The Adventure Cure

“There is something about being content…we talked about us being neighbors,  I have outgrown my house but I’m not moving. I appreciate having coffee on the front porch on Saturdays when its just my wife and I. That… does it for me.”

Hello my faithful listeners, welcome to Episode #21! Thanks for sticking with me! I have so much good stuff in the pipeline! I am incredibly thankful that YOU are carving out a chunk of your time to spend with me today. Now, I need to warn you this episode is really intense and also one you will not be able to stop listening to. So, be prepared. Today we dive into my friend Michael Hackett’s journey with cancer. If you live in Baton Rouge, you have seen Michael’s smiling handsome face on billboards all over town in the past few years with the tagline, “We don’t treat Cancer, We treat Michael.” Michael is incredible vulnerable about his cancer journey, about what he wished he had done before hand, about the process, and about what he takes away from this difficult journey. For my listeners who have cancer or who have fought it, or have someone close to them who has,  my heart is with you. Michael’s candor will draw you into his incredible story and I promise you’ll walk away inspired, challenged, and likely need a few tissues as we dive deep into some of life's biggest questions and challenges.

This conversation felt something similar to my talk with David Magee, episode number 1. I think anyone listening could hear the sincerity, the vulnerability, and the honesty of Michael, which makes it a story we can all connect to. No one is putting on a show here, this is just the raw truth. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, and that you now know that Michael is so much more than just the cancer guy. And, perhaps the biggest takeaway for me from this is the importance of having a great circle around you, to walk with you, through the good and the bad. The quote Michael said really rescinded with me and will be how we wrap this one up, “Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.”

Timeline:

2:37- 4:30  Intro/Background

5:00 “When did you first know there was a problem?”

6:00: Start Cancer Story

8:37 Bloody stool cannot be ignored any more

11:00 Long walk the night before surgery, conversation about what goes wrong…

12:00“The night before my surgery…she’s such a strong beautiful person…”

15:30 “I don't think I did this to myself… I’m not Googling anything, I'm just following my instructions… Physically I felt like a 1/10, but mentally spiritually emotionally I felt like  a 10/10”

17:00 “And that’s the one thing I am proud of that I still do today.”

19:15 “Can you put us in the chair for round 1 of Chemo?”

27:00 Stopped Chemo due to C-Diff

29:00 “What i went through was nothing, it was 7 months of my life, when you see a child, knowing what you are going through, knowing the pain and suffering you are going through…”

33:37 Getting good progress Reports from Docs. “All I gotta do is get to the finish line?”

35:00 “You ring the bell and people come to celebrate…”

39:00 “Tell me a few ways this experience has changed you?” “I never realized how friendships and family… its just unbelievable, I have so many people literally in my phone I can call up and have a meaningful conversation with, I’m talking hundreds of people. A lot of people don’t have that.”

41:00 “How has your relationship with fear changed?”

42:00 “There is something about being content…we talked about us being neighbors,  I have outgrown my house but I’m not moving. I appreciate having coffee on the front porch on Saturdays when it's just my wife and I. That… does it for me. More than I ever would have imagined.”

44:15 “Ego is really dangero

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

It seems as if the speed at which we live our lives presently, especially in the western world is one at which we cannot sustain. It appears that we are in a mental health crisis, especially in America. With depression, suicide, violent crime, and even gosh mass shootings on the rise, there has perhaps never been a more relevant time to discuss ways that we can reclaim the mental and perhaps spiritual state of mind with which we can soberly and peacefully live amongst each other. This is where meditation comes in. I have dabbled in meditation here and there over the years, and always wished I dabbled a bit more. That sense of serenity and peace one can experience after a good meditation or even a Yoga session is hard to describe and replicate or even describe, as anything but beautiful. And so I hunted down the biggest meditation expert I could muster, Zen Master Henry Shukman to tell us a bit more. Henry is currently a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and has trained in various other meditation schools and practices. After a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the age of 19, followed by a difficult few years, he embarked on a long journey of healing and deeper awakening, guided by Roshis John Gaynor, Joan Rieck, Ruben Habito, and Yamada Roshi, international abbot of Sanbo Zen, who ultimately appointed him a teacher in 2010. Since then he has been leading a growing number of practitioners on the path of awakening, in Europe and the US. Henry has taught meditation at Google, Harvard Business School, UBS, Esalen Institute, Colorado College, United World College and many other venues. He has also been authorized to teach Mindfulness by Shinzen Young, and is a certified dreamwork therapist. His teaching base is Mountain Cloud Zen Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is the Guiding Teacher.

