 8:31 That's what I like. Whenever I was around him, I just was like, oh my God, he's the calmest person. Like his energy is so calm you cannot be anything but that around him, he doesn't listen to this podcast. So he wouldn't hear the compliment. Okay, before we get into Rachel's episode, who, what is our question this week?Brad Crowell 8:50 Okay this week, with a question on YouTube from @BodyFlexZone, all about the OPC Flashcard Deck series, they asked, Hey, could you possibly include the exo chair and the springboard in your flashcards?Lesley Logan 9:07 So BodyFlexZone, I'm sorry to tell you the news, but this is exciting too, so don't turn it off. We're not going to do that.Brad Crowell 9:15 No. Lesley Logan 9:16 No. Brad Crowell 9:17 Here's why. Lesley Logan 9:18 Here's why. They're included already. How do I explain this? The I write the cards as a classically trained instructor with classical equipment. They are edited by a contemporary trained instructor who has contemporary equipment, including she is has an exo chair and was trained on a springboard, and the measurements for how to use the hooks on your springboard exist in the Cadillac deck now.Brad Crowell 9:46 So, so while we are not creating a special deck for the exo chair or a special deck for the springboard, if you get the Chairs Deck, the exo chair information would be applicable. It's applicable. You know the information of the Chairs Deck is applicable to the exo chair. And in the same vein, the Cadillac Tower Deck is applicable. It includes information about springboard informationLesley Logan 10:09 Correct, because some springboards have pushed through bars, some springboards don't. There are cards that will say it's pro like they're marked that they might not be available on a tower, which means they're definitely not available on a springboard and so. But also, there's a card in each deck on how to use the deck, and it explains, if you have an Exo chair, like how to it doesn't say exo chair specifically. It's like, if your chair has four hooks, here's how to think about it. So both decks are very useful. And if you get those decks, if you ever have access to a full Cadillac or tower, you have a bunch of cards you get to use. You don't have to take a special training for it, because you've already been trained. So you can get our flash cards at opc.me/flashcards. All six decks are out. Oh, you might want to go to the website during the Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Brad Crowell 10:56 For those of you who were unable to hear what she said, you might want to go to the website during the Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale. Just a heads up.Lesley Logan 11:03 Don't miss it, because if you ask us later, no, we're not the we're only doing it for five days.Brad Crowell 11:09 Hey, send in your questions to the pod. Go to beitpod.com/questions where you can leave a win or a question, or you can also text us at 310-905-5534. Stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to dig into this really interesting conversation we have with Rachel Varga, all about rejuvenation. Brad Crowell 11:27 Welcome back. Let's talk about Rachel Varga. Okay. Rachel is a registered nurse and an aesthetic specialist who's been in the field of non surgical rejuvenation since 2011. She's published research on eye and jawline rejuvenation, teaches doctors and nurses internationally, and now blends her expertise with biohacking to help people age well. Rachel is the founder of the School of Radiance, and also hosts the School of Radiance podcast, where she shares how skincare, lifestyle and self-care can create lasting beauty from the inside out.Lesley Logan 12:01 Yeah, I've been on her pod. You should go listen to our episodes together there, and if you like it, then you have another podcast to listen to. She's, it's, I really enjoy this because, okay, I have been wanting to have someone, an expert like this, on for a while, but I didn't want it to be a vanity, like, I didn't want people to be like, Oh, it's so vain, you know, like so many people are like, I don't know, raw milking it. So they're not going to want to talk about Botox or things like that. And I well, you know, some people get granola and they're like, I gotta not do anything to my body. But also, if something's really, like she said, if something is really bothering you, like specific lines or scars or jowls, addressing it is beneficial, because oftentimes if you feel you look better, you feel better, and if you feel better, you actually just look better, like if you actually feel good about yourself, you walk around taller, you engage with people in a different way. And so it's kind of like a chicken or the egg thing, and I appreciate her approach. If you listen to the episode, it's not like, everyone needs Botox. There's always something wrong with you. No, it's like, okay, what are some of the things you can do that are non surgical, that actually do work? I, I have, I will say you're going to want to listen to her second episode, which we're not going to talk about today, but we talk about a lot of things that are like, a waste of your money and waste your time. She's very, very intelligent and doesn't waste her time. But I do think that what she talked about is people are not viewing rejuvenation as being vain anymore. They're actually seen as a form of self-care. And I do think there's a balance of what can we do as part of our self-care routine that makes us feel better about how we look, so we feel better about how we look.Brad Crowell 13:46 Yeah. That's what I was gonna say, hardcore.Lesley Logan 13:51 Well, I don't know, like, here's the thing, I really appreciate, I forget which actress it was, what's that beautiful woman? Not Diane Lane is beautiful, but she also did one of the Fast and the Furious. She's like a dame, gray hair actress.Brad Crowell 14:06 There were 10 or 11 Fast and the Furious movies. Lesley Logan 14:09 I know the more of the recent of them, and she is like, she also was in like a beautiful bathing suit in the tabloids. And I was like, I want to look like her when I'm when I'm 80. I can't think of it. Everyone's yelling at her in their car right now, but you know who I'm talking about. She talked about how, like, she said, don't like, she's letting wrinkles happen. And I also would like to let those things happen. And there are some things that just bother me, and I don't want them to, and they become a distraction for me, being it till I see it. So I do think that if like how you look is affecting how you're operating your day. It is, there is a point where you do need to actually address, like, what is going on here, because it's becoming an obstacle. I'll look it up while you say what you loved. Brad Crowell 14:52 Yeah. So one thing I thought was important was this conversation of. Lesley Logan 14:58 Helen Mirren. Brad Crowell 14:59 That was really fast. And I'm very impressed. Brad Crowell 15:01 Do you know what I looked up? I said, older actress, stunning, fast and the furious. She's on top of the searches.Brad Crowell 15:12 I went to IMDb and I started with Fast and the Furious. I was like, there's so many actors. Lesley Logan 15:17 You gotta go with my, my way.Brad Crowell 15:23 Yeah, I just, I just thought I wanted to comment about what you had said about what your topic was, that we beat ourselves up over this idea that we're gonna like focusing on how we look is somehow wrong, and I, and I think that.Lesley Logan 15:39 But then also, everything your entire life is based on how you look. You know, like we're told not to focus on how we look. However, especially if you were raised as a woman in the church, how you look could make your brother stumble, so you better figure that out. But then also, you better be sexy for your husband, or he's gonna wander. And then, oh, if you look too old, you're not going to get the job, because they don't want an older woman, like, like, so there's all this stuff about how we're not supposed to care how we look, but actually, everything is about how we look. And if you're a dude, you just get fucking hotter as you get older. And it's really annoying.Brad Crowell 16:14 Well, I love that you took all the words right out of my mouth. So here's what I was going to say, is that I think it's important to that it when we are holding ourselves to this idea that feeling like we want to care about how we look is wrong, somehow. What she mentioned was confidence, and I liked that because I thought, Hey, why do we buy a nice shirt or buy some, you know, dress shoes, you know, for the office, because we like the way that we look in those and it gives us this idea that we got it together. And I don't know why we would think that it's okay to buy a nice blouse or blazer or shoes but not do the same thing for our face or our skincare or our weight or our working out, or whatever.Lesley Logan 17:14 The food we eat or the yeah, yeah, yeah, the things that we do to make ourselves feel good. I agree. I think that makes a lot of sense.Brad Crowell 17:22 Yeah. So, you know, anyway, my point is that it is I think it's okay. I think it's okay. Lesley Logan 17:31 I, here's the thing, I really have come to a place where it's like, if the thing that you do for yourself doesn't affect anyone else negatively, it's none of my fucking business.Brad Crowell 17:43 Okay, here's, here's, let's actually start with, because I'm logical, let's actually start with the definition of vanity. Lesley Logan 17:50 Okay, let's do that. Brad Crowell 17:52 Excessive pride. Well, excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements. Excessive pride, right?Lesley Logan 18:01 So walking around telling everyone I'm so fucking stunning.Brad Crowell 18:02 I'm so amazing. Look how awesome I am. Look how beautiful I am, right? That is vanity, but giving a shit about how you look is not vanity, right? That we've conflated this idea and we beat ourselves up. Lesley Logan 18:17 Brad, you're fucking brilliant. It's like the word selfish, like, how self-care has become selfish care, like the fact that you'd spend any extra amount of time thinking about yourself instead of your children, the people you work for, the people you do things for the people you love. Like, that's selfish. This is amazing. And I do love this because, okay, Amy Cuddy, whose TED Talk is where the title of this podcast came from, and if anyone knows her, I would love that interview. But she talked about how she does study about the power stance, the Wonder Woman stance, when you do it for five minutes, you actually appear and feel more confident in an interview. They did a literal scientific study, and they had people not stand in a power stance and sit slumped for five minutes, bad posture. And then go in, and then they ask them, how confident you feel. They ask the interviewers, how confident did they seem? Did they appear? You figuring out what rejuvenation and as a form of self-care that works for you, which is very different, that works for me, very different than anyone else, that is like staying in the power stance. It's an action. It's something that you're doing so that you can show up as your whole self and give the world like the version of you that that will make an impact. Yeah, that cannot be bad. I'm in. Brad Crowell 18:37 Yeah. And I think that, you know, when we have confidence, obviously it allows us to deliver our, you know, purpose in life better. It makes us enjoy what we're doing more. It definitely just changes the way we show up in our community and the way that we see ourselves. Right? So, you know, and the world sees that too. You know, when we put effort into ourselves, we show the world that we are valuable because we value ourselves. And I think that is also important, is that we that that belief in yourself, right, the knowledge that you are worthy, even though it seems internal, it is very visible to other people. When you know that you belong there to do the thing you know, or you believe you belong there, to do the thing other people perceive that they pick up on that. Lesley Logan 20:25 Well, yeah, and also, like, and just, I'm gonna tell you one of your points, she we're talking about this. We're talking about rejuvenation, way that looks natural and feels good, that builds confidence. We're not talking about like, go overdo it. We know the people who look like they're overdone, you know, like, you know, we're not talking about getting a new face like the Kardashian mom. We're talking about like, just like, and it's we're not talking about doing Botox or or surgery. It can be as simple as, like, massaging your face, or the type that money you spend on the moisturizer that makes you feel good, like, these are, we're talking non surgical approaches.Brad Crowell 21:03 Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I think when you are that, because we think that self-care equals vanity, that's where we're going wrong. But when we, when we can separate the two and understand that vanity is excessive. You know, celebration of your beauty or your achievements, that is obtuse, that is annoying, that is like, you don't want to listen, you don't want to be around somebody like that. We all know people like that. (inaudible)Lesley Logan 21:31 There's the song you're so vain, you probably think the song is about you. That is a definition.Brad Crowell 21:43 But when you care about yourself, you know it's okay to to put yourself first and make that part of your self-care routine and you know. Lesley Logan 21:53 Well, I also think you're I'm not (inaudible) you up. I'm so sorry. This is our ADHD problem. I think if something is keeping you from showing up and making the impact in your world, and it has to do with your looks. It is not vain or selfish to do something about it, if it's if, if that thing is keeping you from actually showing up as your whole self to make the impact you so desire to make, the world is missing out. Brad Crowell 22:18 Yeah. Actually, a great example would be braces, or Invisalign, or, you know, even, like surgical, surgery, surgery on your teeth. Like it comes across as, like a crazy expense sometimes, but, you know, night and day difference we, we've had, I've had a really close friend of mine growing up who had surgery in his 20s, and he smiles now, you know. And I remember seeing the difference in him because he never he was no longer judging himself, you know, (inaudible).Lesley Logan 22:19 I watched something where this girl, every time she'd smile, she or laugh out loud, put her hand in front of her mouth, because she doesn't want people to see her teeth and and then, through this one organization, they fixed them. And no one would say that she's being fucking vain. No one would. And because we're now.Brad Crowell 23:12 I mean that was surgery, that was surgery. This subject, we're not necessarily talking about it, but like Invisalign, or braces (inaudible).Lesley Logan 23:18 If it's going to make you smile a little brighter, going back to World Kindness Day and making people feel seen, I would hate for someone to not get the joy from your smile. When people smile at me, I'm like, Oh, hi. Like it just brightens your day, like it snaps you out of the whirlwind that's in your mind. And I just, I was really excited to have her on because I thought it was a really honest conversation about about inner beauty and what we what would make us feel good. And I just don't think there's anything wrong. And I think it's really important you hear this, there is nothing wrong with doing things for yourself that make