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Humiliated at Potbelly (and other cheerful stories of learning humility on the path to living one’s life purpose)
As a child, Segun Olagunju prayed for wisdom, which is the only thing that can explain a 20-something recognizing that if he’s going to make a difference in the world (Nigeria, in particular), he’s going to work backwards from being a 50-something changemaker in 2035. Setting out on a 30-year journey to learn business, leadership, French and return to his home country strategically, Segun realizes the path is anything but straight. Worse, it’s anything but *forward.* Through a series of humbling experiences (“only out of humiliation comes humility,” he says), Segun learns that if you’re pursuing a meaningful purpose in life, these setbacks are minor blips—and even…
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An Accidental Rant on Christianity with a Kind, Patient, Open-minded Pastor Who Took it Well
Most of the time on the Interesting Lives of Normal People, we try to dig into the stories of our guests to find out what they’re all about, what’s been on their mind, and what they ‘just need to get out into the world.’ This podcast turned out to be a bit of the reverse. In this episode with Dr. David Burke, mentor and friend of Jake’s, and a long-time pastor, it’s as though we were the ones doing the sharing. Especially about the church and American Christianity today. Surprise, surprise: talking about Christianity and the church (*during COVID*) struck some nerves and David opened up the space for us…
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“Do What You Love, Love What You Do!” And Other Hot Life Tips From The Fashion Queen of Denver
If you’ve ever seen a music video from the band OK Go, that’s basically what it’s like hanging out with Brandi Shigley. Over there is the flamethrower, in this corner is a family of ferrets dressed in matching outfits, in walks a mailman with a green mohawk who is also her tattoo artist, and here you are sitting on a giant hand-shaped chair that smells of funnel cake. The whole thing is L-I-F-E, turned up to 11. When you listen to Brandi’s story, you’ll understand; she eeks her way through college but becomes the hottest purse-maker circa Y2K (literally #3 on AOL), such that she has her bags showcased in…
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Time is Limited For Us All… But Some Are More Aware of It Than Others.
Here’s a classic Would You Rather: “Would you rather be blind your whole life or go blind gradually?” For Lindsey Blankenship (Siegel), she didn’t get to choose, but she has a rare eye disease that is slowly making her blind. As a teenager, she skied regularly; as a 41-year old mom, she has to look carefully at her feet to make sure she doesn’t walk into her 4-year old son. When your peripheral vision drops to 3 inches in either direction and you’re effectively night blind, it’s almost like your skiing days were a dream. OK, so here’s another one: “If you were going blind gradually, would you rather spend…
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Take Long Walks. And Other Mindblowing Creativity Tips from Normals in the Advertising World.
Here’s something of a truth: ‘normal’ people don’t make commercials for a living. They don’t write 30-second spots featuring Muppets talking on a Facebook Portal, they don’t have their words read by Arnold Schwarzeneggar, they don’t direct actors in Romania over Zoom, and they definitely don’t have their work seen by millions of people watching March Madness. Husband and wife duo, Andy and Elly Holdeman, are two normals that do these very things. They market some of the most recognizable brands in the world–AirBNB, Facebook, XBOX–and, not surprisingly (given what we learned about their job to find human truth), they shared some very recognizable (even normal) facets about their lives:…
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What Happens When You Examine The Life You Live vs. The Life You Want to Live
In the Summer of 2008, Tory Leggat took the leap to move from Seattle to NYC with no job and no real friends, but all the optimism and pluck of a 22-year old ready to live out a dream of a year in the Big Apple. But when the (financial) world crumbled within days of her arrival to NYC, Tory had to recalibrate her expectations for work, personal finances, and community—and also her perspective on living out her one-year ‘passion project’. Being lonely, jobless, and aimless in NYC, Tory learned the value of being pot-committed on scary things, saying ‘yes’ to everything and going all out to live the biggest…
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Life as a Fun-loving Disco Ball Inside of Kaleidoscope
Stephanie LaFlora is a disco ball inside of a kaleidoscope. On one hand, she’s a mom and a wife, she’s got a house in the burbs and a 9-5pm. She’s admittedly scattered, prone to quitting when things get painful and encounters impostor syndrome. She’s even got a 401k. On the other hand, Stephanie is black female in tech who has sang with Hillsong at the Staples Center, and been on the TV show Chicago Fire, and started the following ventures: SwimXL—a plus-size women swimsuit line CrownHunt—a tool to connect textured hair dressers The Pep Talk Hotline—the place to go when you need a pick up A disco ball inside of…
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How to Use Our Amazing Brains in Our Longing for Meaning
In our second episode, we talk to Dr. Jessica Stern, a Child and Adolescent Psychologist. She has spent many hours sitting with people, helping them sort through what is true in their life, and guiding them as they name what they want to be true. We asked Dr. Stern to help us discuss passion and the longing for meaningful work. In this conversation, we cover passion projects, the drive to make a difference in the world, what drives people on a journey to create – like this podcast – and why people often fail in their endeavors. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to pursue projects of passion. Dr.…
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The Happy Journey of Listening, Learning, and Creating Something Meaningful
We’re three friends who aspire to contribute to the bigger picture. We want to listen to others and be listened to ourselves. We want to create things and we want to learn about things people are creating. This is the first episode of a journey we set out on together. A journey to dig into the itch to create meaningful stuff. On the way, we unexpectedly discovered meaning in unpacking the wonderful things other people are creating. In this first episode, we reflect on why we started making this podcast and what each of us got out of the first season of conversations. We also take some time to prepare…
Great stories come from good questions
