What's the Big Idea with Andrew Horn

Today’s guest is Bryan Franklin, one of the world’s top executive coaches, he shares his insights into what truly makes a great coach. Drawing on years of experience coaching high-level leaders and training the next generation of trusted advisors, Bryan explores the unique qualities and skills that allow coaches to guide their clients toward clarity, resilience, and personal evolution. Bryan reveals his approach to impactful coaching, emphasizing the importance of love, presence, and understanding multiple perspectives. He outlines how great coaches don’t just give answers—they create conditions that allow clients to access deeper truths and discover new pathways forward. Through captivating stories and practical advice, Bryan shares his core principles for effective coaching, from crafting authentic connections to embracing the complexity of each individual’s journey.

Today's guest is Jonny Miller, a nervous system specialist, transformational coach and host of the Curious Humans podcast. In this episode, Jonny dives into the science and practice of nervous system regulation, sharing how this foundational skill can help individuals manage stress, increase emotional balance, and perform at their best.  Drawing from his personal experiences and journey of growth, Jonny highlights how mastering the nervous system has been pivotal in overcoming emotional challenges and achieving mental clarity. Jonny explains how understanding the body’s stress response - along with tools to regulate it - can have a profound impact on how we navigate life’s demands, whether in the realm of entrepreneurship, sports, or creativity.  He breaks down the ways our nervous system impacts our ability to handle stress, recover from burnout, and build long-term resilience. He breaks down the science behind nervous system regulation and offers practical insights on how breathwork can help anyone handle stress, recover from emotional overwhelm, and build inner strength.

In this episode, we speak with Raz Ingrasci, the Chairman of the Hoffman Institute, about the life-changing impact of the Hoffman Process.  Andrew just completed the week long training on the day this podcast was recorded.  With over four decades of experience in human development, Raz explains how early childhood conditioning deeply affects our adult behaviors, often leading to patterns that no longer serve us. These patterns, rooted in the need to mirror our parents to secure love and survival, are referred to as "Negative Love Syndrome." Raz’s personal insights into the Hoffman Process and his decades-long experience working with thousands of individuals shine through as he shares practical tools for emotional healing and personal growth. He talks about how compassion, especially toward oneself, is the bridge to deeper self-understanding and long-term behavioral transformation. For anyone interested in emotional growth or those looking to break free from limiting beliefs, this episode provides an introduction to the power of compassion-based personal development. Raz breaks down the core of the Hoffman Process, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, self-compassion, and healing the relationship with our parents to unlock emotional freedom. Through practical techniques and exercises, individuals can break free from these negative patterns and begin to live more authentically.

Today's guest is Annie Lala. Annie is one of the top relationship experts and coaches on the planet. I am very fortunate to have called her my relationship coach through my 11 year marriage, my recent divorce, and now with my new partner Melissa. I would not be in the happy co-parenting relationship I currently an with Miki (my ex) without her love and support. She is truly world class at helping people to work through really difficult challenges and conflict in their relationships. She's a master at the technical and the practical.... the rituals, communication techniques that help people to stay in love and cultivate inspiring partnerships. She's also just plain brilliant. She's able to talk about the esoteric and the mental models of love and relationship, with a fluidity and mastery that is interesting and deeply inspiring. She is one of my favorite people on the planet. She's a genius when it comes to creating and sustaining a love filled relationship. So ,whether you are already in the relationship of your dreams, or you want to build one in the future, Annie can help.