you feel beautiful. And if you were ever told that focusing on what makes you feel beautiful is wrong. There's some deconstruction and some, I really, when we took my eyelashes, my fake eyelashes off, it was really hard for me. It was extremely hard. I didn't look the same anymore. I had to do a lot of self-talk, but I went to Sephora, literally the next day, I was like, you have to help me. I look like a molten like a mole rat. And that is an actual thing that exists. And yes, I did look like a mole rat, if you look it up, but I she taught me, okay, the best makeup starts with the best skincare for you, she said to me, and that's what Rachel's also talked about, the non surgical approaches. And then the second thing is, by that girl teaching me a couple tricks with makeup, I could show up and do my tour as my whole self in a non-distracted way. Because I was like, Oh, my God, people are gonna be staring at me. Talk about the braces and the weird things. I have no eyelashes. That is not what people are used to seeing. Okay? So, so I just think that, like, I if it's okay, I believe it, because I felt it. I've been there. I've been there when you're like, Oh my God, my face is numb from the dentist. Like, I don't even want to see me. If things like that are keeping you from showing up on a daily basis, you owe it to yourself and the people that you can impact on this world to find some way to fill that natural confidence by taking care of yourself. So that's what I think.Brad Crowell 25:24 All right, awesome. Well, I think we've, we've talked through that pretty exhaustively. Lesley Logan 25:28 I feel good about it. Brad Crowell 25:29 Yeah, stick around. We'll be right back. We have some more tips from Rachel and the Be It Action Items. We'll be right back. Brad Crowell 25:36 Welcome back. Finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Rachel Varga? She said, Hey, high protein and creatine, right? High protein intake, one gram to one and a half grams of protein per pound of body weight. Now, you probably heard Lesley mention this a lot. She definitely is on board with this. She said. Lesley Logan 26:00 It's so hard. Just be kind to yourself. Brad Crowell 26:02 It's hard, but, but, you know, there's, there are ways, and actually, a lot of it had to do with changing the food that we're eating. For example, I had a high protein bagel today, you know. And you know, it was, I don't even know what it was, a lot of protein for a bagel. And so they're, you know, eggs, and all those extra beans.Lesley Logan 26:18 I, we're not sponsored by them. But hi, Owyn, they have a 32 gram protein shake, and it's only what you need. There's nothing weird about it, I'm sure. Like, look, the biohackers would not like that we're talking about processed food, but it takes time to switch your diet around. And if you're trying to do this, it does take time. So pick a meal a day and kind of work your way towards her. But I wanted to say, I fucking love that her, Be It Action Items have nothing to do with like, going to a med spa. Brad Crowell 26:45 Right, to do beauty stuff or whatever. Yeah, I mean, because it's just like your your your Sephora experience, she said the best way to fix your eyelashes is your skincare, right? So the in this case, she's Rachel's talking about high protein and creatine, because when you she started lifting heavy and focusing on high protein, it gave her more inner power activation, and that was great for her skin, right, So that's, that's, that's.Lesley Logan 27:14 And there's tons, ladies who are listening, we have a lot of perimenopausal women. There's a ton of research on doubling up on that creatine.Brad Crowell 27:20 Yeah. And she also talked about collagen, because collagen will also help your skin. If you're watching YouTube, you can laugh along with me.Lesley Logan 27:31 I've been doing collagen since, like, religiously, since 2016 because in 2015 I did a test, and the guy's like, you have no collagen. And then a year later I did the test, he's like, okay, so you you're off the charts in collagen. And I was like, is that a bad thing? Should I, like, slow it down? And he's like, I think you could be okay. And I have not slowed it down.Brad Crowell 27:48 So we've got a call to action for you here if you want to go to theschoolofradiance.com theschoolofradiance.com, you can use a promo code, LesleyLogan15, L-E-S-L-E-Y Logan15 for 15% off one of her membership. She said there's also a free 30-minute biohacking lesson you can get on there that has a checklist, her skincare checklist, and it's available on her site. Lesley Logan 28:11 And also, like, depending on where you live, the seasons change your skincare routine has to as well. Brad Crowell 28:16 Yeah. What about you? Lesley Logan 28:18 Okay, another interesting non-meds related, Be It Action Item, which is just why I love her, right? Like you don't like, it doesn't have to always be like, get this moisturizer. She recommended breath work, specifically during exercise, to keep cortisol down and remain in a parasympathetic rest and digest state, which helps slow aging and collagen loss. So this is what I love, because in the like, people are gonna try to sell you stuff all the time, and this is fucking free. So breathe in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and do that four to five times, by the way, it's called Box breathing as well. And she explains that elevated cortisol results in a drop in estrogen. When estrogen falls, collagen, elastin fall too. So you want to breathe, because it's going to help slow your aging down, and that costs $0.Brad Crowell 29:14 Yeah, she said, you two were specifically talking about lifting in the gym. And she said the guys will try to spike their cortisol. And she said, I don't want to do that. Lesley Logan 29:23 Yeah, also, and I know there's and I being a woman today, it's like, what are we listening to? Look, keeping your cortisol down is always going to be a good thing, especially if you're in perimenopause or post it'll help your sleep, which is going to help you age better. But also, when you're doing Pilates, this is something that people struggle with. You got to breathe in and out through your nose, because that keeps you cool. It keeps you calm, it keeps you grounded, keeps that cortisol down, which helps you age slower. I love this. She's coming back because I was like, Oh my God, I didn't even get to all the tools. Like, do I need to buy this? Do you buy this? Do I need to buy this? And she is going to change her life with that. I'll let you know when the episode's coming out, of course, but until next time, I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 30:08 And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 30:08 Share this with a friend who needs to hear it, leave us a review. Tell Rachel Varga how these tips and tools helped you. And until next time, Be It Till You See It. Brad Crowell 30:13 Bye for now. Lesley Logan 30:13 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 30:57 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 31:02 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 31:06 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 31:13 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 31:16 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Catch the latest Level Up Claims podcast episode, where Galen Hair chats with Lee Miller, host of the Conquer Contractor Chaos podcast. Lee shares his journey from construction to building multi-million dollar businesses. Discover how crafting the right culture can turn chaos into long- term success. Whether you're a contractor or business owner, learn why culture trumps strategy and how to build a powerhouse team that wins every time. Don't miss Lee's insights on leveraging intrinsic values to create a thriving work environment. Tune in! Highlights Culture always eats strategy for breakfast. Contractors lose people due to culture, not pay. Transition from construction to hospitality. Learning through managerial curiosity. Culture needs to be intentional. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic values. Building intrinsic values in the workplace. Maslow's hierarchy of needs applied. The love and belonging phase elevates teams. Cultivate a positive and intentional culture. Competency vs. commitment in employees. Blueprint for intentional culture building. Communicate culture goals effectively. Episode Resources Connect with Galen M. Hair https://insuranceclaimhq.com hair@hairshunnarah.com https://levelupclaim.com/
In this week's episode of Lessons from a Quitter, we dive into an unpolished but powerful reflection on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how understanding it can help us navigate uncertainty and reduce unnecessary suffering. We explore the difference between "clean" and "dirty" pain and how our brains are wired to always look for problems—even when life is objectively good. By recognizing where we are on the hierarchy, we can cultivate more compassion for ourselves, redirect our minds toward meaningful goals, and find gratitude for the structure and challenges that keep us grounded, even in seasons of self-doubt or transition.
In this joint episode of Southern Demonology and The TW Road Podcast, JJ and Chris dive into the unsettling intersection between faith, delusion, and obsession — what happens when spiritual experience spirals into full-blown psychosis.From the apocalyptic frenzy of Rapture prophecies to the chilling order of Heaven's Gate and the catastrophic end of Jonestown, the conversation unpacks how charismatic authority, unchecked belief, and isolation twist human devotion into tragedy.But it's not all doom and brimstone — along the way, the two trade blows over Star Trek, cult psychology, Maslow's pyramid, and even the theological merits of Taylor Swift. What begins as a dark dissection of mass delusion expands into a larger reflection on modern echo chambers, the erosion of truth, and the human need for meaning — however dangerous that pursuit may become.With humor and honesty, JJ and Chris remind listeners that belief is a double-edged sword: it can lift us toward transcendence or plunge us headlong into madness.Access all of Southern Demonology's episodes, social links, and contact info at https://www.southerndemonology.com#southerndemonology #spiritualpsychosis #cultpsychology #faithandmadness #heavensgate #jonestown #religiousdelusion #theology #demonology #southernhorror #occult #beliefsystems #podcast #truecrime #paranormal #rationalfaith #echochambers #religiousstudiesSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/southerndemonology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Anne Ghesquière reçoit Ludovic de Gromard, entrepreneur et cofondateur de Chance. Que veut-dire trouver du sens dans notre travail ? Et comment trouver ce sens ? Comment Maslow nous éclaire-t-il sur ce sujet ? Et comment savoir si l'on est encore aligné avec ce que l'on fait ? Quels sont les 4 piliers du sens au travail ? Qu'est-ce que l'amour professionnel ? Le besoin d'accomplissement est-il un luxe réservé à ceux qui ont du temps et des moyens ? Ludovic de Gromard nous invite à renverser la pyramide de Maslow pour replacer le sens au cœur de nos vies, à repenser notre rapport au travail et à redonner sa place à l'altruisme dans la réussite. Épisode #638Quelques citations du podcast avec Ludovic de Gromard :"Le sens est relatif à un individu à un moment de sa vie et pas une notion absolue.""Le développement altruiste, le contact des autres est clé pour permettre l'élaboration de son projet professionnel""L'amour professionnel, c'est une puissance, c'est un feu, c'est une force."Recevez chaque semaine l'inspirante newsletter Métamorphose par Anne GhesquièreDécouvrez Objectif Métamorphose, notre programme en 12 étapes pour partir à la rencontre de soi-même.Suivez nos RS : Insta, Facebook & TikTokAbonnez-vous sur Apple Podcast / Spotify / Deezer / CastBox / YoutubeSoutenez Métamorphose en rejoignant la Tribu MétamorphoseThèmes abordés lors du podcast avec Ludovic de Gromard :00:00Introduction02:00Présentation invité03:37Le sens au travail04:58Les 4 piliers du travail07:35Les jobs alimentaires09:56Retourner la pyramide de Maslow12:21Le bullshit job n'existe pas14:14Quelles questions se poser ?16:11Le développement altruiste18:09L'instabilité croissante des métiers22:19Vocation et réorientation24:36Le micro altruisme29:45L'amour professionnel34:14Faut-il suivre sa passion ?37:18Le parcours de Ludovic de Gromard44:45Pourquoi certains ont plus de mal à mettre en valeur leur talent ?49:00L'hygiène professionnelle52:56Peut-on faire le parcours Chance depuis un autre pays que la France ?54:56Un exemple concret56:50Combien de temps dure le parcours ?58:10Intérim et orientation59:55L'objectif de ChanceAvant-propos et précautions à l'écoute du podcast Photo DR Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
It’s tempting to be a very serious person in a very serious world. But what if staying soft was the most loving thing we could do? In this vulnerable and playful conversation, Kate sits down with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau—mental health advocate, speaker, and writer—to talk about childhood wiring, the masks we wear, and how we begin the lifelong work of coming home to ourselves. If you’re navigating heartbreak, trying to live in your body again, or just craving a little lightness without losing depth—this one's for you. SHOW NOTES: Gabor Maté – on trauma, addiction, and the pain beneath our coping mechanisms “Innocence is one’s ability to be found by the world.” – A reflection on David Whyte’s invitation to stay open Maslow, Indigenous wisdom, and the reminder that community is what makes us feel safe Support Guides: When Your Child is in Pain, When You've Been Hurt as a Child, Those Who Give and Need Support Come hang out in our new favorite corner of the internet: Kate's Substack. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Jill Swirsky as they enter the world of musical theater yet again, this time traveling to the land of Oz in Wicked (2024)! The film is an adaptation of the Broadway play, which was an adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire. We follow Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, the eventual Wicked Witch of the West, on her journey as a child and young adult. Along the way, she learns about her true magical abilities but ultimately becomes the villain of Oz when she uncovers a terrible secret. Along for the ride is Ariana Grande's Glinda (Galinda at the start!), who at first is antagonistic toward Elphaba but ultimately creates a powerful friendship. Jeff Goldblum shines as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Michelle Yeoh is truly a scary Madame Morrible. The story offers a rich well of psychological concepts, from ostracism and adolescent development in its wake, as well as Maslow's self-actualization theory. It's such a good story, you'll definitely end up defying gravity! Read Dr. Swirsky's Psi Chi blog Psychology Pop Culture Corner for contributions on more musicals! Also, check out these OER materials to use Sesame Street in developmental psychology. Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs! Legal stuff: 1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended). 2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license. 3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0. Episode Transcription Go to this link to read a transcript generated by Whisper AI Large V3 Model. Disclaimer: It is not edited and may contain errors!
