Now, like the economy, I’m contracting. I’m consolidating my endeavors in one simple location. Newsletter, podcast, community… you’ll find it all here!

The benefit to me, is I can still be creative, sharing useful (and or weird and interesting) stuff with you, while running less risk of burnout.

The benefit to you, is you can now find everything in one place. One subscription—all the things. Isn’t simplicity bliss??

As of today, the Changed Podcast is now located under the Podcast Tab of the Making This up as I Go Substack. This means that you don’t have to go anywhere to get what you want, need, or never knew you wanted or needed from me delivered directly to your inbox. If you have the Substack app (download the substack app here), you can simply go fetch what you want from me when it’s convenient for you. And if you prefer subscribing to the podcast on your favorite pod server… you can do that too!

There is an additional community element that comes with the Substack territory that I am excited to begin exploring soon. I’m very excited to explore everything this platform has to offer us.

Share Making This up as I Go

In the meantime, I kindly ask that you help me grow! You can do this easily by sharing content that resonates with you to your personal network, gifting a paid subscription to someone you know, or becoming a paid subscriber yourself.

Are you curious what sparked all the shifting? Is there something you want me to talk about? Something you would like me to address? Send me a note or leave a comment!

Season 3, Episode 54

This episode I'm talking to Sara Im

Sara Im has life lessons and gained wisdom that impacts others due to her experience of surviving the mass genocide of Cambodia. Her inspirational Award-Winning Book " How I Survived The Killing Fields” was honored in 2015. As a Speaker, she shares how tenacity, perseverance , and faith are required values to conquer fear and reach success.

Here's what you'll find in this episode:

00:00 Meet Sara Im, author of "How I Survived the Killing Fields"

00:54 Sara's story

17:00 Interview with Sara Im

23:04 How Sara's mother and brothers survived

24:57 Sara reflects on what 'change' means to her, answers questions from the Change Hub Ibble community and more.

39:42 Final thoughts from Sara Im

41:44 Final thoughts from the host

You can purchase a copy of Sara's book here: https://www.saraim.com/book

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

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Season 3, Episode #53

About AJ:

Allan J. "Alonzo" Wind is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), having worked on and off with the Agency primarily overseas on diplomatic assignments from 1990 to 1992 and 1999 to 2019 in the Peru, Nicaragua, Angola, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and South Africa and the Southern Africa USAID Regional Missions. He provided oversight to U.S. government foreign aid development and humanitarian assistance, and supported U.S. Ambassadors as their senior development officer on multiple U.S. Embassy Country Teams.

What's inside this episode:

00:00 Meet Alonzo!

02:04 Allan J. "Alonzo" Wind's story

05:53 Interview begins with the question "Where in the world are you right now AJ?" (hint: somewhere in the Middle East...)

07:31 A discussion of the historical and current political climate regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict

20:50 Is peace in the middle east possible?

24:20 AJ's life as an explorer: when you call so many places home, where does it feel like home-base?

26:10 AJ's dip into Science Fiction Writing

30:15 How our moments that change us shape our view of the world and of our selves

33:00 AJ's thoughts on what it takes to change people's minds

41:25 Oversimplifying solutions to big problems/Actively seeking to shift your own perspective.

47:22 Final thoughts from guest, AJ "Alonzo" Wild

49:23 Closing thoughts from the host

Helpful Links related to this discussion:

• Visit Alonzo Wind's website to read AJ's blog, get a copy of his recent memoir Andean Adventures and more.

• Watch Fauda on Netflix

• Read John McWhorter's controversial book, Woke Racism

Looking to connect with our guest?

@galacticemp on Twitter

Allan "Alonzo"'s Facebook page

© 2021 The Changed Podcast

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

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Season 3, episode 52

This episode I'm talking to model, actor, & film maker Bo Roberts

From the pages of GQ, Cosmo, and Esquire, to the silver screen ("300: Rise of an Empire", "Mindy Project," etc.), Indian-born, ISU-grad, former corrections officer/CERT Team member, filmmaker Bo Roberts elevated his photography hobby to a career as a filmmaker. The director/cinematographer's debut (short) feature film (60min), "The Great Awakening" is a thriller with science-fiction elements. 

Here's what you'll find in this episode:

0:34 meet Bo Roberts

1:43 Bo Roberts Story

8:33 An interview of Bo Roberts, beginning with some discussion of recent film project, The Great Awakening. Our discussion includes how he came to choose that particular title and more.

17:09 Bo talks about moving from in front of the camera as a model and actor to behind the camera as a film maker.

26:23 Bo's reflection on the meaning of change

28:49 The perspective shifting experience of working as a corrections officer

34:43 Grandpas, Ghosts, and making sense of the supernatural

41:07 Final thoughts from Bo

44:07 Final thoughts from the host

Watch Bo's Works:

The Great Awakening on Tubi TV

Follow Bo!

