Project Pod

Today on the pod, New York based therapist and coach Megan Bruneau shares her thoughts and experiences on perfectionism and its role in anxiety and depression and also how open a therapist should be about their own mental health difficulties. We also talk about the online world and Instagram and how Megan seeks to share a different message that life is messy and that's ok...running counter to the many people and companies who are using this space to sell idealised and impossible things (find your perfect relationship - lose the weight for good!).  Megan wants us to become critical consumers of online content.  We discuss compassion based therapies such as Compassionate Mind Therapy and how these can help us in our relationship with ourselves and our emotions. Finally I also sneak in a few questions about how Megan developed her business.  We covered a lot of ground today and I hope you enjoy the interview.  

Links:

Megan Bruneau: https://meganbruneau.com/

Megan on Instagram: @meganjbruneau https://www.instagram.com/meganjbruneau/?hl=en

Project Pod: https://www.facebook.com/projectpodpodcast/

Instagram: @mariettasandilands

On the pod today, Marianne talks about her adventure in self-help to see whether it could change her life.  Every month for a year and a half, Marianne followed the guidance of a different self-help book and documented all the things she did along the way in her quest for self-improvement.  From life modelling, to chatting up stranger on the London underground, experimenting with rejection, running across hot coals and asking angels for advice - Marianne tried a host of things as part of her experiment, and tells us about the effect it had on her, her family and her relationship.  Thank you so much to Marianne for speaking with me; her book Help Me is available now:

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/marianne-power/help-me/9781509888559

In today's episode I had the total pleasure of speaking with Emma Gunavardhana - podcaster, writer, brand consultant and all round lovely person. We spoke about about all things podcast related - the reason why Emma started the podcast, how the podcast - as she put it - saved her life, after starting it almost 3 years ago at a tough time.  We talked about Emma's wish to share the stories of all the hard working, fun and  inspiring people she worked with - initially starting with brand consultants- whose stories and contribution were often not recognised to the extent that Emma felt they deserved.  Emma has had a huge range of people on her show, which is a tribute to her consistency and hard work.  I hope you enjoy the podcast and find it useful - lots of useful information in here for people wanting to know how to make a podcast or creative project successful - consistency being key!

The Emma Guns Show

26 Habits

Emma Guns Show - The Forum

Jeannie has run the Ministry of Parenting, a community interest company (CIC) over the last 10 years in Essex - providing parenting programmes and training programmes for professionals. Jeannie talks about why she started the business, and why she chose the CIC model rather than a charity. We also talk about what makes a group run well for parents - and discuss things like the importance of having a range of different views in a group. Jeannie talks about where the company is at, 10 years in,; with the Ministry of Parenting facing major funding cuts, and how Jeannie and team are responding to this for next year and beyond.

Recorded in December 2018

Links:

The Ministry of Parenting

Setting up a Community Interest Company

James' passion to help people discover the places in Madrid with the best food and to support the people and places serving it, led to him co-founding Devour food Tours, connecting people to the stories and people behind the food - providing a real insight rather than a magical vision of the places and people. James talks about his non-linear path to starting Devour and shares some of the vital lessons he's learnt along the way - from valuing your time properly; sitting down, doing the work and persevering in order to reach your goals and also not being a perfectionist with the content you create. James also shares his favourite Devour tour, some top wine tips in Madrid and why dodgy photos can also be a sign of a great bar!

Recorded in December 2018

Kiko Matthews, adventurer and campaigner is back on the pod! Since we recorded the first podcast together (Project Pod #2!) a year and a half ago a lot has happened! Following brain surgery for a rare life-threatening condition, Kiko went on to break the world record for fastest female solo crossing that she was training for last year (49 days at sea!). Kiko then took up running (in her usual style of taking up an activity she has never done before in order to do a mega challenge) and ran the Wadi Rum Ultramarathon in Jordan in October 2018. Kiko is now working on her next venture, Kik Plastic, to help people reduce plastic consumption. In 2019 she'll be cycling around the UK and beach cleaning with primary schools on her route. Kiko's approach to finding your purpose in life? Keep going, try things because you never know what's around the corner, who you'll meet or the skills you'll develop.

Recorded in November 2018

Kiko Matthews

Kik Plastic (Facebook)

Kik Plastic (Instagram)

Guinness World Records news about Kiko's record

Wadi Rum Ultramarathon

Today I spoke with Alex Prout and Casper Frederiksen who manage Absalon folkehus (literally 'peoplehouse') in Copenhagen - which describes itself as your living room away from home - a place where you can go and have a coffee, hang out with pals,have a drink at their bar, work by yourself, or take part in their 'fællesspisning' - community dinner -which is a dinner they organise every day that you can go to by yourself or with friends and family.

Absalon was started 3 years ago by Lennart Lajboschitz, the founder of Tiger Stores in Copenhagen who wanted to create a space to bring people together. There are a range of events and activities, from yoga classes, to table tennis tournaments, movie nights, dance offs…. The focus on Absalon is creating the conditions for positive social interaction - enjoying being together with other people- be they friends or strangers- I was intrigued by the concept and went to visit last summer and loved it and the way that they are creating a community environment at Absalon.

Apologies for some of the background electronic noise in the recording - I hope this doesn't detract from the content. I'm hugely grateful to Alex and Casper for their time in speaking with me today and discussing all they are doing at Absalon.

Recorded in October 2018

Absalon (Absalon's website in Danish)

About Absalon (from Visit Copenhagen in English)

Lennart Lajboschitz speaks about Absalon

Cepee shares her story of moving to Spain over a period of years via Texas and working as a digital nomad in online marketing. After several stints in Spain Cepee decided to come back to the country she loved and made a plan. One year of teaching English and no more; she would carve out a career for herself in a different field. Cepee takes us through her process of transitioning to work online in digital marketing and the creation of two online/offline communities- She Hit Refresh (for women over 30 changing their life through travel) and the Madrid Blogger Network (providing training and resources for bloggers and content creators). Both groups were borne out of needs and questions that Cepee had - and that have now grown hugely in terms of numbers and engagement to become helpful and inspiring resources for so many people. In fact She Hit Refresh has grown to almost 5000 people since its creation in November 2017! I hope you enjoy today's episode with the fabulous Cepee.

Recorded in Summer 2018

Links from today's episode:

1. Cepee's online communities:

She Hit Refresh

Madrid Blogger Network

2. Finding remote work online:

https://shehitrefresh.com/best-sites-to-find-remote-work/

3. Cepee's OG blog:

Wanderlicious - a plant based food and travel blog

4. People that Cepee has worked with:

Las Morenas de Espana

Kay Fabella

5. Podcast love

Rich Roll

Gary Vee Audio Experience

Tim Ferris

Shaheen talks today about moving to Spain from the U.S. where she was working as a journalist. Shaheen had become increasingly interested in the entrepreneurialism in the States and decided to do an MBA in Spain, and then worked as a freelance journalist and was involved in a number of business projects. She was a founding member of Spot-a-Home - the Spanish property rental website- an experience which she describes as 'a crash course in running a business'. From Spot-a-Home, Shaheen went on to found her own business, Vera Content - a multilingual content creation and translation agency which has grown hugely in the last 2 years since Shaheen created it.

Listen in for Shaheen's tips- she is a great example of someone who has gone out and created her grand plan! I hope you enjoy hearing her experience.

Recorded in Summer 2018

Links:

Vera Content

http://veracontent.com/

Spot A Home https://www.spotahome.com/