Mike RobbinsIt was a pleasure having Mike Robbins back with us for another podcast. His book entitled “Focus on the Good Stuff-The Power of Appreciation” is a wonderful book about learning how to appreciate the good within.  As simple of a concept that this might sound , it is something that we all need to be reminded of.  I know that many of us are frequently attempting to be more, do more and have more.  The challenge with this thinking is that is limits our focus on the good stuff as Mike says.  We loose sight of appreciating who and what we are, and we are more focused on how we can be better. This persistent focus on always attempting to be better is a proverbial never ending cycle.  Our ego is really good at telling us that we are not good enough.

In Mike’s book we explore the five (5) principles that help us to shift our focus, and accentuate the good. The first of his principles is “Be Grateful”  Gratitude is something that we don’t give ourselves and other enough of. It is always easy to fall into the “woe is me attitude.”  But we usually can find someone worse off than ourselves.

  • Principle #2,  Choose Positive Thoughts and Feelings.  The simplest way to state this principle is that thoughts become things;choose good ones.”
  • Principle #3, Use Positive Words.  I like what Mike points out here from another author Don Miguel Ruiz.  Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
  • Principle #4, Acknowledge Others.  Wow! is this an important one.  Is is so much easier to criticize someone than it is to praise and acknowledge.  Look for the good in others, and then take action by acknowledging them for the good you see in them.
  • Principle #5, Appreciate Yourself.  Self Appreciate is difficult.  It is always easy to judge ourselves, but just like in Principle 4 Acknowledge Others we need to acknowledge and appreciate our own abilities, talents and our inherent good.

Mike’s book Focus on the Good Stuff allows you to shift your focus and to look at yourself and others with new eyes.  It shifts your perspective just enough to begin to see the good, and not to dwell on the negative

I encourage all of my listeners to read his book and visit Mike’s website for more useful information and wisdom from someone who has practices these principles in his everyday life. Mike is an amazing example of these principles in action.

Jon GordonThis is my second interview with Jon, and every time that I have the opportunity to speak with him I come away with this new level of enthusiasm. I know that you too will pick up on Jon infectious way, and as you listen to his message please pay close attention to what Jon is saying in, “Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else”.

If you are on a path of personal growth and mastery, then Jon’s book is a study of the people that he has encountered during his career as an author/speaker who have excelled in their lives. In our interview we discuss the traits and characteristics that are necessary to excel.

Some of those traits and characteristics are:

  • The Best know what they truly want.
  • The Best want it more.
  • The Best are always striving to get better.
  • The Best do ordinary things better than everyone else.
  • The Best zoom-focus.
  • The Best are mentally stronger.
  • The Best overcome their fear.
  • The Best seize the moment.
  • The Best tap into a power greater than themselves.
  • The Best leave a legacy.
  • The Best make everyone around them better.

Based on his work with professional sports teams, world class organizations, and interviews with top professionals in a wide variety of fields, Jon reveals the deep truths and proven strategies that take the very best to the top. Training Camp reveals that the best performers-in any field-all share the same qualities. Among other traits, the best of the best are able to maintain a big-picture vision while taking focused action, they are mentally strong, they seize the moment, and they inspire excellence in the people around them. But these are not inborn traits; they’re skills and attitudes that can be learned and applied by all.

If you want to be your best, Training Camp offers inspiring real-world wisdom on what it takes to reach true excellence and how you and your team –whether at work, school, or at home–can achieve it. If you would like more information about Jon’s books, workshops and trainings please click here to be linked to his website.

Steve SisgoldSteve Sisgold’s new book, “What’s Your Body Telling You?“, is for anyone who needs to get in touch with what their body is telling them about their emotional health. Steve is a body-centered therapist that has been working with clients for many years helping them get in touch with their body intelligence to create better lives.

In our interview together we explore how our body speaks to us, and is providing us with important signals but how frequently we are not in touch with these signals. Steve has found that the happiest, healthiest most successful people are those who integrate IQ (cognitive intelligence) with BQ (body intelligence). These self-confident, smart people are uniquely attuned to their bodies. They trust their instincts, listen to their gut feelings, and make decisions based on their true desires. They project confidence, comfort, and clarity of purpose. Steve calls this unique state, “whole-body consciousness,” and he often sees clients achieve it in only one session.

His book is filled with step-by-step inspiration exercises and mind-body integration tools. His books will show you how to:

  • Hear and connect sharing between your body and mind.
  • Shift into whole body consciousness at will and know exactly what the next right move is.
  • Communicate with greater effectiveness and clarity.
  • Identify, release, and change the subconscious viral beliefs that sabotage your happiness.
  • Heal the traumas and painful emotions that may be stored in your body.

Steve refers to our ability to lie to ourselves as spindoctrination. He says since inception of time man has had the ability to lie to another person, and to deceive them as a means of survival. But that we have developed an even higher-order function: the ability to lie to ourselves. This uniquely human ability allows us to present an honest face when we are being less that truthful. He says that once again, the complex human brain devises a survival strategy that allows us to outwit the one we want to deceive—but at what cost? Personal integrity is lost, self esteem is sacrificed, and the basic trust is tossed out the window. It is this kind of behavior acted out over years of our lives that takes a high tool on our body.

I recommend that anyone who is currently dealing with the stresses and struggles of everyday life to read Steve’s book. His insights are certainly very revealing, and his books provides the reader with the tools to identify and navigate what our body is telling you.

If you would like to learn more about Steve’s free body IQ Test, then click here to be directed to his website for your opportunity to take the test and learn more about your body IQ.

Barnet Meltzer M.D.I recently had the pleasure of meeting both Dr. Meltzer and his son Jordan, and what a wonderful father-son team. I went to their offices located in Del Mar, CA and got to spend a little time getting to know the men behind this great weight loss program.

Much of the weight loss program is centered around what is referred to in the book as the Light Your Fire program. This is a program designed to help you boost your metabolism and keep it there. As is stated in the book, two out of three Americans are either overweight or obese. We are all aware of the epidemic but what are we doing about it?.

Dr. Meltzer’s book, “The Best Kept Secret to Permanent Weight Loss“, provides a foundation designed to provide the reader with the answers and guidance to true weight loss. As is pointed out, metabolism can be measured by your metabolic rate–the rate at which you burn fat and carbohydrates. In fact, it is your metabolic rate that determines whether you are slim or trim or overweight. When you know how to naturally accelerate your metabolism, your body will be geared to aggressively burn excess fat. What Dr. Meltzer helps the reader understand is how to create and construct an accelerated metabolic rate, what he refers to a Metabolic Fire.

Metabolic Fire is a lifestyle alteration, but can be accelerated by three nutritional steps: 1) Power Cleanse 2) Nutritional Detox Plan 3) Maintenance Plan. The Light Your Fire Nutritional Program is designed to effectively match up your metabolic furnace with the best, high-octane nutritional fuel.

Even though the first section of the book is devoted to the physical things one does to increase their metabolism, the second section of the book focuses on the all important emotional factors associated with eating. Dr. Meltzer stated in our interview together that we all have appetites. He says that people frequently eat to just eat, and that we don’t just eat when we are hungry and that much of our challenges associated with being overweight could be eliminated by understanding the difference between appetites and hunger. Emotional stress, financial stress, and work stress usually serve as the driving force behind cravings and addictions. In fact, stress sets into motion a self-abusive cycle: stress leads to poor food choices, and poor food choices lead to weight gain, fatigue and even more stress.

Dr. Meltzer says that he has made some important observations in his forty years of practice. He says that you can self-regulate your eating habits when you stay tuned into your primary feelings. The key to this is emotional self-awareness–that is, knowing how you feel and how to deal with these feelings– this clarity leads to responsive, responsible behavior. The result is wholesome eating habits.

Dr. Meltzer articulates the Top Seven Golden Rules, which are a brilliant way to guide your life. 1) Make the commitment to select smart foods. 2) Know what not to Eat 3) Earn your meals 4) Always take a nutritional timeout before eating. 5) Never eat when you are emotional, stressed or rushed. 6) Only eat when you are hungry 7) Know when enough is enough. I think that if we all followed this advice and kept this list next to us as a reminder, that much of our weight issues would be solved.

I strongly recommend this great book, “The Best Kept Secret to Permanent Weight Loss“, you will not need any other book to help guide you through the physical and emotional issues associated with permanent weight loss.

If you would like to know more about the Meltzer Wellness Clinic located in Del Mar, CA please click here. There are coaching clinics, blogs, communities, and recipes available to at no-cost.

Nick McCormickDo you want to to become a better manager of people? Then you will want to listen to my podcast with author Nick McCormick. Nick is the author of a new book entitled, “Lead Well and Prosper, 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager”.

In my interview with Nick we will explore the challenges that most managers have in learning how to become more effective at managing people. In this simple to read book, filled with examples, you will be able to understand more fully the skills necessary in becoming a great manager. Each chapter starts with a humorous, true to life example of an ineffective way to deal with a situation. Nick then provides the reader with the strategy to deal more positively with these situations, and a list of “dos and don’t s” that cut right to the chase.

