Changemakers World Podcast

Education is powerful because it changes and develops minds. A love for continuous learning facilitates growth, deepens humility, and enhances the yearning for a better world. Providing our children with high-quality education and the lenses to understand the world around them is the “most powerful weapon which a [civilization] has to change the world.”

We need to commit to teaching our students soft skills such as creativity, innovativeness, empathy, and inculcate in them a genuine interest and curiosity in the world around them if we want to create a better world. Teaching technical and analytical skills is at the center of formalized education today and while we teach our children important building blocks in math, science, languages, and social studies that develop the intellect, formalized learning do not intentionally incorporate softer, more “emotional” skills that build a student’s love for lifelong learning. This unfortunate omission produced students who are disengaged, bored, and rebellious. 

Lindsey Wander, who founded and runs World Wise Tutoring and a non-profit, Educate. Radiate. Elevate., believes that the love of learning is inherent in human nature. She’s made it her mission to provide all students, regardless of economic background, with the soft skills that underlie the love for learning and independent thinking. In this interview, we talk about her mission, strategies to keep students engaged and curious, what’s working and what’s not in American education, and her hope for the future.

About Lindsey

Lindsey studied to become a Biomedical Engineer and earned a B.S. in Biology, a B.A. in Chemistry, and a Minor in Mathematics. She took part in various science-based internships the world over to her passion and an environmental educator internship in Pennsylvania inspired her to return to college and become a biology teacher in California. Lindsey loved having her classroom and seeing her “kids” every day, inspiring a joy for learning within them while discovering new and creative ways to teach complex subjects.

When Lindsey moved to Chicago several years later, she became a full-time tutor. Through her professional and personal experiences, she could quickly assess her students, molding her teaching style to maximize their strengths and reshape their weaknesses into positive traits. She taught them how to learn, so they are always in the powerful position of being able to help themselves. This custom approach ensures they’re given every tool necessary to be successful, building their confidence and skills enough to be independent learners. She now shares her experience and method with her highly qualified tutors so that they can help more students become lifelong learners. 

Connect with Lindsey

World Wise Tutoring

Educate. Radiate. Elevate. 

Lindsey’s LinkedIn page

When I got married in the summer of 2012, I got fresh flowers. I wanted to symbolize a new beginning and welcome hopes of fertility, happiness, and fidelity. I splurged on the flowers and they arrived at our wedding venue wrapped in plastic and carefully laid in a new corrugated icebox. Our vendor wrapped the flowers with the proper packing material inside. In all the excitement of our wedding, we did not stop to consider using alternative flowers. But even if we did, I doubt we would’ve chosen silk or plastic flowers for 1 reason. I thought that they look fake.

But ordering fresh flowers for events and celebrations is costly - both to our pockets and to the environment. Reports state that sending the roughly 100 million roses of a typical Valentine’s Day produces some 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from field to U.S. florist with flower delivery flights burning approximately 30 million gallons of fuel.

In this episode, I talk to Megan Rapacz about how to protect the environment and our purse strings with reusable high-quality silk flowers. Today’s faux flowers are both beautiful and cost-effective. To meet the demand for these flowers in the wedding space, Megan, together with her sister Amanda, started a socially conscious business that offers beautiful silk flowers to engaged couples planning a wedding. We talk about starting a socially conscious business, finding the right partners to work with, staying true to the mission, finding the funds to start a new business, and setting bigger and more inspiring goals to aspire to as the business grows. 

About Silk Stem Collective 

Sisters Megan and Amanda Rapacz founded Silk Stem Collective to deal with these problems. Silk Stem Collective is a rent-and-return wedding floral service offering sets of quality silk flowers to environmentally and economically conscious couples. Newly married couples rent these flowers and pass their set off to the next couple after the wedding. Since the company started, it’s grown to offer 8 unique collections, with more on the way, of the highest quality silk flowers. More brides and grooms are getting beautiful flowers at a reasonable cost.

Megan and Amanda design bouquets that they would want at prices they would pay, with the goal of making these flowers versatile enough to fit every wedding vision but special enough to make their clients feel like a treasured bride or groom. Megan and Amanda also created a blog called “The Greenhouse” which is filled with original thoughts on flowers, trends, and tidbits they’ve learned throughout the wedding planning process.

