The Heroic Minds Podcast

First Episode Back!!

SFL = Skills for Life.

Every episode will be a 5-10 minute journey through articles, movies, client anecdotes, research & more, summarized with actionable takeaways.

I call it, enjoyable, self-administered, psychotherapy.

Eva Holland is an adventure enthusiast, athlete and freelance writer. She is the author of Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear. Eva spent a large portion of her life living in fear. It was the fear of losing her mother that transcended many parts of her life and created a constricting grip over her ability to experience life fully. One day in her early thirties Eva’s biggest fear came true. In response was an incredible journey that began as hiding inside and ordering in food day after day, then the socially popularized idea of facing your fears head on, and finally, learning about fear, how it works, the purpose it serves and our ability to change it.

Eva Holland faced her fears and that did not work so she took a different point of attack and that incredibly authentic, educating and empowering journey is packaged up into her book which we scrape the surface of in this episode.

How love is often the cause of fear, sky-diving, exposure therapy, EMDR eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing and its ability to turn down the fear response, a newly studied individual pill that can turn down the fear response. We touch on what life is like for someone without a fear response, and much more.

As always when we have an author on the podcast, The link to Eva’s book, Nerve is in the description of this episode.

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Right after graduating from his musical theatre and performance degree from Sheridan college, David became the only amputee to perform on Broadway.

For the screen, David has directed and choreographed several series for CBC as well as projects for CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS. David has collaborated with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Brightman and many others.

Currently, David Connolly, is the Associate Artistic Director at Drayton Entertainment, one of Canada’s most successful not-for-profit, professional theatre companies.

This incredibly exciting and successful career began with the amputation of both of his feet. We will get to that in the episode...

David has directed concerts and shows for large organizations across North America such as, The United Nations.

What began with Shriner’s hospital turning a broom closet into a nursery because his mom would not take “no” for an answer that they could not care for him, turned into a journey of never taking “no” for an answer. A journey of powerful story telling through the arts that continues to change people’s lives.

In this episode we talk about David going to auditions, which he nailed, and never telling anyone about his physical differences. We talk about the power of being present and the simple ‘two step’ approach in how to get there. We talk about how a leader’s job is to limit the fear and discomfort in their group. And of course, lots more in between.

https://www.davidwconnolly.com/

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The best approach to behavioural change in the inclusion space is often argued and often political. Having the conversation with Mark is a breath of fresh air. It is a conversation with nothing off the table, constructive, honest and most important, creates relatability.

Mark Fraser spent 15 years in pro hockey, 8 of those in the NHL. Those years came with being treated differently for the colour of his skin and his cultural differences. Today, Mark has a lead role in Maple Leaf’s Sports & Entertainment, Equity Diversity & Inclusion team.

In this episode we point out why the top down approach doesn’t work and why the bottom up approach does. We talk about the power of the minority and the majority working together toward improvement. We reference stories of significant change being made in the sporting world without any governing direction. We also dive into how people can begin creating this change in their own environments/communities without convoluted direction or regulations.

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Heroic Minds Apparel

For those that watched Eco-Challenge on Amazon Prime you will definitely be familiar with both Travis and his father Mark, the incredible duo exemplified what we know as the hero’s journey and a thirst for living fully.

Travis is a professional athlete completing over 120 ultra endurance events in 17 countries, he is a speaker, author and coach. He is the author of The Ultra Mindset: An Endurance Champion's 8 Core Principles for Success in Business, Sports, and Life. He set a record for the 2013 Leadman series epic endurance event consisting of a combination of five trail running and mountain biking events held in Leadville, Colorado over the course of two months each summer, in a combined record time, of 36:20 covering 282.3 miles 10,200 feet up in the Rocky Mountains.

I was watching the show, Eco-Challenge and heard the narrator Bear Grillz tell the audience of this Travis Macy guy…. Who decided not to participate with the goal of finishing in a top position, Instead he wanted to do the 500km (or 310 mile, 10 day race of travelling by foot, kayak, horse, swimmimg, mountain climbing and mountain biking with his father Mark a long standing endurance athlete himself who has early onset Alzheimer’s.

