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DREAM. THINK. DO.

The DREAM THINK DO podcast gets YOU the stories, science and strategies you need to DREAM bigger, THINK better and DO more of what you were put on the planet to do! With guests like Brendon Burchard, Lewis Howes, Sara Haines, Michael Hyatt and Paula Faris, as well as deep dives from D.T.D.’s creator Mitch Matthews, you’ll be inspired and equipped to take your work and your life to new levels. Please subscribe below and leave a rating and review!
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Now displaying: 2018
Dec 25, 2018
My guest today is Britton Murdock Nunn, and she is the entrepreneur behind The Biggest Little Fashion Truck in Reno, Nevada. My team and I got to meet Britton recently when we hosted a Big Dream Gathering at the University of Nevada. I will let her tell her story, but the very short version is she was on a career track that wasn't a good fit. But she decided to make some changes, and that led her to launch an innovative, crazy-cool business involving fashion, fun and a big pink truck! Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: biggestlittlefashiontruck.com INTERVIEW: Britton, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for having me. This is just fun. We're just gonna get to continue a conversation we started in Reno. I'm so in. I'm so excited. I love it. Okay, so DREAM THINK DO-ers, just know this. We're going to talk about this Biggest Little Fashion Truck, and you guys are gonna love it. If you want to see footage of this, just go to mitchmatthews.com/208, and we'll include the video where we got to spend the day with Britton. So you'll actually get to see it, and I do want you to see it, because it's so, so cool. Britton, when you describe The Biggest Little Fashion Truck to someone, how do you describe what it is that you do? First, I always start with just a fashion truck in general, and what it is. A fashion truck operates and looks similar to a food truck, so we do popups around town, in front of local businesses or inside local businesses. You might find us in or near wine bars, lash extension studios, doctors' offices. You name it, we've probably done it. And then we set up festivals downtown, so we pop up on the street and you can shop inside the truck. And then we do just a lot of home parties, so we go to people's homes and we set up inside for a little private shopping event for your friends, or birthday parties, or whatever it may be. So, it looks and operates very similarly to a food truck, except we sell women's clothing. It doesn't smell the same as a food truck. But it looks awesome, right? And, guys, you've gotta know this is a big, pink, four-wheel-drive, dreamy vehicle that is not necessarily easy to drive. It certainly doesn't look easy to drive. But it is awesome when it comes pulling up to a location, which is just so much fun. It really is. I gotta say, when our researcher brought up your story and said, "She's got a fashion truck." I'm like, "Cool. What is a fashion truck?" Is this a common thing? Are fashion trucks happening all over the place? I mean, you are literally the first time I've ever heard of it. Well, I think that they're getting big in bigger cities, which I think everything kind of starts in New York, LA. So there are fashion trucks, and there's a lot of fashion trailers where people pull a retro-cool Airstream behind them, and then you can shop inside it or something like that. I have seen a few that look similar to mine, as far as truck model. But I'm the first and only one in Reno, so I'm pretty new in this area. Yeah. So, you're kinda teaching people what it is as you're doing it. Yes. It's definitely a new idea, a new concept, especially for the businesses that I work with. I mean, there's no one that's out there doing this, so I'm kind of having to initiate the negotiations with other businesses. Yeah, absolutely. You make it a win-win. For some businesses, they're doing it for their employees. For some businesses, they're doing it for their clients. Or some people are just having parties as you said, and you're showing up and doing it at their houses. Yeah. I think a lot of businesses who want to get more foot traffic on, let's say like one of their dead nights, maybe like a Wednesday or Thursday. I'll pop in, and then people come to their business, so it drives foot traffic for them. And then also, if it's like a wine bar or something, then it drives drink sales. Hello, drinking and shopping? Come on.
Dec 18, 2018
My guest is Melissa Johnson Matthews.  My bride is joining me on this episode of Dream Think Do. How cool is that? Plus not only am I joined by my favorite person on the planet but I get to discuss one of my favorite subjects on the planet.  Prayer. That's right, we're going after prayer. The subject of prayer and the reason for that is I think fourfold. Listen To The Podcast: I came up with four different reasons so get ready. Reason one, we've had a number of awesome guests on this year talking about meditation and how that plays into their lives and how that's helped them. I've mentioned on several occasions that I enjoy and absolutely appreciate meditation and at the same time, I pray. I think meditation is complementary to prayer but at the same time different than prayer. Many of you have picked up on that and started to ask questions. You’ve asked how prayer plays into my life. When do I pray? How do I do it? What does it look like for me? You want to talk about it and I love that. So I’m going to answer some of your questions, and we’ll be talking with Melissa too. She's incredibly wise. Prayer is near and dear to her heart too and she teaches on this subject a lot. She teaches classes on prayer as well as she heads up a program called Alpha at our church. It’s an international program. It’s kind of a Faith:101 class and prayer is a big part of it. When I think about prayer, I think about Melissa so I wanted to have her on to join me in this conversation. INTERVIEW: Melissa, welcome, finally to DREAM THINK DO. Well, thank you. It's really good to be here. Hey, DREAM THINK DO family, it's good to meet you finally. No joke, holy cow, like you've been a part of the family forever, you've helped to make all of this happened but now you finally get to be on the microphone. Yes, dangerous spot people, dangerous. Right and… everybody.. put a seatbelt on and get ready for Mrs. Matthews, this is going to be fun. We've been married 26 years. Yes, I believe so, if our math is correct, we've been married for 26 years. Which is just amazing. Yeah, it's pretty crazy and you haven't aged at all. Right. Thanks, honey. Ok. So prayer is a big part of our lives. You teach on it, so before we start to dive into this, what should we speak to before we dive into this subject of prayer? Well, I love talking about prayer. I could talk about prayer all day long and so, we may end up doing this a little longer than your normal podcast, but one of the things that we have to acknowledge before we start talking about this is that you and I will be coming from a Christian perspective. There are all kinds of prayer in the world. All religions of course and most cultures have a form of prayer in some way. It's important to honor the fact that every religion is going to pray differently. That's the first step that we need to acknowledge. So you and I will be coming from a Christian perspective. That's important because the things that we talk about are unique to a Christian perspective and to honor those other religions, I can't speak to exactly what prayer means for them but prayer is such an interesting topic because like I said most people around the world pray and prayer looks different for every person. There are some folks that are more comfortable with a formula or more of a written or a ritual kind of prayer. Some people like to go as I like to say, kind of free-wheeling and four-wheeling, right? They experience it and they say it or they think it. Prayer can take many forms and I am happy to just answer any of the questions that your listeners had or dig into whatever you'd like. Great. The thing about DREAM THINK DO that's been one of my favorite aspects is we've had so many different people on. We celebrate so many different vantage points, so many different perspectives on life. A lot of different faith backgrounds and all of that.
Dec 11, 2018
My guest is Jack Nasher and he is the founder of the Nasher Negotiation Institute. He's a leading negotiation expert and one of the world’s best-known experts on deception detection. He went to Oxford and was the youngest appointee to get a full professorship at the esteemed Munich Business School at the age of 31. He's also now a visiting faculty member at Stanford University. Listen To The Podcast:   He applies his passions for reading people in a number of ways, and now also performs as a mentalist at the world-renowned Magic Castle in Hollywood. He's got a new book out. It's called Convinced: How to Prove Your Competence and Win People Over. We're going to talk about the book, some of his adventures, and most importantly dig into some strategies to help reinforce that you are confident, you're ready, you're worth listening to. So, let's get to this. RESOURCES: Convinced!: How to Prove Your Competence & Win People Over Book  INTERVIEW: Jack. Welcome to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot. With that intro, I don't even have to say anything. It's done. We're already done. Thanks so much for being on the show, Jack. Yeah, that was good. Alright. I so want to get into the content of the book because it's awesome, but you're a negotiation expert, you are a reader of people, a mentalist. Is this something you've always been drawn to? Were you doing this kind of stuff when you were a kid? Well, yeah. I mean, it's a skillset. It's not that I was born with some ability. I wish I were you know? Some aliens kidnapped me and gave me this, but it didn't happen. You know, when I was a kid I loved magic. I had a magic set, and I would perform at children's birthday parties, weddings, and all of that. Then when I studied psychology I found that there is a different sort of magic and yes, it's called mentalism, and that's kind of mixing magic with psychology. So, basically it's using your five known senses to create the illusion of a sixth sense to be able to read minds, to know what people are thinking, and it's very interesting to see, you know, what you can actually do. How can you influence people? And I do that on stage, I do that in Hollywood, I do that for various functions and events. It's fun. It's just the other side of psychology. Right. I mean, it is a fun application for a lot of serious science and psychology here. Well, to be honest, it's actually more honest negotiations because at least you tell them at the beginning that you're going to deceive them. Negotiations are not like that. That's a great way to look at it. Yeah. In a negotiation, of course, you want to get the max and you don't want people to find out that you used psychological tactics and techniques, which you sometimes do, but it's always up to my clients what they want to use. I'm like a doctor. I'm just telling you what's possible and it's up to you to decide what treatment you want. Yeah. Absolutely. And, I mean, to have the moniker of deception detection. Tell me more about that. How does that work for you? Well, yeah, it's interesting because actually, the reason why I got into that many years ago was that I was quite naïve you know? I believed stuff. Yeah. And so I thought, "I've got to do something against that." You know? Because I always felt that people could easily take advantage of me. Even though I studied psychology I never heard of any studies concerning deception detection, but then as I looked into that, actually there were hundreds of studies. Paul Ekman is the only one you kind of know, Microexpression, you've probably heard of it. And there was a great TV show “Lie to Me” on Fox with Tim Roth. Great show and there is a lot of scientific stuff going on that people don't know about. I read everything about it for a year you know? I kind of made notes for myself, and then I had so many notes and I kind of wrote a handbook for myself and I n...