In this episode of Nomadic Diaries, hosts Doreen Cumberford, Megan Norton-Newbanks welcome Lois Bushong, Author, Retired Counselor and Coaching expert on Third Culture Kids (TCKs). This conversation dives deep into the ever-evolving concepts of home and belonging, exploring generational differences, digital community building, and the psychological needs that underpin our sense of “place.”Key Discussion Points1. Home vs. BelongingLois distinguishes between "home" (a physical space) and "belonging" (an emotional, psychological state).You can be in your literal home but not feel a sense of belonging, and vice versa.2. Maslow's Hierarchy and BelongingBelonging sits just above basic needs (food, water, safety) in Maslow's Hierarchy, emphasizing its foundational importance.3. Third Culture Kids (TCKs)Defined as individuals who spend their formative years outside their passport country.Lois shares her expertise working with adult TCKs and reflects on the impact of living between cultures.4. Generational PerspectivesLois breaks down differences between Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and even Generations Alpha/Beta.Younger generations are often more comfortable finding community online and are attuned to diversity and inclusion, whereas older generations favor face-to-face interactions, loyalty, and stability.5. The Digital ShiftThe rise of technology has transformed experiences, with terms like “experience plagiarism” and “sensory hijacking” describing how online interactions can dilute genuine life experiences.Despite challenges, Lois and others note positives—like the ability to maintain meaningful connections through digital tools.6. Authentic BelongingDefined as genuine, vulnerable connection, whether in-person or online.The group agrees that authentic belonging can occur in digital spaces when interactions are honest and supportive.7. Changing Work EnvironmentsFrom office-centric workdays to remote, location-independent jobs, the sense of community and routine has shifted.Loneliness and isolation can result, but digital check-ins and intentional connections (like sending a daily heart emoji) are important new practices.8. Internalizing BelongingLois highlights the importance of cultivating internal belonging, especially when external circumstances change.Healthy, authentic relationships act as reflective “mirrors,” helping us to truly see ourselves.Notable Quotes:“A home is a physical place... Belonging is a psychological concept.” Lois Bushong“Authentic belonging is when you're real with someone - not fake, not pretend.” Lois Bushong“Digital communities break down physical barriers, but you still need authenticity for true belonging.” Lois BushongTakeawaysBelonging looks different across generations and platforms - but its need remains urgent.Whether through face-to-face conversation, a heartfelt message, or a daily digital check-in, intentionality and authenticity are essential.For nomads, expats, and TCKs, belonging is both an internal journey and a relational one.Find Lois/Megan/Doreenhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lois-bushong-a3241ab/https://www.linkedin.com/in/megancnorton/Support the showHome is Where Your Story Crosses Borders!We aim to inspire expat solutions, by helping you navigate global living with ease and grace.
Send us a textIn this special birthday episode, Tom and Ruth explore what it really means to thrive as a whole human being. Building on their series about the fundamentals of wellness and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, they dive into the top of the hierarchy—self-actualization—and why it's never just about “me.”Together they unpack how homeostasis—that dynamic state of balance in body, mind, and spirit—is both personal and collective. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, somatic practice, and ecology, Tom explains how true wellness emerges when our physiological, emotional, and relational needs are met within connection—not isolation.From the wisdom of Kurt Goldstein and Abraham Maslow to the biology of “many little lives” within us, this conversation reframes self-actualization as thriving through interconnectedness.
In this Halloween-themed episode of Practically Magick, Courtney Pearl and Jaime Osbahr explore the emotional and spiritual roots of fear, anxiety, and scarcity. Through tarot insights (including the Five of Pentacles and The Devil card), shadow work, inner child healing, and crystal energy, they share how to navigate emotional dips and reclaim your power.
On Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Avik Chakraborty speaks with author and transformation coach Chandra Lynn about her framework Root to Rise: How to Love Life. Chandra breaks down the five “root” areas (health, relationships/self, career, friends, family) and the six human needs adapted from Maslow to show how high achievers and everyday people get stuck in survival mode—and how to shift into purposeful, balanced living. You'll learn practical tools like the Emotional Triad, simple journaling prompts (“What do I want? Why do I want it? What am I willing to do about it?”), and how defining your taproot (your why) becomes fuel for resilient action. About the guest : Chandra Lynn is the author of Root to Rise: How to Love Life, a certified transformation coach, and founder of GlowLiving. After 25 years leading marketing for brands like Apple and Mercedes, she built a method blending human needs psychology with soulful practices to help people cultivate resilience, balance, and purpose. Key takeaways: Root to Rise framework: Balance five roots—health, relationship/self, career, friends, family—then align them with six human needs to exit survival mode and create fulfillment. Six human needs (adapted): Security/certainty, variety, connection/intimacy, growth, significance/self-worth, and transcendence/contribution. From overwhelm to clarity: Use three prompts—What do I want? Why do I want it? What am I willing to do about it?—to prioritize healthy, meaningful action. Emotional Triad tool: Shift state by changing (1) physiology (move, breathe, sunlight), (2) focus (gratitude, possibility), and (3) meaning/self-talk (be your own best friend). Taproot = your why: Identify the deeper motivation that sustains momentum when discipline fades (e.g., showing up as the best parent/leader/creator). Embodied signals: Survival mode shows up as tension, sleep and appetite swings; fulfillment feels balanced, energized, and self-supportive. Journal to integrate: Ask great questions, write first, analyze later—let insight surface before you optimize. Update the blueprint: Release outdated childhood expectations; define success on present values, not social comparison. Connect with the guest Website: https://glowliving.com/ Signed book + 25% off (U.S. only): glowliving.etsy.com — use code THRIVE25 Also available on Amazon (international orders) Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatch DM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik Disclaimer: This video is for educational and informational purposes only. The views expressed are the personal opinions of the guest and do not reflect the views of the host or Healthy Mind By Avik™️. We do not intend to harm, defame, or discredit any person, organization, brand, product, country, or profession mentioned. All third-party media used remain the property of their respective owners and are used under fair use for informational purposes. By watching, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer. Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty—storyteller, survivor, wellness advocate—this channel shares powerful podcasts and soul-nurturing conversations on: • Mental Health & Emotional Well-being• Mindfulness & Spiritual Growth• Holistic Healing & Conscious Living• Trauma Recovery & Self-Empowerment With over 4,400+ episodes and 168.4K+ global listeners, join us as we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.
Welcome in the Friday refresh brought to you by Team Ben and Travis for St Jude Marathon weekend. We have several people who have signed up to run on our team and many more who have given to this great cause. You can donate here https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/SJMMW?team_id=315929&pg=team&fr_id=158671. Josh Thorne and I are still trying to reach our $4000 commitment each and we could use your help. That's BenandTravis.com and the St Jude tab. What does your pyramid look like? Is it fully constructed? Or is it stuck in the middle of construction somewhere? I guess I should explain before I ask questions like that. I'm sure at some point in your high school or collegiate career you have come across Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow proposed that these five needs are the motivators behind human behavior. They start at the bottom of the pyramid with the most basic of needs and work up to the more complicated and self-realized toward the top. Initially it was believed the lower goals always had to be completed first with a linear view of how they are accomplished, it is accepted now that different individuals and cultures may achieve various levels at different times. Links mentioned in this episode: http://www.benandtravis.com http://www.facebook.com/groups/benandtravis http://www.patreon.com/benandtravis Reframing Hope Book https://www.benandtravis.com/books Helping. Healing. Humor. with Ben and Travis: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/batify/id1457601152?mt=2&uo=4 Good Old Fashioned Dislike podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-old-fashioned-dislike/id1643163790 Co-Producers: Justin B., Doris C., Rhonda F., Scott K., Mary H., Scott B. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
You're Building Your Life Backwards October 21, 2025 | Episode 5207 Host: Scott Smith Episode Description Smart people are doing it backwards right now. Even people who studied this exact thing in college are forgetting the basics. They're chasing respect before they can pay rent. They're demanding acceptance while their life's falling apart. Scott breaks down why 2025 has been so damn hard and what Abraham Maslow figured out in 1954 that still works today. No shortcuts. No hacks. Just the sequential steps you actually need to climb. Spoiler: You can't skip steps just because you're 21 and think the world is different now. Featured Story Scott's been having the same conversation over and over the past few weeks with successful people who've somehow forgotten what they learned in college. They're college-educated. They know Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. But when Scott reminds them what they studied at university, they go, "Oh yeah, I forgot about it." Here's the thing that keeps coming up: people are trying to build the top floors before they've laid the foundation. They want self-actualization and respect while they can't feed themselves or feel safe. Scott calls it building without a peaceful base. And in a year as hard as 2025 has been—politically, financially, with AI throwing monkey wrenches everywhere—more people are doing this than ever. Even his son-in-law thinks he has to fix his entire hurricane-damaged house by himself when he's surrounded by a church community ready to help. Sometimes the basics are right in front of you. Important Points Your best life is built sequentially, one level at a time—forget the elevator, you've got to climb the steps to the top. If you can't feed yourself, feel safe, or maintain good relationships, you're not ready to help others or reach your full potential yet. Humans figured out how to build this whole world without AI, and things that have worked forever still work today—don't get distracted. Memorable Quotes "What a man can be, he must be. You feel it inside your bones." "I don't think you have to wait to become the person you're meant to be. I think you were put on this planet as that person." "If you can't feed yourself, if you don't have good relationships, if you're not happy, how could you possibly go out and help other people?" Scott's Three-Step Approach Take inventory of where you are in Maslow's five levels—physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Build your peaceful base first by handling the basics like shelter, money, relationships, and feeling safe before chasing bigger goals. Stop demanding respect and acceptance from others until you've mastered the previous levels—what you can be, you must be, but in the right order. Connect With Me Search for The Daily Boost on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Email: support@motivationtomove.com Main Website: https://motivationtomove.com YouTube: https://youtube.com/dailyboostpodcast Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/motivationtomove Facebook Group: https://dailyboostpodcast.com/facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to Split a Toaster: A divorce podcast about saving your relationships
Looking in the Mirror: Finding Self-Awareness Through DivorceFamily law attorney Seth Nelson and Pete Wright welcome Lionel Moses, a Desert Storm veteran and relationship coach who helps people break unhealthy relationship patterns through what he calls "the mirror effect." This powerful episode of How to Split a Toaster explores how divorce can become a catalyst for essential self-discovery and growth.The Mirror Effect in RelationshipsDrawing from his experiences through two divorces, Lionel shares how seeing himself as the common denominator led to transformative insights about relationship patterns. As a self-described "people pleaser," he discovered that his tendency to fix others' problems masked deeper emotional needs that went unaddressed in his marriages.Breaking Cycles Through Self-AwarenessSeth brings his legal expertise to the conversation, highlighting how emotional readiness impacts divorce proceedings. When clients focus exclusively on their former spouse's behavior rather than their own growth, it often complicates and extends the legal process. The discussion reveals how self-awareness can lead to more constructive co-parenting relationships and healthier future partnerships.From Performance to AuthenticityLionel's concept of "performative relationships" resonates throughout the conversation, as he describes moving from seeking external validation to developing genuine self-love. This transformation enabled him to build more authentic connections and achieve amicable co-parenting relationships—a goal many find challenging during divorce.Key Insights• Examine your patterns in relationships rather than focusing solely on your partner's behavior• Develop emotional resilience by understanding your authentic needs versus performative habits• Build self-awareness before entering new relationships to break recurring relationship cyclesThis episode offers invaluable guidance for anyone navigating divorce or seeking healthier relationship patterns. Through Lionel's candid sharing and Seth's legal wisdom, listeners gain practical tools for self-reflection and personal growth during major life transitions.Whether you're considering divorce, in the midst of proceedings, or rebuilding after separation, this conversation provides a roadmap for using life's challenges as opportunities for transformation and healing.Links & NotesFind Lionel on his website, LinkedIn, Facebook, InstagramCheck out The Marriage SeedSchedule a consult with Seth (00:00) - Welcome to How to Split a Toaster (00:26) - Meet Lionel Moses (00:58) - What Is the Mirror Effect? (02:18) - The Transformation (03:46) - Too Much Focus on the Other Side (06:28) - Figuring Out How to Manage Relationships (11:20) - Emotional Resilience (14:40) - Reflecting on What You Were Attracting (15:48) - The Marriage Seed (21:02) - Connecting to Legal Commitments (23:46) - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (26:27) - Making Hard Decisions (28:03) - Performative (30:16) - Wrap Up
Send us a textIn this episode of the Autonomic Homeostasis Activation Podcast, Tom Pals and Ruth Lorensson continue their exploration of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs through the lens of wellness and trauma-informed wholeness. Focusing on esteem, they unpack what it truly means to “appraise” value—both in ourselves and in others—and how unmet needs and trauma can distort our perception of worth and significance.Through rich conversation and powerful metaphors—like Tom's image of humans as uncut diamonds—they reveal how esteem isn't about hierarchy or status, but about mutual recognition of inherent worth. Together, they examine how physiological, safety, and belonging needs act as catalysts for healthy esteem, and how unmet needs can keep us stuck in cycles of comparison, defensiveness, or exclusion.Listeners will come away with deeper insight into:The roots of esteem as appraisal rather than judgmentHow trauma and unmet needs shape our ability to value ourselves and othersThe difference between worth, significance, and accomplishmentHow to move from sympathetic fight-or-flight into parasympathetic homeostasisPractical reflection prompts for fostering self-worth and mutual significanceJoin Ruth and Tom as they guide listeners toward restoring homeostasis of esteem, a crucial step in the broader journey toward self-actualization and holistic wellness.
