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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2026 31:16

“Your intuition is giving you the truth.” In this episode, Nick shares insights on the importance of rest, self-awareness, and listening to your intuition to improve mental health and productivity. He discusses personal experiences and practical questions to help you recognize when you’re feeling “off” and how to realign. What to listen for: The importance of rest and self-care Recognizing signs of burnout and feeling off Using intuition and body signals to guide actions The role of self-awareness in mental health The process of pausing and realigning during busy times Personal stories of overcoming burnout The significance of small moments of reflection Tools for developing intuition and self-checks Encouragement to take regular rest and listen to oneself “Take a moment to rest and ask yourself what feels off, and then move along from there” Pausing for a moment between thought and action can drastically change our approach When we feel “off” inside, there's a signal being sent up to say “hey! There's something you need to look at in here” “We get to choose: Do I just put some dirt on it and keep going? Or do I pause for a second and ask, “What's up? Why am I feeling this? What am I actually feeling right now?” Understanding we have a choice in every moment, even if the only choice is how we respond Checking in with ourselves periodically brings attention to our feelings and can ultimately lead us to our desires When we know who we are at our core, we then have a gauge for when we're feeling “off” from that core. About Nick McGowan I'm Nick McGowan, an entrepreneur, podcaster, and mental health advocate, and I’ve been on a 20+ year journey of personal development, learning to master my mindset, emotions, and the art of living with purpose. As a Mindset and Self-Mastery Mentor, I work with ambitious men and women who want to live their most authentic and joyous lives by helping them master their mindset, emotional awareness, and authentic communication. My mission is to empower people to lead lives that feel aligned, grounded, and truly their own. Throughout my career, I've built teams, streamlined systems, and improved client experiences across SaaS, media, marketing, and personal development spaces. Whether I'm leading cross-functional projects, optimizing SEO, Podcasting, designing strategies, or guiding clients through transformation, I bring a hands-on, solution-focused approach to everything I do. I'm also the host of The Mindset and Self-Mastery Show, where my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, challenge us, and ultimately guide us back to who we are at our core. On this show, we uncover the secret gems others have discovered through trial and error and breakthroughs, so you can fast-track your growth and master your mindset in your pursuit of self-mastery. Check out the latest episode here. With years of podcasting and two decades of marketing experience, I've mastered the storytelling, interview flow, strategy, and technical production that elevate a podcast from “just content” to something truly impactful. Whether you’re a leader looking to amplify your message, a seasoned speaker and podcast host looking to sharpen your edge, or even a beginner who is wondering how to share their message, I mentor thought leaders through every step of having the conversation they’re here to have on this planet. So, what message are you here to share?! https://nickmcgowan.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenickmcgowan/ Resources: Check out other episodes about adjusting our mindset for rest and transition Internal Reflection And Self-Care With Dr. Nekeshia Hammond How To Transform Your Mindset And Boost Performance With Steve Magness Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have?Learn how Nick can help! Learn more about our host, Nick McGowan: https://nickmcgowan.com/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe to the show on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:04.814)Hello, and welcome to the Mindset and Self-Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show, I want to talk about us just taking the time to give ourselves rest. I think there are times where we as people will just drive ourselves crazy. we drive ourselves mad, just doing all these things, all the things that we feel other people are telling us to do or the world tells us to do. Sometimes we just need to rest. And I wanted to take this time to share a message of suggesting that you rest, partially because it’s coming from a personal experience. I have been working a lot over the past few months, working a lot of a lot of projects for clients. I have my own strategy for the podcast and I’ve updated that. I six months of content I put out and all aligned so that we’re on the same page. I’m not just blasting out random messages and stuff like that. But doing all that work because of a really challenging end to a chapter that happened recently got me to a point about a week ago where I could feel there’s a little bit of burnout starting to set in. The reason why I’m doing this episode now is today is one of those days where I’ve canceled a few meetings and instead chosen to make a podcast episode. I have a client call later today, some project work to do, and then a bunch of music to play. And that is my choice, but it’s also my choice to make sure that I’m choosing those things for my health. I think there are times where we will do things consistently and we get into a pattern almost like how you can probably drive to the grocery store without even really thinking about it. We just we just do it subconsciously. We’re just travel there and we’re good. Sometimes we’ll be thinking about something else or you know, maybe you’re texting or looking at your phone or whatever, and you just magically end up at the store. Sometimes that happens in life more so than we think about it. Going to your office, picking up your kids, going out to meet with friends, whatever the things are, even if they’re novelty or something you don’t do all the time, you can still get in the habit and just be used to doing those things without actually asking yourself, why are you doing those things? Sometimes it’s also really tough to ask yourself, why am I still here? Or why am I doing this? Or Nick McGowan (02:34.358)Why with whatever it is? Could be a job, could be a relationship, could be something you’re experiencing inside, something that you’re trying to work on or work through. Either way, as those situations happen, we have an opportunity and a responsibility in some ways to be able to look at that and say, well, do I want this? Do I not want this? Is there something underneath that’s telling me, hey, something’s slightly off? And it can be really easy to not listen to that. You’ve probably gone through things where you look and it’s let’s say the holiday season. Next thing you know, it’s summer. Here we are. I’m recording this in June. So by the time you listen to it, it’ll probably be July, middle of the summer. You might be on vacation, you might be doing different things. There’s a lot of pushing and pulling, of taking people different places or vacations. People come into town, or you go visit different people or Just a weekend at the beach or the mountains or whatever that thing is. But those things aren’t always as restful as we need them to be. Sometimes the moment that we really need is a bit of a longer moment to just be restful. So let’s just hang out for a second. Just rest. Are you in your car? Are you at the office? Are you at home? You have a lot of people around you. Are you like in a coffee shop with everybody doing their thing around you? No matter where you’re at, I challenge you to take this moment just to be. Now, if you’re driving, don’t close your eyes. just be, just be present, just be here. And is there some feeling that comes up? Something that says, maybe this feels good, I don’t experience this enough, or something that says, you know, this feels really bad because I don’t feel like I can or should experience this. Those are telltale signs to tell us that there’s something that’s going on underneath. If we get past or through, or even around that, we think about there are times where we feel somewhat off. Nick McGowan (04:51.146)Let’s unpack that a bit. In those moments where you feel off, at least for me, when I feel off, there are different flavors to what’s off. The burnout that I feel at times is most often because I’m doing things that, yes, I may really enjoy those, because I really do my best to not do the things I don’t enjoy anymore. Obviously, there are responsibilities and things that we kind of have to do. Like, I don’t really want to pay for my car. But I want to keep my car so I will continue to pay the car note, you know, like that sort of thing. but then there are other things that we do that if we just adjust those slightly or take a pause, just a beat for a second, step back and say, what am I feeling? What’s feeling off right now? I’ve learned with myself that I can ask those questions and go maybe within like a 24, 48 hour range. What happened yesterday? Or is there something coming up in a few days? That I’m maybe concerned about or worried about or even just processing through. Like I have a I have a meeting coming up in a few days. It’s an event where I’m speaking and talking with lot of people and I’m excited. There’s also a little bit in there of like, what should I prep, or what else do I need to get ready for, or what have you. So we all have those little things that just they’re processing in the background. That’s different than not having the energy or the drive or the motivation even. To start or continue on with the thing. It’s in those moments where we get to choose: do I just put some dirt on it and just keep going? Or do I pause for a second and say, what is up? Why am I feeling this? What am I actually feeling? I had an experience the other day where I was at kind of a crux point in a sense, like a fork on the road, where I could keep on a path. I was working on a client project and I was at a spot where I don’t know, maybe another five, 10 minutes, and I could have been like, cool, I can put a bow on that. I can just move along and I can go do something else. But I felt for like a solid 15, 20 minutes leading up to this moment, just not right. Like I just didn’t want to do it anymore. There are different times where we as people can just like not want to do a thing. I don’t want to be here anymore. And you can just Irish exit or walk out or run or whatever. then there are other times where we think, well, I don’t want to be here because of something or some situation or this is Nick McGowan (07:19.042)Hard or tough or what have you. I go through those, like I’ll ask those questions. So I’ll take a little bit of a step back, especially in that moment. I sat back in my chair and was like, what am I feeling? Is it just that I don’t want to do this right now? That I just want to do something else? Like it is is it as simple as I just want to go walk outside for a minute? Like just not be in this energy? And asking those initial questions will help us understand if there’s something that’s really close to it. That we can say, it’s this thing. Duh, let me just take care of that. And then we’re good and you’re good to go. I’ve experienced that where it’s like, well, I felt like this nagging thing was in the background. Like I need to go switch over the laundry or something like that. Be well, instead of just pushing that off, let me go do that. Let me just take the five minutes to do it, come back and be good to go. Then you’re done. You’re no longer thinking about that. That’s no longer processing back there. But that’s vastly different than there’s something underneath it all. That is like, I don’t think this is the right time for you to do this. So that moment that I had, I went through, I went through my questions and was like, what is it? What am I feeling? What do I want? It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do the project. I could have just kept going with the project. It was literally one of those situations where I was like, you know, I could keep going on this thing and I could probably spend another three, four hours doing this. And it would have been okay. But not exactly what I needed to do. And I knew that. Nick McGowan (09:08.76)So when I asked myself, do I really want to stop this or do I just want to keep going? Like I knew I was at a time where I could keep going. Again, I could do it for another three, four hours, be totally good. And then maybe at the end of that, go, my God, I don’t even want to look at my computer. Let me go do something else, like out of the house or wherever, you know. but I felt in that moment, like this is one of those really good moments where I go, Well, I could keep down this path and I’d probably be okay. And not totally burn out or feel like I wasted the day or anything like that. Or I could sit here a little longer, another minute or two, and figure out what’s really underneath of it. So I ended up putting that project to the side, actually stopped at that moment, which I don’t think that I have OCD, but there are times where, and you’ve maybe experienced this, like if you just spent another five, 10 minutes on a thing, you would have gotten to a point where you go, cool, bow tied. I’m able to put that to the side. Then when I come back, I can kind of start freshly with it. I just stopped. I was like, this is where I’m at. I’m done. When I opened the project the next time, it did take me an extra few minutes to go, all right, cool. I see what I did. Cool. Perfect. And I was able to move from there. So it’s not like it messed anything up, but in that moment, I didn’t really care. It could have put me back another half hour, or it could have potentially put me ahead by doing something different. So stopping that thing, I felt the power that I have the ability to be able to say, no, and that doesn’t feel right for me to do right now. I also understand that this isn’t always the case for everybody. You can’t be in the middle of a meeting and say, I don’t want to be here right now and expect that it should just be okay. You can’t be in the middle of a conversation with your kid or your partner and just go, I don’t want to be here and expect that it’s going to be okay. That’s just not how those things work. But in these different little experiences, and especially when we’re by ourselves, I think that’s where we get to work on this stuff. So if you’re in your office or you’re at home or you’re wherever you’re at, and you feel that moment of this doesn’t feel right for me to do. And you start to ask yourself, is it because I just don’t want to do the thing anymore? Or is it because I feel like I really want to go do something else? Like I’ve experienced that at times where I’m like, there’s some basketball game or something on. Like, I don’t want to do this thing. I want to go watch the game. Nick McGowan (11:35.37)And sometimes I will, sometimes I’ll do both, and you know, whatever. Like, but we get to figure that stuff out in those moments. So if you ask yourself in those moments, like, what’s going on? What am I feeling? Do I really want to do this? Do I not want to do it? Is it is there something underneath of it all? And really what I’m trying to get to is that underneath layer. Like, find what’s underneath, like what’s what’s boiling the magma underneath there? It’s starting to make the ground shake in a sense. Because then in that moment you’re able to understand if I put my energy into that. That’s potentially going to help the rest of the energy that I have. And also probably that other project. So when I stopped working on that project the other day, I knew I could keep going. And there was a part of me that was like, man, you got it. Like you can just keep going. Just knock this thing out. Close this chapter of this project so you can move along to the next thing, which does make me feel really good. I love being able to kind of close things out and go, Great, I’m gonna hand it off to the client, or I’m gonna hand this off to this person. You take it. Great, and I’m good, and I can move along to the next thing. I also know about myself that I’m a project person. I really love my projects. I’m multi-passionate, but I love digging into the things that I do. You may be similar. So if you enjoy that, it can be hard at times to stop on a project. But again, back to that moment. I stopped that project a little earlier than I wanted to and moved along through a series of a few different events that led me to a breakthrough. And the reason why I put it that way. Is because it took me walking outside, getting in my car. I went to the post office because I had to drop some stuff off and came back, cleaned up the kitchen a little bit and went to the bathroom. It just like did odds and ends little things here and there, but also things that felt like I was led to do. Just like as simple as the bathroom. Like we know when our bladder’s like, yo, dude, you gotta go. So you just kind of walk your way on back. Same deal. could feel it intuitively of like, I’m gonna go step outside. I’m just gonna run to the post office. I’m gonna clean up the kitchen. I’m gonna go to the bathroom, I’m gonna do this, gonna do that. Within about, I don’t know, maybe 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, something like that. Post office is only a few minutes away, so it’s not that big a deal. But within a short period of time, I was back at my computer and had my guitar in my hand. And I just felt more at ease. Nick McGowan (13:59.862)It’s not like there was better or some major difference, but I could feel a little lighter and a little more at ease. I’ve realized that that tells us that we’re doing something more right for ourselves. Not like we were doing things wrong before, but this is one of those things that feels more right to do. Great. It can also go against the system of the world that says you’re not doing enough, you’re not producing enough, you’re not. Creating, you’re not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I felt some of that where I was like, I’m not doing the project work stuff. That’s money and that’s clients. And I appreciate my clients. I appreciate the money. I love working with the people I do and like I’m on I’m on board with them and their projects and like I’m in it with them. And also can still pause that, take a step away, do some other things and work on our own projects. The main reason why I’m talking about this and that it stood out to me. was I’ve been writing an album for several years. You’ve probably heard me talk about how I reformatted a hard drive about a year ago and lost everything. so I’ve started over again. And even in the past two months, maybe month and a half, two months, I’ve taken the songs that are going to go on my album and I’ve said, great, I’m here where they’re at with their demo, and just put them to the side and start it over. I literally picked up my acoustic and just started to build the song again from a single player, a singer, songwriter, and just build it and then turn it to a band and all that stuff, et cetera. So I’ve been working through this and literally reworking these things. So that’s where I ended up getting to was one of these songs. I have been bashing my head in a way to try to figure out the chorus of one of the songs. And it’s just not feeling right. Just not. If you’re creative and you have different projects you work on, you know there are things, even if it’s with your hands, like playing an instrument or woodworking and stuff like that, where you’re just not fully there yet. It’s not fully done. Like a a piece maybe isn’t fully sanded down or fully completed. We know when it is. We can feel it inside of us. And in that, I don’t know, maybe thirty, forty-five minutes or so that I was just messing around, just getting my energy right, I figured out the chorus. Nick McGowan (16:24.566)And it literally came from a frustration point of saying, I don’t like this. I really don’t know where to go with it. But I know that there’s something here. I know that I know the messages within it. I just need to hear it. I need to feel it and then let it come out of me. So I literally hit record and just let it come out of me. And it did. I don’t think this is going to be like one of those classic songs that people will cover and sing for. eons, maybe, who cares? I don’t know. I don’t really care. But I know that that moment happened because of the other moments that happened. I took the moment to say something feels off. Huh. What do I do? Well, what can I do to feel on? You know? How can I make this change? And asking those questions and intentionally looking for the feeling that I would have inside for the intuition to go, go this way. Go that way. Try this thing, do that. I’ve learned with my intuition, and I believe this is probably true with everybody’s intuition, that it’s giving us the truth and it’s suggesting things that feel deeply connected to our bodies. That could be get the hell out of this place, or that could be go run toward that person and talk to them, or whatever it is. And it’s not a mental thing. It’s an intuitive, it’s a body, it’s an energy thing that we feel, this is it. This is where I’m going. This is where I feel led to. There was probably, I don’t know, a series of 10, 20 different ones of those, like little check-ins and stuff, just in that short, let’s say hour amount of time. The time from having the feeling and then starting to do things outside of that, and music and working on it and all, et cetera. That to me is life. Like those moments where we get to actually think about that and break that down, especially right now, as you’re listening to this and as we’re talking about this and breaking this stuff down, this is a safe kind of lab space to be able to work on this stuff. It’s because when we do that work now, when we get into those situations, we then get to go, you know, I’ve been here before. Even if it was mental reps or Nick McGowan (18:40.364)I’ve been somewhere close to it or I feel a little bit more confident in being able to go into this, even if I don’t know exactly what the hell’s going on or how it’s going to work out or whatever. We’re more equipped in that moment. I think about it as like game tape with athletes. They’ll watch what they did and then they’ll watch how terrible they played or whatever it was and look at the nuances and changes. Not so they can go, man, all right, well, I want to go back to yesterday and redo the game. No, you can’t do that. At least science hasn’t shown us how to do that yet. So they’ll take that and go, all right, cool. So next time when I’m in that exact spot, what I should do is actually go right instead of left and then pivot on one foot or whatever. They’ll lock that into their brain. Same for us. Like with that moment, I was like, something feels a little off. And I’ve learned from my years of doing this that I go, huh? Let me pause. What is it? And I don’t turn it into some big weird thing. Like, I mean, this is this is a teaching, an educational kind of experience in a sense. Where you’re listening and taking this in to go, all right, cool, I hear you, dude. And yeah, next time I’m in this sort of situation, I can do this thing. But it’s not like I’m in those situations. I’m like, my God, this is the biggest thing ever. I’m so excited. No, most times it literally just happens and I’m like, fuck, what the fuck do I feel all for? And I’ll start to work through this. And I’ve realized that these frameworks that work for me, work for other people, but that they they all work in the way that they work. Like I’m not a huge fan when somebody says, here’s a thing that I figured out. I don’t give a shit what your context is, just like go do it, and you will have the exact same experience. It doesn’t make any sense, like at all, because everybody’s context, everybody’s life, everybody’s experiences are so different. Even the same people who grew up the same way, the same house, experience different things. So those moments in that little framework, it’s just a series of questions of check-ins. Which you can do with nobody knowing. So you can be in your office thinking, do I really want to be here anymore? What’s going on? Why really want to slap that person in the face? Cause the thing they just said was the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day. well, I’m typically not a violent person, so why do I want to slap them? You know, like thinking through that sort of stuff. but really taking a moment just internally to check in and say, What am I feeling? What’s happening right now? Because if you know at your Nick McGowan (21:05.72)Core that you are naturally one way, or your tendency is toward one way, and you’re off from that, then that’s a simple deduction. Like those two things aren’t aligned, you’re off. I know at my core, I’m naturally curious and really inquisitive. Like I ask a lot of questions, I’m super curious, and I see patterns and things, and I’m joyous and I get all excited. I also know there are times where maybe I only slept four hours that night before. So I’m not naturally that way, but I can realize the difference between my body just feels drained, or I at a soul level feel drained. But it’s not often clear right up front. So my challenge to you is in those moments, next time one of those moments comes up where you feel slightly off, just pause and sit in yourself and ask what feels off. Again, if you’re in like a meeting or in front of people or something, you’ll need to just do that quickly internally. And I say quickly in the sense that I don’t want you to get through it just to get through it. I want you to figure out as quickly as you can, intuitively, like what feels off. And just ask, all right, intuition, what feels off right now? And if you don’t hear anything right up front, okay. I think sometimes we can kind of calcify our intuition. And make it hard to hear the certain things. And the more work that we do and the more hearing we can hear from it, the louder things get, the more we can feel that. I’ve seen that within my experience and that might be similar to yours. I’ve heard that is similar with other people as well. It’s like a muscle. The more you work it, the more you work and the more you can hear it. So doing this and asking these questions will also help with that, but also then help you understand there might be something that comes up that goes, man, you’re really upset about what happened this morning with you and your partner. But here I am, six hours later in the middle of a meeting, talking about some production thing or some product or whatever the thing is. Understanding where you’re at and what feels off then gives us an opportunity and again a responsibility to either do something with it in that moment or to pause with it, kind of put a pin and then come back to it and do some work with it. If you’re able to do something in the moment, like I was in my situation, where I went, pause, I’m gonna go. Nick McGowan (23:27.042)Do something else because I can feel slightly off, then do that. If you can’t in that moment, then just get back to it a little later and get back to that feeling of what were you feeling in that moment. That’s why I like to be able to do this stuff as quickly as possible, because you’re right there and you’re feeling it. You don’t have to think back to it or try to get your body to remember what it felt like. You can then just go right there, like it just happened. I feel it right now. But taking the rest that you need. And the moment to be able to understand what’s going on is vastly important. And oftentimes we can get so swept up in how life is and everything that’s going on that you wake up in the morning and the next thing you know, it’s 10, 11 o’clock at night, and the whole day has just flown by. I think about how sometimes we as people, and especially millennials, we seem to just be drawn toward toward our phones to just have that dopamine after a little while. And I do that too. There are times where I’ll end up on Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook or something for something silly. Like I pulled up, I I’m a group expert in a Facebook group for podcasters. I think there’s like 120,000 people in the group. It’s a pretty large group. So I’ll hop on every once in a while, look at somebody’s question or apply something back. And then next thing you know, it’s like 20 minutes later I’m just thumbing through looking at dumb shit. It’s like, but we as people will subconsciously pull ourselves back to that because it’s familiar. It’s also a little dopamine hits, et cetera. And it’s in that moment of understanding that I’m aware of this right now, where we can go, I just want to put this down and go do something else. And those little moments where we get to do something else and the responsibility and the action that we take at that point actually helps us become better in those tougher moments. Now that moment that I had of saying, I’m at a project point where I can stop or keep going, but I feel like there’s something else for me to do, isn’t the same pivot point of a building’s about to fall down or the world’s going to collapse. I I don’t know. I’m just making stuff up, but like these aren’t these aren’t life and death experiences. But there are times where that stuff can happen. And it’s this stuff now and these moments now when we can work on this to then be potentially in a better spot. Nick McGowan (25:46.67)It’s like you don’t know what’s going to happen in those times, but you can at least do the work leading up to it so that you know, look, I can probably handle this a little better than I would have been able to hadn’t I not done any of this work. So my challenge to you is take some rest. Take it this weekend. Take it over the course of the next week, two weeks during that rest, and whatever amount of rest that you get. Just sitting there by yourself. And I’m not talking about sitting on your phone or even reading or something like that. I’m saying just being, being with ourselves, because then we can listen to ourselves. And it can be really hard to do that at times, especially if you’re not used to it. No, for me, I get into just a rhythm with life where I’m just moving and grooving. There are times when I really understand I need to slow down and just listen. And it can be really loud, white noise to just sit there and listen. So my challenge is for you to do some of that in whatever capacity you can. And whatever time that you have, if it’s 30 seconds, if it’s a minute, if it’s two hours, who cares? Just spend the time over, let’s say, the next week or even a few days to be able to check in with yourself and understand what am I feeling right now? What’s happening? What feels off? Or on the opposite side of that, what feels totally on. Because then we can say, these things aligned with me and make me feel really excited and really on. How I do more of those things? Hell, that’s kind of how I got into the podcasting stuff. I’ve had my podcast for almost five years at this point, but started working with clients, podcasters, and thought leaders, maybe about a year into the podcast. And over the years, it’s just grown and grown. And I get more and more excited about working with people who are brand new or people who’ve been doing it for a little bit and trying to figure out strategy and just how all this stuff works. Because of all the stuff that I’ve done in the past. Nick McGowan (27:48.166)different moments I can look back to and go, I really didn’t like this one job, but I loved this part of it. And I loved meeting with these people who helped me understand this, et cetera. I guess an easy example, I’m very process driven because if I wasn’t, I would be all over the place. And I understand that about me. And I’ve also had it kind of beaten into me with different agencies I worked with and worked for, where we have to have a process in place. And that process allows us to kind of play jazz in the middle of it. Makes total sense. Great. So now I incorporate that in basically everything I do. I use a project management tool for all of life and don’t always use it, but I still have it and I work on it and I do these things to be able to help myself be in a better spot where I can say, this is more of what I want. And that’s really what it’s about, being more aligned with who we are at our core and doing things more so of what we want because of that alignment. Not like I just don’t want to be at my job, so I’m just gonna leave. Or I want to go spend forty thousand dollars on some crazy dragon PRS or something. Like, cool. I mean, you can do whatever you want, but in all reality, why are you doing those? Like, what is what’s the alignment with that? And what is the purpose to it? So again, thinking about the situation I went through, I could have kept working on the client project. I really enjoy my clients. I enjoy the project work. I’m a nerd with this stuff, so I could keep at it. Or something feels off. I can go do something slightly different and then use that energy in a different way. I I hope I am able to do that a lot more throughout life. And I suspect I will be able to, because I’ve seen that I’ve been able to. Over the past few years, more and more and more and more of that happens, which is why I have more of these episodes to be able to talk about these things, because I want you to be able to understand. Not only are you capable of doing this, but probably better of doing it than I am. And in your own way. This isn’t a competition. In fact, any of the stuff that I go through, I’ve learned that it’s really part of my responsibility to share. And the way that I look at it and how I’ve experienced these things, to share with other people, to then take that in their own lives. You might listen to this and go, cool, Nick, heard, but fuck, that sounds stupid. Okay. Nick McGowan (30:14.316)You might listen to this and go, Nick, that is wonderful. I felt the same thing. I appreciate the framework. I’m going to do more of this. Great. My job is just to share. Your job is to interpret the information, figure out what you want to do with it, and use some of it or not, and move along from there. My encouragement to you is to be able to take those moments of rest and really to be self-aware enough to see that you need that rest or that something is slightly off. The more that we can do that in the smaller moments, the more it’ll add up in the long term. So if you need help figuring out how to go about this way, figuring out how to become more self-aware, or just really struggling with your mental health or overall mindsets and trying to figure out what self-mastery means for you, then reach out to me. Offer free clarity sessions to be able to figure out where you’re currently at, where you want to go, and how we can get there together. And I would love to work with you and at least hear where you’re at with things. And if I can give you some free resources or guidance or wisdom, I’d be happy to do so. And also if it makes sense for us to work together on a mentoring perspective, I’d love to explore that with you. But please try this. Try, try, try this. Just take that moment. When you feel off, just take a moment to rest and ask yourself what feels off, and then move along from there. Even if you don’t want help mentoring or don’t want to talk, totally fine. But I would love to hear from you how it has been working for you. Because I think these little pivotal moments for us start to shape things way down the road that we don’t know that we’re starting to work on, but we can do this work right now. So I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you being here. And I appreciate that you take this stuff and you do some work with it. Again, I’d love to hear how it’s working for you. And if you need some support and need some help. Please reach out. And again, thank you for listening today.

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292: How To Become The Most Confident Version Of Yourself In Midlife With Julie DeLucca-Collins

confidence confident discomfort midlife resources check julie delucca collins

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2026 35:25

OVERVIEW: In this episode, Ashley Fillmore and Julie DeLucca-Collins delve into the multifaceted nature of confidence, exploring its definition, the importance of self-acceptance, and the role of discomfort in personal growth. They share personal stories and insights on how to build confidence through tiny habits and consistent action, emphasizing that confidence is a journey rather than a destination. The conversation highlights the significance of mindset and the need to redefine what it means to feel good in one's own skin. Inside this episode, Ashley and Julie discuss: Confidence is a strategy, not a feeling The journey towards confidence is ongoing and requires daily practice Self-acceptance is crucial for building true confidence. Discomfort is often a sign of growth and opportunity. Tiny habits can lead to significant changes in behavior and mindset Redefining what it means to feel good is essential for self-acceptance Celebrating small wins is key to rewiring your brain for confidence Comparison can undermine confidence; focus on your own journey Confidence comes from showing up and taking action, even imperfectly You are a work in progress, and that's okay. RESOURCES: Check out Julie's website here: https://goconfidentlycoaching.com/ Join my Rise workout program HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/rise Click here to schedule your FREE alignment call to see if my 1:1 coaching program is a good fit for you: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/7de98067/appointment/18062930/calendar/4677043?appointmentTypeIds%5B%5D=18062930 Email us at: Support@metabolicfix.com Click Here to learn more about my 1:1 coaching program https://metabolicfix.com/one Take My PHASE ASSESSMENT QUIZ HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/phase-quiz Follow Ashley on Instagram: @ashley_fillmore1 Want to see which one of my programs is the best for you? Take my Services Quiz: https://www.metabolicfix.com/services-quiz Take my FREE Metabolic Damage Quiz here: https://metabolicfix.com/md-quiz

The Spinosaur Scandal: Why Scientists Want to Delete Suchomimus (Great balance of drama and science)

Prehistoric Life

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2026 32:12

The Suchomimus Taxonomy Scandal + Mind-Blowing New Spinosaur CT Scans!Is one of the world's most famous spinosaurs actually a lie?

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Mitch Mayne – Episodes 13 and 14 – The Granted Vault

The Cultural Hall Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2026 116:00

Episode 13 & 14: Mitch Mayne (The Combined Interview) In this newly combined episode from the archives, we're putting parts 1 and 2 of my interview with Mitch Mayne into one single episode. If you’ve been around the Hall for a while, you know this is the exact interview that completely shifted what The Cultural Hall is all about. Mitch made national headlines when he was called to serve as the executive secretary in his local ward bishopric in San Francisco while living openly as a gay man. We skip the mainstream news soundbites and get into the real, messy, and beautiful human story. We talk about what it actually looks like to navigate Latter-day Saint culture, deep personal faith, and LGBTQ+ identity from inside a local ward. We talk about: The Call to Serve: How his bishop approached him, the internal wrestling Mitch went through before saying yes, and how local leadership supported the decision. Living Authentically: Mitch's personal journey of coming out, deciding not to hide who he is, and finding a way to still give his talents to his faith community. The Ward’s Reaction: What happened in the hallways after he was sustained, and how the “Mo-dar” (Mormon Radar) handles cultural expectations. Changing the Conversation: How we can move past polarized internet arguments and focus on Christ-centered empathy at the local level. The Turning Point for the Show: Why this specific interview opened the doors for us to tackle the nuanced, complicated, and historically quiet topics in the LDS world. Links & Resources: Check out Mitch’s work and advocacy at MitchMayne.com. A quick note from Richie: Pardon our dust on this one! This is from the early days when the podcast was still finding its footing. Thanks for rolling with the early audio quirks and technical growing pains—the message and the conversation are absolutely worth it. Enjoying the throwback episodes? Help us keep the doors open! Consider supporting the show on Patreon or leave us a review wherever you listen. The post Mitch Mayne – Episodes 13 and 14 – The Granted Vault appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

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Recognizing Anxiety Before Burnout With Melissa Coloton

