Today we talk to Greg Bennick. He’s a punk rocker, activist, documentary filmmaker, philanthropist, keynote speaker, juggler and expert coin collector. He’s also written a new book, Reclaim the Moment: Seven Strategies to Build a Better Now.

I could have talked to Greg for an hour about any one of these parts of his life - he’s got a way of making everything that interesting. We talk about Seattle’s teen dance ordinance, a real-life Footloose law that he helped overturn. We talk about how punk music is really just love songs. And we explore the central themes that tie all of his various pursuits together.

If you ever struggle with focusing on what matters, finding your purpose or trying to figure out what makes you special in this world - this conversation is for you.

Connect with Greg:
Website
Instagram
LinkedIn

Key Takeaways:

1. Changing the system from within: Greg’s involvement in overturning Seattle’s teen dance ordinance showcases the power of grassroots advocacy and persistence when making changes from within the system.
2. Straight edge movement: Explore a subgenre of punk that emphasizes a lifestyle free of alcohol and drugs that is centered around the love of music..
3. Majestic failures: Nobody advertises their failures. But behind every best-selling book or successful keynote speech are dozens of failures that paved the way for the success everyone sees.
4. Re-inventing yourself throughout your career: Your journey is unique. You have more to offer the world than you think. Deciding what to do next in your career is not about what, but why.
5. Focus and Balance: Strategies to maintain focus and balance in a world filled with distractions, as discussed in Greg’s upcoming book, “Reclaim the Moment.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Podcast: Let the Kids Dance (KUOW & NPR) – A deep dive into the history of Seattle's teen dance ordinance.
• Books:
  • Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
  • Art and Artist by Otto Rank
  • Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Upcoming Book: Reclaim the Moment: Seven Strategies to Build a Better Now by Greg Bennick

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Today, we talk to Peter Laughter. Peter is an expert in crafting stories and coaching people to find purpose in their lives and in their work.

Peter talks about how growing up with dyslexia and ADHD drew him to storytelling as a way to cope with the world around him. He also shares practical tips on building your storytelling muscle to connect emotionally with people in a way they’ll never forget.

Then we talk about purpose - you know, that thing you’re supposed to have that gives your life meaning? Peter believes you already have one, everyone does - it’s simply a matter of revealing it. And once you know it, all the big decisions in your life that you’re struggling with - around your career and relationships - become much simpler.

Finally, we explore the crisis leaders face today with the lack of engagement most people feel at work. If leaders really care about tapping into the creativity of their teams, they need to abandon traditional hierarchies and push decision-making out to the farthest reaches of the organization.

Takeaways

• The Power of Names: Names carry profound meaning and can shape our identities and interactions with others.
• Storytelling as Connection: Storytelling is a tool for creating deep emotional connections and fostering empathy.
• Reinvention and Purpose: Navigating career transitions requires a clear sense of purpose and the courage to explore new paths.
• Non-Hierarchical Organizations: Shifting from traditional hierarchies to distributed authority can unlock innovation and engagement.
• Experimentation in Leadership: Starting small and experimenting with new approaches can lead to meaningful change in organizations.

Resources:
The Moth
Adam Wade's Storytelling Classes
Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux
Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
Chip Conley - Modern Elder Academy

Connect with Peter:
LinkedIn
X
True Bearing
Peter’s TedX talk on Radical Empathy

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Today we talk to Kelsey Ramsden. Kelsey is an entrepreneur, author and speaker but if you ask her, she’d say she’s a creator. By 26, Kelsey was running her own construction company and was ranked the top female entrepreneur of the year by Profit magazine - 2 years in a row. Yet despite the financial success and industry accolades, she had never felt so depressed and alone.

Kelsey is vulnerable and honest as she shares her struggles with mental health and how a psychedelic therapist helped her find the clarity she needed. Since then in typical Kelsey fashion, she’s gone on to start two new companies on the forefront of psychedelic mental and sexual health.

We talk about the misconceptions around psychedelics, the growing body of research for treating depression, anxiety and opioid addiction - and how getting easy access to legalized therapy is closer than you think.

Connect with Kelsey
Website
LinkedIn
Play is the new PHD: Kelsey Ramsden at TEDxKelowna
Book: Success Hangover: Ignite your next act. Screw your status quo. Feel alive again

Takeaways

• You don’t need to know your purpose. You can stay open to opportunities and take what comes. But if you always go with the flow, you can end up in a place that crushes your soul.
• Some of the most tragic parts of our lives are required education.
• Nobody learned to ride a bike without skinning their knee. Yet somehow as adults, we’re taught to expect success the first time. The only failure is not jumping.
• Psychedelic research has shown amazing promise for depression, anxiety, PTSD and opioid addiction.
• Legalized psychedelic therapy is coming. MDMA therapy could be legalized in parts of the US in the next 12 months.
• If you’re interested in exploring psychedelic therapy, rely on trusted sources of information and ask targeted questions to find the right facilitator.

Resources
Tim Ferriss Podcast - For discussions on psychedelics and mental health.
"How to Change Your Mind" on Netflix.
Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Today, we talk to Sylvia Baffour. Sylvia is a keynote speaker on emotional intelligence and has worked with leaders in 460 major corporations to help them better connect with their teams and customers. She was voted one of the top 15 female inspirational speakers alongside Mel Robbins and Oprah.

Sylvia’s early journey was already unique and inspiring but it was a chance meeting with writer and activist Dr. Maja Anjelou that launched a life-long relationship that shaped her life.

We dig into what emotional intelligence is and what leaders need to do better if they really care about the culture they’re building.

But probably my favourite takeaway - the power of curiosity. How it’s the secret to making people feel heard and creating a lasting emotional imprint on those around you.

Connect with Sylvia
Website
LinkedIn
Instagram

Takeaways

• EI is not a soft skill. It’s a basic human skill.
• Leaders destroy their company culture when they can’t make people feel heard.
• Ask yourself, “Are people craving my presence or craving my absence?”
• Small daily routines can help build emotional intelligence so you can have the impact you want on others.
• When creating, your best friend is curiosity. Judgment is the enemy.
• Public speaking scares a lot of people. But any speaking you do outside the privacy of your own home is public speaking.
• A mentor is someone that believes in you more than you believe in yourself and speaks your name in rooms you’re not in.

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Today, we talk with Kerry O’Brien. Kerry is an expert in how people learn. He’s also a podcaster and public speaker devoted to helping people build new skills and strong teams. You’re going to leave this conversation with new ideas on how to ignite engagement in your customers, your teams and the people around you.

We talk about the misconceptions about Gen-X, Gen-Z and millennials; and that the one thing that never changes is the science behind how people learn. If we can let that be our compass, we engage people as individuals and give everyone the choice to learn in a way that works for them.

We also talk about virtual teams, and that the #1 thing most of them are missing - trust. It doesn’t happen as easily when we’re apart, so Kerry talks about how we can create micro-opportunities to build this trust in one another over time.

Finally, we talk about the fear of failure. We share embarrassing fails from our early childhood, how those held us back for years, and how nobody gives a shit but us.

There are also some Easter eggs here for any Radiohead or Weezer fans out there. This episode’s got it all.

Connect with Kerry
LinkedIn
How'd You Learn To Podcast

Takeaways

• We don’t need fewer meetings, we need smarter meetings.
• The #1 thing virtual teams need to be effective is trust.
• We build trust organically when we’re physically together. When we’re virtual, it takes work.
• Deep work sessions, time blocking and holding each other accountable are ways to build trust in virtual teams.
• Gen-Z, millennials, boomers - they’re not as different as people think. The way people learn doesn’t change. What changes is how people prefer to engage.
• Learning styles like auditory, virtual, and physical - they also don’t matter as much as people think.
• How you deliver your message - a podcast, blog, post or video will change how the content is interpreted by your audience.
• You can’t simply take the same content and deliver it in different ways because it changes.
• Fear of failure can hinder learning, but reframing it as an opportunity for growth can lead to amazing achievements. Childhood experiences can have a lasting impact on personal development.
• Understanding what good enough looks like can help set realistic expectations and maintain motivation.

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Todd McTavish is a songwriter and it’s all he’s ever wanted to do. At 23, he left his small town home in Ontario and moved to LA. And at 53, he just signed his first record deal.

Todd’s an old school, rock and roll troubadour. The stories come fast and hard. He recorded a Christmas song with Billy Bob Thornton, had one of his songs played at the Superbowl and he owned a half bear, half wolf named Jazz who was an excellent judge of character.

But this isn’t about sex, drugs and rock and roll. It’s about having the courage to say yes. The music industry is a parable for life. It’s cruel and unfair, and it gave Todd a thousand really good reasons to quit. So how has he survived when so few others have? When an opportunity came up, no matter how crazy, he said yes.

