COFFEE CULTURE with Holly Shannon

Company culture was a hot topic in 2020 due to the worldwide work from home the pandemic imposed on us. My show was born into that conversation. Enter Seth Godin and his book, ‘This is Marketing’. He said one line that shifted the axis of my show from conversations about company culture from the C suite to emerging leaders. 

What was that line? Culture is strategy. 

Since entire companies conducted business in their kitchens, the rise of no bullshit work life balance was not just important, but critical. This impacted the growing mental health issues that piggybacked the pandemic. Now we find ourselves with many conversations from quiet quitting to what  leadership can be. Can we shift more than the narrative and create the best job you ever had? 

Seth Godin is the author of 21 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work. His latest book, and soon to be his 22nd bestseller, is The Song of Significance. 

Godin writes one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world, and two of his TED talks are among the most popular of all time. He is the founder of the altMBA, the social media pioneer with Squidoo, and Yoyodyne, one of the first internet companies.

At this critical juncture in business and culture, I'm excited to have THE Seth Godin on my show.  Join me, as he ushers in powerful lessons for business in The Song of Significance.

Gregory Lay is an Actor, Writer, Producer and Small Business Owner. He was raised in a New Jersey suburb right outside of New York City. He attended Boston University Film School and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in NYC. He’s appeared in numerous TV shows such as Law and Order SVU and Person of Interest and worked in feature films alongside Matt Damon and Richard Masur. He has written a dozen commercials and two feature films, Lonely Boys and Hudson currently available everywhere. He writes, produces and stars in his own TV show Greg in LA which has been in development across social media platforms. He also owns one of the most successful up and coming cheesecake companies, East Side Cheesecakes which he started in 2020 when the world shut down. He works and lives in Los Angeles, CA

Sean Daniel Cunningham is an award winning writer and director of commercials and films. A New York native living in Los Angeles, his work is defined by its subtle comedy and huge heart.

Sean was nominated for a Young Director Award at Cannes Lions. His short film, This is When We Met, was featured on tastemakers Short of the Week and the Oscar-qualifying Festival, Hollyshorts.

Sean’s feature film Hudson, a dramedy starring Richard Masur, is streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

He's currently working on a dramedy series, Greg in LA, which recently caught some attention after going viral on social media.

Little fact: Sean is a singer songwriter too. @Lonesomemotel on Instagram. It has a Lumineers or Mumford & Son vibe. Go listen!

Do you continue to submit your music to commercials or movies?

Your music is in Hudson, will you try to feature your music in all of your movies?

How did you start in film?

Let's talk about Greg in LA, my new favorite bingeable series. I had Gregory on my show. You and he have an incredible chemistry working together. You shoot spontaneously, sometimes several episodes at a time. You start with an idea that he finishes and vice versa. That's rare in the business wouldn't you say?

What would be a dream project you could create?

Season 3 is coming soon. How is Greg evolving in this one?

Will we ever meet Beth or will she forever be a figment of our imagination?

Coco Nelson is a Trauma Therapist & Somatic Healer. She is the founder of The Evolved Therapist and the movement into transformational therapeutic experiences. Coco is passionate about changing the process of healing and being “the other option.” Disrupting the traditional therapy model and redesigning the healing process with more emphasis on in person experiential transformation & modalities that use the body to heal the mind. By transitioning into the healing field Coco has been able to teach, speak and lead others using her podcast, creating masterclasses, self led healing courses, retreats, and healing groups that support you in the moment versus just in one hour every week.

Whether it's through her “What's the missing link: how your shadow is secretly controlling your life” quiz which can transform the way you look at your most frustrating behaviors or whether it’s leading an international retreat with a group of women here to connect, heal and finally release; Coco is shifting the way we heal.

Topics:

1. Our innate need for connection, tribal times , now and post pandemic.

2. Fitting in versus belonging

3. Comparison

4. Toxic Friendships

5. Why we shouldn't keep up with the Kardashians

6. Raising the next generation

Hiromi Okuyama was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She is a Content Creator, Martial Artist (5th Degree Black Belt, teaching Karate for 30 years) and Actress. She was also the CLUBHOUSE (Social Audio App) ICON from December to February 2023.