In this episode we get into the details of maintaining a love for living fully, by doing. By having a respect and appreciation for the journey that is life not by hoping for a submissive world that will cater to our needs.

I am going to quote my friend Ian Bigford who has been on the podcast before and will be back on soon, he sent me a quote from an Ancient Indian Parable… which I think aligns with the courage that both Travis and his Father exude in life:

A man wants to walk across the land, but the land is covered in thorns. He has two options, one is to pave a road - to tame all of nature into his compliance. The other is to make sandals.

In this episode we talk about your relationship with the difficult things in life… developing a love for living, meaning a love for the journey that has both darkness and light, we talk about how you think your way through challenge while your body is so depleted you cannot even feed yourself.

Of course, we conclude with a discussion about Mark Macy, Travis’s dad, who again if you need a hit of inspiration to keep going, check out the eco-challenge on Amazon Prime and see the heroism that we discuss in this episode.

The Travis Macy Show Podcast

The Ultra Mindset Book

http://www.travismacy.com/

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Three generations of the Israel family, Carl, Jamie and Brett decided to convert their long standing family farm to Organic, but it came at a high cost. After converting to Organic and taking on millions in debt, the market they were promised, vanished. The family didn’t put blame on anyone else. They dug their feet in. They decided to reinvent themselves. They changed the story of what they create and why they create it. They changed the story they were telling both internally and externally. This is a story of family, trust and willpower. 3Gen Organics

In this episode:

• We run through the family story
• How the 3rd generation decided to leave the traditional education system to spearhead the family business
• How getting off the farm is not really a priority
• How they philosophically changed who their customer is
• How they identity as Food Producers, not Farmers.
• The way they approach the physically demanding aspects of their job

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Dr. Galati is a traumatic brain injury survivor, and medical doctor. He has the goal of making aerobic training a part of brain injury recovery protocol. He is doing this through the Brain Changes Initiative. In this episode we discuss taking control & ownership over the brain injury recovery process with the 5-Pillars of a brain healthy lifestyle. A vital part of this conversation is envisioning the benefits of your interventions. Instead of using rationalized motivation to complete recovery objectives, picture the benefits as you plan & complete your recovery processes.

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Ben Switzer is a disruption architect, community accelerator, and technological storyteller. He is an entrepreneur in the health technology and virtual reality space with his present companies EXAR Studios & True Focus.

• The connection between imagination and behaviour.

• The cognitive process of reflecting on behaviour and how this can lead to catalytic change in your life.

• Determining what is driving the negative behaviours in your life.

• The process of tying the difficult tasks to the greater future vision of your life, of who you want to be and embodying it in immediate action.

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Lauren Johnson is a Mental Conditioning Coach for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. Her goal is to improve the resilience, performance and mental strength of all the athletes in the NY Yankees System. 

Lauren does not believe there is a set of tools for in sport and out of sport. You are the same human whether you are at home, on the street, on the mound or on the ice.

This episode functions as a guide and self-reflection that asks:

Who do you want to be?

AND

Do your present habits and patterns align with who you want to be?

Lauren on Twitter

Heroic Apparel

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Vincent Aiello spent nearly a quarter of a century as a US Navy fighter pilot. He deployed overseas on aircraft carriers numerous times and was selected to attend and instruct at the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN. Retired from the US Navy in 2017, Vincent is now the host of the Fighter Pilot Podcast.

In this episode we cover a lot of ground, from landing on an aircraft carrier at night, experiencing 9 G’s on your body, leadership in the Navy, heroism, the growth mindset of debriefing, maintaining focus while alone in the cockpit and A LOT more.

We conclude with a story of being fired at unexpectedly over Iraq and the most memorable flight of his career, ‘a hero coming home’ is what I would call it.

Fighter Pilot Podcast

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