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2026 40:39

“Honor your mind, body, and soul.” In this episode, Nick speaks with Melissa Coloton about her journey from farm life to corporate sales. They talk about high-pressure anxiety and burnout, as well as insights on self-awareness, purpose, and holistic well-being. What to listen for: Honoring yourself means recognizing and responding to your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental needs. Self-awareness helps us catch patterns and make better decisions over time. Understanding that our mind, body, and soul are connected helps us to see life holistically and from various perspectives External influences and pressures can sometimes become ingrained in who we believe ourselves to be. “Support systems are vital for growth.” Growth is not entirely a solo mission; having the right support system can make a huge difference. Surrounding ourselves with the right people and right environments for us to thrive can take time to separate from the past, but it is always well worth the effort. Support systems can provide new perspectives and help you navigate challenges without burning yourself out. “We really focused on reconnecting with myself. It wasn’t like “you must stop having anxiety”. It was like “when you have anxiety, this is the connection point you have to have with yourself.” Managing anxiety is not about eliminating it, but about learning to navigate it. Self-awareness and self-connection are crucial for managing anxiety and other challenges. By focusing on connection and self-awareness, you can develop coping strategies that work for you. Embracing your emotions and experiences can help you build a stronger sense of self and increase your emotional intelligence. About Melissa Coloton Melissa is a Certified Life Coach and Sales Expert who helps businesses, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs create what she calls aligned success, where purpose, profit, and a fulfilling life all work together. With nearly 20 years of sales leadership experience spanning quota-carrying sales roles, strategy, and executive leadership, she has driven over $1 billion in new business and led high-performing teams to record-breaking growth, particularly in the life sciences sector. After facing burnout and health challenges at the height of her career, Melissa transitioned to a more sustainable model of success and now serves as a trusted strategic partner to people navigating growth, leadership pressure, and pivotal decisions. She is the creator of The Honor You Method, a framework that blends mindset, emotional capacity, and execution strategy to support high-level performance without sacrificing well-being, and the host of The Honor You Podcast, where she explores building success that truly feels as good as it looks. https://melissacoloton.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-coloton-coach/ https://www.instagram.com/melissa_coloton/ Resources: Check out other episodes about anxiety and burnout: Balancing Law And Spirit: Boundaries, Burnout, And Personal Growth With Cindy Rendon How To Handle And Successfully Navigate Career Burnout Easily Reduce Anxiety By Going Calm, Present And Connected Are you looking for ways to better manage your daily mindset, live a happier, more fulfilled life, and pursue the depths of your soul on your path to self-mastery? Schedule a free clarity session with Nick to see if mentoring is a good fit for you.Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Check out Nick's website for more information: https://nickmcgowan.com/ Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Check out Nick's website for more information: https://nickmcgowan.com/ Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Thank you for listening! Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:01.462)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show we have Melissa Coloton. Melissa, how you doing today? Melissa Coloton (00:11.678)I’m good, Nick. How are you? Nick McGowan (00:13.442)I’m good. I’m good. I’m glad you’re here. we were just shooting the breeze talking about things podcasting and life and all of that. So I want to kind of continue the conversation, but why don’t you get us started? Tell us what you do for a living and what’s one thing most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre. Melissa Coloton (00:15.767)Me too. Melissa Coloton (00:30.584)Sure. So what I do for a living is I’m a certified life coach and sales expert and I combine those two things by helping people find success that really means something to them by putting purpose and profit together because one without the other will always make you kinda want more out of life. So I try to not be Pollyanna about purpose without profit and I try not to be too focused on profit because, you know, then if we get too into the weeds about that, then that’s all that matters to us and we forget what our purpose is. So that’s what I do. And I spent about twenty years in corporate sales. So that’s my background and always wanted to be a life coach since my late twenties. So finally, finally, finally started doing the thing and combined those two very bizarre things and put them together. So actually they’re not bizarre things on their own, but putting them together is a little bit odd. Nick McGowan (01:18.776)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (01:23.96)And something that people would find odd about me, which I don’t know if it’s too odd, but I do think people are surprised when I say this, is I’m I’m in my blood, I’m a farm girl. So I grew up on a farm, my dad was a farmer, his dad was a farmer. So and I think people are surprised about that because, you know, I’ve spent a lot of time in corporate. So being very corporate y and wearing the jackets and all the things. And so when I say like I grew up basically in the middle of a field and ate dirt for for the most of my childhood, people are like, wow, surprising. So yep. I I I would say that I present this, you know, very polished person, but I really do enjoy, you know, a good old backwood bonfire and grew up partying in fields. So yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (02:16.556)Nice. I I I like how you slowly kind of got into that and you were like, Yeah, we party a lot in fields. Like that was how it is. Whole lot. Melissa Coloton (02:22.552)And we partied a lot. Like we had to party on state land because well there was nowhere really to go, right? Like we there was nowhere to go. So we just would all get together in State Land fields. That’s what we did. Yeah. Nick McGowan (02:31.715)Yeah. Nick McGowan (02:37.87)Yeah. That’s cool. I mean, we all have I think we all have situations growing up that some people were a little bit more partiers. I’m trying to be real mindful of how I put this. Some people like partied hard in their like high school years and others didn’t. And then they partied too hard in their early 20s when it was legal to go drink or whatever, and then they got out of it. Some like just never get out of it and like belly up to the bar at 65 years old and it’s the same bar they’ve been bellying up to. but I think there are there’s some like. Melissa Coloton (02:53.068)Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (03:10.606)Crazy moments that you can think back to, I’m sure. There definitely are for me that have to do with some of those parties that I can look back at now and go, holy shit. Like I saw how life could have changed drastically. And also I saw how I learned to kind of manage things in a sense. Like, how do you manage a whole group of 40 people around a bonfire out in the middle of nowhere? Or like the cops are coming. How do you let everybody know? Or whatever that looks like. Melissa Coloton (03:22.56)Mm. Melissa Coloton (03:39.754)Right. Yeah. Nick McGowan (03:41.4)But I I can appreciate coming from basically somewhere that’s not corporate at all, and then ending up in corporate. Cause I’ve seen that with people that I’ve worked with at times that were some of the best workers I’d ever worked with, and some of the almost like hard nosed people I’ve ever worked with. And I think that came from their background of being on their farm. Like you had chores that most city kids didn’t have and like tough things that you had to figure out and what do we do? So I’m sure that Melissa Coloton (04:03.776)Yeah. Nick McGowan (04:11.138)Did that help you, you think, when you got into not only corporate but sales? Melissa Coloton (04:15.306)Yeah. Yeah. I think it did a few things. Honestly, it definitely helped my work ethic. You know, I summers off were not a thing for me. I literally would hay it is what we called it, is basically get all the hay ready for the winter. And I remember me and my cousin, she was only a year older than me. We would fight about who would get the front of the wagon and who would get the back of the wagon. Because if you’re the back, you had to start throwing when eventually you’d had start throwing the bales of hay to the front for the person to put it on the elevator and go up and dump it into the hay mill. And we would fight about that like literally like one of us would try to like try to get to the back and or try to get to the front so they didn’t have to be the one throwing bales of hay. So I definitely feel like it helped my work ethic plus like seeing my dad work like that. You know, my dad he he had to do chores before he went to school when he was in high school. Nick McGowan (04:54.83)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (05:08.898)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (05:08.94)You know, he would have to do chores and then he’d have to go do sports or whatever he did and come home and do more chores. So my dad, it wasn’t like he got that like childhood most people think of when they think of childhood. My my dad was worked with his dad. That’s what he did. And they found a way to make it fun. So I think that also helped me was like you can’t take yourself too seriously in an environment like that because shit hits the fan a lot. And if you lose your mind every time the shit hits the fan on a farm, like Nick McGowan (05:31.96)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (05:37.584)you’ll just go nuts. So I have a lot of stories from my my my dad and his aunt about how they grew up and and my grandfather and how crazy that all was. And they just have a lot of laughs about it because I really do think like you would go nuts. So I think that really helped my my work ethic in a really big way. I also feel like it it removed a lot of entitlement. And I’m not I’m not saying I don’t have any entitlement ’cause I think we all do to some degree. But I think it removed a lot of entitlement because Nick McGowan (06:00.814)Mm. Melissa Coloton (06:07.146)I didn’t really come into this world with all this money or like I wasn’t handed anything in my life. Like everything I did, I had to work really hard for. And so when you’re in sales, that serves you very well because you can then make things out of nothing. You know, I even in my sales career, I would get these territories and I’d be like, What the fuck? Like and and I’m like, and at first I was pissed about it, right? Like, why can’t I just get a main account or something like that? But I’m glad I didn’t. Because I learned the art of making something out of nothing, making money where there was no money ig in existence yet. Like I always say, like in sales, especially like the sales the sales professionals that are like, I want an ac I want an active account or I want to tear the territory that’s already bloomed. I’m like, you should actually not want that for especially your first couple go go rounds, because you will learn a skill set that nobody will ever take from you and nobody will ever actually teach you. You will not. You will not learn that in a book, you will not learn that in a podcast. You you have to just do it. And so, yeah, I see I think growing up on a farm helped me with those two things in a in a really big way. Nick McGowan (07:06.689)Yeah. Nick McGowan (07:15.896)My God, I could imagine that you were in a much better spot to be able to handle really tough situations or like calculations of moves, but also probably you experienced different things that other people didn’t, like trying to think from like the opposite perspective. Like I mainly grew up in a city or like right outside of a city. and I’ve always been around a lot of people. So being in a corporate environment, like all the chaos, all the people talking, like you know, those meetings where it’s like. Melissa Coloton (07:21.368)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (07:39.608)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (07:45.77)One person should really be running it, but they’ve lost it. It’s off the rails at this point. Like everybody’s just jabbering about whatever the fucking thing is. And how do you pull that back? How do you not? Like, what’s your level of it? When does it not matter what your level is? And go, yo, you know, that sort of thing or whatever. but I I think that there’s stuff that we as people can really try to find the easiest way through. Like we’re seeing a lot of it with AI now. Everybody’s trying to write books and they’re trying to do all these things. Melissa Coloton (08:09.24)Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (08:13.25)Because they just need to create and they need to do all this. When in all reality, what they’re really doing is saying, well, I have to make money. And I’m told that I have to do more. So I have to do more to make the money, but I don’t have enough time to do it. And I don’t really know what the fuck’s going on. And in sales without AI, we’ve experienced that stuff where you’re like, there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of moving parts and pieces. And I don’t have enough in my pipeline. And but that’s just a small piece from a salesperson. And we all experience stuff like that. But you ended up getting to the point where you’ve done a lot, you work through, and yeah, you can look back now and go, I was really appreciative of having that. You weren’t then, because you typically aren’t, where you’re like, Are you fucking kidding me? Nobody’s here. This is nonsense. But when you learn and you work through it, you can see the silver lining of it. But that’s not always the case with getting burned out. So talk to us about not only the journey of like looking back at that and going, I can see where I’m starting to burn and where I was starting to smolder. Melissa Coloton (08:54.22)Yeah. Right. Melissa Coloton (09:03.734)Right. Melissa Coloton (09:11.032)Mm. Nick McGowan (09:12.642)But then also what that journey looked like. You shared a bit of that even before we started, of like taking it kind of category by category of our I’m gonna work through this, like the mind, body, soul, et cetera. So what did that look like for you? Melissa Coloton (09:23.649)Yeah. Yeah, you know, hindsight is wildly twenty twenty, right? so honestly, when it when when I would say my burn burning out or burnt outness started showing its ugly head, I I truly blamed it on life situations, how hard I had worked, like that kind of stuff. Cause at the time I also had a a friend that was dying of cancer. So it was life combined with work. And even up until I would say, even just recently, honestly, like I would say like literally probably within the last six to twelve months, this has come to me a little bit clearer. And that is it wasn’t necessarily how much I was working. Right. It it wasn’t necessarily even the work I was doing. It was the lens in which I was seeing it all. And that was being very performative, n really afraid to fail. Like really, really afraid to fail. And I say this with a huge grain of salt because I love my parents, but they my parents were very young when they had me. Sh my mom was 18 when she had me. She was 16 when she had my brother. And so they were like kids raising kids. And so I think my mom put on this suit of like My children are not gonna have the life that I had. They are gonna have a different life in me, which served me very, very, very well. Also, it created a monster in me that was like, you have to succeed, period. Like no matter what, you have to succeed and you cannot fail. And I and I often had these experiences with my mom where I’d like, I remember this one time I got a C in French. Like, French, like who fucking cares? Nick McGowan (11:19.835)Melissa Coloton (11:21.184)I’m not gonna move to Paris. Like, we’re okay. And she like just lost her shit on me. Like, just like, what the fuck are you? Like, she didn’t swear, but basically she was like, What the fuck are you doing? Like, if you can’t get better grades than this, you’re not gonna go to she always held sports over my head because I loved playing sports. So that was always one where she could really get me and to do whatever she wanted me to do. Cause I’d be like, my god, I need to go to sports. and so as I got older and I started working in these really Nick McGowan (11:27.405)Mm. Nick McGowan (11:35.864)Yeah. Nick McGowan (11:41.102)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (11:50.251)immense pressure cookers. I mean, Nick, there were my biggest opportunity I ever had was over a hundred million dollars. And that was just in service fees. So together it was actually probably more like a $200 million deal. So I would get in these pressure situations and instead of being like, I got this, I’d be like, this has to come together. Like, and and it was more of like a lens I saw my work through than it was the actual work I was doing. Nick McGowan (12:01.41)Yeah. Nick McGowan (12:12.622)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (12:19.946)So I started getting these weird bursts of anxiety at very odd times, which is why I kind of shoved it aside. Cause it wasn’t like I would be in the middle of a meeting and be like, my God, I’m about to have a panic attack. It would be more like weirder times, like specifically when I was driving. Like when I would drive, I would get really anxious. And I was just like, that’s weird. And I just kept putting it off, kept putting it off, kept putting it off, kept putting it off. And then one day I couldn’t. Yeah. It was just I was driving on the way to work and Nick McGowan (12:31.874)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (12:43.758)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (12:47.661)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (12:49.954)complete meltdown. Like pulled off the highway, tried to get back on, pulled off the highway, tried to get back on. I couldn’t do it. Thank God at the time I was working for my boss was my friend. So I was able to call her and say, I don’t know the fuck’s wrong with me, but I cannot come to work today. And I was supposed to like, my team was coming into town. I was supposed to be leading meetings and all this stuff. She’s like, don’t worry about it. Go home. Get some rest. And I thought it would be a blip on the radar. I was like, I’d be fine tomorrow. Right. And I figured I could probably Nick McGowan (13:07.214)You can Nick McGowan (13:11.51)Mm. Nick McGowan (13:17.624)Yeah. Tomorrow, yeah. Melissa Coloton (13:19.768)Keep keep pushing it aside. I woke up the next day and had just anxiety, like just major chronic anxiety. Couldn’t drive, I couldn’t even drive a quarter. I don’t exaggerate this. And when it’s funny when people when I’ve told people this story afterwards, like people who know me really well, they’re like, they literally think I’m lying. And I’m like, no, I don’t think you understand. Like I could not get in my car and drive a quarter mile down the road without being like, I gotta, I gotta go home. I gotta go back home. So Nick McGowan (13:39.768)Mm. Melissa Coloton (13:48.077)That led to work with a a practitioner near where I live and he’s a life coach and an acupuncturist. And so I’ve I’ve been seeing him ever since that day, which has been, I think the summer will be eight years now. And yeah, and and we really focused on reconnection to myself. And when I did get it’s like he didn’t he wasn’t like you must stop having anxiety. It wasn’t it wasn’t like that. It was like when you have anxiety, this is Nick McGowan (14:02.478)Nice. Nick McGowan (14:12.76)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (14:17.356)the connecting point you have to have with yourself because I didn’t, right? It was like, it was very much like a keep it moving. And anything I felt in my body or anything that I anything that I felt anywhere, it was like, no, I ain’t got time for this shit. And I even remember going into his office being like, the fuck, like this I I just don’t have time for this. Like I I leg legitimately remember thinking that. Like and then I remember sitting in his office for the first time, him telling me that I don’t have a relationship with myself. Nick McGowan (14:24.685)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (14:37.375)Mm. Melissa Coloton (14:46.678)And I’m like, excuse me. Like I I just thought I was one of the most authentic people and all this stuff. So it took some took some work to even understand what was really going on with myself. And so that led to a lot of connection with self, a lot of soul work, what’s really in my heart. When I do have anxiety, what does that mean? What do I need to console? How do I need to function in that experience? And actually welcoming anxiety, because I believe that like when you have these feelings. It’s your soul being like, Hey, I need some attention here. Like, what about me? And so I was just playing the game of like, I don’t care about you. I’m gonna keep it moving. So that was a lot of our work in the beginning. And then when that got really, really solid, I was like, but actually there’s mind, body, and soul here. And so now I’m really in a big era of f fo focusing. a lot on my mind because I can really see now because I meditate a lot more now and I can really see the thoughts that I I come up with on a fairly regular basis. And I can see the through line and I can see the thread. And then I can take that and command my mind to think a different thought. And then it becomes a belief and then I’m just at a better place, generally speaking. So yeah, and then the body is just kind of more the obvious one I would say, you know, I’m very keen on taking care of my body and Nick McGowan (16:01.069)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (16:09.514)not drinking like god awful amount of caffeine just to get through the day and stay focused and like you know like because that’s what I was doing for a while there. so I hope that kind of paints a picture of what I experienced. It was not pretty and there was a lot to it and there were very dark days. I remember I never thought this before and I only actually told one person this when it was happening. And not even my husband, I told my best friend I was like if in if I Nick McGowan (16:13.43)Ha ha ha. Melissa Coloton (16:40.17)If I’m gonna feel like this for the rest of my life, like I actually don’t think I wanna live like this. And and it wasn’t necessarily a a true like thought of you know what, but it was the start of one for sure. Cause I was like, I don’t wanna live like this. Like, this isn’t living. That’s how terrible I felt on a regular basis. So, you know, I definitely went on anti-anxiety medication. I was told I had major depressive disorder. When they said that to me, I was like, Nick McGowan (16:43.928)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (17:07.296)What did you just say to me? Like it was still like, what the fuck are you talking? What what are any of you people talking about? So it really took me a while to not be in denial. And then when I wasn’t and it was finally like a okay, I will okay, yeah, I get this. Like this is where I’m at and this is what I’m gonna have as I have to deal with this. So yeah, I’m really thankful for my practitioner and all my friends and all my family and everybody I worked with was amazing at the time, thank God. Nick McGowan (17:08.632)Mm. Melissa Coloton (17:37.541)my my boss didn’t tell anybody, you know, like people didn’t really know that I was that I was in that state of being when I was at work and I still was able to to get through, but it took a while and then I finally came off anti anxiety medicine and went back on them one time and that was at the height of my executive and and again I I kinda got to that place of I hope nobody figures out I’m an idiot or you know, I have to be perfect or Nick McGowan (17:37.901)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (18:06.038)You know, what if I don’t meet my target? Like there’s just a again, it was in that pressure cooker moment. And I was just like, I’m gonna like move all these things aside and pretend they’re not there. So I kind of did a solid two rounds of that. The second round wasn’t nearly as bad as the first because I had the tools, but there was definitely elements of that s that same initial experience again. It just wasn’t as bad as the first time because I think I had tools, but it eventually got me to the place where I was like. Okay, something for real needs to give. Like this is not sustainable for me. This is not what I’m supposed to be doing. I think the second round I was a little bit more in that thought process of like, I’ve tried to make this work in corporate. I’m just forcing it at this point. So Nick McGowan (18:39.638)Mm. Nick McGowan (18:52.984)I think that’s critical. Like we, as people, can look at things that we’re told to do. Like you need to go to college, you need to go to school, you need to get married, you need to have kids, you need this, you need that, blah, blah, blah. And those things change with every generation. Like even our parents that were like, You’re gonna have a better life than I did. So I’m gonna do things. And it’s like everything you’re gonna do, you’re still gonna fuck up your kid somehow, because you’re gonna say something weird or something’s gonna happen, they’re gonna interpret it weird or whatever. They’re just different human. Melissa Coloton (19:05.005)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (19:16.512)Yeah. Yeah. Nick McGowan (19:20.312)But we take all these things and we think we have to be a certain way, especially from a from a corporate perspective, not even corporate, from somebody who works in larger organizations with a team of people and a lot of people counting on you from different departments, not just from sales, but production needs things from you. They need you to bring in sales, like all the different stuff that goes along with it, where we can get so stuck thinking it’s all on me, it’s all this, it’s all whatever it is. And that’s Melissa Coloton (19:34.221)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (19:39.948)Yeah. Nick McGowan (19:48.568)typically never ever the actual problem. I find that there’s a lot of times where it’s a misalignment problem where we’re not aligned with what we’re doing, but we don’t want to fucking have that conversation with ourselves to be able to do that. Biggest thing that you pointed out was you did work and then you did more work and then you did more work after that. And now you’re still doing a lot of work. So big moral of the story is keep doing the work because those things will start to clear up. Like the spot you’re in Melissa Coloton (20:01.4)Correct. Right. Melissa Coloton (20:10.68)Hundred percent. Yeah. Nick McGowan (20:17.666)With whatever you’re at, just like the people that are listening that are like, well, I’m in a spot right now with either my company or the company I work for. And really in the back of their minds, they’re like, what the fuck? How do I change? What, what do I even where where do I start? What what happens? Like, what’s the first thing I look at? It I think about it like you know, those junk drawers or even a junky closet that everybody has. Like if you really want to clean that thing out, you have to take everything out. And then you have to audit it. Melissa Coloton (20:44.202)Mm-hmm. Yep. Nick McGowan (20:46.018)And that’s such a fucking project. And no one wants to do it with their junctur, let alone themselves. But they get to the point where they’re like, I can’t not. I have to because I can’t anymore. I don’t want to be here. Wait, if I don’t want to be here, what else does that look like? And then things start to crumble a bit. I think the big thing that you’re saying with doing the work is that there’s consistent work that needs to happen, but then there’s also clarity that comes with that that opens up other doors. Melissa Coloton (20:48.332)Yeah. No. Right. Right. Nick McGowan (21:13.442)Like I see things at times where it’s like I open one door and there’s forty more. And I open another door and there’s four thousand more. And I’m like, fuck, should I turn around? Cause there were less doors this way. Like, what what’s going on here? It’s because of that self awareness. yeah. Yeah. And you’re like, where do I pull that thing from? Melissa Coloton (21:22.408)Yeah. It’s like Jenga, right? Call this one out. What’s about to happen? Nick McGowan (21:31.534)And that that’s a really good point. I think a lot of people live in a Django-like state and they don’t really know it. And anything could crack them. I think it’s on us to be able to be self-aware enough to see like, hey, there’s something there. But it can still like it even gets the best of all of us, no matter how much work we’ve done. It’s how quickly you can kind of snap back in a sense and go, you know, I see what I did there for future next problem. Let’s do something a little different. So looking back at that stuff, because here we are in a podcast where this is easy to talk about. But this is also, I think about it as like a lab sort of situation where we go, cool. If we do the work now, by the time you get in that situation, even if you think back and go, those two fucking people were talking about this thing, I remember this. Here’s what they said. Like that’s the point of like, how do we do work now? So that when we’re in that spot, we go, you know what, I’ve been here before. Let me do something a little differently, or at least catch where we’re off. And what I mean by that is like mindset wise. Melissa Coloton (22:14.496)Yeah. Right. Melissa Coloton (22:26.848)Mm. Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (22:29.772)I’ve been in situations where my mindset was, I’m going to not fuck this up. I’m going to do the best situation I can. I’m going to do whatever I can, like I’ve learned some things, and I think too hard about it. I’m too mindset with it because I’m so dead set on just like seeing the thing through instead of understanding context and the situation. And I had something years ago where I literally reacted to my partner at the time. She said something and I reacted and like felt my Melissa Coloton (22:42.22)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (22:58.786)being split where I was like, yo, dude, don’t you say another fucking word. And I could literally hear myself go, shut up and get the fuck out of the house. And I was like, and one more thing. And it was like, motherfucker. Because like it’s already out there and you can’t do anything. But even that level of self-awareness to go, shit. All right, I did that. So what do I do differently this time? The work has to keep adding up. So now that you’re able to look back at that stuff and say, look, I’ve done a lot of this work. I keep doing work for somebody who’s in Melissa Coloton (23:00.288)Mm. Mm. Melissa Coloton (23:08.93)Yeah. no. Nick McGowan (23:28.128)a a spot either in their own business or something that where they’re managing like you did where you’re like there’s this and there’s that. I don’t want people to find out that I don’t really know what the fuck’s going on. Like what what sort of things did you figure out that worked for you because your energy that would align with them and might be in a similar spot where, hey, I need to do this sort of thing from a mechanism standpoint of like breathing or standing out of my energy or whatever to then get to the point where I can actually do something about my mind. So like what did that look like for you? Melissa Coloton (23:49.676)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (23:56.417)Yeah. Yeah. Well, not to be too prescriptive, but the way I describe my, I guess, set of tools, if you will, is is honoring yourself. And that’s a really big perspective I have now in POV of looking at situations and life as a whole. And that just means, you know, recognizing, respecting, and responding to your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental needs the best you can. Right. And just Nick McGowan (24:09.324)Mm. Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (24:24.888)external circumstances or societal norms or, you know, anything that might pull you away from really truly hearing all those things about yourself and knowing what it is you really want. And too many people, especially now, because we’re getting super influenced by mega externals. Like before it was probably just our parents and maybe our school and maybe our friends. And now it’s The whole world is influencing you in a really big way. And may and maybe T V. Like we had what, a couple of channels, right? And commercials, sure, whatever. But like I know, I think I kinda am though. I kinda am. You know, I’m I’m definitely of the age where you had to sprint to the bathroom or get some new snacks before the the commercial was over. My brother would be like, It’s pretty Nick McGowan (24:51.181)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (24:55.916)We’re not that old. Calm down. We had to get up and actually hit the switch and like the rabbit ears. Nick McGowan (25:10.434)yeah. Same, I get that. Well before TiVo. Yeah. Melissa Coloton (25:18.22)But but yeah, I think there’s just, you know, there’s a lot of influence. And so how do you understand what you truly want, what you truly need? How do you recognize that? How do you respect it? And I say respect because, you know, a lot of people do the mindset work where they’re like, Shut up, mind. Well, that’s not respectful to your mind, right? Like, why are you treating a major part of who you are disrespectfully? Not saying I never do it, but that’s not the way to go. Like, that’s not going to leverage. your mind, your body, and your soul to get what you want out of life and perform at a really high level if that’s what you want and whatever you’re doing. Cause when I say perform at a high level, I don’t mean like you’re some CEO or something. I mean this can be parenting. This can be being a friend. This can be, you know, picking up a new hobby and just enjoying it. And so that’s my POV on it all. And I really I’ve really thought a lot about this ’cause I wanted to try to containerize what I experienced so other people might use it as a tool. And there’s a lot more layers to that. When I say honor yourself, there’s a lot of layers to that because there’s a lot of layers to your mind and your body and your soul and your emotions and how to deal with all of that. but that’s a that’s effectively the way I look at it. And, you know, a lot of people spend their time focusing on, you know, what’s my purpose? What’s my purpose? And within the honor you thought process, my my definition of that is fulfilling your soul’s desires. And that can mean You want to start baking cakes because that’s fun to you. And that can mean also that maybe you ha wanna have start a family. That can also mean you wanna be in marketing, right? So so many people are focused on purpose with regard to thinking one thing and one thing only in life. And it’s like no wonder we’re driving ourselves bonkers with this, right? So I think if I were to offer anything to your listeners, I would say that. start thinking about what does honoring yourself mean to you specifically and know that purpose is not just one thing. It’s fulfilling your soul’s desire. So your job in life is to figure out what does your soul actually want at any given point and having like giving yourself the permission to make make changes around that if that if that is appropriate for you at the time. And knowing that when you are having anxiety or stress symptoms is what I like to call them too is when there’s when you’re experiencing things. Melissa Coloton (27:40.065)It’s not to be ignored. It’s actu it’s actually to be recognized, respected, and responded to in an appropriate way so that you don’t find yourself waking up one day and be like, How did I get here? And you know, I call it the ants marching syndrome or like, you know, going down the river syndrome, right? You just jump on a raft and you get told what to do to your point earlier. You get told go to college, get married, have children, stay for retirement, retire and die. Like gross. Yeah. Like what are we even doing? Nick McGowan (28:06.316)No thanks. Melissa Coloton (28:09.344)And a lot of people are going check, check, check, check, check. And then they get to a point where they’re like, What am I actually doing right now? Like I’m not very happy. So then, of course, what ends up happening is everybody starts reaching externally and trying to figure out where the happiness is for them. And that looks better on some people than others. You know, it’s like some people get really fucked up trying to do that because they’ll reach for drugs or alcohol or a whole like plethora of things that don’t serve them. So Nick McGowan (28:37.25)Hmm. Yeah. Melissa Coloton (28:38.508)Yeah, it’s a really long-winded way, but that’s that’s my POV now because I didn’t do any of those things before. I just I I was on the river of life and it was working really well for me because I was making good money. I had you know, just kept going up in the in the ladder, right? That’s what I’m supposed to do. And then before you know it, I was not happy. I had tons of stress symptoms, and I did that twice. The first time being a lot worse than the second time because the first time I didn’t have any of these tools. At least the second time it was like, shoot, here I am again, completely dishonoring myself, doing things that are not what I desire. And I’m just doing it for the money effectively, or to kind of show I could do it or prove a point or not fuck up. Like it wasn’t it wasn’t out of pure joy, I’ll tell you that. So Nick McGowan (29:25.464)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (29:30.956)Yeah. Most things that we do aren’t out of pure joy because we feel we have to do certain things, etc. I think you brought up a really good point. I’m glad you bring this up. In fact, I appreciate when anybody brings up the word purpose because we can all look at purpose differently. It’s wild to me when people think that there’s one purpose. Like this is the one thing you’re here to do. And I’ve I’ve learned that that’s not the case, that it’s more so contextual based on the time, where we’re at, like. Melissa Coloton (29:34.837)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (29:51.808)Worst. Nick McGowan (29:59.458)You and I have podcasts 40 years ago. If we were born in the 50s or 60s, we wouldn’t have had a podcast because it didn’t, it wasn’t a thing at that point, but it would have shown up differently. So us being able to take how we show up in the world, what our flavor is, and what we bring to just being authentically us is the most important component of that. But it’s hard for us to get through those layers at times. Melissa Coloton (30:08.585)Right. Right. Melissa Coloton (30:22.519)Mm. Nick McGowan (30:25.996)Like everything that you’re saying, it’s like there’s a deeper foundational layer to it. Even of like, well, I’m doing this because I want to look better, or I’m doing this because I want to do that. Like there’s a level of self awareness to that. And also, what the fuck? Why? Why, why are you doing in that sort of way? And what are you trying to get out of it? I I’ve I get really worried for some people at times when they get stuck in those loops, because you’ve seen stuff like when you’re a Melissa Coloton (30:39.423)Ha ha ha. Melissa Coloton (30:44.802)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (30:53.142)And I don’t wanna say ahead or above or anything. You’re just at a different level of your own journey where you can look and go, man, I see you’re gonna drive directly into a wall. I wanna help you. But if you don’t want any help, then fucking at least put your buckle on, like, just see, please, like, please don’t die. but I do think it’s important for us to understand what our purpose looks like through the work that we do. So think about what you’ve done in sales. You’ve learned a lot from sales. Melissa Coloton (31:03.231)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (31:07.479)Right. Melissa Coloton (31:10.838)Right. Mm. Melissa Coloton (31:16.29)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (31:22.798)You learned a lot from the farms, learned a lot from what your parents did, what they didn’t do, all these things. And that all ties into work that you do now. But you needed to go through and experience all those things so you can go, hold on, time out. I need to look at this differently. What do I do? How do I get past this, et cetera? And how do I actually do this work? If you were just to tell somebody, hey, you need to do these 400 things that I did, your list was probably 40 times that. But like that, even that list, they’d be like, no, hell no. I don’t want any parts of that. Do you think I can just throw it into Claude and Claude will fix it for me? Or you think I can have AI do a thing for me or whatever? Because there’s a deeper foundational layer to that of us all trying to do more instead of understanding there’s systems at play that are telling us we’re not enough instead of going, well, what am I here for? What do I actually need to do on this planet? So for the people that are on their own path towards self-mastery, what advice do you give them to show up and be them on this planet? Melissa Coloton (32:10.53)Right. Right. Melissa Coloton (32:19.498)Yeah. I I would say don’t outsource. I know you really triggered me when you just said that. Cause so many Yeah, really like it really is like people and but you know, and I would say that anyway, probably because we we even if right before AI, even before AI, we’re outsourcing to the external. We’re really outsourcing to what are people gonna think and Nick McGowan (32:26.798)I didn’t mean to set you up for that one. Melissa Coloton (32:47.998)what if I do this or what if I don’t do that? And some of some people external, you know, look for the external to fix their emotions instead of just feeling them, right? Or trying to cover them up. So there’s it’s the you know, it’s the tale of of time, right? It’s just like something we’ve always done and we probably will always continue to do. And it’s just getting in a different context now. So I would say like, you know, don’t don’t outsource your Nick McGowan (32:55.501)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (33:15.818)life and don’t outsource help having something external help you figure out what it is that you love and what it is that you enjoy. And I always say emotions, your excuse me, your soul speaks in emotions. And if we can really not just intellectualize that, but truly understand that, then we’ll start paying attention a lot more. Like, boy, that made me feel real shitty when that person talked to me that way. Okay, what’s that about? Nick McGowan (33:40.034)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (33:43.051)Is it really cause the person that talked to me that shitty or is it because like I’m grew up with my mom talking to like that and it just triggers the fuck out of me because it might trigger me, but not you, right? Or like there’s been times where I’ve come home and told my husband, like, Can you believe blah blah blah? And he’s like, not really seeing and like Nick McGowan (34:00.82)Yeah, I can’t no. Yeah. Melissa Coloton (34:02.942)You better agree with me. So I I really think that an ability to not outsource things in your life that are so important, which are the things that matter, which are your purpose essentially. Like not to be cliche or too esoteric about it, but pay attention to where you’re at, you know, pay attention to your thoughts. I mean meditate. I like Nick McGowan (34:18.284)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (34:30.752)On my podcast not long ago, I like literally yelled at people. I was just like, If if you’re too busy to meditate, like the fuck are you even talking about? Like if you sit in a line to pick your kids up for twenty, thirty minutes, like close your eyes for a second and just like focus and see what see what you’re like, watch your thoughts, see what happens. You know, like people are just so busy. There’s like, I can’t have I can’t find time for that. No, you actually can’t sit with yourself for more than 10 minutes without picking up your phone or like watching a TV. Like Nick McGowan (34:56.034)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (34:58.232)Pay attention to that. Like that means something. So yeah, I mean I I just think we’re widely outsourcing and w it’s getting probably worse before it’s getting better, unfortunately. but I just think it’s a different version of it now than it probably was however many hundreds of years ago. So, yeah, I would say don’t outsource and you know, on the tail end of that I would say like don’t sit in your shit and then complain about it being stinky either. Right? There’s a time and a place to to to mourn things or to be upset about things or to f really feel things and and experience them one hundred percent from an emotional standpoint. But it’s gotta go through the cycle. We can’t get stuck in part of the cycle, right? I always I always talk about like things are very cyclical as as it relates to nature. And if you get stuck in winter, you get stuck in spring. You like you just can’t do that. You have to keep it moving and let it go through this whole cycle. And yeah, don’t complain if You’re sitting in your shit constantly and and you’re c you’re like saying, why does it stink all the time? It’s like, Well, because you just sit there and you’re shit Nick McGowan (36:01.198)Look at it. Yeah. I think it’s a good point too to point out that it you shouldn’t outsource everything. We actually need to do more of our own work on our own to figure out what parts of it and all. And also that doesn’t take away from reaching out to other people or specifically having practitioners or different modalities that you go through to be able to help you with those things because we can’t just mindset our way through it. Melissa Coloton (36:12.917)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (36:25.217)Yeah. Nick McGowan (36:27.65)We can’t just think about those things and we can’t say like it’s going to be okay. There are different times you have to do work. As you know, you do that work. But being able to take from that to say that those things that we keep coming up against that keep rubbing us a weird way or making us feel some sort of way, that’s the crux moment where I think it can be easiest to just go, well, that sucks. I don’t like the thing. And then the run away instead of being like, this keeps coming back. So what do I do with it? Melissa Coloton (36:28.064)Right. Melissa Coloton (36:35.362)Mm-hmm. Yeah. Melissa Coloton (36:47.436)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (36:51.778)Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Nick McGowan (36:55.96)Because then that’s really the start. Like you may have to talk to somebody. You may just have to sit by yourself for a few minutes to go, well, what the fuck? What is the thing? But you’re still going to need to go through that process to do it. and it helps us uncover what our purpose is through that to go, I don’t want to do this. I want to do more of that. And really when I wake up, I really want to do these things. But I’m in this spot now. So how the fuck do I get there? Melissa Coloton (37:02.636)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nick McGowan (37:18.744)Great, that’s the next part of your journey instead of being like, well, that shit sucks and stinks. And everybody, welcome. I’m Linus. You know, like it doesn’t make sense. Melissa Coloton (37:27.158)Yeah. And I mean, I’m certified life coach, so one hundred percent I I think people need to get the support. And I would say even in that scenario, right, you can’t get addicted to getting everything you need. You know, if that if you are talking to someone and they’re not giving you tools to slowly but surely like, you know, when I first started seeing my life coach and acupunctures, it was every week. Nick McGowan (37:41.88)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (37:53.933)Then it went down to every two weeks and then it went down to every month. And now it’s mostly monthly, but I ca you know, I can definitely skip months now. Whereas before it was like, God, right? So one hundred percent and that’s kind of what I mean by like sitting in your own shit too. Like if if you’re stuck somewhere and you just can’t find your way out of that, I mean, there was literally no way I was gonna get out of my situation with anxiety by myself. I mean, right, like I even I Nick McGowan (38:20.216)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (38:22.38)Went to a doctor, had medication, tried to see a counselor. She was awful, no offense, but she was. So I finally landed where I landed with my life coach and acupuncturist. I wouldn’t have been able to do that solely by myself. And he didn’t tell me what to do every second of every day. He taught me how to live with myself and connect with myself. And I took that very seriously. And for a while I intellectualized it because I think we all do that, right? I’m a very like, I get it. I get it. Nick McGowan (38:49.698)You have to. Melissa Coloton (38:52.332)But then there’s gotta be, there’s gotta be a component of embodying it and actually really truly doing that that work and not just being like, I get it. Cause what ends up happening is like you’ll be okay, I get it, I get it. And then the slightest little change in the breeze will knock you over. And now you’re just right back to where you were, right? So that’s where I was for a good while. I’m like, I get it, I get it, I got this. Like I can do this, ’cause that’s how I’ve been my whole life, right? Like, tell me I’ll do something, I’ll fucking do it. You only gotta tell me once. Nick McGowan (38:56.962)Mm. Nick McGowan (39:11.544)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (39:22.096)And and and but then when with that situation I did that and then like the slightest little thing would happen and I’d be kind of right back to square one, you know, it’s like monopolies like or whatever one of those board games where you have to go all the way back to the beginning all the time. So so after a while it was like, wait, this is what I’ve been doing my whole life is intellectualizing it and not actually truly connecting with my soul. So one hundred percent agree with you. There Nick McGowan (39:37.208)Yeah. Melissa Coloton (39:49.931)that’s why people exist is to help each other in my mind, you know, in some way, shape or form. And so find that good practitioner that you can trust and won’t just let you, you know, wallow in your own shit and just have you keep coming back every week with no changes. You know, if that’s the case, then there’s probably a different practitioner for you. Nick McGowan (40:10.529)That’s yeah, that’s a friend at that point. Like you should stop paying them and just hang out with them if that’s what you want to do. but you’re you’re right, it’s it’s all on us. and being open to those resources, I think is really the driver of what I think about. Like going, all right, well, I’m aware of this thing. What the fuck’s near me, what’s around me? And then actually going through the layers of how do I talk to that person or what do I do? Blah, blah, blah. But being able to ask those from the initial question of what’s going on inside is going to help you. so I appreciate you getting into that, especially getting into purpose work. That’s Melissa Coloton (40:13.432)Right. Melissa Coloton (40:22.555)yeah. Melissa Coloton (40:36.76)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (40:40.172)Always important on the show. So thank you so much for being with us today. Before I let you go, where can people find you and where can they connect? Melissa Coloton (40:41.496)Mm-hmm. Melissa Coloton (40:48.128)Yeah, the best the best place is my website, which is just melissacoloton.com. I also host a podcast myself called the Honor You Podcast. I love it when people go check that out, of course. Those are probably two the two of the best places, and that’ll direct you to all the socials and all that fun stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Nick McGowan (41:05.23)Cool. And I’ll have all that stuff in the show notes. Again, thank you so much for being on the call today. Melissa Coloton (41:10.018)Thanks for having me, Nick. It was a great conversation. https://youtu.be/gp_zfh3dOHQ