@MrBoRoberts on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram

© 2021 The Changed Podcast

The Changed Podcast with Aden Nepom website

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Season 3, episode 51

About Gigi Rowe

The multi-faceted Gigi Rowe was called "fantastically talented" by the one-and-only Jay Z. The singer, songwriter, children's book author and children's podcast creator was formerly signed to Island Def Jam Records by the legendary LA Reid. Gigi was the first-ever recipient of the Songwriter Hall of Fame Buddy Holly Prize (from Songmasters) and she has had songs featured on the globally-adored interactive video game Just Dance.

Gigi is the voice of summer TV on Netflix and Amazon, with two songs prominently featured on Amazon's new Prime Video dating series The One That Got Away, that premiered in late June and Netflix series Boo, Bitch, which premiered in early July. Gigi Rowe's debut album Laura is out September 30.

In this episode Gigi shares her experience being signed to Island Def Jam records, only to be dropped before she could pop. We bond over a love of wigs. She goes into great depth about her collaboration with Tik Tokker Claybaby

Here's what you'll find in this episode:

01:36 Gigi Rowe shares her story

08:24 We move into my interview of Gigi Rowe

11:40 Some indulgent bonding time over a couple of wigs

21:34 Lonely Together

23:17 The wig comes off...

23:48 Gigi talks about collaborating with TikTok star Claybaby

40:49 How Laura Warshauer came to know and understand Gigi Rowe

43:05 All about Gigi's latest album Laura

45:12 The story of a magical recording moment on a farm in New Jersey

48:15 Gigi's thoughts on change, personal evolution and shifting how you think about things

54:33 A few closing thoughts from the host

Helpful links

• Gigi Rowe + Claybaby = Song: So Iconic! - Here's one of the absolute best songs ever! It's the brain child of Tik Tokker Clababy and Singer Gigi Rowe: So Iconic

• Lollipops music video on YouTube - Speaking of bonding over wigs... this is the music video where Gigi's love of wigs became completely apparent!

• Laura - The Latest album from Gigi Rowe - Listen to Gigi Rowe's latest release.

Want to connect with Gigi Rowe?

Gigi's Website

@hellogigirowe on Twitter

@hellogigirowe on Instagram

© 2021 The Changed Podcast

The Changed Podcast with Aden Nepom website

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

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Amelia and I are so excited! Our first conversation is finally available for you to listen to!

Maxwell is 7 years old and lives in Texas. He loves animals, video games, imagination games, dinosaurs, and chocolate!

And... he is actually the reason we are even doing this project!

That's right! The whole idea came from a conversation Maxwell had with his mama, who then made a joke that became the best idea in the whole wide world.

In this conversation, we learned that:

• Kids know a lot of stuff

• That you can be brave even when something scary (like falling off your bike happens)

• That sometimes grownups are more scared than kids (according to Maxwell, the fun stuff in particular!)

• And our co-host, Amelia, discovered that she actually had a lot in common with Maxwell, even though they live far apart.

Amelia says: "You can learn a lot in one hour. For the time we recorded, me and maxwell both got hungry afterward!"

Would you rather watch this episode on YouTube? YOU CAN!! Just click here

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Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. Nancy is also the author of the book THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time published by Running Press.

Nancy covers “the years between being hip and breaking one” at MidlifeMixtape.com and on the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in the Wall Street Journal’s list of 8 Podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement.

Nancy has also been both champion and judge in the acclaimed international comedy-lit improv show, Literary Death Match! More on Nancy can be found on her website, at www.DavisKho.com.

And for the 50th episode of The Changed Podcast, which also brings to an end the second season of the show, I could not think of a better guest than Nancy Davis Kho!

I like to think that I express my gratitude often and well, but Nancy has dug deeper than arguably the majority of us, and certainly far deeper than I have, producing 50 separate thank you letters, not just to people but to places, and whole swaths of the entertainment industry that have shaped her, inspired her and helped her become who she is today. Clearly, we can all learn something about saying thank you from someone who has really put in the time and effort to do so as thoroughly as Nancy Davis Kho.

What's in this episode?

• A longer than necessary discussion as to whether or not Nancy and I have met before, or if we just look like other people (spoiler alert, we look like other people

• A midlife specific on the moments that shape us

• the reality that reaching midlife means you have seen and experienced some pretty significant things

• Thoughts on the gifts overcoming struggle, loss, and challenge can leave us with

• The relationship between grief and processing change (shoutout to previous guest Andrew Williams!)

• Does empathy come with age and experience?

• Two book suggestions! 1) The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow and 2) Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

• Nancy's journey of writing two books (and then 50 letters of gratitude later) and then a third book!

• Lessons learned from saying thank you, and more importantly thinking about the specific reasons you are grateful

• A long closing statement from me expressing gratitude for all of you who listen to the show, and read the show notes! (You're the best!)