Dec 4, 2018
Today my guest is Thane Marcus Ringler. Thane was a professional golfer but when a back injury forced him to make a change… he decided to come alongside leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals to help them apply the elite athlete mindset to everyday life. Listen To The Podcast:   Thane's new book is: From Here To There: A Quarter-Life Perspective on the Path to Mastery. I know we're wrapping up 2018 as you're listening to this, and I know many of you are thinking about different ways to set yourself up for new levels of success in 2019. We talk about going after big dreams, especially if you're feeling like your dream's taken some hits or maybe even hit a dead end. RESOURCES: From Here To There: A Quarter-Life Perspective on the Path to Mastery Book: https://www.thanemarcus.com/book/from-here-to-there Website: thanemarcus.com INTERVIEW: Thane, welcome to DREAM THINK DO, brother. Thanks for having me, Mitch. It's going to be a fun time today, excited to see what comes of it. No kidding. Me too. You were a professional golfer for four years or so. When did that hit you as a dream? Were you three years old and hitting golf balls? Yeah. Well, I was three years old swinging a golf club. I don't know how many balls I was hitting at that age. I didn't know what I was doing exactly, but it was fun because dad was out there. Yeah, so it started at three or four, and really, the dream of it, of playing professionally, I would say, didn't really take root for me until college. It was always a bigger dream for my dad. He obviously wanted me to play professionally, and that was a goal or at least an idea or thought and vision he had, but I was always a little too realistic or practical to let myself entertain that idea until it became much closer to reality. I withheld that as a dream because I didn't want to be let down by not reaching it, right? In college, once I started getting closer and closer, I started getting a little more excited about it and seeing it as an actual possibility. Can you remember a moment where you thought, "This could happen." Maybe it was a game or a particular shot where you're like, "Okay, maybe I can do this." I wouldn't say there's a specific moment, but I would say that my sophomore and junior year in college were really the times that it started sinking in more. I got a couple of wins under my belt and could see my scoring average in my game progress consistently and could see how I stacked up against others at a broader range, a broader pool of players. That was when I really started entertaining it and saying, "Okay. This could be a possibility.", and then starting to figure out what that would look like. And then it wasn't until between my junior and senior year was really when I wanted to make the decision. I wanted to decide if I would commit to doing it or not and that was because I really wanted to not waste time. A lot of guys will graduate from college and then play the summer after as an amateur and then try to raise money that Fall for Q School. I wanted to jumpstart into it a little bit faster and just turn professional right after graduating. So, I. I really reached out to coaches, to friends, to family, to other people that knew me, knew my game and knew the field, other players who had played to get some background research and just try to get an objective view of is this really a good opportunity, is this something I'm capable of pursuing. The feedback was, yes, it's worth a shot, you have the skills, the toolset, go for it. So, my senior year I worked the whole school year on developing a business plan so that I would have the funds needed to launch right in, right after I graduated, which was a great learning process as well. My grandpa was a great influence in that. I came up with this plan and then pitched it to individuals in my life and to people, I knew who might be interested or able to invest,
Nov 27, 2018
My guest is TJ Anderson. He is a behavior change specialist, a health hacker, and founder of Elevate Your State, which is a growing community of health-conscious leaders online. TJ is dedicated to helping high-performance entrepreneurs, business professionals, and health-conscious leaders to merge the fundamentals of a healthy life with cutting-edge science and strategy, so you can stay on top of your health game. His new book, called The Art of Health Hacking, has been endorsed by people like J.J. Virgin and Bulletproof Coffee's own Dave Asprey. In short, he's killing it, and he's helping people to live better and healthier lives. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: The Art of Health Hacking Book: https://amzn.to/2QhGWj0 Elevate Your State Website/Podcast: www.elevateyourstate.co Youthing Song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVr1EZZ-gJQ Dry Farm Wines: http://www.dryfarmwines.com/elevateyourstate Healthy Holiday Recipe E-Book: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14zMwfBqEClBe2UQl2Yx4_EbP5kfvkjzJ INTERVIEW: TJ, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Oh, Mitch, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. This is just fun, man. I know you've been healthy since the day we met. Has that always been a thing for you? I don't know that we've ever talked about childhood stuff. Did you grow up being healthy, or was this later in life kind of thing for you? Good question. Well, everyone’s childhood is different, and I would say health is relative across the spectrum. I had a great childhood, but my personal, own desire and passion related to health improvement, health consciousness, et cetera, didn't really start until after college. That's when the fire ignited. After college, I realized how the unhealthy lifestyle I was living in college wasn't the best for me. I actually realized through my parents. My mom inspired me through creating my own meals. It really starts in the kitchen, how much nutrition impacts health. That was after college. Awesome. So some people have always just been geared toward healthy living. For others, it’s a major event in their life. Maybe somebody else close to them started to have health issues, or themselves started to have health issues. Yours was a little bit more gradual but, man, it's become a major focal point for your life, for your own life, but also helping people all over. Definitely. The inspiration really came for health right when it came for entrepreneurship, so the passion for both took off at the same time. At times, I would notice my parents running their own business, and how that could add a lot of stress on to one's shoulders if they don't navigate it in the best way. It's not easy. There's no playbook about how to be a healthy high performer. I used to be the health guy that was just all into health and fitness and looking good and feeling good. Then, when I went down the rabbit hole of what's possible for using our health as an asset in our life, with how well we're able to think clearly and have the energy necessary to work and perform at the top of our game, I've really started, through the book and in all my work, it's really connecting the dots between how our decisions, our habits, our behaviors impact our performance, both in the present moment, but also for the further, for longevity. Absolutely. Well, that's funny, because I remember it. Just as you're saying that I remember you had invited me to be a part of one of your first entrepreneurial groups, right? You were trying to help a bunch of entrepreneurs get healthy and stay healthy. I'll just never forget. I remember one of the interactions. One of the guys was sort of confessing, “I did this to try to get six-pack abs, but the thing that I'm actually benefiting from is clarity.” He said, “Yeah, I'm losing some weight. I'm feeling better, but,” he's like, “I had no idea the positive effects on my clarity of thought, my reduced anxiety,
Nov 20, 2018
My guest is New York Times bestselling author, Sara Bliss. Sara has written 11 books.  Everything from Hotel Chic at Home, to The Thoroughly Modern Married Girl. She's also co-authored books like Pretty Powerful and Beauty from the Inside Out  with wellness and beauty guru, Bobbi Brown, Sara has some great ideas flowing. Her most recent book is where we're going to focus today. It's called Take the Leap, and it comes out in a few weeks, but it's currently available for pre-order wherever you grab your books. In Take the Leap, Sara actually interviewed people who transformed their lives for the better. These are people who went from a "normal" career, to find or create something they loved. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Book Take the Leap: Click Here INTERVIEW: Sara, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you. I'm super fired up to be here. I love it. It's one of those where I love the title. What started you on the path to writing Take the Leap? I have written about so many different things, I mean everything from beauty, to travel, to health. But profiles have been the one consistent thing that I've done for almost 20 years. I noticed really early on that a lot of successful people had had these entirely different lives before they found their greatest success. I thought it was really fascinating because it basically tears through this myth that so many of us have, that all successful people somehow follow this linear path that they know what their passion is, or they start really young. Yeah, they were clear on it when they were five years old, right? Exactly. I think for those of us who don't feel that way or aren't on the path that they want to be on, it's super inspiring. I was a little bit lost in my own career, and kind of all over the place. I found these stories really comforting. I started collecting them. I would tell them to other people and everyone always had the same response, "Wait, I didn't know that. I didn't know that Carolina Herrera, the designer, didn’t start her business until she was 40." You know there are so many cool stories like that, and that's really where the idea came from. I love it. I couldn't agree more. I think as a purveyor of strategy, and I know you provide a lot of strategy in the book too, strategies are great, but I think people need more stories in strategy. Yes. Like if we have this story, then we'll figure out the strategy. I think that's what there needs to be more of in the world. That's why I was so excited about what you're doing with the book. Now, I see a title like Take the Leap, and I know the subject is all about getting that clarity and going for it. But one of the things I had to ask you is do you write this from the vantage point of always being a risk taker? Or, do you write this from the vantage point of maybe being risk-averse and having to learn how to take a leap like that? I am probably a little bit more of the latter. I'm a little bit of a homebody. I literally live on the same block that I grew up on. No kidding. That's amazing. That's awesome. At the same time, I ended up taking leaps in my career literally every week. That's how I've managed to stay afloat as a writer. I mean anyone who is a professional writer will tell you. The whole landscape of the job has shifted. When I started, it was not that hard to get a publishing deal if you were a well-regarded, not necessarily even famous, just you know, if you were a working writer. Now they really want you to have a huge platform behind you. What I used to get paid for a magazine article versus what I get paid now, those are like two very different numbers. So I had to really hustle and I developed this whole kind of branding side of my business where I did ghostwriting, or I'd consult with brands on everything from PR, I've launched websites for them, I help them with content. I wrote this books on hotels and have been covering tr...
