What happens when you've built the career, the life, everything that's supposed to feel like success, and it still doesn't feel like yours?

Nicole Marquardt is an Alignment Strategist, TEDx speaker, and author of Success That Includes You. Known as The Adventurous Executive, she spent three decades leading major IT and corporate programs before turning to this work, helping successful people close the gap between a life that looks right and one that actually feels right.

In this episode, Nicole shares the moment she realized something essential was missing despite years of outward success, what being "out of alignment" actually feels like day to day, and why she believes people don't necessarily have to leave their careers to feel like themselves again. She also offers one small, practical step listeners can take this week to start trusting their own decisions again.

What We Talked About:

1. The moment she realized something was missing despite success
2. What "being out of alignment" actually feels like
3. Whether you have to leave your career to feel like yourself again
4. One small step to start rebuilding self-trust
5. Her book, Success That Includes You
6. Her free 7-Day Alignment Experience

Connect with Nicole Marquardt:

Website: createmynewfuture.com

Free experience: 7dayalignmentexperience.createmynewfuture.com

Instagram & LinkedIn: linked on her profile

What happens when a cancer survivor turns performance art into a lifeline, painting portraits while riding a skateboard?

Brett Ashby is an Australian contemporary visual artist with more than two decades of international practice, known for his live "painting while rolling" performances that blend balance, fear, and storytelling into a single physical act. He's painted figures including Barack Obama and Princess Diana, and today speaks openly about surviving cancer, men's mental health, and how art became more than decoration in his own life, it became survival.

In this episode, Brett shares how surviving cancer reshaped his relationship with time, clarity, and creative urgency, what fear and flow reveal about emotion and trauma when combined with skateboarding and painting, and why he believes art can genuinely save lives. He also opens up about the role creativity can play in suicide prevention and men's mental health more broadly.

What We Talked About:

1. How cancer reshaped his physical body, mindset, and clarity
2. Fear versus flow in skateboarding and performance painting
3. Painting while rolling as a metaphor for staying alive
4. Art as a tool for men's mental health and emotional expression
5. Building an unconventional, global creative career
6. Using public art for suicide prevention awareness

Connect with Brett Ashby:

Website: brettashby.com

Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn & TikTok: linked on his profile

What does it actually take to bring AI into a business without creating a legal minefield?

Rory O'Keeffe is a commercial and AI lawyer, founder of RMOK Legal, and co-author of AI Advantage: Thriving Within Civilization's Next Big Disruption. Based in London after building his early career in criminal and business law in Ireland, he now advises high-growth tech companies and established enterprises on navigating AI, cybersecurity, and data risk.

In this episode, Rory breaks down the biggest legal blind spots tech founders often miss, how in-house legal teams can move from gatekeepers to strategic influencers, and what companies actually need to understand about AI explainability and auditability before deploying it across their business. He also shares his perspective on the role legal plays in shaping a company's public narrative around AI and data ethics.

What We Talked About:

1. Biggest legal blind spots for tech founders
2. Moving in-house lawyers from gatekeepers to strategic influencers
3. Assessing legal risk in AI deployments across a business
4. AI explainability and auditability, explained simply
5. Legal's role in shaping a company's AI and data ethics narrative

Connect with Rory O'Keeffe:

Website: rmoklegal.com

Podcast: Beyond The Fine Print

YouTube, Instagram & LinkedIn: linked on his profile

It all started with her youngest child calling her "jobless." That single comment sparked mornings spent reading with nothing but coffee and a stack of books, eventually leading to her debut book, Cheers for a Good Life, an Amazon #1 New Release in Philosophy, Ethics & Morality and #1 Bestseller in Interpersonal Relations.

Kirana Sidin is an author and strategic life coach based in Jakarta, exploring one central question through writing, coaching, and speaking: what does it really mean to build a good life? In this episode, she shares how those quiet mornings became a framework for intentional living, why she believes a good life is built rather than found, and how timeless wisdom from Stoicism applies to something as ordinary as parenting or everyday decision-making.

What We Talked About:

1. The comment that sparked a completely new chapter in her life
2. What it really means to build a good life, one choice at a time
3. Applying ancient philosophy to modern, everyday decisions
4. Staying intentional in a world built to distract us
5. Raising grounded children in a high-pressure world
6. The relationship between money, purpose, and living well

Connect with Kirana Sidin:

Website: cheersforagoodlife.com

Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn: linked on her profile

At two years old, Bradley Gabbert was struck by a car, spent two weeks in a coma, and came home having lost the ability to walk and speak. He physically recovered, but it would take more than sixty years to understand that survival and healing are not the same thing. He's the author of the memoir The Agreeable Child: A Yogic Journey from Tragedy to Triumph.

In this episode, Bradley shares when he first recognized that being "the agreeable one" wasn't just his personality, it was a survival strategy, how a simple 4-7-8 breathing exercise unexpectedly unlocked emotions he'd carried for decades, and what he's come to understand about how "the body remembers" experiences we can't consciously recall. He also opens up about what he'd tell someone in midlife who believes it's too late to change.