• Shoutouts to the Super Seven (the first seven guests of this show) Mary Jo Pehl, Mo Daviau, Dr. Rick Kirschner, BJ Lange, Nadine Montaghami,
  
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You may have heard of Wade McCollum. As an American film actor, stage actor, composer, and musician, Wade is best known for his roles as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Ernest Shackleton in Ernest Shackleton loves me for which he won the Norton Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Lortel Award in the same category.

These days, he can be found buried in his neuroscience textbooks as a student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wade is truly remarkable and multi-talented, so it may be no surprise that like previous guests Maraya Brown and Lou Radja, Wade is also an alum of Ashland High School. Like many of the programs at Ashland High School, The drama program at AHS is one of the best (thanks to the brilliant thinking of Betsy Bishop marrying the program to the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which continually attracts some of the world's top talent).

All of that is to say that any time I get to sit down and talk with Wade McCollum, it carries simultaneously that sweet feeling of the relief I associate with what is most familiar, AND the excitement of what's new because both of our lives are filled with shifts, changes, and curiosity. There is just so very much to talk about!

This may just be my favorite interview of the season!

What's in this episode?

• How this actor's brain handles memorization

• Why Wade wasn't able to be part of season 1 as originally planned

• How having and recovering from Covid effected Wade

• A rich discussion of human adaptation

• Why #youchanged would make an excellent complement to give!

• The incredible contrast of human interpretation. My mundane can be your profound, and vice versa

• How our earliest experiences shape our assumptions about what other people's lives should look like

• How we digest other people's stories to represent profound meaning to ourselves as humans

• Two stories that demonstrate how our expectations and understanding of reality aren't always well met.

• A glimpse into the exciting realm of Medical Music and why Wade is now studying neuroscience after decades of making a living as a performer.

A few memorable things Wade McCollum said:

"I'm up there thinking, you know what, there's 3000 people watching the show right now... they're having that fulcrum experience where they may never be the same. And I'm literally at my office job. The juxtaposition of that is so incredible"

"When you're born into something, the assumption is that's life. That's life, and there's no other, you know, there's no other way to do it, because that's the way it's done."

"They said, 'We're the, we're the different ones. Most people live in a house. And they stay there. And most people don't move around like we do and go from town to town.' Everything just went boom, and suddenly I was the anomaly. And it was so fundamental, I could feel my brain change."

"Humans as a species are like story eaters. Rather than, throw the story up, this is a gross analogy, our tendency is to digest it. And in that...

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Dr. Ian Brooks started off working in a clinical psychology ward eventually transitioning to work with "higher functioning individuals."

Over the span of his 25+ year career helping people move forward. He's worked with clients that include Netflix, Shondaland, Bank of America, Guitar Center, Nike Inc. Sony, and Warner Brothers.

Most recently, Dr. Brooks is the author of Intention: Building Capabilities to Transform Your Story which integrates research and personal journey that drives readers toward introspection and action.

His contagious smile and upbeat demeanor might fool you into thinking achieving Transformation is easy! And it is! But also, it's challenging, it's hard work, and it absolutely takes intention. Our conversation weaves through the ins and outs of intentional transformation, what the nuances are between transformation and change, and the difference that intention makes throughout all of it.

What's in this episode?

• The differences in getting patient compliance in a closed setting, like a lockdown facility vs the open setting of the general population

• The difference between achieving personal transformation, and making personal changes

• The relationship between fear of change and the power of belief when it comes to transformation

• Why Ian doesn't cry anymore

• How Dr. Brook's book, is really a second draft, which serves as an excellent reminder that failure isn't always failure and that we have a choice about how we move forward from setbacks

• How easy it is to let challenges stop us from doing the good and important things in life

• Ian's personal fork-in-the-road story from a moment when he was in a motorcycle accident

• How living with purpose and intention does not mean that you don't get to also enjoy spacing out, eating chips, and lazing on the couch watching Netflix

A few memorable things Ian Brooks said in this interview:

"We only have 24 hours in this day. We were only promised the next second. That's it. And I can't tell you what I'm going to do with that next second. But I can tell you that it's going to be done with purpose. I don't want to waste time."

"If you want to kick your feet up and eat a whole bag of potato chips and watch Netflix all day, you're doing with that purpose, whether you realize it or not. Now, if your purpose is really to go out there and exercise, well, then that's a different conversation. But you're still doing what you're doing with purpose because you are doing it intentionally, and that's okay. It isn't always necessarily outcome-based. Sometimes that purpose is: I just need to get lost in my thoughts."

"I can do more than what I'm defined by in this motorcycle injury or otherwise."

"The power of the mind is very interesting. As we think about fear, and the reasons why we don't do certain things, or even potentially the reasons we do, it's very interesting in the context of specifically, this idea of change. Because we do things quite a bit out of fear, not necessarily providing the context around, how do we actually move forward?"

"Change is: I can get someone to do something one day, in a particular moment in time, and just taking very targeted steps to do something different. That's a lot different than transformation, which I think a lot of people are really reaching for.”

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Josh Braun is known for helping people learn to sell without being salesy, creepy, sleazy, and without selling their souls.