Nick states that most managers don’t want to perform poorly, they just don’t work on the right things. This books not only shows them what those “right things” are, but it offers straightforward ready-to-execute solutions.

As any reader knows, there are thousands of books on management and becoming a better leader, but this book contains the simple strategies that can assist any manager in a matter of minutes.

If most managers were to apply the tips that Nick provides in the 87 pages of this quick read book, they would become more valuable to their employers, and most importantly be looked at by their fellow co-workers as mentors.

I do hope you enjoy my interview with Nick McCormick, and that you will glean something valuable from our interview together. If you would like to learn more about Nick’s book or his workshops and seminars please visit his website by clicking here.

Len Saputo M.D.I recently had the pleasure of attending the Book Expo of America in New York City, and while I was at the conference, I attended a book signing by Dr. Len Saputo. I was certainly intrigued by the title of his book, ” A Return to Healing“, and wanted to learn more about Dr. Saputo’s philosophy on the subject.

I know that I can honestly speak for most Americans that health care is a topic that gets a lot of attention in the news, but very little seems to happen relative to reform. I now know after reviewing Dr. Saputo’s book and learning more about his ideas for radical health care reform that he is definitely on to something.

He asserts that the twentieth century was a mixed blessing of commercially driven “disease-care medicine”, but that the twenty-first century is witnessing the ascendancy of “integral-health medicine”, which is based on serving patients. As Dr. Saputo states that our health care system is in a deep crisis. Tragically millions of Americans are without medical coverage, while costs for care are spiraling upward making it harder for people to get the help they need. Dr Saputo stresses in, “A Return to Healing“, that at the heart of the problem is a culture that accepts, and in fact generates, a reductionist model of health, along with the costly health care system that has grown up to support it.

He supports a model that is integrated and looks at the whole person, in what he refers to as “integral-health medicine“. He says that this system requires a new understanding of the role of consciousness in healing and a massive public education program that will lead all of us to take full responsibility for our health–to take the lead in medicine away from big business, and even from well-meaning physicians who are stuck in the system, and puts it into the hands of the patients themselves.

In his book you will learn how we can turn the medical industry around with a genuine return to healing, led by the desire to serve the needs of the patients as well as through the readiness of each of us to pursue peak health throughout our own lives.

I highly recommend this book and if you want to know more about taking your health into your own hands and integral-health medicine, please visit Dr. Saputo’s website by clicking here for more information on his wellness clinic, and to get tools and information on guiding you to vibrant health.

Mike RobbinsIf you truly want to meet an authentic person, then I recommend that you make an attempt to reach out to Mike Robbins.  Mike is the author of a new book entitled, “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken: Transform Your Life with the Power of Authenticity“.

In my interview with Mike, we explore what helps to make a person more authentic through his five principles of authenticity:

  1. Know Yourself
  2. Transform Your Fears
  3. Express Yourself
  4. Be Bold
  5. Celebrate Who You Are

When you first read the principles you might think, “well this is simple”.  Well, think again, because for most people, our ego gets in the way of us becoming the most authentic we can be.  We are hiding behind our wall of protection where we feel comfortable.  It is usually here that we create the alter ego which frequently prevents others from really knowing who we are, and and for us to be able to liberate ourselves to express freely and openly.

Mike has done a masterful job of laying out his book so that the reader can easily utilize and apply the principles taught.  The first part of the book looks at WHY it can be hard for us to be authentic-the familial, cultural, and personal influences, thoughts, and fears that make it difficult for us to do and say what is true for us, or lead us to believe that who we are is not acceptable enough.  He really helps in creating more awareness about what authenticity is, and what blocks us for attaining it.

Part two of the book lays out the Five Principles of Authenticity that Mike has developed over the last ten years of working directly with individuals and in groups.

In the third part of the book, Mike provides the reader with HOW to take action.  He has created interactive exercises and practices to assist us in becoming more authentic.

There is a great quote in Mikes’ book from Mother Teresa, “Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.  Be honest and transparent anyway”.  I think that this quote really sums up what authenticity is, the real question is what prevents you from expressing your divine authenticity and how will you show up in life once you have explored your true nature.  I encourage you to explore and understand your true nature, for it is here that you are liberated to express yourself and shine as an individual.

Mike is an awesome speaker, coach and author.  He works to help people transform their lives, and live with more passion and authenticity.  If you would like to learn more about Mike, his books and coaching programs then I would recommend that you click here.

Please enjoy this interview with Mike, and if you like what you hear during this interview please let either Mike or myself know.