What should he do with his life?

The traditional route–college, 9-5, suits and commutes–wasn’t in the cards. So he began to carve his own path.

Starting as an assistant in the publishing world, he talked himself into a high-level editor position at a newly-launching magazine, an experience that set in motion a fascination with how people connect with brands, media and themselves.

His experience in the magazine business kicked-off a wild ride that sent him into global manufacturing, digital-media, and eventually, his latest quest to singlehandedly rebuild the American “cut and sew” industry with his newest venture, Flint and Tinder.

True to Jake’s out-of-the-box style, though, he launched Flint and Tinder with a series of groundbreaking Kickstarter projects, including the recently completed 10 Year Hoodie project…that raised more than $1 million dollars in pre-sold hoodie sweatshirts.

In this week’s episode, you get to not only ride along on Jake’s remarkable journey, but learn from his questions, insights and unique lens on the world, people, behavior and curiosity.

And at the end, Jake does something that’s never happened before on GLP.

You’ll have to watch or listen to find out what…

As always, if you love the show, share it around. Then, subscribe below to instantly download the mp3 and, starting in June, get full transcripts of the shows (including all the archived ones), and more very cool subscriber-only goodies!

With gratitude,

Jonathan

P.S. – For those who missed it, we’ve just launched an audio podcast version of the show on iTunes this week and…it’s kicking serious butt. #1 in business and top 20 overall on iTunes!

The first 20 episodes are live and we’ll be adding more to catch up to the live show quickly over the next few weeks. So, go ahead and sign up for the podcast if you prefer the ease of iTunes. (But stay subscribed to email if you also want transcripts and insider-only goodies, even after we’re all caught up).

And, of course, we’ll still keep posting the mp3s in the audio vault for subscribers who’d rather not use iTunes..

I’ve often said, I imagine…

The only thing harder than being an entrepreneur, is living with one.

Entrepreneurs, like artists, spend a lot of time in their heads. They’re constantly living in growth mode, looking toward what they’re building, leaning into risk, playing every role in the business and are often notoriously optimistic and vision-driven. You have to be to not only survive, but thrive in the crucible of building something from nothing.

All of this makes for a powerful, life-altering ride.

But what if you’re the person who is in a relationship with an entrepreneur? What if you’re the one trying to build a life-partnership, a family, a future with the mad-creator in the room? What if you’re looking to have kids and raise them with parents who are not just physically in the room, but emotionally present?

How to you compete with the all-consuming call of the entrepreneurial quest? Especially when that quest arises out of a deeper life calling?

These are all questions we explore with this week’s guest on Good Life Project™, Meg Cadoux Hirshberg. Meg is an Inc. magazine columnist and author of the Book For Better Or For Work. She’s also a mom of three kids and the wife of Gary Hirshberg, founder of the world’s largest organic yogurt producer, Stonyfield Farms.

Meg writes and speaks about what it’s like to be married to a quest-driven entrepreneur for nearly 30 years. To build a family when you’re starting with nothing and the family business takes 9 years to finally turn a profit. In this episode, we explore these questions and also look at what happens when multiple generations become involved not only in running, but funding the business. And so much more.

If you enjoy this episode, please share it with friend. And be sure to subscribe, just enter your email under the show video to get instant access to the mp3.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

So, she took a leap of faith and decided to become an author. Once she proclaimed her intent to the world, a series of odd “coincidences” seemed to drop from the sky that would accelerate her down her new path.

But, Karen isn’t so much someone who follows the “usual” path. She likes to create her own special way to do things. And that meant writing a different kind of book. One that required a huge investment not only in words, but in images, design, touch and feel. One that would take a lot more money and risk to do it the traditional way.

When she brought her new sensibility to the big publishers, they got spooked and started to back away. Not deterred, she assembled her own teams of designers, she formed collaborations with them to keep up front costs low and built a series of books herself. She knew publishers needed to be able to see, touch and feel the finished product for them to get how powerful what she was doing was.

And, when she started circling back to show them what her team had created, she was off to the races.

Today Karen has more than 1,000,000 copies of her books in print. Her newest, Instant Happy, just hit the shelves this month. And she’s building a new powerhouse brand blending her wit, wisdom and design aesthetic to create inspirational and educational posters for school campaigns. Her first poster “curriculum” focused on anti-bullying.

In this week’s episode, we explore Karen’s fascinating and constantly evolving journey.

Enjoy! And if you’d prefer to listen to the mp3 version, just subscribe using the email form below the video and you’ll get instant access to the mp3 Audio Vault.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

Growing up outside San Francisco, Tyler Gage went to college intending to spend the next 4 years playing soccer and studying politics. Until he landed in a class called Religion Gone Wild.

