Live Immediately with mike campbell

This episode had a huge impact on my life, and I know if you listen to it, do the work, it will change yours too and have a beautiful rippling affect.

Shawn Askinosie is the founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate, a small business based in Springfield, Missouri. Their chocolate is world-renowned, award winning and Forbes recently named them as “One of the 25 Best Small Companies In America”.

But this episode isn’t about chocolate, it’s about chocolate. (something that you’ll understand once you’ve listened).

You see, the way Shawn does business is the way it should be taught in business school. Shawn’s beautiful business model is all about direct trade with farmers of coco beans in the Philippines, Tanzania and Ecuador, about open book management, profit sharing, reverse scale, kinship and community.

Shawn and I dive into all of those topics and how his company sustainably feeds thousands of children who were once malnourished, without donations, simply giving money or charity.

We talk about the notion of enough, and to ask ourselves, “What is enough”. That individually and in business is it easy to get caught up in the striving for more, but enough is where we can do the work we love with people we love.

Towards the end of the podcast Shawn talks about and guides you through a visioning exercise. It is something that he does, and something that he has his chocolate university students, his farmers, and the school students he works with in other countries do. It is powerful and if you want to create personal change in your life, I recommend you do it as well.

Shawn has recently written a book, with his daughter Lawren, titled - Meaningful Work: A Quest To Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, And Feed Your Soul. I don’t recommend many products but I can’t speak more highly of a book than this one. I personally purchased the audio book version through Audible and I loved hearing Shawn narrate each word and tell his story. I have links below in the show notes to where you can purchase it. If you’re thinking of a little something for someone for Christmas, or even better for yourself, I highly recommend it. And make sure you reach out to Shawn and let him know what you thought of the book. I know he’d love to hear from you.

Shawn is a beautiful human who has crafted a way to do meaningful business and live life with love and passion.

I hope you enjoy x

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Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui is the beautiful writer behind the website - a life in progress.

I admire Krista, as her writing is so honest, on both sides of the coin. Krista rips down the curtains and bares the beauty in the rawness, in a way that is comforting and helpful to others.

We go quite deep in this episode as Krista opens up about attempting suicide three times before she was 18 and then deciding to choose to live life over death.

Krista shares stories about how joy and pain can coexist and how you don’t find joy by trying to eliminate pain, how she has realised the beautifulness in the messy and not striving for perfection, and learning to forgive herself by showing up each day with compassion and love.

Our conversation takes a wonderful turn when we start discussing parenting, how each child is unique in many different ways, and the importance of understanding ourselves when parenting with compassion and curiosity.

Krista said something that really resonated with me. “Be a student of your children.” That as parents we need to learn about and understand our children’s needs, personality, how they learn, so we can tailor our parenting style to suit them so they can flourish and grow.

Krista has battled her way through many moments, but she is a beautiful life in progress.

I hope you enjoy x

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“Could we change our lives to become an outdoor family?”

This was the question Hannah Alexander asked herself before embarking on a year experiment with her family—to spend at least three hours each day outside for a year.

This is such a cool experiment and one that has fundamentally changed Hannah, her kids, and her family as a whole.

Hannah and I discuss the benefits of nature in regards to child development, how children are designed to be outside, the beauty in unstructured time and how nature is the perfect place to play.

Hannah also shares stories of how she changed her habits over the year, potential barriers of getting outside, and how we can easily modify our indoor activities to do them outside.

During the year experiment, Hannah also had a month of no screens for entertainment, and a separate month where she packed away the majority of her children’s toys.

I absolutely loved this chat and I hope Hannah’s story inspires anyone who has children in their lives to do more activities with them outside.

I hope you enjoy x

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So often you can feel stuck in the overwhelm of life, feeling like you don’t have any option to change your situation.

In this episode I talk with a wonderful woman, Amanda Lee, about the power of intention and getting clear on what you want, that is coming from your heart. Listening to your heart and not your head is a recurring theme in this episode.

Amanda and I discuss how many of our decisions are based in fear, the need for fulfilment and purpose, cutting the struggle, creating space, and meaningful alignment.

Amanda also talks about five key steps to getting in the flow and she uses the acronym LifeRAFT.

LIFE - See life in a new picture. Recognise that everything, including you, is just energy, and that you have the ability to work with this in a very powerful way.

R- Reveal your real choices. Get clear on what you really want, coming from your heart, not your head.

A - Align yourself energetically with what it is you choose. This includes your thoughts, words and actions.

F - Free the flow. Remove the blocks within you that are holding you back and stopping you from being in the flow.

T - Trust. Deliberately and systematically build your own trust about living in the flow. Become your own laboratory and your own evidence.

There is so much in this episode today, and I’ll start by saying, some of the topics might be a little left of centre. But then on the other hand, who wants to live in the middle anyway.

This is also a long episode as both Amanda and I go off on some tangents, but there are some great thought provoking gems along the way that I know you will love.

I hope you enjoy x

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As sure as the sun will rise in the east, our days start when we wake up and get out of bed.

Today I am talking everything mornings with Craig Kulyk, who runs the website creategoodmornings.com.

Taking control of my mornings has been a big game changer for me, and the catalyst to so much change in my life. To be honest, without working on, testing, tweaking my mornings, I don’t think Live Immediately would be where it is today and you might not be listening to this podcast

Craig and I discuss how to create your own good morning and things to consider when starting out, the importance of doing something you want to do and changing things up or experimenting with your mornings, and focussing on small wins.

We also dive into how your mornings are all about building habits, the benefits of tracking your habits, and how your evenings are just as vital as your mornings and how the two are so strongly linked.

When you have little ones running around, the thought of owning your mornings can feel like a utopian dream. I completely get it. But once you put a few pieces in place, and understand not every morning will go to plan, it will feel like you’re living a new rejuvenated life.

I hope you enjoy x

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Today on the podcast I’m chatting with Hugh Culver—husband, father of two, business builder and adventure lover.

I have always admired Hugh as he moves from work, family and fun each day with the same excited and optimistic step.

In this episode Hugh and I discuss the different phases of parenthood and how time commitments change and evolve as your children get older, creating habits in your day that turn into discipline, and cultivating change in your life.

We also talk about the importance of one-on-one time with your kids and involving them in the decision process.

At the end of the episode Hugh asks everyone to, “look at one simple habit that you can do everyday that’s going to make you feel better.” I’d love for you to email me or leave a comment on Facebook or Instagram and let me know what your one simple habit was.

Hugh is a fun guy that works at filling his life with things that he enjoys. And to me, that is something worth working at.

I hope you enjoy x

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Changing your life is always difficult. Throw kids and a family into the mix and it is no wonder that many people stop before they start.

Today on the podcast I’m with Zoe Kim, who is a mother of four, the author of the new book Minimalism For Families: Practical Minimalist Living Strategies to Simplify Your Home and Life, and the voice behind TheMinimalistPlate.com.

Zoe and I chat about minimalism for families, the challenges when bringing new ideas into the household and how to get your kids and significant other on-board, letting go of sentimental items, the fear of missing out, and the importance of taking action.

Zoe also touches on an essential point—that in the beginning of any change, things will be challenging and uncomfortable, but we need to allow ourselves to be uncomfortable with our feelings to progress, grow, and allow the change to take place.

This is a great chat and one I know many people have been waiting for.

I hope you enjoy x

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“Be patient with yourself, it does take time.” - Brooke McAlary

I am excited to have friend, teacher, and all round beautiful human, Brooke McAlary, back on the podcast this week.

Brooke and her husband Ben are the wonderful souls behind the hugely influential Slow Home Podcast, and are two people that have helped, guided, and encouraged Inga and I in many of the big life decisions we have made over the past few years.

Brooke’s latest book SLOW has recently been released in Australia and New Zealand. It is part memoir, part practical companion, and provides a fascinating insight into the benefits of slowing down. It will inspire you to forget about the Joneses and create a life filled with the things that really matter to you.

Brooke will be doing an Author Talk in my hometown of Newcastle on Wednesday September 27 from 6.30pm at the Hunter Design School. It is set to be a fun evening and I hope to see you there if you’re in the neighbourhood.

In this episode Brooke and I really dive deep into this notion of slowing down, being more intentional about your life, and aligning your life with your values.

Brooke talks about how she turned her life around to a destination of simple, and how the process is messy and individual for everyone, but how being patient and having faith in the process is fundamental.

We also discuss being emotionally available for our children and the people we love, self-worth, and a powerful exercise Brooke did by writing out her eulogy in three sentences. It might sound morbid but it really has nothing to do about death, but everything to do with how you are living, or should be living, your life.

Brooke is a kind, insightful, passionate women on a mission to help people change the way they live life—slowly, of course.

I hope you enjoy x

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The big questions are often the most important but the hardest to ask, especially when you’re asking yourself.

My guest today, Emily Ehlers, started asking herself the big questions—What do I value? What is important to me? — When her mother in-law passed away from brain cancer.

My conversation with Emily takes many twists and turns as we discuss parenthood and allowing our children to grow, values and realigning our true north, and the numbness of drifting through life.

Emily is an eco warrior and we talk about moving towards zero waste, how we need to be gentle with our partners when bringing new ideas into the household, and Emily also shares some great tips when starting out towards zero waste.

We also talk about how we, too often, are chasing that imaginary finishing line—waiting for a magical day to arrive where we can be happy and fulfilled. But how that day we have been waiting for, is today. Emily shares a brilliant Less/More exercise where you write down what you want less of in your life and what you want more of, and I share the art of smiling, which is a simple but powerful exercise I do to help change or improve my mood.

I hope you enjoy x

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The home is so important when it comes to living a simpler life as it depicts many of our daily habits.

My guest today is the lovely Angela Foong, one third of the sister trio behind the beautiful High Tea With Mrs Woo label.

Angela and her architect husband Matt have built a small home on what used to be their neighbour’s garage plot. This deliberate home is more than a roof over their family’s head, it was a home built to create behavioural change.

Angela looked inward and asked the very important question, “What would you like to be doing every day?” Spending time with her family, exploring, camping, cooking, getting outside, creating. So she built a home to allow all that to happen.

Angela and I touch on so many topics in this chat; being thoughtful about money, family values and providing a better future for our kids, simple living and being thoughtfully frugal, and Angela’s wonderful empty pantry pot-luck dinner parties. I personally can’t wait for the next one.

Like many of us, Angela is on the journey to finding the simple life that works for her. The big takeaway here is that Angela has dedicated the time to think about what is important to her, what she values, and then has gone about designing a life, and a home, to complement it.

I hope you enjoy x

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