What I hope you will take away from this conversation is a deeper interest in meditation and a desire to dive into the peace that only it can offer.

Henry’s Website:
https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/henry-shukman/

His Latest Book:
https://a.co/d/8yakzEv

Henry on Social:
www.instagram.com/Henryshukman

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

Todays show might just make you rethink the way you live your daily life. Today we will hear from my friend Josh Koerpel, who, if you listen to him, can teach you how to, as he calls it, live dangerously. Josh is a digital nomad, meaning he can work from and live anywhere while also making a good living and experiencing the adventure that travel allows. Today he will share with us what he has learned from nearly twenty years as a digital nomad, and practical tips to help you get there, or to get a step closer. Tired of that 9-5? Tired of the cubicle grind? Josh paves a new path for you that is more tangible than you might thing. Josh has one helluva resume too: He has I’ve kept people alive in the wilds of Alaska as a wilderness guide. developed optical systems for low earth orbit satellites now used by NASA and the US Air Force, and even designed mechanical engineering solutions for clients like Disney, Cirque du Soleil and AC/DC. He lived on a sailboat for years, traveled the globe, and yet also is humble enough and tecchy enough to share his wisdom and give all his secrets away. If you are ready for a completely new option for living your life, keep listening.

A specific reason why I loved this conversation is my obsession with the idea of the 4 hour work week. Six years ago I read Tim Ferriss's now famous book of that title and sough out to make it happen for myself. I am now just about there with my landscaping company. Some weeks its 12 hrs, some weeks 4, but I'm getting close. My team is absolutely amazing, plus we have great systems and technology in place that helps automate so much of what we do. It was not has hard as you might think. With my newfound spare time, I decided to create this podcast you are listening to now, and to write the first draft of a memoir about my Mississippi River kayaking trip which took place in the summer of 2011. I am convinced there are practical ways many of us can escape the typical grind of working working working til we are 70, then retiring and then dying 10 years later. People like Josh have both encouraged and inspired me to pursue this and grow this dream and spread it to others. In my opinion, this dream is most accessible to business owners with very simple businesses and secondly to remote workers. Even if its not 4 hours, but 20 or 30, the freedom to live where you want and work where you want is now achievable for large swaths of the population.  So long as you are techhy, disciplined, and in tune with your own strengths and weaknesses. Ok ok, go listen to Josh!

Josh's Website

Josh on Social

References:

Ryanlee.com

Haro for  pitching, best in the morning,

4 Hour Work Week Book 

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

Tell me this, do you ever get caught in a cycle where you start telling yourself, “you know, I really deserve more credit than I am getting, I should be the one getting that promotion, I should be the one getting the credit? I know I certainly have plenty of times. There is a tension that I think we need to live in where we have aspirations and goals and dreams, but also at the same time, where we can find contentment where we are, and can somehow exit the endless hamster wheel of chasing an idea of success. Today’s guest is an expert on this tension, and has some excellent advice for us. Today we will be hearing from a new friend of mine, Author Tim Schurer. For 10 years, time worked alongside Donald Miller as his COO, helping him launch and build the incredibly successful company, Storybrand, and now, he has taken the lessons he has learned through working under numerous incredible leaders, including of course Don but also Tim Cook at Apple and the founder of Toms, and written a book to teach us all a bit more about what he calls the secret society of success. 

Links

Book: http://www.secretsocietybook.com

Tim on Social: https://www.instagram.com/timschurrer

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

“You can choose to sit at home and allow life to pass you by and feel sad and depressed that you’re not a part of it, or you can choose to get up and become a part of it.” - Traci

“If I was to die tomorrow, I would die knowing I made a difference in this world, and so I would die with no regrets” - Traci

“When you are sitting at home and you have your routine and your life, and something unexpected comes up, its so easy to give up, and when you are out on the river, and the only person you have to depend upon is yourself, you figure it out, you learn that you are a lot stronger physically and mentally than you ever thought was possible.  Now that I know that, it's easier to tap into that strength.”  - Traci