Nov 13, 2018
INTRODUCTION: My DREAM THINK DO guest this week is Karen Wickre. Karen has been in leadership of a few companies you may have heard of. She was the Editorial Director of Twitter. Before that, she was with Google. She's a 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley and has been an advisor to multiple startups as well. She's a lifelong information seeker and serves on the boards of organizations like The International Center For Journalists, The News Literacy Project, and The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She's a proud introvert.  And as a result, she felt compelled to write a brand spanking new book called Taking The Work Out of Networking. It's a guide for anyone who wants to trade in the much-loathed and often abused common practices of networking and replace them with the valuable habits that can lead to better relationships, stronger connections, and kick butt networks. Karen has captured some innovative new ways for anyone, introverted or not, to embrace their true nature and create enduring, reliable, and critical connections. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCE: Book Taking the Work out of Networking (Click here) INTERVIEW: Karen, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you so much, Mitch. I'm glad to be here. So… I get a sense that this book is one that you wrote that you wish you would have had at the beginning of your career. I think that's right. In fact, I kind of wrote it because I thought, "Why don't I just put down all the stuff I know since people are always asking me for introductions and career advice." I don't even have to be the only one who does this. Other people can do this, too. Yeah, it’s like you wrote the book to save yourself some time, like, "Just read the book. It's all in there." I love it. And it was an interesting exercise. How do you explain this stuff? So I tried to unpack it. You know, some method to the madness. I love it. So you write from introvert's perspective. I am also an introvert who's learned to do extroverted things, but when it comes to reenergizing, taking care of my inner introvert, there's a lot of alone time, lot of quiet time that's needed. Would you say that you have always kind of known you were introverted, understood that about you or is that something that's more of a newer revelation to you? HELPING INTROVERTS STAY ENERGIZED I think it's not super new to me now, but I think as a kid I thought of myself as shy and my friends would say, "Are you kidding me? You're not shy." Because I always had information, I always knew what was going on. In high school kids would say, "What's happening on Friday night?" And I would know because I was friends with all the kids. So I was like the information source. That was an early signal about this kind of thing, but I didn't want to be the center of attention, and I did hang back. I liked to be in the background. So that's always been true. Anyway, it took me a little while to divide off the stereotype of shy from what's an introvert. An introvert, as you just suggested, is someone who recharges and get their energy from alone time and quiet time as opposed the other end of the spectrum, the extrovert, give me another party. Yeah. Exactly. I'm going to get my 10 closest friends together and we're going to re-energize, which, to me, is not energizing. Yeah. Enough already. Right. That's really the young definition from the 20s that a lot has been built on. Now I've read a lot about this, thanks in part to Susan Cain, whose 2012 book Quiet really paved the way. We're all on a spectrum. It's not a sort of you're either this or that. Now I've done enough reading to tell you that you are probably like me, a social introvert, which is a different flavor, but along the spectrum. Exactly right. I love it. I do some speaking, especially on college campuses. Nothing against extroverts, but I actually think introverts tend to be better networkers, tend to be better connectors just for that point that y...
Nov 6, 2018
INTRODUCTION: Today, we are welcoming back my friend, Sonia Hunt. You maybe remember Sonia from way back in episode 60. Sonia is a digital media entrepreneur who has led a successful career in developing brands for global companies in the food and wine, entertainment, technology, and consumer electronic areas. She runs her own digital agency called, Noie Media. Sonia's been recognized by Fast Company as one of the most influential people in the internet, and tracker.com has named her as one of the most influential people in the healthy living sector. Sonia also spends a lot of her time focusing on helping people with severe food restrictions. You may remember from our earlier conversation that she is a foodie, but she also deals with over 30 allergies herself, and that has become a personal passion for helping people in this area. In fact, her mantra is to stay safe, live healthily, and eat well, and her Ted Talk on this subject has over a million views, so go check that out if you haven't. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: soniahunt.com INTERVIEW: Sonia, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm always very grateful. Absolutely. Episode 60, so much has happened since then, holy cow. It's amazing. It’s been great to see your trajectory You've got a book coming out, and I can't wait to talk about that a little bit, but really I want to get into this subject. I know defining success has been really important for you because I know you've wanted to create this life that you want. Has that always been a priority to you?  How did this become important, or when did this become important for you? I would say it's always been important. There are probably times where I have lost track or sense of it, and kind of gone down the wrong avenue, I would say. I mean, my life I really feel has been just an evolution to get to the person that you see or hear before you today, which I think is really the best version of Sonia Hunt there's ever been. In the last one to two years has really been the best version, like all the way around, 360. Having two parents who were immigrants that came here, and their first two kids are daughters. My mom was very adamant about telling us daughters that she wanted us to be educated, and get our own jobs, and make our own money because you need to be able to take care of yourself. There's always a high bar, you know I come from Asian parents, who, you know it's all about math and science, and excelling in those areas, because they equate that with monetary freedom. Right? Sure. If you're a scientist, maybe you'll be a doctor, and you'll be super rich, and then you're awesome, you're set. Stuff like that. Ironically, my sister became a doctor, and I became an engineer. How about that? Yeah. It worked out. It kind of worked out. It’s interesting - obviously, our history plays a part in who we become. Our parents, obviously are a huge influence on who we become, but it sounds like that was foundational for you, that expectation that you're going to be successful. Exactly. The foundation was there. The expectation was set, for my sister and I, and then for my younger brother. My sister is even more successful than I am, you know, and in her own field, and so we truly took that to heart. But I would say the part that was always missing, I'll call it the spiritual side of success. I came to Silicon Valley right out of school, this year I can't even believe it, it's 20 years for me here in the Valley. Silicon Valley is definitely a place when at the time when that I came was during the dot com age, and everything was focused on building, and making more money, and making the company more money, and growing in title, and doing that all super rapidly. All of what I call that spiritual side was just lost. Success means you're rich, you're moving up the chain, you're getting to work at the greatest companies,
Oct 30, 2018
Secrets To Sticking With A Dream Hello and welcome to a very special episode of DREAM THINK DO. This is episode 200. That's right, we've hit 200 deep dives and interviews. Pretty crazy to think about. If this is your first DREAM THINK DO... welcome. I am so honored that you're here. And if it's your 200th... or somewhere in between… THANK YOU! Thank you so much for being a DREAM THINK DO-er. Thanks for being on this journey WITH me. I couldn't do it without you AND wouldn't want to do it without you! It makes this episode so much more special knowing that you're out there and a part of this. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Dream Job Redefined Book: Dream Job Redefined BIG Dream Gathering (www.bigdreamgathering.com) BIG Dream Gathering FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/bigdreamgathering/ SOLOCAST: With this episode, I do want to celebrate a little bit, but I also want to pull back the curtain and share some stories, some highs, and lows and some favorite memories. Plus, I also want to dig into something a little bit bigger. Something that’s important. Something that can help you as YOU go after your dreams and goals too. First… it's good to celebrate, and we're going to celebrate. With this particular episode, as we celebrate, as we remember, I also want to spend a little time digging into the subject of knowing when and when not to stick with something. Two hundred episodes, it means we stuck with it, but I can tell you, there are times where I really thought about quitting. I've been talking with a lot of people lately, and that just seems to be in the air. I'm not sure whether it's the season, I don't know what it is. But I've talked with people who are thinking about making career changes, whether it's shifting jobs, whether it's shifting positions within a company, or changing careers altogether. I've talked with people who were thinking about quitting. Quitting training programs, or quitting their degree, or quitting their advanced degree. I've talked with some people who were thinking about quitting a big dream, something they'd been working on for a while, and they're kind of in the messy middle, I call it. The honeymoon period that comes sometimes when you start a dream is over for them, and it’s the messy middle, the hard part of not quite sure whether it's going to work out, not quite sure they should keep going, and they're thinking about quitting. Here's the thing. I'll be the first one to tell you, sometimes it is right to quit, but we're going to dig into this concept of when you should quit and how you make that decision. If that's something that you've wrestled with, or maybe you're in the middle of it right now, we're going to spend some time on that together, because that's what we do. That's what we do. We move forward, we make things better. We truly dream bigger, think better, and do more, and we do it together. That's where we're going today. Sound good? Good. All right. All right, let's do this. So, 200 episodes, it's amazing. Still kind of boggles my mind. I can tell you my first goal was just 10 episodes, just get 10 episodes done. I liked it. But it was too early to tell whether it was going to be a benefit to people, whether people would appreciate it, enjoy it, use it, engage. But that was my first goal, just 10 episodes. I got those done even before we hit publish - before we went live on iTunes – and I found myself really enjoying the process, almost feeling selfish a little bit that I was enjoying it so much. But I thought, "Well, maybe, maybe we're on track." Then my next goal was 50, just 50 episodes. I told myself that at 50, if I was not enjoying it, if it seemed like it was more work than it was worth, if it didn't seem like people were really engaging, then I was just going to quietly put it up on a shelf, call it a success for getting 50 done, and just walk away. Then we hit 50. Actually, it's almost funny.
