Jason Shen
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Jason Shen, a product manager at Etsy and partner of Ship Your Side Project.He is also the creator of the Asian American Man Study, which has been cited by NBC’s Asian America and The Atlantic. He served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow under President Obama and co-founded a Y Combinator startup called Ridejoy, which built a nationwide city-to-city ridesharing network.Jason’s writing has appeared in Fast Company, Quartz, and Lifehacker, he has been quoted in The New York Times, National Journal, Outside Magazine, as well as NPR’s Marketplace, and he has been a speaker at Google, Work-Bench, Auburn University, and FailCon.
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Again, thank you so much for your support! Please
if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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A brief history of Jason's story in gymnastics [03:20]
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How to notice a diminishing return on your effort [08:00]
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His injuries and surgeries from gymnastics [10:10]
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How his dedication to gymnastics flowed into other projects [16:50]
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How there is no "make it" point in life [18:04]
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The beginning of RideJoy [19:39]
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How to know when to push through and when to move on [21:40]
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How he transitioned to the Presidential Innovation Fellowship [28:20]
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Why it's important to go with your gut [30:40]
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How entrepreneurs are simply people who don't like BS [32:20]
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The story behind the Aztec pushup world record [34:04]
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The story behind Ship Your Side Project [38:20]
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The psychology of personal change course he created [40:45]
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What an authentic life means to him [43:28]
More About Jason
Episode Resources
Mathias Jakobsen
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Mathias Jakobsen, the founder of Think Clearly and an executive coach.
Mathias is an executive coach, but he also used to do digital work for The New York Times, Bloomberg, Google, Coca-Cola; all sorts of companies, and working with startup CEO’s and corporate executives. He also has a platform called Think Clearly, but what he really wanted to get across was less about where you worked and what you were doing, and much more about the mindset behind it. He’s really interested in the idea of how flexible peoplecan be, and how they can change, and be and do anything they want. His work really reflects it.He is super interesting and fascinating. I loved chatting with him. I think you’re going to learn a lot about answering these dreaded questions of, “What do I want? How do I get there? How do I tackle the purpose question and the finance question? What does that look like in real life?” The goal of this show is to really unpack the idea that having passion is great, having financial success is great, but how do you combine the two, and how do you define that for yourself?
Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Show Notes
- Less about where you worked and what you were doing and more about the mindset behind it. [1:20]
- Is purpose driven in how he lives his [3:19]
- Why am I here? Why have I chosen to come into this space-time reality? What is it that I am supposed to be doing in this lifetime? [3:41]
- Helping people find out how flexible they are and how much they can change if they want to change. [5:22]
- Mathias Jakobsen founded his first company when he was 15. [7:14]
- He was driven by the act of fun and building. [9:53]
- His purpose was revisited when he moved 3,500 miles to New York and realized he wasn't making any money. [11:54]
- He stepped back and asked himself what it was that he actually wanted. [13:13]
- Knowing what your vision is and taking small steps and you may have to shift some things that you are doing to make it work for you. [19:16]
- Public speaking [30:15]
- How to find a niche [40:05]
More About Mathias
Episode Resources
Imperfection Can Be Perfect
I thought I would talk to you about something that's really on my mind today. I'm sitting here in Chicago at my desk. It's kind of a dreary, cloudy day and it's about 55 degrees outside. We're transitioning into winter, which in Chicago can be so brutal.When I woke up this morning, I knew I had a few recordings that I was going to do for the podcast, and I just wasn't feeling it. Do you ever have those days? You just don't know why. You feel like you slept enough, you had enough water, etc. I did a nice yoga practice yesterday and I just don't feel on my game. I don't feel like I'm in the zone.I spent my day thinking about ways I could bring up my energy and focus. I tried to figure out how to get myself into a better state. As Tony Robbins would say, "peak state," so I could get onto this podcast and record an amazing riff, the best information I could possibly give to you guys.But it just wasn't happening. My son is off of school today for parent/teacher conferences, so I took him to a local taco place and we had some lunch. Usually, spending a little time with him just gets me into the greatest mood and I thought, "Okay, as soon as I get that done, maybe I'll have another cup of coffee and I'll be in a better state and then I'll be able to get my work done."This little story illustrates how we spend so much of our time trying to figure out ways to get the world around us to make us feel better. If we could do that, we could be in a perfect state and things will go well and we'll be on our game.I just don't think that's how it works. That's why I wanted to record this episode, because today I'm just not feeling it. I'm just not feeling it, and if I sat here and I waited for perfection, if I waited for the moment when the stars aligned and my mind felt completely in some kind of incredible flow state, I don't know if I would ever have recorded this podcast. I don't know when I would record a podcast.Truthfully, I think I'd have about 10% of the work I have done in my life complete.It's so rare to feel that amazing flow state, that perfect "everything around me, I'm comfortable, I have my cup of coffee, I have my favorite clothes on, I got the perfect amount of sleep, I'm in the best mood, I exercised" state of mind. Because life is really imperfect, and so what? Why do we have to wait for perfection? Why do we have to feel on our game to feel as if the work we're doing is worthy and it's okay and acceptable to put out into the world? What if things were