As someone that tends to overthink things until I talk myself out of them, Todd’s journey inspired me. I could look back at the last 20 years of my life and wonder what could have been if I had said yes more often, but I don’t have time for that. What I refuse to do, is look back 10 years from now and wonder the same thing. What would Todd do? He’d say yes.

Please enjoy Todd McTavish.

Takeaways

• Stay open to opportunities, and say yes. You never know.
• Songwriting is like any creative endeavor. Your best ideas never come when you’re trying too hard.
• The music industry is a parable for life. It’s not fair. Sometimes the difference between fame and toiling is just shit luck.
• The truest art is creating for you, not your audience. Because it needs to come out.
• Our job as creators is to create the environment for our best ideas to surface.
• The biggest set-backs can present opportunities that change our lives.
• When you pour your heart out and you get rejected, it’s hard to not take it personally. But that’s what you have to do.
• Don't get too high or too low. Do it for you. Searching for that dopamine hit of other people’s approval is a powerful drug.

Connect with Todd

https://toddmctavish.com/

Judge Jackson (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2WkImSovdJRdvZ8lxn3JtH)

Todd McTavish (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0tjdZLND9lbsHcqWWXSPxo)

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Nicole Ferry is a 26-year veteran of law enforcement who’s on a mission to help others build resilience by sharing her heart-breaking stories of PTSD, trauma and suicide. Nicole is best known for her talk “What the Hell? The 3 Things I learned in the worst year of my life.”

Nicole has spent her life in law enforcement. She holds a degree in Criminal Justice, she’s been an executive police leader for a railroad, she did an 8-year tour as a Military Police Officer and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA.

I don’t have any direct experience with PTSD, any more than I know what it’s like to get a yellow brick from the FBI or investigate deaths on America’s railways. But I felt Nicole’s stories in my bones. I know how it feels to carry the weight of past traumas and the toll that takes on me and the people around me. I also know the freedom that comes from letting that baggage go.

This conversation is a bit of a roller coaster. It’s heavy material but we also laughed a lot, mostly as I tried to relate Nicole’s stories to my only frame of reference - Law & Order, A Few Good Men and bro-cop movies set in Boston.

Nicole’s brave stories carry a message of resilience and hope. But most importantly, they’re a reminder of how much we can learn from those with dramatically different experiences from our own.

Takeaways

• Authority figures can have a dramatic impact on how we see ourselves early in life
• You don’t have to be a first responder to have powerful stressors in your job
• Everyone accumulates stress over their lives that will eventually come out in terrible ways if you don’t manage it
• Simple daily practices like journaling, meditation and physical exercise make a huge difference in managing stress and staying mentally healthy
• Tragedy can present you with an opportunity to find your purpose and help others

Connect with Nicole
Website
LinkedIn
Survive First National Gala: Guest Speaker

Listen to Nicole on these podcasts:

Uncharted Journey: Nicole Ferry, Mental Health Champion
Law Enforcement Life Coach / Sometimes Heroes Need Help Podcast: Nicole Ferry

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn

Sensi Graves is a professional kiteboarder, entrepreneur and speaker who’s on a mission to help people build self-confidence and share their amazing uniqueness with the world.

Sensi shares how she used her time chasing summer around the world in kiteboarding competitions as inspiration to launch her swimwear company. And yet, as she looked back on everything she had achieved, she realized she was so busy trying to prove herself, she never felt proud. That’s all changed and since then, she’s been sharing her story to help people that look confident on the outside feel confident on the inside.

This was a powerful conversation that has stuck with me ever since. If you’ve ever had imposter syndrome or felt that no matter how many amazing things you’ve done, it’s never enough - I guarantee you’ll find something here for you.

Sensi shares how comparing ourselves to others and setting goals kills our self-confidence, and she shares simple daily habits that help. We also connected on exploring your why and how it’s the key to finding your people and helping you through hard times.

Takeaways

• Confidence doesn’t just happen. It’s something you have to work at every day.
• The biggest obstacles people face in building self-confidence are comparing ourselves to others and constantly chasing achievements.
• Tips include limiting social media and changing your goals to things you can control.
• Starting with your why is what allows you to connect with people and get through hard times
• Trauma creates more room for joy and community

Connect with Sensi
Website
Sensi Graves Swim
Instagram
LinkedIn

Other Notes
Mel Robbins Podcast
Amy Cuddy - Standing like Wonder Woman

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. Here is how you can connect with us at the Growth Mixtape podcast.

Connect with Bob Mathers
Website
LinkedIn