Oct 23, 2018
INTRODUCTION: Today’s guest is THE Willie Morris. You may remember Willie from Episode 84. He's got an awesome story. Last time he was on the show, he was running Faithbox, which was a monthly subscription service that he co-founded with Gary Vaynerchuk. Since he was on… they’ve been able to grow it and successfully sell it. Before that, Willie worked with a number of startups and a few smaller companies, companies like Amazon and Boeing. Maybe you've heard of those, right? Doing some amazing things. Currently, he's a partner at a company called Luduss, where they invest resources, time, and capital into companies and people they believe will have a large impact on the world. He's developed a solid following on the interwebs. He's on Instagram. He's got about 40,000 followers there. He's a true creator on the YouTubes. He kicked that off by posting one video a day for 365 days straight! But now has an incredible community happening. He has really developed a DREAM THINK DO life. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: morewillie.com Social Media: @morewillie INTERVIEW: Willie, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. I'm back! Yeah, buddy. I love it. It's a small group of people who get to do it twice, and you are truly one of them. It's just been too long. You've been traveling the globe since the last time we talked. Yes, a lot has happened over the last year. No joke. I know last time you were on, I said give us an average day which has gotta be almost laughable, but let's try to do that again. What's an average day for Willie today? Yeah, for sure. One thing too, I actually didn't co-found Luduss. Curtis Martin started it, but I just came on as a partner, COO role. An average day for me, I wake up at 5 AM every day. I started this whole 5 AM challenge a couple months ago and so 5 AM the alarm goes off, I'm up, I have about 45 minutes where I just have a nice, quiet time. Generally, I just sit and look out the window at New York and the sunrise when it was happening at five, now it's still dark, so now it's just some quiet time for myself to gather my thoughts for the day and all that kind of good stuff. I'm going to interrupt you just for a second because I'm curious, with that, is that also time, where you're reading, is that time where you're just intentionally ... you're just quiet. Just quiet thinking. It's literally just thinking time. That's awesome. It's also hydrating time, so I'll try to drink some water when I wake up, especially because I go to the gym right after. Sometimes I'll jump online and check out social media, anything I missed out on, but I try to really skew away from that in the morning before the gym just because it's nice. I feel like in most of our lives we don't have time just to think. If you have quiet time, people think you're meditating, or praying, or doing something that's very focused. I just want time to think, and let my mind wander, and just stare out the window, and zone out for a little bit. I love it. I think that’s huge. It's funny, somebody challenged me the other day and they said, "When's the last time you were bored?" I'm like, "I can't think of the last time I allowed myself to get bored." He's like, "You should try to do that." He wasn't just saying sit around and be lazy, but he was saying just that, give yourself time to just sit and not fill it with something. So I love how that’s becoming a natural or a consistent part of your day, that's cool. 100%. I think I put some thought into what's going on the rest of the day and try to get excited about it. I've been trying to really cultivate this future mindset and living in the future mindset, rather than past mindset because I think we spend so much time thinking about what happened and how we're going to move forward from that, rather than just being excited about what the future has. I think that shift happens as we get older because th...
Oct 16, 2018
Nice to Meet You! 3 Keys to Meeting New People RESOURCES: Dream Job Redefined Book: Dream Job Redefined BIG Dream Gathering (www.bigdreamgathering.com) BIG Dream Gathering FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/bigdreamgathering/ Listen To The Podcast: SOLOCAST: Well, hello. It's nice to meet you. Welcome to DREAM THINK DO. I will admit, I don't typically kick off the podcast saying it's nice to meet you. Although I do believe that it is nice to meet you.  I use it, though, today for a couple of reasons. One, again, to reinforce, hey, it's nice to meet you, especially if this is the first time listening to DREAM THINK DO. I'm so glad you're here. If you're a longtime DREAM THINK DO-er, and/or if we've met before, welcome back. I'm glad you're here. Secondly, I say nice to meet you because that, in fact, is the theme of this show. That's right. This particular episode, this deep dive, is all about strategies for helping you meet someone new. Because it happens. You know, maybe you're wanting to meet new people because you're wanting some awesome people in your life, some new good friends to try stuff with, or great people to connect with professionally, or you want to learn from cool people doing cool stuff, then awesome. Or maybe you need to meet some new people because you want to expand your network, or you're exploring new jobs or new careers, or you're entering into a new era or a new organization. And maybe you're feeling like a stranger in a strange land and you're wanting to find some like-minded people around you. That's where we're headed. I will say if you're an extrovert, stay tuned. These concepts are going to help you. I can tell you I lean a little bit towards the introvert. If you're an introvert, you know what I'm talking about. I appreciate meeting new people. But as an introvert who's learned to do extroverted things, I always have to revisit my tool chest, so I can maximize the opportunities as I'm meeting new people because yes, God's great sense of humor is that my day job as an extrovert involves meeting new people all the time. So I need the tools that we're going to talk about today. These tools will help you to connect with people, to feel more comfortable, and to be able to put others at ease as well. This will greatly, even wildly, increase the chances for conversations with the kinds of people that you want to connect with. Let me paint a picture for you. Let's say you're walking down a hallway, you're walking towards the door. Behind that door, you know, is a room filled with people. You don’t know most of them. How are you feeling? Are you excited at that thought? Are you smiling at that thought? If that's you, cool. That probably means you are an extrovert. That's great. Some of these strategies are going to help you. They're going to help you love people well, love those conversations that you're having, and take them to new heights. So stay tuned. But let me check back in here. Let's revisit this scenario hallway. Double doors at the end, big meeting space on the other side. You're hearing a dull roar of people talking. How are you doing thinking about this? Are you freaking out inside just a little bit? Are you throwing up just a little bit? Maybe some part of you wants to walk away from that room. You have emails to check, a book to read, Office is back on Netflix. You just started your favorite episode. Right? Whichever way you respond, hang with me here because the things we're going to talk about today are going to be tools that help no matter where you're at on that spectrum. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert. That's that new category in the middle. Wherever you're at, we're going to get you some strategies to help. Meeting new people can be exciting. It can be amazing. It can also be a little nerve-wracking, but it's important. No matter what, it's important because we can't go after our dreams alone.
Oct 9, 2018
My guest today is Pete Vargas. Pete has trained hundreds of people to become powerful and successful professional speakers. Just listen to some of these stats: Since 2003, Pete and his team have helped speakers book over 25,000 events that have reached tens of millions of people and generated over $40 million in revenue. Pete is the founder and CEO of Advance Your Reach, a company that helps speakers, authors, and entrepreneurs find and book stages so that they can share their message, scale their expertise, and reach the world. Pete is very passionate about helping thought leaders who have a message to truly build a business and a brand that allows them to reach the people they feel called to serve. I wanted to bring Pete on to dig into some specific ideas to help you reach more of the people you want to help. So let's get to it. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: www.advanceyourreach.com/dtd   INTERVIEW: Pete, welcome to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. Hey. I'm excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me, Mitch. Well, I love your story and I want DREAM THINK DO-ers to hear more of it. I think sometimes when they hear about speakers reaching thousands and thousands of people, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue, all of that, it might be easy to think the start was easy for you. But you didn't start as a professional speaker. You started this whole journey in a much different way. Give us a little of your genesis story. Yes. What I would first say this is not just for professional speakers, but it's for anybody who is trying to attract customers. That's what I'm excited to share with you. I believe the fastest way to attract customers in a powerful way is through stages. So the first thing I want to encourage everyone who wants to do more speaking, and then encourage everyone who wants to attract more customers. Mitch, one of the reasons why I care about stages so much is my background. One of the earliest memories for me was my mom and dad yelling and screaming about who was going to keep me and who was going to keep my sister because they were getting divorced. I remember being four or five years old and it was like a tug of war going on with my sister and I. My mom got my sister and my dad got me. Over the next five to 10 years, my dad was both verbally and physically abusive. He would leave me in the trailer when I was in second grade. I knew what it meant every time when the Dallas Cowboys lost, and I tried to hide. It was a really abusive relationship. So my grandmother, his mom, said, "Enough is enough. You're coming to live with me." It's exactly what I did.   So my dad came back into my life in my teenage years. I wanted to try to make things right with him through my teenage years. We tried everything. We tried church. We tried counseling. We tried his seven siblings telling him, "You've got to make things right with your son." I remember my grandma and grandpa always telling them, like always calling him “mijo,” which means son, and saying, "You've got to make things right with your son." Nothing worked. So through my teenage years, I kind of gave up on it. I went off to school, to college. I thought I was going to be the next Jerry McGuire. I thought I was going to live that “show me the money” life, because two professional athletes, Emit Smith and David Robinson, had made such an impact on my life. My thought was if I could go represent athletes that are making an impact in the lives of people, I'm helping make the world a better place. But little did I know, Mitch, that it would be your community that I was going to help in getting their messages out into the world. At that time I didn't know that. At the end of college, I had two job opportunities. Go to Dallas, Texas into the corporate world and make really good money, or go to Harvard, Texas and be a youth pastor. My pastor called and asked me to take over the youth group.