That one experience touched off an extraordinary journey that would lead him to drop out and spend the next two years in the South American rainforest studying indigenous tribes.

Tyler eventually returned to finish school and then, along with his friend, Dan MacCombie, launched RUNA Tea, a company built around the quest to create sustainable livings for thousands of rainforest farmers and their families, while preserving trees and the natural rainforest environment.

He had to learn everything, from supply chain creation to local leaf farming to FTC regs to branding, all from the ground up. RUNA tea can now be found in a growing number of stores across the United States. And the venture is not only creating alternative livelihoods for thousands, but planting more than 150,000 trees and supporting local development.

In this week’s episode, we explore Tyler’s incredible journey, what inspired him to leave school to study indigenous tribes in the Amazon, why he felt he needed to return to help the people he studied upon graduating, why he chose their special blend of guaysasa tea as the commercial vehicle, why they chose a “for profit” model to do it and where they’re going with RUNA.

Enjoy!

And, be sure to subscribe if you’d like instant access to the mp3 download vault.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

Life in the the city was great, but both had developed a passion for exercise and indoor cycling and they just couldn’t find a place in NY with the level of soul, intensity and community they longed for.

So, one day, over lunch, they hatched a plan. If they couldn’t find what they wanted, they’d do it themselves. That day, on the back of a napkin, SoulCycle was born.

Starting in a little bare bones location on the Upper West Side, SoulCycle has now grown into a national brand. One that’s not only changing the lives of thousands of people, but innovating new business, philanthropic and service models and developing merchandise, apparel and more.

In this week’s episode, filmed on location at one of SoulcCycle’s premier locations in Manhattan, we dive deep into their journey, discover what brought them together, what their original vision was, how it’s evolved and where they’re going.

As, always, if you enjoy this week’s episode, please share it with friends, either by email or using the social media buttons just under the video.

And, if you’d prefer to listen, be sure to subscribe for instant access to the mp3 vault.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

What if you exalted deep-dive, uninterrupted creative time, being hyper-present in the lives of those you truly care about and taking amazing care of your body?  And, then, and only then, added whatever time was left for meetings and other bits of “overhead?”

That’s exactly what world-renowned venture-capitalist, Techstars co-founder and author, Brad Feld did for 90 glorious days.

He went from working 16-18 hour days, flying from meeting to meeting and traveling like crazy to living in the mountains with his wife and golden retrievers for 3 months. And allocating all but 3 hours a day for creation and connection.

He still worked. In fact, he got a huge amount of high-level creative work done. but he did it in a radically different way. And, along the way, he found himself face-to-face with a series of surprises and awakenings about the true impact of the way he’d been working on his body, his health and his relationships.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore this incredible 90-day experiment, the fallout, discoveries and shifts. But, that’s just the beginning.

We also go deep into the impact of living in a fully-engaged way, being present in the lives of the people who really matter. We jam on the interplay between meaning, happiness, work and play, the sacrifices we make and why. We explore what marathoning gives Brad, beyond pure fitness. We talk about fear, action and building business from a place of service.

And, we  wrap with Brad’s extraordinary take on what it means to live a good life, where he shares this sage bit of advice from his dad…

“Pick your 2% and put everything you’ve got against it.” Click to tweet

Watch the episode now. Then, go ahead and share it with a friend, either by email or using the social media buttons right under the video.

And if you’d like to listen in audio format instead, just enter your email underneath the video and get instand access to the mp3

With gratitude,

Jonathan

That’s one of the central ideas in this week’s episode with my very special guest, New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, thought-leader and ruckus-maker, Seth Godin.

In this wide-spanning conversation, we explore:

• What books really mean and why they’re different than any other medium
• The real value of ideas versus actions and outcomes
• Why you should never be afraid of walking away when the market tells you it’s time
• What his publishing venture The Domino Project was really about and why he ended it
• Drawing the line between industrial labor and “clean sheet of paper” project-based work
• Understanding the difference between want and need, stuff and feeling
• The difference between rapidly scaling, venture capital, mandatory exits and projects
• The really big change in the world of publishing and what opportunities it opens up
• How he used Kickstarter to prove demand for his next book & raise more than $200,000
• Why his focus has evolved into bigger “life” topics over the last few years
• Why the question “what project should I pick” is a red-herring and what to do about it
• Why he keeps his private life out of his professional conversations
• How he defines living a good life
• And so much more

Join us for a conversation that’ll leave you inspired to think about and look at the world differently, and then act on that shift in perspective.