Hiromi is passionate about short form video content creation. As an actress since her teens, she has primarily worked on commercials and has been featured in many large company advertisements such as Walmart, Scotiabank, Pizza Hut, Nortel, McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Future Shop and much more. Working in commercials has helped her know how to be effective in Short Form Videos. Her main social media platform is TikTok, where she has over 200k supporters and her branded hashtag is at over 40 million views. She creates fun “Mom Acting Challenges” and has followers from around the world, who do her acting scenes.

Hiromi frequently Hosts and Moderates panels on CLUBHOUSE, the popular Social Audio App and is an early adopter (volunteer) as well as a Beta Tester (volunteer) for their new features.

In 2021, Hiromi started her own online e-commerce store hiromiokuyama.com with Merch inspired by her supporters and also featuring her Father’s famous calligraphy, continuing a legacy of her cultural heritages.

1. Coffee meetup on Clubhouse, starting merely as avatars!

2. Short-term video on TikTok and Instagram

3. Community based Houses in the Clubhouse App

4. Knowing your audience to understand how the help them find you

5. Owning your audience with email and using profile pics for branding

6. Martial arts, her father is a high ranking karate master

7. Being a teacher and empowering kids through the martial arts

8. Respecting boundaries

9. Store with merchandise and shifting to use the famous calligraphy from her father

10. How we are raised, the differences between Gen Z and Gen X

11. Pivoting and shifting to grow

12. Mental health and periods

13. Social barometer

14. Learning from our mistakes

15. Imposter syndrome, narcissist, having a therapist

16. Choosing how to promote yourself and with whom

During the past decade Jeff Gordinier has covered the world of food — as a reporter for The New York Times from 2011 to 2016, and as the food & drinks editor of Esquire magazine from 2016 until 2021.

Over the years he has also covered movies, music, poetry, and politics — and has contributed to publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Outside, Elle, Fast Company, Details, Travel + Leisure, Departures, Breathe, Real Simple, Air Mail, the Los Angeles Times, and the website of the Poetry Foundation.

Jeff is the author, most recently, of the 2019 book Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World, a portrait of chef René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen.

He has appeared in the Jeong Kwan episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table — an episode that won a James Beard Foundation award in 2018 — and in Phil Rosenthal's Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil. 

Jeff has taught food writing at Drexel University in Philadelphia, has curated culinary and literary events for the Kaatsbaan cultural center in New York's Hudson Valley, has published (with co-editor Marc Weingarten) a collection of essays about women in music (2015's Here She Comes Now), and is currently developing projects for television. 

He lives close to the Hudson River with his wife, Lauren Fonda, and his four children. 

1. Cooking, music and Spotify playlists

2. Reading on phones vs real books, is tech creating addicts?

3. Writer's block, creative processes and connection

4. Sober curious

5. Noma's non-alcoholic drinks

6. Recommendations from an Esquire Magazine critic

7. Roma is closing!

8. Seemingly impossible pop-up in Mexico

9. Quit while you're ahead

10. Anxiety with travel for a travel writer!

11. No one is hungry forever

12. Co-creator of Billions and Ocean's 13, Brian Koppelman, book clubs, and trying to read the classics! Catch is hot list below.

Jeff's list of books for you!

fiction:

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

Suzanne & Gertrude by Jeb Loy Nichols

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

True Grit by Charles Portis

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

No One Left to Come Looking for You by Sam Lipsyte

nonfiction:

Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

Stay True by Hua Hsu

How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

poetry:

Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros

Skeletons by Deborah Landau

Playlist for the Apocalypse by Rita Dove

What Is This Thing Called Love by Kim Addonizio

Song of Songs by Sylvie Baumgartel

The Dream of Reason by Jenny George

Beyond Belief by John Koethe

Luis & Fonzi Camejo have spent the the last seven years developing strategies and techniques for turning content into profit. Their expertise lies in helping businesses achieve the elusive Frictionless Sale through effective messaging and consistent content creation. With a proven track record of working with top-tier clients like Redbull, Orangetheory, Chet Homes International and F45 Fitness, they know what it takes to turn content into profit. They specialize in transforming long-form content into easily digestible, cash-generating assets that maximize impact and drive business growth. Join them on their journey to uncover the secrets and frameworks that will help your business succeed.