The female pastors of First United Methodist Church of San Diego are kicking off a new conversation series: “Our Money Story.” Money is at the root of so many conflicts, so these talks are sure to be interesting! First up, Rev. Hannah and Rev. Brittany look back at Exodus 16:1-8 with a conversation titled “Remember.” If you listened to our podcast last year, you may recall we had a similar series, focusing on personal and family money stories. But this year, we’re focused on the money story of the institutional church. With this theme of remembrance, the women clergy encourage us to look back at the past money stories of the church to understand the challenges and victories we may face today and in the future. Some themes and ideas they uncover include: The fear of not having enough, leading to scarcity mindset and hoarding. The psychological theory Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how it applies to the ancient Israelites. How our past experiences guide current decisions, even when our financial situation is different. The need to pool resources as a church to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Ultimately, they ask: If our resources come from God, who should authority of it over God? Why do we control resources and gatekeep what others can access? It’s a lot to consider, so we encourage you to engage in conversations with others as you dig deep to uncover your thoughts about money and the church. You can do so through our in-person Convergence group or joining our online community at patreon.com/fumcsd. Here are the discussion questions for this episode: What does this passage say about God's care for the vulnerable? Where in your life are you being asked to trust in "daily bread" rather than long-term certainty? What does “enough” look like for you? How do you experience God’s provision: spiritually, emotionally, or materially in the wilderness of your life? Our Patreon community is open to all – no matter where you align in your spiritual beliefs. It’s free to join and connect over the weekly episode questions. There is also an optional paid membership that unlocks additional content. Check it out at https://www.patreon.com/fumcsd!
The female pastors of First United Methodist Church of San Diego are kicking off a new conversation series: “Our Money Story.” Money is at the root of so many conflicts, so these talks are sure to be interesting! First up, Rev. Hannah and Rev. Brittany look back at Exodus 16:1-8 with a conversation titled “Remember.” If you listened to our podcast last year, you may recall we had a similar series, focusing on personal and family money stories. But this year, we’re focused on the money story of the institutional church. With this theme of remembrance, the women clergy encourage us to look back at the past money stories of the church to understand the challenges and victories we may face today and in the future. Some themes and ideas they uncover include: The fear of not having enough, leading to scarcity mindset and hoarding. The psychological theory Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how it applies to the ancient Israelites. How our past experiences guide current decisions, even when our financial situation is different. The need to pool resources as a church to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Ultimately, they ask: If our resources come from God, who should authority of it over God? Why do we control resources and gatekeep what others can access? It’s a lot to consider, so we encourage you to engage in conversations with others as you dig deep to uncover your thoughts about money and the church. You can do so through our in-person Convergence group or joining our online community at patreon.com/fumcsd. Here are the discussion questions for this episode: What does this passage say about God's care for the vulnerable? Where in your life are you being asked to trust in "daily bread" rather than long-term certainty? What does “enough” look like for you? How do you experience God’s provision: spiritually, emotionally, or materially in the wilderness of your life? Our Patreon community is open to all – no matter where you align in your spiritual beliefs. It’s free to join and connect over the weekly episode questions. There is also an optional paid membership that unlocks additional content. Check it out at https://www.patreon.com/fumcsd!
December 4, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of Hannah Arendt's passing. The Hannah Arendt Center's Director of Academic Programs Jana Mader and co-author of "Walk Her Way" will offer a guided walk across Bard campus - this year together with the first Chairman of the Arendt Center Steve Maslow - to the nearby, historic grave of Hannah Arendt.This lunchtime event offers the opportunity to engage with Arendt's legacy while enjoying fresh air, conversation, and movement, as participants walk together and reflect on her life and work.
In Episode 14 of Negotiate X in Rewind, hosts Nolan Martin and Aram Donigian explore the art of uncovering interests in negotiation and why it's essential for lasting success. They break down how identifying both organizational and individual motivations—beyond surface-level positions—leads to stronger collaboration and smarter outcomes. Using real-world examples, they illustrate how strategic, operational, and personal goals intertwine in every deal. From managing risks and relationships to understanding human needs through Maslow's hierarchy, the episode reveals how empathy and curiosity transform negotiations into meaningful, mutually beneficial problem-solving conversations rather than positional battles.
Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work — the award-winning podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. Hosted by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Leanne Elliott and business owner Al Elliott, every Tuesday we unpack the biggest workplace news stories, decode the psychology, and tackle real listener dilemmas.
Send us a textRach Taylor knows what it means to sacrifice everything for one goal. She was Rach the Rower, a girl from rural Australia who made it all the way to the Olympic podium. But after winning silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she found herself couch surfing, broke and questioning her worth outside of sport.In this episode, Rach opens up about what it was really like to go from the high of Olympic glory to the uncertainty of starting over. She talks about clawing her way up Maslow's hierarchy, how she stumbled into HR, and the healing journey that led her to coaching, investing and living a meaningful portfolio life.If you have ever felt lost after the thing you built your identity around ends, this conversation is full of truth, courage and practical wisdom.What You'll HearWhy her Olympic silver medal brought conflicting emotionsThe painful crash after the circus of the Sydney Games endedHow she fell into HR by accident and built a career from the ground upThe burnout that pushed her to walk away from corporate lifeWhat a “portfolio life” really looks like and how she designed hersWhy she is using her story to advocate for athlete transition reformThe advice she gives every athlete and career changer she coaches
Most founders chase the exit as if it's the ultimate destination. But what happens when the deal closes and you're left asking, "Who am I without my business?" In this crossover episode from The Amazing Marketing Show, Jerome Myers joins hosts Dmitri Smirnov and Chris Gray to reveal why 75 percent of business owners regret selling their companies, and what the other 25 percent did differently. Jerome shares hard-won wisdom on exit readiness, identity, purpose, and redefining wealth beyond money. He invites listeners to see freedom not as walking away from something, but as stepping into the next meaningful chapter. 00:00 – 04:15 The Reality Behind Business Exits Only 25% of founders who sell their company feel no regret Success without purpose can lead to depression, not freedom True exit readiness requires planning on both financial and emotional fronts 04:16 – 09:30 Loneliness After the Exit Up to 60% of personal relationships fade after leaving a company Without intentional community, many founders experience isolation Redefine your “Top Five” relationships for the post-exit phase 09:31 – 17:45 Identity, Self-Acceptance, and the Founder's Paradox Many founders only feel loved through achievement—a “scar of success” Real acceptance begins with forgiveness and releasing old expectations Your worth isn't tied to titles, deals, or results—it's intrinsic 17:46 – 26:15 From Exit to Impact Jerome shares his own painful corporate exit and the six centers of doubt: identity, relationships, health, prosperity, motivation, and significance Purpose-driven legacy starts when you exit to something, not from it “Enough” isn't stagnation, it's the foundation of real freedom 26:16 – 34:00 Freedom, Legacy, and the Power of Choice Real wealth is the ability to choose how you use your time, talent, and treasure Money is a tool; freedom is the measure True success is living a life that others want to honor and remember 34:01 – 47:00 Exit Readiness and Higher-Level Leadership Jerome's Exit Readiness Assessment measures seven areas of preparedness Great leaders focus on the upper tiers of Maslow's hierarchy: impact, fulfillment, transcendence Marketing that proves understanding creates trust faster than persuasion. Key Quotes: “Only 25% of people who sell their company don't regret it.” - Jerome Myers “It's not about doing more, it's about becoming more. - Jerome Myers Connect with the Amazing Marketing Show! Website: https://amazingmarketingshow.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTBn-qDCWMXR7jrHiE1YvXg Ready for your next chapter?Start Your Assessment Now
What really separates a COO who keeps the lights on from one who drives exponential growth?In this episode, Cameron sits down with Imad Jbara, COO of L2 Infinite Insurance and former COO of WoJo Media, who transformed a company's client retention from 20% to 80% in just six months. Together, they unpack how COOs can build trust, fire with confidence, elevate leaders, and use systems to scale companies without chaos.From the painful lessons of firing too aggressively to the wisdom of patient onboarding and leveraging AI, Imad shares the unfiltered truth about what it really takes to succeed as a second in command.If you're tired of firefighting and want proven systems to grow your company with less chaos, you can't afford to skip this episode. Listen now for exclusive insights you won't hear anywhere else.About the GuestImad Jbara is the COO of L2 Infinite Insurance and former COO of WoJo Media, where he helped transform client retention and scale revenues dramatically. He's trained some of the largest sales teams in the world and worked alongside icons like Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, and Alex Hormozi. Imad is known for building systems, empowering leaders, and creating the cultural foundations that allow companies to thrive.