Mindset, Self-Mastery, and Transformation with Nick McGowan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 31:10

“Seek self-mastery in your own way.” In this episode, Nick reflects on The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show reaching 200 episodes. He shares personal growth, lessons learned, and insights on self-awareness, trauma, purpose, and authenticity. What to listen for: Self-awareness is the most important part of growth and healing Trauma from childhood influences adult life and success Aligning with your purpose leads to fulfillment Consistency and authenticity build a meaningful podcast Incremental steps lead to significant change “I felt like there was a conversation on my heart that needed to be had.” Our calling can sometimes start off as a soft whisper about a conversation you're here to have When we feel like our lives are focusing on specific areas, we have an opportunity to share that with the world in the way that feels most aligned for us “Mindset, self-mastery, and transformation don’t really mean anything if you can’t see them, if you are not self-aware of them.” Without self-awareness, we're not able to see that we even have a problem This challenges us to step back, look at ourselves, and look deeper at our experiences and the feelings and emotions that stem from them About Nick McGowan I'm Nick McGowan, an entrepreneur, podcaster, and mental health advocate, and I’ve been on a 20+ year journey of personal development, learning to master my mindset, emotions, and the art of living with purpose. As a Mindset and Self-Mastery Mentor, I work with ambitious men and women who want to live their most authentic and joyous lives by helping them master their mindset, emotional awareness, and authentic communication. My mission is to empower people to lead lives that feel aligned, grounded, and truly their own. Throughout my career, I've built teams, streamlined systems, and improved client experiences across SaaS, media, marketing, and personal development spaces. Whether I'm leading cross-functional projects, optimizing SEO, Podcasting, designing strategies, or guiding clients through transformation, I bring a hands-on, solution-focused approach to everything I do. I'm also the host of The Mindset and Self-Mastery Show, where my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, challenge us, and ultimately guide us back to who we are at our core. On this show, we uncover the secret gems others have discovered through trial and error and breakthroughs, so you can fast-track your growth and master your mindset in your pursuit of self-mastery. Check out the latest episode here. With years of podcasting and two decades of marketing experience, I've mastered the storytelling, interview flow, strategy, and technical production that elevate a podcast from “just content” to something truly impactful. Whether you’re a leader looking to amplify your message, a seasoned speaker and podcast host looking to sharpen your edge, or even a beginner who is wondering how to share their message, I mentor thought leaders through every step of having the conversation they’re here to have on this planet. So, what message are you here to share?! https://nickmcgowan.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenickmcgowan/ Resources: Check out some of the episodes from the past 100 episodes of the podcast. Exploring The Hidden Links Between Shame, Sexuality, And Religion With Ann Russo Understanding The Five Simple Steps To Achieve Self-Mastery With Utkarsh Narang The Ripple Effect Of Courage: The Story Behind Scare Your Soul With Scott Simon Stop Trying: A New Approach To Success With Carla Ondrasik How To Begin Your Human Optimization Journey With Wei Houng Curiosity As A Tool For Better Relationships With Patrick Boylan And check out some of my favorite books for your journey toward self-mastery. Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have?Learn how I can help! Learn more about our host, Nick McGowanhttps://nickmcgowan.com/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe to the show on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:00)I’ve learned that self-awareness is the most important part of this. People ask me at times, what does mindset mean? What does self-mastery mean? What does transformation mean? Like, what are all those things mean to you? They don’t really mean anything if you can’t see them, if you are not self-aware of them. Nick McGowan (00:26)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show, I’m going to talk about this being my 200th episode of the podcast. When I first started, I had no idea I would get, I don’t know, 40 episodes in, let alone 200. It’s kind of nuts what has happened over the past few years. I’ve had the show now as I record in June. I’ve had the show for four and a half years and I started to plan it maybe Nick McGowan (00:55)a little over five years ago, because it took me about, I don’t know, maybe six, seven months to actually get into this and do it all. But when I really think about it, it actually took me six years, like six whole years to do the podcast. I’d thought about starting a podcast back in probably 2013, 14, something like that. I had a social media marketing company with my ex-in-laws at the time and thought maybe this would be a cool thing to talk about social media. Nick McGowan (01:24)or something, I don’t know. I looked at it as a way of hopefully trying to bring in leads for the business that I had. I’m glad I didn’t start the podcast at that point because getting the leads isn’t what a podcast is all about. Really the whole point to a podcast in my mind and in my opinion is to be able to share the message that’s on your heart with the ideal people who want to hear it and who can benefit from it. People you can impact with the words you say. I think it’s really cool to put it in a nice and Nick McGowan (01:55)kind of silly way that I have anybody that listens to this show, that there’s anybody like you specifically, that you listen to this and you come back for my wit or my sarcasm. I hope that you really keep coming back and tuning in to be able to hear how these conversations go. Not only with my solo episodes, which there’s going to be more of those coming up, but also with the guests. Because what I understand and what I’ve really learned over the past two and a half years is that Nick McGowan (02:24)The people who listen to the show are leaders in what they do. You either own a business or you’re a leader in whatever job you work in, or you’re a leader at home. And maybe it’s all the above. And you know that you’ve done a lot of work, but there’s still more work to do. It’s not about grinding or hustling, but it’s about actually being healthy and aligned with what you’re all about. Over the past two and a half years of doing these past hundred episodes. Nick McGowan (02:54)There’s been so much growth personally. And I like doing these milestone episodes. It’s a little bit of a recap. If you go back and you listen to episode 100, I literally had clips from different episodes that I pulled in. There were a lot of great episodes over the first 100 that I’d done. I gotta be honest, last 100 I’ve done have been so much better than I thought they were going to be. There were only a couple episodes that were recorded or partially recorded that I bailed on or… Nick McGowan (03:22)for stuff that happens. And if you really want to know those stories, shoot me a message. I can share some of that stuff. Some of those things should never have been aired and I’m glad that they weren’t. But I’ve really gotten specific in the people that I bring onto the show because I understand that the core of the show, are three core topics that I talk about. It’s mindset, self mastery and transformation. When I first started the show, I thought mindset, self mastery were the main topics because I was having mental health problems and struggling. Nick McGowan (03:52)because I’d gone through a divorce right before that, before I started the show and was just trying to have these conversations. I felt like there was a conversation on my heart that needed to be had. And I wasn’t sure exactly how it needed to go about it, but it felt right for me to start a podcast. If you have a podcast of your own, you probably get it. If you don’t have a podcast and you’ve been kicking around the idea of it, then explore that. In fact, if you need help or you want some help or want some guidance, Nick McGowan (04:20)Reach out to me. I’ve been doing this for almost five years and have learned an immense amount. And heck, over the past two and a half years with the amount that I’ve learned from the podcast itself, just doing the mechanical podcasting thing, not only just having the conversations with people, the stuff that I learned about the podcasting has been critical in where I’m at now. I have a business where I actually help people who are thought leaders, mission driven and purpose driven business owners who have a mission and purpose on their heart. Nick McGowan (04:49)They’re trying to figure out how to best go about these things. But the podcast itself, I’m going to give you a bit of a behind the scenes in a sense. When I first started the show, I tried to do everything I could. All the social media, the website, the newsletters, like every single thing. And if you’ve been around since then, you know, you saw a lot of that stuff. And if you’re on the show at that point, you probably saw I was making like 10, 15 clips per episode. Some of them are really in context and some of those weren’t because I thought I was playing the game right. Nick McGowan (05:19)by getting all this information out there. I’ve learned over the past two and a half years that that’s not really right. In fact, those of you who don’t know this are gonna know now. So after the first year, maybe a little after the first year, like a couple months or so, I actually had a bit of an existential crisis. I moved from where I was in Florida to New Mexico. I basically went from tropical island living on two golf courses. Nick McGowan (05:47)to the foothills of a mountain, living in a tiny home. And I needed to do that. I also apparently needed to break wide open. So when I went through my existential crisis, I literally folded inside out and back out again. And I basically took about a year, year and a half off from most of life. I kept going with the podcast because I felt it was important, not just for me, but for the… Nick McGowan (06:14)people like yourself who keep showing up and the other people that are out there that can be impacted by these conversations and the message. But I was struggling. I was going through a lot. I had a lot of childhood trauma, abuse, different things that shaped me. And I needed to break myself of those. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve done an immense amount of healing work, an immense amount, more so than I’d ever done in my entire life. And I thought of myself as somebody who was really into. Nick McGowan (06:44)personal development, personal growth, since I was probably 19, but a lot of it was intellectualized and not actually enveloped into my body and somatically tying it together. I didn’t understand what any of that stuff meant until literally two and a half, maybe three years ago. So as I went through the first, I’d say year, year and a half of breaking things down, understanding what I no longer wanted, Nick McGowan (07:12)understanding what I absolutely wanted and being a absolute mess as I went through it. uh You can ask my ex partner, she’ll testify to that. There was an immense amount of stuff that I needed to work through and I needed to get through. And that made every single one of these conversations better. That first hundred episodes and that hundredth episode that I did where I did the recap, I thought maybe I’ll do that again. Maybe that’s the thing I do every hundred episodes. I do a recap with some clips and all. Nick McGowan (07:41)As I look through my episode guide, this 200th episode would have been six hours long, because there were so many incredible conversations. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a bit biased, but I got really specific knowing that I need to be focused on what my core topics are. That also came from me breaking. And if you don’t know this, I took a hiatus off social media. I actually pulled the podcast website down. Nick McGowan (08:09)for a little over a year, maybe a little longer, which note to self, I should never do that again. I screwed up my search engine optimization. I did a lot that I couldn’t actually get back from. needed to start over again. So when I came back to everything and I thought I’m going to put the site back up, I’m going to get a brand new site, I’ll probably get back on social media, but I want to do this all differently. How do I do it? I don’t want to make TikTok videos. I don’t want to point the air things. I don’t want to dance. Nick McGowan (08:37)I don’t want to do any of that. None of that feels actually aligned with me. And if you’re a business owner or you work in any sort of business that’s pushing some of these things and they feel off to you, listen to that, dive into that. Because if it feels off, there’s a reason for that. Maybe you just absolutely don’t want to do it because you see everybody else doing it. Maybe you don’t want to do it because there’s something different. And when I sat there in the middle of the desert and the foothills of a mountain, I was like, well, Nick McGowan (09:05)What do I actually want to do? I want to have deep conversations that actually change lives and not from a cheesy buzzword perspective. You listen to these episodes. I try not to be cheesy or buzzwordy at all. mean, cheesy a little bit at times because of my humor, but in all reality, like I even say to the guests when they get on the whole point of the show is to talk about the tough situations and challenging chapters you’ve been through, focus on mindset, self-mastering, transformation. But I don’t want to hear about your success. Nick McGowan (09:35)In fact, I don’t give a shit about your success. I really don’t. I don’t care about your credentials, none of it. And I’ve had some big people on the show at this point. I tell them, I want to know, and the guests and the audience and you want to know, how did you handle the toughest points of your life? What did you do to get yourself out of it? What about when you had a gun in your hand or you were thinking tonight’s the night where I’m going to end it? How did you get past that and through that? What do you do differently now? Nick McGowan (10:04)Because again, I don’t give a fuck about your success. I want to know about the real things that have tied to that and correlated to now you being successful. And success means different things for different people. If you’re doing what you want to do and you feel aligned in what you’re doing, that’s success to the extreme amount. But other people say if you don’t have billions of dollars or you don’t run some corporation or whatever, then you’re not successful. That’s their worldview. What does your worldview look like? What do you want it to look like? Nick McGowan (10:34)Whatever you want it to be, shape it, shape it that way. So over these past two and a half years, doing these hundred episodes, getting back to what do I really want to do? I want to have these deep conversations. I was intentional about who I brought on to the show. Over the first hundred, it’s a little intentional, but it took probably till about 70, 80 episodes in. Cause I didn’t know, there were things to learn and I had people reaching out to me and people I would meet with and connect with and I’d have them on the show and we’d have Nick McGowan (11:04)great conversation at time, but not like I did over the past hundred episodes. And I suspect that over the next hundred episodes, I’m probably going to be in the same spot where it’s going to be like, man, all of these conversations have just been so incredible. How do I share that or encapsulate that one 20, 30 minute episode or something like that? So I, I ask you and I challenge you to go back through the catalog. Nick McGowan (11:30)past hundred episodes, even go back through the first hundred episodes if you want to. But these past hundred episodes, there were some incredible things that we talked about. One of the biggest things that I’ve learned throughout all of these episodes and the past almost five years doing this and having hundreds of conversations with people, not only on the podcast, but with the clients that I work with who are other podcasters and thought leaders and people that have conversations on their podcasts, as well as networking, different events I go to or classes, et cetera. Nick McGowan (12:00)Let’s learn that self-awareness is the most important part of this. People ask me at times, what does mindset mean? What does self-mastery mean? What does transformation mean? Like, what are all those things mean to you? They don’t really mean anything if you can’t see them, if you are not self-aware of them. Now, you’ve probably heard me joke at different times, and maybe some of you, some of the people who listen get a kick out of it, some maybe don’t. I don’t know, it’s up to you. Nick McGowan (12:27)joked about how self-awareness is like opening a door in a fun house and then there’s 40 other doors. Then you go through one of those and there’s like another 4,000 doors and you’re super aware of all the things that happen and the macro moments and all the things that could turn into something as well as the things that would have pushed you in a different direction in the past or maybe are shaping you these days. But being self-aware, the more self-aware you are, the more self-aware you are. Nick McGowan (12:56)self aware you are, the more fucking self aware you are. And sometimes it sucks because you see things and you’re like, I’m trying to work on these. I’m doing these things, but right now I just don’t want to. But that also brings in its own set of, I don’t want to say problems. I think they’re uh little activities that we kind of go through. And I find myself at times being self aware of a situation, something that I’m working on still. And I can see Nick McGowan (13:25)how I do a thing, why I do a thing. And then I’ll have a bit of a conversation with myself about it to understand what am I exactly trying to get out of it. And there are certain things that I do where I understand like maybe I’m overstimulated with a lot of meetings throughout the day. And I am self aware enough to know I could keep pushing, I could keep doing the thing. could maybe jump back into that project that I started before my couple of meetings or whatever. I could also just grab my guitar. Nick McGowan (13:55)and play for a few minutes. I can also just go walk outside. can go do anything else, but I’m aware in those moments at this point to go, I feel like I’m getting a capacity. What feels more aligned for me to do in the moment? What can I do to take a step out of this? And sometimes it’s happened where it’s like a two, three hour step away. There’ve been times where I’ve gotten in the car and just drove because I’m like, I’m just, I need to get out of my office. Nick McGowan (14:21)I need to get out of my house. I need to get out of the thing that I’m doing and just get out of here and go drive. And I’ll end up, I don’t know, maybe getting a coffee or something or a Yerba and I’ll just keep driving around, experiencing different things, listening to music or whatever. And then I’ll come back and I’ll get back into the projects that I was doia ng. Sometimes it’s five minutes. I’ll grab my guitar and I’ll play around on an idea or I’ll just play a song that I know or play one of my own songs or just riff or whatever. Nick McGowan (14:51)just step myself out of what I was doing to then be able to understand that I have that privilege, I have that space to be able to do that because of the work that I’ve done to be able to get to the point where I’m at. I’m not one of those people that makes billions of dollars, maybe at some point, but I also don’t know if anybody actually really needs that. I think what we really need is to be fulfilled and aligned and to be us at our core. Nick McGowan (15:18)So self-awareness is one of the biggest things that has really stood out to me, not only over the past hundred episodes, but the 200 episodes and all the other conversations that I’ve had. Trauma was another thing that we talked a lot about. I dabbled on that a little bit in the first hundred episodes, but I got really, really, really deep into it on my own and with my practitioners and my coaches that I was working with. That it was inevitable that it came into these conversations. Nick McGowan (15:48)You’ve probably heard me say on different episodes. think a lot of the stuff that we go through as adults really ties back to our childhood. And when people say trauma or childhood trauma, some people will use it as kind of a synonymous thing. Like whatever happened, they just tie it to a childhood trauma. We also as individuals can’t tell them that’s not right. And I say we can’t because it’s not on us to say that something that we experience. Nick McGowan (16:18)or hear about, we go, oh, maybe that’s a small T trauma. To them, that could have been Eiffel Tower sized trauma. You have no idea. You don’t have any idea. We don’t know until we start having conversations with people, which is one of the reasons why I love the podcast. You never know what’s behind somebody’s eyes until you ask and start to have conversation. You build rapport with them to help them feel comfortable to be able to have those conversations. Nick McGowan (16:46)And I think that’s an important thing for all of us to remember that there are times where we need to have those conversations, not only just with ourselves, but there are other people. If you’re going through things and you don’t have somebody to talk to, reach out to me, reach out to a friend, start looking for a therapist that you can reach out to. If finances are difficult, there are programs that can help. If you are unsure of what sort of therapies or modalities or Nick McGowan (17:15)any experiences you can have to be able to help you. I suggest that you just start with something, start moving, have a conversation, try a modality. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve tried a lot of the different stuff that I can. I haven’t licked the ass of a toad yet. I don’t know if I want to get to that point or even ayahuasca or anything like that. I really have been focused on how do I become more self-aware. Nick McGowan (17:44)How do I better manage my mindset and understand what my mindset is actually coming from? And how do I put the intention into the intentional mindset to be able to do things that are really aligned with me? That’s kind of easy to say in a sense. It’s really been difficult to work through and work on. So trauma and self-awareness were two major things that came up over the past, I’d say 200 episodes, but specifically the past 100. Alignment? Nick McGowan (18:13)purpose and expression are the other three that come up. And I clump them all together because when we’re aligned on our purpose, it expresses itself the way that it needs to in this day and age. Let’s think about this podcast and me as the host. If I didn’t have podcasting, I’d have done something different like this. Nick McGowan (18:40)Maybe a hundred or 200 years ago, I’d have been one of those dudes standing on a soapbox on the corner of a street. I don’t know. This is what this looks like right now. In 2026, we have the ability to be able to have our own, in essence, radio show, to be able to share what we want to share. And I think that’s critical for us to understand that this day and age, where the technology is and where things are, this is how Nick McGowan (19:10)It has shaped for me. If you have your own podcast, you get it. Again, if you’re thinking about your own podcast and you’re probably along those lines too of like, this feels right for me to do. I’m not sure what to do next or how to go about it. And again, I challenge you to just start taking steps or reaching out to people like myself or anybody else you know that has a podcast to ask, how do you get started? In fact, when I first got started, hired a consultant company and I asked them, how did you fuck up? What’d you do wrong? So I can do something different. And I still messed up. Nick McGowan (19:39)My first episode, my microphone wasn’t and I’m a musician and an audio file and my microphone wasn’t on. It sounded like I was six rooms away in like my neighbor’s bathroom, but you know, it happens. We got to get through it. So here, here we are 200 episodes later, trauma, expression, alignment, purpose, self-awareness, all of these things tie together. Nick McGowan (20:09)because it’s all about understanding who we are at our core, what is aligned for us and what’s helping us or holding us back from doing the things that we feel called to do. If you’re in a job right now, let’s not talk about a business. Let’s just say you’re in a job. If you’re in a job and you hate it, Nick McGowan (20:32)You’ve probably heard people tell you before, we’ll get a different job. And your first response, at least in your head is probably typically fuck off. I get that. And I’m not here to tell you, go get a different job. I’m here to tell you, look at what you’re doing, what you like of what you are doing, and then start to make at least incremental small steps toward what that could look like for you to do it differently. I don’t think everybody needs to be an entrepreneur. I don’t think everybody’s an entrepreneur at their, at their core. Nick McGowan (21:01)I just don’t, just like, don’t think everybody needs to have a podcast. And there are a lot of people that say everybody’s got a podcast. That’s actually incorrect. There are more podcast guests than there are active podcasts. Yes, there may be a lot of people have had podcasts, but most people don’t go past the 21st episode. In fact, if you have a podcast and you’ve gotten past the 21st episode, you are in the top 1 % of podcasters because most people don’t get past that. Let’s not even look at 2020. Nick McGowan (21:31)when everybody was pushed home because of COVID. And a lot of people were like, I don’t know what to do. So I guess I’ll become a coach and I don’t know who to talk to. So I guess I’ll have a podcast. A lot of those people ended up figuring out this is really hard. And if you don’t have the skills to be able to have the conversations, to put the podcast episodes together, to be able to produce and create everything and get it all out there, or the finances to have somebody help you. lot of those people ended up trailing off. Nick McGowan (22:00)Maybe they got a few episodes in. Maybe they got to 21 episodes, but then they still bailed. That happens. And again, I don’t think a podcast is for everybody. Just like I don’t think a business is for everybody. So if you have a job or if you have a business and you’re thinking, I have to make some changes, I challenge you that you make those changes to you first. And you might hear me say that and go, all right, Nick, I hear you. Don’t give me your leadership bullshit. I’m not trying to give you a leadership bullshit. What I’m trying to give you is Nick McGowan (22:30)accountability and something you can actually do on your own. Because if you’re in a spot right now where you’re like, I don’t like what I’m doing, you’ve probably been in that spot for a little bit. You might’ve even said last year or two years ago, I don’t like this job and here you are two years later. Over the past two and a half years, a lot of things that I didn’t like about myself that I needed to work through and needed to better understand, needed to reframe, needed to actually get the trauma. Nick McGowan (22:59)out of my cells and my being. And there were a lot of things that I didn’t understand that I did actually like, but I thought I shouldn’t do because I’m a 41 year old man, like playing music. Playing music as a hobby is one thing, playing music to write an album, to be able to actually get your music and your art out there is a different thing. It takes more intention. And that’s the thing that I’ve been kicking around for a long time. In fact, I’ve been working on an album for the past, I’d say five years or so. Nick McGowan (23:29vBut last year, right around this time last year, I actually reformatted my music card drive and lost everything. So I had to start it all over again. Yeah, that sucks. And I cried a little bit, not gonna lie. As soon as I figured out, I reformatted everything. There’s no unburning the bridges or the ships. So I had to start all over again. And that, in that little moment, Nick McGowan (23:55)helped me understand all the work that I’d done before that to be able to be in this spot, to then say, right, well, what do I do differently going forward? That self-awareness that was there. So over these past hundred episodes, with all the conversations I’ve had, the biggest thing that I want you to be able to take from this is self-awareness, alignment, and your purpose expression. Be self-aware in everything you do. Don’t drive yourself crazy, but test it bit by bit by bit. Nick McGowan (24:24)what happens at work, what happens at home, what happens while you’re driving, but you start to get a little triggered or a little anxious and start to look at those things a little deeper. Now, if you have a therapist you work with or different modalities that you go through with different practitioners, wonderful. You probably do some of this work. My challenge is just to do more of that and keep at it. Not to say you’re not doing enough, but to be mindful. What? Nick McGowan (24:54)is it that’s deeper than the thing that you’ve been working on that could actually help you heal all the rest of it? And then when you look at your purpose and your purpose expression, understand where we’re at in this day and age and understand what you really love to do and what you feel called inside of you to do. I have to be honest, it’s probably not the most clear thing ever. In fact, most people I’ve talked to about purpose Nick McGowan (25:23)there was always some sort of like glint of what it was, but it wasn’t until I’d say much later in life or as I got deeper into the thing that they were doing, that they really understood why they love what they’re doing, how it makes them feel and what’s leading them to be able to do it. You typically don’t understand that upfront. In fact, the work that I do with my clients, when I work with them through Nick McGowan (25:51)a strategy for their podcast and all. We talk about being able to build out pillar episodes and core episodes that talk about their specific topics. And then a client asked me, well, why don’t I do that upfront? Why do you have me doing that 30, 40, 50 episodes later? Because the amount of work that you have to do to go through that, to then be able to have that conversation because of all the research, all the conversations, all the other things you’ve done along with that. So likewise with you, your business or Nick McGowan (26:21vyour job or your family or wherever you’re at. If there are things that you feel are off or not aligned, then look at those and start to ask yourself, what is it about those things that really get me fired up? What are the things that I do now that can help me do that? As a personal example, over the course of my life, my career, let’s say, I’ve done a lot when it comes to uh sales and marketing and operations. Nick McGowan (26:50)And there’s a kind of Venn diagram of some of the software. Like if you’re in sales or if you’re in customer service, you’re probably familiar with the CRM. I think of it as a customer relationship management piece of software where you can hold accounts, have all the contact info and all that sort of stuff. I also know what it’s like to be able to run giant productions of things specifically from the sales end. Nick McGowan (27:16)and working with operations, marketing, development, all that sort of stuff through different uh situations that I’ve been in, jobs that I’ve had or different clients and projects I’ve worked on over the course of my life. And all of that has helped me with the people that I work with, my clients, my mindset and self-mastering mentees and the podcast mentees, because there’s a bit of a kind of a playground sort of way where we get to be able to play. Nick McGowan (27:45)but I also understand what those boundaries are and what systems have in place and all. And this is something I wouldn’t have been able to do three years ago, let alone five years ago, you know, when I was basically starting this off. So without making this episode much longer, I really appreciate you being here. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you sharing. I appreciate when you go, man, what the fuck you just said? I need to do something with that. Nick McGowan (28:14)And I hope you are. really hope you are. And if you’re not, I hope that you do. Even if that’s just talking with yourself a little bit and taking some incremental steps to be able to have conversations with other people. I really want you to be able to walk away from this episode, understanding that the next hundred episodes I’m going to do are going to be better than these past hundred. No shade to the guests or even to myself having these conversations. It’s just only going to get better from here. It’s just going to get more and more. Nick McGowan (28:44)in depth with everything that we get into. So again, thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being with me on this journey. Thank you for being with you on your journey. And if there’s anything I can do to help, anything I can do to support, share resources, please feel free to reach out. If you’re somebody who’s trying to figure out how do you better manage your mindset and how do you seek self mastery in your own way, reach out to me. Nick McGowan (29:13)If you’re somebody who has a message on their heart, just like I do, and you feel there’s a deep purpose and calling to your life, and that podcasting could be a great way to be able to get that out to the world, reach out to me. This is what I do. And I love it because it’s part of my calling to be able to do this. So again, some of the main things that really stood out from the past hundred episodes was self-awareness, purpose, expression, alignment, trauma. Nick McGowan (29:41)all of these things tied together. So again, I appreciate you being with me on this journey. Thank you for listening to this. If there’s anything specific you’d want me to get into or more topics that you’d like me to dive deeper into over the next hundred episodes, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me uh through the website. I check all those. It’s not like it goes to some random customer service person or an admin or anything. It goes directly to me. So I’ll look through all those. Nick McGowan (30:11)and would love to hear from you. So again, if there are things you would love for me to get deeper into or topics that are near and dear to your heart that you’d love me to get into, please send that stuff over. And again, thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Nick McGowan (30:31)Thanks for listening to today’s episode. What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you consume podcasts and subscribe, rate, and leave a five-star review. It’s very much appreciated and also helps other people find the show and experience healing just like us. Please also head over to our website, themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com. Nick McGowan (30:58Nick McGowan)where you can check out all of our episodes and find additional resources to help you manage your mindset as you seek self-mastery. So with that, thank you and remember, your mindset matters and so do you.

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288: Sabrina Magnan Shares the 4 Step Method to Heal Your Relationship with Food

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2026 42:49

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Cheers to Your Success, Ashley sits down with Sabrina Magnan, a Holistic Health Coach who helps women heal their relationship with food and their bodies by addressing the deeper root causes behind overeating, food obsession, emotional eating, and body image struggles. Together, they dive into the emotional and mental side of health and wellness and discuss why true food freedom goes far beyond another diet, meal plan, or set of food rules. Sabrina shares her powerful 4-step method for healing your relationship with food for good and explains how women can begin rebuilding self-trust, confidence, and peace around eating. This conversation also explores intuitive eating, disordered eating patterns, emotional eating triggers, and the importance of understanding the “why” behind behaviors with food instead of simply trying to control them with more willpower. Inside this episode, Ashley and Sabrina discuss: Sabrina's 4-step method for healing your relationship with food The root causes of emotional eating and food obsession Why overeating is often connected to deeper emotional patterns How to cultivate self-trust and confidence around food The difference between intuitive eating and emotional eating Common signs of disordered eating patterns Why all-or-nothing thinking keeps women stuck How to stop feeling consumed by food thoughts Practical steps toward food freedom and body acceptance Learning to nourish your body without guilt or shame This episode is a powerful reminder that healing your relationship with food is not about perfection. It is about learning how to trust yourself again, understand your body, and create a healthier relationship with food that feels sustainable, peaceful, and freeing. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who needs this conversation. RESOURCES: Check out Sabrina's website here:https://site.sabrinamagnan.com Join my Rise workout program HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/rise Click here to schedule your FREE alignment call to see if my 1:1 coaching program is a good fit for you: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/7de98067/appointment/18062930/calendar/4677043?appointmentTypeIds%5B%5D=18062930 Email us at: Support@metabolicfix.com Click Here to learn more about my 1:1 coaching program https://metabolicfix.com/one Take My PHASE ASSESSMENT QUIZ HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/phase-quiz Follow Ashley on Instagram: @ashley_fillmore1 Want to see which one of my programs is the best for you? Take my Services Quiz: https://www.metabolicfix.com/services-quiz Take my FREE Metabolic Damage Quiz here: https://metabolicfix.com/md-quiz

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427: Weatherby Rifles & Cartridges Explained With Tyler Grethen

Big Game Hunting Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 62:40

In this episode, John McAdams sits down with Tyler Grethen, Marketing Director at Weatherby, for a comprehensive look at one of America's most storied firearm manufacturers. Tyler shares the fascinating history of Roy Weatherby — from door-to-door insurance salesman and garage tinkerer to creator of some of the fastest production cartridges ever made. They discuss the move from California to Wyoming, the legendary Mark V action (including the nine-lug, six-lug, and new short actions), the extremely popular Vanguard line, the innovative 307 series built on a Remington 700 footprint, as well as Weatherby's cartridge lineup and their loaded ammunition offerings. Sponsor: Go to BigGameHuntingPodcast.com/ebook and sign up for my free e-book on the best hunting calibers at to receive the entertaining and informative emails I send out about hunting, firearms, and ballistics every weekday. Please hit that "SUBSCRIBE" or "FOLLOW" button in your podcast app to receive future episodes automatically! Resources Check out the Weatherby web site, follow them on YouTube, and subscribe to their podcast.