We met back in 2006 when he hired me for my first exciting grown-up job working as a comedy writer for an educational software product.

Yes. You read that sentence correctly.

I'll never forget this particular fork-in-the-road moment: I had just come home from my absolutely awful temp position processing mortgage applications, and I'd decided I was done. I hated my job and knew I had so many other skills to offer, but didn't really have any clue what I was looking for. It was 11 pm at night by the time I found the unconventional job posting in the Gigs section of Craigslist that sounded like it was written by a human who was introducing themselves at a friend's house. It was written in such a funny voice, I thought it might be some kind of joke!

Feeling punchy and like I had nothing to lose, I went ahead and responded to the ad. This was a job where humans seemed like they might actually get to act like humans, and I wanted a piece of that!

With unbelievable amounts of honesty that included fun facts about my work ethic and my t-shirt collection, I made sure that the flirtiest, goofiest, biggest, and boldest parts of my personality showed up to the cover letter party. I wasn't trying to be the person that fit the role. I wanted to be the human that these humans were excited to meet.

At 1:30 am I sent the cover letter and my resume to the email address provided. The phone rang just before 8 am that same morning. It was Josh's voice on the other end of the line "That's the best cover letter I've ever read. No joke, I'm framing it and putting it on my wall."

While both of our paths have taken us away from the kind of work we shared at that particular company in 2006, the elements that brought us together in the first place have remained a priority for both of us in our separate endeavors: simple, humble, human communication.

I use these skills to teach storytelling and to help teams work well with each other. He uses these skills to teach sales; but, we're not just teachers. We're students too.

What's in this episode?

• Why trying to change people's minds feels frustrating

• What you might want to try instead

• Why it's helpful to shine a light on the cost of inaction

• What is Motivational Interviewing? Why is it helpful?

• How modern technology is affecting the way we communicate

• What happened to cause Josh to realize that instead of money, he needed to prioritize the moments and the people in life that he cares about the most.

Memorable Things Josh Braun Said:

"You don't control other people. You don't control your revenue number, you don't control how people respond to your message. You don't control your quota. You don't control if people are going to hang up on you. You don't control if something's going to change. You only control what is in your nature to be able to control: what you say, what you want to do, how you conduct yourself, how you behave, and your thoughts."

"When we start to change people's minds, we often are met with resistance because people don't like it when other people take away their freedom to choose you telling a teenager to stop smoking naturally start to smoke more, it's actually something called the backfire effect."

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In Episode 46 of The Changed Podcast, he shares how he found himself making the leap from television to sharing his unique voice narrating films, commercials, and audiobooks. He also opens up about his experience as a black parent who has witnessed so much change and is continuing to witness profound change and the importance of the people who help us along our journeys through life.

Greg Campbell is a Voiceover artist with a distinctive voice. He provided his voice for the 2021 Emmy award-winning documentary Shaw Rising about the oldest HBCU in the south. He has also voiced nationally aired commercials for Ford, during the Kentucky Derby, and Kumho tires featuring NBA All-Star John Wall of the Houston Rockets. He's also the brand voice for the apparel company, Shux.

In our conversation, Greg shared some of his professional journey: starting out in TV in Michigan and ending up performing voiceovers in Florida. He also shared some of his personal journey as a parent and a grandson. Most of all, his story and perspective both serve to highlight how the people we know and connect with throughout our lives, impact the trajectory of our personal experiences, careers and more.

What's in episode 46?

• An introduction to Greg Campbell, not just what he does, but how he IS as a human

• How Greg started out as a voice actor narrating audiobooks

• One of his favorites: Motown Man by Bob Campbell (due to be available in audiobook soon... featuring Greg's dulcet tones), a story that tackles questions of race and identity through the lens of an interracial couple who meet and fall in love in 1991.

• A discussion of what has changed in the conversation on race, in our behaviors, and understanding of each other and history since the 90s

• What is still changing

• The role that family story telling plays in teaching important history

• Carla! (and a thank you to Carla)

• The importance of great friends

• The role of instinct in who and how we trust

• A reference to a 1977 episode of The Bionic Woman that almost became its own show, The Bionic Dog!

A few memorable quotes from Greg Campbell

"Change means to me: there's always something better down the road, something, something good on the way. For me, it's always been like that."

"[Since 1991] I think there's been some changes, you know. Unfortunately, when there is change, there seems to be backlash, too often."

"I think that one of the biggest things with change is fear. I think people you know, live too much in fear a little bit. There's a lot of things that's scary out there, that can scare you. But I've always challenged myself, and just try to just keep going, keep moving, and just allow change to come. You got to embrace it, it comes.”

“Some things you kno"w, you can't control. It's part of it, not being able to control it. But, you know, you look at your experiences, and you say, I'm better for it. I'm glad I've tried to have an open mind and live my life that way."

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She also shares her own journey of paying attention to red flags and then doing something about them which has led her to the program she is currently completing.