These days, I only fire up the podcast for people who I believe to be truly world-class at what they do.   @jaysongaddis is one of those people.   His book “Getting to Zero” provides a practical framework to master conflict resolution in our important relationships.   Jayson offered up a ton of practical wisdom about how we can approach conflict consciously, tips for effective communication, and how to navigate the inner turmoil that challenges our personal fulfillment and growth.   Here are 📌4 key takeaways from our chat…   1. 🎯 Taking ownership: Jayson explained how approaching conflict with ‘ownership’ of actions is key to constructive outcomes. This involves stepping out of the victim mentality and acknowledging one's contribution to the situation, even when we think the other person is at fault.   2. 💡 Cognitive Empathy versus Feeling Felt: He shed light on the distinction between understanding someone’s feelings (cognitive empathy) and truly making them feel understood, emphasizing the latter's powerful impact in conflict resolution.   3. 📚 Inner Conflict Resolution: Jayson discussed the concept of inner conflict deriving from compromising our true selves for acceptance. He also provides practical outlets and practices to bring harmony to the inner and outer worlds.   LUFU - LUFU means that you make a commitment to Listen to the other person Until they Feel Understood. It is a simple way to sharpen your listening skills in high impact conversations.   If these snippets piqued your interest, tune into the episode for deeper insights and tips.   You’ll walk away from this chat with a new lens on difficult conversations. You will learn how to face conflict as an opportunity to grow personally and create deeper understanding in your important relationships.   Enjoy.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbuEYtvINQ

Valter Longo is an Italian-American biologist and gerontologist who is a professor of gerontology and biological science at the University of Southern California. He is the director of the USC Longevity Institute and the Program on Longevity and Cancer at IFOM (FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology) in Milan, Italy. Longo is known for his research on the biological mechanisms of aging, and for his work on fasting-mimicking diets, which he claims can promote health and longevity. He has written several books on the subject, including "The Longevity Diet" and "The Fasting Diet". Longo advocates for periodic fasting as a way to promote overall health and prevent disease. He believes that intermittent fasting, which involves limiting food intake to certain times of day or certain days of the week, can help reduce inflammation, improve metabolic health, and promote cellular repair and regeneration.   In today's episode, we focus on intermittent fasting. 

Jim McCann is the business leader, author, and philanthropist who founded 1-800-Flowers.com and grew the business from its roots as a single flower shop in Manhattan into the world's largest florist. With a passion for helping people deliver smiles, Jim transformed the flower and gift marketplace to help customers express themselves and connect with the important people in their lives.    Devoted to helping others, Jim founded the nonprofit organization Smile Farms to provide meaningful jobs to young adults and people with developmental disabilities. Jim also started the Connectivity Council, which brings together therapists, researchers, and thought leaders to share ideas and trends around human connection and community.

How have your friendships changed since COVID began?    How did your community shrink or expand?    Do you have more depth with less people?    If you want some help exploring these types of questions and the power of friendship in the age of loneliness, this is a great one.    - We explore the stats that break down the loneliness epidemic we are currently facing in America. - Tangible strategies for building friendships and community - Intro to facilitation and meaningful gathering - Two friends talking about the power of human connection

Michael Hebb is an innovative and influential cultural figure, entrepreneur and activist, described by the New York Times as an “underground restaurateur, impresario and provocateur.” He believes that the dinner table is one of the most effective (and overlooked) vehicles for changing the world. After teaching a University of Washington graduate course titled Let’s Have Dinner and Talk About Death, Michael started Death Over Dinner. This project was created as a gift, an invitation and a simple set of tools to help families and friends address the basic human fact that we are all, at some point, going to die. We suffer more when we don’t communicate our wishes, we suffer less when we know how to honor the wishes of our loved ones.  -- Michael is a partner at RoundGlass and the Founder of Deathoverdinner.org, Drugsoverdinner.org, EarthtoDinner.org, WomenTeachMen.org and The Living Wake. He currently serves as a Board Advisor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts; and in the recent past as Senior Advisor to Summit Series, Theo Chocolate, Learnist, Caffe Vita, CreativeLive, Architecture For Humanity, and Mosaic Voices Foundation .  In 1997 Hebb co-founded City Repair and Communitecture with architect Mark Lakeman, winning the AIA People's Choice Award for the Intersection Repair Project. In 1999 Michael and Naomi Pomeroy co-founded Family Supper in Portland, a supper club that is credited with starting the pop-up restaurant movement. In the years following they opened the restaurants clarklewis and Gotham Bldg Tavern, garnering international acclaim.  After leaving Portland, Hebb built Convivium/One Pot, a creative agency that specialized in the ability to shift culture through the use of thoughtful food and discourse based gatherings. Convivium's client list includes: The Obama Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TEDMED, The World Economic Forum, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative, X Prize Foundation, The Nature Conservancy. Michael is the founding Creative Director of The City Arts Festival, the founder of Night School @ The Sorrento Hotel, the founder of www.seder.today and the founding Creative Director at the Cloud Room. He served as a Teaching Fellow at the Graduate School of Communication at University of Washington. His writings have appeared in USA TODAY, GQ, Food and Wine and numerous other publications. Michael can often be found speaking at universities and conferences, here is his TEDMED talk. 

