Light Hustler: Making Your Mess Into Your Message

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes regularly to The New York Times and many other publications. She is also a TED speaker, a ​member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind and advisor to the Aspen Institute. A contributing writer for the Atlantic, she has written hundreds of articles related to psychology and culture, many of which have become viral sensations. She is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, CNN, and NPR’s “Fresh Air.” Learn more at LoriGottlieb.com or by following her @LoriGottlieb1 on Twitter.     She's also someone I've known for over a decade (we first met at a dinner in LA and then the next time we saw each other, it was when we appeared The CBS Morning Show together ye

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. Her other books include: Wherever You Go, There They Are, and You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (coauthored with Jeff Kahn).    She was the co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and numerous CNN and MSNBC programs. Her essays and satire have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, AARP, Real Simple, Prevention, The Los Angeles Book Review, The Daily Beast, Time.com, Next Tribe, Lenny Letter, Hadassah and The Hollywood Reporter, among other media outlets.   She's also an extremely methodical (she might say obsessive-compulsive?) person—one who starts planning her launch as she comes up with the book concept. And she works it—making lists, checking them way more than twice, reaching out to people she knows and doesn't know a

Julie Reisler, Life Designer®, TV Host, Author and Global Brand Ambassador, is all about helping you to tune into your intuition to be your You-est You.  Julie is the author of the Get a PhD in YOU book series, a multi-time TEDx speaker, the host of The You-est You® podcast and a mindfulness teacher on the popular app, Insight Timer, with over 110,000 downloads. Not enough for you? Julie also has a Master's degree in coaching, more than 12 certifications in mindset, leadership and wellbeing and is on the faculty at Georgetown University in their coaching program. As someone who has launched books by hiring various consultants, Julie has a unique perspective. That's why I brought her onto the show to discuss the most effective techniques for a DIY-er who's specifically using their books to build up other aspects of their career. WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BOOK? DOWNLOAD OUR FREE GUIDE TO WRITING A MEMOIR HERE!

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How the Show About Nothing Changed Everything; a history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; and Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love. She spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly and has since written for many publications, including BBC Culture, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, New York magazine, and Billboard.   She's also an old pal from my NYC days; in fact, we used to host Readings & Rubdowns events where people would listen to writers read from their latest books while getting massaged.   In the ensuing years, Jennifer has become a huge author and in this episode, she breaks down, step-by-step, what makes for a successful launch.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BOOK? GET OUR FREE GUIDE TO WRITING A MEMOIR HERE: www.memoirdownload.com

Dave Chesson is the creator of Kindlepreneur.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced book marketing which even Amazon KDP acknowledges as one of the best by telling users to “Gain insight from Kindlepreneur on how you can optimize marketing for your books.” Having worked with such authors as Orson Scott Card, Ted Dekker and more, his tactics help both fiction and nonfiction authors of all levels get their books discovered by the right readers.    But that's the official bio stuff. The stuff that really matters, at least to me, is that he is the wisest person out there today when it comes to successful indie publishing. Basically, he does the work so that the rest of us can utilize his techniques and systems.   The main takeaways are this: if you want to successfully launch a book, start your launch work the day you start writing; to cut down on haters, show readers you're human; and the right keywords and categories on Amazon can make the difference between bestsellerdom and obscurity.   Enjoy this episod

In this episode of the podcast, Ian Harvie joined me on my couch to talk about his childhood in rural Maine, his journey to discovering his true gender identity, his recovery from alcoholism, and his new life in sobriety as a trans comic.

Author Sarah Hepola isn’t just a writer but the author of the biggest book about addiction since A Million Little Pieces (as a fellow author of a book about addiction, this pains me to write but only a little because her book is so God damn good).   Hepola’s memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, has been written about in seemingly ever publication known to man, clearly striking a chord among the recovery community and beyond. The Texas-based Salon essay editor has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Glamour, The Guardian, Nerve and Slate, among others, and is as modest about her book’s success as possibly only a Texan can be.   In this episode, we talk about the relative coolness of sobriety, crying every day, whether or not Tinder dating profiles should mention sobriety and if a best-selling book can actually make you happy, among many other topics.