Adrienne Dawes is a playwright, producer, and teaching artist from Austin, TX, currently completing a graduate fellowship at the University of Arkansas.

Her plays include This B***h, Hairy & Sherri, Teen Dad, and her play Am I White won the David Mark Cohen New Play Award from the Austin Critics Table and an award for Outstanding Original Script by the B. Iden Payne Awards.

Adrienne’s full-length plays have been produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin, TX), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles, CA), and American Theatre Company (Tulsa, OK). She has developed new work with Teatro Vivo, Salt Lake Acting Company, The Workshop Theater, Queen City New Play Initiative, the Fire This Time Festival, B Street Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Teatro Milagro, National Black Theatre, and English Theatre Berlin. Adrienne is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ScriptWorks, and a company member of Salvage Vanguard Theater and In the Margin Theatre Company.

Learn more at www.adriennedawes.com

What's in this episode?

• Thoughts about the role of satire, comedy, and theatre in general in societal shift and personal change

• How working with/studying with fantastic people can make or break your experience at school, at work, and in the rest of your endeavors

• The enticing nature of stability and routine

• Her story of noticing the red flags of a program she was excited about, and choosing to take action rather than align herself with an organization that she thought was treating it's people poorly

• An invitation to leaders (and people in general really), that if you're going to ask people questions, listen to their answers and then do something with what you learn!

A few things Adrienne said that stood out

"You can plant this little seed in somebody. When they've opened up, and they're a little more vulnerable to that conversation, I think a lot of the work is just planting that little seed of change"

"There's this essential part of who I am as a human that stays the same, no matter what my location is, or what I'm doing. And my friends, too, there's a quality to the people that I am drawn to that are in my closest circle that kind of stays the same, even though they're wildly different people."

"Financially, the smart decision would have been to just shut my mouth, take their money, and, and suffer. Financially, that would have been smart, but in terms of my happiness, the route was to get out"

"As I get older, more experienced, I'm just sort of like, I have a shorter timeframe of like, 'Yes, I want to try to give people a chance to course-correct.' But also, like there's a window of that before it's excessive.”

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If you're not familiar with the Positive ThinPact Podcast, this was a project that Margery and I started in 2019. She had a wild idea, that perhaps one could hold on to the excitement of learning the rules of a new fad-diet as a way of gaming the brain to avoid the moment of self-sabotage that inevitably comes after a few weeks on a stringent eating plan. What better way to catalog such a journey than on a podcast?!

At the time, her goal was to lose 250lbs.

Now as wild as this idea was, she wanted to start the project, not with a doctor, dietician, or natural health expert at her side... but instead with me a friend and facilitator with a background in improv and play.

Margery and I have been friends for nearly 15 years... if our friendship was a person, it would be a teenager! I suppose that means that our friendship is filled with honest opinions and unreasonable confidence in wild ideas being worth some attention.

I've heard many stories about her mom over the years, we used to meet up and share a piece of cheesecake to commemorate her mother's life on the anniversary of what would have been her birthday.

But hearing her story in the context of this interview, gave me a new perspective on my friend's experience. It also allowed me an opportunity to reflect on grief, the impact of losing a loved one, and more.

What you'll hear in this episode:

• For listeners of Positive Thinpact, there is a long-overdue update about how Margery's journey has been going (or had been going at the time of this interview's recording, in the spring of 2021)

• How to handle your opinions about other people's weight gain, weight loss, and other body changes

• The invisibility of being fat

• Thoughts on choosing to take medication to lose weight, in light of the dangers of covid for those who have health and weight issues

• The status of the Positive Thinpact Podcast

• How someone who is analytical by nature, and well-practiced at studying data and recognizing patterns, processes change.

• A discussion of the human ability to predict the future, and the accuracy of predictions

• The importance of pattern recognition

• The pivotal experience of losing her mother to inflammatory breast cancer following standard hormone therapy for menopause

• The impact of having cared for a dying parent as a person in her early 20s

• An acknowledgment of how individuals grieve differently and a few suggestions for those who know someone currently grieving

• The key idea when you lose a parent young, you end up living two lives: the one when they are still alive, and the one in which they no longer exist.

• How life might have turned out differently, better in some ways, worse in some ways, had mom survived

Links to check out:

The book Margery referenced is called Motherless Daughters

Listen to episodes of The Positive ThinPact

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Julia de'Caneva (dee-kuh-nay-vuh) is an intentional living coach with an insatiable curiosity for human behavior and a penchant for sweet potatoes and sunsets. She brings the lessons she learned from cancer to help over-workers and perfectionists slow down and find balance by clarifying what truly matters to them.

She fell in love with intentional living while working as a professional home organizer, and now one of her three pillars of coaching is the process of internal decluttering which she calls intentionalism.

You can find her musing about intentional living on her blog, and she'll encourage you to find moments of ease in each day if you follow her on Instagram.