Contact Silk Stem Collective

Facebook: @Silkstemcollective

What would you do if you received news that turned your life upside-down and inside out in a moment? Sometimes, we receive bad news, news that we are unprepared for, and news that shake us to our core. Receiving bad news can trigger an avalanche of negative emotions and a whirlwind of dark scary thoughts. When we receive bad news, we try to run and hide because it would seem that not confronting the problem allows us to believe that we never received that news. Avoidance, however, is counterproductive because we cannot erase what has happened or the news we've received. The only choice we really have is to feel the big gaping hole in our heart, reframe the information we've received in our mind, find the strength we have (and believe me, everyone of us has a reservoir of infinite strength and wisdom if we tap into it), and turn bad news into saving grace, learning moments, and the opportunity to be thankful for the important things in our life.

Our guest, the beautiful and amazing Fitz Koehler, shares her terrifying experience of finding a cancerous lump in her breast seven weeks after a clean mammogram. But, as a fitness expert and race announcer, Fitz refused to play the victim or

You’ll laugh, cry, wince, and cheer as she chronicles the clash of an avalanche of side effects with 22 major race weekends in her book. Her inspirational tale encompasses the terror of diagnosis, bald heads and black dresses, spectacular stages, parenting with cancer, perspective, and, most importantly, triumph. Perhaps, more importantly, you’ll walk away grittier, more optimistic, and inspired to conquer any obstacle. Fitz's book is a must-read for all cancer patients and their families. People from all aspects of the running community will also adore getting to experience a behind-the-scenes view of life at the helm of America’s greatest road races.

About Fitz

Fitz Koehler is a fitness innovator with a Master’s Degree in Exercise and Sport Sciences from the University of Florida, who has been teaching fitness around the globe for decades.

Reach out to Fitz

Email: [email protected]

The Morning Mile

The Morning Mile™ is a before-school walking/running program that gives children the chance to start each day in an active way while enjoying fun, music and friends. 

Fitz's Website

Order "My Noisy Cancer Comeback"

New Season 

Season 3

Episode 38 Kicks-off A New Season of The Heart-centered Life Podcast

At the Heart-centered Life Podcast, we believe that positive change in the world happens when an individual manages to find that special space of deep happiness and contentment, connects with what he or she sees as the world's deep hunger from that space, and reaches out to alleviate some of the pain and suffering he or she sees. We understand that empowered individuals play a role in creating change that redirects how we function as a society and breaks down the insularity and silos we build to protect ourselves and our self-interests. And our desire through the Heart-centered Life podcast is to empower individuals to live their best lives and create social change. Reverand Buechner's quote above about one's calling captures what we aim to do with the episodes we produce.

While Season 1 launched the podcast with 17 episodes about how to live a happy and productive life and Season 2, over 18 episodes, explored what it meant to live and lead with the heart, Season 3 will focus on empowering individuals to build social enterprises that create systemic change with lasting impacts on society.

Episode 38 looks at how we can empower colored communities to be their best selves by having critical conversations about race that result in systemic changes in how colored communities show up in the world and contribute to others. Having hard discussions about the role we play in maintaining the status quo and in identifying the role we can and should play in building and guiding future generations towards a fairer and more equitable world is the activity we need to engage in to create systemic changes in society. Our guest Gahrey Ovalle, is the author of Unjustified: Where Have Our Black Leaders Gone?. Unjustified reflects on the self-inflicted wounds and systemically imposed limitations that affect communities of color and identifies how people of color hurt themselves, how others hurt them, and more importantly, how they can grow past that to create better outcomes for their communities. 

About Gahrey

Gahrey Ovalle is a serial entrepreneur who has spent more than 20 years building successful six-and-seven-figure companies for himself and others. He now teaches people the art of living remarkable, purposeful, happy lives while erring on the side of personal well-being, financial security, and growth. As a coach and mentor to entrepreneurs and leaders, he helps them create social impact through business development and community building.  

Gahrey's website

E-mail: [email protected]

What does success mean to you? In contemporary society, success is often synonymous with the attainment of wealth, status, fame, or eminence. The more we have in terms of material and worldly wealth, the more successful we consider ourselves to be. 

However, success has a more profound meaning when we ground ourselves in our purpose and in the present moment. The more centered we are in what we are doing in the present moment, the more we get out of life and success takes a new meaning. The reason for this is that by staying in the present moment, we gain clarity because we shift from a space of wild mental sprinting to a more grounded and calmer frame of mind. In this space, where we have significantly clearer thoughts, we can take the next step towards a better future - and more success whether that means better health, better relationships with the people we love, or better control of finances -  because we know what that next step is for us from our own clarity. 

About our Guest

Sean Rosensteel is the author of The School of Intentional Living and the founder of The Intentional Living Academy.

With a passion for helping others, Sean’s journey began when he found himself bankrupt at the age of 28 after following conventional wisdom all his life. This eye-opening moment taught him that attaining true happiness and fulfillment means breaking free from conventional living and creating your own path.