Actress and artist Jemima Kirke came on the podcast. Yes, those are thrilling words to write. This is not only exciting because she’s luminous, talented and plays Jessa on freaking Girls but also because she has a history with substances that you don’t hear many people share about.   After a wild youth, which included multi-day benders and bouts of depression, Kirke showed up at her mom’s in early 20s, saying she was ready for rehab. She went from one treatment center to the next, finding enough fault with the program there for her to be kicked out (but not before meeting the man she eventually married, who happens to now own a sober living).   After years of staying sober and doing the 12-step thing, Kirke began to question whether the one-size-fits-all philosophy about addiction applied to her. And so she had a drink. Contrary to what she’d been told, nothing bad happened. That was a few years ago and in that time, she’s watched her career rise to superstardom and embraced motherhood (in addition to the two

What is there to say about Moby that hasn’t already been said? The legendary musician, who burst onto the scene with his fifth studio album, Play, is also a DJ, photographer and soon-to-be memoirist (we all know he’s a descendant of Herman Melville, right?) And it’s not just his own music he’s had a hand in; the active animal rights supporter has remixed, co-written and produced music for many of the other greats. But let's talk about how, in his 40s, he launched into a whole new life: after a bout with sobriety when he was a Christian, Moby developed this reputation as something of a puritan. But he was actually boozing it up, as well as taking plenty of recreational illegal substances, while he brought the party back to his place. It wasn’t until he got to his 40s and the hangovers started to get debilitating that he started to look at the possibility of sobriety. Now he’s years into the sober game and growing all the time. In this episode, he and I talk about deciding to get sober, relapsing, how unappeali

Georgia Hardstark has blown up since she and Karen Kilgariff launched the mega popular My Favorite Murder podcast. But what was she up to before that? This episode—a re-release from several years ago—focuses on exactly that. So who is Georgia Hardstark? Find out everything and more in this ep.

Bestselling author, ultra-endurance athlete, plant-based nutrition advocate and sober father Rich Roll has been hailed as one of the world’s fittest men. He also graduated from Stanford and Cornell Law and built up a successful law practice, all while drowning in alcohol. Then, after years of sobriety, he realized he was anesthetizing himself with food the way he had with drinking and what started out as a cleanse turned into—well, one of the world’s fittest men. Here, we talk about familial expectations, being an alcoholic in New York and the spiritual aspects of recovery as well as the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, among many other things. THIS IS A RE-RELEASE OF AN OLD EPISODE AS WE PREP FOR THE SHOW RE-VAMP (get excited)!

Marc Maron appeared on the podcast in 2017, back when the focus of the show was on addiction and recovery. This re-release covers his life BEFORE Obama strolled over to his garage for an interview, before he was starring on Glow...essentially when he was already huge but not the hugest. The legendary comedian and host of the immensely popular WTF podcast needs no introduction but I'm giving him one anyway: Marc Maron has spent a couple of decades honing his craft, has appeared on Conan more than 40 times and is essentially the person responsible for putting podcasting on the map.

Professional athlete Lewis Howes and host of the podcast The School of Greatness is also what’s known as lifestyle entrepreneur. The short version of the story is this: sidelined by an injury while playing professional football, Howes had no money, nowhere to live and no interest in doing anything but the sport that he could no longer do.   So he took to his computer and managed to become a social media maven in just a few years, earning millions in the process and then coaching and inspiring many others to do the same.   As it turns out, he was also dealing with having been sexually abused as a child—an event he never shared with anyone until recently. Now he’s doing what he does: telling others about it so that they can be released from their own shame and then become, as he would say, great. In this episode, he and I talk about dreams, passion, finding inspiration and handling adversity, among many other topics.   This is a re-release of one of my most popular episodes from years ago. Enjoy it now

Dr. Neeta Bhushan is a former cosmetic dentist turned best-selling author, international speaker, social entrepreneur, advocate of emotional health, and leadership coach.   She helps entrepreneurs own their story, create their message in the form of books to chart their next big chapter.   She conducts Book To Bestseller workshops, and optimizes businesses to scale their message, their business, and their impact. Despite having met Neeta a few times, I had no idea what her back story was until this interview—in short, how she was orphaned t a young age, survived an abusive marriage of domestic violence, faced homelessness and essentially defines gritting out of the dark. (Her book is called Emotional Grit, natch.)   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

