This is My Silver Lining

Amiel Handelsman opens up about his personal experience of loss and grief and how he found healing power in his discovery of positive psychology.  Amiel discusses the importance of acknowledging and expressing grief, particularly for men and removing the taboos. He shares his experience of losing his first child in the hospital after a preterm live birth and the feelings of isolation that were compounded by the stress of several rounds of IVF and miscarriage for him and his wife. Amiel took this experience to a lecture hall, telling medical students about his experience and the power of apology. 

Amiel also shares his professional perspective on shifting our thinking to develop sustainable strategies and innovative solutions. He shares his journey into executive coaching and highlights recurring themes in his work, such as managing emotionally charged situations and adapting to change. Amiel talks about deliberate practice and its application in leadership development. His podcast, 'How My View Grew,' explores the importance of injecting nuanced perspectives to solve complex problems.

Episode Links and Resources
Amiel Handelsman
How My View Grew (website)

Podcasts: 
How My View Grew, The Amiel Show
Teaching Doctors How to Say “I’m Sorry”
Michigan Is Haven from Climate Change. Officials Must Prepare.

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Nik Venios, founder of The Ideas Agency, shares his journey of resilience and creativity.  When Nik lost his mother to breast cancer at age eight it made him an outlier.  The transformational impact of her death wasn’t all negative, he says.  It provided him the the ability to always look at problems from a range of perspectives. Nik discusses his early career, how he discovered design thinking, and how he went from foraging for nettles in Denmark to inventing a hygienic door handle long before the 2020 pandemic.  We discuss the creative process, the importance of taking the time to truly define and understand a problem before developing solutions that may not produce the best fix, and the intense value of testing and tinkering. Nik emphasizes the need to embrace curiosity, daydreaming, and playfulness to foster creativity. 

Episode Links and Resources

The Ideas Agency

Free innovation course from The Ideas Agency

Big Magic 

Alchemy 

Think Bigger 

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© 2022 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Heather shares her experience of losing Jake, her four-year-old son, after a still undiagnosed illness that caused constant seizures.  Heather emphasizes the importance of breaking the taboo on grief and finding the light in difficult situations.  

She and her husband Brian started Jake's Help From Heaven, a nonprofit organization to provide support for individuals and families confronted with complex medical needs and disabilities. She emphasizes the importance of accepting help from others and building a community of support. 

Heather also discusses the challenges faced by families with children who have disabilities and the need for more support and understanding from society. 

Heather believes in finding silver linings and staying positive despite the loss of her son. In her recently launched podcast, A Place of Yes, Heather shares stories of resilience and possibility with similarly affected families. 

Episode Links and Resources

Charity:  Jake’s Help From Heaven

Podcast:  A Place of Yes

Instagram:  @heatherstraughter, @jakeshelp

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© 2022 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Mike knew he wanted to be a professional golfer when he was five years old.  He talks to us about how he made his big dream come true as a golf pro.  We explore how he and his business partner, Andy Plummer, created the Stack & Tilt System of golf instruction through intense study and data analysis long before artificial intelligence was a thing. Mike tells us about the controversial Golf Digest article that introduced their teaching method to the world.  He emphasizes the value of connections and helping others, both in the golf world and in his personal life. As a parent, he teaches his daughters the importance of resilience and the joy of doing favors for others. In this conversation, Mike Bennett shares his insights on building confidence, creating meaningful connections, and expressing gratitude. 

Episode Links and Resources

Stack & Tilt

Stack & Tilt Article

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© 2022 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Just in time for Spring Break and with a special nod to National Optimism Month, we're thrilled to bring you this inspirational interview with Travel Expert, Lindsey Epperly, the CEO of JetSet World Travel. 

Lindsey shares some of her most difficult challenges as an entrepreneur in the travel industry during a global pandemic.  She also talks to us openly about how an unexpected health scare created an opportunity for her to lean into her vulnerability and become a stronger leader.   

