Carlos Mendiola

Deepak Ramola: Life Lessons Applied to Daily Life

In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Deepak Ramola, Founder & Artistic Director of Project FUEL. FUEL stands for: Forward the Understanding of Every Life Lesson.

Today on the show we have Deepak Ramola joining us. Deepak is the Founder and Artistic Director of Project FUEL, which is started when he was only 14 years old. At FUEL, life lessons are continuously collected, documented, thought about deeply, and then turned into interactive and performance activities. This ensures that you don't just hear someone's lesson in words, but that you actually get to experience it tangibly, and apply it practically in your own life.

Deepak is an eternal optimist and believes in enriching the human experience by helping people meet their highest potential. I don’t know where he gets this from, but it was like I was talking to the oldest soul I have ever met. I had goosebumps multiple times during the episode, and I know it will have a big impact on you as well. So tune in for just a wonderful spirit, a wonderful human being, and listen as Deepak shares with us this beautiful story, and all that he has achieved at the young age of only 25.

Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Discover what inspired Project FUEL and how his mother taught him to learn from simply living life. [3:53]

  • Find out why Deepak turned down a book deal when he was only 17 years old. [6:37]

  • Learn more about how the process at Project FUEL works to collect life lessons from people around the world. [7:25]

  • Understand how Project FUEL makes life lessons experiential by turning them into exercises or experiences. [9:21]

  • Hear as Deepak shares a life lesson of understanding the lives of refugees through the exercise of blowing up a balloon. [14:03]

  • Find out how Deepak comes up with his experiential examples, through a combination of research and practicality. [16:49]

  • Get more information on how to donate to Project FUEL, and why you need to give your life lesson first. [19:35]

  • Learn why Deepak’s goals with Project FUEL is to make each life count and to create a culture that values learning. [21:06]

  • Deepak shares what an authentic life means to him, and how it is about shining a spotlight for those to come. [24:20]

  • Find out how to stay uplifted and keep the light shining within you when life is trying to pull you down. [25:43]

More About Deepak

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by Carlos Mendiola

Damian Mark Smyth: Do Nothing and Find Peace

In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Damian Mark Smyth, author of, Do Nothing, and founder of Rethinking Business. 

Today we have Damian Mark Smyth joining us all the way from the UK. Damian and I had an awesome conversation about a topic that I feel so strongly about. It’s one of those people that you meet where your philosophies are so aligned. We talked about this inside out approach, that so many of us are looking to be happier, we look for more things on the outside world to make us feel better; chasing money, chasing success, and all of that.

On top of it all, there are the thoughts in your head, the things that you think are also what are causing your unhappiness because you believe them to be true. Once Damian recognized this in his own life, he was able to make so many changes. He is the author of the book, Do Nothing, which is all about this idea that you do not have to do anything with thoughts. What matters is what is going on within you. Everything you need, all the happiness you need, all the answers you need, they are already there.

Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Learn more about Damian’s background and how he transitioned into the life he is now living. [2:29]

  • Understand how listening to the signs in his life, Damian was able to completely change it around. [6:25]

  • The impact that your thinking has on your life, and the choice you have over your thoughts. [12:39]

  • Hear examples of why Damian believes that there is an intelligence in the system, or universe. [16:26]

  • Damian shares more about his book, Do Nothing, and what inspired him for the idea of the book. [18:50]

  • Find out how Damian experiences aligning with the universe and his true self. [24:33]

  • Discover the process of working through life’s chaos by understanding that your thoughts govern your feelings, not your circumstances. [28:53]

  • Learn why self-awareness and understanding your own purpose is what an authentic life looks like to Damian. [32:10]

More About Damian

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by Carlos Mendiola

Joseph Sanok: Build a Private Practice that You Love

In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Joe Sanok, founder of the Practice of the Practice.

Today on the Art of Authenticity we have Joe Sanok joining us. Joe is the founder of the Practice of the Practice, where he helps counselors create thriving practices that build their businesses by 50 to 500%, taking their income, influence, and impact on the world up to the next level. If you’re interested in learning how to take a small practice and build it or a larger practice and get through those growing pains, Joe has developed a coaching counseling practice to help you do just that.Today we jumped into the conversation and we heard about some of the things that Joe would suggest for those starting a practice, plus why he decided to spend his time this way. He also shares about what decision happened in his life that led him down this path. Joe had a very difficult time in 2012 facing multiple family emergencies, medical issues, and it got him thinking about his life, the meaning, and what truly mattered to him. Tune in for today’s story, and lots of amazing tips along the way.Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Hear as Joe shares the radical story of a series of family and personal health stories that rocked his life. [2:43]

  • Learn what it meant for Joe and his family to get into survival mode, and how they had to unlearn those bad habits. [4:55]

  • Understand the importance of slowing down and taking time to work through the stress of your life. [7:41]

  • Find out what it means to take ownership of the decisions you can make, and let go of the situations you can’t control. [10:47]

  • Hear how Joe and his wife need to take the time to go through a healing process post-survival mode. [12:20]

  • Learn more about the ideal life that Joe intentionally designed for himself and his family. [15:14]

  • Understand more about the purpose behind Joe’s business, Practice of the Practice. [16:22]

  • Discover practical tips to move your practice beyond the $40,000 mark. [20:03]

  • Find out what an authentic life means to Joe, and the habits he implements to stay aligned. [22:33]

More About Joe

Downloads:

by Carlos Mendiola

Change Your Thoughts: Psychology and Philosophy Agree on How

Sharing the platform again with Mike Bundrant. He is the head of the INLP center, coaching if you are looking to take your coaching to the next level, if you are thinking about becoming a coach, check it out.