just imperfect? Just good enough sometimes?Over and over and over I hear my clients use this one as an excuse, "As soon as I get this financial situation into a better place then I will. As soon as I feel a little better about myself, then I will. As soon as my relationship's in a better place, then I will."But the annoying part about life is that as soon as one thing gets into the state you want it to be in, another thing is not quite ideal. So I'm coming to you today from my desk on a cloudy day, feeling a little low, a little off. But truth be told, this has happened many times and I've recorded so many episodes, and I've written so many blogs, and I've written my book, and I built my company, talked to employees, from an imperfect place.So I wanted to share that with you in the hopes that maybe today you're sitting there and you're not quite feeling it? Maybe you're waiting for something in your life to get to the next level? Maybe you just wished that one thing would come together before you would take action? And maybe this would encourage you to consider letting go of that need to have something in a better place and just step forward and do the best work you can do, and accept that it's probably good enough.Thank you so much for tuning in this week to the Art of Authenticity. I appreciate each and every one of you for coming and listening to these shows. If you have any questions, anything on your mind, anything you want to talk about, as always, send me a note: [email protected].Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Episode Resources
Bridgette Mayer Johnson
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Bridgette Mayer Johnson, an author and professional artist with an incredible story of overcoming abuse.This episode really blew me away. Bridgette spent decades of her life cultivating her passion for art. She now advises people all over the world on art. But it didn’t start like that.Her childhood started in a very abusive environment. It landed her in foster care homes and on the street, starving, actually getting her food from dumpsters out of a window that she had to climb out because her mother had locked her into a one bedroom apartment with her five siblings. She wasn’t even able to actually go to school. Eventually she was placed and adopted family and she began her life at age nine, going to an incredible college, pulling herself out of this devastating childhood into a multimillion dollar art gallery business.
Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Show Notes
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Spent decades of her life cultivating her passion for art. She advises people all over the world on art [00:53]
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How her childhood started in a very abusive environment. It landed her on foster care and on the streets, starving, getting her food from dumpsters [01:09]
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How she wasn’t able to go to school [01:15]
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How her life changed [01:22]
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How her first connection to art and creativity was a bag of makeup her mom left in the bathroom [07:13]
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How she was removed from the home [10:14]
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How she went back and forth between foster care and her mother [10:35]
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How she got adopted by a foster mother several hours away from her home. [12:03]
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How her healing started when she was brought into the new home. [13:42]
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How she catched up with her age group education wise [14:31]
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How she realized the worst part was over [16:25]
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How her adoptive mother realized she had to adopt them [17:15]
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How she realized she wanted to be an artist [18:23]
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How she ended up with her own gallery [20:45]
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What her challenges were starting her business [25:45]
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How she overcame her fear of public speaking [30:15]
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How to find a niche [40:05]
More About Bridgette
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Bridgette's book, The Art Cure
Episode Resources
How to Get More Accomplished
Hey, Laura here. Today I wanted to talk to you about something that happened last week, and it just blew my mind.I was talking to a client and I said to her in the middle of our session, "We could be recording this and playing this for my podcast and I think almost everyone would be nodding their heads in agreement that they've experienced what we're talking about as well."So I thought, let me share it with you because I know that this will be helpful to almost everyone.So here's what happened. I was working with this client. She came to me because she had that dreaded question, "What do I want?" Right? "I'm making some money, I'm able to pay my rent, do well in my life, get career traction, but what do I really want, right? What is that thing that will bring purpose and fulfillment into my life, not just financial gain?"So we worked on that conversation, "What do I really want," and most of my clients come to me specifically with that point of frustration. It's such an annoying question to answer because we're taught to ask ourselves, "What am I good at? Or what should I do with my life?" But we are not very good at figuring out what wewant.As soon as she started to talk about what she wanted, the junk food thoughts, as I call them, all the "can'ts" and "shouldn'ts" and judgements and the self-inner critic, all those thoughts, all that stuff got in the way.So we worked through all of that, we cleared out the things that were standing between her and her ability to articulate what she wanted. Then, boom! This mission statement came out of her. It was amazing. She told me exactly what she wanted, she set her goals, we worked on the brass tacks stuff:What are the three things you are going to do over the next month? What are your priorities? How do we set all up? Right?I was feeling great, we are on track, things are going in the right direction. She came to me, she wanted help, she's getting the help she wanted. Then she said to me, "I've got to tell you, I didn't have the best week," and I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I feel like this sense of calm in my work even though I'm finishing a lot of stuff," and I said, "Well, that's great. That's what we wanted was a sense of calm and accomplishment." She's like, "The truth is I fear I'm losing myedge." I was laughing and I said, "This is the greatest conversation ever."
