The Tightrope With Dan Smolen

Bravery Part 1: the superpower people need to do meaningful work. About this episode: “When you are 26-years-old and being thrown into boardrooms to interview the CEO of Pepsi and General Foods and places like that, you really have to learn how to talk to people and to be a little differential, but still to … Continue reading Bravery Part 1 →

Courtroom to Screening Room: A Lawyer Finds Purpose as a Filmmaker About this episode: “Let me say it, again. Matt Weiss, a traffic lawyer from New York with no experience whatsoever, got to direct an Oscar winning actress. I mean, how cool is that?” – Attorney and Filmmaker Matthew Weiss Matthew Weiss is a successful … Continue reading Courtroom to Screening Room →

As Coach MD, Charles Glassman is a doctor on a meaningful work mission About this episode: I told my [high school] advisor that I was thinking of going into medicine. Well, he kind of paused as he said: ‘Look, medicine is a really tough field. Maybe you ought to think of something different?’ And when … Continue reading Doctor on Meaningful Work Mission →

Bridgeport: City Strives for Meaningful Work. About this episode: “We are in a global race for innovation, and, if we do not prepare—and we can’t wait for kids to graduate high school and college—we need that work now.” – Career coach and entrepreneur Natalie Pryce The city of Bridgeport—the second largest in the state of … Continue reading City Strives for Meaningful Work →

Queen of the Millennials: One Leadership Coach’s Passion for Gen Y Empowers America’s Intergenerational Workforce About this episode: “At the end of the first group that I had, we were wrapping up and we’re saying goodbye. One of them said, ‘you’re the only one who likes us, no one in the company likes us … … Continue reading Queen of the Millennials: One Leadership Coach’s Passion for Gen Y Empowers America’s Intergenerational Workforce →

Stand Up: Comedy Connects Veterans to Beautiful Dreams and Meaningful Work About this episode:  “It was very interesting to come into a fully formed class that has a clear way of getting you from ‘you think that you are funny?’ to ‘how does that translate on stage for five minutes?’” – US Army veteran and … Continue reading Stand Up: Comedy Connects Veterans to Beautiful Dreams and Meaningful Work →

To B or Not to B: A Nature Lover Turns Businesses into Benefit-Driven Brands About this episode: “[They’ve got some stuff] that makes good headlines on sustainability, but it is not moving many at all on the speed of urgency.” – Jen Boyton, regarding her decision to “break up” with Amazon.com As a young child … Continue reading Turn Businesses into Benefit Brands →

Emotional Intelligence: How EQ Helps People to Succeed in Meaningful Work Part 2 About this episode: “How often do you know people who take the time to actively pay attention to what they are feeling, identify the source of their feelings, and, take the time to think about how that affects other people?” -Emotional Intelligence … Continue reading Emotional Intelligence Part 2 →

Emotional Intelligence Part 1: How EQ Helps People to Succeed in Meaningful Work About this episode: "Every reveal, so to speak, is unique and everybody's results are unique. So, before [they even get their] results back, I think it is really important to provide an understanding of what Emotional Intelligence is." -Emotional Intelligence Expert Edythe Richards   Most everyone knows what IQ means—it’s the intelligence quotient, a score derived from several standardized tests to measure a person’s intelligence. An average IQ score might be around 100, whereas the score of a genius-level person might exceed 150. But, few people in the world know what EQ means—that is the quotient of emotional intelligence, which measures our ability to be aware of, control, and express emotion, and, to handle interpersonal relationships judicially and empathically. In Emotional Intelligence part 1 of a two-part episode, we welcome back Edythe Richards. She is the founder and executive coach at A Top Career and a subject-leve

Give Piece a Chance Part 2: An Entrepreneur Disrupts Chicago’s Food Scene About this episode: “We didn’t have the luxury of a soft opening. So, we’re packed, it’s hard getting the product out of the kitchen, because we really don’t know how to do volume yet. And we’re learning how to do service. So, we’re … Continue reading Give Piece a Chance Part 2 →