1. Coffee serendipity and community

2. Soccer scholarships and Dad's advice

3. Pitch slap and how to ask for time on Linkedin

4. Covid and rebuilding business, all the pivots!

5. Finding the right business and how to divide their roles

6. The cookie analogy and bringing value to customers

6. Live podcast for better conservation of time

7. Delegating for your zone of genius and outsourcing

8. Seeing opportunity and becoming more creative by letting go of tasks

9. Taking initiative and uncovering opportunities, optimizing your time on what you love for efficiency and for joy

10. Mother-in-law saves the day to help Luis spend more time on his business and with his family

11. Struggling and trying to make everything works sometimes makes it feel like nothing works

Laura Cathcart Robbins turned a viral essay into a podcast called The Only One In the Room. And she turned her pain into pages with a memoir called Stash, My Life in Hiding that's out now!

When she was 44 Laura Cathcart Robbins got sober. That was almost 15 years ago. In the recovery community, it's all about meeting for coffee, it's coffee after the meeting, it's coffee before the meeting. It's coffee. That's how you connect, because we don't meet for drinks anymore, right? Every coffee house became like a haven for her during that time, especially those first couple years.

Along with these topics we talk about her new Bestseller where she turned her pain into pages:

Stash, My Life in Hiding (links to buy in the show notes)

1. First urban PR agent, or as she said is code for Black.

2. Viral post that became a podcast

3. Her podcast, The Only One in the Room

4. Finding love against her will during drug treatment

5. Creating a platform to be known using blogs, podcasts and speaking before writing a memoir

6. 1440 Multi-University with Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed

7. A writer's retreat where she was the only black woman gave birth to her podcast, The Only One in the Room

8. How school felt like the set of the Brady Bunch

9. Drug and alcohol abuse, having children and postpartum depression (dirty little secret)

10. The rise and fall with Ambien, the drug to help you sleep

11. Parent's Association, attending premieres, playing tennis, ladies that lunch all while chipping off pieces of Ambien to stay present and level

12. All the natural receptors to sleep and survive were bludgeoned with Ambien and alcohol

13. Doctors were lenient because she was good at building a facade, she's dismantling the buildings every day

14. Our identity labels, part of a couple (wife), and how buying milk was the moment she lost her sense of 'self' and had an existential crisis or maybe just a realization. Treated differently even as the ex-husband wife, receiving perks from the marriage, being the Mom of the kids from that marriage. Ego feeding identities. Being on a pedestal in her community. Then to rehab, challenged for the perfect motherhood, divorce, no job, no identity.

15. Invitations to baby showers, wedding showers and spa days: saying yes when you don't want to. The power of saying no.

16. The power of saying Yes and No

17. Scott, her husband, who she met in rehab. Dated for 6 years after sobriety. Their relationship while writing the book, having a podcast, all the social media and marketing. Raising kids and and because they weren't busy enough that embarked on a vegan diet too!

Jeff Dwoskin is a podcast host and digital entrepreneur. His company is called Stampede Social, which is we built a unique tool for engagement on Instagram. He's a podcast host producing Classic Conversations. It's a nostalgic podcast, where he talks to TV and film stars. Jeff also interviews comedians that he's worked with over the years, but TV and film stars are his main focus like the ones that he grew up with, you know, like, i.e Isaac and Doc from The Love Boat on, you know, the Happy Days crew, you know, but not Henry Winkler. He's his white whale.

Learn how we met. We talk about Podfest and Linkedin too.

Jeremy Falk is an experiential facilitator that embodies 16 years of training in movement sciences, meditation, and positive psychology. He began his foundational yoga and meditation studies while living in an ashram in India and completed advanced training with world-renowned teachers Jason Crandell, Stephanie Snyder, and Janet Stone. His meditation channel is one of the most popular on Audible and he’s been recognized as an Ambassador for Lululemon, Fitbit, Yoga Journal, and as the Head of Yoga for Tempo Interactive Fitness. He loves inviting people into deeper and more authentic connections through international yoga retreats, wellness workshops, and Men's circles.