Now, he hopes to inspire and empower his readers to achieve their dreams and live the lives they truly deserve.

Sean currently lives in the Dallas, TX area with his loving wife, Karen, and their three young children. 

Links

Sean's website

We are often told to live in the present, a temporal frame which grounds up in the now. The reason this is important is that it is easy to dwell on our regrets in the past and worry about future events that may not even happen. When we live with regrets and anxiety, we deny ourselves the happiness that come from centering ourselves in the now. Nothing dispels fear and anxiety more effectively than finding joy in the present moment as we talked about recently with Ryan Stanley.

But there is a difference between being in the present and coming to the Presence which goes beyond the temporal grounding of our human experience in the here and now, to an all-encompassing experience of everything good, kind, and benevolent. In this episode, I talk to P.J. about what being in the Presence means, how to know we are there, and how to get there. This is an inspirational episode about finding our power in something much greater than ourselves by finding the source of goodness.

About P.J.

P.J. is a Lifelong Motivational Speaker, and an International Transformational Coach who focuses on results!

Despite his disability. a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy, which was expected to take his life by 7, P.J. chose to live, and he has live well!  P.J. truly lives an extraordinary life:  sailing, outdoor skydiving, indoor skydiving, trapezing, ziplining, hiking, mountain climbing, snow skiing, water skiing, aqua jetpacking, and the list goes on!

He's a former wheelchair athlete, international traveler, amateur watercolorist, founder of two non-profit organizations and four disabled sports programs, a published author, 10th degree black belt, martial arts and women’s self-defense instructor, and a meditation teacher.  

Additionally, P.J. has been inducted into the National Hall of Fame for People with Disabilities and was nominated to carry the Olympic Torch through Tucson in 2002.

P.J.'s website

E-mail: [email protected]

We live in a world that exalts perfectionism and many of us are perfectionists. Many times perfectionism hinders progress, improvement, and growth. This is because when we expect things, including ourselves and the people around us, to be perfect, we snuff out the possibility of better things ahead. Award-winning author, Vironika Tugaleva, has a wonderful piece of advice for the perfectionists, myself including: 

In this episode, I talk to Benita Conde about why perfectionism is at best, unproductive, and at worst, dangerous. Benita offers the practice of gratitude, including building your intuition and creativity, as an antidote to perfectionism. 

About Benita

Benita Conde is the founder of Create Radical Love, LLC a life coaching and consulting approach for people who want to radically love their whole life experience, not just compartmentalized parts of it. Benita is a former professional ballet dancer, a former personal trainer, and an advertising industry expert with 20 years of experience supporting and guiding the careers of creative people. She has been on a spiritual journey her whole life and has been sober for 13 years. She now works with individuals globally as a holistic coach guiding each client to lead with intuition, to define a calling, and take action from that aligned, excited, and Infinite place across all aspects of their life experience. She has designed a unique and radically loved life with her husband and son and is thrilled to share the approach with others. 

Resources mentioned in the interview

Website: https://www.createradicallove.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benita_conde/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benita.conde.3 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benitaconde/

Navigating the legal terrain as you set up as an entrepreneur can be tricky. There are a lot of legal issues to think about and figure out if you are trying to start off as an entrepreneur - whether you are a self-identified actual entrepreneur or an accidental entrepreneur by default - in order to enjoy long-term success of your business.  

In today's episode, we layout the legalities of setting up an enterprise to help entrepreneurs navigate this terrain. Mitch and I discuss the importance of testing developing ideas and making sure that there is product/service - market fit, the proper structure for setting up your business, contracts with employees and vendors, intellectual property licenses, and non-disclosure and non-compete agreements.

About our guest

Mitchell C. Beinhaker, Esq. is a business lawyer and estates attorney who runs a solo legal & consulting practice representing business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals.  Through his 28 years of experience, Mitchell has handled business development, marketing, firm management, along with business transactional work for clients of the firm.  He has extensive experience with corporate governance, commercial transactions, real estate, and risk analysis.  Using his years of practical experience, he drafts contracts, negotiates purchases, and can manage outside counsel for any corporate situation.  For business owners and executives, he creates and implements estate plans, along with succession plans to help companies continue for future generations.

As a transactional attorney, Mitchell has also handled the purchase and sale of multi-million-dollar businesses including insurance portfolios, restaurants, and even a small chemical company.  In the real estate area, he has handled and coordinated many commercial purchases and sales from contract drafting and due diligence, including all the zoning and environmental review, through the closing of title.  His work has involved helping with insurance and risk management as well as legal involvement with construction management projects.

