Good Life Project

Latest Episodes:

Chase Jarvis: Acclaimed Photographer and CreativeLIVE Founder Jan 25, 2016

Show notes

Imagine a career...no…Imagine a life where you travel the world earning your living by taking jaw-dropping photos of some of the most astounding athletes, action-sports, and breathtaking backdrops the planet has to offer.

Sound too good to be true?—it’s not—this is the life of award-winning photographer

Chase Jarvis...but it almost wasn’t, nor is it where he's resting.

Chase started down the beaten path, a scholar-athlete, headed toward med-school. It wasn’t until after taking his MCAT and interviewing with several medical schools that Chase’s took an unexpected turn and walked away from it all.

IMoved by the call of the camera his grandfather left him when he passed, Chase stepped out of the path he'd been expected to follow and stepped into a part of him that had laid buried. He claimed his inner-artist and storyteller, and starting shooting images of friends doing what they lit them up. And a lot of that included skateboarding and snowboarding.

The result?—entirely self-taught, Chase built a life most people only dream about as one of the top action sports and travel photographers in the world, shooting campaigns for many of the biggest brands, and making films along the way.

Still, he wasn't done. Over the years, an even deeper call emerged. To teach. To inspire others and to create a different legacy.

So, he co-founded CreativeLIVE, which has now grown into a global online educational venture with millions of students learning both the craft and business of a wide array of creative professions.

In today’s conversation, we explore how this visionary photographer, director, fine artist, and entrepreneur learned to find comfort in uncertainty and, through that comfort, defy the external pressures driving him towards a career he never wanted.

We’ll discuss why we’re so often compelled to pursue validation from the world, and how that pursuit forcibly pushes us away from our natural, creative passions. And, we dive deep into creativity, mastery and so many of the stories we tell ourselves that stop us from pursuing and experiencing both.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How You Handle No Is How You Handle Life Jan 20, 2016

Show notes

“No.”

It’s such a simple word, and yet…massively impactful.

Too often we find ourselves standing toe to toe with No—challenging it as an unwarranted slight, or an underserved rejection.

My question is—why?

No isn’t about passing judgement, it isn’t about demeaning your worth—it’s about communicating “X” is not the best possible fit for the promised outcome of “Y”.

At Good Life Project, we use applications for our events to ensure the audience consists of individuals who will get the absolute most out of what we’re doing…It’s not about denying people, it’s about ensuring we can deliver on expectations. Theirs and ours.

No is not a personal attack.

No is not a critique against the backdrop of your life.

No isn't a slam, it's a powerful data-point. Fuel for growth.

In today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff, we share a "Tale of Two No's," exploring how two different people responded to a No profoundly differently, and how each person's response likely informs both the way they move into the rest of their lives AND the way the world rises up to support or seems to war eternally against them.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Too Smart to Be Conned? Think Again! Jan 18, 2016

Show notes

Imagine yourself as a child uprooted from your home, and bouncing from nation to nation as a paperless refugee…

Envision the fear of being unexpectedly foreign in lands when the customs are as alien as the language being spoken…

What would you do? Would you follow your dreams and thrive, or merely play it safe and survive?

These were the questions facing Maria Konnikova, an author and psychologist who landed in the suburbs of Boston by way of Moscow, Vienna, and Rome at the tender age of four.

Despite not knowing a word of English upon her arrival in the United States, Maria worked furiously in pursuit of her passion—writing—eventually graduating with a bachelors from Harvard (magna cum laude, by the way) and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Maria’s first book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, was a New York Times bestseller, and her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, California Sunday, Pacific Standard, The New Republic, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, The Boston Globe, The Observer, Scientific American and WIRED. She also writes a regular column focusing on psychology and culture for The New Yorker.

In today's conversation, we explore her powerful journey and the family dynamic that gave her the space to create a living and life she truly loves. We also discuss why committing to something you're passionate about is so important.

Then, we dive into Maria’s latest book, The Confidence Game, a riveting exploration into the minds of con artists and the people who fall prey to them. You'll discover a world you've very likely fallen under the spell of, without even knowing it. You'll learn how even the smartest people get taken, and sometimes that's a great thing.

You'll also see the deeper psychology of persuasion and how it unfolds in nearly every "transaction and conversation" all day long, from the coffee you buy in the morning to the things you eat, buy or try, the conversations you have in the office and outcomes you create in the world.

In the end, we come to an unsettling truth. The only real difference between devastating cons, entrepreneurship, marketing and self-help is...well...you'll have to listen to find out!

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Founder or Entrepreneur? It’s Not Just Semantics Jan 13, 2016

Show notes

If you ask someone who is working on turning an idea into a business what they call themselves, a likely answer these days is "startup founder."

