A Joyful Rebellion

Today’s episode will leave you feeling one of two ways. I hope you leave feeling fired up about your next creative project, but there’s a chance you might go away feeling like it’s too late to do all the really cool things you always dreamed you would.
Truth be told, I’m still on the fence about my own feelings on the subject, but I’m doing my best to lean toward fired up.
My guest today is Shanti Hershenson. She began writing in 2020 in her joyful rebellion against the boredom she was experiencing during lock down. Since then she has published over sixteen books. She continues to write at least 1000 words every day, and I don’t think I mentioned it yet, but at the time of this interview, she is sixteen years old. Yeah, you heard that right.

If someone gave you a blank check to go all in on investing in your personal development, how much money would you budget for it?
My guest today has spent most of his life in some sort of personal development. However, in the last 5 years he’s hit it extra hard , investing over a quarter of a million of his own dollars in himself in order to learn, grow and succeed.
Tony Schmaltz has a passion for helping people upgrade their lives in any area possible. He specializes in mindset, wealth creation, relationships and happiness and has walked his talk when it comes to pursiung a better life for himself and his family.
He also has a book out called wake the BLEEP UP! We’ll talk about his journey from being miserable in the corporate world, to his massive investment in himself and how that has played out so far.
So take a deep breath, now exhale,alright, let’s go!

My guest today is Noah Heymann, a dating and relationship coach who can’t stand seeing great people frustrated or lonely and understands that the modern dating scene and online dating don’t come naturally to anyone.
Noah uses a science and data-driven approach to help his clients find success both in their dating journey, then well into when things start to get real with their relationship.
He’ll share the latest science on dating. From fMRI research to improve confidence and conversation, to data insights into profiles, messages, and crowd-sourced feedback on photos.
Oh, and this is important to mention if YOU are in a super califragalistic, just as happy as you can possibly be, kind of relationship. Well hey! Congratulations, but all the more reason to listen in today, because I bet you have a friend or loved one who is looking for that too, and I bet you’ll hear a few nuggets of wisdom you could pass along.

I’ve met some amazing folks in this joyful rebellion, and Bob Martin is one of the most interesting people I’ve met so far on my journey. If I read his full bio, well, let’s just say, my background music would run out long before his list of career highlights.
Bob is a mix of things you might not expect to go together. He currently works as a professor of business law at Elon University. He is also the Mindfulness Coordinator for the University.
As a Taoist/Buddhist/Christian practitioner, Bob actively works to free people from the constraints of religious dogma and guide them toward the path of virtue and self-discovery.
We talk about his most recent book titled- I Am the Way, a Taoist/ Christian devotional that reflects Bob’s commitment to bridging spiritual traditions and fostering unity and compassion among all beings.
We also talk a lot about mindfulness and meditation and why creating a consistent practice has become so important to defend our minds from the information overload many of us experience daily.
I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation, so let’s jump in!

My guest today is Ari Gunzburg, an award-winning speaker and coach working to solve human disconnection.
Ari inspires people using personal stories filled with triumph, tragedy, and transformation, and draws on his experiences in nature's great healing domain to give others hope and light. He is the author of the popular parable, The Little Book Of Greatness.
We talk about some of the modern distractions that contribute to disconnection and how to be more aware of them. Then we discuss Ari’s five keys of greatness. I’m excited for you to hear this episode, so let’s get it going!

A joyful rebellion is all about taking accountability for the decisions we make in our lives and doing the things necessary to live the life we want, not just the one we currently have.
We make so many choices over our lifetime, and some we see as major, like careers and relationships, while there are others we fool ourselves into believing are less significant. There’s no shortage of those, but today, we’re talking about the food we choose to eat.
My guest today is Coach Becker, a fat loss coach and creator of the Keto Code program. I first met Becker back in the early 2000s at a photo conference in Las Vegas. Since that time, I’ve watched him go through his own joyful rebellion by losing 100 pounds and creating a completely new life for himself, and if you listen to the full episode, I think you’ll agree that is no exaggeration.
I knew this would be an interview that could help those who might listen to it. What I didn’t realize is how much the conversation helped improve my own mindset around food and health in general.
Oh, and if you’re about to switch over to your favorite true crime podcast because you’re tired of hearing about the keto diet, you’re in luck. While it is mentioned a few times, it’s not the core message here.
This episode has been a long time coming, so let’s jump right in!

I love a good story. Sometimes that means reading about other people’s stories in books or creating stories of my own, out in the real world. For today’s episode, I traveled south and met up with ghostwriter Maggie Mills in a most unexpected location.
Maggie is the most famous author you’ve never heard of and we discuss writing, the best way to write your own story, and how she helps her clients get their stories out into the world through publishing books.
Before we begin, though, I’d like to thank the author, John Berendt, for the story he published thirty years ago that caused this whole thing to come together the way it did.
 

I say it a lot, but we ALL have stuff. And I’m talking about emotional baggage, trauma, whatever you choose to call it, we all have at least a little. But what do you do when all of that emotional baggage starts to get in the way of the person you want to become?
Benjy Sherer is an emotional wellness coach and author of 'Feelings First Shadow Work' and '10 Mind Hacks for Quicker Emotional Healing'. He teaches his clients how to master their emotions as quickly, easily, and painlessly as possible.
His unique methods help people bypass their logical brains and connect directly to their emotions to release past trauma, limiting beliefs, and self-harming patterns without needing to focus on all of the past traumas that caused these issues in the first place.
He’s helped client after client overcome stress, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, PTSD, and depression, and find the real and lasting self-love and joy they've struggled so many years to attain.
Today I talk with Benjy about his framework of emotional fitness and how he equips his clients with the tools to move beyond their current limitations.
 

I talk a lot about relationships on this podcast, and today is no different. Well, maybe a little. What’s your relationship with money? Does thinking about your bank or investment accounts leave you feeling stressed or excited? Do you consider money to be simply a tool, or did someone in your past twist that bible verse to convince you that it’s the root of all evil. What attitudes about money were you exposed to in your childhood that are holding you back all these years later?
My guest today is Shari Rash, Financial Advisor and founder of Greenway Wealth Advisory. Shari has over 17 years of experience working in the financial services industry, and is the author of Insider's Secrets about Women and Money.
We talk about how the lessons we either did or didn’t learn about money from previous generations in our family could be holding us back from a healthy relationship with it.
Shari shares insights she has learned about personal finance through the years, differences between how men and women view finances and she explains how to discover your spending personality.

Everyone you know is going through or has gone through a period of their life so challenging or negative, that it makes them question their faith or their purpose in this world. My guest today knows that feeling all too well and has earned what I think of as multiple PhDs from the school of hard knocks, and he’s come through those experiences with a stronger understanding of his faith and a commitment to use his familiarity with trauma to help others find hope for themselves.
Ricky Sluder is a survivor of childhood trauma and has battled Complex PTSD himself, which helped him develop a faith-based alternative to the traditional mental health counseling model. His approach is to coach people who feel sidelined by life in a way that uses their past difficulties as fuel to get them back into the game.
In 2022, Ricky Sluder published his book, Accepting Truth, Finding Hpe! We’re going to dive super deep into his story, so buckle up extra securely for this one. It might just be the most real interview I’ve done so far.