Mitchell spends his practice development efforts networking, attending professional groups, and public speaking.  He is also the creator and host of his own audio podcast – The Accidental Entrepreneur  – where he interviews successful business people and professionals who share their knowledge and help you develop your business.  Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn (Amazon Alexa), and iHeart Radio.  You can follow them on social media including Facebook and LinkedIn.

Mitchell is a graduate of Cornell University (’89) and received his law degree (JD) from New York Law School in 1992. He was a tax intern with Internal Revenue during law school and is admitted to practice in the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  He was awarded the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) degree from The American College in 1998.

Links to resources mentioned in the interview:  

1. Email Mitch: [email protected]

One of the questions that often arise with start-ups and newer entrepreneurs is: how do I fund my business and take it to the next level? Often, entrepreneurs start with bootstrapping and using their existing resources, getting seed funding from family and friends, using money from savings or retirement funds, finding loans from a financier, applying for grants (e.g. SBA grants or research grants), and starting with an idea they worked on in their school (e.g. the engineering schools at Stanford are known for producing successful entrepreneurs - think David Packard and Bill Hewlett).

In this episode, I talk to an angel investor, Travis Lindsay, about the factors that angel investors look for in deciding whether to invest in a start-up company. As an angel investor, Travis looks for companies that are further along in their entrepreneurial journey in that these companies - although still in a "start-up" stage - have started to gain traction and momentum towards sustainable growth and profits. He looks for a good idea that addresses customer pain and offers the best solution to alleviating that pain. Other things he looks for are:

1. the legitimate chance that business can grow (i.e. that there is business viability and a business model that can work)

2. traction and momentum 

3. sustained progress (an entrepreneur should not be working on an idea for years without any traction - if an idea does not work, there may be a need to go back to the drawing board and reassess)

4. the ability to take the initial investment and grow 

5. having a good team 

6. some evidence of potential success e.g. having intellectual property, workable prototypes, a safe model that works (e.g. an angel investor will not invest in a medical device or self-driving car that might open the company to liability if it does not work) 

7. continued market testing of the product / service 

8. have a minimum viable product (MVP)

This is a good interview with a lot of practical information for entrepreneurs thinking about their need for funding. 

About Travis

Travis is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Cal State Fullerton. He is an experienced educator, mentor, coach, and investor.  At California State University, Fullerton, Travis has been a driving force in the growth of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the founding of the university's first incubator, the CSUF Startup Incubator. Additionally, Travis is a founder and co-manager of Titan Angels, LLC, an investment fund that invests in early-stage companies.

Travis' passion is in educating and mentoring the next generation of business leaders. At California State University, Fullerton, Travis has worked with hundreds of students and community members, in and out of the classroom, providing feedback in all areas of business, including help with pro forma financial forecasting, integrated marketing plans, development of operational strategies, and more. At Titan Angels, Travis provides incisive feedback to founders that they use to better position themselves in the market. 

How to reach Travis:

1. By email: [email protected]

2. Travis's Linkedin Profile

Entrepreneurship is not an easy path. The top personal traits that make a successful entrepreneur include discipline, confidence, open-mindedness, proactive, competitive, creative, determined, excellent people skills, great work ethics, and, perhaps most importantly, passion. All these traits guide an entrepreneur as they face uncertainty about the value of their business, build a supportive and engaged team, get clear about what their customers want and need, and persevere through times of failure and learning. 

In this episode, I talk to seasoned entrepreneurs, Aleksandar Stamenić and Sven Rudolf Mumenthaler, about their entrepreneurial journeys and the challenges, joys, surprises, and learnings they encountered along the way. Aleks and Sven share their wisdom and offer guidance to entrepreneurs that are undoubtedly helpful to other entrepreneurs regardless of where they are on their entrepreneurial journey. Aleks and Sven clearly love technology and have focussed on developing products that make the lives of others better. Their passion for what they do comes across in this interview and they have good ideas that help entrepreneurs give back to their community.

About our guests

Aleksandar Stamenić is the Founder & CEO of ATG Innovations, a group of dedicated professionals working towards the common goal of creating cutting edge technology that will help protect our planet in the long run. ATG Innovations has designed and patented green energy technology in the form of highly efficient heat-exchangers that can be used in a variety of environments ranging from homes, offices, airplanes and automobile engines, and HVAC. Alex is a team leader with a strong passion for technology and the energy sector overall with many innovative ideas in development, some of which are currently patent pending. 

Sven Rudolf Mumenthaler is a serial entrepreneur, investor, software developer, and team leader. He's Co-founder and CEO of Swiss Innovation Pool AG (swip.world) and is very passionate about product innovations, development, and full market implementation. He's a certified project manager and also specializes in crowdsourcing and open innovation. He holds a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. 

Links and resources mentioned in the interview