How do Philosophy and Psychology intersect on the question of where truth exists and how do we know if we have experienced it?

Join me and Mike in this discussion!

by Carlos Mendiola

Suzanne Falter: A Heroic Story of Bravery and Faith

In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Suzanne Falter, internet marketer, writer, blogger, and coach for healing trauma.

Today on the podcast we have Suzanne Falter joining us. On this show, we have done a lot of episodes about people who have had success and have found a purpose in their life. That is really the main topic of the show. However, today we are going way over to the other extreme. This is a story of somebody who had a ton of success but found herself in one of those life crisis moments that we all deeply fear. After losing a relationship that she had been in for years, and recognizing her sexuality, Suzanne made the choice to completely change her career. If all of that wasn’t enough for a single person to handle, in 2012 Suzanne also suffered the loss of her daughter, Teal.

Although this sounds like a conversation that will be sad and overwhelming, this is really a story of inspiration and joy. Suzanne goes there in this interview as she takes us to the day her daughter died. She shares the whole story with so much recognition of what she has and how she took this difficult moment and turned it into a life-changing event. She completely turned her life in a different direction and for Suzanne, this became a deeply spiritual moment of connecting with her daughter.

So tune in, and stay open. Suzanne is someone who I deeply respect and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to hear her story and to share it with all of you.

Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Hear Suzanne’s story of the intense life events that led up to her changing her entire career and life perspective. [4:09]

  • Suzanne shares the story of her daughter’s death and how it impacted her to begin a new purpose in her life. [9:37]

  • Find out how Suzanne discovered a new connection with her daughter after she died. [14:14]

  • Discover how life was guiding Suzanne to really learn how to surrender and realize that her purpose at that time was to rest. [20:17]

  • Suzanne shares her advice on practicing self-care, and how taking three years to care for herself made an incredible difference. [29:25]

  • Understand why fear is a major factor that hold us back from just being our authentic selves. [33:01]

  • Find out why Suzanne believes that an authentic life is one that is lived with great joy. [33:56]

More About Suzanne

by Carlos Mendiola

How Being a People Pleaser Leads to Rejection

Have you ever thought that in the very act of trying to please to avoid rejection, you have already experienced the rejection you fear? It is a paradox. I don't want to be rejected so I try to please. But in the very act, I experience the feeling of rejection. tune in to hear more.Join me in a chat with Mike Bundrant at the inlpcenter.org to hear more.

by Carlos Mendiola

Khe Hy: Why Fear Doesn't Matter When Making A Change

https://soundcloud.com/artofauthenticity/khe-hy-why-fear-doesnt-matterIn this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Khe Hy, former hedge fund partner turned writer. 

Today we have Khe Hy joining us. Khe is one of those people who came out of the gate quickly, went to a top university, ended up at a hedge fund, and made partner at a very young age. Khe had all the money and success that people look for; the stature and the finances. He was truly “in the game”, as they say. Yet with all of this, he decided to walk away. His friends literally thought he was so crazy, sending him daily messages to ask if there was something really wrong with him.
He now has a weekly newsletter, Radreads, of over 15,000 people, writes for Quartz as their Entrepreneur in Residence and he writes about productivity, self-discovery, and all sorts of different topics. He is a really great guy, and has a lot to say on the topic of productivity and change. Khe hosts monthly meetups in New York and they are now moving over to San Francisco. He has also been at a TEDx Talk, created RadReads, and accomplished all of this in a very short period of time.

Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Hear Khe’s story of how he got pulled into investment banking, working 16 hour work days, six days a week. [3:05]
  • Find out how Khe’s childhood mindset of being a hard worker influenced his motivation to stay on at a soul-sucking job. [6:58]
  • Khe shares his decision process of deciding to leave a high-level, high-paying job. [13:07]
  • Hear as Khe shares about the emotions he felt after walking away from his career. [16:33]
  • Discover why the first question everyone asked Khe after he left his job was concerning his health insurance. [19:08]
  • Understand how to reconcile the fear of being ashamed and the fear of being broke. [21:39]
  • Learn more about Rad Reads and how Khe integrates his passions into the topics he writes about. [26:09]
  • Khe shares about where he gets his inspiration from for his blog, and how he shares more on his blog than to those close to him. [30:01]
  • Hear the story of Khe’s TEDx Talk experience, and how the “new” Khe only practiced for 15 minutes. [40:06]
  • Find out what an authentic life means to Khe, and the daily practices he implements to stay in his truth. [57:04]