If you'd asked that same question a generation ago, you'd have probably heard "entrepreneur" or "business person."

The difference isn't just about semantics or generational change. It's about a profound shift in both the mindset of entrepreneurship, and the acknowledgement and exaltation of a very distinct "discovery" phase that exists between the idea and the viable entity called the startup.

This seemingly subtle shift, which is anything but, has created a new wave of permission to take risks and innovate on a level that, not too long ago, many would have been fiercely judged for. And, along with that, it has brought a less catastrophic lens to failure and increased the willingness to put yourself on the line in the name of doing something extraordinary.

It has tilled the soil of purposeful experimentation and empowered so many to take a shot at creating something from nothing who, but for the cover provided by the "startup" moniker, would've never even tried. That is a great thing, not only on an individual level, but on a societal level, because it creates possibility. It allows more ingenuity and innovation to see the light of day. In the end, we all benefit from that.

This is what we're talking about in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff.

Tweetable: “We need more people trying to create genius.”

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Level Up Your Life with Nerd Fitness Founder, Steve Kamb Jan 11, 2016

Show notes

Nerd. Gamer. Athlete.

Three words you rarely hear uttered in the same sentence, let alone to describe any one person (unless you're talking about epic movie battles).

But, that "triple-threat" describes founder of the global Nerd Fitness movement and author of Level Up Your Life, Steve Kamb, perfectly.

A lifelong gamer and nerd, Steve found himself exposed to the world of fitness later in life. It was like a switch turned on. His life was transformed, and he wanted to find a way to apply what he knew about game-theory and technology to fitness in a quest to help millions of people break out of the fits and starts and finally reclaim their health.

So, he created his Nerd Fitness revolution, the members of which call themselves The Rebellion. It seems he struck a chord. Nerd Fitness exploded, growing rapidly into a global community with more than 250,000 members and millions of visits to their online home every month.

But, that's not all, Steve also figured out how to literally turn his everyday life into a living, breathing video game he calls his Epic Quest of Awesome. One that has taken him on incredible adventures all over the world, from Croatia to Brazil and Monaco to Munich, all while spending very little money.

His new book, Level Up Your Life is essentially the manifesto for the revolution.

In this week's conversation, we explore Steve incredible adventure, we dive into how he stumbled upon the "unlock key" for physical transformation in the world of gaming and how he has worked to engineer Nerd Fitness to help people do what seemed impossible before. Oh, and how along the way, he's figured out how to live a deeply adventurous and meaningful life

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The Will to Change Must Come From Within Jan 06, 2016

Show notes

Ever try to help someone who had absolutely no interest in being helped?

It's one of the most frustrating experiences we can have. Maybe it's a family member or partner. Maybe it's a close friend or colleague. Or even a customer or client.

So many times, we end up banging our heads against a wall trying to motivate or force others to care, then impose a solution they never asked for, because we "determined" it was in their best interest.

We do this in our personal lives and, not infrequently, in our professional lives, too. But, even if the action we're looking to compel is, in fact, in that other person's best interest, until they care as much as we do, it's game over.

Today's short and sweet GLP Riff dives into this phenomenon, shares a story of how Jonathan bumped up against it while looking to build a personal training practice years ago and what he learned.

In the end, there's one simple truth. You can motivate action externally for a moment or even a window in time, but the sustained action needed to create real, lasting outcomes can't come from the outside in.

The will to change must come from within.

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How John Lee Dumas Built a Podcast Into a Life Jan 04, 2016

Show notes

John Lee Dumas grew up believing he wasn't the most talented person in the room. But, he also knew the path to success in almost any endeavor was more about work than it was about innate gifts. So, pretty early on, he made a decision that he'd outwork pretty much anyone to get what he wanted.

That led to a string of powerful accomplishments, from athletics to business and led him to follow in the footsteps of his dad and grandfather, serving in the military. But, when he came home, dealing with PTSD from combat, the years that followed led him to a series of false starts, from law school to real-estate, in an attempt to meet what he eventually realized were everyone's expectations and desires but his own.

For the first time, there wasn't a clear path, and he fell into a depression. Until he found an unlikely spark in a place he wasn't even looking for it...podcasting.

John became fascinated with the medium and set out to launch the first-ever daily business podcast, calling it Entrepreneur On Fire (now EO Fire). Everyone told him the daily format was nuts, it'd be impossible to keep up. But he was not to be dissuaded.

In short order, the podcast became a phenomenon and he began to build a powerful business around it, adding on sponsorship and educational offerings. He also decided to break another rule, sharing his company's income reports with his community on a monthly basis.

