Feisworld Podcast

What would you do if you just made 15 million dollars? Our guest Erik Bergman did just that.

Two years ago, his first company went public. He made 15 million dollars, in one day, on his 28th birthday.

Erik Bergman is now 31, lives and works in Malta. Born and raised in Sweden, he comes from an ordinary family. His parents managed to send him to a fancy private school. Unfortunately, he always felt like “the poor kid” in a place where he didn’t belong. That experience that had a big impact on his self-esteem and gave him the drive to make money, a lot of it.

In this episode, Erik talks to us about:

• How he was able to make 15 million dollars and how it impacted his behaviors towards personal and professional life

• Why he started Great.com (and how much he paid for this crazy rare domain)

• His origin stories growing up in Sweden

• His philanthropic endeavors and where he has contributed his money and time

• How you can make the most of your money and effort working for nonprofit

• And an unrelated note - sex and relationship

After Erik made his fortune, he helped build a school in Ghana (in western Africa). After that trip, he started to plan his future and figure out the best way to contribute. So he started engaging in various projects and he started reading up on things.

Erik knows deep down and there’s something he does best which is making money. His new plan and possibly a project of a lifetime is to make money, and give everything away. This is the story of Great.com, a controversial charity about making money, and giving it away.

Beside money, making the world a better place, Erik also has researched and read quite a bit about sex and relationship. He shared his own stories and a list of incredible resources. People don’t talk about sex, not even in private relationships. Erik felt that he had a lot to learn.

It comes down to one simple thing: How can we learn to truly love and respect ourselves?

Please join Erik Bergman and me on the Feisworld Podcast today. And hope you’ll share this conversation with one more person.

He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Simply Music Institute of Learning & Education. He is also the creator of the Simply Music Piano Method. Born in 1957 in Melbourne, Australia, and began studying piano at the age of 7, he has since then spent most of his life actively involved in ‘playing-based’ music learning.

Neil has a few things to say about Behavior Mechanics. He shared his own struggles with addiction (food, exercise, business) and how the understanding of behavior mechanics changed his life and many of clients’ lives.

Show notes and favorite quotes (and more stories like Neil's): www.feisworld.com/blog/neil-moore

Show notes, tools and resources: www.feisworld.com/blog/gareth-martin

Gareth Martin is a podcaster and executive lifestyle coach. He was born and raised in beautiful South Africa and is now living and working in London, UK.

Moving to London was a decision he made in his late teens after visiting the city from South Africa. He completely fell in love with it and decided to stay.  After spending more than 10 years working as a banker, Gareth decided to build his own business.

Gareth is the type of person who is engaging, optimistic, and incredibly warm.

When he was 16, he experienced the worst physical set-back which has ever happened to him. On the July 7th, 1997, Gareth was hit head on by a car, driven by a drunk driver. This accident became the important life lesson for Gareth. In this episode, he talks about that “There are many motivational people out there who explain the importance of having a “Purpose” and a “Why” in life…. With the decisions he faces and which influences and defines his life, he always likes to ask himself …….”Why Not?”. Gareth also talks about why we should all take chances on ourselves and go after what moves us.

Today on Feisworld, I’m joined by palliative care doctor, speaker and educator Dr. Jessica Zitter. Dr. Zitter is a national advocate for transforming the way people die in America and is the author of the newly released book Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life. Her work is also featured in the Academy and Emmy-nominated short documentary “Extremis,” available on Netflix.

Tammy Gooler Loeb is a Career and Executive Coach. We’ve had a few seasoned coaches on the show so far, but they are all quite different in terms of their backgrounds, the profiles of their customers, and generally how they go about running their business.

Tammy isn’t just a coach, she’s also part of a thriving podcaster community with me called altPodcasters, started by Feisworld since October 2014. I’m thrilled to see her launching her show as of December 2018 called Work from the Inside Out.

This episode is for you if you are:

• Dissatisfied with your role or level

• Frustrated with your job search

• Challenged to think objectively or create a career plan

• Restricted by a manager or company that impede your growth

• Interested in changing career or industry

As a Career Coach, Tammy is able to speak to these pain points many people are experiencing today across different industries.

For show notes, favorite quotes, tools and resources, please visit www.feisworld.com/blog/tammy-gooler-loeb

In his own words: “For more than thirty years, I’ve been trying to turn on lights, inspire people and teach them how to level up.” His blog has been appearing daily for more than a decade. I’ve spent most of his professional life as a writer and published 19 bestselling books. More than 60,000 people have taken his online courses (including me).

Over the past 15 years, I had many ups and downs in my life and the one guru I kept turning to without ever meeting in person was Seth Godin. As soon as I’m blocked, having serious doubts, I will pick up a book by Seth Godin, and it almost didn’t matter which one I chose. 