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode #17 of the adventure cure podcast! Do you ever meet those people who have everything working against them and yet they just keep showing up and kicking ass! Well that’s our guest today, Traci Lynn Martin. Traci is a fascinating and inspiring woman who, despite having rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma, just recently broke a Guinness world record as the fastest female solo paddler down the Mississippi River. Her mission in life these days is to help empower and encourage people with chronic pain to keep living their lives and to not give up on themselves. When she’s not breaking world records,  Traci has been saving lives on the front lines of Covid-19, as a travel nurse. She is in her mid fifties, but it seems like the real adventure phase of her life is only just getting started.  Here’s one of my favorite quotes from our conversation:  “Once you have learned to tap into that strength, you never go back to doubting yourself again.” Ya'll are going to absolutely love this episode, and especially the last ten minutes, are pure Gold! Ok, no more waiting, let's go meet the legend herself!

Website: www.justaroundthepointe.com
Social: https://www.facebook.com/tracilynn.martin

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

"Depression is just a check engine light."

"This is not the end of your story, this is literally the invitation to ultimately bring you back to yourself, to awaken... it's loving even though it's brutal."


Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the adventure cure. For today, episode #16,  we will continue the conversation with my dear friend Ruthie Lindsey, as she teaches us various tools that you can use to fully and better love yourself. For many of us, we can be our worst critics. I know I have certainly often been to myself, which has lead me down paths of self loathing, jealousy, and more than anything, shame. “We shame the shit out of ourselves,” Ruthie will tell us in a few minutes, but we are so human. Ruthie’s ability to love herself fully and completely has translated into an unending ability to selflessly love others that is truly intoxicating. It's something we all can learn from, but it starts with how we talk to ourselves. 

A quick reminder on who Ruthie is and why she's worth listening to. Ruthie Lindsey is an award winning published author, an incredibly sought after speaker, and has amassed a huge social media following because of her ability to speak the unspoken and walk with people through pain and healing. Ruthie also hosted an excellent podcast called Unspoken for several seasons with a former guest on his podcast, Miles Adcox, owner of Onsite. In case you didn’t listen to last weeks episode I don’t know much about Ruthies story, much of what she teaches stems from the painful recovery of a near death experience she had at age 17. She was in a terrible car accident that nearly killed her, breaking broke her neck, rupturing her spleen and collapsing her lungs. Miraculously she survived with an emergency spinal fusion, but a few years later due to this injury, incredibly debilitating pain crept into her body and wrecked her life again. This time it lasted years, training her to her bed in a daze of painkillers, depression, and self loathing. She eventually was able to wean herself off the meds, get out of bed, and start a new life with an entirely new identity. This conversation is about a few of the tools she used then and continues to use to find healing, truth, and to step into the fullest, most joyful. and most loving version of herself. Also, if you enjoyed episode #1 with David Magee, Ruthie is Davids little sister. After searching for his family for 30 years, it was Ruthie he found first, which created an incredibly rich, emotional and immediate connection.

A few details on what to expect, Ruthie will be guiding us through various wars to embrace who we are and in turn to be able to fully love others. We will learn about things like Reparenting, being in touch with your body, and using words and writing things down to help us understand ourselves better.

website: http://www.ruthielindsey.com/
her book: http://www.ruthielindsey.com/book

Other's Ruthie References:

Tara Brach: (R.A.I.N.)  https://www.tarabrach.com/
Father Richard Rohr: https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/richard-rohr/

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

Welcome to Episode #15! This one is short, but it is pretty loaded. In this episode we will be talking with my dear friend Ruthie Lindsey. Ruthie and I grew up in the same small town of St. Francisville, and have been friends for quite a while. Ruthie, how to describe her, well, to take it right off of her instagram bio, she is, among other things, an author, a speaker, and a midwife of souls. Her passion is helping people feel endeared to their own life, body, and soul. Before we dive into this conversation, I need to give you some background on her. At age 17, Ruthie was in a terrible car wreck, hit by an ambulance going 65 mph, leaving her with a broken neck, three broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and a collapsed lung. Her chances for survival and certainly for walking again were in the single digits. Miraculously, the doctors fused her spinal cord and saved her life, however a few years after the accident, she was riddled with debilitating chronic pain from her injury which she struggled with for another seven or so years. Eventually, she found the strength to wean herself off the narcotics and found a new way to live. She wrote an incredible book about this journey called, “There I am” which is available anywhere you buy books. That story is a little bit of background for this episode as well as next weeks which both feature Ruthie talking about various tools she has used to help with her healing journey, especially from a mental health perspective. In this particular episode, we will be diving into plant medicine as well as EMDR as tools to help us understand ourselves better. In the past several years, the use of psychedelics especially has come into the mainstream medical conversation, including Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, and NYU. As far as the psychedelics, I think I should give a bit of a disclaimer, I am not personally endorsing them, nor am I a user of them, but science is beginning to show that they can be very effective tools to fight things like depression, PTSD, and anxiety. 

