Innerspace: Deep, Meaningful Conversations with Brett Kaufman

This week Brett re-releases a previous conversation with Dr. Amy Acton, the former Ohio Department of Health director who stood beside the governor every afternoon during the pandemic and told the state what she knew as she knew it. She is now the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, and Brett opens the episode with a few words on why he wanted this one back in front of people now.Amy grew up on the North Side of Youngstown as the steel mills went dark. She and her brother went without food, lived in a tent one winter and spent a summer in a basement. At twelve she told the truth about what was happening at home, which led to a police department, a grand jury and a courtroom. The last time she saw her mother, her mother turned her face away.She also talks about what she built from that. The books she carried home from the school library every day. The ten days in a hospital at age eight that made her want to be a doctor. The seventh grade move to a new school that changed her whole trajectory, and why that luck of the draw became her life’s work in preventive medicine. Brett asks her where the belief came from that she was smart enough, and she answers with the random school teacher, Charlotte’s Web, and wanting it badly enough to will it.From there they cover the Bronx during the crack epidemic, the panic attack that taught her she couldn’t just push through, the mentor who introduced her to preventive medicine, the decision to back her career down for her kids, and the lunch meeting where a governor opened with “tell me about your childhood.” Amy explains why she calls herself the Ted Lasso of politics, what was running behind the press conferences that nobody saw, and why she stepped down when she could no longer honor what she believed. The conversation closes on Rapid 5, the vision for 145 miles of Columbus waterway that she sees as public health hiding in plain sight.In Amy’s words: “I am a very ordinary person who found herself in an extraordinary moment in history.”

Gagan Timsina is a Columbus, Ohio real estate team leader and the founder of The Columbus Report. It’s a local media source he launched at just 22 and grew to nearly 50,000 followers in less than a year. He uses the platform as an incubation model for his real estate team, serving the community with useful information and turning earned trust into lasting relationships. His mission is to operationalize generosity and build a business grounded in proof over promise.Gagan came to the United States at five and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his parents took every odd job they could find. He was selling candy bars to classmates by fifth grade. He studied philosophy, got his real estate license while studying abroad in Florence, and then left college to build. When he set out to buy his parents a house in Columbus, every agent he found online was talking about themselves, and nobody was talking about the city. His first post on the city’s top developments took off. His team now runs pages for Cincinnati and Austin too.Brett and Gagan talk about why he leaves politics and crime off the page even though he knows they’d grow it, and kindness as a business model. They get into choosing fulfillment over happiness, and whether you’re climbing the mountain to see the world or so the world can see you. They also get into Brett’s take that what Gagan is chasing might already be right in front of him.Thinking about buying, selling, or relocating to Columbus? Connect with Gagan Timsina and the Timsina Team on Instagram at @the_columbus_report to start the conversation.Follow GaganInstagram: @the_columbus_report

Jeremy Miller came out of architecture school at Ohio State full of theory and history and short on practical skills, so he learned the trade from the ground up at Compton Construction. A decade there and seven years running his own practice led to GeoAlchemy Studio and Codex Homes, where he now leads a team of building scientists, building biologists, and architectural consultants designing healthy homes that heal instead of harm.Jeremy and Brett trace the path that brought him here. He spent time living in Peru, in adobe homes surrounded by temples built to align with the sun, and there he saw how much the spaces we live in shape our energy and clarity. They also talk about the park they built together in Franklinton, where the main path is aligned with the sunset on the winter solstice and 108 stones painted by local artists line the edge. As Jeremy puts it, “if we have to place the path somewhere, why don’t we be intentional about where we place it?”Jeremy also shares what’s next at Hickory Run, a 162-acre agrivillage built around a working regenerative farm. He talks about the old belief that everyone else was smarter than him, and the daily affirmation that keeps proving him wrong.Follow JeremyInstagram: @geoalchemystudioWeb: geoalchemy.studioHickory Run: regenfarmliving.com

Lindsay Hergott is the Founder and CEO of Alive + Awake, a TEDx speaker, writer, and leadership coach who has spent more than two decades working with founders and executives at the intersection of strategy, science, and spirituality. She began her career in management consulting at Kearney, left Bay Street for the world of human transformation, and trained in Compassionate Inquiry with Dr. Gabor Maté. Her debut novel, Playa Dorada, is a love letter to Costa Rica, where she has been rooted for over twenty years.Lindsay grew up in a small Northern Ontario town, the daughter of a physician who was rarely home, and learned early that attention came from performing and achieving. She married at nineteen, had four kids in six years, and built a global coaching practice while her husband built five tech startups. Then, standing on a red carpet while he was honored for selling his company, she was in the middle of a divorce. In her words, “We got the money. We got the kids. We got the exit, and it cost us everything.”Brett and Lindsay get into what she calls connected sovereignty, why she worked on herself before working on her marriage, the line between a healthy habit and a hidden addiction, and why the parts of herself she was once ashamed of turned out to be the parts she needed most.Playa Dorada launches next month. Learn more at @playadoradacr on InstagramFollow LindsayInstagram: @lindsayaliveAlive + Awake: @aliveandawake | aliveandawake.comPlaya Dorada: @playadoradacr

Jane Grote is the founding family member, Chief Purpose Officer, and Executive Chairwoman of the Board of Donatos Pizza and Jane's Dough Premium Foods, a $275 million family-owned restaurant operator, franchisor, and manufacturing company. She is the author of The Missing Piece:Doing Business the Donatos Way, was featured on CBS's Undercover Boss, and co-founded The Reeb Center, which raised $14.5 million and now houses 14 nonprofits focused on education and workforce development on the South Side of Columbus.Jane grew up behind her dad's first pizza shop, where customers waited for their pizzas in the family living room, and she earned her first Donatos paycheck at 11. After her family sold the company to McDonald's, she stayed on through the transition and slowly felt herself lose the courage to speak up. When the chance came, she led the effort to buy Donatos back while it was losing $7.5 million, and she credits the turnaround to one thing. "Our people just really truly started caring about what they were doing again."Brett and Jane talk about what it costs to lead with love when the pressure is on, why she stepped into the chair role so she wouldn't miss her daughters' games, why she calls family business "really messy and really magical," and the question her dad asks whenever things get hard: did you love your way through it?Follow JaneInstagram: @janeabellLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janeabellFacebook: facebook.com/janemabellWeb: janegrote.com