The Art of Charm Podcast is one of the most popular lifestyle podcasts on the planet with nearly 2.5M monthly downloads. You'll learn our top strategies to improve your career, confidence, lifestyle, and love-life from top experts like life and business-hackers. Andrew has always loved the AOC podcast because of their focus on communication, confidence and relational dynamics. On this episode he focused on emotional mastery techniques from his men's work facilitation, as well as his proprietary social flow framework for clear communication and unshakable confidence. 

Thom Bond is a thought leader, author, peace educator and mediation consultant. He is best known as the creator and leader of The Compassion Course, a comprehensive online training, that has served over 20,000 participants in over 130 countries, in four languages. Thom is a founder and the Director of Education for NYCNVC, The New York Center for Nonviolent Communication (a United Nations Civil Society Organization). He is the author of The Compassion Book, the founder of The Engineering Peace Project, and a former member of the Advisory Board for the Communications Coordination Committee for the United Nations (CCCUN). He is the author of "Shifting Toward Compassion" (theexercise.org), and "64 Days for Peace" an open source, online, self-led small-group curriculum.

Eldra Jackson III is a spiritual warrior who lives a passion of "saving lives one circle at a time." After living most of his life devoid of emotions and coming face-to-face with the reality of dying behind bars, he came to a point of self-inquiry, seeking answers as to how his life had spiraled into a mass of destruction set upon self and others. From this point, the space was made to save his life. Today, Jackson works to bring his spiritual medicine into the world while simultaneously guiding others to tap into their own internal salve and help identify wounds. Through his intensive awareness work, he is on a mission to show the world what's possible as each person does their own internal examination to begin the path towards emotional and psychic health.

Jackie Knechtel, M.A., is an executive coach/consultant, behavioral therapist, international speaker and pioneer in the area of flow. She is the co-founder of the Flow Consciousness Institute which holds cutting edge trainings, retreats, leads workshops and delivers transformational experiences worldwide. Jackie is also the co-author of the forthcoming book Flow: The Art of Effortless Living and is actively shifting consciousness on a global scale through her speaking, coaching practice and by blending science and spirituality into practical tools for living an enlightened life. Jackie has a background as an autism specialist with clients in NYC, Beverly Hills, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. She serves as an advisor for the Eve Branson Foundation, NomadX and AutismCodes and is currently working to revolutionize the therapy delivery model for special needs children and their caregivers with her vision, Spectra. Justin Faerman is an international speaker, serial entrepreneur and consciousness researcher working to create large-scale shifts in human consciousness, integrate high-level intuitional skills more deeply into the business world and everyday life and deliver solutions-focused media to a global audience. He is the co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine and the Flow Consciousness Institute and a sought after teacher, known for his pioneering work in the area of flow and the mechanics of consciousness. He has a diverse entrepreneurial background that includes pioneering exponential growth at green tech companies and building some of the world’s top conscious media publishing platforms and he currently serves as an advisor to a number of social-impact driven growth stage companies and is actively involved in multiple large-scale projects to re-imagine and re-engineer human sociocultural systems to create a sustainable, enlightened future for all life. 