Oct 2, 2018
Today’s guest is Colin Murdy. Colin is the founder of the Murdy Creative Company. Murdy Creative makes these freakishly cool... beautifully simple leather binders. I'll tell you, I came across Colin and his story on Instagram. I was not aware of him, not aware of his company, not aware of the binders, any of that, but I'm scrolling through the Instagrams, as one does, and all of a sudden this pic with this gorgeous binder comes flying by. I am a sucker for high-quality leather goods, so I see this thing, and I am hooked. I take the bait, click it, and I realize these things are beautiful, but I'm also realizing there is this great story behind it. The more I dug in the more I realized… this guy is a true DREAM THINK DO-er. I knew I had to have him on the show, so now we’re all up to speed. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: murdycreative.co INTERVIEW: Colin Murdy, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be on. Absolutely. Okay, you hooked me early on because I see the binders. They're gorgeous. I have one on my desk. It's right next to me. It's become my blankie. I love it, but it's that thing, and I click through. I start reading your story, and I'm like, "Man, we're like family!" Because you started experimenting with this idea in high school, right? Absolutely. It's funny how you kind of get into things and you didn't really mean to. I was actually a theater kid, and I did band, and I was in a lot of advanced math and science courses. When you do that, your schedule is really full in high school, and so I didn't really get an opportunity to take an actual art course. I always wanted to take a real live art course. The only one that was able to fit in my schedule was the experimental art class, and I thought, "This is going to be awesome. I love experimenting." I had no idea what it was going to be. It ended up being all of these old traditional styles of art, screen printing and all types and all these other cool things. One of them was this thing called stab bookbinding. I had been an avid journaler since my brother went off to college. My older brother, Marcus, went off to college my sophomore year of high school, and so I thought to myself, "This is awesome. I can recreate movie props that I love, and I can have ... I can take control of my destiny, and I can do all of these things with the journals that I like to write in and I spend all those dollars on. I can make my own." That’s how I got into it almost by accident. It became a hobby, and I was selling them on Etsy. I started another company in the middle there where I thought it was going to be huge, but then it failed. I'm still making books on Etsy, and people were still ordering them. Things kept moving forward, and then it developed into what it is now. I love it. That's a huge thing we talk about on DREAM THINK DO: the power of experimenting. I think, especially with entrepreneurial dreams, to find the passion but also look for the proof, and the proof is always will people buy it, right? Absolutely. Am I creating something that people will buy? We’ll get into the experiment that didn't work, at least in the way you thought. But you learn from those as much as you learn from the successes, right? Now, as people hear your voice, they probably realize you're not 76. Let's just say high school wasn't that long ago. Can I ask how old you are? Actually, I am 24. Awesome. So this whole experiment started in high school. At what point was it where you said, "Yeah, I'm just going to throw some stuff on Etsy"? Was that while you were still in high school still in that class, or was it while you were in college? Well, I've always been a big believer that if you like doing something as a hobby, if you can figure out a way to make that hobby pay for itself, that's always the best policy. Some hobbies can get really expensive if you don't properly capit...
Sep 25, 2018
Back in 2005, my guest, Shawn Askinosie left a successful career as a criminal defense lawyer to start a bean-to-bar chocolate factory and he's never looked back. Askinosie Chocolate is a small batch, award-winning chocolate factory located in Springfield, Missouri. They source 100%  of their cocoa beans directly from farmers across the globe. Askinosie Chocolate was recently named one of the 25 Best Small Companies in America by Forbes and Shawn himself was named by "O," Oprah's magazine, as one of the 15 guys who is literally saving the world. Very cool. Shawn and his daughter, Lawren, who is the Chief Marketing Officer for Askinosie, recently published a book together called Meaningful Work: A Quest To Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul. One reviewer wrote, "'Meaningful Work is not only a book about saving the world, it's about how businesses can and should solve problems in the world, and how positive change begins with individual action." I love it. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Meaningful Work Book: http://bit.ly/2NU9KNc Website: askinosie.com INTERVIEW: I knew when I heard his story that I had to have Shawn join us for an episode. Shawn, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you, Mitch. Appreciate the intro and I'm looking forward to this. Me too! You know, I look forward to every interview, but some I look forward to just a little bit more than others. I've been really, really excited about this. Many DREAM THINK DO-ers, have navigated a career change, or are contemplating a career change. How did you go from defense attorney back in 2005 and decide you want to make chocolate? The way it started, I loved my job and I think a lot of your listeners can probably relate to what I'm about to say, but I loved it and I loved it for a long time. I did it for almost 20 years. I never lost a criminal jury trial. Wow! I specialized in super serious felony cases and built my reputation in the defense of murder cases. To say that comes with a little stress would be an understatement. No kidding! When you love what you're doing, it doesn't feel stressful until you stop loving it, and that's what happened. I stopped loving it But I didn't have any hobbies, I didn't have an idea of anything else to do. I'd always wanted to be a lawyer. The real struggle for me in this transition, which was five years long by the way, was a struggle of choices. I just didn't feel drawn. I didn't feel called. I couldn't find my vocation. It seemed as though the more desperate I became, the further away it was from my reach, so to speak. Then it was just like this vicious circle of, "What's going to happen?" I really prayed a very simple prayer that went like this: "Dear God, please give me something else to do." I said that, sometimes many times a day, but I said it every day for almost five years. It was just a simple prayer, one born of desperation. I had no hobbies at first, so I started some hobbies. I bought a Big Green Egg grill and did all the meals on the Big Green Egg and loved it. Then I started baking, making cupcakes. I made thousands of cupcakes. Then I started making chocolate desserts and I had no idea where chocolate came from, zero. But one day, I was driving to a distant relative, driving to her funeral, and it was out near my grandparent's farm about an hour from here in southwest Missouri. I just had this idea. "Hey, what about making chocolate from scratch?" I had no idea where it came from. Yeah, where does that come from? Yeah. And this is the doing part. Within three months of that light bulb, I was in the Amazon, learning how farmers influence the flavor of chocolate by how they harvest the cocoa beans. Then I started to wind down my law practice. I bought equipment from all over the world, completed my last jury trial, and here we are. That's incredible. I love that. I know we've been back and forth a little bit,
Sep 18, 2018
My guest is Frank McKinney. Frank is an Ultra-marathoner, he's and actor and a speaker, and he's a “philanthrocapitalist.” That's right, he spends a whole lot of time giving back. In fact, he and his wife founded the Caring House Project Foundation, which is a non-profit that provides housing, and self-sustaining existence for homeless families in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Indonesia, and here in the United States as well. For example, at the end of 2017, they finished their 24th self-sufficient village and sheltered over 10,000 people in Haiti alone. How cool is that? Frank has been featured on Oprah, 20/20, CNN, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel. He’s been featured in 2,500 plus TV and print stories. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: The Other Thief Book: https://amzn.to/2NR26jv Website: frank-mckinney.com INTERVIEW: Frank, welcome to DREAM THINK DO! You know, make that 2,501. Yes, exactly right, and extra hash mark! Hey, folks, I'm honored, I'm excited. I'm coming to you today from my oceanfront, tree house office. Too bad we're not on video because I'd spin the camera around and show you. I'm sitting 25 feet above sea level with 12 windows surrounding me in this tree house that I work from. Yes, this is where I wrote all six of my books, where I design my houses, and where I'm talking to Mitch today. Not because of DREAM THINK DO, but because of Mitch Matthews' smile. The guy has the best smile. I appreciate that greatly, and I wish I was sitting in the tree house with you. And gang, he's literally up in a tree in a beautiful, beautiful office. It's the coolest. Literally. He showed me before we hit record. He showed me his ocean view, which I do not have in beautiful Des Moines, Iowa. So, I love it, man. We met years ago, I was trying to think of the year where Dr. Molly Marty invited us to both speak at her conference in Chicago. The more I've learned from you and gotten to know you, the more I've been impressed. So I've just been so excited to have you on. I finally get to ask you some of these questions I've wanted to ask. How about that? I'm ready man. That's the whole reason I have a podcast, to finally ask the questions I want to ask. Let's talk about this, now, because I know, you know, DREAM THINK DO-ers as we talked about before I hit record, these are rock stars around the world. These are entrepreneurs, and leaders, and globe changes. A lot of them are fighting back from tough starts, right? They haven't just been given an easy life. They've had to really take a stand and really make a mark wherever they're at. And you are one of those people. You are one of those people who has truly shaped a life that's ... it's trite to say, but it's outside the box. You've blown up the box. But you're doing great things, you're building these million dollar homes, you're helping people all over the world. It almost sounds like you're royalty, but you didn't grow up in royalty. You grew up in pretty humble beginnings. You didn't grow up in these million dollar homes doing philanthropy as a kid. So, give us a little picture, a quick snapshot of Frank as a kiddo. What I want to hear is what was at least one moment where you decided, "I'm gonna do something different with my life." Well, first of all, let's start with asking the question, why does there have to be a box at all? Right! Either inside the box, or everybody says, you work for a nine-to-five, and you've got a job, then you must be inside the box. There's such a thing that's called and intrapreneur. Somebody who has entrepreneurial but they're inside a company. But they're in a box. But then you've got an entrepreneur who's outside the box. Forget the box. No box. We don't have a box. But back to my childhood. I mean, I was in juvenile detention multiple times before I turned 18 before it got real. When I realized if I kept it up I’d end up someplace other than a little fu...