And, as always, if you’ve enjoyed this episode, I’d be grateful if you shared it with friends.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

This very awakening shook my guest on this week’s show — professor, researcher, New York Times bestselling author and all-around super-cool human Brene Brown — to the very core.

It led to not only a series of extraordinary realizations in her research and professional life, but to changes in the way she looked at herself and the world that would leave her profoundly changed.

She writes about this process, and her discoveries around the V word – vulnerability – in her new book, Daring Greatly, which is already a huge New York Times bestseller. And for good reason.

Turns out…

Within vulnerability lie the seeds of greatness. Click to tweet. 

But, as always, the conversation doesn’t stop there. We wind through the personal experiences in her own live that have led to powerful changes in outlook and focus, to what happens when faith meets science, to the intersection between vulnerability, uncertainty, risk, shame and success in business and entrepreneurship and so much more.

And be sure to watch til the end, where Brene shares her answer to the question “what does it mean to live a good life?” Truly inspiring.

Be sure to subscribe, so you don’t miss any future shows and you’ll also get access to the mp3 vault so you can take the shows on the road and listen while you’re cruising around. Just enter your email right below the video above.

And, be sure to share this episode. Go ahead and click on the share buttons under the video, then email three friends. They’ll thank you and you’ll all have great conversations around the ideas in the show.

With gratitude,

Jonathan

Of course, it being my first time in, and with the wife and kid by my side, we HAD to sample a nice assortment of “the goods.” Oh the sacrifices we make for family!

Three words…Mouth. Water. Ing!

Which may surprise you, because the “By The Way” in the name stands for “oh, and it’s gluten-free and dairy-free, by the way.”

Turns out, that’s just the first of many surprises. Because Helene opened the bakery after walking out of a hugely successful 22 year career as a hotshot lawyer in New York City. No experience as an entrepreneur. Never baked. Never done anything or dreamed about anything but being a lawyer. Until that day where everything changed. And a bakery bar-none became her quest.

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• What led Helene into the practice of law and what kept her there for so long
• What led her to make such a radical and abrupt change in course
• How she used the local grocery store to do fast and free market research
• How she blended a love of taking of care of people with a rapidly-emerging trend
• What people around her thought about her leap and how she handled her fears and doubts
• How she rapidly self-educated herself in entrepreneurship and gluten-free baking
• How she built a network of baked good beta-testers all over town to help develop her products
• How a relentless commitment to creating something extraordinary drove action
• How face-to-face local businesses give you a connection you cannot get online
• What the first year was like and how she learned while she worked
• How her life and her focus has changed since making the jump
• What surprises came and awakenings came her way
• What the impact has been on her relationships
• What it means to Helene to live a Good Life
• And so much more.

Watch the video now.

And be sure to share it with all those friends who you know are secretly Jonesing to do what Helene did, but haven’t found the courage or the story that proves its possible!

Go ahead, email 5 friends. Share this puppy on Facebook. 

Oh, and if you’re ever in Hastings, do NOT leave without swinging by, saying hello to Helene and grabbing something to eat.

It had been his lifelong dream to command his own submarine, but what started out as the realization of that dream quickly turned into the biggest challenge of his life.

A last minute switch found newly-minted nuclear fast-attack submarine Commander, David Marquet, at the helm of a sub with the worst-rated crew and a turnover-rate that would’ve destroyed any business.

It was a shock to the system, but within the first few days, Marquet began to see things differently. It was an incredible opportunity to not only change the culture on the ship, but to radically rethink both his own and the traditional absolute-authority approach to leadership that the military had become known for.

He quickly developed a new approach built upon humility and empowerment that transformed everything. Within 12 months, the worst-performing sub had become the best performing and Marquet’s approach to leadership was gaining attention as a potential new model.

In this episode, we go deep into that tumultuous time in his life and career. We explore the shock of his new commission, the horrifying incidents that led him to realize how broken the culture and leadership system had become.

We dive into how changing a single word would spark a wholesale shift in culture and performance. And we go deep into his new “Leader Leader” approach that led to what most believed was an impossible transformation, under extreme conditions in a remarkably short period of time.

Since retiring from the Navy, Marquet now shares his leadership ideas with organizations of all sizes and is the author of the book, Turn This Ship Around: How to Create Leadership at Every Level

As always, if you enjoy this episode, be sure to email it around and share it with friends online!

And, if you haven’t yet subscribed, get on it (you’ll get instant access to the audio mp3 vault)!