Meet Mediocrity

My conversation with Danielle North: I am incredibly excited to welcome back Danielle for a second visit to the podcast.  Danielle reached out to me a few weeks ago to share some exciting news with me.  She had been studying sound healing and was now certified to be a sound healer.  Honestly, I had not heard of sound healing.  I was certainly aware that certain sounds and music could have therapeutic qualities, but I had no direct experience with sound healing.

In this episode, Danielle and I start by reviewing the company she founded, PAUSE.  We talk about how PAUSE and the Pause Method can help people recover from and avoid burnout.  Given the stressors in today's society. PAUSE is incredibly timely.  After sharing her personal burnout story and reviewing how she created PAUSE, Danielle shares her further exploration from PAUSE into sound healing.  I must admit that I was skeptical that sounds and musical vibrations could provide physical healing.  Danielle shared her story and her journey into sound healing and described the impact it has had on her.  To take matters further, after we recorded our podcast, Danielle conducted a sound healing session on me.  In my intro and wrap-up to this podcast, I describe my personal experience with sound healing - and, teaser alert, it was really great.

Find out more about Danielle, her books, her retreats and her coaching on her website - https://www.pauseglobal.com/

My conversation with Jimmy Wightman: Jimmy was looking for ways to get a better night sleep, ways to reduce stress and ways to be more mindful when he found meditation. Actually, he found a teacher in the ancient tradition of Vedic meditation which involves the chanting of a mantra while meditating to help achieve an inner peace.  Some people have heard of Transcendental Meditation (TM) which is similar.  TM originated from Vedic so Jimmy's study was from the original Vedic teachings.

Jimmy soon found that practicing meditation helped significantly reduce his stress, helped him sleep better and to find inner peace.  Now Jimmy is a meditation instructor with online courses and books.  You can find out more about Jimmy, his meditation style and approach on his website - https://www.delvedeep.com/ and on his Instagram page - @that_meditation_guy

My conversation with Billy Omeltchenko: I've known Billy for over 20 years and I've always admired him greatly.  Billy is an accomplished athlete - a star multi-sport athlete in high school, a Division One basketball at Princeton in the 1970s and a short stint playing professional basketball.  To me, it isn't Billy's athletic skills that I admire, it's his commitment to our children through youth sports.

My children and literally thousands of other children have benefitted from Billy's selfless service as a coach, coordinator and commissioner of youth sports programs.  Billy is level-headed and thoughtful. His approach is to make sure that children of all skill levels, their coaches and their parents have enjoyable and fulfilling youth sports experiences.  It is not lost on Billy that it is the adults that often get in the way of those good experiences by being too intense and too vocal.  Billy's down to earth approach has helped put children and the adults in positions to be successful - success being defined as having fun, making friends and learning some useful life lessons along the way.

My conversation with Georgie Corke Nieman -  Georgie is the founder of Happi Head Co., providing life and leadership coaching and support for small business owners - predominantly women. Georgie’s special skill is helping people discover (or re-discover) their inner creativity. Georgie believes that everyone has a creative side.  Finding and appreciating our creativity supports our wellbeing, our wellbeing supports our ability to achieve our greatest potential, and it is that potential that allows us to create amazing projects, businesses and lives!

Georgie’s personal journey is similar to that of many of her clients. Getting caught up in an aspirational, overachieving, corporate work cycle prevented Georgie and many of her clients from enjoying their journey and chasing opportunities that align with their inner values and interests.  As Georgie says, “the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”  Georgie helps her clients realize that the journey is the fun part - and not to allow a narrow focus on goals spoil the fun part!

Follow Georgie:

My conversation with Laetitia Vitaud: I was so happy when Laetitia reached out to me in late 2021 on LinkedIn to share her thoughts about an article we both reacted to about personal time off.  Our conversation started with a laugh about how very differently Americans and Europeans view their holidays, their vacations.  After a little back and forth, we decided to have a live video chat, and that video chat led to this - our second podcast episode together.

Laetitia is a human resources expert with a deep perspective regarding the future of work.  She is a writer, an author, a consultant and a podcaster.  Having a discussion with Laetitia is very fulfilling for me because I have to stay on my toes and I always learn something!

On this, our second podcast episode together (Season 3, Episode 6 was our first one), Laetitia and I explore how different cultures view work and view personal time.  We then explore how COVID has altered these views across different cultures.  The bottom line is that workers are re-evaluating the role work plays in their lives and employers are re-evaluating how to attract and keep workers so their businesses can thrive in this new world.

Laetitia and I recorded this episode a few months ago - before the COVID Omicron variant had even surfaced.  In fact, the term "Great Resignation" was only just starting to be used then we recorded this.  However, the content of this episode is as, or even more relevant today than it was a few months ago.  As you listen, I suggest that you consider your work life, and what you can do to make your work life fit within your life's priorities in this new world.

Check out more about Laetitia on her website - https://laetitiavitaud.com/

My conversation with The Holly Maree: Holly is a human design specialist and a spiritual teacher.  She is also a manifestor. Many of us don’t understand what these things are, but they sound intriguing.

As a manifestor, Holly is an initiator, a first mover, an innovator and a motivator.  Until Holly studied “Human Design”, she didn’t understand why she was so incredibly energized by start-up and then demoralized by the ongoing, controlled, repetitive tasks that are required once start-up is complete. Holly experienced this when she took over a cafe that was in bankruptcy.  For Holly, the start-up, rebound and build up of the cafe was thrilling, the day-to-day running of the cafe once it was successfully out of bankruptcy was not thrilling for her at all.

In the context of “Human Design” manifestors make up 8-9% of the human population.  Once Holly began to understand who she was and why she was a manifestor, she was able to fully appreciate herself and her world.  Ultimately she started a consultancy with a podcast and training guides for manifestors - www.thehollymaree.com

My conversation with Kai Cox: In this, the second appearance on the podcast by Kai, we explore "spiritual healing" in a plain, open conversation.  Just prior to recording our conversation, Kai performed a "reading" for me.  I found it to be both helpful and enlightening.

In this episode, we discuss the reading, we discuss how Kai approaches being a medium, and I "translate" Kai's explanation into a plain spoken explanation that I can get my head around.

The conclusion?  The punchline?  Done well, having a reading done by a skilled medium can be incredibly helpful.  I found it to be therapeutic and insightful.

Check out more about Kai on her website https://www.awakeninnatehealing.com/

She can also be found on Instagram and Facebook

My conversation with Devan Bailey: Finding a career coach isn't hard.  Google "career coach" or search "career coach" on Facebook or Instagram. Literally THOUSANDS of options will hit your screen instantaneously.  Devan is different.  Devan comes at personal and career development from a very relatable starting point and he has developed an approach that is amplified by his energy and charisma.

Devan is a coach, entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He teaches ambitious leaders how to create a mission-driven life that allows them to feel fulfilled. Devan went from being an international businessman with burnout, enduring a nervous breakdown, to a happy, fulfilled person running his own business. Devan developed and teaches the principles he learned from his own experiences.

Devan is also the writer and creator of several high-impact books and courses such as How To Escape From Prison, Secrets of the Emotional Ninja, Powerful By Design, and Living Without Limits.

You can find more about Devan on his social media pages and his website - https://www.shapingreality.com/

My conversation with Yogi Bryan: Bryan Holub, better known as Yogi Bryan, is a hypnotist, yoga instructor, meme maker, podcast host, and meditation guide.  His Relax with Yogi Bryan Meditation podcast has over 800,000 downloads.  And, it all started from creating an Instagram page to make fun of yoga!

Speaking with Bryan you can see why he is a real life practical joker who became a yoga Instructor and meditation guide.  He is a down to earth person with a practical personality and a calming voice.  Bryan's approach to yoga and meditation is simple... by not taking it quite so seriously we can more easily see and enjoy the benefits they can both bring into our lives.

Bryan can be found at YogiBryan.com, on Spotify and on YouTube.