Sep 11, 2018
My guest today is Mike Michalowicz, who has just written another great book, and it's going to disrupt this nasty cycle of the grind. The book is called Clockwork. Here's the thing. Mike can be trusted. If you've read any of his other bestsellers like Profit First or The Pumpkin Plan, you know he's hilarious, wildly transparent, and incredibly strategic, especially as he talks about his adventures of building and selling multiple million-dollar businesses as well as helping many entrepreneurs around the world. I have appreciated his wisdom and strategies, especially in the area of making your business more profitable, so when I heard he was going after the subject of time... I knew I had to get him on the show. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Clockwork Book: https://amzn.to/2wOwpkn Profit First Book: https://amzn.to/2M1bH5F The Pumpkin Plan Book: https://amzn.to/2NoQKpM INTERVIEW: Mike Michalowicz, welcome to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. Thank you, Mitch, so much for having me on your show. Absolutely. All right. The new book is called Clockwork. There’s some timeless wisdom in here, but especially for entrepreneurs, helping them to build a business so that they can actually breathe, so they can actually have more of the life they want, all of that. Why go after time? What was the catalyst for you to say, "All right, it's time to go after this subject?" It's time to go after time. Right. I just noticed that I did that, right? I was going to break into Time After Time, but nobody wants to hear me sing, so… Good song. Yeah, right? A good song. Anyway, I had a realization when I was reading about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Basically, he said there are these foundational needs we have, which are like food and water, and it builds up to shelter, and belonging, and self-actualization, but if we are missing a base function, like if we don't have any food or water, we will ignore everything else to get that priority. That's the base need of all of humanity. Well, I believe there's this Maslowian hierarchy of needs for business, for entrepreneurs. I think what the base is, the oxygen, if you will, is sales, meaning we need sales coming into our business to sustain. If there is no inbound revenue, nothing else matters because our lives are in jeopardy, our corporate, our business life is in jeopardy. Once we have some degree of sales, then the next level up, what I consider the nutrition, the food, and the water, is profitability. Sadly, I discovered something about my own business that I think applies to entrepreneurs in general: When I didn't have profit, meaning there was no money going into my pocket, I thought the solution was more sales, so I'd actually push harder to sell more. In fact, if sales is oxygen and profit is food and water, I was starving to death but instead of getting nutrition, or profit, I was trying to breathe in more air. I was gasping for air, more oxygen, more sales. What a business needs to move up this hierarchy of needs is sustainable sales. We need predictable profit. That's the next level up in the hierarchy of needs. Once a business achieves those two, then the next level of needs is time. Many entrepreneurs work simply to sustain the business, and that's it. It's a perpetual work. The demands on us are ridiculous. We compromise any form of life. We just work, work, work. Now, once we have sales and profit, now it's all about capturing time so we can bring back a balance so that we can live life the way we want, and we can work in our business the way we want. Instead of doing everything, we can become selective. That's why the subtitle for Clockwork is Design Your Business To Run Itself which, in turn, frees you up to do what you want, when you want in life and in business. That's beautiful. As I was reading through Clockwork, one of the things that struck me - I've seen that in businesses that are struggling,
Sep 4, 2018
My guest today is Bernie Swain. Bernie is the founder of the Washington Speakers’ Bureau, one of the most successful and well-respected speakers’ bureaus in the world. Since launching in 1980, the bureau has represented US presidents, prime ministers from Great Britain, countless American and world leaders, business and economic visionaries, authors, media personalities, sports legends. Bernie's bureau represents some of the most successful people and well-respected minds in the world. He knows their well-told and well-known stories as well as many of the behind the scenes stories too. Recently he put all of that in a book called What Made Me Who I Am. In this book, Bernie does an incredible job of collecting a series of lesser-known stories from well-known people. Tales of grit, determination, sometimes involving love, sometimes involving luck, but great stories of real people doing extraordinary things. So I wanted to have Bernie on to talk about his story and some of his favorite stories from others as well, so let's get to it. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: What Made Me Who I Am Book: https://amzn.to/2NapMPn INTERVIEW: Bernie, welcome to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you, it's great being here. I appreciate the time you're sharing with me. It’s an absolute honor. Often when I have people on for DREAM THINK DO, they walked out a dream and sometimes it was a lifelong dream. Something they dreamed of doing as a little child, but if I'm understanding your story, you weren't five years old dreaming of someday having a speakers’ bureau. No. It sounds like this started in a completely different fashion. It was totally different. In fact, I was in my early 30s when the change took place. No one in my family, to give you an idea of where I started from, and maybe this will tell the people that are listening to the podcast, that no matter where you begin from, you can succeed in life. No one in my family ever attended college before. In fact, my mother and her family were farmers who grew up in Central Virginia and basically lived off the land. My father, with five sisters, a brother and assorted relatives, grew up in just a two-room house in the poorest of mining towns in West Virginia. When my grandmother couldn't take care of him, he spent part of his childhood in an orphanage. So, when I was in high school, there was never really any conversation in my home about my going to college. That wasn't a given. Yeah. My family, I think, expected me to do well and find a job and succeed and be happy, but there was never any conversation. I had a teacher in high school. He was the athletic director and the football coach and he encouraged me to go to college. In fact, I would have never gone if it hadn't been for his input and influence in my life. I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to be something as a football coach or an athletic director or teach physical education. So, he set me on this path and I went to college and graduated from college. My first job was the football coach and the junior high school ninth grade phys ed teacher at the junior high school I had previously gone to. Wow. I spent a year there and went back to school to get a master's degree and then went on to become the intramural director at George Washington University, and then the assistant athletic director. I was months away from becoming the athletic director at the university when a friend of mine sent me a copy of Fortune Magazine. In the magazine was a story about this lecture agency called Harry Walker. In the article, it told how Harry Walker went to the Gerald Ford White House and signed Gerald Ford, who was the president at the time, Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig to speak for him after they left office. At the end of the article, Henry Kissinger is quoted as questioning the high commission rate that Harry Walker wanted to charge and says, "Why don't I simply sign with one of your comp...
Aug 28, 2018
We’re doing something new with this episode.  If it works… we may turn it into a series called, “Ask Mitch.”   Here’s the backstory: I was recently on the phone with a fellow DREAM THINK DO-er, and we were on a topic that I get a lot of questions about. So I asked for his permission to record the call. This is a person with an idea for a business, and he's passionate about it. He's excited about it but he's also a little scared. We’re going to talk about what to do when you have a business idea but you don’t feel like you have the money to pursue it. Money is one of the biggest perceived problems that stop people in their tracks. As you'll hear in our conversation we blast past that problem, and talk about no or low-cost opportunities to build his business idea. The strategies that we're going to talk about are things anybody could apply. As you listen to the interview though, know that we'll take a little time getting his background, tell a little bit of a story but then we'll really dive into his situation as a case study. I hope you enjoy it, I hope you benefit from it. Listen To The Podcast: INTERVIEW: That's awesome. So tell me a little bit more about the business. I started it last summer doing aerial photography. I went to a demolition. I live in Pennsylvania and went to a demolition across the Susquehanna River, and I saw all these drones flying around. I got a card from the owner who is based out of North Carolina. He was doing drone video and I thought that was pretty cool. So I figured I would just go ahead and give it a shot and see what I could make of it. That's awesome. So you went out and got a drone. I know there are all sorts of certifications that you can get for flying a drone. So you're all good to go on that? Yes. I actually taught myself. Went through, watched a couple classes on YouTube. You can actually pay to have classes but as a college student, I don't have money for that. Well, most of the answers are on YouTube anyway, so why not? I went out there, passed it the first time. I got all my certifications, and I’m set to go. I know you're just getting started, but where have you been finding business at this point? I've done a couple promotional things just try to get the business going. I've had one client so far through a co-worker my dad used to work with. I filmed her grandparents’ farm. They were moving out of the farm and wanted just keeps out there as a memory, so I did a video for them. They were also using it to list the farm for sale but it doubled so they could just have it as a memory. I know the key to being an entrepreneur a lot of times is the pivot. It's like learning, growing, learning, growing but when you think about this, who would you love to have as clients? Who would be your ideal client knowing what you know right now? People in real estate. They know they want something, but they really want someone to put everything together. That's what I did when I did the farm. I walked around the landscape and told them about this one shot with a creek. It was right alongside the house, and I thought it would be a cool approach. That was their favorite part of the film. Just when they give you the opportunity to just take the lead. Yeah, so you like to have that little bit ownership to be able to say, "I'd recommend this," and you love it when a client says, "All right, I trust you. Let’s try it." Yeah because I do all the editing, too. It’s great when you know what is going to look good on a video and they can just let you run with it. That's awesome, I love it. I have a number of questions but I know when you reached out, you had some questions as well. So what are some of your questions right now when it comes to your business? Primarily I would say capital. Capital is the hardest thing especially being a college student. I bought a computer with a small loan,