Recorded October 4, 2025 - 917614A conversation with an abrupt endingIf you like the show and want to support us, you can stream sats by listening with any podcasting 2.0 app.Follow Rock Paper Bitcoin on Nostr & XFollow Business Cat on Nostr & XFollow Fundamentals on Nostr & X|| Buy Bitcoin for Institutions with sats || Buy it on Amazon with fiat |||| rockpaperbitcoin.fm || Rocky Ridge Supply || Telegram Group ||THANK YOU for listening, dear listener
Episode OverviewIn this powerful episode, Kristen explores a deeper layer of hustle culture—one most people never identify: hustle as a survival response. Drawing from personal experiences, trauma-informed coaching, and neuroscience, she unpacks how our nervous systems are often running the show without us even realizing it.You'll learn why high-performers hit burnout despite consuming all the right strategies, and how unaddressed stress patterns are sabotaging our leadership, productivity, and peace. Kristen also introduces the four main survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, and fawn) and how they show up in real life, business, parenting, and more.Whether you feel stuck in cycles of burnout, perfectionism, or chronic overworking—this episode will help you understand the real driver behind those patterns and how to finally change them.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhy hustle is often a survival strategy, not a strategy for successThe neuroscience behind why we freeze, overwork, or people-please under stressHow early childhood experiences shaped your default stress responseThe difference between reaction and response—and why it mattersWhy information alone isn't enough: the gap between knowledge and actionHow to begin regulating your nervous system in real-timeTimestamps00:00 – Intro: Life as a sideline sports mom02:00 – Recapping the three-part healing series03:30 – The survival response hidden inside hustle culture04:35 – Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how it shows up in business05:28 – The real reason we stay stuck in reactivity loops06:35 – Looking for security in external outcomes (and why it backfires)07:30 – Childhood experiences that shaped our nervous systems08:20 – Example: scarcity, chaos, and “fighting for the meat”10:00 – Why children default to shame without external narration11:00 – How childhood survival strategies bleed into adulthood12:00 – What your frontal lobe does—and why it goes offline under stress13:00 – The “infobesity epidemic” and why personal development isn't working14:50 – The two speeds we operate in: 0 or 100 mph15:45 – Nervous system regulation is the real key to high performance16:30 – What triggers actually feel like in the body (even online)17:48 – Our brain's obsession with certainty and black-and-white thinking19:00 – One grounding question to ask when you're spiraling20:25 – Kristen's own journey with chronic dysregulation and burnout21:27 – The four major nervous system stress responses explained22:30 – Fight: control as a form of safety23:34 – Freeze: perfectionism, overthinking, and inability to start24:30 – Fawn: people-pleasing as emotional self-preservation25:45 – How to create safety for others with different responses26:20 – Social media and collective dysregulation27:15 – Rear lobe vs. frontal lobe thinking28:00 – From reaction to conscious response: the real work29:10 – One simple regulation tool to start using today30:00 – Regulating ≠ never being triggered—it's about knowing what to do31:00 – Why this conversation is the future of personal development32:03 – Take the new stress type quiz + download the full 26-page reportKey TakeawaysMost people are unknowingly operating from survival mode every dayYour nervous system is either helping or hijacking your decision-makingHigh performers are often stuck in hustle loops not from laziness, but from dysregulationTrue transformation doesn't happen from learning more—it happens when we can apply what we know, and...
Lesley Logan brings you another round of Friday wins to inspire your week. She shares a powerful story of fathers reuniting with daughters, a community win about commitment and accountability, and her own personal milestone with Brad. This episode is all about connection, celebration, and remembering there's room for you at the table.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:The power of a prison daddy-daughter dance that reunited families.How Melissa and Lisa reignited their Pilates practice through weekly partner sessions.Why honoring small commitments with an accountability buddy matters.What 10 years of marriage taught Lesley about celebrating past choices.Episode References/Links:Submit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsGod Behind Bars - https://godbehindbars.comGod Behind Bars Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/godbehindbars If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00 It's Fuck Yeah Friday. Brad Crowell 0:01 Fuck yeah.Lesley Logan 0:02 Get ready for some wins. Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Lesley Logan 0:48 Hi, Be It babe. Happy Friday. We made it. We did it. We're here. I am so excited for these short episodes, because they're just, they're here to inspire you. And honestly, like, sometimes, like, we were kids, like, didn't we, like, live for Fridays. And now it's kind of like, okay, we made it. We survived. There's a lot going on. There's a lot always going on. There's always been that way. But these episodes are here to remind you that there's still things that you can celebrate. There's still good stuff that's happening. You're still doing things, even if around you, if it just feels like chaos and overwhelm. So I share a winof yours, a win of mine, also some inspiration from something that I saw, that we can all think about, celebrate or get mad about, and then a little mantra for you to take with you on your way. And hopefully it's something you can share with a friend or run a Post-It, and I love for you to your share your wins, to send them into the beitpod.com/questions. But this really inspired me. So this is really, really cool. 16 incarcerated fathers were reunited with their daughters for a daddy-daughter dance held inside the prison. Freaking the coolest thing the prison system, like bothers me so much because we don't do a really good job like rehabilitating people, making people feel like human beings. We treat them like animals, and we want them to act like a human and like Maslow's hierarchy of needs is like a real thing. So this is so cool, and it's so it says, for a few sacred hours, San Quentin didn't feel like prison. The prison chapel transformed into a holy ground, draped walls, soft music, a red carpet, floral centerpieces replaced concrete and coldness. For a moment, it was hard to believe we were still in a maximum security prison. Outside, 16 incarcerated fathers stood waiting, some in suits for the first time, others trembling as they tied ties with unsteady hands. They waited for years, for this moment, some decades, then the doors open. There's actually like a whole documentary on YouTube. Now I gotta go watch it. But the daughter stepped on the red carpet, little girls in bright dresses, grown women with hearts full of ache and hope. One by one, they walked into arms that had long to hold them. I'm gonna cry. Fathers fell at their knees in tears. Prodigals reunited. Kelon hadn't held his daughter in 20 years. Carrington wept as his daughters hugged him for the first time. Steven danced with his “bundle of joy.” Vincent read a handwritten letter to his daughter Autumn, filled with love, apology, and redemption. It wasn't just beautiful. It was sacred. It was the Gospel, tangible, trembling, alive. You made it happen. You gave 21 daughters dresses, flights, hotel rooms, corsages, a meal, and a memory they'll never forget. You brought heaven to prison. You reminded these men: they are still dads. And reminded these girls: they are still daughters. This wasn't just an event. This was healing. This was hope. This was holy. Anyways, there's a the handle that handled that did this is God Behind Bars are doing another father-daughter dance in Angola prison. This year, you can donate $10 a month or anything to help for pay for tuxes, family travel, dresses, food and so much more. You can go to Godbehindbars.com. Like, however you feel about religion. Like, I just think that this is just like the most impactful thing for people in their lives. Like, people make mistakes, people are put in situations that things happen, and our justice system is really not always just. And so I just am this just really melts my heart. And like, how cool, how cool. And I'm from California, up past where San Quentin is. We drive by it, and it's like, just not a place you want to be. And like, the fact that they took the time to do this, to make people feel like the human beings that they are, and really help establish relationships that like can be helpful for for reestablishing these people in society, if they ever get to like, it's humongous. It's a huge deal. So anyways, that is what inspired me. There can be inspiration, right? Lesley Logan 4:16 Okay, a win of yours. Melissa Hargrove, someone I was been around in our lives for a long time and just really inspires me all the time. She said, wanted to share an ongoing win. After our eLevate retreat in March, I reconnected with my OG partner, Lisa. We decided to make a commitment to get together and practice our original goal was to find as much time as we could and do duets with Lesley. After the first lesson, we knew we needed more. We have more duets scheduled through September. Go us! And taking it a step further, we decided to try to do our best to meet weekly, even just to do a Joe's gym or just move. Today, we opted to do the June chair class, It Takes Two, and I'm pretty sure I can speak for us both that we dusted that piece of equipment and we have a new reignited passion for it. So thank you, Lisa for finding time to work with me. And just proud that we have been able to keep the commitment to our practice. I told her today that had we not done the class together it would have taken me two hours to do it, because I would have had to pause, pet my cat, get a drink, maybe change the laundry and so on. But holy cow, when you flow at a brisk pace without pausing, it feels amazing. So thanks again, Lisa for keeping us on point and LL for an inspiring class. Yeah, I want to add to this win. Because you know what, Melissa Hargrove, your partner, Lisa, put a win up that adds to this. So here we go and adding on to that win. This is Melissa. Melissa. I wanted to add to this win this week after already doing two Pilates classes Tuesday, Melissa joined me for our scheduled practice session. I am so very grateful for her commitment to our practice together. It means so much that she did not cancel. As I was looking forward to moving with her, we agreed to do a 30 minute session, which was a win win for both of us since I had the opportunity to walk and do a stair climbing session in 95 degree heat at lunch. Glad we could support each other and can find the time and the win in any situation. Way to go ladies. So this is why Be It Till You See It exists. This is what we're here to do, bring people together, bring women together. Remind you that like you can, right? You can have counterparts that like will show up even when you're like, I don't really want to do this, and this happens all the time. I'm sure I'll have a win coming up with some of our other OPC members who literally get together every Wednesday at 8am to do the workout that they're members of. You know, sometimes it does take that kind of village, and it's okay to take that village time. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to have an accountability buddy, but this is really important to me. When you make an accountability buddy, you guys need to be completely honest and thoughtful of the other person, so that you don't start canceling here and canceling there, like, oh, it's just 30 minutes. No, show up for each other, right? It helps the other person make time for themselves as well. So I really love this lady. Thank you so much for inspiring us to move our bodies, but also to connect with other people in our lives and realize, like we need each other too. We need to be there too. Lesley Logan 4:39 Okay, so my win, I had a win to share with you. I'm gonna save that win for next week. It's already a little delayed to share with you, so I'm gonna share it because a win is actually, I wish I had Brad here. Tomorrow's our 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 years, holy moly. We're celebrating together. I think we'll actually be together for it, because we're in Chicago, so we'll celebrate it together, and we're like, usually we're on a plane and like, because of the time travel distance, like the third just disappears in our lives. And so multiple anniversaries that we haven't been together, but this one, we get to do it together, doing something we love, with people we love to be around at, Pilates On Tour in Chicago. I know you're like, 10 years how is that like? That's that's a win. It's a win not because, like, it's like a struggle to stay married to him or anything like that, but just that we like continually make time to be with each other and to make sure that we're doing things together that are fun, and we challenge each other in really amazing ways. He challenges me to put things away in an actual spot. I challenged him to be on time. You know, these are, these are these are wins for two ADHD people in the same household. But truly, I'm so blessed. I'm so grateful. And recently, we were sharing how we met, because people always want to know how we met, and maybe that's a podcast episode for a different day, but whenever we get to tell it now that we've been married 10 years, there's there's something really cool about, like, looking back on the people that we were who chose each other and we chose to do something really scary, and that's a win. So here we are celebrating 10 years of marriage. And it's not that the 10 years of marriage is what I'm celebrating for us. I'm, like, kind of celebrating our past selves, making really huge decisions that could have easily been written off and, like, not made a priority. So huge thanks to Brad and Lesley in their early 30s for the things that they did, but also just for all the people in our lives who have been friends along the way, who've become family, and that's our win. 10 years of marriage. I love it. I love you. You're amazing. Lesley Logan 8:58 Okay, let me get you an affirmation to repeat with your on yourself, on your drive, on your walk. There's room for me at the table. There is room for me at the table. There is. Take a seat. You know, sometimes we think, oh, I don't want to bother people, oh, and I'll be I don't have enough accolades. Oh, who am I to do this? My neighbor recently, saw the G7 he's like, oh my