When not coaching, Julia devours books and podcasts, takes many photos of flowers on her daily walks, and is improving her handle of the Japanese language. She hopes that everyone will slow down and learn to treat life as precious as it is.

What's in this episode?

• What it means to live intentionally

• The value of slowness and really enjoying each and every day as the beautiful and fleeting gift it is

• Two of Julia's transformational pivot points in her journey with cancer

• A reminder that the severity of a situation is often more obvious to those around us than to ourselves

• A discussion of the illusion of safety and longevity. In other words, we so often tend to obsess over creating safety or stability for ourselves and our loved ones, but it is impossible to predict whether or not we'll be successful where there is still randomness in the universe. We could get hit by a bus at any time.

• The importance of caring for and listening to our bodies to make the most of the precious moments we do have.

Additional reading

Interested in decluttering your physical space? Check out The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Interested in decluttering your brain at work? I'm starting this book this week, feel free to join me! Noise: a Flaw in Human Judgement by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, et al.

Julia de'Caneva's Blog: https://julia.coach/blog

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Who is Philippe Barbe?

Philippe is a leader, expert, and trusted advisor in data science, AI, and mathematics with a wide range of experiences in the business industry, government, and research internationally. He is the author of five books and many scientific papers and has been an invited professor at numerous universities worldwide, including Yale and Georgia Tech here in the US. He is the mastermind at Last Ditch Consulting

When a mutual connection Ken Ferguson, heard that I hosted this podcast, he immediately said, "I know someone you'd probably find interesting." He was right.

This conversation was one of the most philosophically stimulating interviews I've done to date. We wove through philosophies, observations, both big picture and detailed, with great ease. AND I believe I learned a few things too!

There are a few things that are different about this episode than the interviews I've shared with other guests. First, though he's certainly not my only guest originally born outside the US, Philippe's origins in France, and 20 years as a citizen here have yielded some different perspectives about how we interact, how we handle conflict, and so on.

Another difference, when I asked for a recent headshot, he originally provided an image from a textbook... which actually, I seriously considered using!

Finally, instead of sharing one singular moment, Philippe takes us through several fork-in-the-road moments that he has witnessed, experienced, and been changed by to illustrate the profoundly constant nature of changes both big and small in our lives.

Note: this episode benefits from subtitles. I recommend you either download the transcript or watch the video with subtitles on our Patreon page, which for this episode is absolutely free for the public. Philippe requested to conduct this as an audio-only interview, so you'll be able to enjoy the subtitles distraction-free.

What will you find in this episode?

• Philippe Barbe's unique approach to solving impossible or novel problems and why he founded Last Ditch Consulting

• The importance of providing value to the clients you serve

• The job of a researcher and the importance of proof in mathematics

• The difficulty of proof in the math of social interaction

• A minor history lesson in the philosophy of change

• A deep discussion on whether or not change is easy, or change is hard

• Our thoughts on why people seem to refuse to acknowledge obvious changes, like aging

• A few snapshots from Philippe's passage through life and how these changes have changed him

• One deeper dive into the moment when his house got running water

• A discussion of the relationship between change and difficulty

• You're right to change, on your own terms. Not to change just for the sake of changing, but to think about change in terms of bettering the world we live in.

Want to connect with Philippe?

You can learn more about Philippe at https://ph-barbe.com

Check out Last Ditch Consulting at: www.lastditchconsulting.com

And if you’d like to connect with him, the best place to do so is on Linkedin

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Kendrick Shope is an international sales authority, creator of the Authentic Selling®️ process, and the founder of Authentic Selling®️ University, the leading online sales training for modern businesses producing millions of dollars in revenue for her students. Often called the most over-delivering woman online, Kendrick believes in doing business differently, providing her students with Rocky Balboa’s drive and Olivia Pope’s determination to succeed.

Kendrick hosts Authentic Selling® TV reaching 186 countries and 6 continents where she provides sales expertise that is sweet as pie but tough as nails. Authentic Selling®️ has been featured on the Steve Harvey Show, NBC, Forbes, INC, Reader’s Digest, HLN, and dozens more.

We had a fantastic conversation in December of 2020, where we bonded over the shared experience of having what I call 'hits' and what she calls 'breadcrumbs' that feel like teeny premonitions or signposts from the Universe. We also chatted about how the little forks in life lead to the bigger forks, like the example from season 1, episode 7 of Sony Pictures Animation, Guillermo Torres, sharing the story of choosing to go to a different movie theatre than usual... which essentially launched him on his career path.

Like me, her daughter has played a prominent role in her story. As Kendrick observed, 'children can be great teachers."

Takeaways from this episode:

Sales are fundamental to survival in business. But when selling feels like helping, it's a heck of a lot easier to do it!

Shopping is not a hobby.

Children are good reflections for us on how WE manage change, AND they change how we see the world.

Every day there is a fork in the road. We are constantly choosing something, a path, an action, starting something new, stopping something old... some are small forks, and some are big forks

Not everything will be in your particular zone of genius. Rather than do everything yourself, it is wise to surround yourself with the people who have the skills you lack.

