Claim OwnershipNotes for An Awesome Life with John Spence
Subscribed: 0Played: 0
Subscribe
© 2026 Familiar Wilsons Media
Description
Notes for an Awesome Life with John Spence takes you beyond the boardroom into the habits, reflections, and small decisions that can help you create more clarity, resilience, and balance in your life.
This show features one of the world’s top leadership thinkers, John Spence, named by the American Management Association as one of America’s Top 50 Leaders to Watch. John has lectured at more than 90 universities, including MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and Wharton, served as CEO of five companies, and advises organizations from startups to the Fortune 10.
But here, he’s not talking about business strategy. He’s sharing the principles, stories, and reflective tools that help people live more joyful, successful, and yes…awesome…lives.
Every episode delivers candid conversations about failure, resilience, and growth. You will also hear practical strategies to align your life with your values and stories that prove it’s never too late to design your life with purpose.
Follow now and start your journey toward an awesome life, one decision at a time.
14 Episodes
Reverse
Send us a text Ever notice how overthinking feels like responsible prep while quietly draining your energy and time? We go straight at that tension with John Spence, exploring how deep thinking tips into rumination, how to spot the shift in real time, and how to break the loop with simple tools you can use anywhere. If you’re ready to trade anxiety for action and build momentum one present moment at a time, this conversation gives you the framework and the prompts to start now. E...
Send us a text In this special listener driven episode of Notes for an Awesome Life with John Spence, John and Josh open the mailbag and tackle real questions from the audience. The discussion moves from the hidden dangers of “helpfully” putting butter away to deeper territory: mental flexibility, blind spots, wisdom, curiosity, work-life balance, honesty versus kindness, and what it really means to show up for the people you love. Along the way, John shares practical frameworks, personal ref...
Send us a text What if the biggest thing holding you back isn’t your circumstances, but the story you keep telling yourself? In this episode of Notes for an Awesome Life, John Spence and host Josh Wilson explore how personal narratives shape identity, behavior, relationships, and growth. From childhood conditioning and self-talk to reinvention, boundaries, and the courage to change, this conversation digs into why some stories linger long after they stop serving us. Together, they unpack how ...
Send us a text The Importance of Human Connection - Busyness, anxiety, and introversion are real, but they don’t change a foundational truth of being human: we are wired for connection. John and Josh dig into what happens when we ignore that need and why loneliness has become one of the defining challenges of modern life. Blending research, lived experience, and small daily practices, this conversation offers grounded insights and doable ways to create closeness that sticks. Email us: awesom...
Send us a text Failure sits at the center of every meaningful life change, yet most of us meet it with fear, shame, and avoidance. In this conversation with John Spence, we explore how to turn losses into leverage by focusing on what we can control and what we can learn. John grounds the talk in his own rock‑bottom college experience and the arc that followed: disciplined learning, better habits, and a deliberate mindset that trades rumination for reflection. The result is a practical f...
Send us a text In this week’s episode of Notes for an Awesome Life with John Spence, John and Josh break down what effective goal setting really looks like. John shares how to use SMART goals without overcomplicating them, how checklists create reliable progress, why imposter syndrome shows up even for high performers, and how a simple “two letter” exercise can radically increase your motivation. If you want practical tools to start the new year with clarity, purpose, and a plan you can stick...
Send us a text What if the most powerful change you could make is only a breath wide? We dig into the “gap” between stimulus and response, the tiny pause where you can trade impulse for intention, and show how gratitude and presence turn that pause into a lifelong advantage. John Spence shares how he went from breaking things in anger to asking himself one question: what would the ideal version of me do right now? We talk about the idea of the second arrow and other simple stoic principles th...
Send us a text In this episode of Notes for an Awesome Life with John Spence, Josh and John dive into one of the foundations of a truly “awesome” life: self awareness. John explains why emotional intelligence, especially self awareness and self regulation, is the starting point for better relationships and better mental health. John shares practical habits like daily reflection, values-based self-assessment, and rating different areas of your life on a 1–10 scale to stay aligned with th...
Send us a text John and Josh explore how our areas of daily focus shape our future and how small, deliberate choices can compound into a massive change of course towards a life of success and joy. John shares personal stories, practical tools, and a two-list homework exercise to align your time, relationships, and self-talk with your values. Email us: awesomelifenotes@gmail.com Learn more about John: JohnSpence.com Familiar Wilsons Media: FamiliarWilsonsMedia.com About John Spence: John ...
Send us a text Episode 5 - Envisioning Your Ideal Life What does your ideal life actually look like and how do you get there? John and Josh unpack a practical visioning process, talk about why “hope is not a strategy,” and then talk about maintaining boundaries, how to say no without guilt, all in the service of much needed self-care. Email us: awesomelifenotes@gmail.com Learn more about John: JohnSpence.com Familiar Wilsons Media: FamiliarWilsonsMedia.com About John Spence: John i...
Send us a text What is your mission, your reason for bounding out of the bed in the morning? John and Josh look at the importance of setting a direction for your life that aligns with you values and abilities. We explore purpose as a living, practical force, something you can define, test, and build into your day. Email us: awesomelifenotes@gmail.com Learn more about John: JohnSpence.com Familiar Wilsons Media: FamiliarWilsonsMedia.com About John Spence: John is a globally recogniz...
Send us a text John and Josh explore why clear personal values make hard decisions simple and how to align daily behavior with what matters. John shares the pitfalls of borrowed values, how safety and fear and recognizing what you can control play a roll in getting started, and an exercise to define, score, and live your core beliefs. Email us: awesomelifenotes@gmail.com Learn more about John: JohnSpence.com Familiar Wilsons Media: FamiliarWilsonsMedia.com About John Spence: John is a gl...
Send us a text What if “success” isn’t rich, famous, powerful but values lived daily and relationships that last? In this episode, John and Josh talk about defining a successful life, résumé vs. eulogy virtues, the importance of relationships and a deceptively simple definition of success: when your values and your actions match. Email us: awesomelifenotes@gmail.com Learn more about John: JohnSpence.com Familiar Wilsons Media: FamiliarWilsonsMedia.com About John Spence: John is a g...
Send us a text About this episode: John Spence is one of the world’s top thought leaders but he almost wasn’t. Before the accolades, before lecturing at MIT and Stanford, before helping people and businesses around the world…he failed out of college with a 1.6 GPA, was cut off from his family, and found himself sitting on a Gainesville curb realizing that no one else was coming to save him. That was the moment he decided to change everything. He took responsibility, rebuilt from the ground...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States