The Kevin Miller Podcast

I recorded this episode three years ago. Before I’d experienced the greatest traumas of my life. I make different meaning from the message now. The idea of recovering from a trauma or tragedy is different. To recover seems like getting back to “normal.” Back to where you were. But with my experience now, this is impossible. It’s like having adult kids and wanting to get back to when they were little. Impossible. You must recover to a new existence. My guest is Dr Neeta Bhushan. When Neeta was 16 her mom died. When she was 17 her brother died. Then when she was 19 her Dad died and she became caregiver for her younger brother. She “recovered” and started a successful cosmetic dentist business. She married and then divorced from an abusive marriage. She finally found some real recovery and later founded the Global GRIT Institute and cofounded the Dharma Coaching Institute. She has a very large following and a popular podcast, The Brave Table, where people tune in to hear her guidance on dealing with the hardships of life. I met Neeta after she published her book, That Sucked. Now What?: How to Embrace the Joy in Chaos and Find Magic in the Mess. We cover deep territory in regards to what resilience and recovery really is and how it differs for each of us, depending on...a lot. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is…to actually feel the rapture of being alive.” This is a quote by Joseph Campbell that kicks off the book by my guest in this episode. A key aspect of my personal and professional devotion is how we make meaning of life. You will be hearing much more from me about this in the coming weeks and months. In this episode I have with me Director of the Life Design Lab at Stanford, Bill Burnett. Bill is a guru of design. He worked at Apple designing laptops and spent years in the toy industry designing Star Wars action toys. But he’s been at Stanford, he says, “since dinosaurs roamed the campus.” Dave Evans is also a master designer and lecturer at Stanford and together they lead students in designing their lives. They recently co-wrote a book, How To Live A Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day. Bill joined me to discuss how we view meaning in life. Bill says, “Meaning is how we experience our felt response to an encounter that matters to us.” Bill and Dave literally go through steps to designing a meaningful life in their book, drawing from the same guidance they give students at Stanford, but I spend most of my time with Bill talking conceptually about how we perceive and pursue meaning. One thing Bill said that stuck with me and I’ve been discussing a lot, is that in his 40+ years at Stanford they are experiencing the loneliest student population ever, which correlates to what we are seeing in the general populace. So I interest myself with the correlation between both our feelings of increased loneliness and lack of felt meaning in life. Find Bill and Dave’s work at designingyour.life Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I seldom give focus to money in this podcast, and this episode has nothing to do with making more or managing your money. It’s on how we make meaning of money, which may dictate more about your money situation than anything else. And to that degree we are looking at how you feel about your money, more than whatever your situation may be. We all likely know people with lots of money who stress about it far more than some with very little. My guest in this episode helped me reposition how I think about money. Long ago we exchanged goods and service with each other. Today we do the same thing, but the exchange happens through money instead of the direct product or service. But of greater focus we are looking at our attitude towards money. My guest in this episode is a self-help legend and celebrity in Japan where he's sold nearly 9 million books about this topic. Ken Honda is the author of Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money. But it's not money Ken is concerned about, it's your happy soul. This is why he has most of his own country following him, and now is claiming hearts around the world, including now, America. He joined me via Zoom from somewhere near Tokyo and we just had a super sweet time together. Ken ultimately endorsed my book, “What Drives You, for the Japanese market. I think you'll find a significant paradigm shift in your perspective on money and a new hope for feeling better about it. I did. Truly. There are products and services we don't want to spend money on. Such as, we don't want to give $1,000 to a car mechanic to fix something that went wrong on our car. So we give the mechanic money with sad feelings. Sad energy. And the mechanic is on the receiving end of getting sad money. Would you like to change this perspective, as the customer and the mechanic? Ken is going to help. We start off addressing the common negative feelings many people have towards money, and turn it on its head. It's not money we are upset with. It's really the work we don't like and aren't proud of, that we are doing to earn money. It's more about how we are earning our money than the money itself. I think you will be so stoked with this episode you'll want to share it with everyone you know. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think the cultural perspective on optimism has decreased, even to the point of it being naive. It seems in vogue to be pessimistic and even cynical. The definition of optimism is, hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. So let’s consider the converse. In dealing with a challenge in your life, do you think your chances of being resilient and coming out with a best case scenario would be better served with a perspective and attitude of hopelessness and doubt? I thought of a surgeon. Would I rather my surgeon have hopefulness and confidence in my procedure, or hopelessness and doubt? Yes, we want them both to have skill. But I like this juxtaposition. My guest in this episode is Dr. Deepika Chopra. Deepika is a behavioral scientist and psychologist who specializes in what she has coined as, "evidence-based manifestation," which draws from behavioral science, emotional fitness, neuroscience, and ancient wisdom to build modern tools for resilience and joy. She holds a doctorate in clinical health psychology and completed a double postdoctoral fellowship at both the University of California at Los Angeles and Cedars Sinai Medical Center. She completed her formal dissertation on the topic of optimism, positive sensory visualization, and the connection to optimal well-being. She is a recurring guest on the TODAY Show, and her work has also been featured in Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, VOGUE, GOOP, Variety, E!, and more. She has led workshops for companies like Google, Amazon, and Amex, and has delivered keynotes at events including the Aspen Ideas Festival and The Atlantic’s In Pursuit of Happiness. But more than any of those accolades what I intrigued myself most with, is she has a sone with a severe chronic illness. An illness that is likely to see his life cut very short. When we first started our discussion I asked her how he was doing, and Deepika said he was doing ok. Today. She lives day by day with his very existence in the balance. And she has devoted herself to optimism. So much so that she’s now know as “The Optimism Dr.” Deepika has a brand new book titled, The Power of Real Optimism: A Practical, Science-Based Guide to Staying Resilient, Curious, and Open Even When Life Is Hard. Find her at thingsarelookingup.co Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I give much devotion to how we perceive reality, our emotions, and our identity. I find it is now what we perceive, but how we perceive that makes the difference in our life satisfaction. In this episode I sat down with business mentor, Michael Hyatt. I’ve known Michael for many years, he and my father were close friends and Michael flew down with Dave Ramsey to spend time with my Dad in his last days here on earth. I was grateful to be with them all that day. Michael truly has become a mentor to so many of the influential people I know in the business and self-improvement space and he is known for his tremendous discernment and insight into the root issues of success. I’ve had Michael on this podcast four or five times and this time we discussed the message in his book, Mind Your Mindset: The Science That Shows Success Starts with Your Thinking. We discuss the predominant cultural concepts on reality, and how much of what we want to claim is objective reality is not. It’s what we believe to be true and generally influenced by what we want to be true, but it’s not. The point is not to prove your reality wrong but to help us all be more mature and constructive with what we perceive…or think we perceive. And to also better understand other people in their own efforts to cope with their own perceptions.  Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are in the information age and I don’t believe there are any new topics and there is little, actual new information. But we can discover new insights and new angles and information that is more relevant for the current culture. And sometimes I just interest myself in an individual and their role within a topic and I want to hear their take on it. So with that said, in this episode I’m with Dr. Majid Fotuhi. Harper Collins, one of the world’s big five publishers sent me a galley copy, which is a pre-copy before the book is actually published, of Majid’s new book, “The Invincible Brain: The Clinically Proven Plan To Age-Proof Your Brain And Stay Sharp For Life.” I am very interested in brain health. I want to be cognitively sharp and able until my last breath. And I was interested in Majid’s background. He  earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and then his Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School, two institutions I greatly respect. Majid is currently an adjunct professor at the Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University, while also teaching at George Washington University and Harvard Medical School. With 37 years of experience in teaching, clinical practice, and neuroscience research, Majid is a pioneer in enhancing brain vitality and cognitive performance and he developed a “Brain Fitness Program” that targets lifestyle optimization and cognitive stimulation to improve memory, focus, and overall brain health. The program has delivered measurable success for patients dealing with memory loss due to aging, concussions, and ADHD.  Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, often referred to as the Grant Study, is widely recognized as the longest-running, in-depth scientific study of adult life ever conducted. I recently published an episode I did with the director, Robert Waldinger. The results of the study have now famously shown us that what most fulfills us in life is relationships. Of course not just any relationships, but the truly valuable and significant relationships of our lives. It’s proven very difficult to have such relationships, if we can’t effectively communicate with others. And by effectively communicate, we mean to actually connect in a meaningful way. So in this episode I bring you Renée Marino. Renée is a renowned Broadway star, singing, acting, and dancing in West Side Story, Pretty Woman, and Jersey Boys. Her lead role in Jersey Boys caught the eye of famed actor Clint Eastwood who took her from the stage and cast her for the lead female role in his film, Jersey Boys. Renée's livelihood is communicating. She must connect with and move the audience, and she's a master. Following Clint’s film, Renée turned her attention to the professional and personal world and is showing us the heart and skill of real communication. The kind that does just what Renée does on stage, on film, and in her personal life...truly connects us with others in a meaningful way that moves them to engage with us. I connected with Renée so much I had her come back and co-host a bunch of episodes with me, we co-presented at a speaking event together, and became good friends. Renée has culminated her methodology of communicating in her book, Becoming a Master Communicator: Balancing New School Technology with Old School Simplicity, which you can get anywhere and just search for Renée Marino and you’ll find her everywhere. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is focused on connecting with your body and soul through walking. Yes. Walking. Something I have had zero focus on my entire life. I looked at walking as a waste of time. But now I'm devoting near ⅓ of my exercise time to it. I am about to go out for a 2.5 walk with 45lbs on my back, right now. My guest here is Michael Easter who I’ve known about since 2021 when he published his book, The Comfort Crisis. In my peer group of people pursuing wellness, this book immediately became a mainstay and I resonated with the message hugely because I continue to question that our modern day conveniences have helped us at all. I think they have hurt us, and this is what Michael showcased in The Comfort Crisis. In that book he really helped put rucking on the map. Rucking is simply walking while carrying weight. It’s well known in the military, but now has become commonplace amongst us civilians. Here we discuss the physiological and psychological benefits of not only walking with weights, but simply walking. I feel that through walking, differently than running or mountain biking or other activities, I am connecting with me, and possibly benefitting my body more than with all my more extreme athletic pursuits. Michael’s brand new book is called, Walk with Weight: The Definitive Guide to Rucking. Michael Easter has built a remarkable career traveling the world in search of practical ideas that help people live healthier, happier, and more remarkable lives. I tune into hisTwo Percent blog weekly as do hundreds of thousands of other people to hear the latest findings from his extensive research and personal experimenting. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Research and surveys showcase that what we most value in our lives are relationships. Yet for all the teaching and training we get as we grow up, how to have healthy relationships is seldom a topic. And we often fall to the examples we are exposed to. In this episode we are looking at identifying unhealthy relationships, healing, and growing. This was the second time I brought Nedra Glover Tawwab. I first had her on with her book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace. This time is for her book, Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships. We dig deep into the relational issues that we all tend to just settle for and expect we have to endure long-term. Nedra is a New York Times best-selling author, licensed therapist, and renowned relationship expert. She has practiced relationship therapy for nearly 20 years. Nedra’s expertise is in helping people create healthy relationships by teaching them how to implement boundaries. Her philosophy is that a lack of boundaries and assertiveness underlie most relationship issues, and her gift is helping people create healthy relationships with themselves and others. Nedra has grown to be one of the most well-known, modern day therapists, you can find her on Instagram @nedratawwab with over 1.8 million followers. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author David Foster Wallace is credited with a story in a commencement speech, where he shares, "There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says 'Morning, boys. How's the water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says 'What the hell is water?'" We live in a culture where the expectation is to have absolutely everything.  And more. Obviously there is a material cost to everything. Money. And it takes time to make money. So we cost ourselves a lot of work to afford all the stuff. But regardless. Even if you win the lottery and can easily afford anything. Having stuff takes up our mental space, and I don’t think we consider this. I sure didn’t. I was just like the fish. Stuff? What stuff? I don’t feel I bought things needlessly. Or for status. I had a big family. If we felt we needed something? Get it. Maybe get two. If someone might need it, let's have it on hand. This had its value. But my gosh. There is just stuff. Everywhere. I ultimately felt so tied down by it all. So, my guest is Joshua Becker, the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website dedicated to inspiring others to find more life by owning less. His websites welcome over 1M readers each month and have inspired millions around the world to consider the practical benefits of owning fewer possessions and given them the practical help to get started. He is an international speaker and the #1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of several books, the newest of which is, Uncluttered Faith: Own Less, Love More, and Make an Impact in Your World. I am on a constant quest to…pair down. Yesterday, as of this recording, I accompanied two of my daughters in talking through everything in their rooms. Rooms I think most would feel were sparse. The result of questioning each item? Two trash bags and two boxes full of clothes and…stuff. And an entire big bag of trash. Feels like a breath of fresh air. Space to…contemplate. Create. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want to start off by asking a question I continually interest myself with. Do we really want to be happy? If I survey the culture, it looks like we very much want happy moments. The little jolts of dopamine from entertainment, food, drugs and such. But do we really want deep and abiding happiness in our souls? Because if we do, then our primary interest would be in relationships. But not just any relationships. I’m revisiting a conversation I had with Robert Waldinger. Robert is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital which has been going on for 87 years. His devotion is on what most equates to human happiness, and the answer is, relationships. But let me point out that Robert himself is a Zen master and teaches meditation around the world. Which is a focus on what I feel is our first and most important relationship. The relationship with ourselves. I have continued to grow in appreciation, not just for the message, but for Robert himself. If you have my book, What Drives You, you’ll see his endorsement. Roberts book, which is how I came to know of him, is, The Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study on Happiness. And you type in, “Robert Waldinger TED” you will find his TED talk, titled, What Makes A Good Life, that between postings on both YouTube and TED has over 80 million views. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you search as to why brain surgery is on the rise you will read it’s due to advancements in technology. Less invasive techniques, AI-guided imaging, and robotics—which have made procedures safer, more precise, and more accessible. But to me it begs the question of why we are in need of so much brain surgery? My feeling is I would rather not have my head cut into. At all. In this episode I’m joined by a friend. Dr. Lee Warren is a brain surgeon at the top of field. And he is here to tell us that the most effective brain surgery we can do is through our thoughts. But he is not giving some motivational speech. He is being completely literal. He takes tools and instruments to dig into the human skull and literally restructure the brain, and he says you can do more and better restructuring with your thoughts. He leads us in understanding that our thoughts are creating our brain structure. When we have the same thoughts over and over we strengthen and create pathways, and to a degree, at this level he can’t help you with any medical procedure. No surgery or resetting can overcome a concrete belief or fear you keep reinforcing. Lee’s new book is called, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery: Connecting Neuroscience and Faith to Radically Transform Your Life. I’d encourage you to pull the book up on Amazon and click “read sample” and just peruse the contents and see his “10 Commandments of Self-Brain Surgery.” This alone will either inspire you or show you that you don’t want to take the level of personal responsibility Lee is calling us to. Search for Dr Lee Warren and you will find him everywhere. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ultimately, the research shows what we all most want is love. To be desired past the point of like, and actually loved. And to receive the resulting affection, devotion, care, and commitment. Yet the research also shows that overall, we are not super successful at achieving and maintaining healthy relationships. My guest today feels we define love incorrectly and we pursue it errantly. Humble The Poet is a Canadian-born rapper, spoken-word artist, poet, international bestselling author, and former elementary school teacher. He began reciting spoken word poetry in coffee shops to impress girls and now has four books. He has a huge social media following and uses his platform to help people learn and grow and…love. His book that caught my attention is How To Be Loved: Simple Truths For Going Easier On Yourself, Embracing Imperfection & Loving Your Way To A Better Life. I really resonated with the book, which is why I invited him onto my podcast. Humble headlines the concept of his book with, “Love doesn’t have to be earned or found, it has to be realized.” I think the discussion will challenge your paradigm on what love is and how to better realize it. Find the book and all he’s involved with by searching for Humble The Poet. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Smith is a friend of mine. He runs Potter’s Inn, which provides soul care. Much of Steve’s time is spent with people running large organizations, from mega church pastors to Fortune 500 CEOs. People who as Steve says, live much of their lives in the white water of life. And living this way takes a toll on your soul. Years ago, I actually argued with Steve. I said I was living in a way to keep myself strong so I could endure the constant white water. And I did. Until I couldn’t. Until I burnt out and caused plenty of collateral damage in my life. Recently Steve sent me a book of poetry he had written. He’s published many books, but with poetry he feels he can say more with less. The book is called, Greening: Poems In The Unfolding Of Our Lives. And the focus is on unfolding through the seasons and reasons of our lives. Steve has walked intimately with so many people. Dramatically successful people as our culture tends to define success. But Steve walks with them as their lives unravel and their identities unfold. In recent years, Steve has had some losses and gone through his own unfolding. As my own life has unfolded, I brought Steve on to discuss some of the concepts of his poetry book, and his life experience. Greening is a term he relates to our flourishing, vitality, well-being, and emotional health. As a speaker, spiritual director, and author, Steve offers soul care and spiritual care through many avenues. Find him at pottersinn.com Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes a story comes along that challenges my perspectives at a core level. As a father, I took great responsibility in instilling self-worth into my children. And, I still had kids who struggled with their self-worth. I feel our