The Meaning Movement: Rediscover your Passion, Avoid Burnout, and Do Work You Love.

My guest today is Alex Sanfilippo. He owns a company dedicated to helping podcasters. I love and use many of the products that he is creating.

I met Alex some time ago when I was a guest on his podcast, and since then, I've continued to watch him create more and more resources to serve this target demographic. And it has been so much fun.

It was great to have him on the show. What I loved about this conversation is we got to get into the mindset of an entrepreneur and how he developed that mindset even before he was an entrepreneur. We talked about the difference between an intrapreneur and an entrepreneur. You could think of it as having an entrepreneur mindset and taking that mindset to your work— even if you're working for someone else.

It was just a fantastic conversation. You'll just hear Alex's passion come through. He's just an incredible guy doing some incredible things. I think you're going to really enjoy this one.

Show Notes: https://themeaningmovement.com/alexsanfilippo

My guest today, Amar Patel, is a bit younger of a demographic than many of my guests, but that's on purpose. Amar's early in his career, and as he'll tell you in this interview, he's in his twenties and still just trying to figure out exactly where he's going, what exactly he's doing. He has made the decision at this moment to pursue technology.

He does product management. He's building great things that I believe are really making humanity a better place.

I love how he thinks about the impact of what he does. I love how he thinks about his mission at this stage in his life and approaches. It is really in an iterative process that he's figuring it out as he goes. And I think that's such an important framework for all of us to use as we think about our careers and our lives and where we are going.

You'll find Amar's energy is just contagious. He is just so much fun to talk to you. So let's go ahead and jump right on in.

Show Notes: https://themeaningmovement.com/amarpatel

Arika Pierce is a Law Educated Corporate VP turned Author, Leadership Coach, Entrepreneur, and Keynote speaker. She uses her knowledge, experience and skills to help organizations and individuals make and become better leaders.

Arika's journey is inspiring— coming from a corporate top level management career and leaping into Entrepreneurship.

In this episode, we'll hear her story and how Arika found her way into both Writing and Coaching. You'll also hear how mindset and mantras become a key to her pursuit of her passion and calling.

-Arika's transition from VP to coach entrepreneur

-The role of Arika's Book in her career shift

-Arika's Experience during her career shift

-How Arika started coaching

-How and when she decided to become a full-time entrepreneur

-Arika's thoughts on being ready and the right time to shift careers

-Fear and how it affects us

-How Arika got into writing

-Arica's Mantra and her new book

-How to improve your mindset game

-How to Identify what is holding you back

-Arika's advice on moving forward with your goals

-The power of sharing and talking to people

Omar Zenhom is a teacher at heart. I never really understood that until we had this interview. Omar has a daily business podcast. It's one of the top business podcasts. It's called the $100 MBA.

It 's great. I've listened to it several times. I was always just so amazed at just the lift of having a daily podcast and doing it for years and years. He's been podcasting longer than I have.

I've been podcasting for seven or eight years, and I just can't imagine podcasting every single day. But once we dug into some of Omar's story, we got into his background as a teacher, the work of preparing lessons every day for teaching, and how that trained him. It got him into the space where he could, without as much of a heavy lift, make podcasts every day. His experience put all of his work into context for me.

I had a great conversation with Omar. We talked about everything from his childhood, growing up as a child of immigrants to the many entrepreneur pursuits that he has had along the way. It's just a really fun conversation. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Let's get into it.

-How Omar ended up becoming a teacher

-The reason why Omar left his successful career

-How Omar got started in entrepreneurship

-How accepting that things in life are going to be hard sometimes

-How your perspective can influence your career path.

-Building resilience through hard work and hardships

-Omar's approach to being an entrepreneur

-Omar's sense of fulfillment in his chosen pursuits

-Burning out, fulfillment, and the importance of rest and breaks

-How going through hardships is beneficial for improvement

-Omar's advice to people who are currently looking for their niche

-How Failure is part of the process

-Understanding where you add value

-Synergizing interests and expertise

-Gaining momentum through success

-Omar's advice for people stepping into entrepreneurship

-How Omar took the leap to be a full-time entrepreneur

-The value of reading

-How your environment affects you a& Omar's chose to move to New York

-Omar's early experience as a full-time entrepreneur

-Omar's realizations when he took up MBA

-How the $100 MBA started

-How Omar's multiple enterprises are interconnected (podcast, software, online courses, webinars, keynote speaking )

-How Omar started WebinarNinja

-Omar's thoughts about software

-Omar's ideas that are contrary to popular belief

https://themeaningmovement.com/omarzenhom

This is the fifth installment of a mini-series we are calling Finding the Meaning Movement. This mini series will show in your feed with the letters FTMM in brackets.

In this series, Dan welcomes Raj Lulla of Fruitful Design & Strategy as a cohost for some "Build in Public" style conversations about The Meaning Movement, the current state of Dan's work with the Meaning Movement, and personal/ business / marketing problems that he's seeking to solve for himself and on behalf of all of us.

It's not necessary that you listen to the past conversation to benefit from this one, but it could help add some color to the conversation I'm about to share.

Show notes here:

https://themeaningmovement.com/ftmm05

Nicole Brown is the chief innovation officer for Open Book Extracts, a company that specializes in product development for the CBD and cannabinoid industry.

She has been developing products for people's needs and to provide them with new experience for most of her career — from wine, to cosmetics and software.

Now she is on a new journey to help people improve their health and wellbeing through plant based alternatives.

I enjoyed this interview with Nicole, it was such an eye opener on my views on cannabis and its derivatives.