god, don't, don't write my thing down. Like, who am I to be here? And like, what he actually is there to do, like, change the lives of people in this world and the politicians that are there need to hear what he has to say. There's room for you at the table. There's room for me at the table. Love you so much, and you know what to do. Until next time, Be It Till You See It.Lesley Logan 9:41 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 10:24 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 10:29 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 10:33 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 10:40 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 10:43 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Kiera is joined by Dr. Lauryn Brunclik (of She Slays the Day podcast fame) to take a good hard look at clinician burnout, different sides of the working mindset coin, generational styles of work, and so much more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited about our guest that's going to be on the podcast with me today. She is incredible. We're going to be talking about all things burnout, how to avoid it, how to just like live your best life. And so I have Dr. Lauryn Brunclik. She's an entrepreneur, chiropractor, business coach, podcast host, wife, mother, and sought-after speaker known for her high energy. You guys know that this is why I like her. mean, we're birds of the same feather, straightforward attitude and ability to make people laugh while discovering their truth. In 2010, she founded Blue Hills Chiropractic building into a thriving seven figure practice. But after years of relentless hustle, she found herself overworked, tied to her clinic and craving more freedom. Dentist, can you relate? Now you see why I brought her on here. Now you can see why I want her here. ⁓ she truly is very similar to all of you out there. She was determined to create a business that worked for her, not the other way around. Lauryn built multiple revenue streams, streamlined her operations and reclaimed her time without sacrificing income. She took that passion and launched She Slays the Day, a podcast helping professionals and clinic owners break free from burnout by creating multiple revenue streams, recleaning time and building financial and lifestyle freedom. So welcome to the show, Lauryn. How are you today? Dr. Lauryn B (01:07) Thank you. As you were reading that is so funny because like in this world of virtual assistants and AI, I'm always like, what bio is she reading? And I'm like kind of holding my breath like, ⁓ and I'm like, okay, yep, that's true. That's true. this is good. I did really get sad and burnt up. It's like, I just went on a journey with you while you're reading my bio. Kiera Dent (01:25) Usually both. You and me both. was on a podcast the other day and I had the exact same feeling because they were reading my bio and I was like, huh, I'm super curious. Like which bio did you get? And wow, yeah, like I did just get to go down memory lane. but Dr. Lauryn B (01:40) You're like, that's a good bio. Good job, AI. Good job. Which is like always waiting for like the wrong thing where it's like, no, I didn't do a stint as a clown or anything. No, that's not true. That's not true. So. Kiera Dent (01:49) Exactly. I, Shelbi got us connected and I was super excited and you know, I was looking up on it and she's like, here, I think you and Lauryn are going to have the best time on the podcast. She's like, you two are birds of the same feather, the high energy, the tactical, the like we talk about it's like life on purpose and business on purpose and not having it to where it's the other way around. I say all the time, like your business should be working for you, not the other way around. It should be supporting your life. So I'm just super jazzed. So Lauryn. Dr. Lauryn B (02:04) Mm. Kiera Dent (02:17) I mean, that was a great bio. agree like kudos to AI, virtual assistant, whomever wrote it for you. Kudos to you for living that actual bio and being the human on the other side of that. So anything else you want to add? I mean, we're here today to chat shop. We're here to ⁓ share with your audience, our audience, and just really collaborate together and talk about some things that you're super passionate about and that I am too. Dr. Lauryn B (02:22) Right. Yeah, so I think that one of the things is that, you you kind of address of like, I think you probably typically have more dentists on of thing and your audience is like, wait, what's happening? So I started as a coach for chiropractors, you Kiera Dent (02:51) you Dr. Lauryn B (02:56) this is, I see this a lot of what we do ⁓ as especially high achieving people, you know, we spend a lot of money and time getting this degree. And then we kind of, when we start to get bored, burnt out, ADHD, whatever it is in our career where there's this kind of a couple years in and you're like, wait, is this on repeat? What we tend to do is we repurpose our current knowledge set. And so it's like, I have this degree in this, so I'm gonna start a podcast for those people, right? And so that was kind of my experience too. She Slays the Day started as a podcast for chiropractors. But then I started to realize like as we were having these conversations and you you're just networking, you're meeting. And I started to talk to dentists and veterinarians and you know, realizing like, ⁓ you guys deal with the same shit we do? I had an ENT on a private practice, ENT ⁓ on the podcast, on my podcast because I was following him on Instagram because he was hilarious, but I was like. Kiera Dent (03:51) Yeah. Dr. Lauryn B (04:02) you're dealing with the same stuff we do. And ultimately, that's kind of where I expanded in 2023 to be more for healthcare providers outside the traditional hospital system, because it's like, none of us learned business. Like, we, while we were doing anatomy and infectious disease and all of this stuff, there were people outside in the college getting like MBAs and entire business degrees. Kiera Dent (04:18) Exactly. Dr. Lauryn B (04:31) And we didn't take a single class. we just, there's such this atmosphere of shameful entrepreneurship. What I mean by that is like, especially within chiropractic, and I've talked to vets and dentists as well, that's like, well, if you're not gonna own your own clinic, are you even like really that good? And so there's this forced entrepreneurship in a society where only 10 % of Kiera Dent (04:54) Mm-hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (05:01) people truly have the grit and resilience for the shit show that is ⁓ entrepreneurship. But you have like 80 to 90 % of a profession going into it. And so it's just so natural that it's like, we didn't learn this stuff. It's so natural that burnout is such a common thing. So that's where really it's like, I've realized that like, yeah, I promise you that the same stuff we're dealing with, you're dealing with too because I've had these conversations. Kiera Dent (05:13) Right. Amen. And it's actually funny, and I didn't mention this prior, but we actually consulted a chiropractic office and we've consulted eye clinics and ⁓ optometrists and we've gone into CPA clinic firms. And I realized business is business is business and healthcare business is very similar. I think we do ⁓ outside of mainstream medicine, which is our chiropractic, our vets, our dentists. We're not in the hospital setting. We have more of that autonomy to have our own practices and our own businesses and I agree with you. It is a I think I think the memes out there with business ownership are so accurate the ones where you're on a roller coaster and they're like it's the highs and the lows the ones we're like holding on for dear life and you're like giggling and then crying all within a matter of seconds and I'm like that is the role that is the realm and so that's why I really wanted us to collaborate together Lauryn to talk about because What you see in chiropractic, what I see in dentistry, what we see across the board of these incredible clinicians. like you, go to school, you learn, you, you have all this experience in this knowledge. And like you said, It does not train you to be a business owner. yet also, like you said, it's well, why not? Like, and I think that that is kind of the, it's like for team members, like you want to graduate to be the office manager. You want to be the regional manager. You want to get to that level. Like that's where you like it. There's a ladder ascension. And I think in business ownership and with Like you wanted to be a chiropractor because you wanted to help people. You wanted to be a dentist because you want to help people. You want to be a vet because you want to help people. You want to be an ENT because you want to help people. But it's, think that there's this unsaid natural ladder that people feel there's a push to go for a business ownership when it's like, but I just want to be a clinician. I just wanted to, to do my craft, but I also wanted to do it my way. And that's where I think the business ownership vibe comes in. But you're right. It's, it's stressful, not having profits, not having understanding cashflow, not understanding how to run teams. Like awful. Dr. Lauryn B (07:20) The number of people, doc, clinic owners that have been in practice for 10 plus years that I am teaching what profit margins are and what is healthy and how to calculate it is astounding. It's like, So, you know, I think that ultimately when you, you know, the different personality types, you know, when they find themselves in practice, Kiera Dent (07:31) Yes. Yes. Yes. Dr. Lauryn B (07:46) I feel like they almost burn out for two completely different reasons. So let's say that you have, know, so 80 % of humans are just more meant to be more like caregivers, supporter roles. I would guess that that's even higher in someone who's called into healthcare, right? That like, they went into this, believe me, if you are about to decide what you should do with your life and you are like, I'm an entrepreneur and I wanna be. Kiera Dent (08:05) Mm-hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (08:15) rich. Do not go into chiropractic. Do not go into dentistry. There is so much easier ways to make money. like 99 point whatever percent of people are called to this profession in healthcare because they want to serve. So let's say you start your clinic. There's a good chance you're going to burn out from one of two reasons. One, you don't want to run a clinic. You truly And that's what's burning you out, is that you're just like, I am here for the patients. I want to pour into the patients and I want to serve and I want to do that. But like, I have to hire another front desk person? Didn't we just do that last year? I don't know what the ad should say. I don't know what we should pay them. Or like there's office drama and you're like, I have to create a SOP on that, what? And so that will burn you out because so much of being the CEO and the clinic owner is like, pulling you away from patient care. So you either have to divide your patient care down or in half so you have time and now you're spending half of your time not doing what you wanna do or you just pile on the admin stuff on top of it so you're working 60 hours a week. So that person, obviously they burn out. Now the other one is I think a much more, like is much more my personal story and I'm so curious as to like why you started the podcast, why you started doing what you're doing but like. Kiera Dent (09:30) Mm-hmm. Right. Dr. Lauryn B (09:43) So this is, I was not someone that like was a natural entrepreneur. Like I never would have, you there's certain people you hear these stories where they're like, I'm kindergarten. was like, you know, I'm like, no, that wasn't me. Like I had no idea until really after I, you know, I started my practice, but that was out of convenience. Cause there was no job. Like I had kids and like somewhere along the line, the entrepreneurship bug just got me. Kiera Dent (09:56) Hahaha! Dr. Lauryn B (10:13) And then all of a sudden, that's what I wanted to be doing. Like I wanted to be scaling, looking at marketing strategy, looking at like growth projections, creating higher, like I wanted to do that. But then like Barb needs me in a room too. And I'm like, like I love, okay, I like serving. Yes, yes, yes. But like I really. Kiera Dent (10:36) Yeah. Dr. Lauryn B (10:41) This is what was exciting to me. And so then, and this is where I'll kind of like be vulnerable and share my story, because I know from stage that this helps people, people see this, but it's embarrassing to admit, but the patient care became boring. The patient care became repetitive. Like in the beginning, you're like, ⁓ how do I fix this? And like, you're not getting results, how do I do that? And it was this problem, like new problems to solve. But once you've been doing it, five, seven years, I mean, for everybody it's different, you're kind of like, I can do that on autopilot. And it wasn't challenging a part of my brain that wanted to solve new problems. And so there was a lot of shame and guilt that came with, because at this point, I've been in practice seven years. I'm in my early 30s. Okay, well, you're doing this for the next 30 years. And I was like, I can't. Kiera Dent (11:38) Right. Dr. Lauryn B (11:39) can't do this for the next 30 years. And so that's just like, whichever side a clinic owner sees themself in, like, you you're not safe on either. You have to figure out burnout on either side, but ⁓ they're completely different reasonings. And I think understanding what, why are you feeling that burnout is really important. Kiera Dent (12:04) Yeah, I love that you talked about both sides of the coin because I think there's guilt at least from what I see working with dentists working at myself. They actually got like I've heard I don't know like where this is coined but it's like the seven year itch or stitch like there's like you just kind of get into this and some people get it at five years some people get it at 10 years but there is ⁓ I also love Tony Robbins when he says like progress equals happiness. Dr. Lauryn B (12:20) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (12:29) And so if we're not progressing and some people love it, they love the autopilot of patient care is easy for me. But like when you first get out of school, all of that is hard. It's a puzzle. You're progressing. You've got to figure out how do you navigate and get patients to say yes to treatment? How do I run my books? Like how, like there's so much how, how, how to, how do I like serve my patients better? How do I make this for dentists? It's like, do I make that perfect crown margin? Like, how do get that perfect? I imagine in chiropractor, I'm actually a chiropractor. all the time. I love her. She's incredible. We do talk business often. She's a fee for service. And I'm like, let's talk shop on like going fee for service versus in network, like, just like dentists, right, the fee for service versus in network. And it's how can I make this body like looking at people that have weird symptoms and trying to figure out how can I fix that? Like, I know there's a way to fix this long term. ⁓ But also the like annoyance of running a business and also be like, need for growth. I really love and I never thought about those two sides of the coin until you mentioned that of that really is what causes people to stress. And I think that there is guilt on both sides. I think there's guilt of I want to be with patient care and I don't want to run the business, but I know I have to like, this is kind of the, the card I signed up for. And then the other side of I want to leave the chair. I had a dentist the other day and one of our masterminds say to me, I only want to work two or three days, but I feel guilty because my team's working five days. And I was like, Dr. Lauryn B (13:52) That's a really common one. Kiera Dent (13:54) so good. And the great news is you built the business, like you provided them the job, like you've created that. That does not mean you need to stay in the day to day, five days a week, like whatever is best for you as the business owner and creator. And that can shift and morph. But there is a lot of guilt. I think that that creates, like you said, a lot of shaming and thanks for being vulnerable on that because I think so many people can relate to that. I think when people are listening, they're like, yes, yes. Like, I feel either side of that and I think people don't know how to get out of it. So instead it's just this like, let me keep doing the same. ⁓ let me listen to other podcasts. Let me see if other people are like me. And I'm sure it's the same in chiropractic dentistry. say that it's like this isolated Island and I'm so grateful for podcasts. I'm grateful for communities, but I still think people feel that way because you're day in day out in your own clinic, in your own practice by yourself, even though you maybe know there's a few other islands out there that are maybe similar to you. ⁓ but I think it's such a, I think that's also business too. Dr. Lauryn B (14:36) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (14:52) I don't think it's just being ⁓ a provider in your own practice. I business entrepreneurs feel this way as well, like, how can everybody else figure this out? And I don't feel like I can. ⁓ Dr. Lauryn B (15:00) And you have no idea that they haven't figured it out. I was at a seven figure female mastermind a month ago. so it's all seven figure females all over the board, as far as like industry striving to get to eight figures. And like, there were so many moments at this retreat that every single person just felt like their business was duct taped together. And it's just like, everybody's just doing their Kiera Dent (15:07) you Dr. Lauryn B (15:29) absolute damn best. And so it is really, ⁓ but you know, I wonder how much of how much of this burnout conversation has to do with like generational differences. You know, like, I'm assuming that you are a millennial. Yeah. And yeah, I know, we really are the best. really are. Don't tell everybody else, but we are the best generation. ⁓ Kiera Dent (15:46) Mm-hmm. Yep. I like the emojis. I'm here for all the millennial vibes. Like, I'm here for all of them. I feel like I really fit it. Dr. Lauryn B (15:59) And so I will point this out on stage a lot because when you're talking, giving continuing ed, you'll have a lot of, Gen X is still in the workforce. Like they are still here. from the time I was in school up until like the last couple of years, they really were a lot of the stage presence at conferences. Kiera Dent (16:12) Mm-hmm. Yes. Dr. Lauryn B (16:28) And so you being a millennial would sit and really just get advice, business success, career advice through the lens of Gen X. And why that's something that we just have to be aware of is like each generation has a very different script that they have downloaded, like they've just absorbed kind of. automatically without putting too much thought into, know, it's just like the culture of their generation. And Gen X was like, shut up, don't complain about it. There is work life balance. Like your career is the most important thing. Like raising your kids, like you have a spouse for that and you will enjoy your life once you have accumulated enough money. And if you've done it right, that'll happen by your like 60, between 60 and 65. But the goal is to hustle, hustle, hustle, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate at all costs. You can enjoy your life if you need a second, if you need to get a divorce and you just get a new spouse in your sixties, that's what like, and so like not trying to give them shit or anything. Their work ethic is phenomenal. My favorite employees are Gen X. Yeah. Yeah. Kiera Dent (17:41) I always love to hire them. I was like, perfect, come on in, you're gonna work forever. Like, it's great, amazing. Dr. Lauryn B (17:47) So they're great. But then like we come in and you know, I know that in chiropractic now 50 % of graduates are females. Do you know what that is in dentistry? Kiera Dent (17:58) Dentistry actually tipped over. There's more females that are graduating than there are men. It just recently tipped this scale, which I was quite impressed by, which is awesome. So it's exciting. Dr. Lauryn B (18:09) It's so cool, but we're kind of screwed because we as millennials, we're not going to not have children. We're not going to delegate that completely to somebody else. I mean, my husband, I'm definitely the primary breadwinner in my husband's profession or career has like molded to what our family needs are, but like. Kiera Dent (18:13) Mm-hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (18:35) So we're not gonna do that, we're not gonna do that, like we're not gonna give up our career. And so it's not like we're complaining about work-life balance, it's just a necessity. We're like, no, no, no, it's not like I'm like, like I, it's like, no, this isn't I want to raise my child, it's I have a child, I have to raise them also and the business. And so like we're trying to figure out, like, well, I can't follow that script. Kiera Dent (18:47) Right. Dr. Lauryn B (19:05) that script that we saw from stage for so long is just like, that's not gonna work for me. we're trying, that's why everything feels duct taped together is because we actively reject it. We were given a script to follow, like work six days a week, just do it. And we're like, nah, I don't want that. And it's like, okay, well then we're literally creating a new path. And so to any millennial, I would say like, if it just feels Kiera Dent (19:15) Mm-hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (19:34) messy, this probably isn't a youth thing. This is like, are truly carving a brand new way to do things, which we're kind of wasting our time because Gen Z is coming in like, no, I'm not doing that either. And we're like, we're fixing this for you. And they're like two months into their, yeah, they're like two months into their profession and like, ooh, 30 hours a week? That's not gonna work for me. Kiera Dent (19:44) was going to say, they're coming right behind. Exactly. They're like, no, no, no, no. We see that. We're not doing that either. Yeah, not happening. No, they're like, I could be a YouTube, like I could I could do all these different things. I can be an influencer for like five hours a week and make way more than you are not here for that. Dr. Lauryn B (20:10) And you're like, well, I don't know how to solve this for you. Kiera Dent (20:13) they're like AI, why are guys like still doing stuff yourselves? Like, no, we're gonna have robots to do all this stuff for us. Like, absolutely not. It's incredible. Like, good. But I don't disagree with you. I think it's ⁓ and as you said that I thought about how agreed and I think every generation actually makes it better from the last and I do agree that ⁓ I don't know, I started thinking about it. This struck me about probably, I don't know, eight years ago. And I'm like, Dr. Lauryn B (20:20) He probably will. Like, damn it. Kiera Dent (20:42) my gosh, like people used to get married because they needed to be married. Like you used to have to have like a husband and a wife to be able to have kids. And I'm like, you don't need that anymore. There's IVF, there's ⁓ different things that you can do. You do not need anybody anymore to live the life you want to live. It's very much becoming this like self ability. But I'm like, our parents couldn't do that. I mean, women even coming to the forefront to be able to have businesses. to own land in our name. Like that has not been a long change and shift for women to be here. And then I also think that there's a whole dynamic for women as well coming into this scene. Like you said, they are coming in there. We're, having stronger professions. are being stronger business owners. We're like the kid having children is being delayed much longer in life. And so I do think it's a, a walking through and not understanding like where are we even supposed to go? Because what we've seen as the model isn't the model for us anymore. like that doesn't work. Our lives look different. I mean, my mom, didn't work a lot of my friends moms didn't work or if they did, they worked at the schools or they didn't work like high level powered careers, a lot of them and I'm so excited that women are coming into the workforce and because there's so much talent and beauty. But I do think that there's a whole dynamic and for men too. think that the whole shifting like you said, a lot of women are becoming breadwinners. They do. Dr. Lauryn B (21:41) Mm-hmm. yeah, they want to be dads. Like that's the thing too is like, they're like, hey, I just cause I'm a dude doesn't mean like I'm okay with missing my kid's childhood. It truly is a generational shift. Kiera Dent (22:11) Exactly Exactly. And so I think I just through all of it, I think you're highlighting what makes me excited. And the reason I'm just like jazzed about this today is it's normal. It's okay. And there's solutions around it. And also, I think just aha moments of, my gosh, like maybe this is why. And I do agree. Generations behind the millennials, you're probably giggling at our conversation right here. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys don't even know what you're talking about. But I think like we're in it. Exactly. Dr. Lauryn B (22:41) Hey, we say you don't know what you're talking about. Kiera Dent (22:44) I'm like, but we're in it and there has to be a solution here. Dr. Lauryn B (22:44) Hey! I have the microphone. Kiera Dent (22:48) Who's on this podcast and who's listening? All right. I think when I look at that, I'm like, but for millennials, think that they're, and most generations probably feel this. think we're a taffy stretch between one way of thinking and a new way of thinking. And we're kind of that like middle child syndrome right now where we really are trying to carve that new path that's making it easier for other generations behind us to see easier modalities. But I do think that that kind of tug of war, I mean, I feel it, you felt it. We've had our personal experiences through it. We see people, we coach people through this, we work with people. But I also think in a way life has become easier to learn. I don't know how you feel. And like easier with air quotes, meaning there's so many things that do things for us. Like washer and dryers were so great for our parents' generations. But I'm like, for us, we now have, like you said at the beginning, we have AI that's writing bios for us. We've got virtual assistants that are doing it. There's ways, like you said, there's easier ways to make money outside of just doing your day in, day out, eight to five job now. There's different ways that we can build retirement. There's ways like the Airbnb market and having real estate investments. Like there's so many different ways that I feel like wealth is oftentimes easier to achieve. But I think with that, because there's so many things and not to say that it's perfectly easy, but I think as we conquer in life, just like the washer and dryer, the cell phone, like those things were conquering big problems. Google coming in and the internet taking over, those conquered a lot of challenges. I think so much of today's challenge, and I don't know how you feel, Lauryn. This is like Kiera going off on her own soapbox. I feel like you said so much of it now is our mind and that space of centeredness, of balance, ⁓ not having to work all the time. I think a lot of jobs have shifted from labor jobs to mental labor jobs. So we're not having as much physical. Dr. Lauryn B (24:32) Hmm. Kiera Dent (24:35) Like you said, patient care can be a lot of just like mindless. I miss the days sometimes of being a dental assistant, sitting there and having like hours of time to dream of all these ideas to where now I feel like I wish and crave for that quietness that my mind never gets anymore. And so I feel like even with some of those shifts and how we work and how our family needs are in the necessities of family dynamics in, we don't need to work clear up to 65, but people are able to retire now at 35, 40. And then it's like, now what, what am I supposed to do? So also then finding your purpose in life. I think you combine all that into a cluster storm and voila, welcome to millennial dilemma. Like, you know, we can coin that of what do people do? How do they, how do they exist? And I think the future generations coming will have even more of this at more grand scale. So it's like, let's have conversations of how do we prevent that burnout? How do we have the conversations about not working in like having nothing left to give to our families of having that balance? Like you said, if I want to run the business and I want to progress, but I also want to be a human at the same time. So Lauryn, think you're more the expert at this than I am. I'm just here for the like great conversations and talking it through because I think it's such a necessary conversation that now is starting to really bubble to the surface out of necessity and also out of curiosity and also out of like desire to fix this and not have it be our day in day out norm anymore. Dr. Lauryn B (25:54) Yeah, well, so I'm gonna say another kind of controversial thing then. ⁓ So you touched on it and like with any time, we don't love, as care providers, we don't wanna come across as greedy, right? And so what we end up doing is like, we'll just be like, it would be great to be wealthy, but like not too much, like I don't need to be rich, and you didn't do this or anything like this, but like. Kiera Dent (25:57) Ready, I love this. Dr. Lauryn B (26:22) other people is just like, yeah, I would like to make a little more money. ⁓ so part of my story, ⁓ I'll give you the very short