What We Talked About:

1. Recognizing "agreeableness" as a survival pattern, not a personality trait
2. The 4-7-8 breathing exercise that unlocked decades of buried emotion
3. How the body holds onto experiences we can't consciously remember
4. Writing his memoir as a tool for reclaiming his own voice
5. Why meaningful change doesn't have an expiration date

Connect with Bradley Gabbert:

Book: theagreeablechild.com

Author website: bradleylgabbert.com

At 23, Dom Brightmon became the youngest Area Director in Toastmasters International and published his first book the same year. Known as the Positive Thought Catalyst, he's now a certified trainer with the Maxwell Leadership Team, bestselling author, and host of the Going North Podcast, where he's interviewed over 1,000 published authors.

In this episode, Dom shares what drove him to move so fast at such a young age, a life lesson that came up again and again across 1,000 author interviews, and what his motto, "Advance others to advance yourself," actually looks like in practice. He also explains why he believes libraries are still filled with gold in the 21st century.

What We Talked About:

1. Becoming the youngest Area Director in Toastmasters at 23
2. Recurring life lessons from 1,000+ author interviews
3. "Advance others to advance yourself" in practice
4. Why libraries remain relevant in a digital age
5. Building a career around the power of the written word

Connect with Dom Brightmon:

Website: dombrightmon.com

Free eBook: 21 Lessons Learned From Podcasting

Podcast: Going North Podcast

Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram & LinkedIn: linked on his profile

"When Source does not call the qualified, it qualifies the called." Justin L. Shaw is a former stand-up comedian, mystical comedian, and self-described Sourcerer, who found the redeeming power of Source energy after surviving a long battle with substance abuse, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. He's the author of Sourcery 101: 13 Rungs to a Higher Elevation of Consciousness.

In this episode, Justin shares the experience that changed everything for him, why he intentionally misspells "Sourcery" to distinguish it from casting spells, and how his 13 rungs of healing were inspired by the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous while going further, addressing addictions to phones, materialism, and more. Expect humor, pop culture metaphors, and real insight into trauma and spiritual healing.

What We Talked About:

1. Surviving addiction, PTSD, depression, and anxiety
2. The experience that led him to "Source energy"
3. The 13 rungs of Sourcery, inspired by AA's 12 steps
4. Why modern addictions extend beyond drugs and alcohol
5. Spiritual bankruptcy as the root of "soul sickness"
6. Using comedy to make deep healing accessible

Connect with Justin Shaw:

Book: Sourcery 101, available on Amazon

Website: linked on his profile

Houston Pierce has held nearly every job imaginable, tour guide, mascot, Uber driver, couch delivery man, and even a janitor at an industrial bakery, before landing in construction, DJing, and eventually hosting the podcast 1000 Crazy Questions.

In this episode, Houston shares which of his many past jobs taught him the most unexpected lesson about people, what he's learned from asking guests silly, off-the-wall questions instead of standard interview ones, and where he personally lands on the future of AI versus original human creativity. Expect deep conversation with a healthy dose of humor throughout.

What We Talked About:

1. Lessons in humanity from an unusually eclectic job history
2. What silly questions reveal that "normal" questions never do
3. His take on AI versus human creativity
4. Building 1000 Crazy Questions around genuine curiosity
5. Balancing lighthearted humor with deeper conversation

Connect with Houston Pierce:

Podcast: 1000crazyquestions.com

Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram & TikTok: linked on his profile

What if the less you believe, the closer you actually get to genuine religious experience?

Joshua Pritikin, PhD, is an Internal Family Systems Certified Practitioner and author of Religion Unburdened by Belief. Before counseling individuals and couples in Oregon, he spent years building financial software on Wall Street and earned his PhD in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Virginia. He's also the grandson of Nathan Pritikin, creator of the Pritikin health program.

In this episode, Joshua unpacks the paradox behind his book's title, how trauma and dissociation show up inside both religious and psychedelic experience, and why sequencing matters as much as substance when it comes to psychedelic readiness. He also brings a therapist's lens to the AI conversation, exploring why so many people intuitively grant AI the status of "someone," and what that impulse reveals about human worth.

What We Talked About:

1. What's left when you subtract belief from religion
2. How trauma and healing show up in religious and psychedelic experience
3. Why sequencing matters more than substance in psychedelic readiness
4. Using Internal Family Systems to understand our relationship with AI
5. A structured pathway toward realizing human potential

Connect with Joshua Pritikin:

Website: unburdened.biz

YouTube: linked on his profile

What does it look like to live two full lives, one as a celebrated literature professor, and one as a spiritual teacher guiding others toward joy and freedom?

Swami Nityananda is the spiritual teacher of the Awake Yoga Meditation community, consecrated as a Swami in 2014. As Juniper Ellis, she spent over 25 years as Professor Emerita of English at Loyola University, holding Fulbright grants and national awards, and publishing scholarly work through Columbia University Press. She's the author of Awake: The Yoga of Pure Awareness.

In this episode, Swami Nityananda reflects on the thread connecting decades of literary scholarship with her path toward spiritual teaching, what it actually feels like to experience "Awakeness" in an ordinary moment, and how pain, fear, and suffering can be transformed into joy and freedom. She also explains why Thich Nhat Hanh called meditating in community a miracle.

What We Talked About:

1. The connection between literary scholarship and spiritual teaching
2. What experiencing "Awakeness" actually feels like
3. Transforming pain and suffering into joy and freedom
4. Why meditating in community is described as a miracle
5. Living beyond limitation through nondual awareness

Connect with Swami Nityananda:

Website: awakeyogameditation.org

YouTube & Instagram: linked on her profile