One hot tip for those who are still learning about working from home: create for yourself a specific workspace and a specific work time... and stick to those boundaries.

Links to things mentioned

Curious about Authentic Selling®️ University? Learn more at www.kendrickshope.com

Curious about USS Improvise The Next Generation the Musical? (I know it was a brief mention... but it's just so nerdy and fun!) Learn more at www.ussimprovise.com

Are you figuring out your own path? Try this book, mentioned in Kendrick's journey, Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck

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Julie Gillis is one of those people who is that lovely combo of funny and pensive. She's deeply reflective, unafraid of being honest in her expression, and absolutely ready to laugh and play too!

It's also true that my knowledge of Julie Gillis is personal.

Not only does this episode's guest reside in this podcast hosts home town. But Julie and I used to perform together in an all-lady, broadway-style musical improv group called Girls Girls Girls and produced a festival (though Julie was MUCH more involved called L.A.F.F. otherwise known as the Ladies Are Funny Festival (enjoy the legacy website here!)

We also played together in incredible shows, like Apocalypse (directed Brandon Salinas, and costumed by Courtney Hopkins).

(If you watch this old promo video, we suggest you watch full-screen with sound ON.)

So it was a delight to sit down in January of 2021, just 3 days into the new year, to reflect not only on change broadly but on how 2020 changed some of the key elements of Julie's life.

Now that summer has arrived in the US, you may have forgotten what the world was like in January of 2021.

Here in Oregon where Julie and I both reside, while shopping was open, most businesses were closed, unless they provided curbside pickup, and masks were required 100% of the time. Schools were closed, and our children were learning from a distance (something fun and easy for our 8-year-old, and something deeply difficult for her young adult children). There was no promise of freedom and no end in sight.

And in this climate, we were able to connect over Zoom and philosophize for a while about how the stories we as people tell ourselves about ourselves... may have shifted.

Julie also shared the story of how improv helped to lift her back up to herself, when she was at one of her lowest points as a mother experiencing postpartum psychosis, one of the least talked about maternal experiences in this country... and one of great importance because of the consequences that can stem from the condition. As Julie confessed, "the idea of hurting myself became rather entertaining," and this kind of flawed thinking can lead not just to self-harm. When lines between reality and darkness become blurry, help is needed.

As a deep believer in the importance of building more understanding and interest in women's health, particularly hormone changes, I'm always glad to hear stories that stem from this place; like the story guest, Maraya Brown shared at the beginning of season two, in which she had to process the unexpected loss of her first pregnancy.

Takeaways from this episode

In the stories, we consume there are multiple roles people play: villain, support character, window character…. a really important tree. But in the stories we tell, we often imagine ourselves the hero (sometimes a reluctant hero) of our own story.

There are times when being the hero of your own story can be really beneficial, like helping to boost your confidence for a job interview for example.

On social media, it’s easy to convince ourselves we’re right through unhealthy communication patterns and limiting our connections to people who agree with us. But there is a cost.

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Todd is the CEO and co-founder of BigBlueGumball, a New York City-based management consulting firm specializing in leadership development, public speaking, and executive coaching.

He is also a Founding Partner of the Global Institute For Thought Leadership (“GIFT”), and a member of the exclusive “Marshall Goldsmith “MG100” Coaches.” 

Additionally, Todd is a three-time award-winning Adjunct Professor of leadership at NYU, and a Lecturer on leadership at Columbia University…

And he is a TEDx speaker, and the author of "VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life," published last year by Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster, and recently named by Thinkers360 as one of the “Top 50 Business Books to Read in 2021.”

Takeaways from this episode

• How we process change differs depending on whether it’s some change we are choosing to initiate, or if it’s a change that is being thrust upon us.

• Leading change in an organization can be hard because we’re asking people to adopt and adapt to things they aren’t initiating for themselves. As leaders, we can help people adapt more quickly by leading with understanding and empathy

• There are lots of terrible leaders out there, who have no idea they are leading badly.

• Our personal lens of the world (influenced by our upbringing, values, experiences, etc) influence how we lead.

• A helpful mantra for leaders: “How do I get them to see what I am saying?”

• We can think of our visual thinking and communication like any muscle we can strengthen. It just takes training and practice

• In his book, VisuaLeadership, Todd Cherches breaks down visual thinking and communication into four categories:

  • Visual drawings and objects

  • Mental models and frameworks

  • metaphor and analogy

  • storytelling

• With any type of communication, it is helpful to see your audience's needs and issues first and then speak directly to those.

• When it comes to listening everyone thinks they are a good listener, but if you’re distracted and not listening fully you’re really doing a disservice as a leader, not just to your people, but to you and your organization.