Years after I discovered Seth and his work, I found myself joining his altMBA (session #8) in early 2017, which was quite early on and friended people I still speak with every single week. In many ways, Seth is a teacher who’ll always be incomparable and irreplaceable. Turns out, it’s the case with most people who follow his work.

In 2018, I decided to make Feisworld’s first docuseries called “Live Your Art”, the intention behind doing all of that work is to show other people - especially first-generation immigrants, workers, stdents - that they can do it too! Make their own film, tell their stories, look awkward on screen, and learn new things and feel like an idiot and proud of themselves at the same time. That's really what I'm going for.

Among 12 guests who appeared in our docuseries, Seth Godin was one of them.

Seth was very kind to accept our invitation. My production team and I drove from NYC to Hastings on Hudson to interview Seth. Since we chose to use a small segment of each of the recordings, my podcast producer German and I thought, how wonderful it’ll be to share the entire conversation with Seth on Feisworld Podcast, in episode 200.

Seth’s favorite one-liner: Go, make a ruckus!

My favorite of his: Embrace emotional labor, dance with fear.

Visit https://www.feisworld.com/blog/seth-godin for show notes, book recommendations, favorite quotes and more! 

Show notes, tools and resources: www.feisworld.com/blog/ben-smith

Ben Smith is a writer, producer and director.

His most recent project is the popular HBO TV Show called Barry, for which he worked as a writer and co-producer. Prior to that, he wrote for Trophy Wife on ABC, Benched on USA, Other Space on the Yahoo streaming platform, Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix with Drew Barrymore. Plus his own projects - Gentleman Lobsters and Meet Cute.

Born and raised in Lexington, MA - Ben’s mom is Chinese so we were able to chat about what it means to grow up multi-cultural. Since most writers in Hollywood still are mostly white male, Ben talks about diversity and how it’s important in the writer’s room.

Still in his 20s, you may be wondering how Ben got his first job and survive the competitive landscape of not only being a writer, but talented and lucky enough to work his way up. He’s incredibly humble and shared his own experience since college.

Chinwe Esimai is a Nigerian-born, Harvard-trained lawyer who is passionate about inspiring generations of immigrant women leaders. Along with her mother, three brothers, and sister, she relocated to the United States in 1995, right before college.

Chinwe graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and received her JD from Harvard Law School. Today, she works for Citi as the Managing Director - Chief Anti-Bribery & Corruption Officer.

With a husband, three children and a demanding executive job, Chinwe talks to me about the challenge and excitement of being a woman - or more specifically - an immigrant woman in the modern world. Together we are trying to redefine our roles as women in society. What are the roles we have today? How can we kinder to ourselves? How do we better support each other?

Chinwe created her website to inspire immigrant women on their leadership journeys. These women leaders have come to the United States from all around the world. Chinwe calls them “American Dream Queens,” who not here in the United States to blend in, but to shine through.

The glass ceiling for immigrant women trying to breakthrough leadership roles in America is real, but hearing these stories firsthand instill hope among us that there’s still a place for women to thrive and succeed. I hope to see more immigrant women in such positions and willing to share their journey.

If you know someone on this trajectory, with a big heart, please help refer them to the Feisworld Podcast! It’s wonderful to be a woman in the world today - let’s celebrate.

Jacob Lacourse is the founder of Adapt the World Labs., where a husband and wife team “see the benefit of using technology to help people with extra needs, and we aim to leverage technology to solve challenges and enhance the lives of the most vulnerable among us.”

As an element of their main mission, Jake and Beth Lacourse bring awareness and fund raising to a specific rare disease known as Usher syndrome.

“We are the parents of two beautiful children, one of which is two years old and has Usher Syndrome which is the leading cause of deaf-blindness. When we learned of our daughter’s disease, we immediately began thinking of ways to adapt the world to her needs to ultimately make it more accessible.”

Jake found me while I was on my documentary journey. Immediately after I finished the interview with Mick Ebeling, founder of Not Impossible, I received an email from Jake, Winner of the 2018 Not Impossible Limitless award.

He is the director of engineering at Onset Computer with a background in product development from concept to design and through manufacturing. However, Jake had no experience in making toys and tools for kids with special needs. On this podcast, he takes us to his beginning days of setting up Adapt the World and learning how to invent new things that never existed before.

Visit our websites for show notes and more resources related to this episode: www.feisworld.com/blog/jacob-lacourse

Melissa Smith is a Virtual Assistant Matchmaker, VA Trainer, Remote Work Consultant & Author featured in CareerBuilder, Spark Hire, The Muse, Thinkific, & Woman's World. I met her at Dorie Clark’s Writing Workshop in Boston.

After learning more about her business, I knew instantly that her knowledge will add tremendous value to our listeners on Feisworld Podcast.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Overcome your fear (Melissa feared flying her whole life until…)

• Deal with grief and the loss of loved ones

• Reinventing your career and business

• Build a business where you can work anytime, anywhere

For show notes, tools and resources, please visit: feisworld.com/blog/melissa-smith