culture as a whole is more insecure than ever. My guest in this episode is Peter Mutabazi, and he found his self-worth after a childhood that gave him zero access to any concept of it. Peter was born out in the boonies of Uganda in what can hardly be described as a home. He was routinely beaten by his father and treated like a stray dog. Or worse. Treated like trash. He ran away at age 10 for fear his father would finally kill him. He made it to the city of Kampala where he lived on the streets and slept in the sewers. Literally. It was so disgusting in the sewers nobody would venture there, which meant it was the only place he could find safety. He lived as a street kid where he only ate every few days, he never slept in a bed, rode in a car, or had shoes. But at age 15, someone befriended him and gave him a chance. Today he lives in America where he fosters and adopts children and runs an organization he founded called, Nowiamknownfoundation.org where his goal is to encourage and affirm marginalized and abandoned children. He wrote a book titled, Now I Am Known:  How a Street Kid Turned Foster Dad Found Acceptance and True Worth. My focus was on how Peter could come from such dramatic abuse, abject poverty, and zero exposure to any nurturing or support, and not only find his self-worth, but then serve others in finding their self-worth. And be at peace with this world that he found so much pain from for the first 15 years of his existence. What could we learn and apply to ourselves? Find Peter on Instagram where he has nearly 900k followers @fosterdadflipper Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a dive into the awakening of self-awareness and a connection to what really matters in your life. This has been my journey over the past few years as I've unraveled my identity from what I do and achieve and learned to embrace who I am being aside from any doing or producing or achievements. My guest is a kindred spirit in working themselves to the bone to prove their worth to themselves and everyone else. Jen Fisher a global authority on workplace wellbeing, the bestselling author of Work Better Together, and the founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Team. Jen was Deloitte US's first chief wellbeing officer who pioneered a groundbreaking, human-centered approach to work that gained international recognition and reshaped how organizations view wellbeing. From her personal experiences with burnout and cancer to her role as a trailblazer in wellbeing intelligence Jen has dedicated her career to helping people thrive—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Jen has a new book titled, Hope Is The Strategy: The Underrated Skill That Transforms Work, Leadership, and Wellbeing. As you're about to hear, Jen shares, “My identity had slowly merged with my output and I became what I produced." She realized she had no real hope in anything so she just worked to stay busy, filling the void with production and accomplishment. She was languishing in performance with profound emotional emptiness. Finally, she says, “I began to understand that productivity is a tool, not a purpose; that work is a part of life, not its meaning; that doing is important, but being is essential." Today she focuses on doing less, but doing activities of more value, and questioning what all she is doing for external validation alone.  Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are a world that devours stories. Most people tune in every night to be taken in by the stories others are living or they have created, and the vast majority of these stories are centered about a grand cause. The action and adventure movies and dramas we love so often showcase someone encountering a cause and devoting themselves to it. A cause. Something bigger than themselves that involves protecting or supporting the welfare of something or someone else. Finding and having a cause is often the most profound aspect of a life well lived. But we don’t seem to grasp how finding a cause works. We tend to think of learning and training and preparing, so that we can commit to something truly big and worthy. A grand purpose. A cause. My guest today argues, in the most compassionate way possible, we have it backwards, and that the greatest people ever known simply committed to something they believed in, and the journey within it is what made them great. It crafted and honed them. The challenge and trials and triumphs along the way is what refined them. Then the charge is not to commit to preparation, but to commit now and let the commitment prepare you along the way. Lynne Twist is a recognized global visionary and legendary humanitarian. Lynne wowed the world with her first book, The Soul of Money, but I had her on my show for her book, Living a Committed Life: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself. Lynne’s own story began when she heard about the The Hunger Project where their goal was to end world hunger, and knew she was supposed to devote her life to it. She spent a decade there and has influenced more people through more humanitarian efforts than nearly anyone. Lynne has been an advisor to the Desmond Tutu Foundation. The United Nations honored her with a “Woman of Distinction” award. From working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta to the refugee camps in Ethiopia and the threatened rainforests of the Amazon, Lynne’s on-the-ground work has brought her a deep understanding of the social tapestry of the world and the historical landscape of the times we are living in. Over the past 45 years Lynne has worked with over 100,000 people in 50 countries in the arenas of fundraising with integrity, conscious philanthropy, strategic visioning and having a healthy relationship with money. Find Lynne Twist’s book, “Living a Committed LIfe” anywhere, and connect with her at Soulofmoney.org. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I feel we are in an age of trust. A desire for trust, and a lot of distrust. Right now you are listening to this podcast. Outside of podcasts that are news or entertainment, I see people tuning in to listen to hosts that they look to for…trust. You would not be listening here and now if you did not have a level of trust in me. And I see this as good and bad. As of this recording I am headed to a podcast convention where they are inducting my Dad, Dan Miller, into the Podcast Hall of Fame. He’s being inducted by Dave Ramsey and my family and I are receiving it and I’m giving the acceptance speech. I’m incredibly honored. But Dave Ramsey. He’s a celebrity who got famous for his guidance on money. Today however he has massive trust from a huge audience who looks to him for guidance on about everything. And I see a cultural who is erroring on over-trust. And I feel it brings up the question of how much we trust ourselves. So in this episode I have Dr. Shadé Zahrai with me. Shadé is a behavioral researcher, peak performance educator, and leadership strategist for major global companies, with a PhD in organizational behavior. She is known for helping organizations and individuals build confidence and overcome self-doubt through practical strategies drawn from psychology and neuroscience. Shadé has a new book that compiles her findings, Big Trust: Rewire Self-Doubt, Find Your Confidence, And Fuel Success. She walks us through a proven framework of Acceptance, Agency, Autonomy, and Adaptability, and helps us reveal and reframe limiting beliefs, quiet imposter thoughts, and reclaim our inner strength. Whether you’re second guessing a big decision, overthinking in high-stakes moments, or feeling stuck despite knowing you’re capable of more, Shadé has developed practical steps that lead to powerful, lasting results. You can find Shadé at bigtrustbook.com and do a 12 question self-diagnostics on your level of trust and self-doubt. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the world of self-help and psychology there are people who have made certain topics a household term. Gary Chapman made love languages famous. Henry Cloud is the grandfather of boundaries. Eckhart Tolle helped us conceive of the ego. And Melody Beattie is why we know about codependency, due to her classic tome, Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself. I was so honored to have an audience with Melody to discuss the book for a revised edition, just a few years ago. Since we talked, Melody has actually ended her time here on earth. But, her message lives on. Melody is literally cited as one of the pioneers of the self-help movement. This breakthrough book of hers still remains the resource on codependency. Newsweek named Codependent No More one of the four essential self-help books of all time. Melody actually added a chapter on trauma to this revised edition and it went right to the top of the best seller charts, once again. As a human, can we even be completely non-codependent? I’m not sure, but by becoming aware of the signs and habits, we can surely mediate and mitigate codependency in our lives to a great degree. As humans we innately look for the A’s from other people;  approval, affirmation, attention, and acceptance. How codependent we are relates to how much we need those A’s to feel ok about ourselves. It’s nice to get them, but are we ok without them? Can we be at peace without desperately needing positive feedback and reinforcement from other people? The answer is yes and this show will discuss how. When I asked Melody about her own life and any regrets, she flatly stated, “I regret that I've spent much of my life ragging on myself for not being enough.” This is a thoughtful, pondering discussion with Melody where her compassion for herself and others will pour through. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I experience our culture growing more and more fearful of unexpected and undesired change. If you were to look back on your life and make a list of all the unexpected and undesired changes you have experienced in your life, I bet it’s fairly long. I would ask you to consider why you think many more unexpected and undesired changes aren’t ahead of you. But what I see is that when you have anxiety about the possible, and I’d say probable changes ahead of you, you are taking away from your ability to have joy and fulfillment today. I find myself looking at two perspectives. One, none of the unexpected and undesired changes in my past have killed me. They haven’t ruined me. And two, I amaze myself to think of how many of those unexpected and undesired changes actually turned out to be great, great gifts to my life. To unpack the psychology around change, in this episode I have Maya Shankar back on the podcast. I first had Maya on for the launch of her podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, which Apple awarded as the Best Show of the Year 2021. After four years of the podcast, Maya has now culminated her findings and experience in a book, The Other Side Of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans. Maya says, "I’ve written this for anyone who is currently in the choppy waters of  a change, is trying to make sense of a past change, or is anxious about  a future change." Maya is a cognitive scientist and was a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team. She also served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations. Maya has a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience from Stanford, a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a B.A. from Yale. She's been profiled by The New Yorker and been the featured guest on NPR's All Things Considered, Freakonomics, and Hidden Brain. All that to say, she knows the psychology behind change and is here to help us, help ourselves. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices