Life Passion and Business

If you listen to my show on Sunday you would have heard that this podcast is 5 years old in January. and it’s time for a change. We have a few shows left in the current format that will come out between now and the end of December.

It’s funny when we consider changing or letting go of the familiar there’s an element of fear that turns up and the urge is to step away from that edge.

Of course, we just need to let go and move forward. But that reminded me of the show with John Purkiss  “The power of letting go.”

It was back in 2020 and was one of those inspiring and long conversations, so long that I split the show into two parts you’re about to hear part 1 as a re-upload. It is about overcoming depression mindfulness and how to get the life you want. 

The link to the previous listing and part 2 of that conversation is here.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://lifepassionandbusiness.com/john-purkiss-more-letting-go/

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

How do we get real about money and what does that mean?  Well given the current focus on Money in the global psyche I thought it was a good time to revisit the ideas around money and mindset.

We all have a money story, I have said before I remember my father trying to make the money he was counting go further. It was all the money he had and he kept moving from one envelope to the next looking to see which bills he could pay and the ones he could not. That image of there not being enough money stayed with me for years and it still comes up from time to time.

The show you are about to hear is from 2019 with Laura Powner, she is an accountant turned money mentor and she helps people get their heads straight about their money. Not just in the sense of how to manage and count it but how to receive more.

This show was in the early days of the podcast and it is so interesting to hear my voice which I think has changed a bit in the last 3 years.

Get Real About Money

Laura is a Chartered Accountant and hypnotherapist. While coming from the world of spreadsheets and numbers she is equally at home teaching clients how to build self-worth as a Mind & Money Mentor.

Do You Know Your Value

That is not a money question but it can have a bearing on how you spend and receive money. It is difficult to build your net worth if you do not think you are worth it. How many examples are there of people who get money and lose the lot?

Laura has worked with thousands of businesses over twenty years. She has helped clients launch, grow, turn around and sell their businesses by working on both the number and the mindset of the owner.

Known for her straight-talking approach, lots of humour and no “jargon. In her words, she is a lover of all things woo but balances this with a generous dose of muggle.
Laura could be a bit unnerving if you are used to normal accountants. It was a cracking conversation which went on well past the recording.  

So let’s get real about money.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/laura-powner-get-real-about-money

Explore your calling, are you on a life path that feeds your soul?

My guest on the show believes that everyone has a calling.  

Richard Blank is a native of Philadelphia born to a family with more than the average means and there was a plan. He was on a path to an Ivy League education to study medicine or law.

But even at that age, he knew it was important to be inspired in his chosen career. Neither of these was his calling.  He convinced his parents to let him take a different path. He went to the University of Arizona, earning a bachelor’s degree in communication and Spanish.

For his junior year at the age of 21, he took a semester at a university in Madrid. It was about absorbing the language and the Spanish way of life. While he did enjoy the party scene. He also took the opportunity to travel on trains and stay in youth hostels. He explored the art and culture of Europe. 

On returning to the US he took an internship with a Spanish TV station. And for a while and another job working with an importer of Corona Beer. 

He used his bilingual ability and communication skills to create opportunities for himself and built a career in telemarketer training. 

The Big Break

The life-changing break came when he was 27 years old. He relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centres in San Jose.

He was hooked on the industry, the country and the culture

In his mid-30s he started his own call centre. It began with one seat in a communal office, and it was a slow and steady journey.

Today he owns a building and directly employs 150 people. Over the last 10-plus years, he has trained over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers. His hobby is collecting vintage pinball machines.  

Explore your calling

What is so interesting about this interview, is that Richard has nothing to sell. He reached out to me because he was inspired by the work that we do. And the stories that we share at life passion and business. It is about our calling and why we are here.

Our conversation is not about telemarketing. It is about Richard’s life and the philosophy that has helped him move to a new country and build a successful business. It gives him the opportunity to give back to his adopted community. 

He believes everyone has a calling. For him, it was to major in Spanish and explore the culture, and look where that got him.  I hope this inspires you to explore your calling. 

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/richard-blank-explore-your-calling

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however, the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

We do not know what we do not know, this conversation is about how we see the world and how there are layers to our reality.

It is back to the stories, narratives and frameworks of society and how we are shaped by them.

My guest on the show is  Morgana McCabe Allan it was her PhD that put her on the path to explore the patterns and constructs that we created for ourselves, which lead to her developing her model on the concept of radical wholeness.  

Morgana was born in Pasley Scotland, at the time an area was in server industrial decline,  it become one of the poorest regions, with the associated drugs and poverty. So humble beginnings, she also endured a lot of childhood illnesses that kept her out of early education.

In these situations, families either buckle and sink or rise above it. Morgana’s parents were able to model how to be better, it gave Morgana the support and resilience she needed. 

Stated her first business at just 8 years old breeding small animals and went on to volunteer work as soon as she was old enough before starting work in retail.

Exploring Radical Wholeness

On leaving school she tried university but it was not for her, however, she went back as a mature student at the age of 22  

She chose archaeology anthropology and Hispanic studies because it allowed for loads of fieldwork and travel. Now in education, she did her undergrad, master’s and PhD back to back over 13 years.

It was here that she lay the groundwork for her book Unbecoming and explored the ideas around radial wholeness.

It all lead to a multi-disciplinary PhD, she knew it would be accepted without corrections or rejected. As it happened it was acclaimed and the path into Accademia was open for her. But she knew she would never stay.

Our conversation is a look at the construct of society and how we can move beyond them.

For Morgana the work she has started in her PHD needed to be taken out into the world. She left college and worked with a charity for a year before going on to start her current project. Today Morgana is a business mindset, manifestation mentor and the author of the book Unbecoming, Your Unorthodox Guide to Radical Wholeness

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/morgana-mccabe-allan-radical-wholeness

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however, the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

Talk about global impact. My guest on the show creates stories with her words and has captivated audiences worldwide with her powerful presentations.

