Productive Passions

At 8 years old, Rob Avis wrote a letter to his prime minister, begging him to stop the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest. Two decades later, Rob found himself on the other side of that same fight as the oil and gas engineer clearing Canada's boreal forest to lay pipelines. The contradiction broke something open in him.

So he quit. He walked away from a six-figure oil and gas career, converted his van to run on used deep-fryer oil, and drove across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico learning how to grow food from scratch. That leap led him to co-found Verge Permaculture, where he's since taught over 10,000 students how to design self-sufficient land and today he runs 5th World, using data and engineering to help people build food forests, resilient water systems, and homes that regenerate the land instead of draining it.

In this episode, we cover:

Whether you're a founder weighing a leap of your own or just want your backyard to actually feed you, this conversation will change how you see both.

🔗 Connect with Rob & 5th World

LinkedIn: Rob Avis LinkedIn

Instagram: Rob on Instagram

Website: https://5thworld.com/

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

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Meghan Wolfgram is the Founder and CEO of Swift Paws and the recipient of Lori Greiner's golden ticket on Shark Tank. In this episode of Productive Passions, she breaks down the real founder's playbook behind Swift Paws: the two-year gap with nothing to sell during her B2B-to-B2C pivot, the transparent Kickstarter update that saved customer trust, and the surprising decision to license her IP to a former knockoff competitor.

In this episode:

🔗 Connect with Meghan & Swift Paws

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanwolfgram/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swiftpaws_official/

Website: https://swiftpaws.com/

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

Enjoyed this episode?

If this episode resonated, follow Productive Passions so you never miss a founder story, leave a quick rating or review to help more listeners find the show, and drop a comment or send a DM with the takeaway that hit hardest. Set a reminder for the next episode of Productive Passions.

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Florida's citrus industry is now producing approximately 4% of its former capacity. The soil that once supported it has been farmed down to sand. On this episode of Productive Passions, host Christy Tagye talks with Jonathan Lundgren, founder of Ecdysis Foundation and Blue Dasher Farm, and a former USDA agroecologist who received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2011, about what regenerative agriculture really means, and why the conventional food system is failing both farmers and the land.

Jonathan explains biodiversity including how insect species keep ecosystems running, and what happened when his USDA research into pesticides and GMOs got too close to the companies profiting from the status quo. He and Christy dig into farmer health data linking corn and soybean production to elevated cancer, depression, and Parkinson's rates, the debt trap keeping row-crop farmers locked into chemical dependent systems, and why he believes we're reliving the Dust Bowl in real time, this time with agrochemicals added to the mix.

They close on what's actually working: the Thousand Farms Initiative, a free, donation-funded research project that has surveyed over 2,000 farms and is helping shape food policy from the ground up.

In this episode you’ll learn:

🔗 Connect with Jon 

Website: Ecdysis Foundation and Blue Dasher Farm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-lundgren-64bb59208/

Email: [email protected]

Watch the documentary: Groundswell

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

Enjoyed this episode?

Learn more about the Thousand Farms Initiative and find regenerative food near you at ekdysis.bio. And if this conversation resonated, subscribe to Productive Passions so you don't miss what's next.

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What's the difference between joy and pleasure, and why does it matter for business?

Pleasure is external and temporary, and it can flip into pain once it fades.

Joy is internal and momentary, something you can design for in a product, a workplace, or a life, without needing to chase it again and again.

In this episode of Productive Passions, host Christy Tagye sits down with Himanshu Bharadwaj, founder of Joyful Design and a NeuroUX innovator, to unpack why separation, not scarcity, is the real root of unhappiness in business and life.

They cover why customers buy feelings instead of features, why traditional surveys miss the unconscious mind that actually drives decisions, and why redefining wealth around relationships and experience (not just revenue) changes what a company chooses to build. Himanshu makes the case for designing "joy points" instead of only removing pain points, explains why culture change works best from the top down but can still spark from a single team, and shares why giving employees room to pursue outside passions builds a more resilient, creative workforce.

Whether you lead a team, build products, or are simply looking for a more sustainable way to find fulfillment at work, this conversation offers a practical, research-backed lens for building joy into daily life, not just chasing it on the weekends. #JoyfulDesign #ProductivePassions #WorkLifeBalance #UserExperience #Neuroscience #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #Mindfulness #DesignThinking #CustomerExperience

🎧 Listen now for a fresh way to think about wealth, work, and what actually makes people (and businesses) thrive.

🔗 Connect with Himanshu Bharadwaj

LinkedIn: Himanshu Bharadwaj

Website: Joyful Design

Instagram: himanshupics

Medium: https://himanshugb.medium.com/

Substack: https://substack.com/@himanshugb

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe to Productive Passions so you never miss a conversation with founders building something that matters. Leave a comment and let us know: does your team, company, or community have a real way to stay connected in person, or is it mostly happening through a feed? Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and if it resonated, a quick rating or review helps more people find these conversations.

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Trust First, Deal Second: The Real Rule of Doing Business in the Gulf | Episode 63

Most Western professionals walk into the Gulf reading the room the way they'd read a room at home, and miss almost everything that actually decides the outcome. In this episode, Taqua Malik, founder of Freedomvisory and Regional Vice-President for the UAE and GCC at EUCED, joins Christy Tagye to unpack why trust, not the contract, is what actually determines whether a deal happens in the GCC.

Taqua explains why silence in a negotiation almost never means disinterest, why urgency quietly costs you leverage, and what it actually looks like when a business relationship is working, access, invitations, and eventually a seat at the family table. The conversation also covers her own path bridging Arabic and Western legal worlds, what it means to hold a senior EU-affiliated institutional role as an Arab woman, and her forthcoming book, The Cultural Contract.

Today's Takeaways

🎧 Listen now and subscribe for more conversations with founders and experts building with purpose.

🔗 Connect with Taqua Malik

LinkedIn: Taqua Malik

Website: Freedomvisory

Podcast:The Souk Secrets

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe to Productive Passions so you never miss a conversation with founders building something that matters. Leave a comment and let us know: does your team, company, or community have a real way to stay connected in person, or is it mostly happening through a feed? Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and if it resonated, a quick rating or review helps more people find these conversations.

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We have more ways to reach people than ever, and somehow feel more disconnected than ever. In this episode of Productive Passions, host Christy Tagye sits down with Lara Varjabedian, co-founder of UBQT, the AI-powered platform built to put face-to-face connection first.

Lara and Christy dig into why loneliness keeps climbing even as digital connectivity climbs alongside it, what "social wellness" means as a category alongside physical and mental health, and how organizations, teams, alumni networks, and events are using real-world connection to rebuild the kind of belonging a like button was never going to provide.

This episode also includes an excerpt from a previous conversation Lara had with renowned Oxford psychologist Robin Dunbar, whose research on human relationships, including his well-known concept of "Dunbar's Number," explains exactly why it's become so easy to lose touch with people we never meant to lose touch with. If you hear an unfamiliar voice partway through, that's him.

In this episode:

Today's Takeaways:

🔗 Connect with Lara Varjabedian & UBQT:

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe to Productive Passions so you never miss a conversation with founders building something that matters. Leave a comment and let us know: does your team, company, or community have a real way to stay connected in person, or is it mostly happening through a feed? Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and if it resonated, a quick rating or review helps more people find these conversations.

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#SocialWellness #UBQT #RealLifeConnection #WorkplaceCulture #EmployeeRetention #CommunityBuilding #ProductivePassions #DunbarsNumber

You cut your hair and throw it away without a second thought.

But what if that hair could clean up an oil spill, restore degraded soil, filter stormwater runoff, or help revive a dying marine ecosystem?

It can. And it's already happening in 54 countries.

In this episode, Christy sits down with Lisa Gautier, co-founder of Matter of Trust, an ecological public charity that has been linking surplus with needs since 1998. What started with a hairstylist watching the Exxon Valdez oil spill on TV, while shampooing a client, has grown into a worldwide movement using human hair, pet fur, and wool to tackle some of our most urgent environmental challenges.

But this conversation is about far more than hair.

Lisa shares how she built a 54-country organization without patents, politics, or picking sides. She talks about finding volunteers who work for free because the mission aligns with their passion, why open-source innovation beats protecting intellectual property, and how she learned to lead the way nature does, by delegating to the right organisms and getting out of the way.

Whether you're an early-stage founder looking for your hook, a nonprofit leader figuring out how to scale, or someone who cares about the planet and wants to actually do something, this episode will change how you think about waste, leadership, and what's possible when you link surplus with needs.

"Our mission is linking surplus with needs. Our vision is humanity harmonizing with Earth." — Lisa Gautier

#Entrepreneurship #EnvironmentalSolutions #FounderMindset #Sustainability #NonprofitLeadership #OpenSourceInnovation #HairMatters #MatterOfTrust

Today's Takeaways

Find Lisa & Matter of Trust

Want to get involved?

Because passion becomes powerful when it produces impact.

🔗 Connect with Christy & Productive Passions

Website: productivepassions.com

You’re tired by 3 PM.

You’re running on caffeine, convenience food, and willpower.

And chances are, it’s quietly impacting your focus, mood, leadership, and long-term performance more than you realize.

In this episode, Christy sits down with executive educator, innovation expert, and author Adam Kingl to unpack the surprising connection between nutrition and professional performance and why he co-created Executive Eats, a cookbook specifically designed for busy professionals.

Adam explains why so many high achievers are unknowingly operating on an “energy roller coaster,” how simple nutrition shifts can improve focus and sustained energy, and why cooking itself may be one of the most overlooked mindfulness practices available.

You’ll also learn practical ways to eat healthier without spending hours in the kitchen, how to turn basic meals into flavorful staples you actually want to eat, and why a few simple “building block” recipes can completely change the way you meal prep.

Plus, Adam walks us through a simple mango cucumber salad that can be transformed into multiple meals throughout the week without getting bored.

#Leadership #ExecutivePerformance #Nutrition  

Website: https://adamkingl.com/

To Order Executive Eats: indie pubs use coupon code: exeats25 for a 25% discount

Website: https://www.productivepassions.com/

Happiness is the foundation.

Website: Wealthing VC Club

LinkedIn: Alicia Castillo Holley

Books: The Ten Unwealthy Habits, Falling in Love With Your Life

Website: https://www.productivepassions.com/

What if the biggest impact of the Middle East conflict isn’t happening overseas, but in your grocery bill, travel plans, investments, and cost of living?

Most coverage focuses on headlines. This conversation focuses on what it actually means for your decisions.

In this episode of Productive Passions, Dr. Ian Ralby, global maritime security expert and international lawyer, returns to break down the deeper dynamics shaping this moment. From oil markets and food supply to global trade routes and shifting power structures, he connects the dots between global events and everyday life.

This is not a political debate.

It’s a clear, grounded look at how global conflict, supply chains, energy markets, and economic systems intersect and why understanding those connections is critical for leaders, business owners, and anyone trying to navigate uncertainty.

At its core, this conversation is about clarity, context, and resilience and what it takes to make better decisions in a complex, interconnected world.

Understanding the deeper dynamics, not just the headlines, is critical.

Website: www.auxworldwide.com