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286: Dr. Aumatma Simmons on Intuition, Hormones, and Healing from Burnout

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Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2026 52:02

OVERVIEW: On today's episode of Cheers to Your Success, I'm joined by the incredible Dr. Aumatma Simmons, a double board-certified Naturopathic Endocrinologist, intuitive leadership guide, and creator of the Lead with Silence methodology. After spending nearly two decades helping couples conceive naturally and training hundreds of doctors around the world, Dr. Aumatma realized something powerful. True leadership and transformation are not built through constant hustle, burnout, or pushing harder. Instead, they come from learning how to slow down, tune in, and trust the wisdom your body is already communicating. In this episode, we dive into what it really means to lead from a place of alignment instead of exhaustion, especially for high-achieving women who feel stuck in cycles of overthinking, stress, perfectionism, and constantly doing more. We also discuss the connection between nervous system regulation, intuition, hormones, burnout, and sustainable success, and why so many women are disconnected from the signals their bodies are trying to send them. Whether you are navigating business, motherhood, health struggles, hormone imbalances, or simply feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to always perform, this conversation will leave you thinking differently about success, leadership, and what your body truly needs to thrive. In this episode, we cover: • Why hustle culture is keeping so many women disconnected from themselves • The importance of slowing down and listening to your body • How chronic stress impacts hormones, energy, and decision-making • The connection between intuition, nervous system regulation, and leadership • Why overthinking can keep women stuck and disconnected from clarity • What it means to become a body-led leader • Sustainable success versus burnout-driven achievement • How high-achieving women can create more peace, clarity, and alignment in their lives If this episode resonated with you, be sure to share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode of Cheers to Your Success. RESOURCES: Check out Dr. Aumantma's website here: https://holisticfertilityinstitute.com/ Join my Rise workout program HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/rise Click here to schedule your FREE alignment call to see if my 1:1 coaching program is a good fit for you: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/7de98067/appointment/18062930/calendar/4677043?appointmentTypeIds%5B%5D=18062930 Email us at: Support@metabolicfix.com Click Here to learn more about my 1:1 coaching program https://metabolicfix.com/one Take My PHASE ASSESSMENT QUIZ HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/phase-quiz Follow Ashley on Instagram: @ashley_fillmore1 Want to see which one of my programs is the best for you? Take my Services Quiz: https://www.metabolicfix.com/services-quiz Take my FREE Metabolic Damage Quiz here: https://metabolicfix.com/md-quiz

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The Farmhouse Edit: Reverse Meal Planning, Stock-Up Staples & Grocery Hacks for Real Life | Christine of Frugal Fit Mom

Simple Farmhouse Life

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2026 51:18

I'm chatting with Christine from Frugal Fit Mom all about feeding your family well on a budget—without stressing over perfection. Christine shares her tried-and-true strategies for keeping grocery costs low in today's economy, including how she stocks her pantry, finds the best meat deals, and plans meals based on what's already on hand. We also dive into the hidden costs of organic and local food, why she skips most grocery delivery services, and how you can still enjoy fun foods without blowing the budget. Whether you're shopping for two or ten, this episode is full of real-life tips you can start using today. In this episode, we cover: Why Christine avoids Instacart and prefers Walmart Pickup for cost savings The key pantry staples she stocks up on—and how that helps reduce impulse grocery runs Her method for spotting true stock-up prices on meat and stretching it to feed a large family How she feeds a family of five (including three teen boys) on as little as $200/month A realistic starting point for grocery budgeting: $150 per person per month Why she generally skips organic (aside from milk) and how local sourcing can dramatically increase grocery costs How reverse meal planning works and why it saves more than traditional recipe-first planning Tips for making frugal meals taste amazing with salt, fat, and acid Christine's go-to bread recipe (not sourdough!) and how she keeps it soft for days Her rule for buying fun foods like chips and ice cream—only when they're 50% off How shopping less frequently helps avoid overspending (even for perishables) ⁠View full show notes on the blog⁠ + ⁠watch this episode on YouTube⁠. RESOURCES ⁠Check out Christine's banana bread recipe⁠ Join my ⁠FREE masterclass⁠ to learn my 4-step framework for making money on YouTube Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my ⁠Simple Sourdough course⁠ Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my ⁠Simple Sewing series⁠ Turn your content creation dreams into a profitable business with my ⁠YouTube Success Academy⁠ Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my ⁠Daily Sourdough cookbook⁠ CONNECT Christine Ashby of Frugal Fit Mom | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ Lisa Bass of Farmhouse on Boone | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ | ⁠Pinterest⁠ Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? A guest you'd like me to interview? Submit your questions and ideas here: ⁠bit.ly/SFLquestions⁠.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Farmhouse Edit: Reverse Meal Planning, Stock-Up Staples & Grocery Hacks for Real Life | Christine of Frugal Fit Mom

Simple Farmhouse Life

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2026 52:03

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524. Overcoming Camera Fears as a Content Creator

The Podcasting Morning Chat

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2026 59:18

Getting comfortable on video is harder than most creators expect, especially when camera fears make every little detail feel bigger than it is. The morning show cast and crew talk with Katie Fawkes from Ecamm about the pressure to look polished, sound perfect, and have the ideal setup before showing your face online. The conversation keeps coming back to how confidence is built through repetition, not preparation, and why audiences connect more with real people than flawless production. There's also a reminder that most creators are way harder on themselves than viewers ever are. By the end, camera fears may start feeling less like a stop sign and more like part of learning how to show up. Episode Highlights:[02:31] Why Video Feels Scary[03:18] Meet Katie Fawkes[09:12] Katie's Camera Fear Story[12:52] Why We Freeze on Camera[15:18] Common Video Fears[17:28] Backgrounds and Human Connection[23:48] Live Streaming Builds Skills[25:56] Vertical Video Workflow[33:04] Reading Scripts on Camera[42:32] Audio Podcasts Going Video[45:27] What to Prioritize First[48:43] Affordable Gear Breakdown[53:16] Common Setup MistakesLinks & Resources:Check out Ecamm:https://www.ecamm.com/The Flow Podcast by Ecamm:https://flow.ecamm.com/The VHS Club Video Podcasthttps://www.thevhsclubpod.com/The Maker's Table:https://www.youtube.com/@themakerstableliveFeature Your Podcast on the Podcasting Morning Show:https://PodcastingMorningShow.com/spotlightThe Podcasting Morning Show:⁠⁠www.podcastingmorningshow.com⁠⁠Ways to Watch or Listen:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.podcastingmorningshow.com/joinus/Meet the PMS Cast and Crew:⁠⁠https://podcastingmorningshow.com/people⁠⁠Join The Empowered Podcasting Facebook Group:⁠⁠www.facebook.com/groups/empoweredpodcasting⁠⁠⁠Book A Free Call With Marc:https://calendly.com/ironickmedia/freestrategycallApplication To Submit Your Show For Evaluation:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcastingmorningshow.com/eval⁠⁠Join us every other Monday at 8 AM ET for the Obsession Worthy Podcasts:⁠⁠⁠http://podcastingmorningshow.com/owp/⁠⁠Join us LIVE every weekday morning at 8 am ET (US) on ⁠Clubhouse⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcastingmorningshow.com/clubhouse⁠⁠EPC3 Speaker Application:⁠⁠ ⁠https://empoweredpodcasting.com/speakersPowered by⁠⁠⁠ ⁠iRonickMedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠ContentCreatorsAccountant.com⁠⁠Send in your mailbag questions:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.podcastingmorningshow.com/contact/⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠marc@ironickmedia.com⁠Want to be a guest on The Podcasting Morning Show? Send me a message on PodMatch, here:https://podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1729879899384520035bad21b

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Mental Health Awareness: Uncovering Hidden Patterns with Nick McGowan

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Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2026 30:08

“You’re not broken, you're just stuck in a pattern.” In this episode, Nick emphasizes the importance of mental health awareness, especially during Mental Health Awareness Month in May. Nick shares personal insights, practical strategies, and encourages ongoing mindfulness and self-care to improve mental well-being through practical tips. What to listen for: You're not broken; you’re just stuck in patterns Awareness is the first step to mental health improvement Breathing exercises can help regulate anxiety and panic Physical movement aids mental health and emotional processing Talking openly about mental health fosters connection and healing “We can be mentally disrupted, we can be hurt, we can be unsure of what’s going on, or really fighting with things that need to be fully processed.” Struggle is a universal human experience Unprocessed emotions become internal blocks we're unaware of Processing our traumas and past experiences is vital for progress Healing requires engaging with, not avoiding, pain “Our mental health is critical to our overall well-being.” Mental health is foundational to overall well-being Finding the time to invest in our mental health is like making sure we're breathing Proactive care is important; the same goes for rest and processing Prioritize your mental health and emotional intelligence to better handle life's ups and downs About Nick McGowan I'm Nick McGowan, an entrepreneur, podcaster, and mental health advocate, and I’ve been on a 20+ year journey of personal development, learning to master my mindset, emotions, and the art of living with purpose. As a Mindset and Self-Mastery Mentor, I work with ambitious men and women who want to live their most authentic and joyous lives by helping them master their mindset, emotional awareness, and authentic communication. My mission is to empower people to lead lives that feel aligned, grounded, and truly their own. Throughout my career, I've built teams, streamlined systems, and improved client experiences across SaaS, media, marketing, and personal development spaces. Whether I'm leading cross-functional projects, optimizing SEO, Podcasting, designing strategies, or guiding clients through transformation, I bring a hands-on, solution-focused approach to everything I do. I'm also the host of The Mindset and Self-Mastery Show, where my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, challenge us, and ultimately guide us back to who we are at our core. On this show, we uncover the secret gems others have discovered through trial and error and breakthroughs, so you can fast-track your growth and master your mindset in your pursuit of self-mastery. Check out the latest episode here. With years of podcasting and two decades of marketing experience, I've mastered the storytelling, interview flow, strategy, and technical production that elevate a podcast from “just content” to something truly impactful. Whether you’re a leader looking to amplify your message, a seasoned speaker and podcast host looking to sharpen your edge, or even a beginner who is wondering how to share their message, I mentor thought leaders through every step of having the conversation they’re here to have on this planet. So, what message are you here to share?! https://nickmcgowan.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenickmcgowan/ Resources: Check out other episodes about self-awareness and following our hearts The Energy Of Creativity And The Journey Toward Self-Awareness With Jeristotle Wells Making Major Life Decisions By Trusting Your Intuition With Nick McGowan If you or anyone you know is struggling with their mental health, resources are out there for you. Check out the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) for local resources. Here's the song I mentioned, “Weighless” by Marconi Union. This is the shortened version, but try it out the next time you feel overwhelmed a bit. Are you looking for ways to better manage your daily mindset, live a happier, more fulfilled life, and pursue the depths of your soul on your path to self-mastery? Schedule a free clarity session with Nick to see if mentoring is a good fit for you. Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Check out Nick's website for more information: https://nickmcgowan.com/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript 00:00People will look on social media and see that you have your family and your friends and your hobbies and your life and your car and your this and that, blah, blah, blah. None of that matters though. None of it at all. It doesn’t change the fact that sometimes inside of our heads, we’re just not doing well. Our mental health is critical to not only our lives, the lives of the people we live with and work with and the lives that we touch. 00:32Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show, I wanna talk about mental health because May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Now I wish Mental Health Awareness Month was every single month, but in some ways it really is. Every single month, every single week, every single day, minute, an hour even, I think our mental health plays a major part and role of the work that we do in the world. 00:59how we move throughout the world, the things that we do. And I want to touch on something that a lot of people will bring up at times, sometimes clients, sometimes even guests when we’re talking, be it on the show or after the fact, but people at times will think I’m broken. I’ve thought that before too. I felt that many, many times actually that I am just straight up broken. And what that really comes from is me just not knowing what is broken or off. 01:29It’s not that I’m broken, it’s that there are things that just feel broken or don’t feel like they’re working really as well as I want them to. You may experience that and you may not. I assume most people that listen to this show probably experience a good chunk of the things that we talk about on the show, either just on the solo episodes or with guests. A lot of us go through the stuff where on the surface we look really great. It looks like we’re living life, we’re enjoying. 01:56We’re successful in whatever we’re doing. We have our families, our friends, we have all the things that for the most part really go really well with social media. People will look on social media and see that you have your family and your friends and your hobbies and your life and your car and your this and that, blah, blah, blah. None of that matters though. Actually, none of it at all. mean, having some friends and some family and people that care about you, that absolutely matters. 02:26having hobbies and things that are important to you, that absolutely matters. And what I mean by it doesn’t matter is that it doesn’t change the fact that sometimes inside of our heads, we’re just not doing well. And I’m really glad that May is the month for that. The reason why I say I’m glad for that is because May is sort of like the beginning of spring to me. Where I grew up in Pennsylvania, we saw all four seasons of the year. 02:55And it was awesome. Literally three months for every single quarter was a new season. Obviously there were some overlap at times or whatever, but I pretty much always saw a season and could always expect that the new season was going to come. When I moved around the country, not as much in Oregon, but specifically in Florida and in New Mexico, don’t always see all of those seasons, especially in Florida. It’s basically like, 03:24spring sometimes in the morning, sometimes it’s winter in the morning for an hour, and then it’s just summer pretty much the rest of the day, even when it’s a different season. But mentally, our season can last a lot longer. We can be mentally disrupted, we can be hurt, we can be unsure of what’s going on or really fighting with things that are still inside of us that are still processing. 03:52or need to be fully processed from things that have happened from sometimes decades ago. So I bring up the fact that I have thought this and other people have, and you most likely have as well, that we are broken in some sort of way. I want to challenge that. What if you’re not broken? But what if you’re just patterned in such a way? Now our brains and specifically our subconscious is there to be able to protect us. 04:22and to keep us safe and keep us moving and active. And for the most part, when we feel like we’re broken, that pattern that we’re looking for that will get us out of something is really hard when we’re stuck in a pattern. Just our overall way of thinking about things. You know, those people that are typically real, uh real shitty about something, or just seem to always be upset and pissed off. 04:51I want to guarantee that that’s probably not their natural state. could give you an example with myself. There are times where you can absolutely tell if I’m irritated. And there are times where I don’t really understand that I’m irritated because there’s something that’s going on in the background. Now, I’ve done a lot of work with this. those triggers and things that come up, I’m more aware of that, but there are still things that just creep along and I’m unaware of just being irritated. Even at a slight level, I know that I am. 05:20but I don’t know what the thing is yet. So I need to work on it, work through it, et cetera. When we’re stuck in our patterns and we can’t get out of those patterns because we can’t see that we’re stuck in them, then we’re just perpetually there. So that person who is constantly pissed off or shitty or annoying, again, that’s probably not their natural state. There’s something that’s holding them back. There’s something that’s keeping them that way. And I bring up that you probably know these people because just about every single one of us does. 05:49that there’s somebody, maybe it’s a family member or a coworker or something, you’re like, ah, that’s just how they are. They’re just naturally irritated. No, that’s probably not the case. Like myself, I am naturally joyous and like a little kid, just excited about things. But when I’m irritated and I’m not feeling so well mentally specifically, then I’m not like that at all. I’m just really irritable and not very fun to be around. 06:18And again, I’ve worked on that over the course of my life and specifically over these past few years, but still I can almost guarantee some family and friends and people that know me closely are like, yeah, there are certain times where just stay the fuck away from him. And that doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t like that people would feel that way. Or if somebody would say, well, I don’t want to go anywhere near him because he’s constantly angry or whatever else. have been different times where I’ve been really 06:47upset about things that are going on in life. From a mental health perspective, just not doing well at all. Again, because of those patterns, the way that I’ve thought about things, the way that I’ve looked at things, and the way that I just get stuck in those patterns. Because our mental health really stems from those habitual thought patterns. Everything we do will come through that lens in a sense. 07:13of what is it that we normally think about? How do we normally go about this? And what’s the best approach with what’s going on right now? And there are certain times it doesn’t logically make sense to us because we’re just basing things off of those patterns. This also ties into our cognitive processes and our overall behaviors. All of this ties together because when we think about things and we’re in a bad spot mentally, then the way that we react or respond to the world 07:42physically or even emotionally or really any sort of way is all going to tie back to the overall mindset and the overall mental health that we’re currently working through. with May being mental health awareness month, I wanted to really shine light specifically on mental health. Now the awareness month has actually been an awareness month for mental health since 1949, which I got to be honest, when I first read that I was shocked. 08:10Because this isn’t something that I thought about for May for most of my life. It seems like there’s a national day for just about everything. There’s a national month that coincides with other national months. Like I’m pretty sure May is also several other things for national months. And that’s totally fine because again, we only have 12 of those months and I get that. But this is a thing that I’d never really knew about growing up because most people didn’t really talk about it. 08:40I was born in the early 80s. So by the early 90s and even early 2000s, people weren’t talking about these things as much. There was a little bit more in the early 2000s, especially in the middle 2000s, et cetera, where people really started to have more of these conversations. And I think mostly because of my generation, that we’re like, hold up, time help. What happened was not cool. We need to do something about this. And I’m really glad that we have this month to be able to talk about this because 09:08as we go into the rest of spring, into the summer, fall, winter, et cetera, throughout the rest of the year, want you to be mindful of your overall mental health. And you might say, Nick, that’s a lot to just be mindful of because every single day there’s something going on. And I get that. That’s also why I bring it up, is to be mindful throughout each day of what’s happening. How are you feeling? What are you thinking? And not beating yourself up about the things that are going on. 09:38just letting yourself flow through it. I’ll be real personal with you right now. I’m actively going through a pretty difficult and challenging chapter of my life. And over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been going through this with my own mental health to be mindful of what are you feeling right now? What are you thinking right now? Sometimes I need to take a 20 minute break and just play my acoustic guitar or go walk outside for a minute or talk to a family member. 10:08because there’s just stuff that’s going on that I just need to talk with somebody about. Or also my mental health coach or my other practitioners that I work with. Now it’s not like I can just pick up the phone and call them instantly because they’re professionals and they have other clients and all that sort of stuff. But I’m going through this as well. And with May being Mental Health Awareness Month, think it’s important for us to just be aware of what is going on with our mental health. Now, the whole point to Mental Health Awareness Month in May, 10:37is to be able to bring awareness to not only our mental health, but the different resources and stigmas and just all the things that are out there about that and just keep the conversation going. But from this perspective for you, I want you to just be mindful of your mental health. That’s it. It’s really easy. Think about just how you’re feeling mentally and what’s going on in your head. A good thing that I’ve started to do, I’d say over the past year or so. 11:06is once I wake up, I ask myself, how are you doing? How are you feeling? Are you good or are you shitty? Because I’ve realized that part of my being is I can be in a really good spot as soon as I wake up, of like jump out of bed and be ready to go, or I cannot be in such a great spot. And typically it’s because of the things that happened or didn’t happen the day before. Did I get enough time to spend me time? Did I spend enough time on the things I wanted to? Did I feel fulfilled in the stuff that I did? 11:35And sometimes that just doesn’t line up. So it lingers and just drags over. So by the time I get into the next day, it’s still there. It’s kind of nagging at me in a sense. So for mental health awareness month, let’s just be aware of our mental health. Let’s figure out what’s going on and then work through it step by step by step. It doesn’t have to be a big thing where you say, oh, I’m in such a terrible spot. I need to talk to 40,000 people and I need to. 12:05process all these things for like nine hours a day. You absolutely can, but you may not need to. Just being aware of what’s going on can sometimes be good enough to get you to the spot where you say, I need a little more help in this area. I found that with myself and I’ve even found that with clients. They’ll get to a point where they go, you know what? This keeps coming back. This is a pattern. This is the thing that I no longer want to be a part of my life. Okay. So what do I do? 12:34Who do I talk to? How do I go about this? What has to happen next? And letting yourself be in the flow of that and just taking each day step by step. Instead of saying I need to be fixed and everything needs to be done right now. Sure, you can feel that way. It’s really not gonna do anything for you. So if you just take today and say, how am I feeling mentally? How am I doing right now? What’s going on? What do I feel is still back there that 13:03is just not letting me be happy right now and being able to take a small step today. So our mental health is critical to our overall wellbeing. Sometimes we can think past that. Sometimes we can just put dirt on it, keep going. We don’t want to bypass things, but I do understand that there are certain times where we just can’t dig into everything right now. Maybe you don’t have 20 minutes in a day where you can just sit down and play guitar or work on a hobby or go walk outside for a minute or so. 13:32Maybe you do, maybe a lot of time. And maybe that’s what sort of the problem is that there’s a lot of time and you’re unsure of what to do next. And you’re just kind of stuck with yourself as we are mentally aware of our mental health. We also need to be aware of what’s going on throughout the rest of our lives and start to take inventory of does that align with us? Again, you may not have 20 minutes a day to be able to just work on some hobby or something that’s important to you. So I ask. 14:02How do you then find that 20 minutes a day? Because that is really critically important. The better we are mentally, the better we are just in every other way. Now, obviously our physical body is not always tied to our mental body. You you get what I mean. But in all reality, what we do in our head ties into how our physical body moves or doesn’t move. There have been times where I’ve been depressed and I’ve gone through some 14:31really dark moments. There are times that I’ve had those dark moments throughout the course of the podcast. You can actually see some of that and how I’ve looked at different times and just haven’t felt good. And I’ll use that as a good example. There have been times where I’ve realized that I’m not feeling good mentally and gaining more weight and therefore I really don’t want to just go work out. And it’s like this vicious cycle. I’ve also learned that there are at times some chemical deficiencies. 15:01vitamin deficiencies, some different things that are happening and I’ve Seeked medical help and at times it’s helped at times It’s also just been like no everything’s good on this end So there’s something else to go through and work through and for us to actually spend that time with ourselves as Uncomfortable as it can be to say, okay This is what I’m feeling right now. Let me just be straight and honest with myself and then from there start to figure out 15:30What do need to do with it? My goal with this show just overall, and I say this to my guests when they come on, is that for you to get anything out of this, I want you to be able to hear from the authentic side of what we talk about, be it myself or with the guests. Like we need to get real to the fucking things that have happened and the situations and how we actually handle that. I bring that up because I at times have literally pushed things off to let future Nick deal with it. 15:59And then future Nick most often gets pissed off at past Nick because if past Nick just did something about it, future Nick would not have to be dealing with it. Same goes for you. So if you just push things off and just bypass them, they will end up coming back and then you’ll have to work on them at another point. But if you’re having a hard time right now working on the things, then I want you to be able to take from this that you’re not alone and to just continue to do the work day in and day out and things will pop up for you. 16:29resources. Maybe this is a great show for resources for you. People that you can connect with, practitioners, friends that are going through similar things. Sometimes we don’t know that until we actually have those conversations. So that’s what I to bring up next. I want you to be able to talk to people, people that you feel safe to talk to, and also allow yourself to step outside of your comfort zone because you never know who you can really be safe with in your circles. 16:59I do want you to be able to tie into your intuition and understand, this person is definitely not safe to talk to about just about anything. And if there are things that you need to do to process being able to have a conversation with that person or some things that they’ve done to you in the past or what have you, then do that work. There are also other people out there that are just waiting for permission for themselves to share as well. And by you opening up how you’re doing, 17:27without dumping onto people, but sharing this is where I’m at right now. That’ll allow them to then say, you know, I’ve gone through something similar or I’ve been real hesitant to say this to anybody else, but I’ve been going through this for the past month or two months or what have you. And being able to start conversation and that starts to heal ourselves and those other people. I’ll give you an example. A few weeks ago, when uh this difficult chapter of mine was starting, I was in a 17:56tough spot to figure out what are next moves. And next moves may have literally looked like a 1500, 2000 mile physical move. And at one point I was hanging out with a couple of friends. We were talking about some things and just having a really great conversation, great time. And I felt totally overwhelmed. Stole off to my office and had a panic attack. I don’t have them very often. 18:26But when I do, I’ve not handled them the best in the past because I didn’t exactly know what was going on. I just thought I was shutting down and dying. if you’ve had them, you can understand. But this time I knew what was going on. I knew to step away. I knew to do my breathing. I have a song that I listened to. It’s by Marconi Union called Waitless. It’s like a 10 hour long song. 18:53but it’s actually been documented to help relieve anxiety. So I took some time to myself, breathe, let myself calm down, let it work through me, saw eye eye with it with what was actually going on. And I was gone for maybe 20 minutes, a half hour. I went back into the spot with my friends and both of them asked me like, hey man, you all right? Like you just kind of disappeared. I was like, yeah, I just need to go have a panic attack, but I’m all right now. And I knew that 19:21saying this to my friends, they are my friends, but they are relatively newer friends, that there’s a chance for them to go, oh, what a little bitch or whatever. They could have said fucking anything at all about me stealing off to have a panic attack. I’m sure it would have been a little bit of a different thing if I did it right there, but they didn’t. They actually opened up a bit about themselves, that they had been going through some things. The one guy went through something about a month and a half, two months ago. 19:50Another one was working on trying to get their anxiety medication that had problems being shipped to them. And that just opened up the conversation. That conversation didn’t turn into a six hour long kumbaya session. It was maybe another five, 10 minutes before we all got back into the stuff that we were doing and talking about other things and what was going on. But in all reality, the idea that I was able to open the door to that conversation gave permission. 20:18not only to myself to do it more often, but to those people to be able to do it back and also to be able to pass that along. So in May and the coming months, the more that we are aware of what is going on with our mental health and the more that we understand what we are at our core, just like I understand at my core, I’m joyous and just naturally curious, then we can start to see how we’re off in certain ways. And again, you’re not broken. 20:48You’re just patterned and we need to be able to break out of those patterns and change those patterns, but also be able to look at what’s going on and be aware of those things to then say, all right, well, how do I want to control this? There are times where people have told me can’t really control your mental health, just like there are times where people have said you can’t mindset your way through everything. And I agree with both. I also think that both are critically important with how we maneuver ourselves throughout all of life. And I think if we can be understanding of ourselves, 21:18We can have an understanding of what’s going on and where things come from. We can be aware of those things. We can then start to take actions, whatever that action needs to look like. Sometimes it’s a really small action. Sometimes it’s a multi-hour deep subconscious processing session. Sometimes it’s a mixture, but whatever that looks like, needs to just look like that for you. So just being aware of your mental health and being aware of the things that are feeling off will then help you then be aware of 21:48What are the culprits here? And what’s the catalyst of that? And what do I do from this point? So I want to leave you with a few tactics in a sense that have helped me over the course of, I’d say the past five, 10 years, really managing my mental health and being able to understand how to manage my day to day while managing my mental health. First is awareness. If you’re not aware of something, you cannot understand 22:16what’s going on with the thing because you are not aware that it’s even there. awareness is something we can work on. We can be really aware of how we’re feeling and what’s going on. And I think the easiest way to be able to do that is once we sense something, instead of just pushing past it or bypassing, we can get really, really close to it by going, all right, what’s happening right now? What am I feeling right this second? Like literally take 22:46the five, 10, 15 seconds, whatever it is. And if you can’t, because you’re in the middle of a meeting or you’re working with your kids or whatever’s going on, you can take a mental note of that. Maybe even just jot that down in your phone or something and go back to it. Go, all right, well, this happened. What was I feeling? I was feeling this. Why would I feel that? And start to work through it like you would if you were talking to a friend. If you called one of your good friends and said, hey, this situation happened. Can I process this with you? Can you work with me on it? 23:16It would go short. What happened? Who was there? What was the thing? What did this look like? How did you feel with that? What did you want to do next? Like all of those questions. And this is a rule book sort of thing where you have to follow these five or 10 questions. Just start to ask yourself the questions because the more aware that you become, the more aware you can see the different situations and things that need to happen. And you go, okay, well, I’ve seen this over and over. 23:44I don’t like how I feel with it. So what do I do from here? And there are certain things you can do on your own. I have a ton of resources, obviously within the podcast. There’s a ton of stuff on YouTube. There’s a ton of stuff everywhere. And then there are practitioners and people that can physically and emotionally, mentally help you with all of this. So awareness is absolutely critical. Another thing that has really helped me is breathing. That might sound really simple because we all do it every single day, but concentrated breathing. 24:14Again, when I had my panic attack recently, that was one of the main things that I felt inside of me, is you need to concentrate on your breathing. And I’ve felt that before, and I’ve even told myself that before. Times where I’ll breathe for a few in, a few out or whatever, and just get irritated by it because I’ve had a hard time just sitting in the spot that I’m in. One of the things that really helps me is simple breathing. Five, four, three, two, one. 24:43The way that I do it is I do five in, five out, four in, four out, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And by the time I get to the two and the one, it’s kind of just in and out, in and out. And then I’ll start over again and I’ll go a little slower and I’ll do that maybe two or three times. Literally one, maybe two of those cycles is enough to be able to reset us, at least for me. So I’d like you to try that. Get to a point where you’re like, I am really at my wit’s end. 25:11Five, four, three, two, one. Five in, five out, four in, four out, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. By time you get through one or two of those cycles, you’ve regulated yourself a bit. You’ve at least curbed it a little bit and you get to then be able to move from there. And the last two could almost be one, changing your state and moving your body. Changing your state can look like if you’re sitting here having a conversation and something’s really 25:41upsetting you or you’re having a conversation with yourself or you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, don’t just stay stuck in that same spot. Literally get up. If you need to go do jumping jacks or run around the building or just simply walk out of the space and walk back, you start to move your body and you get out of that actual space that you’re in. Sometimes it also really helps to literally go move your body. 26:10Go work out, go to the gym, go for a bike ride, go do something that’s physically exerting to be able to get that energy to move through you a bit, but you don’t wanna bypass it. So I look at it like this. Now it may not be super easy for you to do this depending on your schedule, but there are times where I will feel I just need to go move. And I’ll go to the gym and I will either do the elliptical because I just need to move and really 26:41just get into a rhythm of moving, but still want to spend the time thinking or processing through things. There are other times where I’ll do more weights and then, know, cardio and stuff. But throughout that whole period, I will allow myself to feel where I’m at and also allow the things to come up that I can then process through them. Or I can say, ah, this is the thing I really need some help with. I need to talk to my mental health practitioner, or I need to talk to my subconscious processing person, or I need to… 27:11do some EMDR to be able to work through some of these past situations that are then coming up. But by moving our bodies, there are things that are going on. It’s also moving blood and oxygen and all of that, which again goes back to what I said earlier. There’ve been times where I felt depressed, I got heavier, didn’t want to work out, and it was just this big cycle. And there are certain things that can be outside of just your mental health. There can be actual physical things that are happening, especially as you get older. 27:41And some of those things are newer because you’ve never been that age. So you don’t know. And then you start to kind of learn from there. So moving our bodies and also changing our state and sometimes simultaneously can really help us be able to start to work that stuff out of our system. And I found that it also helps us understand if we can process that stuff on our own or do we need somebody else to be able to help us with this? appreciate you spending the time. 28:10watch or listen to this. And I hope that this has been helpful for you. It is May and this is when we are to be aware of our mental health. However, my challenge to you is to not just let it be May, let it be the rest of your life. Take the next month, two months, six months, et cetera, to be able to really be honest with yourself and your mental health and to be aware of what’s going on. And if you need to take some steps to speak with somebody, 28:40If it’s mentoring, I can certainly help. Please feel free to reach out. If you need some practitioner help and want some resources, I’d love to be able to share what I know and be able to point you in the direction. There’s also a lot of people I’m sure that you know that can potentially point you in directions that they’ve used. But for you to be able to figure out what feels right for you and what you want to be able to do takes us to be aware of what’s going on. And our mental health is critical to not only our lives, 29:10the lives of the people we live with and work with, and the lives that we touch. So again, thank you for spending your time with me today. I hope this helps. And if you have any questions or you’d want me to dig deeper in any of this, please let me know. 29:29Thanks for listening to today’s episode. What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to Apple podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you consume podcasts and subscribe, rate, and leave a five-star review. It’s very much appreciated and also helps other people find the show and experience healing just like us. Please also head over to our website, themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com. 29:55where you can check out all of our episodes and find additional resources to help you manage your mindset as you seek self-mastery. So with that, thank you and remember, your mindset matters and so do you. https://youtu.be/AE_7YIKqNZs

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Is Good Sex a "Right" in Marriage?, #319

Java with Juli

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2026 31:24

This week, Juli and Hannah tackle the question, Am I entitled to sex—even good or regular sex—in my marriage? Drawing on stories, biblical truth, and personal reflection, Juli challenges common assumptions about sex, covenant, and what it really means to love like Jesus did. This episode offers hope for couples navigating pain, unmet expectations, or seasons of healing—and it just might challenge everything you've been taught about sex and marriage. Co-host: Hannah Nitz What are your thoughts on this conversation? We'd love to hear from you! Leave us a rating and review. Follow-up Resources: Check out our new Hot Topic Kit: Building a Great Sex Life God, Sex, & Your Marriage by Dr. Juli Slattery How To Go From Demand and "Duty Sex" to True Sexual Intimacy by Dr. Juli Slattery (blog) Is Sex Sabotaging Love in Your Marriage? by Dr. Juli Slattery (blog) Are You Entitled to (Good) Sex in Marriage? by Dr. Juli Slattery (blog) Follow Hannah Nitz @hannahnitz Follow Authentic Intimacy at @authenticintimacy

The Gap Between What Vets Say and What Grieving Clients Hear | Dr. Christina Guttuso

Vet Life Reimagined

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2026 53:47 Transcription Available

Send us Fan MailNobody teaches you how to have this conversation in veterinary school. Dr. Christina Guttuso has spent 23 years doing exclusively in-home euthanasia — showing up for families in their hardest moments, in their homes across Arizona. After over two decades of experience and a recent survey of over 300 pet owners about their end-of-life experiences, what she found is reshaping how veterinary professionals will think about one of the most common and most misunderstood moments in veterinary practice.This conversation is about someone whose veterinary career is centered on pet euthanasia. But it's really about what it means to be human in a profession that trains us to stay clinical.In This EpisodeWhat pet owners are really asking when they say "but he's still eating"Why there's a significant gap between what veterinarians communicate and what grieving clients actually hearThe ethics of allowing animals to suffer because of human emotionHow to hold space for a grieving family without needing to fix anythingWhat any veterinarian — in any setting — can do to show up better in end-of-life conversationsHow Dr. Guttuso's survey findings are shaping a forthcoming AVMA presentationTake Dr. Guttuso's SurveyDr. Guttuso is actively collecting perspectives from veterinary professionals to support her research. If you work in veterinary medicine, your voice matters. Link below.

