The Tightrope With Dan Smolen

Beautiful Dreams: What did you want to be when you grew up? What were your dreams of doing meaningful work? In this special episode of The Tightrope with Dan Smolen podcast, we ask these questions which are so central to our personal narratives, but also to our pursuit of happiness. You will discover the beautiful dreams of some of our season’s guests, like: Charles Glassman who knew early on that he wanted to be a doctor; Richard Ezike who saw himself building beautiful buildings and great cities; Edythe Richards who wanted to perform before a live audience, and; Michael Shochet who was enthralled with being on TV. This season, we meet highly successful people—all leaders in their respective fields of influence—who overcame life and professional challenges to do truly meaningful work. Each shares their remarkable stories and useful insight on how we can aspire to do the work of our dreams—work that is profound, protects the planet, helps people, and is fun. So…let’s walk this Tightrope together, to recaptu

The Experience Shaper Part 2: One Performance Expert is Transforming HOW We Work “I was across the country in probably 12 different cities—about 500 people—and I would ask the question: How many of you have had a transformativeperformance evaluation in your career? And only THREE PEOPLE out of 500 said that they had had a transformative conversation.” - Adrienne Shoch, Corporate Performance Expert and Founder of 5 to 1 Consulting Performance reviews are a stable of the workforce. It is how companies measure a worker’s job skill, set salary levels, and establish future goals. But they are also often ill-timed and poorly conceived, set out to accomplish too much, and leave both parties—the hired talent and the hiring manager—reeling. In the Experience Shaper Part 2, corporate performance expert and “experience shaper” Adrienne Shoch shows us how we can radically transform the performance review process so that it helps the hiring company dramatically improve performance, mitigate on-the-job problems, and, pr

The Experience Shaper Part 1: One Performance Expert is Transforming HOW We Work “As a child, I did have a moment when my mom said, ‘you know, you are going to have to work for yourself. You are going to find your way outside of what everyone else is doing.’ And I’ve never forgotten that.” - Adrienne Shoch, Corporate Performance Expert and Founder of 5 to 1 Consulting Early in life, she knew that her mind worked differently than the other kids. She knew she was dyslexic. But she also knew that she was very smart. And her parents fully supported her dreams and life journey, with mom telling her, “just have fun, just go out and enjoy your day.” In The Experience Shaper Part 1, corporate performance expert and “experience shaper” Adrienne Shoch describes how she turned difficult early life challenges into an extraordinary ability “to see things outside of the norm,” to understand how our mind/body connections work, and apply her unusual insight towards creating better work engagements and outcomes for her cl

Transportation Equity: Reengineering the Quality of Urban Life “When someone is deprived of transportation options [it affects] their ability to get an education, it affects their ability to have access to healthy food, it affects their ability to access employment centers.” - Richard Ezike, Ph.D., Noted Subject-Matter Expert on Transportation Equity Transportation access remains one of the most important issues affecting American urban life. And yet, many commuters—especially those who live in affluent suburbs and exurbs—remain woefully unaware that many of their urban counterparts are deprived access to the full array of mobility choices. Such transportation inequity means that a resident in the inner city would require a painstakingly long commute to work at a job, acquire healthcare, shop, or attend school. In this episode, Richard Ezike, Ph.D. discusses his nationally recognized thought leadership regarding the inequities inherent in the American transportation system. His career is inspired by his e

Discovering Yourself: Knowing Your Myers-Briggs Type Opens Gateways to Meaningful Work “Myers-Briggs is all about preferences. We all have our preferences in life. Like our preference for chocolate or vanilla, we may eat both from time to time, but we prefer one over the other. So, with Myers-Briggs, the first step is to understand who we are, most naturally and comfortably. And when we are in a good place, Myers-Briggs helps us feel more empowered to make better decisions for our lives and careers.” - Edythe Richards, Certified Myers-Briggs Master Practitioner How might your life have been different if you had deliberately chosen work and career opportunities that aligned expressly with your personality type preferences? Would you have been happier and more satisfied with the work you chose to do, the life you led, and the people you sought out in your everyday experiences? If you could go back in time to do work that was more meaningful than you are accustomed, would you? In this episode, veteran career

Coach MD: How One Physician Leads Patients to Live Better, Stronger, and More Meaningful Lives “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 he said that, that made me decide—no matter what—I WAS GOING TO DO IT.” - Charles Glassman, MD Imagine being an average high school student who gets dream-crushing discouragement from a guidance counselor after expressing a serious interest in pursuing a medical career. Instead of wallowing in despair, you find within you the courage to prove that guidance counselor wrong. In this episode, we meet Charles Glassman, MD. With grit and determination, he has achieved success as a gifted physician, published author, and globally recognized thought-leader in the study of wellness known as Coach MD. In these key interview segments, Dr. Glassman: Takes us back to high school and the experience he had with t

Meet Eva Grodberg, a corporate escapee turned travel provider of epic experiences. Imagine embarking on an advertising career on famed Madison Avenue, where all the entry level jobs available to recent college grads like you require proficiency in typing. Then imagine getting a lucky break with a pivot to print media sales where you rise to become a top direct response advertising sales mega-producer with a $20.5 million revenue portfolio and a huge expense account. Next, imagine what happens when your great career in print media sales comes to a screeching halt? And finally, imagine reinventing yourself in a dream role providing customized travel and leisure experiences to discriminating clients. All that and more happened to corporate escapee turned “epic” travel pro Eva Grodberg. In these key interview segments, she Describes her lucky post-college-graduation career in advertising sales [start point at 5:31] Relives the “I should have gotten out of it sooner, but I didn’t” end to her advertising c

Living a Life of Less Stuff And More Epic Experience According Pew Research's groundbreaking January 2017 report, the American Dream that we all knew as Upward Mobility is long gone; it was replaced by a soberer pursuit of economic stability. As a result, we now fill our homes and storage bins with less stuff. Instead, more of us, and especially Millennials, pursue profound meaning and experience. There are few industries where that shift to experience is more evident than in the travel and leisure space. In these key interview segments, she: Relates how we may make the most of a life with less stuff and more experience [start point at 3:08] Lays out what it is like being an entrepreneur [start point at 5:19] Describes how the dynamic aspect of the pursuit of experience gets factored in to the work that she does [start point at 12:10] Speaks to how “adrenaline junkies” escape the rush of work when on vacation [start point at 14:10] Dreams of an epic experience she would like to have [start point 1

Edythe Richards sees a path forward staying nimble for career success. The workforce’s notions of work and career have massively shifted. Edythe Richards is a veteran career counselor and Emotional Intelligence expert. In this episode, she provides a path forward, why it is so critically important that we stay nimble to achieve lasting career success in sustainability, social responsibility, and other fields. Indeed, there is a path forward staying nimble for career success. About our guest: Edythe Richards received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delaware and a Masters of Arts degree in Counseling from Seton Hall University. Her nationally recognized career counseling consultancy, A Top Career, is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Here are other episodes that include our guest: -Discovering Yourself: ‘Knowing Your Myers-Briggs Type’ Opens Gateways to Meaningful Work -Emotional Intelligence: How EQ Helps People to Succeed in Meaningful Work (Part 1) -Emotional Intelligence: How EQ