AntiFool with Norman Chella

Salman Ansari is embracing his inner polymath, and exploring his imaginations as the Quick Brown Fox. he is the AntiFool.

In this episode, we're going to talk about weird and wonderful things in the world of fiction, exploring mediums and more. 

Our guest is Salman Ansari who writes a newsletter called the Quick Brown Fox: it's about creativity, self-awareness and learning in public sharing, essays, notes, videos, illustrations, animations, and all of his learnings on the creative process. His journey is non-linear, and that is more than enough for me to be attracted to his story. 

We talk about:

• Embracing multitudes and the multifaceted life
• Who are the characters within us that we explore and articulate when defining our personas online?
• How he explores different mediums in his newsletter
• How society conditioned us into thinking that specialization is more important than embracing our polymathic selves.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

• [00:00:00] Introduction
• [00:02:21] The new world of big windows and small windows
• [00:05:29] Managing your online vs offline self
• [00:09:58] So much of our existence is now in that little rectangle
• [00:17:28] The multifaceted human being
• [00:24:02] The end states come from past experiences and vivid imaginations
• [00:26:26] On Whimsical fables and the power of language
• [00:30:30] Replenish your energy in multitudes
• [00:34:02] Murduring your multitudes to survive
• [00:40:47] Identity is key to your capacity to explore
• [00:45:49] Persuading someone of their polymathy
• [00:52:06] Walking for productivity vs. Walking to walk
• [00:56:43] My legacy is plural
• [00:58:28] Conditioned into thinking our job gives us the right to live
• [01:05:16] Multitude creators can gift you the gift of belonging in plurals
• [01:08:29] Salman's Memento
• [01:10:26] Salman's Walkaway Wisdom
• [01:12:16] Salman's Personal Dictionary

Links

• Quick Brown Fox Newsletter: https://salman.io/newsletter/
• Salman's Twitter: https://twitter.com/daretorant
• Salman's Website: https://salman.io

JayDee Lok is the ex-DJ with multiple talents, future-proofing herself by attracting luck. She is the AntiFool.

How hard is it to make a career transition?

It is very difficult. You need to have applicable skills to be able to present yourself, articulate the different talents and work experiences that you've had in many different industries. In this case, we will be looking at an overview of the media industry here in Malaysia, diving into Adtech, as is the journey of JayDee Lok. 

Jay Dee Lok started her career in media as a radio DJ and has worked as a TV host, MC voiceover talent writer, producer, and artist booking manager. And now she is working in the ad tech industry and Singapore. She has a wide variety of industries and fields, but these all have common patterns and skills that she has learned throughout her time.

Starting from quitting law school to become a DJ on a Malaysian radio program, we talked about:

• How she broke into the media industry from university 
• The different intricacies of radio, the field itself, how the presenters communicate with each other, and the closeness of the communities and the audio industry here in Malaysia
• Transitioning from position to position until landing a career in tech, out from a traditional industry into a forward-thinking one overseas in Singapore.
• Going through all the different barriers the obstacles, the struggles, the bosses from hell, and pulling the wisdom from these times

I hope that you can learn a lot from someone who has carved their own path to their own career, making all kinds of content in many different forms. 

Enjoy!

Links

• JayDee's Website
• JayDee's LinkedIn
• JayDee's Twitter
• JayDee's Instagram

Dr. Stanley J. Ward is the Ethical Leader, the Intentional Influencer, on a mission to defeat burnout. He is the AntiFool.

In this episode, we're going to talk about what it means to be a leader. The leader holds responsibility for multiple things: from managing teams to becoming the face of a company. But how do we become them, both effectively and ethically? What if it's too much to bear? What if we burn out? Who better to talk about all this with than Dr. Stanley J Ward.

Dr. Stanley J. Ward has decades of experience as a writer, educator, and leadership coach. His writing work includes scores of blog articles as well as two leadership books - Ethical Leadership: A Primer and How to Beat Burnout for Yourself, Your Family, and Your Team. Dr. Ward with his Ph.D. in Leadership Studies has done a ton to accelerate the growth rate of amazing leaders to become even more than who they are right now. 

We talked about:

• All the different facets of an effective ethical leader: what do you need to become one? 
• The meaning of burnout and how to avoid it
• Differences between burnout and worn out (yes there is a few!)
• Intention and influence, the two aspects of a true leader
• And of course, comics and Captain America!

Enjoy!

Links

• Stanley's Website
• Stanley's About Page
• Stanley's LinkedIn

Noomi Natan is the executive coach mapping out the constellations for leadership and change. She is the AntiFool.

In this episode, we're talking about the human element of leadership: the inner leader.