Photo credit: Sixtysecondbrandstories

HER BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198210791X?tag=simonsayscom

WEBSITE: http://www.ruthielindsey.com

SOCIAL: www.instagram.com/ruthielindsey

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

Welcome episode # 14! Today We are continuing on a theme we have touched on quite a bit this season which is mental health, and specifically today we will focus on depression. According to the scientists, at least 300 million people worldwide struggle with depression, and its only getting worse. And here is another interesting stat for you, scientists also have estimated that roughly 53% of the world is unhappy. These numbers are not good. Now, I am no depression expert, but today’s episode guest is. Our guest today is award winning author author and runner Nita Sweeney who is going to take us through her amazing story of going from contemplating suicide in the depths of depression to picking up running which totally changes her life. Before she started running she was overweight, chronically depressed, struggling with bipolar disorder, and barely able to function in life at all. Her journey of running with her dog is an amazing journey that completely transforms her life and mental health. This story reminds us all that its never too late to start something, to make changes in our life, and that often, it just starts with small changes, that we build on over time. I think you’ll really enjoy listening to Nita, and this is just a teaser for the award-winning book she wrote that shares the same title as this episode: “Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink.

Nitas Website: https://nitasweeney.com/

Buy her book:  https://nitasweeney.com/about-the-book/

Pre-Order her new book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Every-More-Meditation/dp/1642509892/

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

This episode's guest is Mental Health Guide Miles Adcox. He is a speaker, thought leader, advocate, advisor, and entrepreneur in the emotional wellness space. Some of you may have heard of the famous Onsite treatment center near Nashville. Well, this is Miles’s brainchild. He is the Proprietor & Chairman of Onsite, which is an internationally known emotional wellness lifestyle brand that delivers life-changing personal growth workshops, digital mental health master classes, emotionally smart leadership retreats, and residential emotional wellness and trauma treatment. In this episode we will dive into several different aspects of mental health, and Miles will guide us and give us some great ways to be more in tune with who we are and how to walk well with others. Also, I end up spilling a few of my beans and sharing a little bit of my story with Miles, which was simply unavoidable because his demeanor is so inviting and disarming. Settle in for some great conversation and practical ways to live life with more meaning.

Website: www.milesadcox.com
Onsite: https://onsiteworkshops.com
The Oaks: https://www.oakscenter.com
Miles on Social: https://www.instagram.com/milesadcox/

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com

Welcome to episode #12 of the Adventure Cure Podcast. What would you do if someone told you that you had a  terminal illness and likely would not survive more than a year or two? Today, we are diving headlong into a conversation with one of my friends who had just been given a death sentence. My dear friend Liz Dabney was diagnosed with stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer just over a year ago. Liz is thirty seven, recently married, and in the prime of her life. This is a story with two main parts in this one episode.  Part 1 is about Liz’s struggle with alcoholism and her journey to becoming sober which sets her up for dealing with the heartbreaking news of her cancer,  and part 2 is her dealing with the news of learning that she has terminal cancer. This is an episode where we dive into expectations we have for our lives, with faith, with addiction, shame, and living a life free of fear. 

SARK: 

https://planetsark.com

Book: A creative companion, how to free your creative spirit

12 steps of AA

Step 1: Acceptance

The 2nd Step: Hope

The 3rd Step: Faith

Step 4: Courage

Step 5: Honesty

The 6th Step: Patience

Step 7: Humility

Step 8: Willingness

The 9th Step: Brotherly Love

Step 10: Integrity

Step 11: Self-discipline

The 12th Step: Service

Liz on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/eprainey?utm_medium=copy_link

I have a few spots left in my executive coaching business, Treppendahl Consulting. 

www.robtreppendahl.com