Episode Links and Resources

Lindsey Epperly

Jetset World Travel

Who Made You the Boss

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© 2022 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The daughter of immigrant parents, Sabrina was the consummate high achiever growing up.  An Ivy Leaguer with her sights on law school, she did a summer internship at a prestigious firm that changed her plans.  She took a role as a fixed income analyst on Wall Street.  She was young and curious; she was great at her job.  By all measures, Sabrina was a success, but she wanted more from life.  

As she considered her options, the music stopped.  In 2008, Sabrina had a front row seat to the downward spiral that was the financial crisis. If she ever needed a sign to define a new career path, this was it.  She traded her pin stripes for sneakers and became an entrepreneur.  She hasn’t looked back.  Fifteen years later, Sabrina has successfully launched several consumer brands.  Her journey has been anything but smooth or “balanced”.  She’s had moments of doubt, regret, and feelings of failure, but she is enjoying the ride!  

Sabrina is also the proud mother of three young sons.  Motherhood has provided some unvarnished challenges and fresh opportunities for triumph at home and in her business ventures.  This perspective has fueled her passion for creating healthy work environments where people feel appreciated and valued.

Forbes Magazine, How To Create Your Best Real Life on the Non-Linear Path to Career Success 

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Jamil Simon is a documentary filmmaker, development worker, peace activist and lifelong adventurer.  Over the course of multiple capacity building projects across sub saharan Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, Jamil gained insights into the deep challenges associated with building and maintaining lasting peace in several conflict-ravaged areas.  He witnessed firsthand that signing peace agreements and shaking hands in front of the cameras does little to repair divisions and discord. Peace-building is a practice that requires learning what each side needs and wants in order to find common ground.  That sounds straightforward and obvious, but in an age of great division, 24/7 news, and the proliferation of misinformation on social media, finding enough daylight to cultivate meaningful peace seems almost unimaginable.

Jamil is undeterred; he believes peace is possible.  We speak with Jamil about the practice of building lasting peace and the powerful role of journalists in shaping public consciousness. On his podcast, Making Peace Visible, Jamil speaks with journalists and peacebuilders who help us understand the human side of war and peacemaking efforts around the world. 

Please note that in this episode, we mistakenly refer to Abraham Trail.  It is the Abraham Path, a monumental undertaking and true testament to what is possible in the name of peace.  Links to Jamil’s interview with Josh Weiss and Anisa Mehdi about the Abraham Path is linked below, as is his interview with Dutch investigative journalist, Bette Dam, to which we also refer in this episode.

If you would like to be notified of future episodes of the Making Peace Visible podcast, news and other publications, sign on to the War Stories Peace Stories website on the contact page: https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org/contact

Links and Resources:
Jamil Simon (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamil-simon-245580)
War Stories Peace Stories (https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org/)

Making Peace Visible Podcast, Un-embedding Western narratives about Afghanistan with Bette Dam

Making Peace Visible Podcast, Building peace on a walk through the Middle East with Joshua Weiss and Anisa Mehdi

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Music is considered “royalty-free” and discovered on Audio Blocks.
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© 2023 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

For Meredith Tapper, boxing is as much about patience and persistence as it is about landing the perfect punch.  Meredith is a 38-year-old lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba who works on Wall Street.  She’s a big thinker driven by intellectual challenge who gets things done.  She is also a risk taker who won't hesitate to take a solo trip to Southeast Asia or some other far-flung destination.  In 2019, she embarked on a new adventure right at home in New York City when she started taking boxing classes.  She had a hard time fitting in at first.  She tried several gyms.  Coaches and other fighters asked her why she kept coming back - she didn’t seem like the type.  Undeterred, she kept at it.  There was something about boxing.  She wanted to master it.  

On November 2, 2023, Meredith will enter the ring officially at the Haymakers for Hope 11th Annual Hope NYC charity boxing event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.  Haymakers for Hope gives everyday people the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in their first sanctioned boxing event. Over the years, Haymakers has raised over $25 million dollars for cancer related charities.  Meredith is raising funds and awareness for cancer patients who cannot afford treatment or the broader economic consequences that come with fighting a terminal illness.  