If you want to elevate your business, what's the best way to go from where you are to where you want to be? It starts off with leading yourself, and Noomi knows this best!

Noomi Natan is an Executive Coach, Leadership Consultant and Host of the Leadership Behind the Scenes Podcast. She has coached leaders in more than 15 countries for over 13 years, ranging from solopreneurs to startups and leaders in organizations such as Tesco, Lego House, BBC Studios and more.

She employs a different method of executive coaching, not to tap into sales and practicalities, but more on the human element of what it means to become a leader as she has never specialized in a specific industry or job type.

We talk about:

• Her origin story: how she became an executive coach after coming out of a dark place. 
• The realization after getting coached for two hours
• What it means to be a leader, from self-introspection to our relationship with making mistakes
• The constellations of our lives and why that matters to us

Enjoy!

Links

• Noomi's Website
• Noomi Natan's LinkedIn
• Noomi Natan's Facebook
• Noomi Natan's Twitter

Dr. Alex Avery is the veterinarian, the savior of animals taking care of our pet's health. He is the AntiFool.

We're going to talk about our loved ones that aren't human: our pets. What do animals mean to you? Are your pets considered members of your family or are they left outside to fall and adapt to your routine? Are they healthy? Do they have their vaccinations? Do they have their check-ups ready? Are there signs to show that they are aging? Who better to have this conversation with than Dr. Alex Avery. 

Dr. Alex is a veterinarian and Founder of Our Pet's Health, the go-to resource for taking care of your loved ones, your pets, your dogs, and cats in every animal in between. On a mission to share his knowledge and experience as a vet so you can make the best decisions possible, preventing injury and disease, and be comfortable making the difficult decisions, Our Pet's Health is a plethora of content teaching you about the best ways to take care of your favorite animals.

We talked about:

• Dr. Alex's origin story: how he dove into the world of saving lives, animal lives as a vet, 
• Preconceptions that pet owners have when relying on Dr. Google
• How vets and their clients work together to help save their pet's lives 
• Biases that we have as pet owners who may feel responsible for taking care of our pets
• The signs to see if your pet's health is deteriorating and what is the best way to act upon it.

Enjoy!

Links

• Our Pet's Health Website
• Our Pet's Health Facebook Page
• Our Pet's Health Twitter
• Our Pet's Health YouTube

Dina Brenci is the dating coach, the expert in animal behavior on a mission to help you find the right one. She is the AntiFool.

Let's talk about dating: it's difficult to find the right one. You have 7 billion+ people, and we don't know if the right one exists, even if this ideal perso nis someone we imagined in our minds. Even taking that first step is so overwhelming. How do we know if we can even find them? How do we know if we are the right fit? How do we know if we are worth dating? Spiraling questions like these stop us from really finding the perfect relationship.

But, there is someone here to help with that: Dina Brenci.

Watching people's struggles in the dating scene, Dina has made it her mission to support individuals in making organic connections in partnerships that last. Combining years of animal behavioral studies with her unconditionally loving and non-judgmental persona, she has designed a unique approach to dating that feels completely new. 

She is an ICF certified coach that specializes in helping her clients date without dating apps. She offers a variety of different packages so that she can support as many people as possible to reach their dating goals. 

We talked about:

• Her origin story: a background in animal behavioral science
• The facets of dating: from confidence to vulnerability and finding the right one
• What goes into Dina's coaching sessions and dating in the midst of this outbreak? 
• How to go on dates without dating apps
• Maintaining healthy relationships in highly stressful situations

Enjoy!

Links

• Dina Brenci's Instagram
• Dina Brenci's Facebook
• Dina Brenci's Website

Emily Crookston is the pocket Ph.D., the ghost writer, the philosophy professor on a mission to articulate your ideas. She is the AntiFool.

I want to talk to you about your ideas. How do you convey your ideas in a way where the average person can understand you? Maybe articulating yourself is a skill you need to hone. It's extremely important to get your message across. 

But sometimes we just don't have the time to do that. Subject matter experts, entrepreneurs, and those in a high performing environment may not have the time to write down books, articles or blog posts that really convey their ideas, but we have someone who specializes in doing that for you.

Emily Crookston is the ghostwriter for Rebels, Renegades, and Mavericks. She helps busy professionals who are long on ideas, but short on time, write books, articles, and blog posts. As the Pocket Ph.D., Emily partners with individuals and brands to make the boring or complex sound spectacular. She draws out her client's most disruptive ideas or original stories. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, Inc.com, Entrepreneur, and SmartBrief. 