version, was ⁓ we had our most successful revenue year ever. And it was with like the least amount of money I had taken home in like seven years. Yeah, yeah, we call this payroll bloat. You need to fix your pricing structure so we could talk about pricing increases. Kiera Dent (26:42) Happens all the time, all the time. Dr. Lauryn B (26:50) And so like I'm a cash clinic. So like this was my own fault. This was, I set my prices and I just did a bad job at it. And so part of like, if when people are like, well, how did you like, were you burnt out? And I was like, yeah, I was burnt out at like 32. And you're like, are you burnt out? I'm like, no, I freaking love what I do now. I still serve patients 10 hours a week. actually. as of last week went down to like seven. We got a chef, yay. So I still serve patients like seven hours a week. I still spend probably like three hours a week ⁓ running meetings and like running the clinic. ⁓ But now we have other investments. ⁓ Whereas that clinic portion that used to be all of our eggs were in that basket. Kiera Dent (27:22) I'm not. Dr. Lauryn B (27:46) Right? So like, as we had kids, my husband left corporate consulting to help our family and clinic grow. So all of our eggs were in this one basket of whether the clinic does well that quarter or not. we want to remodel the kitchen? Better go get some more new patients. Like, want to go to Disney? It's not in the budget, but like, ugh, like all of these things. And we're not even talking about time freedom. Like we're just talking about like the key to burnout is having time freedom and financial freedom. When I'm working with docs, the ones that are like the hardest to fix are not the ones that are like, I am working 60 hours a week. I have like oodles of money that I know should be like, I should be doing something with in, but it's just like $50,000 in this bank account. And like, I wish I had time to go to Disney, but I don't, I don't want to belittle that. That is a different kind of burnout. Kiera Dent (28:32) Mm-hmm. Right, it is. Dr. Lauryn B (28:45) and everybody right now is playing a little sad song for you, but I relate to you, we can fix this. But the harder ones are the ones that are broke. Like being broke, and this has to do with like just core psychological, like I reference Maslow's hierarchy of needs a lot in my talks because like. Kiera Dent (28:49) Mm-hmm. I agree. Mm-hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (29:07) You cannot get to the tip, the Maslow's for those of us that took Psych 101 10 years ago is the triangle where at the top is enlightenment and at the bottom is like your base survival, food, water, shelter. And if you are broke, now granted, monks, I'm sure they can figure out how to have enlightenment without having food, water, shelter. Most of us cannot, okay? We are doctors and there is a certain amount of debt. Kiera Dent (29:12) Mm-hmm. I agree. Dr. Lauryn B (29:34) and a certain amount of expectation is maybe the right, I don't know if that's the right word, with like, I'm gonna serve people and this career is gonna take care of me. I'm gonna go into debt and it's a lot of debt, but this career is gonna take care of me. I'm gonna care for people, as long as I focus on serving, the career will take care of me. And we have too many people that it's just not. And they're like, I... did not realize that I was going to struggle this much financially. These are not people that are like, can't afford a yacht. These are people like truly who are like my margins for financial investing and building wealth are a lot more narrow than I thought they were going to be. And that's a harder thing to fix, but that... Kiera Dent (30:22) Hmm. Dr. Lauryn B (30:27) is a deeper kind of burnout that we just need to be more comfortable. Again, following generational stuff, Gen X, like we don't talk about money, right? That was the script that we got from them of like, you just focus on the patients and the patients will take care of you. And you're like, ⁓ okay, so we don't talk about money. And then millennials are like, I think we need to start talking about money. I think we need to start talking about money because if you were being paid, Kiera Dent (30:38) Bye. Hahaha! Dr. Lauryn B (30:56) whatever you feel is appropriate. If you were feeling wealthy. And again, I'm not talking about that. I'm not putting on you that like you feel like you need to be making $3 million a year. Like, although that is my goal for next year is 3 million. just, but like, you know, just so we're clear, that is my literal goal for next year. So you can want that. You have permission to want that if you want, but we're talking about like, I don't know. Maybe if you made $500,000 a year, life would be a little easier and you could breathe. Kiera Dent (31:10) Yeah, exactly. Dr. Lauryn B (31:26) And if you can literally financially breathe, you have more bandwidth make calm decisions for your business. Where you don't feel like if you have a bad quarter, you're gonna have to lay someone off. And like that's one of the first steps to helping most people burnout or recover from burnout. is like, we gotta talk about money and we gotta fix your personal financial situation because if you're constantly in a place of fight or flight you can give yourself an extra 10 hours a week and time to be the CEO if all you're doing is worrying about how you're gonna make payroll. Like, it's not, you're not gonna from burnout. Kiera Dent (32:22) think that that was such a good ⁓ way that you highlighted it. And I'm just very curious now, like, how's the how, because agree, like people, what you're saying, Lauryn, I can tell you've lived the like the life. This is something that you've done, you've been there, you can speak to it so authentically. I've been there many times. And I'm always like, I want our doctors to get paid so well. I see how much you go into school for debt. I see the, and I think that that's a different piece too, if we're to talk generational, people who are not walking out like half a million debt. Dr. Lauryn B (32:55) And y'all are way worse than us, right? Like what's the average dentist, like 350? Kiera Dent (33:01) Average dentists right now are coming out at almost half a mil of debt when they walk in. It's bonkers. Dr. Lauryn B (33:05) That is bonkers, you guys. Like when I heard that, because I posted a reel that went so viral and it was just about like healthcare debt and reimbursement rates. And that's when I learned they were like, 250? Talk to a dentist. And I was like, wait, why? How long? And they were like, yeah, 350 minimum. And I was like, Kiera Dent (33:25) Yeah. Dr. Lauryn B (33:30) That's insane. That's insane. Kiera Dent (33:32) That's insane. And then you go buy a practice. So the practice that I helped start with a dentist straight out of school, we were, I called her 2.5. I got to walk by and I'm like, get that spine up like you're 2.5. We were 2.5 mil in debt. So that was coming with student loans. So schooling was 500,000. Living expenses during that time were about another, you know, two to 500. So like they're walking out with this. $500, $600, $700,000 worth of debt, not just including your schooling, but all of life expenses, because you're probably not working while you're going to school. And then we went and bought a practice that's about a $2 million practice. So we were like 2.5, not like we were 2.5 in debt. I was like, keep that spine up, like put your hands up when you walk across the street, like you've got to keep those hands in motion because otherwise how are we going to get out of debt? And I think for me, when I look at that much debt, when I look at that much risk and I look at the benefits that healthcare providers are giving, I'm like, no. And I tell teams all the time, I'm you want your doctor to be ridiculously wealthy. Like I do, and I preach this hard and I say, no, you should and you deserve it. And we want you that way because you're a better boss, you're a better clinician, you are better at doing your services because you're not stressed about making money. So we're not like you said, like, I want to go to Disney, let me go find more patients. I get. No, I have confident, predictable payroll or cash flow. I'm very successful in what I do and you can make the margins there. Like I was the girl who did business that did not understand numbers. And now I say like, I love numbers and numbers definitely love me. And I'm like, it's now just a fun math equation. If I want to make X amount, you just back it down. You figure out what your costs are and you figure out the three levers you can use. We either drop our overhead, increase our production and or our collections. Like it's very simple when I'm like, okay, got it. Dr. Lauryn B (35:05) and Kiera Dent (35:17) Like got it when it's just those three levers, people make it so much more complex. And I think it does feel complex. Like reading a PNL is ridiculous. If you don't know what that is, that's okay. We're here where there's no judgment. It's a profit and loss statement. And I love educating people on this. Like this is where the fire in the belly comes. This is where it does. We get lit up because when I have someone who's cashflow positive, like you said, they can make calm decisions. They're not sitting here stressing all the time, but Lauryn, I'm very curious. Like you've talked about it at length. Like what do people do? Like what's the how, how do we get into this? How do we have multiple streams because agreed all eggs in one basket? gosh. It's, ⁓ to me, that's like just a ticking time bomb. Like one bad day, one bad patient, one bad procedure. Like it's just going to explode because you're sitting like you're sitting on the edge of fear all the time to where you are in like cortisol adrenaline, like you are pumping. And then what you do is you go into complete shutdown because you can't handle it anymore. So your body and your system literally like just shuts down on you. You become apathetic to life. Dr. Lauryn B (35:54) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (36:15) things aren't exciting for you anymore. You become very numb to walking through the world. And it's like, I feel like the world of color goes into very like gray. It's very subtle. It's like, it's, there's no, there's no life left. It's just, are living life, but you're not actually being and living day in, out. The Dental A Team (36:33) that wraps part one of our part two series. Be sure to tune back in for part two of this podcast. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
What if your calendar could predict your mental health? Meet Chris Dancy – once dubbed “The World's Most Connected Human” – who didn't just track his steps and calories. He tracked his soul. From mood mapping and ambient data to organizing his apps by values instead of function, Chris built a system to actually understand himself. But here's the twist: it's not about more data. It's about better data.
It's season 5! We're back! We're... talking characters again! Join authors Lyssa Mia Smith and Anna Mercier as they discuss how to use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to craft stunning, well-round characters. Come for the craft knowledge, stay for the giggles!Remember, you can get in on our TTS preorder campaign. Visit the Turning to Story Substack for more information.Preorder Gilded in Vengeance!Preorder All We Hunger For!
Money solves problems, but it doesn't buy peace—and the squeeze is real. We get into the cost-of-living crunch, time freedom, and how builders decide between making more or needing less. Show Notes: 00:00 Money's weird: easy to make, hard to keep 02:45 Cost of living vs “money buys happiness” 05:07 Is the problem money—or imbalance? 07:13 Personal equity, real-world numbers 11:15 Make more or need less? 11:54 Would zero money stress equal happiness? 13:23 Trips, houses, and what money can't fix 14:38 If I had cash, here's what I'd change 16:02 Anxiety about the kids' future 16:32 Maslow on the jobsite (security vs purpose) 22:02 Life's more expensive—so where's your time go? 24:36 System pressure: mortgages then vs now 27:44 Starter homes, rates, and fewer choices 28:37 Debt out of college = treadmill life 31:20 Generational shift and the cost of well-being Video Version: Partners: Andersen Windows Buildertrend Harnish Workwear Use code H1025 and get 10% off their H-label gear The Modern Craftsman: linktr.ee/moderncraftsmanpodcast Find Our Hosts: Nick Schiffer Tyler Grace Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
Many of us spend decades climbing Maslow's pyramid — seeking security, comfort, and experiences — only to realize that the top is where true joy lives. Join us as we explore the “Happiness Hierarchy” and why lasting fulfillment comes not from what you buy or where you travel, but from who you become. In this episode, we discuss: How to shift from “having enough” to “becoming more” Why Maslow's hierarchy is often misunderstood The three levels of happiness Why reflection unlocks the freedom to become Today's article is from Jordan Grumet blog titled Rethinking Maslow. Listen in as Founder and CEO of Howard Bailey Financial, Casey Weade is joined by Les McDaniel to explore the “Happiness Hierarchy. Show Notes: HowardBailey.com/523
What if intelligence isn't a fixed score, but a story you get to keep rewriting?If you've ever felt underestimated, overlooked, or boxed in by labels, this episode will help you rise above them and unlock the brilliance within you.Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman was once placed in special education and told he didn't belong in “gifted” programs. Yet today he's one of the most respected cognitive scientists of our time. His journey proves that labels—“broken,” “disabled,” “not smart enough”—don't define your destiny.In this powerful conversation, Scott and I explore how to rethink intelligence, potential, and even Maslow's famous hierarchy. You'll discover why IQ tests miss the most important parts of your mind, how neurodiverse traits like ADHD and dyslexia can be hidden superpowers, and why self-actualization isn't about climbing a pyramid—it's about learning to sail your own ship.By the end, you'll see that your potential is not a number. It's not predetermined. It's a moving target you can expand every day with passion, perseverance, and belief./ / / Are you ready to take the next step on your brain optimization journey? / / /Choose your own adventure. Below are the best places to start:>>> 30 Days of the World's Best Student Success Program>>> Join Limitless Live 2025 in San Diego 8-10 December>>> Discover Your Unique KWIK BRAIN C.O.D.E To Activate Your GeniusTake your first step by choosing one of the options above, and you will find everything you need to ignite your brilliant brain and unlock your exceptional life, allowing you to achieve and surpass all of your personal and professional goals.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.