Co-Founder of Evryman, Dan works with men to help them connect with those in their lives and help them lead more successful, fulfilling lives. Dan’s career has been wide ranging, but his core of adventure and human growth has always held steady. After college, Dan spent over 600 days as a wilderness therapy guide and led groups of struggling young men up mountains, down rivers, and across frozen lakes.  Along the way he absorbed and learned a ton about the process of mentoring and what it means to be a man in our culture today. Following Montana, Dan moved to New York City where he started teaching public high school in the Bronx while completing his masters degree, further strengthening his drive to help guide young men. From writing novels to assisting in the production of Netflix’s MeatEater, Dan is as his core a guide looking to assist men in becoming more emotionally honest. 

Houston Kraft is a professional speaker, leadership consultant, and kindness advocate who speaks at schools, conferences, and events internationally. He has spoken to nearly a half a million people at 500 engagements and counting. He is the co-founder of CharacterStrong - trainings and curriculums that create more compassionate cultures in schools and communities. He has been featured on the Huffington Post and highlighted by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. His messages about character, leadership, compassion, and kindness resonate with audiences age 5-95.

Justin McLeod is Founder and CEO at Hinge, the immensely popular dating app  that is designed to be deleted. He grew up in Louisville, KY and studied at Colgate University. After a few years in management consulting, he attended Harvard Business School and decided to follow his passion for connecting people. Justin founded Hinge in February 2011 with a mission to create real-life connections. As a romantic and the protagonist of a real-life love story, he was upset by the negative hookup culture dating apps had created so in October 2016, he relaunched Hinge to create a culture of thoughtful dating. Justin’s vision for a more thoughtful experience resonated with millennials and led to the company's user base growing 400% in the last year.

John O’Connor is a father, husband, Executive and Performance Coach living in New York. Many people think of him as the Fortune 500's best ket secret. Professionally, John has worked with thousands of clients over the past decade, working with top-performing CEO’s, entrepreneurs and people on a mission to create change in the world. He is a Certified Master Coach and Certified NLP and Brain Based Leadership Trainer. He leverages his unique multi-disciplined approach utilizing the unconscious mind to help people activate their potential and reach the next level in both their personal and professional lives. John offers 1 on 1 coaching, 1 day in-person deep dives, corporate workshops and is a lead facilitator of Men’s retreats for EVRYMAN. John actively competes in BJJ, is an avid snowboarder, has a meditation practice for the past 20 years.

Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a master facilitator, strategic advisor, and acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters. Parker has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India. Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Values Council and the New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (Riverhead, 2018) has been named a Best Business Book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. She has spoken on the TED Main Stage, and her TEDx talk on purpose has been viewed over 1 million times. Parker’s work has been featured in numerous outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, TED.com, Forbes.com, Real Simple Magazine, Oprah.com, Bloomberg, Glamour, the Today Show and Morning Joe. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Anand Giridharadas, and their two children.

Emily Fletcher is the founder of Ziva Meditation and the leading expert in meditation for extraordinary performance. Her book Stress Less, Accomplish More debuted at #7 out of all books on Amazon. The New York Times, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Vogue and ABC News have all featured Emily’s work. She’s been named one of the top 100 women in wellness to watch, has taught more than 20,000 students around the world and has spoken on meditation for performance at Apple, Google, Harvard Business School and Barclays Bank. Ziva graduates include Oscar, Grammy, Tony & Emmy award winners, NBA players, Navy SEALs, Fortune 500 CEOs and busy parents The Ziva Technique is a powerful trifecta of mindfulness, meditation and manifesting designed to unlock your full potential. It’s benefits include decreased stress, deeper sleep, improved immune function and extraordinary performance.

Peter Singer is an Australian ethical and political philosopher best known for his work in bioethics and his role as one of the intellectual founders of the modern animal rights movement, as well as the Effective Altruism movement. Author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save, Singer has devoted much of his time and effort (and a considerable portion of his income) to social and political causes, most notably animal rights but also famine and poverty relief, environmentalism, and reproductive rights. By the 1990's his intellectual leadership of the increasingly successful animal rights movement and his controversial stands on some bioethical issues had made him one of the world’s most widely recognized public intellectuals. Peter joined us on the show to celebrate the 10 year anniversary and republishing of his seminal work, "The Life You Can Save."