More About Khe

Episode Resources

by Carlos Mendiola

Perfection in the Midst of Chaos

I’m going to take another question from someone who wrote in. I have an email here from Dave. Dave writes in and talks about how he is working really hard to live in his truth. Awesome Dave, very happy for you on that. He goes on to say that while he’s living in his truth, he is more aware of how much he dislikes his job. This awareness is driving him crazy and he would like to not feel this way, any advice?When you live in your truth, when you start to get the awareness of how you really feel, what’s really happening in your life, with that comes this level of clarity but that clarity doesn’t always tell us the things that we want to hear. Unfortunately, sometimes it just gets us more clear that we don’t like our job, more clear that the relationship we’re in is not working for us. More clear that we don’t like our apartment or the city we’re in or whatever it is, we start to get clear.Because normally, we have discomfort and we ignore it, we justify it, we have come up with great rationalizations, right? “I’m paid really well, my boss is super cool, the team is interesting, I’m doing impactful work.” Nonetheless, if all of those things are true, I still hate my job but I’m going to give myself all these reasons to deny my truth.In doing so, we think there’s something wrong with us. We say, “I just don’t know what my problem is, I’m not happy, I don’t feel so great, I’m just discontent in my life. Maybe I’m just somebody who is never going to be happy?” The good news is, is when you move it over and you get truthful and it starts to show up in the actual areas of your life that are a problem, it comes off of you and that inner dialogue that there’s just something randomly wrong with you starts to ease up. But it gets switched over to the actual problem in your life.Here's how to handle it.

by Carlos Mendiola

Caroline Webb: How To Have a Good Day

In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a thoughtful conversation with Caroline Webb author of, How to Have a Good Day.

Today on the podcast we have Caroline Webb joining us. Caroline is the CEO of Sevenshift, a firm that shows people how to use insights from behavioral science to improve their working life. Previously, Caroline worked for 12 years in management consulting for McKinsey and Company where she became a partner and co-founded McKinsey’s leadership practice. Prior to that, Caroline worked in public policy as an economist at the Bank of England, working on global economic forecasting and institution building in post-communist eastern Europe.

In this episode, we had an incredibly cool, detailed conversation. I honestly did not even know where to start with this amazing human being, who is absolutely filled with information on the latest science on how you can use what is being said into your personal life.

Caroline also has a new book called How to Have a Good Day, which has been hailed as one of the “top must-read business books of 2016” by both Inc. and Forbes.

We had a great conversation filled with so much amazing knowledge that she shared with us. So check out the interview and go buy her book. You will definitely get a lot of incredible value

Thanks for Listening

Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!

Show Notes

  • Hear the story of how Caroline made the change from working as a management consultant to founding her own firm, Sevenshift. [2:55]

  • Caroline shares how she prepared to make the switch to entrepreneurship by focusing in on who she was without the McKinsey brand. [5:10]

  • Find out why Caroline titled her book, How to Have a Good Day and not a “great” day. [8:03]

  • Understand the importance of breaking down big lofty goals to avoid disappointment and reinforce positive outcomes. [9:11]

  • Discover why Caroline believes and authentic life is about living a life that’s driven from the inside, not the outside. [12:55]

  • Learn how small experiments in your everyday life are often the foundation for testing out bigger choices. [18:03]

  • Caroline shares the story of how her high school culture shaped her ability to read the room and work with diverse groups. [21:05]

  • Discover the concept of “affect labeling” and how naming your emotions can allow your brain to relieve the stress of it. [31:04]

  • Find how to embrace your body’s chemical response to stress and learn from the situation rather than fearing it. [36:03]

  • Learn about the importance of finding out how much sleep you need to perform at your optimum level and live your best life. [38:46]

More About Caroline

Episode Resources

by Carlos Mendiola

Authentic Rituals - Find Systems That Work For You

Do you listen to other podcasts that suggest regiments? Do you read blog posts? Do you study the behavioral habits of anybody that you admire and try to figure out what they do? Have you read books on how to hack life and get the edge?If you’ve done any of these things, then you’ve probably got a list of things that are on your "should" list. What I mean by that is “I should get up at 5 AM and go jogging because I read that jogging in the morning is really effective to start your day." "I should have a healthy breakfast to start my day and have a kale smoothie." "I should read more books, I should read at least four books a month and the book should be a certain quality." "I should go to bed at a certain time, sleep a certain amount of hours, I should drink amount of water per day. I should have a healthy diet."The issue to me isn’t that one can’t take an interest in the various things in the world and all of their benefits. The problem is that when we look at a bunch of people or different sources and we start to cherry pick them, put them together into one really long laundry list of should’s. Things we should do that we read or seen that we believe will help us because we want to feel better in our lives and we’ve decided that these things are going to get us there.We also want success and we believe that these people who have had success, who are telling us that these are the things they’ve done in their lives, it’s really a good idea to just imitate a lot of what they do to get there.

by Carlos Mendiola