Also, I enjoyed hearing Nicole's journey, how she went from wine, cosmetics, software to ultimately joining the Cannabis Industry. And bringing those experiences to what she is doing now.

In this episode you'll learn:

-Work that Nicole does

-Nicole's career

-How Nicole started in the Cannabis Industry

-Why Nicole joined the Cannabis Industry

-The through lines in Nicole's work

-How Nicole's experience crossed over to what she is doing now

-Nicole's process and expertise

-What are cannabinoids and their uses and benefits

-The uniqueness of cannabis vs other plants

-The biggest impact of cannabinoid products

-What people should know about cannabis

-Removing the stigma around cannabis

-How Nicole joined her company, Open Book Extracts

-Why Nicole enjoys working in the cannabis industry

-How Nicole wants to be remembered in the cannabis industry

-Nicole's predictions for the future of cannabis industry

Show notes here: https://themeaningmovement.com/nicolebrown

In this interview I welcome guest Lion Goodman to explore his career and his expertise on engaging with and changing beliefs.

I had so much fun talking with Lion and also got to experience one of the techniques he uses first hand. It was an interesting experience. We worked on a personal story that I've done some work around. It's one of those formational stories that requires repeated engagement to heal from. This was a small taste of that.

I want to offer a content warning on this, as Lion shares a pretty traumatic experience from his life that may not be ideal for some listeners.

If you're not subscribed yet, hit that subscribe button, leave a like and comment.

Also you can share this video to someone who'd like this kind of content.

-What Lion does

-What are beliefs and how they functionWhere beliefs come from

-The people who inspired him in his Journey

-A life changing experience that transformed his beliefs

-Lion's career background

-How he started his career in becoming a Transformational Coach

-How did Lion got his name

-How to change your beliefs from the inside-out

-How much can someone accomplish on their own and when to work with a professional

Show notes here: https://themeaningmovement.com/lion

Dustin Riechmann is; in his own words, an engineer who helps people with their marriages, sells meat sticks and does business coaching.

I first met Dustin in a group of business owners that we're both in. He stood out to me both as a successful businessman and someone who is committed to being mission driven. His Engaged Marriage business, struck a chord with me. As someone who has multiple businesses, and a strong passion behind them, I'm always on the look out for people who approach their work in a similar way.

Dustin does exactly that.

We had a lot of fun in this interview. We talk about how he got to where he is now and how he found his passions along the way.

-The Work that Dustin is doing

-Dustin's first online project

-How he started in digital marketing

-Dustin's experience being self-employeed

-Dustin's E-Commerce company: FireCreek snacks

-What is "partnership marketing"

-How Dustin started in Business and Coaching

-Dustin's Early life and scarcity mindset

-Why Dustin chose civil engineering

-Dustin's transition from employee to being self-employed

-Dustin's advice on finding your vocation

-Fears Dustin had when quitting his job

-How Dustin's former boss became his first client

-Partnership marketing online

-Partnership marketing locally or offline

-Dustin's win, win, win concept

-Identifying marketing partners opportunities and your target audience

-How Dustin became a marketing consultant

-How Dustin built a partnership marketing system

-How Dustin started podcast guesting

-How Dustin keeps tracks of conversations

Show notes here: https://themeaningmovement.com/dustin

I'm a huge fan of our guest here today. She, in some ways, has is a part of why the Meaning Movement exists. Emi was one of the first clients I worked with one-on-one many many years ago.

She's since continued her journey and it's taken her to some extraordinary places.

Emi Matsushita holds a Master in Dance Science. She is a Creative Director, Producer, Mover & Creative catalyst, and coach. She's also a Mother, Wife, an old friend and an Inspiration.

She is passionate in helping fellow freelance dance artists make money and build a business around their passions.

Emi and I go way back, it was around 12 years ago when we worked together. And I'm very excited to hear her journey from finding her passion and expanding it to become her mission. How dance became a calling and how she helps others to make their passion into an enterprise.

Let 's get into it.

-What Emi does

-Emi's relationship with dance

-The forms of dance Emi did

-Her experience after working with Dan

-Emi's journey to discovering dance as her calling

-Dance as a platform to showcase art

-The before and after transformation Emi went through

-Emi's Dance Science ethnographic research

-Dance in the art world

-Relevance of dance culturally and historically

-The Dance Battle scene

-The effects COVID on the dance industry

-Getting a realtor license while prioritizing Dance

-How Emi started coaching fellow dancer to become entrepreneurs

-Why Emi chose a specific niche to pursue

-Emi's mission

-Emi's advice to people who are in the same spot that she was in

Show notes here: https://themeaningmovement.com/emi

My guest today is an introvert. That might not be significant, until you hear him communicate. You'll see that he defies many of our preconceived notions about introverts. In fact his career has taken him places that we wouldn't think introverts would naturally go: sales and public speaking.

Matthew Pollard is a speaker, author, and coach who is believes that introverts have an edge in life — and he's dedicated his work to helping them (or should I say "us"), find and use that edge.

-What is Matthew's passion

-How to tell if you are an introvert

-How being an introvert is an advantage

-How taking time off/gap years was key to finding what Matthew really want

-How Matthew started in sales

-How Matthew became the no. 1 sale person in his company even as an introvert

-How Matthew learns as an introvert

-Matthew's belief about how to succeed and why people fail due to their mindset

-Why Matthew quit his sales job at 19 and started his own Business

-Matthew's first venture/business

-How fear affects our decisions

-How to discover what you're really passionate about

Show notes here: https://themeaningmovement.com/matthew