We talked about:

• Her origin story: how she left the world of academia to start up her own business in ghostwriting
• Lessons learned as a former professor in philosophy and how it applies to ghostwriting
• A breakdown of her ghostwriting process: how she interviews clients for stories, examples and turns your words into an amazing book
• First-person bias: when an expert gets too close to their expertise, why is it difficult for them to be understood?
• The Pocket Ph.D. manifesto with some interesting insights there on how Emily works.

Enjoy!

Links

• Emily Crookston's LinkedIn
• The Pocket Ph.D.
• The Pocket PhD Facebook Page

Angela Cheung is the random experimenter, the professional simplifier Producing moments that we will always remember. She is the AntiFool.

In this episode, I want to talk about producing moments and that sounds a little bit strange, but let's elaborate on that. Moments are the experiences that you carry with you throughout life that are memorable. They have an impact on your worldview. and they are much more than just a memory. They define what you pursue. Who better to talk about this with than Angela Cheung.

Angela is a media executive coach and speaker, as well as managing director at APV, a film and creative agency combining strategy, creative and production to create content that inspires action. With clients ranging from the BBC to National Geographic, Disneyland, and more, she is a powerhouse when it comes to using video to capture moments and memorable experiences for us lovely viewers to watch.

With a broad-ranging career in the realm of broadcast media, 8 years as Regional Director of Production at Walt Disney television, Asia Pacific (DISNEY!) Part of that is producing tons of shows for the Asia Pacific audience for the Disney channel, including one that I grew up with!

We talked about:

• Her origin story, the powerful moments in her childhood that led her to broadcast media
• The relentless pursuit of getting a position in MTV
• Breaking down the creative process and thinking behind producing a show at Disney
• How fireworks are a reminder of her impact on millions of viewers
• Embracing our creativity and put it at the helm of where we are going. 

Enjoy!

Links

• Asia Pacific Vision (APV)
• Angela Cheung's LinkedIn

Dai Manuel is the Lifestyle Mentor, the Meditator, and the intrepreter of silence. He is the AntiFool.

We're going to have a conversation about something that is very difficult to do no matter at what stage in life you are in: the ability to sit still in silence and contemplate.

How difficult is it for you to sit still, stay quiet and just be? This is an act of meditation, one of the many methods in cultivating the act of self-introspection. of course it's scary, lots of issues and fears surface up and we tend to start thinking about them. But how do we recognize and accept and move on in order to reach a certain goal or a certain narrative that we have in life? Who better to talk about achieving a balance of great health and wellbeing then Dai Manuel.

Dai is an award-winning digital thought leader and author, executive performance coach and certified lifestyle mentor who empowers people to lead a functionally-fit life through education, encouragement, and community. His work is based on the Five F'sL fitness, family, finances, faith and fun, all built on a rock-solid foundation of health.

His book, The Whole Life Fitness Manifesto is a new kind of fitness book, providing the tools you need to create a functionally fit lifestyle at any age or level of ability in 30 minutes a day. 

In this episode, we unravel his journey: 

• Young Dai was morbidly obese. What choices did he make to reach a well-intended healthy life?
• We talked about the power of meditation. How self-introspection can empower you to take the first step towards an intended goal
• His experiences in a Vipassana 10 day meditation in complete silence
• How the formation of habits led him to appreciate the act of being, staying still, slowing down and learning to control his pace.

Enjoy!

Links

• Dai's Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

In this episode, we are going down the Holy path of Catholicism, but from the perspective of uncovering the radical truth. 

Most religious institutions tend to have largely hierarchical structures when it comes to making decisions and sharing common laws for those who would like to be priests. But with thousands of years of history, there may be some truths that were buried underneath layers of discrimination.

We are here to find out what that radical truth really is so who better to talk about this with than Margaret O'Connor. 

Margaret Mary O'Connor is a former chaplain and currently as a Eucharistic minister at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Buffalo, New York. she walks on picket lines to help keep the issues of women's ordination and church accountability on the priest sexual abuse issue at the forefront of any Catholic's attention.

Also a member of Call to Action, Future Church, Roman Catholic women, Priests Women's Ordination Conference and SNAP, which stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Margaret is the voice of truth in trying to gain accountability and admittance for a lot of wrongdoings and coverings of truth done by the Catholic church. 

So we will be diving into the Catholic church, unraveling its structures, hierarchies, and where people are getting abused. This episode is for the brave and curious.

We talked about:

• Margaret's origin story, how she became betrayed by those around her after figuring out that there were women priests, deacons, and more. 
• The radical truth of catholicism, what she found out (hint: it's about mother Mary)
• The evolutions over time within the Catholic Church in enabling women's ordination

Enjoy!

Links

• Margaret's Website: Your Radical Truth