Have you ever been frustrated by self-help gurus and other people who tell you to become your best self, focus on gratitude, and show up as the person you want to be....all the while, they’ve never faced a day of adversity in their lives?
The thing is, gratitude is easy when life is easy. It’s easy to show up as our best when life is going well.
But, the rubber hits the road when life gets tough and we have to put this information, tools, and techniques to work in difficult times. Today, we’re talking to a man who did just that.
Michael Arterberry grew up in a very difficult set of circumstances. The son of an alcoholic father, Michael experienced incredible hardship. Poverty. Crime. Bad outside influences. His early days had all the makings of a life that goes down a bad path.
But, at a very young age, Michael tapped into something POWERFUL: the legacy he wanted to leave behind and the life he wanted to build for his future kids and family. And, that powerful motivator helped him reinvent himself into the man he is today.
During our conversation, we talk about:
You can find out more about Michael by visiting www.michaelarterberry.com. You can also learn about his organization the Youth Voices Center, check out his online course at www.shakethedirtexperience.com, and read Michael’s book “Be Encouraged.”
When someone asks you, “How are you feeling today?” How do you typically answer?
If you’re like many of us, you answer with a simple, “Good.” But, that doesn’t convey nearly the entire story, does it?
The fact is, we experience incredibly complex emotions, and our ability to recognize our own emotions and the emotions of others is called emotional intelligence, and it’s what we’re focusing on with this week’s guest.
This week, we’re speaking with Dan Hill. He’s an internationally recognized expert on the role of emotions in politics, business, sports, and pop culture. He’s spoken to audiences in over 25 countries, and to capture and quantify emotions, Dan pioneered the use of facial coding (the analysis of facial expressions) with his company Sensory Logic.
Dan is also the author of the book “Famous Faces Decoded: A Guidebook for Reading Others,” which we dive into during our conversation.
We also talk about:
This was such a fascinating conversation, particularly when you think about it from the context of how strongly it impacts our day-to-day lives. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Have you ever wondered how some of the best mental well-being apps came to be? Apps like Happify, Headspace, and Muse. How did they come to be, and how did they scale to the point that they’ve touched over 100 million people?
Today we’re getting a little glimpse behind that curtain as we speak with Charlie Hartwell. Charlie is a partner within the influential investor group, Bridge Builders Collaborative. This group was the first to see, understand, and invest in startups within the consumer technological health market. They are now pioneers in the new arena of health and well-being centered around human consciousness.
Charlie also works alongside his wife in the ShiftIt Institute, an organization aimed at raising the consciousness of the world.
During our conversation we talk about:
This is such a valuable conversation as we think about the importance of the work we’re each doing in our own lives. It’s a testament to the importance of building psychological strength and practicing life design.
Relevant Links:
Today we’re going deep. Into the depths of our minds to talk about the fundamental processes that govern more of our behavior and more of the results and outcomes in our lives than we even realize. We’re sifting through the core of our psychological profiles that makes up the basis or the foundation for most of our lives. And we’re showing how this core, these fundamental processes, can be used to both better our lives and to navigate through some of the most difficult days that life will throw at us.
Today, we’re speaking with Elizabeth Benton. During our conversation, Elizabeth shares how she was depressed, deeply in debt, and obese. As a nutrition expert and educator who binged on junk food every time she put gas in her car, she felt like a fraud and a failure. Desperate to start her life, she decided to believe in her potential rather than her past. She lost 150 pounds, paid off $130,000, and remains debt-free as a successful entrepreneur.
What I love most about this episode is that it wasn’t the surface level behaviors that needed to change first. It wasn’t about the food or the budget. Rather, to see changes manifest in those areas, Elizabeth had to focus on the core: her identity, her values, her mindset. By doing that, she saw how everything could change.
Today, Elizabeth is the owner of Primal Potential. Through her platform of podcasts, coaching, and live events, she has fueled her deepest struggles into a burning passion to help people create transformations and live more fulfilled lives.
I should also mention that Elizabeth very recently lost a child. She shares a bit about that experience in this conversation and how the same mindset techniques that helped her lose weight and get out of debt are the ones she’s relying on to get her through the most difficult time in her life.
Please approach this episode with care. There is depth and value here, but we’re talking about real topics – difficult topics – topics that might be hard for some listeners to hear.