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118) Are You Stuck as a Freelancer… or Are You Actually a Business Owner?

Digital Nomad Life Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2026 53:27 Transcription Available

There are two main ways to make money online and become a digital nomad: being a freelancer or being a business owner.Inside the Digital Nomad Life Academy, I help people become business owners, but I've been noticing a lot of people are stuck in freelancer energy without realizing it — and honestly, it's not sustainable. Freelancing can quickly turn into a grind where you're working for your clients instead of for yourself.So in this episode, I'm breaking down the difference between freelancing and entrepreneurship, how to shift out of freelancer energy, and how to build a business that actually gives you more freedom, income, and control over your life.In this episode, we talk about: The difference between being a freelancer and a business owner Why freelancing can quickly lead to burnout How to stop trading your time for money The mindset shifts required to start a business online Creating scalable offers instead of hourly work Why boundaries are essential as a service provider The biggest mistakes freelancers make with marketing How to build a lifestyle-first business as a digital nomad Why predictable income matters when leaving your 9-5 How to create more freedom while getting paid to travel Building a location independent business with long-term sustainability The truth about “freedom” entrepreneurship vs. hustle culture Resources:Check out next: Episode 33: How My Career Assessment Process Want support building your online business?DM me on Instagram @christabellatravels with the keyword “APPLY” to start the conversation about joining the DNLA and creating your own freedom-focused business.paid to travel, digital nomad, freelancer, start a business online, online business coach, location independent business, remote work, freelancing vs business owner, scalable online business, lifestyle businesSend us Fan Mail

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Episode 090: The Truth That Saved Our Marriage with Jenni Wong Clayville

Let's Get Real with Justin and Trisha Davis

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2026 43:16

What happens when the truth you're most afraid to tell becomes the very thing God uses to heal your life? In this deeply honest and hope-filled conversation, Justin and Trish sit down with pastor and longtime friend Jenni Wong Clayville to talk about marriage, infidelity, shame, healing, authenticity, and the redemptive power of God. Jenni shares the unbelievable story of how a chance meeting with Justin and Trish at a church conference 18 years ago became the catalyst for confessing an affair to her husband that same night — a moment that changed the trajectory of her marriage, family, and ministry forever. This episode is full of laughter, raw honesty, and powerful reminders that while people may fail us, God never will. If you've ever felt stuck in shame, disappointed in your story, or afraid to tell the truth, this conversation is for you. Resources: Check out Jenni's website HERE Check out Justin and Trish's marriage resources HERE Pick up a copy of Justin and Trish's latest book HERE

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#52 - When Language Meets Math Empowering Multilingual Learners in Mathematics

Building Educator Capacity with CESA 2

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2026 57:15

Help bridge the gap between your students' thinking and their ability to express their learning! CESA 2 Consultants Gretchen Lettau and Matt Hayden discuss the specifics of helping multilingual learners express themselves in complicated terms of areas such as mathematics. They also use a tool to help educators identify gaps in thinking and expression in student learning and how to address them in the very next class period.Resources:Check out the L3IFT blog and the "Next Day Fix Tool": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.l3ift.org/blog/addressing-thinking-and-expression-gapsLearn more about the ML Network: https://cesa2.org/ml-summitCheck out all our episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cesa2.org/building-educator-capacity-podcast

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From Anxiety to Emotional Regulation

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Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2026 29:12

EP191: On this week's episode of the Thrive Like a Parent Podcast, we're diving into the powerful topic of emotional regulation and what happens when we become emotionally dysregulated. If you've been experiencing constant stress, anxiety, mood swings, emotional overwhelm, angry outbursts, shame, or feeling stuck in survival mode, this episode is for you. Emotional dysregulation can impact every area of your life—your relationships, parenting, mental health, and overall well-being. In this conversation, I share why emotional regulation is such an important part of healing and growth. So many people try to suppress their emotions, ignore them, or push them onto others instead of learning how to process and regulate them in a healthy way. One of the most common signs of emotional dysregulation I see is anxiety—and the good news is, there are ways to support your brain and body through it. You do not have to stay trapped in emotional overwhelm. Healing, peace, and emotional balance are possible with the right support and tools. If you're ready to learn how to move from anxiety and emotional chaos into regulation and stability, this episode will encourage and equip you. Comment “support” below and let's chat. You don't have to do this alone. XOXO, Dr. B

147. Growth Through Patient Retention with Michael Dinsio and Paula Quinn of Next Level Consultants

Growth in Dentistry: A Dental Intelligence Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2026 41:36

In this episode of Growth in Dentistry, host Steve Jensen talks with Michael Dinsio and Paula Quinn from Next Level Consultants about why many practices are adding new patients but not actually growing, and how daily systems can drive retention, scheduling consistency, and a better patient experience.Listen in to hear about how:Patient retention is the hidden growth leverLoyalty has changed – how patient and team member loyalty can look differentSystems beat good intentions…and so much more!Resources:Check out Next Level Consultants: https://nxlevelconsultants.com/See a demo of DI and get a $50 gift card: https://get.dentalintel.net/podcast

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421: AR-15s, AR-10s, and NULAs: What Hunters Need from Wilson Combat's Lineup

Big Game Hunting Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2026 61:05

John McAdams sits down with Sebastian Mann of Wilson Combat to explore the company's rich history, innovative rifle lineup, and commitment to building firearms that hunters actually use in the field. Sebastian shares a memorable childhood story of receiving a custom lightweight 1911 from Bill Wilson himself, then dives into Wilson Combat's evolution from 1911 pistols to modern AR-15s, AR-10s, and the ultra-light NULA rifles. The episode highlights models like the Tactical Hunter and Tactical Ultralight ARs, the performance-driven 300 HAM'R cartridge optimized for hog hunting, and the devastating Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos ammunition. Sebastian also discusses the acquisition and revival of New Ultralight Arms (NULA), the benefits of vertical integration in gun and ammo production, and real-world hunting applications from Texas hogs to African safaris. Whether you're interested in lightweight mountain rifles, suppressor-ready AR platforms, or bullets that deliver "hunting insurance," this episode is packed with practical insights from one of America's most respected firearms manufacturers. Sponsor: Go to BigGameHuntingPodcast.com/ebook and sign up for my free e-book on the best hunting calibers at to receive the entertaining and informative emails I send out about hunting, firearms, and ballistics every weekday. Please hit that "SUBSCRIBE" or "FOLLOW" button in your podcast app to receive future episodes automatically! Resources Check out the Wilson Combat web site & follow them on Facebook, Instagram, & YouTube

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Hashimotos, Heartbreak, and Healing

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2026 44:35

EP:189 In today's episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of one of the most powerful and emotional weeks I've had in a long time. I'm sharing what it was really like to: Host a team retreat at my house after 6+ years of building this business Speak at Mom 2.0 and attend brand events and panels Navigate it all while living with Hashimotos, running a growing business, and solo parenting most of the time You'll hear about: The deep bond within my core team (Brittany, Maria, and Emily) and what it meant to finally be together in person for more than a quick trip The energy at Mom 2.0: women truly supporting women, without ego or competition My honest realization about how grief and nervous system overload have shaped my capacity in business, parenting, and life A life-changing connection with Sharon, who left her religious community and shared her past suicidal thoughts — and how that conversation collided with my own story of losing Jonathan to suicide The healing power of vulnerable sharing — how opening up can shift something inside both you and the person listening I also dive into the holistic health and Hashimotos side of this week: How my Hashimotos symptoms (hair loss, brain fog, fatigue, joint pain) showed up around the event The vitamins, lifestyle shifts, and boundaries that help me support my thyroid and nervous system The free thyroid ultrasound I had at the conference (yes, really) and what we saw on the screen Why I don't rely only on “here's your synthetic thyroid prescription, good luck” — and instead look at gut health, food intolerances, and nervous system regulation Underneath all of this is the core message of my work: If you don't understand your nervous system, it's almost impossible to break out of roles, communities, or expectations that don't fit you, heal from grief and burnout, or make sense of what your brain and body are trying to tell you. When you do understand your nervous system, you can: Build a business and life that doesn't destroy your health Show up as the parent and human you actually want to be Attract relationships and communities where you're loved for who you are, not how perfectly you perform If you've ever felt like you're living a life that was prescribed for you instead of the one that feels right for your brain and body, this episode is for you.

Finding Transformation In Mindset Shifts with Dre Baldwin

Building Educator Capacity with CESA 2

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2026 46:36

“Presence is what remains when you strip away all the noise, all the excess.” In this episode, Nick speaks with Dre Baldwin about his journey from basketball to internet entrepreneurship, emphasizing mindset, self-awareness, and overcoming challenges. Listen in to discover how his experiences shaped his approach to self-mastery and success. What to listen for: Dre Baldwin’s basketball career and transition to entrepreneurship The importance of mindset and self-awareness in success Lessons learned from sports and their application to business The role of discipline and resilience in overcoming challenges Strategies for personal growth and self-mastery “You can have all the right skills, desire, motivation, and resources, but if you’re in the wrong vehicle, you will not get to where you want to get to.” Knowing where we want to go is incredibly important to continuing on the right path Sometimes our “right path” is only really just a leg of the journey, and discernment is important to keep on that path or not This also urges us to consider what we really want and to look at the “vehicle” we're in, honestly and without bias or interpretation. “To get to the actual issue, you really have to find out who’s the person behind the issue. Who’s the person behind the problem?” Looking deeper than the surface at our “why” with our goals and pursuits is critical This speaks to ourselves as well as the people we interact with and work with Getting to know a person, or ourselves, deeper ties in wants, hopes, dreams, motivations, and understanding the person behind the problem helps us understand context. About Dre Baldwin Dre built Work On Your Game® to turn disciplined execution into dominance. A 4x TEDx speaker and 43-time author, Dre played pro basketball for 9 years. Today, he helps experts and entrepreneurs install mindset, systems, and strategy to scale from six to seven figures with presence and power. http://DreAllDay.com http://LinkedIn.com/in/DreAllDay http://Instagram.com/DreBaldwin https://www.workonyourgame.com/ Resources: Check out other similar episodes: The Greatness Inside Of You Like A Superstar Athlete With Darlene Santore How To Not Rush Through The Trauma Storm With David Kitchens Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/podcasting-services/ Learn more about our host, Nick McGowan. Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:00.206)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self-Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show, we have Dre Baldwin. Dre, what’s going on, man? How are you doing? Dre Baldwin (00:11.005)I’m doing great, Nick. How about yourself? Nick McGowan (00:13.004)I’m good. I’m good. I’m stoked that you’re here. I think it’s gonna be a really good conversation. I told you right up front, I missed the memo for the suit. I’m sorry. But I appreciate you showing up and looking how you are. One of the things that stood out to me when you were your team member reached out about you being on the show was your history in basketball. And being able to tie that into the work that you’re doing now, and how your pursuit of your own version of self mastery has really flexed through every single bit of this. So I know there’s a lot of stuff that we’re gonna get into, but that’s one of the main things that really stood out to me. So I’m excited that you’re here. I always like to get things started though with telling us what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you. It’s a little odd or bizarre and what do you do for a living? Dre Baldwin (00:59.369)One thing that’s a little out of bizarre. once went out on a date with a woman who turned out to be a man and What do I do for a living is I hope I get to give context to that. But anyway, what do I do for a living is We have high level professionals with structured execution if I put it in the one statement Nick McGowan (01:12.75)Yeah. Nick McGowan (01:20.218)Cool. I appreciate that. I’m still chuckling a little bit like who in their right mind wouldn’t give you the platform to like follow up on that? Because the first thing I want to make sure is that you’re not saying it in a really hateful way. I assume that’s not the case. And based on what I know of you, that doesn’t seem to be the case. But again, who in their right mind be like, Nope, we’re leaving that they’re just gonna fucking cliffhanger. So go on, tell us the story. Dre Baldwin (01:27.622)You Dre Baldwin (01:46.739)So this is about, I was about 19, 18, 19 years of age. So we are both from the Philadelphia area. And every year in the summertime in Philadelphia, there’s this event called the Greek Picnic. I don’t know if you knew about it. So the Greek Picnic is all these fraternity and sorority organizations, usually the black fraternity sororities, they all have this big event down at, I think it’s the Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia. Then that’s during the day, the picnics during the day. Then at night, everybody goes to this place called South Street. Nick McGowan (02:10.392)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (02:16.553)And South Street is a place in Philly where everybody just goes and walks. So was kind of like Times Square in Manhattan, the Strip in Vegas, Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. You have South Street in Philadelphia. So I did not pledge in college, but every year, even since I was in high school, we would always go to South Street and 90 degree picnic because everybody’s out there. It’s kind of like New Year’s Eve, Times Square. Everybody’s out there. It’s hard to drive, but there’s so many girls out there. You go out there just to talk to girls. So we go out there and talk to girls and I meet this girl. She was interested in me. I’m interested back. So we exchange phone numbers and all of that. And she lived all the way down there near South Street. I lived up in the upper Northwest part of the city. I go and see her. didn’t actually go on. It technically wasn’t a date. We didn’t go anywhere. I just went to her house. We were basically sitting on the steps talking, but we sat there and talked for an hour or two. She had a roommate. Her roommate came by. She went, goes into the house and another guy while I’m sitting there talking to her, another guy comes up. He goes in to see the roommate. So anyway, we have the conversation, whatever I leave. And a couple of days later, I’m talking to this girl on the phone and I think she noticed my naivete. And she said to me, Dre, I want to let you know something. She said, I’m a pre-op transsexual. I didn’t even quite know what that meant. And I was like, what does that mean? I did know, but I didn’t know. So I had her spell it out. And she said, no, I’m guy, I’m not as endowed as you, but I haven’t had the operation yet. And I just didn’t know. My vision was not. tuned enough to have noticed this when it was all happening. And then I was thinking, I was like, well, what about that guy who came by while we were sitting on your steps, who went in the house to see your roommate? Because a roommate was the same thing. Also preop transsexuals. said, well, yeah, he knew the deal. So I guess he thought I knew the deal. I didn’t know the deal. So this was my learning of finding out what the situation was. So that’s the story there. That was 19 years of age. I’m 44 now. Nick McGowan (04:04.396)Man. Yeah, how old are you? All right, cool, I’m 41. So back then, that you really had an opportunity to be a fucking asshole about it. There’s a lot of people, especially in the Philadelphia area, that would have been so pushed away from that, even gotten violent, and really become hateful with it. And a lot of it was normal back then. There was just hatred of other people and just… just bullshit and especially with guys from the area, we would just be douchebags to each other. And then if something like that happened, like your boys could be after you because of it or whatever. So what a cool thing for you to not be a complete fucking asshole about it. Only for years later to understand like that is, that’s gotta be a big, big life transition for people and to not even think about it from their perspective. Like that’s awesome that she said, this is what’s going on. This is where I’m at. That took a lot of courage to even say that and a lot of courage to step out, you know. Dre Baldwin (05:10.899)Yeah. I guess so, because I think she could tell that I didn’t know. So I think most of the time back then, because we would go to South Street all the time and you would see these cross dressing men walking around. And what would happen is men would drive by in cars and I say those are men and laugh and joke and all that and just drive by. And but you could tell even from across the street, like that’s a man. She had it done well enough that I didn’t know. And I had a couple of my boys with me when I met the girl. None of them said anything. So Nick McGowan (05:25.464)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (05:43.294)They didn’t know. And when I told them, they made jokes about it at the, weren’t around the girl. They made jokes about it with me. I didn’t, I just didn’t even notice. But back then with us, it would be like, okay, you could tell that’s a man. We just keep going. But I think they knew the woman or the man dressed as a woman, whatever you want to call this. They would talk to men who knew the deal. And that was just, they were just cool with it. Like that guy who walked into the house while I was there, I guess he just knew. I just didn’t know. And back then it wasn’t even a thing that we were thinking about, not the way it is now. We weren’t thinking about it in that way. Now it’s much more open. But back then for me, it was something I had never come across. Nick McGowan (06:21.452)I always find it interesting how people choose to answer this question and like what the thing is like I even said before we hit record like just don’t tell me your favorite colors purple or something like that so I always appreciate when people bring something up because there’s some some reason for that like that must have shaped you in some sort of way so even if it’s a subconscious thing that yeah it shaped me but you know I really think about it too too much in this context of this conversation as we talk about that how has that actually shaped you And way that you look at not only people and their choices, but yourself and how it’s kind of folded within your life. Dre Baldwin (06:57.577)Hmm. It’s an interesting question. I never thought about it like that. I always looked at it like a, it’s like a funny thing to me. That’s the reason why I bring it up. Yeah. The other thing, other thing I thought about was I once was in a hot dog eating contest. I think this is a little bit more depth. So that’s why I went with that one. But for me, I never, I never really think about it except when I’m bringing it up, like, Hey, this is, appearances can be deceiving. And nowadays it’s kind of come full circle because now no LGBTQ is a big thing. But in this is what Nick McGowan (07:02.99)Snapple fact sort of thing, Nick McGowan (07:11.279)Hahaha Dre Baldwin (07:26.665)19, this is like 2000 around 2000 2001. It wasn’t a big thing. We knew it existed, but it was way in the shadows. Then as opposed to how it is now. I don’t know how it has affected me subconsciously. I’ve been stopped approaching girls. I kept doing that. So I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. Nick McGowan (07:43.534)Yeah, I appreciate. I appreciate the honest answer. You know, like even it might be something where like down the road you realize, maybe it shaped me this way. And it’s also, it doesn’t have to, you know, that might be one of those things where like, made you kind of look a little differently at things. I find it interesting how some people like your boys, your friends would talk shit or say whatever. And maybe some of those maybe didn’t understand exactly what was going on, but we’re trying to fit within the system of things and like, let’s have these conversations. So I always think this stuff can shape us in some sort of way, because it was just a little different or abnormal or whatever. Sometimes the meaningless things in life are the things that can mean a lot to us or the like random happenstances of things. But it’s funny pointing out like, even with South Street and how South Street is like Times Square. I’ve never thought about that, but I lived on Fitzwater for a little while. like right off of South Street for a while. Yeah, I was actually explaining to my partner recently. I was like, when we go to Philly, we’ll have to go to South Street. South Street is like a long street where you walk in their stores. She was like, that sounds like a normal fucking street. Like, but it’s more than that, you know, so I’m going to use the Times Square thing. But that’s cool. Yeah, exactly. Some people don’t know the ocean drive thing, but like, I get that. Man, so I appreciate bringing that up with Dre Baldwin (08:40.499)Yeah, that’s right there. Dre Baldwin (08:56.809)Alright, four O’s in draft. Yeah. Nick McGowan (09:09.782)the path that you’re on now and the business that you’re on, I think one thing that we could easily skip past is that you spent, what was it, nine, 10 years playing professional basketball? Nick McGowan (09:22.925)So I have never been a professional athlete. I remember wanting to be a professional, a couple different things, you know, as a kid, just like people are like, I want to be a rock star, I want to be this, I want to be that. There’s a level of discipline. There’s a level of belief in yourself, confidence, and like fucking around and finding out to be able to execute on stuff like that. Even if you didn’t get into the NBA or if you were the fucking, I don’t know, you turned into Kevin Durant or whatever, like there’s a lot that you actually went through to figure out. what is it that I want out of life? And you started to do that early on, but you’re not doing it at this point. So I’m interested in how that shaped you. like, tell us a bit about the journey and how that actually led into what you’re doing today. Dre Baldwin (10:04.905)Great question. So it started with, let’s just go back to childhood, always in the sports. And I was playing, one of the first lessons I learned was getting into the proper vehicle. So I was playing baseball for several years. And I realized by the time I got to about right before high school, and this is because when you first played baseball as a kid, you had T ball, you just hit the ball off the tee. Then you have a pitching machine. You know the pitching machine where the ball goes to the same spot every time. I got pretty good at the pitching machine baseball, but then when we had to play against real live people throwing the ball, I couldn’t hit the ball. I probably had a little bit of fear of the ball. So I was never good at hitting and my fielding wasn’t even that great either. So I realized, okay, I’m not going to go too far in baseball. No matter how hard I try at this, I just don’t have the natural inclination, but I was still into sports. So then I moved over to basketball and I started off not good, but I could feel myself getting better at basketball and I stuck with it. And eventually came to what you mentioned. The thing is, later on, looking back, that’s when I realized this principle that I tell people about all the time nowadays is called the right vehicle. So you can have all the right skills, desire, motivation, and resources, but if you’re in the wrong vehicle, you will not get to where you want to get to. And for some people, the right vehicle is playing baseball. For some, it’s basketball. For some, it’s not sports at all. For some, it’s analyzing sports. You can be a podcaster or a YouTuber. For some people, it’s not being in the sports realm. It’s doing something different. Not everybody can do everything even if you put the same amount of effort in. So that’s the first principle I got from sports. Looking back, I didn’t realize that when I was 13, but I realized it later. Then moving on, barely playing in high school, played one year, sat the bench. My going to college, I went to a Division III college. So anyone who doesn’t know sports, the guys you see on TV, that’s Division I. That’s football, basketball, that’s Division I. Division II is right under that and Division III is down in the basement. And the players in Division 3 don’t usually think they’re going to make it pro. A lot of them will say they think they will, but they don’t really believe it because I’ve always been a believer in it. You want to know what somebody believes, that’s what they do. Don’t listen to what they say. And coming out of a Division 3 school, nobody’s calling you to go play pro, most players, even if you were pretty good because you’re playing against other guys who are not pro caliber. So when I got out of college, nobody was calling me. I had to go to these events called exposure camps. You ever heard of those? Know what they are? Nick McGowan (12:18.701)Yeah. Nick McGowan (12:25.942)No, but I would assume it’s like a talent sort of thing where scouts get together and see what you can do. Yeah, cool. Dre Baldwin (12:30.621)Yeah, casting call, a job fair for athletes. And it’s rough because you got 200 guys who all think they should be playing pro, all trying to prove themselves at the same time. And that’d cool if we were playing golf or tennis, but basketball is a team sport. So you’re playing on the same team with five other guys who all think they should be playing pro too. So everybody’s trying to show off. So it’s not the normal type of basketball. It’s not like everyone’s playing selfless basketball because they’re all trying to show off. I went to several of those over the course of my career, but Nick McGowan (12:49.474)Yeah. Dre Baldwin (12:58.727)The first one I went to led to me getting on and getting my first opportunity playing basketball. And in that experience, it was really about investing yourself. Let me tell you how I ended up at that event. So I’m from Philadelphia. The event was in Orlando, Florida. And this is the summer of 2005, graduated college in 2004. The event was not free. You pay $250 to go to the event. I reached out to the event organizers about a month ahead of time and asked them, would it be OK if I pay the event fee? in cash at the door because I did not have a credit card or a bank account at the time. So I had to pay them in cash. They said, yes, you can pay in cash at this time. I’m working at a gym called Valley Total Fitness. I don’t know if you remember them. They’re out of business now, not because of me. I made a lot of sales and at Valley that the commission checks came on a certain Friday every month. I had I didn’t even have to work that day. I had to negotiate with my boss to get the weekend off because the event was Saturday and Sunday. Nick McGowan (13:37.775)yeah. yeah. Yeah. Dre Baldwin (13:55.038)I’m in Philly. We’re going to drive me and a couple of college teammates who are also ambitious. We’re going to rent a car in Philly and drive to Orlando. That’s a 19 hour drive. For those who don’t know the geography, I had to go to my job though first and wait for the DHL truck to come because the DHL guy brought the commission checks. I needed that commission check because I had to go around the corner to the Chinese store and cash it. So I had to cash to pay that $250 at the door. That was my last $250 at this time. I’m living in my parents’ house. I’m working at Valley Total Fitness. have a college degree, but I don’t have anything going on. I spent that 250 at the door and I had to do something over that two day camp to get my first opportunity. So that was really about investing in yourself and really putting your back against the ball. And then you got to perform when it matters. That camp is only two days. It’s not like you have a month to prove yourself. It’s two days. And I played pretty well there. Got my first job. That was 2005. Moving on, fast forwarding in this story, there that Nick McGowan (14:42.498)Yeah. Dre Baldwin (14:51.751)basketball career wasn’t some smooth up into the right process. There’s a lot of people here, professional athlete. Now you’re an entrepreneur. So they think, okay, well, I guess it was easy for you once you got on in sports. But no, there were many times that, how do I better explain it? When there are people in acting, let’s say in the movies, you have your Leonardo DiCaprio’s or Scarlett Johansson’s, they get $50 million to do a movie Will Smith. And no, they don’t do a movie for a year or two. They’re okay. Most actors and actresses careers don’t go that Nick McGowan (15:18.509)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (15:21.159)Most actors and actresses in between movies, what are they doing? All right, they’re bartending, they’re working at Starbucks and they’re bagging groceries. They don’t know if they’re gonna get another job. They are going from casting call to casting call, hoping to get an opportunity to get on. And in sports is the same way. Not every athlete is LeBron James or Lamar Jackson. A lot of athletes are on the fringes, meaning you have a job then you don’t. You’re waiting for your agent to call. You have to stay in shape just in case the call comes, if the call comes. Nick McGowan (15:24.664)Part-time job. Yeah. Thank Nick McGowan (15:34.755)Yeah. Dre Baldwin (15:49.546)Then when it comes, you don’t know how long you’re going to be there because you may face the squeeze on the roster and you’re the one who gets squeezed, not because you can’t play, but because it’s just a numbers game. So a lot of times in my career, even playing overseas, it can be like that. So there are a lot of times in between jobs over the course of my career, I played on a different team every year. I never played in the same team twice in a row or twice total. Every year was a different team, every year, a different country because in between job and in between jobs, didn’t know where the next job was coming or if the next job was coming. Nick McGowan (15:58.05)Yeah. Dre Baldwin (16:18.569)There are times where I had to go get a job because there was no job. So the last time I had it, I went and got two more jobs in between the start of my career. My last job was in 2007. I signed in Montenegro 2008. Haven’t didn’t work a quote unquote regular job after that. That was because I was on this new thing called YouTube. And that’s where I started to build my brand. And that’s where I realized about 2009, 2010, I was putting basketball video content on the internet. That’s when I realized. What I’m doing here on the internet is gonna be bigger than what I’m doing on the basketball court. Even though my content was basketball, it was the internet that was amplifying my name. So if I go to the mall right now today in Miami and somebody recognizes me, it’s not because I played in Slovakia for six months. It’s because I was on YouTube for 10 years making that basketball content. That’s where people know me from, is from YouTube. And I knew back then, I said, this internet thing is gonna be bigger for me than anything I’m doing on the court. And I was right about that. Nick McGowan (17:00.983)Hehehe. Dre Baldwin (17:15.625)At that time, I finished reading this book called The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I’m you’re familiar with. And in that book, Tim was talking about how you can take an idea and start putting on internet and make money from it. I followed his advice and I started selling $5 training programs to basketball players. That’s where I knew my future was in internet entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurship powered by the internet, let’s put it that way. Harking back a little bit in the story, about 2002. I people can keep up with this timeline. know I’m jumping a lot here. About 2002, I got introduced to a business opportunity. It turned out to be network marketing. I did not build a career in network marketing, but I went to some meetings. And I’m forever grateful for the meetings that I went to and the dabbling that I did in network marketing, because it teaches you a lot about entrepreneurship. It teaches you a lot about how to make money other than a traditional nine to five job, which is what my parents had. That’s all I knew until then. And also you learn a lot about people when you’re… trying to sell them into a network marketing opportunity. So you want to know about yourself too. And as a great sales crash course. in there, two things I got from that. Number one, well, three things. Number one is the entrepreneurship. Number two is that they mentioned these books. They would say personal development, personal development. You got to do the personal development. And they would just mention the names of these authors who I’d never heard of. They would say Tony Robinson, Jim Rohn, and Brian Tracy, and Napoleon Hill. And I’m like, who? I never heard any of these people. Nick McGowan (18:17.442)Yeah. Nick McGowan (18:29.475)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (18:39.475)But I remembered the names. I couldn’t afford the books. They were selling them right outside the hotel room. I couldn’t afford them. But I remember the names. So I went on eBay. So again, those of you old enough, eBay before Amazon was the place you went to eBay to buy stuff. Went on eBay and I bought two pirated copies of two books that I could remember. One of them was called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And I bought that book. It showed me that there is a way that you could intentionally alter your conscious thoughts that would alter your behavior and thus alter your outcomes. And he was right. Nick McGowan (18:51.47)the Dre Baldwin (19:08.839)And other book I bought was called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. And that book told me, there’s another way that you can actually be an adult and make money other than what I saw the adults around me doing. And the reason why I was so inclined to look at what Mr. Kiyosaki was saying is because my parents showed up every day, did their jobs. They never bragged about it. They never announced it. They did their work every day. The reason I am Nick McGowan (19:19.255)Okay. Dre Baldwin (19:35.038)what people will call a disciplined person to this day is because the example that I had at home from my parents. At the same time, the adults around me talked about work as a necessary evil. It wasn’t, get to go to work. It was, have to go to work. They talked about their jobs as if it was a somewhat negative thing, good because it paid the bills, but negative because they didn’t really like it. And they didn’t really like the people they had to deal with. And I was looking at them thinking, okay, well, I graduated from college. I guess I got to go do maybe a little bit better version of what they’re doing. Nick McGowan (19:45.42)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (20:03.431)But when I read Kiyosaki, he said, there’s another way to do it. And anybody who’s read the book knows he’s juxtaposing his real dad who had a great education, went and got a job and his friends, best friends, dad, the rich dad. He was the one who dropped out of school, but was a business owner. He owned assets and he made money. He seemed happy about going to work. Whereas his poor dad, his real dad got kicked out of the system when he got too old and too expensive for the system. So that put me onto that. And that I got all that from network marketing. Anyway, combined that with Tim Ferriss. seven, eight years later, combined that with the internet, combined that with social media and basketball, that’s where I started to build what became my company, which was helping basketball players at first, and it transitioned into where we are today. Let me jump again in the story. 2015, I’m looking at the end of the road. Okay, I’m going to get out of basketball. What am I going to do next? So at this point, I was starting to make these mindset videos where basketball players who are watching me, my material was all basketball for about the first five years, 2005 to 2010. The players started asking me about mindset because they saw I was putting out videos every single day before that was a normal thing to do. Nowadays, that’s normal. But back then it wasn’t normal. So they’re like, why are you going to the gym every day to work out? Sometimes because I would tell them where I who I was. Division three, Kyle is playing overseas right now. I’m unemployed. You don’t even know if you get another job, Jerry. Why do you keep working out? How do you keep yourself motivated? Or you got cut from your high school team three times like me. Nick McGowan (21:10.968)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (21:28.753)How did you keep going when you got cut and there was no right at the end of the tunnel? And I started talking about things like discipline and confidence and mental toughness and being prepared and how you had to take negative situations and use them as fuel for positive action. And I called it the weekly motivation. And what happened is a bunch of people who didn’t play basketball started finding me there. That’s when I knew, okay, I can take this aspect of what I’m doing and I can serve people outside of the realm of sports, even when I don’t play anymore. Because I knew that if I stopped playing basketball every day and putting these videos out, my $5 products are going to stop selling. I could read the writing on the wall. I saw how it worked. I could tell you that 15 years ago. People are now realizing it now on TikTok, but I knew that back then. So that’s how I knew what I was going to do next. I need to take this mindset stuff, and I’m noticing people who don’t play basketball need it. And that’s what became what I do today. So that was 2015, and now here we are. So let me stop my story so you can get back to ask some questions. Nick McGowan (22:04.782)you Nick McGowan (22:28.078)Like a true professional, ladies and gentlemen, somebody who’s been on many podcasts. I always look for what are the main components of these things. And one of the biggest things that I have learned from being specifically on this show and running this show for four plus years is if you don’t have awareness, you can’t do anything. You just can’t. If you’re not aware of something, you can’t do anything with something you’re not aware of. And a lot of people will push their awareness off like the people that hate their jobs, you know, I got to go to my job. It’s got to pay for things. There can be a level of awareness to go, but wait a minute, fucking time out. If I don’t like this, why don’t I do something else? You and I experienced similar things where people just bitching complain and just fond of bitching complain. Then they belly up to the bar at the end of the week and drink through the weekend and then bitching complain throughout the week and just rinse and repeat instead of going, hold on timeout. Let me do something different. you had a lot of different iterations and things that led you to something else. Like looking back, you probably would have thought way back in the day, I’m gonna be a professional ball player and make millions of dollars. This is how my life is gonna go. Cause you’re on that path and you’re really pushing for it. Even to go spend your last $250 all the way in Orlando, which 19 hours is if you’re fucking moving. Dre Baldwin (23:48.723)So, Nick McGowan (23:49.408)Most people will take like a day and they’ll have to stop, but you and a couple of friends like taking turns asleep and I’ve done that drive before I get it. There’s a lot of different things that could have really pushed you off the path, but you kept going with the path. And that’s what I like to be able to break apart of like, actually kept you going with that? Because you’re aware enough to go, hmm, well. I don’t know if I’m going to get another job doing this, but I’m seeing that I’m having these conversations and I want to talk about these things. Even like with you to say the new thing, YouTube back then, it gets wild to think that, I don’t know, we weren’t super young when YouTube was new, but geez, we really were. And you were early to it, you know? I talked to people about social media at times where I’m like, I had a social media marketing company in 2013 and I was fucking late. Dre Baldwin (24:31.303)this early 20s. Nick McGowan (24:43.508)seven years late and other people now that keep pushing these things, they’re still doing the same thing over and over and over instead of actually saying what’s actually working. What do I want? What do I want to do with this sort of stuff? And I’d love that you actually, you saw a positive in the network marketing. There are a lot of people that shit on MLMs and network marketing because they’ve had bad experiences or they’ve had friends that have tried to push everything on them or wrap fucking things around their stomachs or. tell them they can make money with a light switch or whatever. But you learn a lot through that. And I think that’s a big thing that taking those steps that are risky at times, like think back to the 250, that was a risk. But you were like, fuck it, I wanna go play ball. I’ll drive all the way down there. There are a lot of people in Philly that didn’t wanna do that. They wouldn’t have done it. They wouldn’t have even cashed that check or rented the car. or gotten into the vehicle to drive down there, let alone all the other things that you did. So you had all these little steps that you had to take. There were all these little risks pieces. So how did you tie that into not only what you’re talking about mindset wise, but specifically for yourself? Like what are you able to look back to and go, man, I was really good at this thing. Like you pointed out discipline, because your parents got up, their shoes on, got to work, did their thing, took care of their kids and moved along in life. That’s great, but that’s just one. Dre Baldwin (26:04.835)Mm-hmm. Bye. Nick McGowan (26:07.95)piece of the recipe. What are the other pieces for you that have really helped you figure out this is what works for me and what I can share with other people. Dre Baldwin (26:16.413)Great question. I’m glad you contextualize it that way because it reminds me of something else. So first thing I’ll say, 2013 you had a social media marketing company. I’m sure you were doing well. That was a good business to be in in 2013. Yeah, I can imagine. So speaking of a couple of things, my parents and Napoleon Hill. So Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich talks about this concept of transmutation. Nick McGowan (26:26.702)It was, but we were still late. Yeah. Dre Baldwin (26:39.273)And transmutation is about how you take, it’s the law of conservation of energy. states, energy is neither created nor destroyed, merely changes forms and moves from one object to another. So my parents were traditional, basically it was called them nine to five years. My mom’s in education. My dad worked basically construction as a day job. He was a musician by night. That was his passion, but he didn’t do it full time. This was before, you know, social media. If he was around now, he was my age now, he’d probably have his own brand. Couldn’t do it in 1985, right? So. Nick McGowan (27:07.182)short. Dre Baldwin (27:08.999)So when I graduated from college, again, division three college, my parents don’t know a ton about sports. My dad’s a big sports fan, so they knew some. They don’t know anything about overseas basketball, but they know division three from division one. I come home from college and they say, what are you gonna do now with your degree? I say, I’m gonna be a professional basketball player. Now mind you, I have no prospects. I have no offers. I have no contracts on the table. My mom’s an educator. So her biggest thing was both of my kids are gonna go to college and get a degree because neither of my parents had their degrees when my sister and I got our degrees. My sister became a college professor just to give you a some comparison and my mom’s an educator, very good educator at that. So I say, I’m going to be a basketball player with no prospects. My mom can’t believe it because I sacrificed all this, her talking, I sacrificed all this for you to get your degree and get your education. And now you say you’re to be a basketball player. It was kind of like I was throwing it all away because again, if it would be one thing, if the New York Knicks were offering me a contract, I wasn’t getting offered anything. So she’s like, well, how are you going to do it? She started asking me. questions that any logical person would answer and there were no answers to the questions. And she essentially was saying, hey, if you don’t have any answers to these questions, well, you need to go, you’re living under our roof. You’re an adult now. You’re still eating food. You’re using the electricity. You need to go get a job. And she was right. Nothing she said was wrong. It wasn’t even highly critical. was just, she was holding a mirror up to me and my dad basically co-signed everything that she was saying. Now that even though she wasn’t wrong, the mirror being held up to me angered me. Not that she said anything specifically that bothered me or that my dad said anything specifically. was just the reality was the reality. So the reality became one of my oppositions. And I’ll tie this in in a moment. The other thing was in college, I didn’t even play my senior year because my junior year after my sophomore year, my junior year, the coach who recruited me got fired. New coach comes in and anybody knows anything about college sports. When a new coach comes into a program, they clean house. The same way that when a new CEO joins a company, some of upper management, middle management gets flushed out, not because you’re not good, but because they want to bring in their own people. I ended up out of the program. So my senior year, I was in school, fully eligible, fully healthy, didn’t play basketball. And this is at a division three school. So again, it’s not like I’m looking at future NBA players when I’m watching games. And that bothered me because in my mind, I knew I was better than the players who were on the team. But at the same time, Nick McGowan (29:11.512)Yeah. Nick McGowan (29:24.188)He Dre Baldwin (29:31.53)I’m objective enough to look at myself. can step outside of myself and look at myself and say, OK, well, you think you’re better than them. But let’s look at the reality. Here they are playing. Here you are not playing. And again, this is the Vision 3 school. So how can you prove you’re better than them? Your eligibility is up. This is before name, image, and likeness. Eligibility is up. They’re on the team. You’re not. How can you prove this? Well, the good thing about back then, there’s no YouTube. There’s only one level to go after college in sports. And that’s the pros. Nick McGowan (29:48.248)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (29:59.422)That story that I told you about how I made it pro and the things I was doing once I made a pro was not just off of talent. It wasn’t just off of intellect or strategy. It was the transmutation of the, if you want to call it disappointment, sadness, anger, embarrassment, frustration of those situations. That was the gas in the tank. I needed to prove for posterity sake that my career was not going to be ended by this coach and no, none of these players are going to be able to say that they outdid me. And also Nick McGowan (30:12.163)you Dre Baldwin (30:28.017)my parents, I wasn’t angry at them. They didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t stop me. But the fact that they held up the mirror, they were the messenger. You know, sometimes you sometimes you to kill the messenger. I didn’t kill my parents, but they were the messenger. And I took it out on I didn’t I wasn’t angry at them personally. But I took that energy from both of those situations. And that was no the gas in the tank to get me from Philadelphia to Orlando. That’s a good metaphor right there. That’s right. So that’s that was a big part of what I did. I don’t even remember what your question was. Nick McGowan (30:37.07)Sure. Nick McGowan (30:51.154)Literally. Nick McGowan (30:57.646)It’s all good. Sometimes that’s the best. You’re like, I’m riffing in this direction. Because like you’d said, this this reminds you of some other things, you know, I think it’s interesting how, look, there are different conversations that have been had in so many circles, everybody’s had this sort of conversation, don’t let people shit on your dreams, don’t let people tell you not to blah, blah, blah. And I think a lot of that conversation misses the fucking mark in a big way, because there’s no context to it. Like your mom is an educator. seems to be a logical person asking you logical questions. You interpret it in some sort of way where part of it was like, see it, but fuck you. But I also see what you’re saying. And I’m gonna go this route and I’m gonna go do this thing. And then there are specifically people that are like, no, you don’t wanna do that. This is gonna happen and it’s all gonna be terrible. Cause their fear and all that sort of stuff. There’s a level of discernment that you can sometimes not have the ability to have. because you trust those people so much. And that’s where I think some of the conversation is like, don’t let your family shit out of your dreams, blah, blah. Yes, and still give more to it. If somebody’s trying to love on you and they have their own things, it’s on us to not interpret it in such a way, but it can be really hard when you go, it’s my mom, it’s my whoever, it’s this person. But some of those things will also move us in a beautiful direction. Like I think back to high school and bring this up at different times. Where do you remember being in like 11th grade with like, we’re going to sit you down. We’re going to talk about what college you want to go to, what things you want to do. So next year we can start ramping and doing all these things. Well, when I sat down with the counselor, she was like, all right, well, you’re a musician and an art kid. Like I was one of those kids that if I didn’t want to be in class, I’d be like, I got a project. They’d be like, fuck off. And I’d go and live in the art room. And this counselor was literally like, well, we can get you into music school or art school, but you’re probably not going to make any money. So what do you want to do? And I checked out. I was like, well, don’t want to fucking be here and talk to you because you just told me I’m going to be a starving artist. So fuck that. I ended up getting into a multi-level marketing company like six months later and you learn so much from that shit. And there’s things that I think some people learn manipulation. Other people learn how to actually be better versions in themselves. And some people use it as stepping stone and all that. Like you and I both did that where we didn’t do network marketing forever. Nick McGowan (33:23.936)It was a stepping stone that opened up a whole new world. But then later on in life, you start to see how systems work and how different pieces and components work with things. But you made all these different choices without letting people affect the way that you went about them while still taking some of the consideration of it. And I’m pointing it out in that sort of way, because as I said to you, even off air, the idea is for people to get something from this where they go, huh, maybe I need to think about this a little differently. And somebody roughly our age or even in their late thirties or early fifties or whatever, you’ve been through enough of a career and have enough of a body of work in a sense where then you can look back and you can see patterns of things. What do I like? What do I not like? What do I actually want? Those are really fucking tough questions for people to ask because then they go, well, what if I don’t want my family? What if I don’t want this job that I’ve been here for 25 years? Or what if I want to do something totally different? Dre Baldwin (34:13.513)Hmm. Nick McGowan (34:22.688)And there’s a balance to that. Like, there are people that are like, fuck it, I was a lawyer one day and next thing you know, I’m painting and that’s it. There’s context there. There’s many conversations they’ve had in their own head. So what does that look like with the work that you do now, specifically with different people that are progressing through their life and having those conversations or maybe shying even away from those conversations within themselves? Dre Baldwin (34:48.969)It’s a great question because a lot of times these days, mostly working with professionals, entrepreneurs, high performers, these people usually come to you with a high performer level surface level issue, usually based around money and or the things they need to do to make money, more marketing, better clients, transitioning, quitting my job, starting a business, et cetera. So to get to the actual issue, that is an issue. Yes, they do want to make more money. Yes, they do need better clients and they want to sell this course or whatever it is they’re doing. But to get to the actual issue, you really have to find out who’s the person behind the issue. Who’s the person behind the problem? And noticing their patterns, noticing their mental blocks. Sometimes the mental block is they can’t see themselves charging more money. Sometimes the mental block is I know who pays me the most money. That’s the top 20 % of my clientele, but the bottom 80 % for me to drop them, they’re going to think I’m a jerk. They’re going to think I don’t value them. They may not like me. Nick McGowan (35:35.48)Yeah. Dre Baldwin (35:47.758)They just don’t have the heart to do it. Not drop them, but pass them off to somebody who’s less senior than you and your company. Sometimes that’s the challenge for people. Sometimes the challenge is just moving themselves to do the things that need to be done, the grunt work. And there is no business, no career that does not have grunt work. A lot of people think that there is one, there isn’t one. There is some type of work you have to do no matter what you do for a Sometimes it’s moving themselves to be able to do that. Sometimes when I’m working with people, sometimes it’s professionals, but there’s a personal issue. I’m not spending as much time with my kids as I want to. My wife is not initiating sex as often as she needs to. A single man who just wants to talk to more girls, but he keeps second guessing himself and hesitating and him and in hauling when he sees a girl on the train and by the time he approaches her, the energy is gone because he waited too long. So it’s sometimes just it’s not sometimes, but all the time finding out who the person is. And once we get to that part and we get through the layers of the surface level stuff that they’ve gotten so used to telling people and we get to the personal stuff. And that’s when we can start to make the change because even though that personal stuff, the stuff that people see in the mirror, it’s hard to sell because you can’t count it, measure it, you can’t see it. That’s the main thing most people need. But almost nobody shows up saying, this is what I want. They show up saying, I want the thing on the surface, the thing I can count, measure and check the box for. But the only way to get those resolved is we got to get to who the person is. So you have to show them this, but you got to give them that. So the metaphor I like to use is feeding medicine to a dog. Nick McGowan (36:55.48)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (37:01.24)the Dre Baldwin (37:16.963)You they don’t really need the peanut butter, but they say they want the peanut butter, but you got to hide the medicine inside of it. So you got to get them to understand. Yes, I can help you with the surface level issue. Now that they believe that what we’re going to get to without me even having to say it explicitly, Nick, is we have to figure out who is the person you see in the mirror, because until this person changes, you’re never going to be willing to confidently say that number in the middle of a meeting to get the price that you want for this project. You keep charging about our you need to be charged about the project. Nick McGowan (37:34.838)Mm-hmm. Dre Baldwin (37:44.424)Now you’re accepting $200 an hour. You need to be charging them 100K for the project for six months, but you’re not willing to say that number. So until we fix how you see yourself, I can say the number for you. I can go get the deal, but you can’t get it. You have to say the number. So we got to deal with that part. Not all this other, all these other things are just details is we got to get to who you see in the mirror because who you see in the mirror leads to how you carry yourself energetically. 85 % of communication is nonverbal. So Whatever you see in the mirror is how you carry yourself. Other people pick up on that non-verbally. They respond to it non-verbally. That leads to them saying yes or no for reasons that have nothing to do with what you actually said and nothing to do what they actually said. So whatever reason they gave you is not the real reason. And whatever you think is the reason is not the real reason. But that is the main conversation. Most people don’t understand that. So my job is helping people understand that and understand when you get the non-verbal part right, what you say verbally doesn’t really matter that much. Nick McGowan (38:29.166)You Dre Baldwin (38:41.915)One thing you learn in sales, you can’t say the right thing to the wrong person. You can’t say the wrong thing to the right person. When the energy is right, it doesn’t matter. But most people are so stuck in their heads, especially high performance, because high performance is usually really smart. They have a lot of information, a lot of knowledge. They read a ton of books. They’ve written books. It’s hard to get them to get past the intellectual level to the energetic level. But that’s where everything is happening. Nick McGowan (38:45.912)Yeah. Nick McGowan (38:49.624)Yeah. Nick McGowan (39:05.353)I’m so glad that you got to this point of the energetic level. There are the things that were, yeah, we want the surface thing because we need the surface thing. Just like we want to sell things because really we want to do these other things. Some people, it’s a thing where, I want to sell more because I want a second home or I want a beach house or whatever. That’s an issue in and of itself. If it’s like, I just want to do this to buy this thing where I’m not going to go down that path, but… The reason why I bring that up is I think there are times where we can look at things and say, want this because other people want me to want it. The system of the world tells me I should have this. Like showing up to a meeting in this bad ass car, like if you have a broken down car or something that actually makes sense for you to have, and you enjoy having a 2009 Accord or whatever it is, that shouldn’t dictate the type of level of service that you have. But people will think that they have to put on this facade and the charade. because they’re afraid to be themselves when in most times, as you know, most people don’t know who themselves are. They don’t know who it is that they really want to be or what they want to do. The energetic part of it is so huge, especially in sales. I mean, you and I could shoot the shit on sales forever. I think about the people that I’ve trained over the course of time where they just have such a hard time not reading a script because they can’t embody it. They can’t embody the framework of how to have the conversation to ultimately level the person and fucking just see if you can help. Cause if he can’t get off the phone, if you can, beautiful, continue the conversation. But the bullshitting is not going to help either one of you. But people will go, well, I have to do this. And we do it mostly to ourselves. Like if you think about how many people talk shit to themselves, like, geez, if that was a friend or somebody outside, you would have a restraining order, you know, like you’d be fearing for your life. So getting to that level is really difficult for a lot of people, even the people that do a lot of the work, because it’s asking them to shake the boundaries and the foundation of themselves. And that can be really uncomfortable, especially for high performers that are like, I’ve been doing this at such a high level. Now you’re asking me to go backward. Now we’re asking you to actually adjust the foundation so you go forward from there. I mean, I really appreciate you being on today. Appreciate the wisdom and the insight. Nick McGowan (41:28.056)For those people that are on their path towards self-mastery, be it somebody who’s a performer or somebody who’s an athlete or somebody who’s just really trying to figure out how do they fit within their own little piece of the world, what’s your advice for them on their path towards self-mastery? Dre Baldwin (41:43.546)Biggest thing is for people to get more fully present with themselves. Everybody’s heard the term being fully present. What presence is, is not something that you learn, is not something you add on, is not something you develop. Presence already exists. Presence is what remains when you strip away all the noise, all the excess. So anything that’s coming from your smartphone is noise. Text messages, emails, notifications, any app you can get on, all of it is noise. It’s an added on. It didn’t come with you standard equipment when you were born. Nick McGowan (42:04.078)You Dre Baldwin (42:12.829)Your thoughts about the future is noise because you’re time traveling into the future that didn’t happen. You’re reminiscing on the past is noise because you’re time traveling into the past that already happened. You thinking about something that’s not happening where you are right now in the moment where your feet are is noise because you are not in the place that you are. You’re not grounded in the current moment. Presence is what’s left when you strip away all that excess. The challenge for many people is that presence bothers them because they’re left with the only thing they don’t want to deal with, which is themselves. When you strip everything away, all that’s left is just you dealing with you. And that’s uncomfortable for people. And interestingly enough, a lot of high performers are uncomfortable with themselves. So what we do is we keep adding on more noise. You can listen to another podcast. You can read another book. You can watch another YouTube video. You can go gather more information. You can go give out more information. That all keeps your mind stimulated and occupied so you don’t have to deal with yourself. When you get used to dealing with yourself, you calm down that, as they say, the monkey mind. This is what they talk about in mindfulness or yoga or any type of meditation when you get comfortable being with yourself your signal Internally that you project externally gets ten times stronger and you actually get better results The challenge is you had to deal with the withdrawal symptoms of turning all that stimulus off Doesn’t mean you can’t stimulate doesn’t mean you don’t read talk do your work But you have to be able to turn it off and control it instead of it controlling you the world that we’re in now today Nick these devices have trained us to be controlled. We’re not in control anymore. We’re being controlled. We have to still have a device. I still got a phone. I got two phones on my desk and an iPad and a computer, but I control them. They don’t control me. Exactly. So the thing is you have to learn to control them and turn them off when you want to not be pulled in by the dopamine rush. I think that’s the biggest thing in the world we’re in today, especially for the highly intelligent high performers. Nick McGowan (43:41.806)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (44:04.216)Yeah, and that could be fun. Literally in those moments like where you know, like I think about myself at times. I’m an iPad kid in a way. Like I have my video games that I play and I’ll veg out and I kind of work through them are primarily like 2K games, know, NBA and NFL and stuff. But there are times where I can feel like, I’ve just been doing this for a bit. And it’s an actual lift to put the fucking thing down to step up. move out of the energy of watching TV, even if you’re like, look, I’m gonna give myself an hour or two to just veg and whatever. When you feel it, that’s one of those moments where it’s like you have an opportunity to do something with it, because you are really present and you’re aware of yourself enough to go, all right, motherfucker, get up, get out of here, go do something else. That is one of those moments that people that have a hard time sitting with themselves miss those because you don’t see them more often. But when you see it, You can’t not see it. Like I joke about self-awareness at times. Like the more aware you become, the fucking more aware you become. And the more aware you become, the more aware you become. Like you can’t get away from it. And it can be really tough, but I appreciate the work that you’re doing. There’s a lot when people say like, you know, you want to be mindful. Like I hear from times different, different people listening. They’re like, you can’t just mindset your way through life. Like I get it. Listen to the fucking conversations. That’s not what we talk about. It’s not about just. forcing yourself to do a thing that either one of us are saying. It’s about actually taking this and figuring out how does it work into my life? And how do I think about things a little differently? And what do you want to do from there? So Dre, I appreciate you being on today. This has been awesome. I’m sure we could just sit here and just keep talking about things, but it is almost top of the art. Before I let you go, where can people find you and where can they connect with you? Dre Baldwin (45:51.997)They can just go to work on your game.com work on your game.com and anything you need will be found there. Nick McGowan (45:58.262)Awesome. Again, man, I appreciate your time today. Thank you very much. Dre Baldwin (46:01.321)Thanks for having me on Nick, appreciate the conversation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCcqCo4KTqk

