The Get Better Podcast

Robb’s life has been remarkable – filled with failures and success, loss and recovery, and incredible opportunities for growth and awareness.  He’s failed at business, lost a spouse to illness and his son to gang violence.  All gifts, he will tell you, as he continues to embrace fatherhood, create space to experience true love and enjoy sustainable success in his business endeavors. In all this, he communicates a powerful message that elevates the human spirit and instills hope in others that they may finally live lives of passionate purpose. Robb Braun has also offered his newest book to our audience for $.99, which is available via Amazon here.

Dolly Chugh is a tenured professor at the NYU Stern school of business as well as an author, and public speaker. Dolly focuses on the idea that we can all be 'better' people by simply adopting the notion that we should not strive to be perfect, but rather just strive to be 'better-ish'. The basis of Chugh's latest book focuses on what she knows best, bias. Bias is the idea that triggers our preconceptions, behaviors, our actions, and ultimately determines how we operate throughout life. Dolly's influence has spanned across the media and throughout the business world as well, appearing at Fortune 500 companies, presenting at TED, and influencing folks like the COO of Google Ventures to not only advocate her, but also contribute to her latest book. Join us for a great journey where we take the opportunity to here what she brings to the table for all of us trying to just be better-ish. 

This week we spoke with Dr. Ralph Napolitano, a chiropractor and restaurateur from the Bronx, NY. Ralph is just a regular hard-working guy on the surface who happened to grow up with some very strong values. Most of these values were instilled while growing up in a very traditional "New York-Italian" family, and spending much of his childhood either on the stoop of his apartment building or in the multi-generational restaurant his family has owned and operated since the early 1900's. Even as solid a foundation as Ralph had, when trouble met paradise for Ralph, he got lost and desperately searched for an understanding to his situation. He discovered social media, and began using Twitter to send messages containing some of those same values out to the world, but mostly so he could hear them once again. The public, especially the younger generation of folks responded overwhelmingly. They embraced Ralph's messaging, spring-boarding him to self-brand himself into a broadcaster of 'old school values' specifically focused on having grit and 'mental toughness'.

This week our focus is on the spiritual sphere and we speak with Matt Gomez aka The Jaguar Shaman. Matt explains his own journey searching for healing and improvement to his discovery of shamanism which eventually led him to become a student of a shaman. He furthered his interests to becoming a shaman himself, spending his time helping others to find their own spiritual 'advisors' and help folks improve their lives and find purpose. 

Life is full of surprises as we all are aware of. Jeremy went from a 'normal', functioning person juggling a career and family to becoming almost completely paralyzed in just two weeks. The outlook was bleek, and he was unsure if he would ever walk again or even regain his ability to use his hands or fingers. Jeremy's good friend, Larry B joins the show today to talk to us about Guillaine-Barre (GBS) and how the condition has affected Jeremy's existence. We will hear his own perspective on the struggles to recovery as well as his basis for launching this podcast.#gbssurvivors #gbscidp #GuillainBarreAwareness #gbswarrior @gbscidp

Kate Allan has suffered a long and tremendous battle with anxiety, depression, and suicidal 'ideation' since childhood. These components of her existence have shaped Kate and created some deep-rooted challenges in her lifetime. Kate however, decided to find an outlet to better herself and share not just her dilemmas, but also an amazing amount of inspiration for herself and others through illustration. Kate has authored several books to date, and maintains an enormous following on many social media platforms. Kate is turning an obstacle into an opportunity and she joins us on the podcast this week to discuss her journey, and her work.

We make a multitude of decisions in our daily lives every day. Some decisions are made with little or zero thought, while others are complex decisions which require enormous amounts of data and require tremendous brain power. These decisions simple or complex, are also influenced by a number of factors including our emotions, the people around us, the media, as well as how we were raised to name a few. Daniel Krawczyk is Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and holds the Francis Chair at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is the acting Deputy Director of the Center for Brain Health in Dallas. He is also Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dan joins us today to speak about his work, lending some perspective based on his work in reasoning and decision-making  through an approach that combines neuro-imaging, cognitive psychology, and human neuropsychology. He has investigated the neural basis of reasoning in healthy adults, adolescents, and individuals with disorders including dementia, brain injury, and autism spectrum disorders. His work has focused on reasoning by analogy and metaphor comprehension.

Fred Stuvek, veteran, Pennsylvania Hall of Famer, former CEO of a major corporation he took public and now author joins us to talk about the fundamental pillars of success. Fred talks to us about what personally shaped his own success, his approach, and offers us some insightful advice on the same steps he outlines in his book, It Starts With You. Join us today for an hour of compelling discussion about achievement, success, and approaching situations by developing your own personal belief system. Other topics we focus on include how to avoid ‘avoiding’ our own problems, becoming disciplined, and developing a strategy to plan your own success. Find Fred at itstartswithyou.net, on twitter @fstuvek, and Instagram FredStuvek. This episode is available for download at getbetterpodcast.com.

This week on the Get Better Podcast we talk to Jonathan Pritchard. Jonathan is an award-winning author, public speaker, and magician who has performed for millions. He’s been the opening act for the legendary Penn & Teller and hearing Jon talk, it’s easy to see why he has been so successful at understanding people.  Jon talks to us about an approach we can all consider to transform ourselves. He lends his own personal insight on understanding how he emotionally capitalizes his own life through techniques he’s developed to better understand challenges we all face in life, and how to improve taking personal stock around the decisions we choose as well as the people we choose to maintain relationships with. 

THIS EPISODE IS DEALING WITH THE CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES OF LIFE, BEING HUMAN AND OF COURSE ‘GETTING BETTER’. SO HOW DO WE GET BETTER AT LIFE? EVERY DAY WE WAKE UP AND DEAL WITH A PLETHORA OF PROBLEMS, INABILITIES, AND THINGS WE LACK OR BELIEVE WE LACK. WE GO ABOUT OUR LIVES OFTEN COMPENSATING; WE PUT ON A PRETTY FACE AND IGNORE THE MISSING ITEMS OR PROBLEMS AND WE OFTEN DON’T DO A VERY GOOD JOB TO ADDRESSING THESE THINGS. SOMETIMES EVEN JUST SEEMINGLY LITTLE THINGS FESTER INTO GINORMOUS THINGS THAT TAKE OVER OUR LIVES, CONSUMING US. OTHER TIMES WE ARE IMPACTED BY A POLARIZING SWING IN OUR EXISTENCE; MAYBE WE BECAME INJURED OR SICK; MAYBE WE LOST SOMEONE THAT MEANT EVERYTHING TO US; MAYBE WE LOST OUR JOB, GOT BERATED BY A FRIEND, OR CRASHED OUR CAR. THIS EPISODE IS NOT NECESSARILY GOING TO BE ABLE TO ABSOLUTELY SOLVE FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE BUT WE’RE GOING TO TRY AND GIVE YOU SOME TOOLS, METHODOLOGIES, THINGS TO THINK ABOUT THAT CAN HELP YOU APPROACH AND REACT TO SITUATIONS WITH A BETTER OUTCOME.