Personal Branding: Why Followers Don't Equal Business Success
Personal branding works best when you measure results, not follower counts. That is the view of Shem, an entrepreneur who helped build Safety Pup XD, a company that began when a friend's dog ran into a dark forest. In this conversation with his childhood friend Jeremy Van Wert, he explains why a smaller group of people who believe in your mission is worth more than a big audience.
EFT Tapping for Burnout: A Hospital Executive's Story and Live Session
EFT tapping, or emotional freedom techniques, is a method of tapping while naming a specific emotion and memory, and Sophia Torrini says it became her turning point after burnout and 14 years of chronic illness. A former hospital administrator, she explains how she believes stress and emotion get stored in the body, then leads Jeremy through a live session on shame.
CEO Burnout: A Former Co-CEO on Perfectionism and Identity
CEO burnout can build for years behind a successful title. A former co-CEO of a health tech company tells Jeremy Van Wert how childhood conditioning and constant pressure to be perfect wore her down, what she learned by asking who she is without her title, and what she experienced at a ceremonial psychedelic retreat.
How to Stay Relevant in the AI Era: Lessons From a Steve Jobs Mentee
To stay relevant in the AI era, Kelli Richards says you need to think critically for yourself and learn to work with AI, because people who can't will get squeezed out. She is a Silicon Valley advisor who says Steve Jobs mentored her from age 16. She shares her career lessons with Jeremy Van Wert.
Executive Burnout: The Hidden Cost of Senior Leadership
Executive burnout can build quietly behind a successful career, through sleepless nights, guilt over layoffs and the loneliness of senior leadership. Gabrielle Pimstone spent 27 years in corporate psychology and says she lived it herself. In this conversation with Jeremy Van Wert, she describes what pushed her to change and how she found a purpose she could live.
Conscious Leadership: Leading With Human Connection, Not Just Profit
Conscious leadership, in Roxanne Chaput's words, means leading with human connection, empathy and compassion instead of only the bottom line. After about ten years as an executive, she says she left that path to guide leaders and healers. In this conversation with Jeremy Van Wert, she explains her view of fear, her call to healing work and a live energy scan.
Strategy vs Tactics: Why Instant Gratification Hurts Your Brand
Strategy vs tactics comes down to this, according to business coach Erin Andrea Kraske: strategy is your path to a destination, while sales, promotions and how-tos are tactics that serve it. She tells Jeremy Van Wert why chasing instant returns drains small businesses, and why she thinks a purpose that leaders actually live makes business easier.
Stress Relief Techniques: Where Anxiety Lives in the Body
Stress relief techniques can start with noticing where your body holds tension. Chiropractor Dr. Lynn Carey, after 18 years in practice, says she most often sees anxiety stored in the neck, shoulders and pelvis. In this conversation with Jeremy Van Wert, she shares simple habits such as journaling and gratitude, and explains why she links health, mindset and money.
How to Get on TV as an Expert: Local Talk Shows and Story Angles
To get on TV as an expert, you usually do not wait for a producer to call. Media coach Marianne Schwab, a former national talk show producer, explains that you pitch a segment idea built around your audience's problem, start on local talk shows and prepare a three to five minute message. She also coaches Jeremy Van Wert live on his elevator pitch.
Selling Without Being Pushy: Sales Skills for Good People
Selling without being pushy is possible when you treat sales as a service and your message as something the market helps you refine. That is the view of author and thought leadership coach Nicky Billou, who joins Jeremy Van Wert to explain why good people with weak sales skills struggle, how messaging gets tested, and why serving your network builds lasting business.
Job Security Myth: Why Building Your Own Path Is Safer
The job security myth is the belief that a good employer will look after your future, and author Scott Allen argues it leaves people waiting on someone else's decisions. In this conversation with Jeremy Van Wert, he explains why he left a corporate career, why he treats failure as data, and how to build your own path before layoffs or change arrive.
Success vs Fulfillment: What a Quarter-Life Crisis Taught Alan
Success vs fulfillment is the question Alan Lazarus faced at 26, when he had a six-figure engineering career and still felt something was missing. A car crash set off his quarter-life crisis. In this conversation with Jeremy Van Wert, he describes how he moved from achieving at any cost to building fulfillment from the inside out.
How to Break Into Entertainment: Consistency and the Back Door
How do you break into entertainment when nobody hands you a roadmap? Brian Sebastian, host of Movie Reviews and More, tells Jeremy Van Wert how a drum and bugle corps mindset, a volunteer stint in radio and a one-way flight to Los Angeles led to interviewing film and music stars. His one-word answer is consistency.
Career Change After Burnout: A Musician's Path to Work He Loves
A career change often starts with a job that does not fit. In this episode, musician and marketing consultant Derek Frank tells Jeremy Van Wert how a propane job, touring burnout and a toxic workplace pushed him toward work that matches his values, including inventing a harmonica and helping launch a free teen tech center.
Starting a Business From a Passion: How a Parade Producer Did It
Starting a business from a passion worked for Ray Pulver, who turned years of volunteering on a hometown parade into Upbeat Parade Productions in San Jose, California. His company now works with 23 parades from Portland to Palm Springs and Las Vegas. He tells his friend Jeremy Van Wert how networking, trust and a positive habit of mind built it.
Financial Freedom Meaning: Why Money Is Really Time
Financial freedom, as Jim Tabuchi defines it, means measuring your wealth in months of living expenses instead of in possessions: money is time. After 18 years in high tech, he retired from Hewlett-Packard at 42 to mentor and create social impact, and he tells Jeremy Van Wert how a funeral exercise, family history and a clear mission shaped every decision.
Leadership Principles From the Blue Devils: Build a Culture That Lasts
Strong leadership principles start with values that people live, not words on a wall. David Gibbs, director of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, explains how he built one culture for 165 young people and dozens of staff. He tells Jeremy Van Wert about trust, roles, hard decisions and why he says regret is worse than failure.
What Does a Drum Tech Do? Life on Tour and Taking a Career Risk
What does a drum tech do? A drum tech tunes, sets up and looks after an artist's drums, then fixes problems during the show so the drummer can stay focused. On Mindful Mutiny, Mark Bennett, who has worked with Pink, Korn and Shinedown, explains the job, the risk that started his career and how he handles nerves and imposter syndrome.