336. Do You Suffer From an Adventure Deficit?

Brave Writer

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2026 63:08

What if the crankiness in your homeschool isn't a behavior problem at all, but an adventure deficit? In this episode, we explore how too much routine can flatten a family's energy and how a little surprise, novelty, and wonder can bring learning back to life. We share simple ways to add adventure at home, outside, in literature, in language, and even on rainy days, plus ideas for building an “adventure list” before you need one. Along the way, we talk about wonder walls, theater games, jump rope, gardening, punctuation, and the hilarious flow chart that asks the all-important question: “But did you die?” Listen in, then come share your own adventure ideas with us.Resources:Check out the “Did You Have a Good Adventure?” flow chart at Semi-Rad.comFind Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots and Whatever the Weather: Science Experiments and Art Activities That Explore the Wonders of Weather in the Brave Writer Book ShopBrave Writer class registration is open! Visit Julie's Substack to find her special podcast for kids (and a lot more!) Purchase Julie's new book, Help! My Kid Hates WritingFind community at the Brave Learner Home Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programsStart a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that's sure to grab and keep your child's attentionSubscribe to Julie's Substack newsletters, Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic, and Melissa's Catalog of EnthusiasmsSign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684Interested in advertising with us? Reach out to media@bravewriter.comSign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684Connect with Julie:Instagram: @juliebravewriterThreads: @juliebravewriterBluesky: @bravewriter.comFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriterConnect with Melissa:Website: melissawiley.comSubstack: melissawiley.substack.comInstagram: @melissawileybooksBluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.socialProduced by NOVA

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#49 - Live Podcast: Play vs. Academics: What if it's not an either/or, but both/and? with Author Amanda Morgan

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2026 50:42

Hear the recording of a live CESA 2 podcast, celebrating the Week of the Young Child. CESA 2 Early Childhood consultant Nicole Aldworth chatted with Amanda Morgan, author of "Not Just Cute: How Powerful Play Drives Development in Early Childhood," on how to include both play and academics in early child development. They discuss how play truly lays the foundation for academic learning, and what intentional, high-quality play looks like in real classrooms.Resources:Check out the video version on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u47RIrbxicsContact Nicole Aldworth: ⁠⁠⁠https://cesa2.org/contact⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our CESA 2 podcast email list!: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/S091xli/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out all our episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cesa2.org/building-educator-capacity-podcast

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Jason Fung: 3 Rules to Lose 50 Pounds Without Ever Counting a Calorie : 1453

The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2026 60:39

You are not eating because you are hungry. You are eating because you have been trained to, and the food industry designed it that way. This episode dismantles everything you thought you knew about hunger, weight loss, and metabolism, and gives you a science-backed framework to finally stop fighting your own biology. -Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR Host Dave Asprey sits down with Dr. Jason Fung, a New York Times bestselling author, practicing nephrologist, and one of the most trusted voices in functional medicine and metabolic health. Dr. Fung completed medical school at the University of Toronto and a fellowship in nephrology at Stanford University. He is the author of multiple critically acclaimed books including The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code, and his newest release The Hunger Code, and is the co-founder of The Fasting Method, a program designed to help people lose weight and reverse type 2 diabetes through fasting and real food nutrition. His work has helped millions break free from calorie restriction dogma for good. Together, Dave and Dr. Fung expose the three types of hunger driving the obesity epidemic, why calorie restriction fails almost every time, and what ultra-processed foods actually do to your brain's reward system. They get into the real science of fasting, metabolism, hormonal signaling, GLP-1 drugs, food addiction, conditioned eating behavior, and how your physical environment is quietly sabotaging your results. If you are serious about biohacking your hunger, optimizing your body composition, and taking control of your biology without white-knuckling willpower, this episode delivers the tools you need. This is essential listening for anyone focused on biohacking, longevity, human performance, fasting, metabolism, anti-aging, sleep optimization, brain optimization, functional medicine, and eating smarter not harder. You'll Learn: Why calorie restriction fails and what actually controls how much you eat The three types of hunger: homeostatic, hedonic, and conditioned, and how each one drives overeating How ultra-processed foods hijack your dopamine system and destroy satiety signals Why wiring your jaw shut or cutting your stomach still does not produce long-term weight loss What GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic actually reveal about hunger, metabolism, and the body fat thermostat How conditioned hunger works like Pavlov's dogs and practical strategies to reverse it The role of your physical environment in controlling food noise and cravings Why food addiction is real, and which foods are engineered to keep you hooked How fasting resets hunger signals, improves metabolic flexibility, and supports ketosis The mindset shift that makes healthy eating feel effortless instead of like deprivation Thank you to our sponsors! - OneSkin | Get 15% off OneSkin with code DAVE at oneskin.co/DAVE. - iRestore | Reverse hair loss with www.irestore.com/DAVE and get exclusive savings on the iRestore Elite, use code DAVE - Our Place | Stop cooking with toxic cookware and upgrade to Our Place today. With a 100-day risk-free trial, plus free shipping and returns, you can experience this game-changing cookware with zero risk. Visit: fromourplace.com/DAVE Use code: DAVE for 10% off sitewide - fatty15 | Go to https://fatty15.com/dave and save an extra $15 when you subscribe with code DAVE. Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, and the father of biohacking. With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights inhealth, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living. New episodes are released every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (BONUS). Dave asks the questions no one else will and gives you real tools to become stronger, smarter, and more resilient. Keywords: Jason Fung, The Hunger Code, fasting, intermittent fasting, hunger, food addiction, ultra-processed foods, calorie restriction, weight loss, obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolism, insulin, leptin, hedonic hunger, conditioned hunger, food noise, GLP-1, Ozempic, dopamine, satiety, body fat thermostat, food environment, behavioral psychology, real food Resources: • Check out all of Dr. Fung's books and content at: https://www.doctorjasonfung.com/ • Get My 2026 Clean Nicotine Roadmap | Enroll for free at https://daveasprey.com/2026-clean-nicotine-roadmap/ • Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today. • Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15 • My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off) • Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off) • Dave Asprey's BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com • Dave Asprey's New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated • Join My Substack (Live Access To Podcast Recordings): https://substack.daveasprey.com/ • Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com Timestamps: 0:00 – Trailer 1:01 – Introduction 2:29 – The 3 Types of Hunger 4:41 – Conditioned Hunger 6:51 – Ultra-Processed Foods 11:47 – Dave's Personal Story 14:06 – The Calorie Debate 16:32 – Restricting Calories Doesn't Work 18:38 – The 3 Whys Framework 20:21 – Shame in Weight Loss 25:05 – GLP-1 Drugs 27:53 – Ranking the 3 Hungers 33:43 – Food Addiction 38:31 – Fake Fats & Fake Sweeteners 45:03 – 3 Golden Rules for Weight Loss 47:42 – Deprogramming Hunger 50:36 – Pavlok & Behavior Hacking 59:26 – Outro See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Designing a Restful Family Adventure: Our Arizona & Sedona Spring Break

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2026 20:56

EP:188 On this episode of Thrive Like a Parent, I'm taking you behind the scenes of our Arizona spring break — just me and the boys — and sharing exactly how I planned a restful, intentional family trip instead of a “go, go, go” burnout vacation. I walk you through our Arizona + Sedona + Utah itinerary: Spring training in Phoenix (Rangers vs. Dodgers, all the autographs, and why this turned into a total core memory for the boys) Four days in Sedona with the Pink Jeep Tour, long hikes, pool time, and a magical stargazing night under the stars Our cold but hilarious visit to Slide Rock, exploring Flagstaff, and the jaw-dropping views at Horseshoe Bend Glamping at Under Canvas in Utah and our unforgettable visit to Lower Antelope Canyon Why we chose to go back to Sedona for our final days to simply rest, reconnect, and breathe But this isn't just a travel recap. I'm sharing: How I built this trip around nervous system regulation, not perfection or productivity Why I intentionally avoid over-planning and let our brains and bodies lead the way How I balanced my needs and the boys' needs so everyone actually enjoyed the trip What this adventure showed me about my healing and growth since Jonathan passed, and why I'm so deeply proud of doing this on my own If you've ever wondered how to travel with kids without melting down, how to honor your own capacity as a parent, or how to create trips that are about connection, not chaos, this episode is for you. If this episode resonates, share it with another parent who's craving a different way to do family travel. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss future episodes on nervous system regulation, parenting, grief, and building a life that actually feels good. And if you want the full itinerary, hotel names, restaurants, and experiences we loved, check the show notes — I've linked it all for you there. Links & Resources:

Dr. Donald Dennis: The Mold-Brain Connection Your Doctor Has Never Mentioned, Micro Balance Health

Healing The Source

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2026 71:33

Your chronic sinusitis, brain fog, hormonal dysfunction, and fatigue may all have the same root cause — and your doctor has probably never mentioned it. Dr. Donald Dennis is a board-certified ENT surgeon who had his "mold epiphany" after a patient returned from a beach vacation with her nasal polyps completely resolved. He traced it to one thing: two weeks in a mold-free environment. What followed was decades of research connecting mold and mycotoxins to pituitary damage, cognitive decline, hormonal disruption, gut compromise, and chronic illness that the conventional medical system keeps misdiagnosing. In this episode, Dr. Dennis breaks down why the antibiotics most sinusitis patients are prescribed actually make the fungal problem worse, how mycotoxins travel from the sinuses into the brain and disrupt hormone production, and the AI MRI technology now being used to see mycotoxin deposits in the brain and track their removal. We also cover biofilms, the gut as a second battlefield, hidden mold exposure sources, and what a real recovery protocol looks like from the ground up. Sponsored By: → Toups & Co |Ready to give Toups a try? Get 25% off your first order by going to http://toupsandco.com/HEALING25, and use code HEALING25 for 25% off your first order. → TIMELINE | Timeline's clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $99, with the exact same science and formula. And my listeners can still get 20% off when you go to https://timeline.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE → Cowboy Colostrum | Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code HEALINGTHESOURCE at https://cowboycolostrum.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE. → PUORI | Go to https://puori.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and use the code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein subscription order and get a free shaker worth $25. → FATTY15 | Fatty15 is on a mission to optimize your C15 levels to help support your long-term health and wellness - especially as you age. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to https://fatty15.com/HEALINGTHESOURCE and using code HEALINGTHESOURCE at checkout. Resources: Check out their website for mold supports: Micro Balance Health Follow Micro Balance Health on Instagram Follow the host, Claudia, on Instagram, check out Elham's Liquid Gold 100% Organic Castor Oil, and enjoy her deep-dives on Substack

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112. A Man's Guide to the Menstrual Cycle with Tiffany Ruder

Aligned Womb, Aligned You

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2026 56:35

Your cycle doesn't just affect you — it affects everyone in your orbit. Pharmacist and cycle syncing advocate Dr. Tiffany Ruder is back, and this time we're handing the playbook to the partners, the dads, the brothers, and the coworkers who want to show up better but just don't know how. This isn't about special treatment — it's about understanding that women operate on a 28-day rhythm, and when the people around us get that, everything changes.We walked through all four cycle phases and gave partners one simple identity to anchor to in each one — because when men have clear, actionable language, they actually use it. Spoiler: it's not complicated. It's just communication.In this episode we explore:The Four P's framework: Partner (follicular), Pursuer (ovulation), Provider (luteal), Protector (menstruation) — and what each one looks like in real lifeWhy timing matters for hard conversations The invisible emotional load women carry, especially in the luteal phase, and how partners can proactively reduce it without being askedWhen neither partner has capacity: outsourcing, community, and why the 50/50 myth is hurting your relationshipDr. Tiffany Ruder is a pharmacist, hormone health coach, and perimenopause specialist dedicated to helping high-achieving women understand the profound biological shifts that occur in midlife. With a unique blend of clinical expertise and real-world application, she translates complex hormone science into clear, actionable strategy. Dr. Ruder is the creator of Chaos to Control, a framework that helps women move from confusion and self-doubt to clarity, confidence, and physiological alignment. Her work centers on advancing hormone literacy so women can stop overriding their biology and begin making decisions that support their energy, mood, metabolism, and long-term health. Through coaching, education, and speaking, she empowers women to work with their hormonal rhythms instead of fighting against them — unlocking a more sustainable, informed, and powerful way to live and lead.Resources:Check out Kate's Course Living In FlowNew Book Burning Up and Frozen Out: What Every Man Needs to Know About Menopause But No One Told YouFollow Dr. Tiffany Ruder on Instagram at @OptimizeherpharmacistacistFollow Dr. Tiffany Ruder on Facebook at Tiffany RuderJoin her Free Facebook Group OptimizeHERAbout KateKate Nguy is the founder of Shee Revival and a Certified Hormone Health Practitioner and Cycle-Syncing Strategist who helps busy women in their 30s and 40s balance their hormones and reclaim their energy. Specializing in the hormonal ups and downs of midlife—from PMS and perimenopause to burnout and cortisol overload—Kate guides women to feel at home in their bodies and live in sync with their natural cycles. Through cycle syncing, hormone hacks, and nervous system regulation, Kate empowers women to rebalance their hormones, reconnect to their bodies, and revive the vibrant, grounded version of themselves underneath the overwhelm.Tune in now and join the movement toward better hormone health!Follow me @hormoneswithkate on Instagram for more insights, tips, and support!

