Breaking Ordinary with Andy Petranek

Christine Hassler is a highly saught after professional speaker, a life coach of over 12 years, and the author of three books - *The Expectation Hangover, 20 Something, 20 Everything*, and the *20 Something Manifesto*. She's someone whom you look at and think, wow... she's so successful, positive, confident... she's really got it all together.

And while yes, she does, if you look a little deeper, it hasn't been all roses for her. Her life has been a roller coaster of extreme successes and failures - from a successful career with the who's who of Hollywood, expensive dinners and private jets, to a failed engagement, depression, and a divorce. She knows personally what it means to have everything around you fall apart and how to pick up the pieces and put it all back together.

Join me for this episode during which I talk with Brian about his tumultuous past and how it helped shape his future success, taking responsibility for your own health and well-being, how to run (oh, and did you know that there is only one correct way?), walking barefoot, breathing, how to naturally boost your immune system, and his latest program called XPTLife - a program that combines breathing, ice, water, and endurance that evolved from his training with Wim Hof (“The Ice Man”) and his partner in the project, Laird Hamilton.

He was a typical forty-something with a well paying job, kids, wife, cars, and a house in a good neighborhood. He had earned his way to being the head of global marketing for the education technology giant Blackboard. All the boxes were checked “successful” on paper. But when he stopped to reflect on his body and its underlying health, fitness, and well-being, Robert saw a picture that wasn’t so rosy.

Meet Robert Morton. A guy who had the courage to make a big change and quit his career... with absolutely no idea where he'd go, what he'd do, or how he'd make ends meet. All he knew was that he had to follow his gut. 

Olympic throwing champion, Fulbright Scholar, full-time author, and Religious Studies professor. Tes, that’s one person I’m talking about – Dan John. He's such a fascinating guy who’s incredibly well-traveled and has the perspective of an academic with the physicality and experience of an Olympic weightlifter.

Join me for a journey into Dan's head... as you can imagine quite an interesting place... where we discuss a wide range of things from life, relationships, living a principled life, and, of course, training.

In today’s podcast, I have a conversation with bestselling author, Matt Fitzgerald, author of the book, “How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind over Muscle” Matt is an endurance athlete and writer who has been a student of the sports of running, triathlon and many endurance events for decades. He’s also been studying the limits of human performance in relation to your brain, what you believe, and how you can improve your performance in all parts of your life simply by shifting how you think. Practically, Matt’s advice is universally applicable, whether you’re an endurance athlete, Olympic weightlifter, Gymnast, CrossFitter, weekend warrior, or just interested in peak performance.

Nir is a big thinker... and probably one of the foremost experts in habit forming technology in the world today. In fact, the M.I.T. Technology Review dubbed Nir, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.”

When I read his book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, I knew this was someone I wanted to talk more with - sharing his insights with you.

In the podcast, we talk about the trigger-response cycle, internal and external triggers, consumption, creativity, boredom, and how to break your own hooked cycle. It's really fantastic stuff that I know you'll enjoy!

Why is it that wine (and all alcoholic beverages) are the only products in the supermarket that don't have nutritional labeling?  Ever thought about that? 

Have you ever wondered what is in them? 

In spite of my years in the health and fitness industry, I hadn't really given it a second thought... until having Todd White, the owner of Dry Farm Wines, on this podcast.

Our conversation is fascinating - about the wine making process and what makes the wines he curates significantly different from any wine you will find in the United States.

Since when did eating right and looking healthy require willpower and mind tricks to follow a restrictive diet? Isn’t feeling and looking your best supposed to be fun, with rewards? This week Darya Rose joins the podcast for a conversation that ranges from food choices that fight hunger to mediation that heightens your awareness and helps you listen to your body when making a life change. The Foodist author and blogger reminds listeners that willpower is a limited resource and can’t be relied on, so creating habits have to be a part of the game plan.

Her scientific approach is a breath of fresh air from the gimmicky models of dieting that usually result in binge eating to fill the gap. Eating your emotions and dieting for self-worth are all nasty consequences of this model.  Logic, life experiments, and busting dietary myths is the name of the game for Darya, helping you love your life in the process of making changes. This former ballerina also talks about increasing body awareness which will be critical to monitoring changes when the world constantly pulls you in different stimulating directions.

Be sure to stay in the loop with Darya’s weekly dishings by signing up for her newsletter on Summer Tomato, and check out her recently launched Foodist podcast. For social matters, get connected with her on Snapchat: summertomato and Instagram: daryarose

I had such a great conversation with Michael in the last Adventure-cast, I decided to invite him back for another… who knows, this may turn into something we do regularly. Let us know in comments if you like it!

This episodes starts with a rant about Frontier Communications - and inept handling of the transition from Verizon to their company. We used to get all of our services from Verizon Fios… TV, Internet, Phones. Now it’s all Frontier - and the transition has been a disaster!

Next we get into a conversation about the human micro-biome and the company Mother Dirt. Interestingly enough, their founder and chief scientist hasn’t taken a shower (or bath) in 14 years! Yikes!

The rest of the podcast we talked about things like:

• Dog training

• Meditation
• Acceptance of what is
• The history of cancer (Michael is reading a book about the history of cancer called The Emperor of All Maladies
• Products developed because of war
• Game of Thrones (Michael is quite the expert - and takes pride in that fact)
• Andy’s update on his 4:30am Wake-Up Experiment
• Andy started a public blog for his personal journaling
• Listening to podcasts - the incredible depth of sharing that happens in long-form podcasting through conversation.
• The incredible underdog story behind Leicester City winning the English Premier League (soccer) this season
• Andy’s update from the Paleo Fx convention - hanging out with people paleo-celebrities like Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Sarah Ballentyne, Abel James, Melissa Hartwig, John Durant, Craig Ballentyne
• Hunter Gatherers - what it was like and how it relates to Paleo
• Gardening

Leadership has changed... or at least what it takes in today's world to be a great leader. Think about it - life today is very different than it was even just 20 years ago. And if you want to be an effective leader of your team, group or company, knowing how to roll with those changes is critically important.

My guest this week, Danielle Harlan, has committed her life to this subject. She brings some fascinating insight to a topic and paradigm that interests and effects many of us in our lives - being a better leader in the modern world.

Her passion, to maximize human potential, comes from preparation, planning, and passion - daily keys to living a life of fulfillment. Through her foundation and various talks, she breaks the misconceptions of being in charge with what “new” leadership actually looks like: letting go of control, accepting failure as a chance to learn, and staying true to core values no matter what.