• 360-degree awareness as a listener is mission-critical to military tactical operations, self-defense, improv theatre, and great leadership

• When Todd teaches listening he helps people understand the 5 levels of listening

  • Level 1 = ignoring

  • Level 2 = pretending (nodding as if you’re listening.. while actually ignoring)

  • Level 3 = listening to respond (filtering for keywords while formulating what you want to say)

  • Level 4 = attentive and actually taking information

  • Level 5 – empathetic listening (this is the level of listening that leaders should be striving to achieve)

    
    

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Lupe Hernández is an international trainer in healing trauma and deep understanding in ACEs. She co-founded “Help-Restore-Transform”, a program that works to address educational barriers and improve self-worth among women and children in Mexico; and brings over two decades of experience leading people to heal from trauma. She is trained in Conflict Resolution, Mediation, and Restorative Justice, and leadership and is a provider of the Beyond Trauma program in Adelante Mujeres. She is also the mother of two wonderful sons (Ivan & Izaak).

If you live outside of Oregon, it's possible that you have not heard of Adelante Mujeres. Based in Forest Grove, Oregon, they now serve an international audience by providing(as they state on their website) "holistic education and empowerment opportunities to low income Latina women and their families to ensure full participation and active leadership in the community."

Like our first season guest Nadine Montaghami, Lupe's experiences healing from her past has given her empathy and depth as a support provider and trainer with the Beyond Trauma program, and she shared quite a few of her insights through the course of our conversation.

She also shared a story from a job she held earlier in her life where by all accounts she was saddled with a boss from hell and not a lot of options. The way she handled that situation was surprising and beautiful, and incredibly effective.

Lupe Hernández's story illustrates that you really can influence someone's behavior by how you choose to interact with them. At the Art of Change, we often talk about the role of belief in how we experience those around us. If you believe someone is an idiot, you treat them like an idiot. You say things like "I'll talk slow so you call follow along." And when they look at you confused, you see their face as proof that they can't follow... and you're left going "See...? What an idiot!"

The same is true when you assume the opposite to be true. If you think that someone is brilliant, you're likely to behave as though their words matter. You'll pay closer attention to what they say, and then when in all of the words they choose, you hear a sentence you like, you'll nod your head emphatically and say "Wow! Brilliant!"

Truth aside... (because let's not forget that reality does actually live somewhere in the mix), both in our negative assumptions and our positive ones we find proof that we're right and these biases are unconscious in nature. So if you're going to be right about something why not make the conscious choice and assume something useful?

In Lupe's story though, she didn't make a different assumption about her horrible boss, instead, she chose to act as if. This is a really powerful tool! In behaving toward her boss *as if* her boss was friendly, kind, and thoughtful, she actually managed to change the nature of their interactions so much that the boss actually began to resemble those positive qualities!

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Gary Hirsch is a visual artist, a facilitator & consultant, and an improviser. In this episode, we talked about how he came to co-found On Your Feet Improvisation for Business, spread joy through BotJoy, along with his feelings, stories, and thoughts about what it means to face and embrace change.

Gary is also my friend, and colleague through the work we do together at On Your Feet. A work relationship that was born, built, and continues to evolve in a completely improvisational way, something for which I am grateful. Perhaps that's the kind of magic that happens when you're open to the possibilities at the moment... or perhaps the simple magic of doing work that is centered on bringing joy to people.

Gary isn't the first play/joy-centered guest I've had on the show. You may recall conversations with Gary Ware, Jeff Harry, Shannon Stott, Marsha Shandur, and many more. That is because JOY is at the center of so much of my own time, energy, interest, and effort.

Our conversation ran through several twists and turns from the hustle language of LinkedIn and classic anti-motivational posters like this one to the roots of bringing more joy to people through the amazing power of an imaginary giant robot, now embodied in tiny bots that you can carry with you physically.

Gary also shared his own sense of AA (Anticipation Anxiety) when it comes to change which lives in contrast to how he might handle an actually massive shift once it has occurred.

He also told us the story of the cup of coffee which changed Gary's entire trajectory, featuring the inspiring Robert Poynton. Prior to meeting Robert, Gary had a successful T-shirt booth in the Portland Saturday Market where he sold t-shirts that featured his original art. Now, more than 20 years later, On Your Feet has served some of the biggest companies in the world by bringing less fear and more joy to their important work.

Instead of my usual closing thoughts for this episode, Gary and I ended the episode together with a game/tool that you can take and use called Color/Advance. We demonstrated how to use the game for sharing stories. For "color" on other ways to use the game, check out the OYF Distributed Work Tool Kit.

Takeaways from this conversation

• Give away amazing ideas. The way Gary encourages to “steal this idea” of making Joybots, can be an amazingly fulfilling choice and make room for more great ideas.

• Anticipating change can be much scarier than the actual change itself, much like making a decision can be more exhausting than simply executing the choice on the other side.

• I’ve been attributing storytelling as a way of examining meaning to Gary because he is who I learned the idea from. He learned the idea from Kat Koppet… which if you know her makes perfect sense! She also has an excellent podcast called Dare to Be Human and it is worth checking
  
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