Feisworld Podcast

In this episode, you will hear A Day in the Life of Matt Lindley, the director of innovation. Beyond growing a business, Matt is interested in growing and enabling the people around him - we talk about the overlying theme and the collective wisdom that help us move forward in every direction. We also catchup on Matt's own invention of a Breakfast Club, where he brings likeminded people, friends to sparkle ideas and have a great time. Of course, I couldn't possibly leave the question out, that is:

John Haggerty is a dear friend of mine since 2003.  I welcomed him to the feisworld podcast to share his experience as an on and off Broadway actor for 25 years. John has been casted in shows such as Les Mis, King and I, Miss Saigon, Batboy, Yoshimi, Living Room.

In this episode, John reveals the randomness, rejections and excitement of being an actor. The phase "everything has changed" is so profound for the human race, and is so saturated in John's life as an actor.

The day before our podcast interview, John  found out that he had been casted for a show. I quickly realized that it was the perfect opportunity to probe questions such as: how do you rehearse Broadway shows that go on for hours? To my surprise, John finds it much easier to memorize Shakespeare shows based on the rhythm, cues throughout the speech. For other shows, the answer is always "it depends on the show."

My personal favorite is when John shares his method for memorization - he uses a yellow pad to 1) write out everyone's lines, 2) highlight his own lines, 3) record in his own voice then listen on his iPod while running. All just to "trick" the words into his fingers, his brain, and further connect to his neural pathway.

"Traditional memorization methods at times still aren't enough." John says, "the demand for you as an actor to memorize your lines has sped up significantly today, possibly due to technological growth." John remembers the demand being very different when he was starting out.

John talks about what it's like to be on iconic broadway show such as Les Mis, King and I, as well as the routine of being an understudy, "put-in" rehearsal. The most important learning for John in this competitive acting community, however, is to recognize and remind ourselves that "Everyone is trying their best. This is your moment - do the best with what you got and embrace it."

Tune in, join me in this amazing journey with my heroes. 

In Part 2 of my conversation with Josh Green, he talks about one of his books called Spreadable Media, which analyzes logic that helps understand how content moves around the internet. Josh discusses some fascinating findings that "bond comes in a variety of forms and multitudes of reasons why people share".  Listen in and find out what Justin Bieber has to do with all this...

Furthemore, Josh speaks about being an author and how it has impacted his career. His answer will likely surprise you. 

For those of you who are considinerg pubilshing a book with a publisher, or self publishing, Josh offered his point of view on the process involved. 

Share your comments and subscribe to feisworld podcast via iTunes or non-iTunes RSS feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/feisworldpodcast

Thank you for listening! 

Caleb Brown is a user experience designer, a comic book artist and an incredible human being.  We met at an ad agency in Boston and I had the privilege to work with Caleb on a number of projects. Caleb lights up every room he walks in and inspires everyone around him.

You can check out Caleb’s heart-felt comics via his website at http://caleb-brown.com/, and other links and resources he mentioned below via “Selected Links from this Episode”.

In this in-depth conversation with Caleb, we talked about much beyond user experience, art, comics. Caleb leaned into an authentic exchange on the most essential dichotomy in life, how he integrates his belief in his personal and work life. As a result, his coworkers (such as myself) find it irresistible to rethink and reinvent our own lives for the better.

Caleb speaks about “Our obligation to tap into our world and understand what is going on. We are the only people who can be HERE, right NOW. We have to be self-aware, be present and pay attention. Put the armor away.” Caleb argued, “It doesn’t matter how you perform when you are on top, but how you react and respond when things go sideways.”

We can choose to be present, choose to lean back, choose to step in and be committed in this moment, choose to be here.

“As an artist, I encourage people to draw with me.”  Caleb discusses drawing as a “risky business”. “People are afraid how things are going to come out. Does it start here and end there?” Some of it (drawing) is performance – in a business context – people with the marker has the control of the room. But what’s more compelling to Caleb is when he invites others to join in by asking, often the most silent person in the room, “the stove is now ready for you to cook”. I have never seen anyone refusing to accept the whiteboard marker from Caleb.

Whether or not artist is in your title or belief, I hope you find your way to express yourself and engage others around you.