Gina Iaffaldano is a legal operations professional, writer, and everyday athlete who recently relocated back to the Chicagoland area. She is working on her first book, Little Gifts, which covers much of her experience overcoming Guillain-Barré syndrome. This rare autoimmune syndrome caused her to be neurologically paralyzed. Gina has been in remission for two years and is training for her second Spartan competition post-recovery.

In this conversation, we cover how James thinks about finding artists and how to get them on stage. What habits or easy actions can upcoming artists take to jump-start building a dedicated audience who are all in making music in their full-time career? Out of the music sphere, we talk about more general advice on building skills when building something that is your passion. We share ideas on betting on yourself, why it's meaningful, and what it means to lead by example for future generations. And much more!

Matt Vincent is a strength athlete, two-time Highland Games World Champion, and founder of HVIII Brand Goods, now rebranded to Not Dead Yet. Through his travels, Matt was lucky enough to spend time with exceptional people chasing strength, fulfillment, and personal growth in every imaginable way. In Matt's first book, Training Lab, he spelled out the philosophy of “The HVIII,” and tried to capture the spirit of self-improvement through self-loathing. This idea would be the spark that led to HVIII Brand Goods and many adventures afterward. Matt chronicles his travels and conversations with people in the strength game and beyond on his podcast NDY.

In this episode, we are joined by Ed Latimore. Ed is a former professional heavyweight boxer, a competitive chess player, and a bestselling author. His writing focuses on self-development, realizing your potential, and sobriety—all of which he approaches from personal experience, overcoming poverty and addiction. We have a special guest on today's episode, Ed Latimore. Ed's an ex-professional heavyweight boxer and a competitive chess player. He's also a best-selling author who writes about personal development, achieving your goals, and sobriety. Ed speaks from experience, having overcome poverty and addiction.

Alec returns to the podcast! This time to share his journey and lessons from ultra running. We had this conversation just days before he would attempt the Stagecoach 100.

Alec is a business owner, entrepreneur, ultra-runner, mountaineer, and travel fanatic. He believes in the power and resilience of the human spirit and one who perpetually seeks to optimize life in all of its pillars.

Professionally, Alec is currently the Managing Partner of BDV Capital Group. This boutique capital advisory firm works with select investment groups, primarily focused on real estate private equity. In recent years, Alec has come from an entrepreneurial family and a real-estate-focused family business.

He is a former Division One athlete for the University of Oregon and now an ultra-marathoner and an avid mountaineer — currently climbing the highest point in all 50 states in America while simultaneously pushing his running endurance limits consistently further, recently completing his furthest race yet, the Ultra Race of Champions 100km (62 miles) through the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.

Today on the podcast is my friend, Nick Buegel. As always, Nick and I have great conversations. This was the first one we've had in person since the pandemic started. It was enjoyable for me to have him over to record this. There's something special about being in the same room with someone and having an in-depth discussion about your life or the ideas we've been thinking about. We expanded on what Nick did to cope with the pandemic, meaning what happened through the pandemic and what caused him to explore. What we get into basically is this immersing himself in nature.

My guest on the podcast today is my friend Ivy. For reasons you'll soon find out, she wanted to remain anonymous on this podcast so we could share it on her social platform by the same handle.

Ivy is based in LA and primarily works with paintings. Her style is heavily influenced by street art with themes of self-love and life struggle with different emotions, which she portrays by combining portraiture words and color elements. Her goal is to create art that connects with people on a deeper level by evoking emotions and developing a sense of vulnerability.

Holly is the creator of Kick Butt Life. Her brand emphasizes incorporating adventure, thrills, strength, play, and community into everyday life. She deeply loves the outdoors and strongly believes everyone should follow through on their craziest dreams. She thru-hiked the 2,200 mile-long Appalachian Trail in 2019 and has extensively hiked throughout Arizona, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains. Her upcoming adventure plans include the Oregon Coast Trail, adventuring through the Caribbean, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Her journal on taking control of your life story comes out this June.

In today's episode, my friend, Jordan Criss. This podcast is a little bit special in that Jordan was actually in person for this episode.

We talk about the difference or the effect of workouts and mindfulness slash meditation. Highlighting what we think about this first year of the pandemic lockdown and how different life feels one year later or one year of living through this situation.

In this conversation, we get pretty granular and talk about how he looks at his writing process, and why he is choosing to do screenwriting, As such a niche field, screenwriting can feel like a lost cause or something that is a pipe dream, for lack of a better term. And I even asked him what he would say to someone who says, why are you doing this? Screenwriting seems like a waste of time.

And beyond that, we have a great discussion around the film as an industry and loving critiques of it. What shows are good or great? What makes compelling stories?

We get into what is a fulfilling life, like what drives someone to do something and fully immerse yourself in it. For Jordan, it's not leaving anything on the table.

Brit Parla is a Chicago-based visual artist. Her main artistic mediums include but aren't limited to, abstract fluid painting, drawing, and graphic design. Her goal is to continually create original and innovative works of art that evoke a sense of wonder and interconnections in others. Brit's artistic style influences are the science of color theory, Mother Nature, street art, abstract impressionism, and the art of the 1960s counterculture movement. Brit showcases her work at various venues and art exhibitions around Chicago.

In this episode, we are joined by Brian Kluska. Brian grew up in Blairstown, NJ, and received a B.A. in Mass Media and Communications from Mount Saint Mary College. Brian worked for ten years as Videographer and Video Editor for a few production companies. Projects spanned from corporate commercials, interviews and deposition, long and short-form comedy, and even a product highlight video for U.S. Senate Appropriation Committee.

Brian's personal and professional path has provided experience in various situations and experiences. Marrying his high school sweetheart of 13 years has brought even more opportunities in life. In addition, Brian is now a military spouse, getting a new chapter that has enabled further personal and professional growth.

Mike Hagensick is currently the assistant swim coach at the University of Northern Iowa and the founder and director of the Panther Academy for Water Safety. Mike has his Masters in Special Education. He has served as a consultant with the Auburn University Pediatric Movement and Physical Activity Lab and is the author of a recently published paper on adaptive tennis programming. His mission is to provide high-quality and socially equitable adaptive sports and activity programming for individuals with special needs.

In this conversation, we are joined by Wendy Jones. Wendy is the founder of the blog, The Optimists Journal. She uses the power of her own story, which includes surviving divorce, parenting four children, overcoming PTSD after her son's near-drowning almost ten years ago, and parenting a child on the autism spectrum to reflect, heal and thrive. Wendy believes that we all have to choose whether we react to life's circumstances or create them with our mindset, practice, and consistency.

Toddy Myrick is an IT Specialist with an undergraduate in Fine Art Printmaking & Photography and later completed a graduate degree in MS Information Systems & Technology Management & MBA. Todd has always been interested in technology and acts as a Reddit moderator outside the academic world. In this episode, we get quite biographical as Todd lays out his life and what has influenced him. What shows through is his connection to those around him and the caring he has for people whom he respects. We get to the early 1990s in the chronology of his story, and it will be continued in a future episode of the podcast, so stay tuned!

Jordan Criss returns to the show! In this episode, we try to understand where Jordan's creativity has come from. On the surface, he's a creative writer if you sum up all of his interests from music, screenwriting, and storytelling.

Nick and Erich sit down and discuss graduation from college. We look back on our educational experiences and reflect on the process.

Nick Wenzel is a recent graduate from Columbia College Chicago in Graphic Design. Even with this degree, he describes his skill set as Graphic Communication because that encompasses all aspects of photography, videography, and design. Nick shares how he took what many assume is an artistic avenue and transitioned it with a more business-oriented approach. He gives his thoughts on misconceptions within the graphic communication space. We then transition to broader topics on finding what interests you most and encouraging yourself to try things you don't know how to do—generally, getting comfortable with failing.

In this episode, Joe gives us an update on his school semester and discusses how he stays organized with such a full schedule.