Over more than 1,200 interviews with entrepreneurs, Dumas also began to key in on common patterns of success in business. One of the biggest, he found, nearly every single person who achieved any level of success was fiercely focused on achieving a goal. He realized, he was, too. And he wanted to create a tool to share with others to help move them toward the achievement of a single big goal. So, he created his first physical product, calling it the Freedom Journal. He's actually launching it on Kickstarter right now.

In today's conversation, we dive deep into John Lee Dumas' journey and how he's landed in a place where his focus is evolving strongly to one word, significance.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Close the Books: On Learning, Letting Go and Lighting Up Dec 30, 2015

Show notes

At the end of every year, business owners and accountants do something we might want to consider also doing in our personal lives.

They "close the books."

What does that mean? They look back over everything that's happened in the last 12 months, make sure it's as accurate as possible, understand what went into each debit and credit, then ask what makes sense to continue in the year to come, what makes sense to end and what makes sense to change.

They look for any areas where the numbers don't seem to match up, where there's some kind of aberration or question or anomaly and try to figure out what actually happened. They reconcile the numbers and, if they can't, they place a note explaining why.

Then, when they've learned what they can learn, fixed what they can fix, explained what they need to explain, they close the books. They let it all go and turn their energy to the next 12-month window, opening a new book and penning the first entry.

So, here's my question...

What if we did this not just in our financial lives, but in our personal lives, too?

What if, at the end of every year, we created a deliberate process of:

Learning
Reconciling
Letting go, and
Refocusing

How might that allow us to step into the coming year not snuffed out and battle-scarred, but lit up and filled with possibility?

That's what this week's Good Life Project Riff is all about.

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Colin Beavan: No Impact Man On How To Be Alive Dec 28, 2015

Show notes

Colin Beavan burst into the public consciousness in a huge way with a documentary and international bestselling book called No Impact Man that documented his yearlong experiment to live in the middle of New York City with his family creating zero environmental impact.

That experience opened his eyes to the power daily choices can have not only his own life, but the world around him. But, it also did something else. It triggered a deeper interest in exploring many of the big questions in life, the heart of which is not just how to be a good steward of the planet, but how to live a good life along the way.

Consumed by the question he spent years diving into research, interviewing people and began to realize that our ability to live good lives is intimately tied to the way we relate to and serve those around us, and the planet that sustains us. It's about moving away from materialism and toward competence, and so much more. Diverging from convention, he shares much of what he's discovered in a wonderful new book, How to Be Alive.

We sat down with Colin to record a deeply-personal and passionate conversation, geeking out on stories, eye-opening studies on rarely spoken about human needs and so much more, all in the name of pulling back the curtain on what really matters as we navigate our time on the planet.

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Conversation vs. Interview: Create Your Own Rules Dec 23, 2015

Show notes

Sometimes your creative voice clashes with others' expectations of what's always been done, and what they think you're "supposed" to do.

This has happened a few times with this podcast. Ninety-nine percent to the messages and reviews we get about the guests, topics and format are overwhelmingly positive. Every once in a while, though, we get hit with a "take down" comment, a really aggressive attack on either a guest, topic or the conversational format of the show.

I understand the rebuttal against certain guests and topics. Sometimes we offer provocative guests, people who've made choices others don't agree with and we talk about topics and ideas that make some people uncomfortable. I get that, not every person or idea or choice is right for everyone.

But, the occasional take-down over the conversational format of the show ("I don't want to hear the host, I only care about the interviewee's point of view), I always find fascinating. Because it reflects a point of tension over a creative choice that we've made in producing our media and the evolution of the media itself.

What is that decision? Choosing conversation over interview as the format when we host guests on the show. There is a subtle, yet powerful difference in these formats. Until the emergence of "new media," nearly everything that hit the air was interview-driven. This was a standard that emerged from journalism, where the focus was on "eliciting information" in an attempt to break and tell another person's story. For those long-time media consumers who are locked into a traditional, more journalistic TV and radio "interview" paradigm, our choice of a more conversational format can bump up against long-held expectations of what media "has" to be.

The media game is changing, though, and the freedom of podcasting and online video has pretty much thrown traditional constraints out the window. The decision to roll with different formats—long-form vs. short-form, conversation vs. interview, broadcast production values vs. street-level production values— makes a huge difference in both how much you enjoy listening and we enjoying creating. New media creators are constantly pushing the envelope with formats and, at the same time, inviting longtime media consumers to let down the shield and become open to the possibility of everything from three-minute videos to three-hour conversations. Jerry Seinfeld's fantastic, conversation-driven, 15-20 minute "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" episodes are a wonderful example of breaking nearly every rule, and making a lot of people happy.

For Good Life Project, we've chosen conversation over interview. It was a very intentional choice. In today's Good Life Project Riff, we share the deeper drivers behind that creative choice, exploring the idea of "product-maker fit" and why you might want to apply the same logic in your creative endeavors.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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