Aug 21, 2018
Today I've got an awesome guest for you. I am excited to bring back my friend Jon Vroman because he was with us – get this – back in episode 34! Jon is a social entrepreneur and award-winning speaker. He's also a committed husband and father of two. And just for fun, why not? He's an ultra-marathon runner as well. He has an amazing non-profit, called the Front Row Foundation. They create these incredible, unforgettable moments for individuals who are braving life-threatening illnesses. It might be a NASCAR race, a professional sporting event, a concert, Broadway play. They've done it all. They create a video for the person, their family and friends as well. It's just such a gift. It's so beautiful. Jon has been busy since last we spoke. He's written a best-selling book called the Front Row Factor: Transform Your Life with the Art of Moment Making. Plus, he's launched not one, but two podcasts. The first one called, Front Row Factor podcast. The second one called the Front Row Dads podcast. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Front Row Factor Book: https://amzn.to/2nqN1cS Front Row Factor Podcast: http://bit.ly/2M9wcRP Front Row Dads Podcast: https://apple.co/2ARDV2p INTERVIEW: Jon, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. Mitch, this is fun, man. I was looking forward to this all week, and I just came off a pretty stellar three days, and this is going to be a great time. I appreciate who you are. I love it. I mentioned the Front Row Foundation. Tell people a little bit why the Front Row is so important, this concept, why do you live and breathe to get people into the Front Row? What I love about your question is you asked why. We can tell people what we do, and they'll get it in 20 seconds. And I learned from my buddy Clay Iberra that when people ask me what I do, I often say I help people live life in the Front Row. And they say that's cool, what does that mean? Exactly, tell me more. Well, I'll tell you a story. It’s the story of Sophie. I got introduced to Sophie about a decade ago, and this is very early on in our work with the charity. Sophie was battling a life-threatening condition, she had a brain tumor, and she was in the midst of heavy treatments. In and out of the hospital, daily, weekly, fighting migraines, multiple surgeries. She's fighting for her life. Our charity goes to work to try to help her see her favorite performer who in this case is Kelly Clarkson, from the front row. So we start working with the family, and we put together an incredible day. We pick her up at the house in a limousine, little Sophie's wearing a purple dress, we pour her sparkling cider, we treat her like a princess. She is just having an awesome time leading up to this event. She knows that she will eventually see Kelly Clarkson live that night. And by the way, I should mention she is a true fan. The way her mom describes it when she gets in the car with Sophie if she didn't turn on Kelly Clarkson, her daughter would just cry. When the Clarkson comes on, Sophie’s smile always gets big. Every night before they went to bed, they had a dance party on the bed and danced to Kelly Clarkson. So on this night, she went to dinner at the Rainforest Café, and then off to the show. They had an incredible concert with Kelly, and the surprise came at the end when Sophie has fallen asleep, this is pretty late night for her, especially based on all the treatments that she was going through. But we snuck her backstage, and we were waiting in a room for a private meet and greet with Kelly. When Kelly walked into the room saying, "Hey, everybody," little Sophie awoke from this nap, looked up and got this beautiful smile, and Kelly and Sophie locked eyes. We have a picture of that moment. I will tell you, that picture is so important for us, and that's why we do what we do. Because eight weeks after that event, Sophie took her final breaths,
Aug 14, 2018
This week, we have a long-time friend of DREAM THINK DO, Lise Cartwright. Lise has written 27 bestselling books on the subjects of health and wellness, entrepreneurship, the side hustle, and she also loves to write about writing books. When I saw the title of her most recent book called Mind The Chatter: Master Your Inner Voice, Gain a Positive Mindset, and Get Your Power Back I knew we had to have her back on DREAM THINK DO. We needed to talk about busting through that negative self-talk so you can make more of your dreams and goals a reality! Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Mind the Chatter Book: https://amzn.to/2AP1pVM High Performance Habits Book: https://amzn.to/2vNSiip Dream Job: Redefined Book: https://amzn.to/2OUL3xJ INTERVIEW: Lise, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO. Oh, thanks for having me back. I'm so excited. This is awesome. This is the third time you’ve been on! I’m super excited about this book. I put it out to the DREAM THINK DO community that you were going to be back, so I got a bunch of questions that hopefully, we'll be able to get to towards the end. I really want to talk about the new book, Mind the Chatter. You've written on so many different subjects. Why go after this subject of negative self-talk? Why was that important for you now? Because it's been a large part of my journey as an author. I guess that's probably a big part of most people's day-to-day living; this constant voice. And it's not necessarily that it's negative, it's just that it's not always helpful. Definitely in my experience for the last few years, when I started becoming more and more hyper-aware of the thoughts that were running through my head, I started to think how can I turn them around or how can I frame it so that it doesn't feel like it's always so negative. It's the ultimate self-sabotage when you've got this constant chatter going on inside your head. How can you possibly be super successful if you're undermining yourself at every point? It's so true, and it's so subtle. A lot of times that negative self-talk is a part of the brain that's trying to keep you safe, right? Yes. The same part of the brain that's trying to keep you out of dark alleys and from making bad business deals. It really can creep in. When I saw that this was the subject of your new book and we talked about it a little bit, it just made me smile so much. Because you have helped me publish and you are awesome at writing your own books. You also coach others on getting their book done, getting it published, making it successful. I don't know if you remember, but back with Ignite, basically about the day before it was supposed to launch something went very wrong. Yes. There was a big part of me that wanted to shut it down, but you were all about pushing through. So you do know that voice. You know it in yourself, you know it in others, so you're the person to write this book. By the way, we got Ignite out, and launched it on time, thanks to you, and I'm so glad we did. What I love about your approach is that you dive into some of the science that's out there, but you've taken a creative approach too. You gave this voice a name. Yes. What's the name, and why did you do it? It's so funny. I've had so many people ask about this name. My philosophy is very much that we have conversations with ourselves all the time. I wondered, what would it look like if I gave that voice a name? I need to separate this voice to be able to deal with it. I remember sitting at some point, I think I was going through it coming out to a book launch, and this inner voice was super loud in my head. I remember going, "Neville, shut up." That was just the name that came into my head. It's not specifically directed at a person or anything like that. You don't have a Neville from your school days. No, no. Well actually, I do have one from my school days, and I'm very upfront in saying, "Neville,
Aug 7, 2018
My guest today is Val Vigoda. She started to sing and sight read at a very young age, and then started to play the classical violin at the age of eight. She wound up joining the Army ROTC to pay for school, so she rocked Princeton and went on to serve in the military. Then she actually made a switch. She continued with the music but began playing the electric violin, and that lead to her touring the world with well known artists like Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She went on to form her own band called Groove Lilly and continued to tour the world with them. Next, she decided to take some time off from the road so that she could focus in on raising her son, Mose.  That's when she spent about ten years writing music for Disney. Then, most recently, she has won awards for additional musicals, including her most recent called Ernest Shackleton Loves Me. If that were not enough, she's been touring the country as a speaker, sharing the stage with people like former First Lady Michelle Obama. She speaks with audiences about facing your fears, rising to challenges, pushing your edges, and thriving in uncertainty. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: ValVigoda.com INTERVIEW: Thank you so much, Mitch. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you. Absolutely. I can say, watching some of your performances, it's just so captivating to see you play, and see you sing, and then see you inspire the audience. I want to hear about all of it, but as I was doing my research, this question kept coming to me; you were classically trained on a standard wood violin. You now use an instrument that is, let’s just say, technologically advanced.  What was it like when you made that transition to go from that classical, classically-built wood instrument to something using this level of technology? What was that transition like? Well, it was actually a gradual thing. The violin that I play now is actually called a Viper. It's a six-string flying V-shaped violin that's sort of strapped onto my body with a guitar strap. Of course, it's called a Viper. Of course, it is. Growing up as a classical violinist and also a singer, those two activities were always very separate for me, and I loved both of them. I loved playing the violin. I loved singing. I loved singing in choirs and singing by myself. As I grew up, I realized that what I really wanted to do was combine those two. I wanted to write my own songs, and I wanted to sing, and I wanted to use my violin in that way. So I started experimenting with that. Playing an acoustic violin in more of a pop setting, in a band, can be challenging regarding projecting sound. I bet. You can put a pickup on the bridge, and there are many different ways to amplify an acoustic violin that way, but there are also some trip-ups, especially if you're singing. If you have a mic on the bridge, your breathing can be picked up by the violin mic. There are many feedback issues, and the natural warmth of the instrument is hard to capture when you're doing it in an electric setting, so I started looking at electric instruments. The first couple that I used were sort of like regular violins but just electrified, so it's a resonant chamber on the hollow body. It would be a solid body instrument, and it would be sort of like an electric guitar. You plug it in, and sound would come out. As I started experimenting with that, the violin was sounding pretty good, but I couldn't very well sing and play at the same time. I saw someone very inspiring when I was living in New York. This woman played at The Bitter End. Her name was Allison, and she was amazing because she could play and sing at the same time. I said, "Oh, she can do it. I can do it," so I started working on that. Then I heard about this amazing inventor, a violin maker named Mark Wood, who makes a bunch of different styles of violin.