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CinemaCon Reactions, Spider-Man Rumors, Daredevil Leaks, and The Boys Breakdown

Geek Freaks

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2026 87:29

Frank and Squeaks are back with a packed episode covering the biggest movie, TV, and gaming stories making noise right now. They kick things off with a fast-moving CinemaCon roundup that hits Jumanji, Beyond the Spider-Verse, Zelda, Bloodborne, Resident Evil, anime in theaters, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day before shifting into a full trailer discussion for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. From there, they get into Daredevil: Born Again leak talk, Avatar movie reactions, Disney and Epic Games rumors, Mortal Kombat 2, Punisher: One Last Kill, and a long review-heavy discussion on The Boys. It is the kind of episode built for fans who want news, theories, and strong opinions all in one place. Timestamps and Topics: 00:00 Intro, what they've been reading and playing, plus a tease for the upcoming Victor Barro interview about the Panels app 02:19 CinemaCon round-up featuring Jumanji, Beyond the Spider-Verse, Zelda, Bloodborne, Resident Evil, anime theatrical releases, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day 14:05 The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping trailer breakdown 18:21 Daredevil: Born Again leak talk, prison theories, and street-level Marvel speculation 23:26 Avatar: The Last Airbender movie leak reactions and animation discussion 25:22 Disney and Epic Games rumors, Fortnite, Disney Infinity, and what a merger could mean for games 29:57 Mortal Kombat 2 trailer reactions and why it already feels stronger than Street Fighter 35:06 Punisher: One Last Kill trailer breakdown and where Frank Castle fits in the MCU now 37:42 The Boys review, character arcs, likely deaths, and what is working best this season 50:29 Black Noir comic spoilers and whether the show could still pull off its biggest twist 53:52 Victor Barro interview begins, including the Panels app, DRM-free comics, indie creators, and the future of the platform 01:25:04 Quick Invincible thoughts and final reactions 01:25:54 Outro, review request, and Capital Creative Showcase plug Key Takeaways: This episode moves fast and covers a wide range of major fandom topics without losing the personal back-and-forth that makes the show fun. The CinemaCon segment gives listeners a strong one-stop update on several high-interest movie and franchise stories. The Marvel section is one of the biggest hooks here, especially the Daredevil and Spider-Man speculation. The Boys conversation gives the episode a strong second half and should hit well with listeners looking for review-heavy discussion. Frank and Squeaks keep the tone casual, funny, and opinionated, which helps the episode feel more like hanging out than getting a news dump. Memorable Quotes: "Why is he not taking photos?" "Mortal Kombat is taking itself seriously in the right way." "This is going to be the bridge that pulls him from Netflix to MCU." "There's some really good stuff out there." Call to Action: If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe to Geek Freaks, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share the episode with #GeekFreaksPodcast. Reviews help more listeners find the show, and your support really makes a difference. Links and Resources: Check out the Panels App: https://www.panels.app/ GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source of all news discussed during our podcast. Check the episode description for links related to the Panels app, bonus reviews, and anything else mentioned during the show. Follow Us: Follow Geek Freaks for more news, reviews, interviews, and episode updates. Instagram: @geekfreakspodcast Twitter: @geekfreakspod Threads: @geekfreakspodcast Facebook: The Geek Freaks Podcast Patreon: Geek Freaks Podcast Listener Questions: Got thoughts on CinemaCon, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Daredevil, The Boys, or Punisher? Send us your questions and topic ideas for a future episode. Apple Podcast Tags: Geek culture, CinemaCon, Spider-Man Brand New Day, Daredevil Born Again, The Boys, Punisher One Last Kill, The Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping, Avatar The Last Airbender, Mortal Kombat 2, Beyond the Spider-Verse, Zelda movie, Resident Evil movie, Bloodborne, Marvel podcast, movie news, TV reviews, gaming news, pop culture podcast

Hot Topics: Kris Jenner's Hand Lift, How to Reduce Pores, Get Glass Skin, Erase Dark Circles, Remove Dr. Youn's Cyst, and more!

Holistic Plastic Surgery Show

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2026 53:29

In this episode of Hot Topics in Cosmetic Medicine, Dr. Anthony Youn is joined by dermatologist Dr. Emily Levin to break down what's actually worth your time and money in today's rapidly evolving aesthetics world. They kick things off with a surprisingly relatable skin condition, the “dilated pore of Winer,” explaining what causes it, when to leave it alone, and when it's time to remove it for good. From there, they dive into one of the biggest skincare myths, can you actually shrink your pores? The answer might surprise you. They walk through what truly works, what's overhyped, and how to build a routine that improves the appearance of pores without wasting money. Plus, they discuss why hands often reveal age faster than the face, sparked by recent attention on Kris Jenner, and what you can actually do to treat them safely.

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Honest Motherhood: Capacity, Rage, and Radical Self-Honesty with Libby Ward

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2026 43:18

EP:187 Motherhood is beautiful, but it's also brutal — and you are not broken for finding it hard. In this episode of Thrive Like a Parent, I sit down with my dear friend Libby Ward, author of Honest Motherhood: On Losing My Mind and Finding Myself. From the very first page, I saw myself in her words, and I know you will too. We talk openly about: What it really feels like to be overstimulated, resentful, and on the edge of rage as a mom Why motherhood isn't a time management issue, it's a capacity issue The moment Libby saw fear in her children's eyes and realized something had to change How chasing the undefined standard of a “good mom” keeps us burned out, dysregulated, and ashamed Why radical honesty about your actual life (your nervous system, support, money, partner, health) is the first step to feeling human again Letting go of being selfless and instead finally having a self Practical ways to lower your standards, say no, reclaim time, and build capacity so you can show up as the parent you want to be If you've ever thought, “Why is this so hard for me when everyone else seems fine?” or “I'm barely holding it together,” this conversation is for you. You'll walk away feeling seen, less alone, and with permission to stop hustling for some impossible version of “good mom” and start honoring your real, lived experience.

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How Confidence And Certainty Factor Into Personal Growth with Nick McGowan

Holistic Plastic Surgery Show

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2026 7:27

“Healing shapes how confident and certain we feel.” In this episode, Nick explores the concepts of confidence and certainty, their differences, and how they influence personal growth. He discusses practical insights on how understanding these can improve mindset, decision-making, and emotional resilience. What to listen for: Difference between confidence and certainty How confidence impacts decision-making The role of certainty in personal growth Practical ways to build confidence and certainty “If we don’t have confidence, we’re probably pretty uncertain about something.” There's a reason for a lack of confidence; it doesn't just appear Confidence and certainty can be tied together unconsciously Exploring our feelings and mindset heading into a situation can shape our confidence “Confidence in the work, certainty in the results.” Results can be hard to predict when external factors are involved Clarity in purpose can drastically change how confident we are going into any situation Trusting the process of your work can alleviate stress and keep you focused on the task that you know will result in the outcome you want About Nick McGowan I'm Nick McGowan, an entrepreneur, podcaster, and mental health advocate, and I’ve been on a 20+ year journey of personal development, learning to master my mindset, emotions, and the art of living with purpose. As a Mindset and Self-Mastery Mentor, I work with ambitious men and women who want to live their most authentic and joyous lives by helping them master their mindset, emotional awareness, and authentic communication. My mission is to empower people to lead lives that feel aligned, grounded, and truly their own. Throughout my career, I've built teams, streamlined systems, and improved client experiences across SaaS, media, marketing, and personal development spaces. Whether I'm leading cross-functional projects, optimizing SEO, Podcasting, designing strategies, or guiding clients through transformation, I bring a hands-on, solution-focused approach to everything I do. I'm also the host of The Mindset and Self-Mastery Show, where my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, challenge us, and ultimately guide us back to who we are at our core. On this show, we uncover the secret gems others have discovered through trial and error and breakthroughs, so you can fast-track your growth and master your mindset in your pursuit of self-mastery. Check out the latest episode here. With years of podcasting and two decades of marketing experience, I've mastered the storytelling, interview flow, strategy, and technical production that elevate a podcast from “just content” to something truly impactful. Whether you’re a leader looking to amplify your message, a seasoned speaker and podcast host looking to sharpen your edge, or even a beginner who is wondering how to share their message, I mentor thought leaders through every step of having the conversation they’re here to have on this planet. So, what message are you here to share?! https://nickmcgowan.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenickmcgowan/ Resources: Check out other episodes about our confidence and clarity Finding Confidence Through Grief and Psychic Mediumship With Karen Romine Become A Person Of Value With Jeevan Matharu Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/podcasting-services/ Learn more about our host, Nick McGowanhttps://nickmcgowan.com/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan 00:00No matter what we’ve done in life or what we’re doing right now, whether that’s purpose work, working on past traumas and really trying to figure out how to manage our mindset on a daily, it comes down to us understanding from a confidence perspective that you may be confident in the thing that you’re doing. It’s not the exact same as being certain in how you’re going about it. Nick McGowan 00:28Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self-Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show, I wanna talk about how confidence and certainty factor into personal growth. What is confidence, and what is certainty? Confidence is feeling like you’re able to actually get something done. It’s really the intent for the impact that you wanna have. You’re confident that you feel like you can get this thing done, whatever that thing is. Certainty is 100 % knowing that it’s going to happen. Nick McGowan 00:58And there’s a small little bit of difference between those and really kind of a gray area where certainty and confidence can intersect, but they can also play at odds with each other. If you go into something certain that something’s going to happen, you’re going to lack confidence or maybe you’re going to have a bit more confidence. I think about it in the sense of if you know that you want to go in and have a really tough conversation with somebody you work with, that’s different. Nick McGowan 01:26than a tough conversation with your partner or your spouse or somebody that you love. You may be certain going into that, that you have the facts, you have the things together, you need to be able to have the proper conversation. And you can feel confident knowing that you have those, but anything can happen at that point. Somebody could say something, somebody could bring something up that you’re unaware of, and that can knock down your confidence. That could absolutely destroy your certainty at that point. Nick McGowan 01:55So if you think of confidence, just being confident in moving through the world, I’m sure you’ve seen different people that seem to be super confident, but have no idea what they’re doing in life. When you’re confident and you have this internal belief that what you’re doing, you’re going to give it your all and that you’re able to move into something without any hesitation, that’s vastly different than even having some confidence. Nick McGowan 02:21Like if you kinda know I’m gonna move into this situation or this conversation and I feel good about what I’m doing, that’s vastly different than being able to move into something with full confidence. You’ve experienced that, we’ve all experienced that. No matter what we’ve done in life or what we’re doing right now, whether that’s purpose work or that’s working on past traumas and really trying to figure out how to manage our mindset on a daily, it comes down to us understanding from a confidence perspective. Nick McGowan 02:51that you may be confident in the thing that you’re doing. It’s not the exact same as being certain in how you’re going about it. Makes me think of when people talk about practicing, practice makes perfect. I’ve also heard that if you practice the wrong things, of course you’re not gonna be perfect in what you’re trying to be perfect in, which makes sense. That’s kind of a duh situation. A lot of people will actually go through life working on things that they think they need to work on and being confident that they’re working Nick McGowan 03:19on the things that they’re working on that actually tie to deeper core wounds and will make actual change in their life. They’re not certain about it. And finding certainty in what you’re doing can really take a level of confidence, but also a level of understanding and empathy and courageousness to be able to move through something with certainty. I feel like some of this may be a bit ambiguous and I’m somewhat trying to keep it that way because Nick McGowan 03:48your situation in life and your context is different than mine. Even if they’re similar, there’s still nuances and differences and things that we go through that maybe affect us differently or affect the way that we handle situations differently or the way that we view life on the daily. When I think of confidence and I think of certainty tying into and really factoring into our personal growth, I think about being confident in myself being able to do the work. Nick McGowan 04:17And even if I don’t always feel certain that the work will help me grow and change, I am confident in the patterns that I’ve seen over the course of time and how things work, which then ties back into my certainty. Let’s think about that. For confident in the things that we’re doing and we’re working on, certainty can come along with that as we see examples of how things work, like the work that we’re doing for ourself. Nick McGowan 04:43As a prime example, if you’re going through therapy right now, maybe you’ve been in therapy for years and years and years. I am certain that therapy works, but I’m uncertain if what you’re doing right now is actually working for you. The modality may need to be changed up. If you’re doing talk therapy right now, maybe it’s EMDR or DBT or something that really gets deeper to your subconscious to be able to rewrite those stories and change those. I’m certain that Nick McGowan 05:12Anything like that can ultimately help, but I’m uncertain of what’s exactly going to help you. If you’re confident and moving through and trying the different modalities, you can also be certain that health and happiness and growth will come from that. If we think about being able to tie the two together, if we don’t have confidence, we’re probably pretty uncertain about something. If we’re certain about something, we probably at least have a little bit of confidence to it. Nick McGowan 05:40and a little bit of boost that goes along with it. I just wanted to have this be a relatively quick episode to be able to get into those two topics. And I’m gonna expand upon those just throughout other episodes as I do. That was on my heart today to be able to talk about. And I want you to be able to take from this that if you’re certain about a situation will turn out positive or negative, then you can be confident in some ways that you’re right. But if you’re certain about a situation that’s positive or negative, Nick McGowan 06:09that will actually affect your confidence. And if you’re able to move through life with confidence based on healing and doing the work to be able to heal things that have shaped the way that you look at really life now, you will have more confidence. And therefore, I believe you’ll have more certainty. If you have questions, if you want me to dive deeper into this or you wanna understand how do I actually gain confidence in my life? How do I gain certainty in my life? And how do I see the differences in those? I’d love to be able to help you out. Nick McGowan 06:39Please reach out to me. Thank you, and I appreciate your time. Thanks for listening to today’s episode. What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you consume podcasts and subscribe, rate, and leave a five-star review. It’s very much appreciated and also helps other people find the show and experience healing just like us. Please also head over to our website, The Mindset and Self Mastery Show. Nick McGowan 07:14where you can check out all of our episodes and find additional resources to help you manage your mindset as you seek self-mastery. So with that, thank you and remember, your mindset matters and so do you. https://youtu.be/yLI7lLnclAY

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The Newest Cosmetic Treatments from Hollywood and Beverly Hills with Dr. Steven and Wendy Svehlak

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 51:45

Are you curious about the latest, most advanced cosmetic treatments that haven't even hit the mainstream yet? In this episode, Dr. Youn sits down with Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Steve Svehlak and his wife, Wendy Thorlakson Svehlak, co-owners of the premier Aesthetics Bar in Manhattan Beach. They dive deep into the state-of-the-art procedures that are taking the coasts by storm — from the intriguing "VAMP" procedure utilizing salmon DNA, to the regenerative power of exosomes and stem cells. They also reveal the secret behind the "ballerina breast augmentation" and the rising peptide therapies that Hollywood insiders are calling the "fountain of youth." If you want to know what the future of anti-aging and cosmetic enhancement looks like — and what treatments you might be asking for next — you won't want to miss this conversation. Tune in to discover the secrets behind the most sought-after results in Beverly Hills.

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#129 - The Science Behind Properly Prepared Beans (and how to do it at home!)

Ancestral Kitchen

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 104:30

Beans, Beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you absorb valuable minerals and proteins, improve your cardiovascular function and the health of your arterial walls as well as cholesterol and fat absorption, boost your digestion and gut bacteria health, and enjoy an array of bright and colorful foods - but what about that other, turbulent side benefit?In this explosive episode, we will break down, like an enzyme breaks down an oligosaccharide, the compounds in beans and the processes in your body that can cause the possible noxious side benefits, as well as what ancestral peoples did to deal with this - aside from cracking ancient jokes that never get old. We will discuss in detail a patented process purported to eliminate ALL of the potentially thunderous side-effects using only water, time and heat, and we will additionally talk about herbs that can be cooked or served alongside beans to quell the claps of cheeky applause.There is a copious amount of additional material that I could only include in the show notes for reasons of being too inappropriate to read on air, and they can be found on our website, ancestralkitchenpodcast.com by clicking the Episodes drop-down. I tested the absolute technology limits with the length of show notes today and ran out of room on our podcast apps, so go and enjoy the mountains of links and additional text I put there for you to enjoy.In this episode I hope you will find the critical information you need to understand the possible pitfalls of beans and where those pitfalls come from, and leave feeling confident in how to deal with them and enjoy not only beans, but all their benefits - and none of their possible sound effects. Researching this episode left me all the more in awe of the incredible, ancient value beans bring to our diet, and more determined than ever to include them in a variety of meals across the week without what the Bard called any "strange eruptions".* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Get more news from Alison & Andrea by signing up to their newsletter here.For a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains sign up for Alison's newsletter here!Get our three podcast cookbooks:Meals at the Ancestral HearthSpelt Sourdough Every DayThe Pastured Pork CookbookGet all three of our cookbooks! Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The BasicsAlison's Sowans oat fermentation courseGet 10% off US/Canada Bokashi supplies: click here and use code AKP.Get 10% off UK Bokashi supplies.Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop for our favourite cookbooks: US link here and UK link here.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Our podcast is supported by a community of ancestral cooks around the world!Come join our community! You can choose to simply sponsor the podcast, or select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live Zoom calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion grouFind out more here!* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *5* reviews on Apple Podcasts, mean the world to us! Here's how to leave one:Open the Apple Podcast appFind Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your libraryScroll down to 'ratings and reviews'Click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Resources:Check the show notes for this episode on https://ancestralkitchenpodcast.com/category/podcast/ . Additional show note material doubles the content you see here! On the website you will also see the ancestral jokes alluded to in the episode, as well as the newspaper clippings from the Duke of Windsor's wedding including the advertisement for bile beans!Corned Beef recipeHow long have humans been eating beans?The Story of Beans in Mexican CuisineKaren Hurd's research on beans and bile - story starts at about 8 minutes inLondon Musem bile beansBacteroides thetaiotaomicron utilization of RFO (raffinose family oligosaccharides)What is Raffinose?Article about Steve Sando and Rancho Gordo (behind a paywall, but new viewers are allowed an article or two before paying)Sumerian JokesAncient Anatolian breadThe Rise and Fall of Çatalhöyük: A Neolithic Matriarchy?Neolithic Site of ÇatalhöyükDid Vikings and ancient Norse peoples eat beans?When were potatoes introduced to England?Does epazote reduce gassiness?Epazote seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs (organic)Yerba SantaFonda san MiguelWhat do digestive bitters do?What does epazote do to beans? “Epazote's ability to reduce gas production is thought to be due to its carminative properties. Carminatives are ingredients that help to relieve gas and bloating in the digestive system. Epazote's carminative properties are believed to work by reducing the amount of gas produced by bacteria in the large intestine. This is achieved through the inhibition of the growth of gas-producing bacteria, as well as the reduction of the amount of oligosaccharides that are fermented. As a result, epazote can help to reduce the discomfort and bloating associated with eating...

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#48 - Live Podcast: Math Madness: Tackling the Algebra II Problem in High School Mathematics

Building Educator Capacity with CESA 2

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 57:16

Check out one of our Live CESA 2 podcasts, where we consider math curriculum and the importance of learning math to become informed members of society. CESA 2 consultants Molly Rilling and Matt Hayden connected with world-renowned mathematicians and speakers Steve Leinwand and Eric Milou to discuss what needs to happen in schools today to make citizens math-literate for the future.Resources:Check out the video version on YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5NO6MBcQp4Steve's slide deck coming soon!Contact Molly and Matt: ⁠⁠https://cesa2.org/contact⁠⁠Subscribe to the CESA 2 math newsletter: ⁠https://conta.cc/3ZUXOya⁠Subscribe to our CESA 2 podcast email list!: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/S091xli/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out all our episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cesa2.org/building-educator-capacity-podcast

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Nervous System, Money and Self-Worth

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2026 38:48

EP:186 If you've ever felt like you're doing everything for everyone and still lying awake at night worrying about your kids, your partner, and your bank account… this episode is for you. I'm Dr. Brooke Weinstein — mom, widow, occupational therapist, CEO, and nervous system nerd — and in this conversation with Ysenia Rhodes of Talk Rich To Me and Huntress Wealth, I'm opening up about the intersection of mental health, parenting, partnership, and financial literacy. I share: How I went from pediatric OT and business owner to completely rebuilding my life after my husband Jonathan's depression and death by suicide in 2021. Why regulating your nervous system is the foundation for how you parent, partner, and make money decisions. The truth about “self-regulation tools” (like box breathing) and why one-size-fits-all wellness advice often does more harm than good. Why I refuse to give “5 steps to fix your life” solutions online — and what I focus on instead. The hard money conversations inside relationships: being the breadwinner, financial control, “allowances,” and why your partner should not be the sole decider of your mental health support. How women's people-pleasing, guilt, and shame keep them from investing in themselves, even when they're desperate for help. My own journey learning financial literacy after separation and widowhood: forensic accountants, building a business (twice), budgeting, and finally being able to sleep at night. What I taught my sister as she navigates divorce and money for the first time. Why I believe your mental health is #1 and your financial literacy is #2—everything else comes after. To me, being “rich” isn't about how much is in your bank account today. It's about being able to breathe, knowing you can support yourself and your kids, make aligned choices, and build the life you want — even after unthinkable loss and massive transition. If you're a woman, a parent, or a partner who: Feels stuck financially or emotionally Is scared to spend money on yourself or ask for help Has been told “it's not your money” even though you're holding the entire family together …this episode will give you language, validation, and a starting point to protect yourself and gain knowledge, no matter where you're beginning. If this conversation resonated with you: Drop a comment sharing one belief about money or worth you're ready to challenge. Share this episode with a friend who feels stuck in their relationship, motherhood, or money story. If you're ready to understand your brain and nervous system on a deeper level so you can show up differently in your life, keep following along — this is exactly the work I'm here to do with you. Links & Resources:

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An Inside Look at Thurston Conservation District

Conservation Starters

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2026 52:39

This week, we're joined by TCD's Executive Director, Sarah Moorehead, for an inside look at what's new at TCD. We dive into our exciting new strategic plan and the behind-the-scenes work that brought it to life. We also share important updates on our 2026 budget, including rates and charges renewal, and tackle some common misconceptions about Conservation Districts. Plus, don't miss a few updates about the podcast itself. Tune in to stay connected!Resources:Check out our 2026 - 2030 Strategic PlanLearn more about Rates and ChargesView our 2026 Annual Budget

How To Date Well Without Losing Your Faith (Or Your Heart), #601

Java with Juli

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2026 55:27

Their love story made headlines—but not for the reasons you might expect. In this conversation, CD and Melody Fabien share a completely different vision for dating—one rooted in purpose, boundaries, and hearing God's voice. If you're tired of hook-ups, ghosting, and the pressure of fast-paced dating, this episode is for you. Guest: CD & Melody Fabien Check out our brand-new Hot Topic Kit: Healthy Dating & Boundaries. Follow-up Resources: Check out CD & Melody's resources at https://cdandmelody.com/ Watch their news-worthy first kiss. Q&A: What's the Difference Between Sexual Integrity and Purity? (video) Q&A: How Can I Steward My Sexuality As a Single? (video) What Do I Do With My Sexual Desires? by Juli Slattery (blog) Follow Melody on IG at @melodyfabien Follow Authentic Intimacy at @authenticintimacy

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Transforming Trauma Into Purpose and Identity with Amber Richbook

