The Matt Sodnicar Podcast

What would you do if your heart failed? Or when you checked into the hospital again, you were told you would never be going home?

My friend Jonathan Siegel faced that in 2017. After contracting a virus in his heart, he had a 3rd degree bundle block, and end stage heart failure.

In August of 2017, he received a heart transplant.

We talk about mortality, seeing the sunrise, hot wings and gratitude.

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I sit down with Benji McPhail, program director for 105.5 FM, The Colorado Sound. You need to listen to this station, period. We go through his musical journey - starting in 5th grade, getting weeded out of journalism in college, to being a milkman in 2008, to curating an amazing music collection. How do you grow a station with zero marketing dollars? Get people in a good mood, dive deeper into the artists - give listeners what they want, and a bit of what they need.

I also get a longtime question answered: Why KBCO loved the steaming dumpster fire of a song called "Welcome to the Boomtown" by David and David.

Please listen and add the station to your friend's car!

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I sit down with Gail and Bruce Montgomery to talk about the impact the improv mindset can have on an organization. We cover the neuroscience and brain effects and disruption of improvisation, NASA, GoreTex,the Ted Talk "Your Brain on Improv" by Dr. Limb, and the work Meridith Grundei. Gail and Bruce will also be having a book signing on Saturday February 22nd in Evergreen, Colorado. For more info, visit bit.ly/ImprovBook.

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I met Anna, founder of ShipSunshine and Drop Ship Like It's Hot at the 2019 Denver Startup Week, where she and Margaret Davidson from BokkBaby talked about building philanthropy into their businesses. Anna takes us through how her personal practice of sending gifts to friends expanded into a business - making being thoughtful actionable. We talk about the startup's mission the first year - to survive, then the isolation of being a founder, and her productivity practices, the power hour, and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. We may actually record our Think and Drink session!

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In my second conversation with Denver actor and improviser, Sheevani Desai, we explore and expand on her very open and candid blog post entitled "The Marriage Scoreboard". We cover the challenge of staying home with kids, work-life-marriage-kid-passion balance, being faux-woke, and how to make the world smaller.

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8 years ago, when dear friend Nate Elsen introduced me to Josh Sprague, I had no way of knowing the impact he'd have on my journey.

I know Josh would genuinely and humbly deflect being called an inspiration - but defining the word as 'the act of influencing opinons' definitely applies here.

Many examples exist for me as an entrepreneur, but they mostly are two dimensional - in books, magazines, the interwebs.

When Orange Mud was in Colorado, and I saw first hand the growth, challenges, work and perseverance Josh, his family and his team put in. That provided inspiration, and continually influenced my opinion of myself and the Warmfront as a company, believing that I could do this too.

Not only to grow and succeed, but to do it the right way - learning and doing with enthusiasm.

When Josh and I booked this podcast, it was on the trail. I was riding, he was hiking with his kids.

I've borrowed so many ideas from Josh and Orange Mud, but the one that I never forget is the WHY and HOW to run a company.

No matter how busy he is with training or working, he always took my call, or returned an email within minutes. He taught me how to do product photography, and so many other skills that helped The Warmfront take a step forward.

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I sit down again with Trey Cole to go into PTSD - symptoms, coping, therapy, recovery. We talk about him experiencing the Fort Hood shooting, then being deployed to combat three weeks later. We explore the concept of a moral injury, the label of 'broken', exposure / EMDR, and the Greek origin of the word therapist, and the how vs. why philosophy put forth by Hans-Georg Gadamer.

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In this episode, Part 1 of 2, I chat with actor, improviser, and writer Sheevani Desai. We cover making the world smaller, being faux-woke, staying home with kids, growing up as a minority, and touch briefly on what evolved into Episode 2, the marriage scoreboard.

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I talk with Eric Hill, founder of Rugged Van Rentals about his career path from UPS driver, to Denver police officer, to stay at home dad, to starting Escape Works, and now on to Rugged Van Rentals. We cover Sprinters vs. Chevy vans, choir practice, coping with stress and trauma.

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In this episode, I have a very inspirational talk with Sue Irwin, breast cancer survivor. She is one of my customers, and her story of fighting and surviving a very aggressive form of breast cancer is compelling. Sue talks about the power of decision in shaving her head during chemo, the support of friends and family, appearing strong for her family. She's amazing - enjoy.

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