It’s one thing to survive a life-threatening illness, it’s another to thrive thereafter. Tom Nash had both his legs and arms amputated at the age of 19, the result of contracting the deadly Meningococcal Septicemia. Not that he let that stop him from achieving his goals for life. Today, he is a successful Australian DJ, a business entrepreneur, and an in demand speaker who has engaged audiences worldwide including nearly 3 million people who have viewed his TEDx Talk: The Perks of Being a Pirate.

In this episode, Tom shares his story of perseverance and how he learned to manufacture his own state of wellbeing and happiness as he relearned how to walk, play music, and pursue his dreams. Tom tells us why breaking his rehabilitation into steps and celebrating those small wins along the way was key to maintaining a sense of progress and control. He also shares humorous stories about differences between how young boys, girls, and adults interact with him in public.  Ultimately, Tom doesn't wish to be pitied or solely provide fleeting inspiration, but rather strategies others can use to enhance their own wellbeing. 

For more information about Tom Nash, go to tomnash.com or check out his Life Under the Lens video education series. 

On this episode we talk to David Nour, one of the world's leading experts on strategic business relationships. David introduces us to the concept of "Curve Benders" which are business relationships that dramatically influence our growth and development from a linear path to an accelerated "J" curve.

David discusses a 7 step process on how to meet your own "curve benders" as well as how to cultivate those relationships. We discuss the future of work and how adaptability and strategic business relationships are key to maintaining relevancy. David also helps us identify ways to quantify our current relationships in order measure how beneficial they are in taking our next best step as well as how to politely decline invitations to collaborate or meet.

Born in Iran, David Nour immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager with $100, limited family ties and no fluency in English. He found that in Iran, as well as in other parts of the world, it's customary to build relationships before doing business, but in the U.S., the opposite is true. This led him to become fascinated with building strategic business relationships, and became the foundation of his first book. Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on strategic business relationships. The author of ten books, including best-sellers CO-CREATE (St. Martin’s Press) and Relationship Economics® (Wiley), as well as his newest book, Curve Benders (Wiley, April 27, 2021), Nour serves as a trusted advisor to global clients and coaches corporate leaders and rising entrepreneurs. He is an adjunct professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, was named to the Thinkers50 Radar Class 2021, and Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership Professionals lists.

To connect with David Nour, check out his Nour Forum!

In this episode we talk with Peter Bregman and Howie Jacobson, Ph.D. about their new book "You Can Change Other People: The Four Steps to Help Your Colleagues, Employees - Even Family - Up their Game".  Peter and Howie discuss how to disarm others' defensiveness and increase their confidence to act, how to shift people from complaining to problem solving, and what to do when there are slip ups in the change process.

Peter and Howie take us through their four steps to helping others change: 

• Shifting from Critic to Ally
• Identifying an Energizing Outcome
• Finding the Hidden Opportunities
• Creating a Plan

We also discussed how to help people move on from feelings of shame or being demoralized by their inability to change.

Peter Bregman is the CEO of Bregman Partners. He coaches, writes, teaches, and speaks, mostly about leadership and about life. His sweet spot is as a strategic thought partner to successful people who care about being exceptional leaders and stellar human beings. Peter is recognized as the #1 executive coach in the world by Leading Global Coaches. He coaches C-level executives in many of the world’s premier organizations, including Citi, CBS, Mars, Showtime, AMC Networks, Allianz, Electronic Arts, Pearson, and Twilio, to name a few. He is also a ski coach on the weekends in the winter (but not the #1 ski coach in the world). Peter is the bestselling author of five books including Leading with Emotional Courage and 18 Minutes. His work appears frequently in Harvard Business Review, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Psychology Today, Forbes, CNN, and NPR. Peter created and leads the #1 leadership development program in the world, the Bregman Leadership Intensive, and trains leaders and managers on the Four Steps through the Bregman Leadership Coach Training program. Peter is the host of the Bregman Leadership Podcast, with over 1.5 million downloads. He has given four TEDx talks and regularly delivers keynotes for associations like SHRM and companies, including Coca-Cola, the Discovery Network, L’Oréal, Deloitte, and Fidelity, among others. Peter earned his M.B.A. from Columbia University and his B.A. from Princeton University. Peter lives in New York City with his wife, three kids, and new puppy, Maeve (his first dog ever). He reads, runs, skis, bikes, hikes, and tries to follow his own advice. More information can be found here: www.bregmanpartners.com.

 Howie Jacobson, PhD, is an executive coach to clients ranging from startup founders to established and rising Fortune 100 leaders. He is Director of Coaching at Bregman Partners, and Head Coach at the Healthy Minds Initiative. Howie is the author of AdWords For Dummies; co-author of Sick to Fit and Use the Weight to Lose the Weight, with Josh LaJaunie; contributing author to Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition and The Low Carb Fraud, both by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.; and Proteinaholic by Garth Davis, M.D. Howie’s writings have also appeared in Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. He hosts the Plant Yourself Podcast, where he interviews remarkable people engaged in healing at the individual, institutional, and planetary level. Howie earned his M.P.H. and Ph.D. in Health Studies from Temple University and his B.A. from Princeton University. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife, where he writes, gardens, plays Ultimate Frisbee, runs, fiddles, and loads the dishwasher correctly.