The Kevin Miller Podcast

When my book, What Drives You, came out, I brought a number of my past guests on to the podcast to hear their personal stories of what drove them. We habitually hear what people have done and achieved, but don’t often hear why they did it. I think the stories help us better understand not only what drives, but what we want to be driving us. In this episode I talked with Guy Kawasaki. Guy is a silicon valley legend, being a primary figure in the early days of Apple with Steve Jobs. Today he’s the evangelist for Canva and has helped put a lot of companies on the map. I’ve spent time face to face with Guy and one time he butt dialed me and we ended up talking about ideas for a podcast that he ended up doing, which is now the very popular Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People. Here though we talk about his beginnings and he shares that he never had any big visions. His initial drive for success in business was motivating by wanting a cool car. And he goes on to share this, that while he didn’t have big visions for his future, he was pretty clear on what was driving him, and those drives put him on a path to greater successes than he ever imagined. I think you will enjoy hearing his story and through it you will likely get some clarity on what is driving you.

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I put much focus on being aware of what I’m thinking. Then carefully considering what I say and paying close attention to how I say it. But my guest has shown me how much I’m communicating before I say anything at all. Linda Clemons is one of the world’s foremost body language experts. She travels around the world training top CEOs, sales teams, celebrities, media luminaries, and the rest of us on how we can harness the enormous power of nonverbal communication. And I was very interested in how we might be sabotaging our intent to connect with others, with poor nonverbal habits. She has a big following on social media where she gives guidance on how to effectively walk into a room, cues to look for when someone is lying or unsure, how to read a room, and what nonverbal cues give you away. My interest is in connecting with people and helping them feel safe and at ease, and this is really Linda’s deeper work. She has a new book, HUSH: How to Radiate Power and Confidence Without Saying a Word. And you can find her most everywhere @lindaclemons

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One of our primary cultural badges is being “busy”. We adopted the idea that busyness equals importance and status. I feel in the same way we’ve adopted a badge of perfectionism. This is now a wildly common label we give ourselves, as we all struggle with our “perfectionism” as we strive for excellence, as if not being a perfectionist means we have succumbed to mediocrity. But what my guest reveals to us is how we are often hiding, protecting, and limiting ourselves with our so called concepts on perfectionism. Thomas Curran has a PhD in psychology and is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. Thomas studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. His TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism has millions of views and his research has been featured in media ranging from the Harvard Business Review to New Scientist to CNN. Thomas has a book titled, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. Since talking with Thomas I completely changed my perception of perfectionism and don’t want my name associated with it. See if you feel the same after listening.

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When a new book on imagination was sent to me for review, I initially began thinking how we have culturally seemed to decrease in being imaginative. We seem more black and white and limited than ever, lacking the imagination to consider other perspectives, alternatives, and options to evolve ourselves and our lives. But in reviewing the material it dawned on me that from another angle we may be more imaginative than ever. We are experiencing a mental health crisis at the hands of our own anxiety, which is in essence our propensity to sit around imagining all the bad things that could happen to us. That is plenty of imagination, just not in a very productive direction. To dig further into this, I bring you Cassandra Vieten. Cassandra is a licensed clinical psychologist, clinical professor in the department of family medicine, and director of research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California, San Diego. She also directs the Center for Mindfulness at UC San Diego and serves as clinical psychology director at the Center for Psychedelic Research. Her research has focused on imagination, spirituality and health, transformative experiences and practices, and the development of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being. She has authored three books and her new one that I’m grateful was shared with me is, IMAGINE THAT: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination. Find her at cassandravieten.com

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Don Saladino is a famous fitness expert, in part due to being the trainer for celebrities, such as Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Emily Blunt, Sebastian Stan, Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hugh Jackman. I appreciate that he has to know his stuff when he’s paid the big bucks to transform the physique of a celebrity for a film. He has to produce results. However, I also realize it’s easy to discount the big celebrity transformation when they can devote as much time as needed to training, have a well paid nutritionist, and trainer like Don. But I also know he devotes a lot of time to mere mortals like us, and even better, he’s maintained his own perfect physique for many years with the look that’s landed him on the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine and others. And he’s also married with a couple kids and I’ve found him to be a grounded guy. What you will hear in this conversation is what you’ve probably expected all along. There are no real hacks or gimmicks to being fit. Fit and healthy, I’d say. Don is not doing anything crazy to be fit. He lives his life. He works out. He recovers. He eats clean. And at the end of the day he just wants to feel good and enjoy his life, as you and I do as well. So he talks about having a fit mindset and finding what is sustainable for you. Find him at donsaladino.com

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