Jul 31, 2018
Permission to Dream BIG with Mitch Matthews Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Dream Job Redefined BIG Dream Gathering BIG Dream Gathering Facebook Page INTERVIEW: I'm going to share some stories I've never shared before. How about that? I’ll be sharing some stories connected with The BIG Dream Gathering, an event that you may have attended, maybe not. If you haven't, I'm going to get you information so that you can attend one in the future. We're doing them all across the country this fall and would love to see you at an event. But I want to share with you three stories that I've not shared before. Each one is going to have something that I've realized has been so important to me over the last few years. These stories will help you go after your dreams, get more clear on your dreams, stay with it on your dreams. Maybe just as importantly, they’ll help you to help someone else do that. Because if you're a DREAM THINK DO-er, you're all about dreaming bigger, thinking better, and doing more of the stuff you were put on the planet to do. By the way, I'll just put it out there, one of the stories is kind of embarrassing for me to tell you. That's why I've not shared it before. It's something my wife knows about. It's a business story, you can probably put it in the “embarrassing disasters” category, but I learned something that's guided me now and helped me grow my own business. But more importantly, what I learned from it, I've taught others. I'm excited about sharing these stories for a couple of reasons. Recently I've been doing a bunch of podcast interviews. Not for DREAM THINK DO, but on other podcasts around the world. People have found out about Dream Job Redefined my newest book. If you haven't gotten it, go grab it. It's available on Amazon. Because of that, I've been doing a bunch of interviews with some great podcasts; I love it. But in that book, Dream Job Redefined, I share about The BIG Dream Gathering. The event that we do around the country. The event that got started in my living room as a happy accident. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I'm very glad it did, and that's turned into something much bigger than I could've imagined. In doing these interviews for the book, I talk a good bit about The BIG Dream Gathering. I realized, as I was thinking back, here at DREAM THINK DO we're on our 187th episode, and I know I've mentioned The BIG Dream Gathering in passing sometimes. But I don't know that I've ever actually told the origin story of how it got started. I don't spend a lot of time talking about it on the podcast. So with this episode, I want to tell a little of the origin story of The BIG Dream Gathering. What it is, how it got started, all of that, but also three stories, again, that I haven't shared before. Some of the kind of timeless truth that I needed to learn, or at least be reminded of, as a part of those experiences. I want to share those with you now. Because I want to inspire you. I want to encourage you to get clear on your dreams and start to go after those at new levels. I think we all need encouragement to take a second and to permit ourselves to dream, and that's what The BIG Dream Gathering is all about. That's what this podcast is all about. You may be familiar with The BIG Dream Gathering. If you are, fantastic, I hope you've attended an event. If not, here’s what it’s about: The BIG Dream Gathering is an event that we do all across the country, it kicks off with a little keynote from me. I'm a storyteller, so I tell some stories on the front-end to get people thinking and get them a little encouraged. All of those things. Then we cut them loose to think about some of their dreams, write them down on sheets of paper; we call those dream sheets. Then we put them up on the walls, and go around and look at each other's dreams. We write on each other's dream sheets - words of encouragement, ideas, suggestions,
Jul 24, 2018
My guest today is Greg Layton. Greg is the founder of Chief Maker.  For over a decade, Greg has been a trusted advisor to CEOs and executive teams of multi-billion-dollar companies around the globe. He's the author of a the bestselling book, Chief Maker: How to Rise Above the Pack and Get a Seat on the Executive Team. He's also the host of a popular podcast called “The Inner Chief.” In addition, Greg has spent 15 years traveling the world to learn and master the world's foremost performance techniques. From living with Shaolin monks in China, all the way to racing in desert ultra-marathons, Greg has spent a lifetime studying the limits of personal endurance, as well as finding the best paths to mental strength and peak performance. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Chief Maker Book: http://bit.ly/2uusEOW Website: chiefmaker.com.au Save an Hour Video Series: chiefmaker.com.au/saveanhour INTERVIEW: Let's get to it, Greg. Welcome to DREAM THINK DO, buddy Mitch, thanks, mate. Great to be here. I love it, man. All right, so I want to talk about your book. I want to talk about the power of routine, all the stuff you do for managers and leaders. But it's my show, so I get to go wherever I want. And I want to go to the Shaolin monks you hung out within China. How the heck did that happen and what was that like? Well, it started out as a bit of a journey. One question I’ve had since the early days is, “Who out there is an outlier in performance?” I've seen the Shaolin guys on the telly and even at a circus kind of show once. I always thought they were out of this world. They were sticking swords in their bellies and all sorts of stuff, but it wasn't hurting them. So, who are these guys and how the hell do they do that? About six months later, I started doing Kung fu feverishly where I was living at the time. Six months after that, I found myself up to my knees in snow in the mountains in a remote part of China at a very small Shaolin Monastery and academy. I was welcomed into this little Shaolin school, and I can tell you now, it was like going back in time, it really was. The training was 1000 years old, and just nothing seemed to have changed. We trained 12 hours a day, every single day, dawn till dusk. We didn't just do Kung fu, which I found very interesting. They started off the day with Tai Chi and meditation. Even though Tai Chi is actually a form of martial art, the training is that it was a calming process and balancing the body and the mind and the spirit to begin the day. Throughout the day, we did everything from Qigong to power stretching and conditioning to Sanda, which is China's kickboxing, and also Kung fu. It was dedication to your art form all day, every day. You were there for three months? Three months. Yeah, three months. Interesting - I was never injured, and we did some crazy stuff. An example of one of the things I do is we did this thing called power stretching. I love to tell this story. Instead of a brief, gentle stretch, you get nice and limber and warmed up. And then you'd get into a splits position, with your feet out wide. You might. I don't. Yeah. I truly do. My first day there, I couldn't do splits. I don't know. I was reasonably flexible, but no, I couldn't do the splits. So, I'm in this vulnerable position with my feet out wide, and my hands on the ground. So, my back is parallel to the ground. And a guy comes in, and he starts sitting on my back because he thinks I'm not deep enough into this stretch. And then another guy, because now I'm finding that like a really difficult stretch, he starts kicking my feet up. Wow. It gets to be such a brutal stretch that I can't breathe. I'm in that much pain with the level of stretch; I can't breathe at all. I'm gasping. And then you actually at a certain point, you stop breathing. And then my shifu, my master who they've got a few key things there. One,
Jul 17, 2018
My guest is Calina Mishay Johnson. Calina, or Cal, has been doing some amazing work as an artist in Texas. She's been painting since she was a child, growing up in a small town in West Texas, with a population of 600. That's right, 600 people. After years of life-dealt hardships, Calina Mishay Johnson artistic style started to blossom as she gave herself permission to paint with reckless abandon. Her professional art career began back in 2012, as she started to focus on one-of-a-kind commissions. Then a few years ago, Cal expanded her work and started tackling urban street art, making these huge, amazing, freakishly cool murals all throughout Texas.  She's also infusing new life into these small towns where she's doing these murals. Heck, her next big dream, which I can totally get on board with is to complete murals on walls all around the world. So, maybe we DREAM THINK DO-ers can help her out with that. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: streetartbycal.wixsite.com/artist Instagram: instagram.com/Cal_calinamishayart INTERVIEW: Cal, welcome! Hi Mitch, how are you? That was an amazing intro – thank you. Let's talk about how this mural thing got started. Let's go back, and let's talk about when the art started. Were you an artistic kid? I was a weird kid. I loved nature; I loved being outside. Like you mentioned, I grew up in a small town. So, we had a lot of freedom. It's like being the last of the Mohican's before anyone had to worry about their kids playing. We were all over town. We built tree houses; I had animals growing up. It wasn't so much that I knew I was super creative, it was just that I would get sticks and make potions in my room. I was always building something. My dad says, "We'd wake up and then we wouldn't see you until it was time to go to bed." My grandmother saved a painting that I did, like an abstract painting when I was probably four. She had it professionally framed; she still has it professionally framed over her bed, until this day. She had that insight to see that I had that creative mind, it's pretty overwhelming. I love featuring weird people. I love that you said that. I'm so with you. There are so many people that I've talked with that whether it was a grandparent, or a parent, that saw something. And it probably didn't dawn on you fully back then, but to think about the seed that got planted when someone would take something that you did and put a frame on it, to honor that. How cool to think about that seed that got planted right there, and look at where it's gone now, is really cool. Calina Mishay Johnson was the first to say, "Hey, this was worth investing money into." It could have been a $10 frame from Hobby Lobby, I don't know, but at the time, now looking back on it, I think, "Wow! That's really special.” That's cool. I also liked to doodle, and I liked to draw, and I liked to make things, but it wasn't my everything. It wasn't like I was fully immersed. I went to a small school – no art department. It wasn't until a bunch of drama in my later years of high school when I dove into that gift more and more. http://instagram.com/Cal_calinamishayart That's amazing. I'd love to talk about that a little bit too. I saw a little bit of your story. I know that you tried to take some art in college, and you'd been experimenting with all kinds of stuff, your grandma had framed something, but you go to take a class in college and it didn't go so well. Tell us a little bit about that. Oh, man. Okay, first off, I was the first to go to college in my family. So, I went off by myself, I have an older sister, who has a gene disorder, so, used to run and play when we were younger, and then it slowly gets worse, and worse, and worse. Now she's in a wheel chair. Then my family situation fell apart a little bit. I left at a very volatile time to go to college, and I was doing it on my own.
Jul 10, 2018
This week, we have a returning friend, Howard Berger. You may remember Howard from episode 74 of DREAM THINK DO. He's an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning special effects artist. He and his KNB EFX Group have been involved with over 800 feature films and television shows… including the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, the Orville, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (which he won an Oscar), Hitchcock, and every Quentin Tarantino movie… just to name a few. The first film that he worked on was Aliens, and he did that the day after he graduated from high school. If you go to his IMDb page, you'll realize that he’s touched just about every horror movie that's scared the stuffing out of you the last 20+ years!  I can’t wait to talk again, so let’s get to this! Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: IMBD Page: https://imdb.to/2z3qVpt INTERVIEW: Howard, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO. Thank you so much. That was a good intro. It was definitely shorter than the last one. I think so.  The last time, I think I went about 10 minutes because the list is so long!  I knew I needed to keep this one under five minutes. I put it out to the DREAM THINK DO community that you were coming back. I said, "Alright, what would you ask Howard this time?" And we got flooded with some great questions, so I can't wait to pepper those in as we go. But what have you been up to lately? I’ve been busy with KNB, which this is its 30th year in existence. Greg Nicotero and I own it and run it for the last 30 years. I was talking with someone the other day about how we used to do all movie work, rarely TV. Now it's tons of television, be it Netflix, or AMC, or whatever it is. TV has become more of a creative venue for us than feature films to some degree. We love working on movies; it's a whole different animal too. But, it's been great. I started working on Seth McFarland's Sci-Fi drama comedy hit, the Orville. Then I got approached for a TV show called Legion. This was for season two. I signed on to that, then Orville went over. I had planned for two weeks off. I had three days. I had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I was on set Monday for Legion for the next several months, and then I went onto a film with Mark Wahlberg, a film called Mile 22 that's coming out August third. My wife Miriam and I just got back from Atlanta, where we shot Mile 22. I had four days off, and then started another movie with Mark. Kind of a family comedy called Instant Family that'll be out next year, I think Valentine's Day. We just finished, and I just got home, and I'm just getting acclimated to my house, my bed, my things that I haven't seen in seven months. Well, you know you've been away for a long time when you get to your own bed and go, "This is the best hotel I've been in for a long time." Yeah, you feel like you're on location in LA.   That's amazing. It leads into one of my first questions. So, you love what you're doing, but that's a tough schedule for anybody, whether you love what you're doing or not. How do you stay fresh when you're running a marathon like that? What are some of the things you do for Howard to cultivate creativity, to stay fresh as you're doing this? Well, I’m not getting any younger. I find that what keeps me going is I love everything I do. So, I'm always enthusiastic about the people I work with, and the projects I work on. I always try to have as much fun on everything as I can. But, on my days off, I like to not think about it, and I just need to decompress. I love spending time with my wife. We are big foodies. When we were in Atlanta, I literally would plan Friday, Saturday, Sunday because there are so many great restaurants in Atlanta. Oh, it's amazing, yeah. So, we had seven months of amazing restaurants. I think we ate at one restaurant three times. That was the most. I like just chilling and taking long walks,
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