Melyna Harrison is a 7 Figure Entrepreneur and a business coach. While that's amazing, the craziest part of her story is where she was able to build that from.   See, she and her husband were doing just fine—his business was moving along, they had a couple kids—when, out of nowhere, they lost everything.   She realized she could feel sorry for herself or she could do something.   She chose the latter.   That led to her becoming a network marketing leader, with 300,000 people under her.   Yes, 300,000.   How did she do that—while continuing to be a wife and mother (they now have four kids in all)?   Hear all about that—and about why she chooses to tell people about her life's darker sides—in this episode.   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

Nick Sonnenberg is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency consultant, Inc. columnist and author of the book Idea to Execution. He is the founder and CEO of Leverage and Efficient Frontier Solutions, as well as co-founder of the Bullseye Mastermind Group. And he's worked with every big business name in the book, from Tony Robbins to Jay Abraham.   He's also always seemed, to me, to be the ultimate example of someone who's 100% "together," whatever that's come to mean today. He's also always seemed, to use another word that can conjure up a variety of concepts, "fancy." So I was very surprised to hear that he's the first person in his family to go to college and that he struggled in school with ADD.   In this conversation, he talked about how it was that very struggle that led to his success. Listen to hear us chat about mentors, books and more.   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

After surviving multiple near-death experiences and impacting millions of lives through his books, Hal Elrod is on a mission to elevate the consciousness of humanity, one person at a time.   As the bestselling author of one of the highest-rated books in the world, The Miracle Morning, and his newest book, The Miracle Equation, he is doing exactly that.   He is also perhaps the kindest person I have ever met. I learned this when I met him at a college speaking event over a decade ago and it was reinforced during my process of working on The Miracle Morning for Addiction Recovery with him.   In this episode, he shares multiple gems—including how doctors thought he must have been in denial when he cheerfully accepted the news that he'd never walk again, what the word "acceptance" really means and how a lesson he learned in sales training has changed his entire outlook on life...among many other things.   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

Stephan Spencer is an SEO expert and bestselling author of The Art of SEO, Social eCommerce, & Google Power Search. He founded the SEO agency Netconcepts (acquired in 2010) and is now part of a multi-billion dollar ad agency conglomerate.   He's optimized websites for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Chanel, Volvo, Sony, and Zappos and hosts two popular podcast shows: Get Yourself Optimized & Marketing Speak. He's also overcome circumstances that would have destroyed most, including a childhood of constant moving and foster homes. But it was during this childhood, where he was left on his own to take care of himself, that he learned computers...which led him to where he is now: as one of the world's leading experts on Search Engine Optimization.   In this episode, we discussed resilience, Tony Robbins, proposing in a hot air balloon...and much, much more.   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

Shauna Faulisi is the CEO of Soul Wellness Method, a nutrition and wellness practice that's gained a loyal online following and high-profile clientele by teaching an accessible approach to holistic health. As a celebrity chef and nutritionist, she's been featured in places like Vogue, HuffPost, WGSN, The Zoe Report and PopSugar.   As a former model who moved to New York after college, however, Shauna experienced loneliness, which she coped with by developing some not-so-healthy eating habits. Getting her own diet in order led to her helping a celebrity get in shape for a role and then building an entire business around nutrition and wellness.   Would a book help your business? Click here to find out: www.futureauthorquiz.com.

Emily Fletcher is the founder of Ziva Meditation and the creator of zivaONLINE, a powerful 15 day training in mindfulness, meditation and manifesting. She is considered the leading expert on meditation for performance and has spoken at Google, Harvard Business School, Apple and been named one of the top 100 women in wellness to watch.   In this episode—taken from my Apple TV show—we talked about all those accomplishments, but also what led to them...namely being on Broadway, with all her dreams allegedly coming true, cowering under a table because she couldn't handle the anxiety.   We also touched on why meditation is good for your sex life. Yep, we covered all the bases—so to speak—here.