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2026 43:04

“If you heal yourself, you have the ability to heal generations before and after you.” In this episode, Nick speaks with Amber Richbook about her journey through identity, subconscious beliefs, and the impact of generational trauma. They explore the importance of awareness and the role of cultural identity in shaping our experiences and ultimately who we believe we are and what our “identity” means to us. What to listen for: We all have gifts and abilities that can be realized Coincidences are often signs that require investigation Generational trauma impacts our identities and experiences Healing is a personal journey that affects generations Self-mastery requires the willingness to change our identity as we grow Awareness is crucial for personal growth and healing Our identity is fluid “We all have different generational things running through our veins. What are we going to do with them? How are we going to reconcile? How are we going to bring the healing?” Healing is our responsibility, no matter what our parents passed to us genetically Understanding what our family history is can sometimes shed light on our current struggles Epigenetics research is increasingly validating that generational trauma not only exists but has real repercussions on future generations “You must be willing to change identities as many times and as often as you feel led to” What we believe our “identity” is, isn't always accurate or remotely current The hesitance for change is normal, but being willing to adapt and evolve is critical for personal growth Changing identities isn't about becoming someone else; it's about uncovering more of who you are at your core About Amber Richbook Amber Richbook is a transformational speaker and identity-shift coach who helps people move from simply existing to fully living. Through keynotes, coaching, and her podcast Meaningful Conversations, she teaches individuals to break self-limiting beliefs and take practical steps toward authentic, purpose-driven lives. She is a TEDx speaker and has appeared on PBS and corporate leadership platforms. Her mission is to become the go-to voice for mindset and identity transformation for a new generation. https://www.arichbook.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/arichbook/ https://www.instagram.com/a.richbook/ Resources: Check out other episodes about identity: Processing Our Childhood Traumas With Jeremy Stegall Exploring The Role Of DEI In Healing And Growth With Corey Williams How To Embrace Your Identity And Inner Strength With Rich Vysion Love and Faith Beyond Identity and Labels With Carl King Exploring Human Design For Self-Mastery With Akary Busto Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/podcasting-services/ Learn more about our host, Nick McGowan: https://nickmcgowan.com Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:00.495)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show we have Amber Richbook. Amber, how are doing today? Amber RichBook (00:22.403)Well, how are you Nick? Thank you for having me. Nick McGowan (00:25.679)Yeah, absolutely. We were just shooting the shit for like a solid half hour. And again, one of those situations like let’s just record. So I’m stoked for you to be here. I think this is gonna be cool. We’re gonna get into a lot to talk about identity, subconscious limiting beliefs and your story. And even talking about regional and generational trauma and some of the things I’ve talked about on different episodes. But I think identity is a big part of that. I always like to start episodes off with something that’s a little Amber RichBook (00:29.846)I know. Nick McGowan (00:54.319)odd or bizarre about you that most people don’t know. So what do you got for me? Amber RichBook (00:58.19)Okay, so one of my bizarre weird things that people don’t know about me is that I wrote about my life as a single mother of three daughters when I was in the first grade and my mom She kept like this big bag, like everywhere we moved to, this was like this big bag of childhood memorabilia from myself and my siblings of things we drew and wrote in kindergarten, pre-K, first grade, second grade, like the little macaroni art that’s like happy Mother’s Day. Here’s a flower with glue and there’s missing pieces on it. And so, you know, in first grade when they have the writing pads with the story and you draw the little ugly picture and you think like, Nick McGowan (01:32.655)Yeah, of course. Amber RichBook (01:44.014)And it’s like Miss A takes her three daughters and the names were like J, E, A, like they were all like names with those initials. And my daughter’s names now have the initials J, A, and E. To get ice cream and they love driving in their really big truck. and they love doing all these fun things together. They like dancing. like, there was no, was just this Miss A. and her three daughters. And I remember years ago when I, well, my mom was like, kind of like, all right, you guys are grown, take your shit. Like I saved all of it. Let me show you guys that I actually cared about you as children. Like do with it what you want. I’m like, okay, so let me go through my stuff. And I’m just sitting there and I’m reading it. And I was like, can I curse? I was like, okay. Nick McGowan (02:27.96)Yeah. Nick McGowan (02:40.958)yeah. Amber RichBook (02:42.86)I was like, Amber, what the fuck were you writing about in the fucking first grade? Like you’re writing about being a mom. Now, fun fact, I was the child, the friend, even in high school that used to call kids creatures. I was like, ill, be a mom. That’s so disgusting. Motherhood. So now there’s a running joke. Like every mother’s day, my friends from high school and college are like, dude, how did you become a mom? Nick McGowan (02:45.443)Yeah. Amber RichBook (03:09.836)Like that’s the joke. Like you’re a mom, bro. None of them are mothers, but I’m a mom. Dude, how did that happen? So I think that’s interesting because one of my favorite books is The Alchemist. I talk about it in my, started my Ted talk with it and it was like, we really go on this journey of life and all you’re doing is getting back to the core of who you are. Nick McGowan (03:10.179)You Nick McGowan (03:14.423)Ugh. Nick McGowan (03:36.569)Yeah. Amber RichBook (03:36.992)and your inner child, like those youthful experience where your imagination is purely untamed, not realizing that many of us have these gifts. We all have these gifts and abilities, but where were they most active? How were they most active? and I’ll just layer it with this before I give it back to you. There was a thread that I saw recently that said, healers, spiritual people, did you have a near death experience that confirmed your abilities, et cetera, et cetera? And when I was born, Nick McGowan (04:10.863)Mm-hmm. Amber RichBook (04:13.942)I only had eight minutes to live. Eight is my favorite number. Eight is when I was eight years old. That was like my favorite age. Schoolhouse rock was like a thing when I was growing up. So it was like the figure eight song. I loved eight. When I was in school, I was always drawing eight. I was always like just fascinated with eight. And my birthday is on a 26. So two plus six equals eight. And so. Nick McGowan (04:26.704)yeah. Amber RichBook (04:43.118)start reflecting on these things and you’re like oh here are how all the dots connect in my life in my reality in my experience so yeah i’m a little woo woo Nick McGowan (04:56.431)I don’t think it’s as much woo woo as it’s looking for patterns of things. I’m similar in the sense where I look, like we were talking about even signs before we hit record, looking for signs. I think there’s a level of awareness. And if you’re aware of something, you can at least say, well, that’s something. I don’t particularly agree that there are like coincidences in the world. I think there are things that line up, but then there are also things that just don’t make sense. Like I remember saying, Amber RichBook (05:07.148)Yeah. Amber RichBook (05:19.534)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nick McGowan (05:25.679)People saying to me like years and years and years ago like you might read something in a book or like the Bible or whatever and it doesn’t make any sense at all and then years later it punches you right in the mouth like there are times literally within the Bible or God’s like this thing today means the most thing to you and you’re like, whoa What what does that mean and you’ve read it 400 billion times? Or you’ve seen a situation or whatever. I think there’s a power of being aware to be able to see those things but then Amber RichBook (05:36.183)Yep. Nick McGowan (05:53.229)like you had even said before we hit record, and we probably should have just hit record way early, was that it’s our responsibility to do something with that. And it’s what we get to do with it from there that actually shapes the way that future generations and all of those sort of things. It’s interesting to me, like right off the bat when you said, I wrote that out in first grade and now I’m living it, because I remember people in grade school thinking or writing out like a five year, 10 year plan. Amber RichBook (05:56.942)you Amber RichBook (06:01.569)Yep. Amber RichBook (06:09.336)Yeah. Nick McGowan (06:21.967)There were a couple of the smart kids in school that I can think back to, like fifth or sixth grade that did that. And there was one in particular, I forget what her name was, but she was like dead set. Like this is exactly how my life’s gonna be. And I’ve thought about that girl every once in a while of like, did life work out? Because my life was totally different than what anything I could have ever created. But what a cool thing for you to see, because it sounds like you didn’t say, well, my intention is to have three kids. Amber RichBook (06:39.5)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nick McGowan (06:51.381)and nobody around and I wanna do this and we’re gonna go get ice cream and all this like this is the fucking life I’m gonna live and like you pushed for it but what a wild thing for it to create, yeah. Amber RichBook (06:53.089)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you just lived. Yes. And, and, and then I want to say like older years, like in my teen years, I remember being a freshman and we had the opportunity to sign up for vocational school. prior to us hitting record because Nick and I, were chopping it up. we were talking, I said, you know, even as I navigate my own gifts, I had to process, okay, am I speaking things into existence or am I speaking something that’s already into existence and it’s already the same. So even when you say coincidences aren’t real, coincidence gets a freaking rap because if we break down coincidence, it is coincide. It is all these things that are coming together, but it’s easier to write it off like, it’s just a coincidence. It’s nothing. But if it’s really a coincidence, you should want to do the investigation of. Nick McGowan (07:37.081)Yeah. Amber RichBook (07:52.246)where is this coexistence happening in my reality? Okay, so Amber, what are you getting to? When I was in the eighth or the ninth grade, they said we could sign up for a vocational school. So school, high school, halftime, then go to a technical school. So I’m like, all right, I wanna do cosmetology because I don’t wanna flip burgers while I’m in college. Like that was what I convinced my mother. I’m like, mom. Nick McGowan (08:05.377)Yeah. Amber RichBook (08:16.898)And it was $300 and I’m like, it comes with a whole kit. And I’m like, you want me to go to college, right? Like I’m not saying I’m not going to college. So I don’t want to flip burgers. Not that anything is wrong with that. Cause I did end up working at a fast food restaurant, right? Because you’re like, I don’t want to do that. And then you end up where you said you don’t want to be because the universe source wherever it doesn’t here don’t, it just hears focus and attention. And I went through that. that cosmetology program, graduated high school, graduated with my cosmetology license. I’m still licensed to this day. And I remember when I was in college, I had a car accident where I lost all my cognitive abilities and I had to medically withdraw. Now, once I started to heal up, I didn’t have the cognitive ability to return back to college. Nick McGowan (08:58.361)Hmm. Amber RichBook (09:09.024)Why? Because prior to my accident, had a brain contusion afterwards, but I could study with the lights on, the music on, the TV on, all these stimulators. But then after my accident, when I say I had to write things word for word, I had to have pure silence, I had to take breaks. I’m like, this is not going to work for me. So I had this cosmetology license to lean back on to create a living for myself and to work prior to returning back to school. Nick McGowan (09:29.006)Hmm. Amber RichBook (09:38.88)And so that’s where that interconnectedness of the universal law of cause and effect, right? So if you ensure, like get insurance on all these things, you’re also calling in accidents, breaks. You’re also calling in all the things that benefit from having this insurance. So that’s how interesting and coincidental life is, is when you’re preparing and creating these incidents Nick McGowan (09:53.709)you Nick McGowan (10:04.836)Mm. Amber RichBook (10:08.784)that get to coincide with each other. That was so crazy. Yes. Yes. Nick McGowan (10:13.871)I think the awareness is the glue of that though. Like if you’re aware of that stuff, you can then do something or not. Like there are certain things I think that happen. Like even with you saying, all right, mom, I’m gonna go to college, but I wanna go this route. You’re really just thinking from a perspective of the system of the world tells me that I need to make money. I need to do this on my own. So I guess I’ll go do this thing. Yes. Amber RichBook (10:35.692)and I need to have something to fall back on, right? So going with that intention of I need something to fall back on because something can go wrong. Yup. Nick McGowan (10:43.833)Just in case. Yeah. Which is such a fucked thing. So our parents went through the bullshit like that with their parents and maybe they went to college or they did something and they had something they could fall back on because their parents said, based on the current system that we’re in, in the 60s and 70s, this is what it’s gonna be like. And by the time the 80s and 90s came around, now we’re experiencing what that’s like where you motherfuckers were able to afford a house. Amber RichBook (10:49.262)You Amber RichBook (10:53.975)Yep. Nick McGowan (11:13.359)for $13,000 back in the day. We can’t afford that for a porch on a house, let alone, you know what I mean? But those though are stories and it’s up to us to be able to change. And I think that’s where part of the awakening is happening, where we then look back and go, well, motherfucker, some of this shit really fucked us up. And this was straight up abuse in that time or. Amber RichBook (11:13.826)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay, wait. Amber RichBook (11:26.711)Yeah. Yes. Yes. Nick McGowan (11:40.751)You told me I needed to do this and therefore I went down a different path because I wasn’t able to just be my authentic self. Now it’s not like we live in some reality where we just like unicorns and rainbows constantly and we just create whatever we want. Like the Jetsons, you go, I’m hungry, here’s a button and like whatever. I actually don’t want that anyway. Like by the time AI does that shit, I hope to be long gone. But we are not in that space where we can just play constantly. Amber RichBook (11:47.971)Yeah. Amber RichBook (11:57.359)Yeah. Amber RichBook (12:00.876)Yeah. Nick McGowan (12:09.721)but how do we be ourselves with our identity to be able to play? Amber RichBook (12:13.486)Let’s see, Nick, but that’s the theme. I play all the time. Play is a part of it. I think also, so there’s so many different things I would jump through my head as you were talking. And I’m trying to get there. I’m going to get there. My matrilineal line, my grandmother was brought here by a white family in 1961 from Antigua to be there up here. And my mother was a first-generational. college graduate and then I was a second generational college graduate and each my grandmother worked to get her GED coming to America. She got her GED. She worked as a maid in upstate New York. And then once she had my mom and my aunt’s and uncle, she went to school to be a nurse because that’s what she needed to or she felt she needed to do. than my mom or CNA, right? Cause my mom went to college. then there’s me. And so it’s kind of like you mentioned the Bible earlier. I like to tell people like I am an Abrahamic prophecy fulfilled for my grandmother who came to America. for this opportunity from her little island. And in that rate, she worked for white people. And growing up cultured, I didn’t grow up knowing that I was Caribbean because no one wanted to be, everybody wanted to be American. So I was having Caribbean experiences in the household. And I think by the time I got, cause I grew up, where I was growing up, people were like, you’re mixed, you’re not. you’re not just black. And my dad’s family, they’re from the Virginia that’s there, we could trace back to there. And I’m like, yo. And so I was in college, I’m like, I’m not just black. I’m not just African American. I’m not just this. But also it was in high school. So why is all of this relevant? Because it leads to my life. In high school, as a ninth grader, the same year that I was like, okay, I don’t wanna be a whatever I wanna be. Amber RichBook (14:29.528)do here and this is the first time that I’m telling this story and I’m telling this story because of our pre-show conversation and you said I the real, I want the ball, I want all this stuff. So this is the first time I’m sharing this publicly. When I was in the ninth grade, I went to a predominantly white high school where less than 10 % of the high school population were students of color. And I had just moved, this was in the Poconos, and I had just moved from New Jersey because my mom was like, I want you to have a better opportunity, et cetera, et cetera. And at this time, these innate things, I have to share my cultural experience, right? Because people don’t, it’s going to make sense. Nick McGowan (15:11.865)Context. Amber RichBook (15:12.022)you proximity to whiteness will help me be better. That’s why my name is Amber. How many times in high school, right? I remember where there was a substitute teacher and there was another black girl in my class, but she did. She wasn’t there for the day and her name was Shaniqua. Like that was for real her name, but she wasn’t there. So when the substitute got to her name, she’s like, Shaniqua, like whatever. And so she’s looking at me and I’m like, I’m not Shaniqua. Nick McGowan (15:16.473)Hmm. Mmm. Nick McGowan (15:40.078)Man. Amber RichBook (15:41.888)My name was at the end of the thing. So she’s like, Amber Walters. And I’m like, that’s me. man, what? She was going to write me up, me to the principal’s office because she thought I was being funny. And like my classmates were like, no, she’s Amber. I had to get up and show my ID. So having that experience as a ninth grader, then being voted freshman class president, the first black president at a high school, like that was the thing. Nick McGowan (15:42.959)You don’t live here no more. Amber RichBook (16:11.958)at 14 and you got all this pressure. And so now you’re on the softball field and you’re in gym playing softball and you beat the popular girl. You beat the girl who’s been in this district since she was in kindergarten and all her friends and surrounding around. And for the first time in my life, I was called the N word and it was swing and N swing, swing and N swing. And that was my first time. So the culture shock of going from the urban Jersey experience to this predominantly white experience, not harming anyone, just like, yeah, we’re people, we’re ninth graders. Like, it’s cool. Like, I’m just, I’m Amber. Like, we’re gonna be class president. It’s gonna be cool, like class or whatever. And I had never had that experience. And I’m like, all I could feel was like, don’t call me that. Nick McGowan (16:44.867)Yeah. Amber RichBook (17:05.942)And I remember, swing and then swing. You think you won and you think you won. You cheated, you did. And I’m like, what the fuck? And all I went in is to warrior. And it was like my mother, my grandmother, my grandmother before them. My grandmother is a product of Portuguese colonization in Antigua, taking advantage of an indigenous woman on the island, right? So she had no home from either side. And I defended myself, but I was punished for that incident. And I was the first, and I tell my kids, joke about it now, right? I’m like, I was the first black president in my high school, the first one to be voted in, and the first one to be impeached. And that followed me through my whole high school career. And it was in my 20s that this particular woman reached out to me via LinkedIn. And she’s like, I just want to apologize for what happened in the ninth grade. And I’m like, girl, you fucked up my high school career. I graduated in the top 10 % of my class, but that still followed me. And that followed me. And we talked about the Alchemist early on before we came on the show. And I’m sharing this depth of, because you want the real world, I’m going tell you. It shared that depth because that depth. Nick McGowan (17:54.403)Hahaha. Nick McGowan (18:07.715)Ha ha ha. Amber RichBook (18:23.916)because it then took me on that journey when I did go back to college and I finished in accounting as a non-traditional student and I went to the big four as a public accountant. the only one who looked like me. And so it was now my 14 year old self back in this swing and end swing. Go get this thing and go get this coffee and go get this thing. And you’re like, what is happening? But that’s where the world is like, where you talked about where our parents, you got to go to college, you got to graduate, you got to get the good job, you got to do what you got to do, you got to keep your head down. For me and my reality, it’s you got to work twice as hard, you got to be twice as this, don’t show your emotion, don’t show You don’t have these things. So even as I built my career in corporate, right? I built myself to be the corporate mermaid where I tell people don’t ask me shit about corporate because I do what I want when I want how I want whenever I want but I had to heal that 14 year old girl who thought that she wasn’t enough and that thought and and and took the emotional responsibility so me as the adult going to her like we don’t Like what Michelle Obama say, when they go low, we go higher, whatever she said, right? Like, no, that has nothing to do with you. That has nothing to do with you. And so me moving in the frequency of love. giving people back their pain. You mentioned trauma early, giving them back their trauma. Because just like people of color have generational trauma innate in our DNA, so do Europeans, so do Caucasians, so do white Americans. We all have these different generational things running through our veins and it’s what are we going to do with them? How are we going to reconcile? How are we going to bring the healing? And it looks like that accountability, it looks like no. And so what ended up happening and then I’ll wrap it up because I know I just gave you so much at one time. They tried to, I don’t want to say they tried to set me up, but I live near UNC, like the museum, and they were like, we need you to go audit the museum. I’m a little baby associate. You want me to audit a museum’s millions of dollars painting and do an inventory count? I said, okay. I said, okay. And I used to have my, my Bob, my professional white girl looking black hair. so I could be palatable. And I remember the museum couldn’t find a painting, Nick. It was $7 million. And they were like, you can leave. And when we find it, we’ll let you know. I was like, I am not leaving here until y’all find this painting. I am not leaving here. But seeing the pressure that was on me in that now moment. Nick McGowan (21:12.921)No, my God. Amber RichBook (21:19.982)think is the same pressure that I felt in being voted class president as a ninth grade girl. And I sat there and I sat there and they found it because I was like, God, they got to find this. And it was in between some other paintings. But just seeing how my inner child, the intensity that I had and so to bring it home, how Spirit, source, universe, your life path is gonna keep putting you in positions until you get comfortable. And so I remember my mom, she was in seminary school when I was a kid. And I remember going with her and this was in Madison, New Jersey at Drew University. And we pulled up to Burger King. Again, these are things I’ve never told anyone, right? You want the depth, the raw. And she’s like, Amber, you didn’t want to get out the car. And I’m like, what? She’s like, I don’t want to get out the car because all those white people are going to look at me. Now, my family, my mom had white friends. Like, we had a very diverse. friend experience. was not isolated from things. My grandfather, was friends with Italians. I was in school, so it was very diverse, but there was a different energy. It was a different sense. It was a different experience. So now as an adult woman, it was like, right. When we were talking about self mastery and mindset, in my TED talk, I talked about the Oro Burrows, the loop of life, the beginning and the end being one, the death and and the birth and the rebirth and the death and the birth, that cycle. And it wasn’t until I finally, in my adult years, got into the same space as my white peers, my white colleagues, and I stopped shrinking myself to inferiority. And that looked like my grand living and becoming my grandmother’s deferred dream that she wasn’t able to witness in her living life. Amber RichBook (23:22.99)Everything in life connects in that capacity. I had to learn to be confident as an eight year old. I had to learn to be confident as a 14 year old, as a 20 something year old. Now in my thirties to be like, I stand in my power. Now we know that we create our reality. And I was creating my reality at all of those ages. All of those experiences were my own personal lessons to learn. I’m sorry, y’all. Thank you for your patience. I was just running my mouth. Nick McGowan (23:26.669)Yeah. Nick McGowan (23:40.665)Yeah. Nick McGowan (23:51.801)Yeah, thank you for the Ted talk. mean, well, truthfully that’s some of the best magic that happens within podcasting. Even if we just had a few minute conversation, we probably wouldn’t get to this. And I think it’s on me as the host to be able to facilitate this and allow you to have those conversations. Amber RichBook (23:52.944)I know I was like Nick McGowan (24:16.695)and allow in the sense of like, let’s move in a direction that makes it open for you to be able to do that. There’s a lot that you put out there, obviously, and those that are gonna listen to this, they’re like, yeah, there’s a whole lot. But there’s a lot of great things and it’s all also woven together and there’s patterns to that. There’s system problem to start off with. Those white kids in the fucking Poconos, I know, yeah, it’s much different than East Orange. Amber RichBook (24:40.782)because you know the polka-dos, you’re from up there. Nick McGowan (24:46.243)and vastly different. I grew up in the burbs, but in a more diverse section of the burbs, not the higher end burbs. Like if anybody’s from Springfield, Pennsylvania, you know, you’re different than Prospect Park and Glen Olden. And there’s versions to that, but then also living in the city at times. And my mom grew up in the city in Philly as a tiny little goofy looking redhead kid. She got picked on because she looked like Pippi Longstocking basically. And she had problems with Italians and other Irish people as well as African-American people and Latin people and like all these different groups. But all of that comes from a fucking system problem and generational trauma because everybody’s pitted against themselves. And ultimately what I’m learning is that it gets further back to the white people. Amber RichBook (25:34.796)Yep. Yep. Yep. Nick McGowan (25:41.753)that said, think we’re better than you. So we’re just gonna do this the way that we think. And even with like a male and female sort of thing, like men think they’re better than women and I don’t understand it. Like I thank God daily for my partner because she’s so much smarter than I am and so much more grounded and there are things that we learn. And that’s the way that even when you think of men and women being together, let’s just use that as an example where Men should be the leaders. That’s not correct. Women actually lead us. She leads me a lot and will lead me into a direction that then I can do my part and go from there. I think there’s awareness to this and understanding what some of those systems are. Like why are there poor sections of a city or a town? probably because they’re all pushed that direction and everything’s fucking concrete. They can’t even grow their own vegetables. They can’t even… try to get out of the system that they’re stuck within. And even what you’re saying with your mom saying, well, we’re gonna go closer to a white direction because proximity, that makes me think of from the Irish people that were brought over here that were like, well, you’re a slave, but you’re white. And why don’t we just make you a cop? Because, know, fuck it, you’ve got a little bit of authority, but you’re not gonna have all the authority. I’m not saying that I understand what you went through at all because really I don’t. But I can see how some of that is even within my cells that needs to be processed out. I think of the shit that I went through as a kid being a token white kid. kids would make fun of me because I was a chunky little kid and I think I’ve sized appropriately as I got older. But there are things that I remember going, well, this doesn’t feel right. But I do often think back to there was literally just a handful of different people, a handful of Asian kids that were in the school or some black kids, but it was primarily a bunch of douchebag white kids that thought they had privilege over anybody that was slightly different than them. And again, I think that’s a system problem and it’s a generational trauma thing. So we, as the people, get to do something with it. I think it’s cool that that person came back to you and said, Amber RichBook (27:54.594)Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nick McGowan (28:00.599)I’m sorry, I’ve thought about this. Clearly they’ve thought about it for a long time. Does not make it right for what they said. However, I do think there is a little bit of, I don’t want to say grace, but understanding context of how we grew up. Because look, I’ve said some fucked up shit growing up that I didn’t understand was as fucked up. But then when I understood what it was, and that it was, I don’t know, entrenched in racism or whatever. Amber RichBook (28:14.915)yeah. Yeah. Nick McGowan (28:29.537)I could tie back to where that came from. There was an example. My mom was about to buy a house. She grew up pretty poor and had me at 22. And I don’t know, maybe like 10, 12 years old, something like that. She bought her first house. And I remember her driving, we’re driving down the street and she pointed at somebody doing lawn work. And she was like, we’re going to get one of them. I was like, a lot? I would hope we’re gonna buy a house. And she was like, no, somebody that can basically be our slave and do our lawn work. And I remember, I don’t know, being 12 or whatever and be like, that sounds kind of fucked up. But all the rest of these assholes that I’m around kind of say similar things. And nobody’s really breaking out of that. Their responsibility was to change that so that we, as our kids, you know, like us, were able to do things differently. But it’s not on anybody else, it’s on us to do something with it. I think really the failure would be if you and I are having this conversation and then we get off here and we’re both fucking assholes and douchebags of people and we don’t do anything from it. Because I know that I still have problems at times like I’m really impatient, especially driving. And if somebody is driving in the fast lane, going 10 miles an hour under the speed limit, I question how they even fucking put shoes on, let alone do anything else in the world. But I understand that there’s pieces of that that Once we’re aware of something, we can do something with it. So we started this by talking about identity. Your identity was shifted at that point. Yeah, that girl kind of fucked up your high school. Also, the story that you told by yourself in your own head based on unprocessed trauma that was literally in your genetic code was pitted against you. Like any work that was done prior to you hadn’t been fully accomplished and completed. Amber RichBook (29:58.018)Yeah. Nick McGowan (30:23.981)and then something came up and you needed to do something with it. It took you time. The fact that you’re doing something with it, your girls are gonna be better off. At the same time, it’s on them to do whatever happens to them. Like I had a conversation with a friend maybe about a year or so ago where they’re like, I’m gonna do everything different from what my parents did. And his parents were, they fucked him up. Amber RichBook (30:27.714)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nick McGowan (30:46.859)And he’s doing everything he can. And at one point he had a realization. He was like, and still, bet these kids are going to be in therapy at some point saying something about me because everybody’s going to interpret it the way that they want and how they do it from there. So the systems of this is fucked up, but it is what we work within. The generational trauma is fucked as well, but here we are. Amber RichBook (30:54.54)Yeah. Yes. Yes. Amber RichBook (31:03.328)Yeah, and so, yeah, yeah. And so even in your response, I appreciate it. And it is multifaceted because we have our own experiences. While your mom had her experiences, you had your own. And while my mom and my grandmother had their experiences, I had my own. So I think that… I can’t necessarily just leave it to my generational DNA pass down trauma without acknowledging the impact of my own personal life experience and those that the things that could be traumatic had I not chose to heal and navigate through them. Right. And so there are some people who don’t have the higher mind or the discipline or the wherewithal. Nick McGowan (31:36.461)Of Amber RichBook (31:58.134)to heal themselves so they may not have been able to receive an apology from someone who has caused them harm, right? So when we think about… the Holocaust experience, people are still apologizing for that experience. Because just because we apologize doesn’t mean it takes away the pain of that experience. And that’s the empathy that… We have to extend to all persons who have been impacted. It does not take away. We can apologize and extend grace and those groups of people who did what they did to that particular community, they may have learned their lesson, but it does not take away the pain. It does not absolve it. I may, and that’s no different than parents, right? There’s a book called Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. As a parent, you do have the responsibility to Nick McGowan (32:35.14)Yeah. Nick McGowan (32:57.902)Yeah. Amber RichBook (33:01.8)listen to your child and be accountable, but your apology is not gonna fix their fucked upness. It’s not gonna fix the pain. They themselves have to do the work to absolve that. And sometimes even when they do, the relationship may not go back to being the same because of how impactful the trauma is. And that’s just psychological in itself. Nick McGowan (33:21.945)Yeah. Amber RichBook (33:27.328)And so it’s just so multifaceted and I, and I can’t speak for a collective of people, but I can speak for myself and like anyone listening. One of the things that I teach my collective specifically persons of indigenous or persons of color, but anybody, right? If you heal yourself, you have the ability to heal generations before you and generations after you, which is able to have a healthy, loving, thriving relationship with my mom. Nick McGowan (33:29.807)For real. Nick McGowan (33:50.319)Mm-hmm. Amber RichBook (33:57.42)and healthy, loving, thriving relationship with my children while still having, and I think the other thing is too, sometimes people think that these healed relationships mean perfection and no mistakes and no disagreements and we are all holding hands and singing the Munchkin song. No, it’s how we navigate through conflict. It’s how we resolve the conflict. Nick McGowan (34:09.251)Yeah. Amber RichBook (34:21.312)Is my mom accountable for herself? Am I accountable for myself? Are my children accountable for themselves? So, this is good. You’re good. Nick McGowan (34:33.167)I mean, I think the big thing here is to really understand that no matter what we go through and how we look at things, there may be an interpretation, there may be things that are kind of blocking us or propelling us in one direction, but it is ultimately up to us to do. And something that has come up as you were talking about, like, I can’t speak for an entire type of people or race of people, et cetera. I think there are things where some people can say, yeah, well, the Holocaust was different than this, or we should look at what happened with this and we should feel a certain way. Any of these things don’t take away from somebody else. The Holocaust is really not as different as what the fucking people did when they got to this country and they’re like, look at this land, who the fuck are you? you grow things here, cool. Amber RichBook (35:17.666)Nick, I wasn’t ready. But they do, right? But they do. And that’s the systemic issue that you started with earlier in the conversation. And it’s no right or wrong. It’s just we have to, for those of us that see, see. Nick McGowan (35:20.857)But I mean, it doesn’t take away from that. Amber RichBook (35:39.934)understand. And then you mentioned something earlier too that I wanted to reflect on where you were like, this stuff is fucked up. But those that know the yin and yang, the dark and the light, the ugliness, the fucked upness is here for a reason. Because there’s, there’s the balance. And that’s the fairness. Nick McGowan (35:56.879)Yep. And there’s a balance to it as well. Amber RichBook (36:05.386)of life that is a universal principle and a universal law. And then when we understand like on this mindset mastery journey of life, we have these fucked up experience based on what our soul needs to learn and understand for its own development. Who do, who did I come here to be? Well, Obviously, I tell people, I’m like, I’m pretty sure in a past life, I was a man and I was an asshole. And then I got sent here to be a woman and specifically a black woman to have certain life experiences to humble me and give me my soul more evolutionary experiences. That’s my own self theory, y’all. That’s just my own self theory. But. Nick McGowan (36:45.785)Damn. Nick McGowan (36:50.127)I love that. I understand, you know, I get that. think there’s like there’s shit that I’ve learned over the past few years that has propelled me in a different direction where even with that sort of stuff, I’m like, I wonder what will happen next. And how faith and religion and stuff like that ties in. Now full transparency, I’m a big fan of the OG Jesus, not the Republican Jesus, because that’s strange. Amber RichBook (37:18.23)tables at the synagogue because he’s like what y’all doing selling stuff in my father’s house I’m throwing all this shit over okay the one who Russia released that the oldest Bible was found in Ethiopia and the oldest form of Christianity was found in northern eastern Africa that Jesus the one with the woolen hair why are you starting problems why are you starting why are you starting problems on your podcast Nick McGowan (37:19.395)Yeah! Ugh… Man… Yeah! shit, even with that. Nick McGowan (37:35.695)Well, that’s where we all started from so even if you think of like race That’s what I’m fucking here for This is what I’m here for disrupt things I actually I talk about that a little bit at different times with that specific story about Jesus. So I read a book Maybe mid-2000s called the beautiful outlaw and a little bit context. I’d played in church bands for the better part of a decade so I was in churches, like in Green Room style in, know, and somebody told me about that book. I read it. It was basically like, well, Jesus will show up to people in the way that they expect to see him. And let’s look at his stories that actually break down context. Like even when they say don’t eat pork, it’s because it was dirty and they couldn’t actually get the viruses out of the pork so people would die. We eat pork now and it’s different. but people will look at things and like, Bible said this. It’s like lot of it was metaphors and parables and just trying to get you to understand the fucking story in your stupid little brain. Amber RichBook (38:38.222)And the Bible was rewritten, one that the Americas, okay, so since you brought this up, there is called the Council of Nicaea. And there once was a king who was upset and scared of witches because witches ruled the world. He also was abhorred by his sexuality and wrote a lot of things against himself as if it would help him. So. Nick McGowan (38:48.306)15th century. Nick McGowan (38:53.039)Ugh. Amber RichBook (39:05.934)What you say? Homophobic and then that. Yes. And then there are missing books because people don’t know that you have the Vatican that has all the books that were written. So. Nick McGowan (39:06.093)And then that became literally gospel. What the fuck? Nick McGowan (39:18.073)yeah. Well, they changed things in the 15th century because they were like, this is what we want this to be. This is when King James came out. Context people, context is important. And we’re not just spewing this shit to just spew the shit. If there are systems in place, yeah, but there are systems, there are things that happen. There are biases of people that say, I am afraid to be me. So I’m going to do these things. We’re fucking seeing it now. Amber RichBook (39:22.998)Yes. Yeah, you can go to a library. Yeah. Nick McGowan (39:44.525)We’re seeing it with everything that’s happening right now. all right, so, I mean, what the fuck? We’re seeing a lot of it now, but so that story specifically, context is important. Jesus actually spent time braiding a whip and then turned it on. The man probably sat there for a while, like an hour, maybe even longer. He might’ve even braided some of the whip at home, because he knew what was going on. He didn’t just walk in and go, what in the fuck? Amber RichBook (39:50.382)Nick you are funny Amber RichBook (39:57.848)Yeah. Nick McGowan (40:13.615)boom, and blow everything up. That’s not how it worked. That’s not what context is about. And the reason why he did that was because these people were doing something against everybody and the actual premise of being community driven. That was selfish. wasn’t just that they were doing something in God’s house and God said, no. A lot of people will just eat the shit that they’re fed and just keep consuming. Reason why it keeps going back to that is again, it’s systems. Amber RichBook (40:25.046)Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Nick McGowan (40:41.455)And I think there are biases that people look at, which then infect or affect whichever way you wanna look at it, our identity. I appreciate that we’ve gone on this tangent in certain ways with this sort of stuff. And I think it’s important for us all to understand that the identity that we have right now is evolving and it may not actually be the identity that we want it to be. And that trauma might be a part of that, the subconscious winning strategy, which we didn’t really touch about. Amber RichBook (40:53.698)We did. Amber RichBook (41:02.092)Yes. Amber RichBook (41:05.537)Yes. Nick McGowan (41:10.903)is a part of that, these strategies that develop us. But what’s your advice for somebody who’s listening that’s on their path towards self-mastery? Amber RichBook (41:19.818)that there is no end to the path of self-mastery. You must be willing to change as many times, change identities as many times as often of times as you feel led to in your residence. And sometimes in this identity self mastery journey, some people do choose to stop and land at a destination. And that’s where they want to cap their beingness on this identity. And there’s no right or wrong to any of it. Amber RichBook (41:59.918)That’s the biggest thing that I would say. There’s no right or wrong to this path of self mastery at all. you get to decide this is your world, this is your reality. If you want to be a single woman today or a single man today and then say tomorrow you want to be partnered and that’s your reality and that’s the identity you want to shift into, do that. And I think the biggest thing is us being willing to look at our lives objectively, understanding that each individual is just filled with opinions and that. is what forms the facts of their life and to respect the opinions and facts of one life as a way of you respecting and honoring the facts and opinions of your life, which is much like the namaste, right? The God in me sees the God in you. Nick McGowan (42:48.567)Yeah, beautiful way to put that. And I think this has been great. I really appreciate you being on. We could probably sit here and just shoot the shit for like hours and just keep recording. But before I let you go, where can people find you and where can they connect with you? Amber RichBook (43:03.638)People can find me on social media everywhere at a.richbook on LinkedIn, Amber Rich Book, arichbook.com. Put my name in Google, I’ll pop up. But thank you, Nick, for having me and allowing me to share these things with your community. Thank you all for having me. Nick McGowan (43:23.779)Absolutely, it’s been a pleasure. appreciate your time. Amber RichBook (43:26.392)Thank you. https://youtu.be/zO7xasV4WUg

Not Everyone NEEDS a White Button-down

Wear Who You Are

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2026 6:07

Every list says you need a white button-down. Natalie says: not necessarily. In this episode, she shares versatile alternatives to wear under blazers and other layers . . . or solo, so your workwear foundation actually reflects your personal style while aligning to the dress expectationsEpisode Notes & Resources:Check out our 'Core'drobe Style Guide to help you create your own unique wardrobe foundationJoin BU Style Circle to get more style resources, live Q&A sessions with Natalie, and moreSubmit your style questions to be answered in a future Nat Chat Follow Us:Follow the podcast on social media, and submit your questions by sending us a message here!@bustyle@natalie_tincherCheck out the website for more info at www.bu.styleSign Up for Nat's NewsletterRate, Review, & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & SpotifyThis Podcast is brought to you by Upstarter Pods

276: Evidence Based Strategies To Build Muscle With Holly Baxter

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2026 59:20

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Cheers to Your Success, host Ashley interviews Holly Baxter, a physique coach and expert in evidence-based nutrition and training. Holly shares her personal journey through an eating disorder and how she found balance in her life and bodybuilding career. The conversation delves into evidence-based strategies for muscle growth, the importance of energy availability, and the role of nutrition in achieving fitness goals. Holly emphasizes the significance of understanding individual needs and finding a sustainable approach to health and fitness, especially for women navigating hormonal changes. Key Takeaways: Training intensity and volume are key for muscle growth. Women often need to eat more to support muscle building. Energy availability is crucial for performance and recovery. Nutrition plays a significant role in muscle growth. Sustainability in nutrition leads to better adherence and results. RESOURCES: Check out Holly's Website here: www.bia-body.com Connect with her on Instagram: @Hollytbaxter Click here to schedule your FREE alignment call to see if my 1:1 coaching program is a good fit for you: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/7de98067/appointment/18062930/calendar/4677043?appointmentTypeIds%5B%5D=18062930 Email us at: Support@metabolicfix.com Click Here to learn more about my 1:1 coaching program https://metabolicfix.com/one Take My PHASE ASSESSMENT QUIZ HERE: https://www.metabolicfix.com/phase-quiz Follow Ashley on Instagram: @ashley_fillmore1 Want to see which one of my programs is the best for you? Take my Services Quiz: https://www.metabolicfix.com/services-quiz Take my FREE Metabolic Damage Quiz here: https://metabolicfix.com/md-quiz

women strategy energy nutrition sustainability cheers evidence based build muscle resources check your success holly baxter

How Sensory Avoidance Shapes Your Mental Health and Daily Life

mental health parent shapes daily life avoidance sensory resources check

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2026 15:29

EP:184 Are you completely drained by noise, crowds, constant talking, and everyday chaos? In this episode of Thrive Like a Parent, I'm breaking down what it really means to be a sensory avoider—and why that does not mean you're dramatic, anti-social, or broken. I walk you through the difference between sensory seekers and sensory avoiders, using simple, real-life examples so you can finally put words to what your body has been trying to tell you. If you crave quiet, calm, predictability, and space, your nervous system may have a low sensory threshold—which means you hit overload much faster than others. We'll talk about: How sensory avoidance shows up in adults: hating crowded places, needing quiet to think, feeling exhausted after social events, snapping at your kids or partner when you're overstimulated What sensory avoidance looks like in kids: covering ears, avoiding messy play, hating certain clothing textures, wanting to leave loud parties or busy events “too soon” Why pushing yourself or your child with “just get used to it” or “stop being so sensitive” actually ignores what the nervous system needs to feel safe Regulation strategies for sensory avoiders: routines, predictability, quiet spaces, dim lighting, comfortable clothing, alone time, and grounding tools like deep pressure and slow, gentle movement I also share a personal example from my own family to show that you can be both active and movement-seeking and deeply sensitive to certain inputs (like smells). It's not about fitting into one box—it's about truly understanding your unique sensory makeup. This episode is your permission slip to stop asking, “What's wrong with me?” and start asking, “What is my nervous system telling me?” When you understand whether you're a sensory seeker, sensory avoider, or both, you can start building a life, relationships, parenting style, and environment that actually support your brain instead of fighting it. And this is just part one. In upcoming episodes, I'll dive into sensory sensitivity and low registration, so you can fully understand your nervous system and your child's, and finally feel less broken and more empowered. If this episode made you say, “Oh my gosh, that's me,” please: Share this episode with a friend, partner, or parent who needs to hear they're not broken—they're just wired differently. Links & Resources:

From the Archive: Lori Gottlieb — What Your Therapist Is Really Thinking

The James Altucher Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2026 58:41

A Note from James:I've been in therapy for more than three decades.Different therapists. Different kinds of therapy. Different crises.And one question has always fascinated me: What is the therapist actually thinking while I'm sitting there talking?Are they bored? Are they judging me? Are they secretly Googling me?My guest today, Lori Gottlieb, knows the answer—because she's both sides of the story.She's a psychotherapist, author of the bestselling book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, and the writer behind the popular advice column “Ask the Therapist.”But what makes Lori unique is that she's willing to pull back the curtain on therapy itself: what therapists think, what patients hide, and why people keep repeating the same patterns in relationships and life.This episode originally aired several years ago, but the ideas still feel incredibly relevant—especially now, when conversations about mental health are everywhere.So if you've ever wondered what's really happening on the other side of the therapy couch, this conversation is for you.Episode Description:Psychotherapist and bestselling author Lori Gottlieb joins James to discuss what really happens inside therapy—and what both therapists and patients often misunderstand about the process.Drawing from her book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori explains why therapy isn't just about venting problems but about understanding the patterns that drive them.James shares his own experiences as a long-time therapy patient, raising questions many people quietly wonder: Do therapists judge their patients? Do they get bored? Do they Google the people they treat?Lori answers candidly, discussing the hidden dynamics of therapy, the emotional complexity therapists carry home with them, and why the most important conversations in therapy are often the ones people hesitate to bring up.The conversation also explores relationships, secrets, childhood experiences, and why many people keep repeating the same life patterns—even when they know better.What You'll Learn:Why therapy isn't just about discussing problems—it's about understanding patternsThe difference between content and process in relationshipsWhy therapists rarely get bored—even when problems seem trivialThe surprising ways therapists think about their patientsWhy the hardest topics in therapy often show up at the end of a sessionTimestamped Chapters:[00:02:00] Lori Gottlieb on Therapy as “Editing Your Life Story”[00:03:00] Introduction to Lori Gottlieb[00:04:16] Inside the Book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone[00:05:02] Why Therapists Need Therapists[00:06:17] Are Therapists Bored Listening to Problems?[00:07:00] Content vs Process: The Real Work of Therapy[00:09:00] Why Pain Has No Hierarchy[00:10:23] James's “Statistician” Theory of Therapy[00:11:00] Why Every Patient's Story Is Unique[00:12:00] Finding Something Likable in Every Patient[00:12:45] The Hollywood Producer Patient[00:15:12] The Most “Boring” Therapy Patients[00:16:03] Labeling What's Happening in a Conversation[00:18:00] Building Trust Without Oversharing[00:20:00] Judgment vs Protectiveness in Therapy[00:23:04] What Therapists Wish Patients Knew[00:24:11] Do Therapists Care What Patients Think of Them?[00:25:00] Different Styles of Therapy[00:29:00] Advice vs Understanding in Therapy[00:32:51] Do Therapists Ever Google Their Patients?[00:36:00] Why Patients Googling Therapists Can Backfire[00:38:00] The Awkward Beginning of Every Therapy Session[00:41:00] Working With a Patient Facing Terminal Cancer[00:44:00] The Emotional Impact of Therapy Work[00:46:00] Handling Suicidal Patients[00:47:30] When Therapy Ends[00:50:00] Why Saying Goodbye Matters in Therapy[00:53:00] “Doorknob Disclosures” — The Secrets Patients Reveal LastLinks and Resources:Check out Lori's website and sign up for her newsletter at Lorigottlieb.comAsk the Therapist is the column Lori writes for the New York Times. You can submit a question for Lori hereRead Lori's book, “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed.”Also check out Lori's book from 2011, “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” (This book is not about settling! She says “I didn't win the title battle with the publisher. And I still get letters from people who say the book has helped them.” A lot of it has to do with saving your marriage or setting standards. And she wrote a column about this once, too.)“Dear Therapist” is the column Lori wrote for six years for “The Atlantic.”Follow Lori on Twitter and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Sensory Seekers 101: The Missing Link in Nervous System Regulation