We speak with Meredith about how she discovered her passion for boxing and what it continues to teach her about life outside the ring.  She dispels many of the myths that surround boxing, notably that it’s all about violence.  To the contrary, Meredith says she is more centered, focused and patient with herself (and others) thanks to boxing.  For those who are truly committed to the sport and their community, there is love, kindness, and respect for others.

Links and Resources:

Meredith’s Fundraising Page on Haymakers for Hope

To Buy at Ticket to Haymakers for Hope 11th Annual Hope NYC Boxing Event - Make sure to type “Tapper” as the unlock code.

Haymakers for Hope
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When she was just seven years old Erin Dionne knew she wanted to be an author.  She took all the right steps - she majored in English at Boston College, she earned a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Emerson College in Boston, and set her sights on writing the great American novel.  But a chance opportunity to take a class in children’s literature ignited a new creative spark. Today, Erin is a successful author who has written 7 books for tweens, children's picture books, and recently, a nonfiction book about writing.  She also writes mystery novels –for grownups– under a pen name.  

Erin talks with us about launching herself into the creative process, how she has learned to receive and accept feedback, and the generous community of writers she has found to share her experiences and challenges with. Erin confesses that she’s not one of those writers who writes every single day. She’s a busy mom and a professor of creative writing at Montserrat College. But, she finds at least 15 minutes every day to work on something related to her writing. 

At a time when it’s harder and harder to get our kids to put their devices down, we talk to Erin about the importance of reading and storytelling and the connection between reading and learning empathy. 

Episode Links and Resources

Erin Dionne

Montserrat College of Art 

Books by Erin:

Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking - A 14 Day Mystery 

Models Don’t Each Chocolate Cookies

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet

Bad Choices Make Good Stories

Lights, Camera Disaster

Books Erin Recommends:

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (A Memoir of the Craft), Stephen King

Bird by Bird: Som

Just off the coast of Portland, Maine, in the Casco Bay lies Great Diamond Island, the home of Crown Jewel, a unique dining hotspot where you are sure to make new friends and memories while you delight in the chef’s creative twists on seafood standards and truly smashing cocktails.  A 20-minute ferry or water taxi ride will get you there, but you’ll definitely need a reservation.  This gem is open Memorial Day to Columbus Day and offers an intimate dining setting, with 35 seats, in what was long-ago a Blacksmith’s shop.

Crown Jewel’s creator and owner, Alex Wight, has had a longstanding passion for creating memorable dining experiences; she has made this her life’s work.  As we discuss, after studying at the Institute for Culinary Education, Alex received hands-on training in the kitchens of some of the most renowned restaurants in New York and San Sebastian, Spain.  Hardwired for entrepreneurship, she knew early on that she wanted to bring her creative visions to life with her own restaurant.  

As with many entrepreneurial journeys, getting to and succeeding on Great Diamond Island has not been easy.  Alex learned to be a resilient and creative problem solver from her mom.  Her unflappable demeanor continues to serve her well.  We discuss the challenges of owning and operating a seasonal restaurant on an island with a limited water supply, making friends with neighbors, and launching a “boatside” service during the pandemic.  We get Alex’s impressions on how the restaurant business has evolved during her career with respect to diversity and equity.  Finally, Alex shares her thoughts on labor shortages and environmental sustainability in the industry.   

Episode Links and Resources
Crown Jewel
These Maine restaurants are making the extra effort for the environment, Tim Cebula, Portland Press Herald, June 11, 2023.
The 18 Essential Maine Restaurants, Kate McCarty, Eater.com, July 21, 2022.
Saved From the Flames, Ready for Love, Sandy Keenan, The New York Times, August 27, 2014
Fabulous Femmes at Flanagan’s Table, Karen Watterson, The Maine Mag, November 2016.

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Music is considered “royalty-free” and discovered on Audio Blocks.
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© 2023 Silver Linings Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.