Give Piece a Chance Part 1: An Entrepreneur Disrupts Chicago’s Food Scene About this episode: “There were plenty of naysayers. Chicago is known for deep dish pizza. That is what Chicago is. And people were telling me [you can’t go] into Chicago with a New Haven-style pizza, because frankly, not many people know where New … Continue reading Give Piece a Chance Part 1 →

Beyond Dreams: where will the Tightrope take us? We tackle the topic. About the episode: On the Fall 2018 season of The Tightrope, we learned that, born from our beautiful childhood dreams, we can find success as adults doing meaningful work. Through their own storytelling, our guests inspired us to seek out work and career opportunities that are profound, empower people, protect the planet, and fun-to-do. But we also learned that dreams alone cannot lead to meaningful work. We must aid our dreams through exploration of work and entrepreneurial opportunities, a solid and well-thought-out strategy to pivot into a new role, and then bold action to make it all happen. So why is this so important? Because, somewhere between childhood and our adult years, most of us abandon our dreams of doing meaningful work. Instead, we settle for meaningless work that covers expenses and offers some benefits…but renders us bored, miserable, angry, and longing to do better. Beyond dreams, THIS is our journey. Let us walk th

Serving Those Who Serve: Finding Meaningful Work as a Police Chaplain About this episode: “My career has been one of twists and turns, but ultimately things connected to each other. And what I do now—to help people in need—is something that helps me feel whole.” - Michael Shochet, Senior Cantor of Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, Virginia; Chief Chaplain of Fairfax County, Virginia Police Few can tell a personal career story as dramatic and ever-changing as Mike Shochet. He became one of the youngest TV reporters in Baltimore. But bothered by covering “if it bleeds, it leads” stories, he pivoted into law enforcement as a Baltimore City police officer where he hoped that he could help people more effectively. Then Tom, his partner on patrol, got shot. Shochet used his own shirt to stanch the bleeding from Tom’s gunshot wound. Immediately, Shochet suffered PTSD, but his superiors told him to take a day off and get back on the job. He couldn’t. Shochet turned in his badge and eventually found his calling as a

Neurocentricity and recruitment align the corporate mission to meaningful work. “We’re looking at a world of more empathetic buying, empathetic recruitment, empathetic reading, empathetic leadership. It is absolutely the way of the future. It is allowing anyone who is connected to a common cause to feel respected and safe in a way that will change the world.” - Adrienne Shoch, Corporate Performance Expert and Founder of 5 to 1 Consulting An unusual alignment of forces is taking hold in today’s workplace, one that merges the needs of hiring managers and the express wants and desires of professionals. The alignment is aided by what our guest, performance expert Adrienne Shoch, calls neurocentrity, the dynamics that encapsulate how we relate to the world and what allows us to thrive. The merger has ushered in a new era of empathetic recruitment. In this episode, Shoch: Defines the concept of neurocentricity [starts at 1:25] Describes empathetic recruitment [starts at 6:55] Discusses the importance of

A meaningful career: leading autonomous vehicle adoption In Urban America. “The community has to trust developers of the cars, users of the cars, and they also have to see that these cars are going to take them to the places that they have had difficulty getting to.” - Richard Ezike, Ph.D., Noted Subject-Matter Expert on Transportation Equity Dr. Richard Ezike’s earliest childhood dreams of doing meaningful work were about building beautiful buildings and cityscapes. But after earning advanced degrees in science and advocating for the environment and our urban centers, his career pivoted in a completely unexpected direction. Now, Dr. Ezike leads the charge for American Transportation Equity, to make the full range of mobility options—and, in particular, Autonomous Vehicles or AVs—as readily available for inner-city residents as they are for people in our more affluent suburbs. He believes that AVs will provide safer and more accessible mobility, and may greatly improve the lives of inner-city residents w