Because, right? What does it mean if you're actually getting a ton of stuff done and you feel relaxed, you feel calm, you feel like you're in a flow state?
Her brain was doing what all of us were trained to do; question, "Well this can't be hard work. Hard work has to feel a certain way. It has to feel stressed out. It has to feel miserable. It has to feel really like we're in flight all the time. So that's what we started to talk about. You're taxing your adrenals. You're in a flight mode at all times and yes, you can grind and you can focus and you might have that little extra charge of energy. But it catches up, and your mood goes, and you start getting headaches, and you feel terrible later. If not later, you drink extra coffee and then you switch over to alcohol. You're not getting enough sleep because your mind is reeling and reeling at night.
Although you feel like you have an edge, the truth is you're really just in a chemically induced flight state all the time, which is what this woman had experienced. So you get this shot of productivity, but then what? It's not sustainable and you feel terrible. So she said to me, "Well, here's the thing, if I'm happy, why would I work? Because I think I'm working really hard to be happy." I said, "There it is." This is this dreaded box that we've placed around the idea of meaning and purpose and what we do. We think of it as happiness. We think, "I'm going to work really hard to be happy." But what about just being happy while we're working?
You're not supposed to work to be happy. You want to work to feel fulfillment. Happiness is ice cream, dogs wagging their tails, a day at the beach. They're pleasure points, it's great. But fulfillment is that sense of calm, focus, flow, commitment, attachment to what you're doing. Time passes by quickly, you get a ton done, you don't even know how many hours you've been sitting there. That's flow and that's amazing. The irony is, that's when we're most productive. So I asked her, "When do you feel you've gotten the most work done in your life?"
Do you feel like you get a ton done when you induce that sense of urgency and edge and aggression? Or do you just feel stressed when you do that and your mind is distracted because you're so busy beating yourself up to focus, and to pay attention, and to work harder, and to meet the goals, and to check off boxes, and get more done, and get through this list that never seems to end? And you walk out at the end of the day and you're stressed and in a bad mood? Or tired and fatigued and you want to go home cry? Or you just want to curl up in a ball and watch television, right? Is that what we mean by "edge"?
She said, "No, actually I get the most done when I'm in a certain state." I said, "Right. When you feel relaxed. When you've actually got yourself that cup of coffee that you want and you're sitting back listening to some music that makes you happy or in the right space where you work best," right? Everybody's got their different situation. For me, having a playlist that works really well with my work and noise-cancelling earphones and a nice computer screen and an orange LaCroix, it tends to work for me. So what helps you create that flow state, and how do you relax into the work and allow the time to pass and to focus on what you're doing and feel awesome about the accomplishment?
We got to the end of this conversation and I thought, "I've got to share this with everyone." Because this idea, this idea of losing your edge and "why would I work if I'm not stressed out? I'll just be lazy. I'll go sit on a beach." It's ridiculous. Who knows where we were taught this. It seems like it's everywhere in our culture though. You will get more done when you're in a state of flow, when you're happy, when you're feeling good. So try it this week. See if you can lose that edge a little bit and see if you gain a ton of productivity.
Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Episode Resources
Meredith Haberfeld: Adding Soul to Your Business
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Meredith Haberfeld, a speaker and coach who helps companies add soul to their business.Meredith is a speaker and a coach, and she runs a company called Think Human. She has worked with companies like Spotify, Goldman Sachs, Soul Cycle. She’s been featured in media outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, CNN, and Forbes.
Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Show Notes
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What sparked the new idea she's working on [03:19]
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Why people make "bad" choices [08:00]
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The internal mental acrobatis we use to justify bad choices [12:28]
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What it means to take a courageous step to stop 'selling out' [13:51]
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Some specific techniques to bring your authentic self back [17:30]
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Avoiding accountability partners that have agendas [19:04]
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Finding people around you that will get in your corner [21:03]
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Why do we make and break committments to ourselves [22:29]
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What it means to unleash soul in your business [27:35]
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What Meredith focuses on when she works with companies [30:35]
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What an authentic life means to her [33:29]
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Habits that Meredith has to keep her grounded [40:41]
More About Meredith
Episode Resources
The Power and Myth of Delegation
Everybody is busy. If there is a person out there who doesn't feel like their lists have sub-lists, which have wish-lists, which have second lists, then I don't know them!P.S. If this is you, waybe you should write in and come on the show and talk to us about what you're doing.For the rest of us, we just feel busy. We're trying to get through the lists, through the tasks every day. Sometimes we're waking up at absurdly early hours, five in the morning, to just get that run in and your day continues on until 11, 12 o'clock at night.How can delegation free you from some of these tasks, without the downsides of delegation? That's what we're diving into in this episode.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Episode Resources
Ted Gonder: Cultivating the Mindset Behind Leadership
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Ted Gonder, the founder of Moneythink and a good friend. We talk about how he deals with success at a young age, the philosophers and books he's learned from, and a whole lot more in this deep episode.Ted Gonder is a member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans and the co-founding CEO of Moneythink, the only movement of young people restoring the economic health of the United States through preventative, transformative, and evidence-driven youth financial education. Since 2009, Moneythink has trained over 1000 college leaders to serve as financial mentors and college role models to over 9000 teenagers across 10 states.Prior to Moneythink, Ted served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, advising the Obama Administration on immigration policy for foreign entrepreneurs. Previously, he worked with the Kauffman Foundation and the Chilean government on transnational entrepreneurship initiatives, and published research on the topic through MIT Press and McKinsey. Ted got his start in social entrepreneurship leading a number of climate-change-related student initiatives, most notably being appointed and serving as the student advisor to The Climate Project, an organization founded by Al Gore.
Thanks for Listening
Thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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Ted's turning point in his youth [03:05]
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How he managed being successful early [07:10]
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How Ted became so introspective at a young age [11:04]
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The false delineation between talk and work [13:04]
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Ideas from philosophers and thinkers that inspire him [15:22]
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Why you shouldn't expect the world to work for you [17:20]
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How to pull yourself back from going into the ego [19:00]
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Ted's goal setting process [21:55]
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How to balance pushing through vs. pivoting [25:45]
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What an authentic life means to him [28:48]
More About Ted
Episode Resources
Unplugged with Laura
A few podcast and website updates for you all as we approach the 100th episode of The Art of Authenticity.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Episode Resources
Dr. Kathy Chavez, ND: It's Not All in Your Head
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Kathy Chavez, a naturopathic doctor
Dr. Chavez is a naturopath and she works at a center here in Chicago at a center called the Raby Center and I’ve had the good fortune of being her patient. If meditation, sleep, mindfulness, coaching all don't work, you could benefit from an ND. My work is centered around getting your mind in shape, but sometime it's not just about your mind - sometimes it goes deeper and requires an ND to help.
Dr. Kathy Chavez graduated from National College of Natural Medicine in 2007 with a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and Certificate in Homeopathy. She joined the staff at Cancer Treatment Centers of America Midwestern Regional Medical Center in 2009 completing a two-year residency focused on oncology. In 2011 she joined the practice at the Raby Institute of Integrative Medicine. Dr. Chavez focuses on helping her patients identify contributing factors to their illnesses and take practical steps toward greater health.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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What a naturopathic doctor is and what they do [00:53]
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What it means to treat causes and not just symptoms [03:25]
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How a naturopath helps with chronic diseases that aren't acute illnesses [06:36]
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Cultural trends that are contributing to the rising rates of chronic diseases [7:45]
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The types of tests Kathy runs as a naturopath [09:20]
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What the goal of naturopathic medicine is [12:45]
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What a "psychosomatic illness" really means [15:22]
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Neurotransmitter testing for anxiety and depression [16:45]
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Benefits of natural treatments for neurotransmitter change [20:36]
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Why people don't want to try naturopathic medicine - a cultural bias [21:25]
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How integrative medicine is coming more common [25:29]
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Moving from acute crisis care to preventative care based on early cues [27:31]
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What an authentic life means to Kathy [29:57]
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Kathy's daily habits and practices [36:57]
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Info about upcoming Metabolic Makeover group - a 6 week program for people with metabolic syndrome [39:01]
More About Kathy
She practices at The Raby Institute. You can make appointments with Kathy online or call (312) 276-1212, and you can do appointments over the phone if you don't live in Chicago.