Dr. Charles Glassman explains overcoming Brain Drain and other obstacles to leading a meaningful life. “It’s so convincing, the physiological feeling that we have when we’re anxious: our stomachs feel tight, we might have to go to the bathroom, we might feel jittery, we might have brain fog, we might not feel on top of our game or strong. And those are very convincing feelings to tell us we have to fight or flee.” - Charles Glassman, MD In this episode of The Tightrope with Dan Smolen podcast, guest Charles Glassman, MD returns to discuss Brain Drain, his study of how discordant emotions negatively impact our physical health. While board certified to practice internal medicine, Dr. Glassman treats his patients holistically by addressing their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. And while listening carefully to his patients, he has determined that we often try unsuccessfully to treat our physical illness through too much self-medication and prescription drugs, overreliance on specialists, and—most of

Going local creates meaningful work. “People aren’t trying to create the next Budweiser. They are trying to create the next IPA that they can sell in the local bar and to drive a nice little employment world that is self-contained and capable of hiring and keeping people at work in their community.” - Morley Winograd, Co-author of Healing American Democracy: Going Local One revolutionary change happening in the United States right now is largely overlooked by our Members of Congress, top business executives and other thought-leaders. It is the rise of localism, and the transcendence of something called “constitutional localism,” that is revitalizing local communities across the country while creating new and economically sustainable sources of commerce and meaningful work. Helping us to understand this seismic change in our governance are Doug Ross and Morley Winograd. Together with Mike Hais they are the authors of the important new book Healing American Democracy: Going Local. In it, they explain how go

The Design Thinker: Turning Childhood Dreams Into Business Success “People come to me realizing that something’s not working, or, that they have an aspiration of what they want. At the end of the day, they want to make a pivot to something else. In order to get down there and make that pivot they need a strategy. And what I tell people is that it may take multiple strategies for you to get where you want to be. And we will get there. The question is, are you ready for a marathon? Because, it’s not a sprint.” - Carla A. Fleming, CEO and Founder of Pivoting Strategies, LLC Carla Fleming’s gloriously happy childhood dreams of doing meaningful work included being a teacher, a doctor, and a journalist. To the casual observer, work dreams such as these seem disconnected, but not to Fleming, who says that, together, they pointed her to a career that’s all about solving difficult business problems: “A teacher helps you learn to be better, a doctor makes diagnoses to make you better, and the journalist figures out

Third Act By 28: One Man's Unusual Journey to do Meaningful Work (Part 2) “People said ‘well, he was a reporter, and a cop, and now he’s a cantor.’ When I look back on it, everything that I’ve done in my life, all of those jobs and the other smaller jobs in between, have always been about doing things with people, for people—helping them in some way.” - Michael Shochet, Senior Cantor of Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, Virginia; Chief Chaplain of Fairfax County, Virginia Police Few of us can tell a personal career story as dramatic and ever-changing as Michael Shochet. After college, he became one of the youngest TV news reporters in Baltimore before pivoting to police work. But, Shochet was hardly settled on patrolling the streets of one of America’s most dangerous cities. Extreme on-the-job stress—and PTSD—sent him soul-searching. The work he eventually embraced, that of a cantor in Reform Judaism and police chaplain, would redefine his life and bring him boundless purpose and joy. In Third Act by 2

Third Act By 28: One Man's Unusual Journey to do Meaningful Work (Part 1) “When I was a little kid, I loved police officers. I could spot a police car a mile away. I think it started when I was seven or eight years old and a police car came into our neighborhood, which never happened, to go to someone’s house to talk to them about something. And he was really nice to us—all of my friends. Who knows if that set a journey for me in the back of my mind that police work—such a noble profession—is really important to society, but I always had a love of police officers.” - Michael Shochet, Senior Cantor of Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, Virginia; Chief Chaplain of Fairfax County, Virginia Police Few can tell a personal career story as dramatic and ever-changing as Mike Shochet. As an ambitious high school student from an affluent Baltimore suburb, Shochet became “enthralled” with television production and news reporting. And soon after college graduation, he became a reporter for Baltimore’s NBC affiliate, W