But how that all began is one of those stories of the unexpected.  

What does a girl do when some money arrives out of the blue just before her birthday? For my guest, that would normally have meant a party. But this year was different, it felt like there was a reason for this money to arrive.

Moira Ní Ghallachóir was born in Donegal but left to explore the world. She was living the London Life as a youth worker. From her Instagram feed, she was having a ball. But in reality, it was draining her soul, and there was a desire for something more.

When the money arrived with a birthday coming up, she saw it as a gift and packed a small bag, her journal and took the Eurostar to Paris.

Sitting in a cafe, with coffee, croissant and a journal, mulling over her future – the phone rings. On the screen comes up the word ‘Home’. That is the moment that changed Moira’s life. It was the signal to go home to Ireland.

On returning to Donegal she saw the place with new eyes and wanted to share it. She told the story and became a one-woman tourist development agency.

Our conversation is about her journey from uninspired Youth Worker to Irish Tourism to Business Mentor and International Speaker.  And as she explains, success is reflected in the transformative experiences.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/moira-ni-ghallachoir-global-impact

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

My guest on the show calls himself a “journeyman entrepreneur” he has built many businesses some worked some did not and he has worked in 20 minimum wage jobs.  

If there is a core thread in the life of A. J Lawrence, it would be curiosity as it has driven most of his ventures.

When AJ was 11 one of his friends’ Dad bought a home computer for the family. This was the 1980s no one could use it. AJ was instantly hooked, it came with a stack of manuals, he read the lot and helped his friend’s family set it up while bartering time for his own use.

In the 1990s while at university he got a degree in Chemistry but it was logic where that attracted him, in his spare time he coded bulletin boards, while the internet existed it was not one that most of us would recognize. There was no google, firefox or Sarafi to surf the web.

His first business was seeded from an overheard conversation about the first piece of viral news that made the national papers. It lead him to create a tracking service for companies to see when their name was mentioned online. We would recognize this today as google alerts.

Although a part-time project it found some success but struggled and was costing more than he was making, it was an interview with a local paper that shifted his fortunes.

“ Local Boy Builds Web Technology sites “ was the headline and then the phone just kept ringing.

That little venture went through $1,000,000 in just 9 months, it caught the attention of a company that offered to buy him out. He accepted they went bust within months and he ended up with nothing.

That was his first of many business lessons.  

It took a few years for him to get over that loss, in the meantime, he took on various project management roles and realised that his web business had given him a unique insight into the problems of web design and marketing.

Fast forward a few years and working for a digital agency it was a call from a client that encouraged him to step out on his own and start something better.

He built a digital services agency to over $ 7 million in annual billing when a crisis caused him to downsize, restructure and shed staff. He took a hit to the ego and lost his passion for the business.

When an offer came to buy the company he said yes to a 7 figure sum and this time it was different he got to keep the money.

Our conversation is about his entrepreneurial journey,  it is about how he chased 8 figure success and looked at failure.  AJ is very candid with us about his personal challenges. We look at the agency model and life after the big job. What it means to find balance with family and what is possible beyond the generation of money.

Today A.J.  is a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, an angel investor, growth expert, and host of the Beyond 8 Figures podcast.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/aj-lawrence-beyond-8-figures

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

How do you deal with change?

My guest on the show is Zak Moore; he was lucky to witness change early in his career. He sees change as an opportunity to find our gifts and give them away.

In his early years, Zak was good at maths and physics, which led to university and on to  Aberdeen for work in the oil and gas industry. 

He was encouraged to move south with a company going into project management and consultancy. It was the mid-80s, and computers were appearing in the office. One of the first machines was given to the youngster ( Zak ) to sort it out. 

Zak discovered the power of spreadsheets and witnessed how automation changed the office beyond recognition over the next few years. 

It set him on a path of learning and development in the technology sector. The zenith of his technology career was in 2000, when he managed a large development team from oxford and Cambridge. Together they created a digital music system that paid artists for downloads.

That was two years before the apple iPod, but needles to say, Apple won that game, and Zak was out of a job. He went back to writing code and took on a part-time MBA course

What inspired him most was the module on creative problem solving, and he developed a methodology to support companies in agile thinking.

It went very well until 2015 when an ear infection spread to his brain and became meningitis, which put him into a coma. The condition swells the brain, leaving them with physical and mental changes if the patient survives. Sometimes it creates a whole new personality.

Zak's survived, possibly because of his ability to embrace change, which supported him through the difficult road to recovery. As you will hear in the intro, he had some beautiful experiences with synesthesia. While struggling with issues of sight, hearing and balance, he decides to take on a marathon challenge to raise money for a meningitis charity. 

Our conversation is not about technology; it is about change, the books and reading that supported him. But it is wider that Zak was always a deep thinker, and meningitis has given him a new take on the world.

"When you get hit with something, you can always get something good to come out of it. "

We speak about change, how society follows trends, the coming of AI, and how gaming and gamification will change the world.

Today Zak builds and runs computer systems and supports people and companies in the techniques of agile thinking.

Let's join the conversation with Zak Moore.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest's website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/zak-moore-embracing-change

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people's stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

In this show we explore.

Brand building, entrepreneurship, holistic marketing, health and fitness and living a life that feeds us.  It is a deep conversation about the world in which we live, how to find your story, and the path towards your best life.,

Images, shapes and forms always inspired Olly Herman-Taylor. While at school, he discovered a passion for design and spent his days doodling, creating logos, and drawing.

At college, he got a degree in English; on leaving, he went into the building industry, working on-site in the family business. Carrying bricks up and down ladders made him strong and fit, giving him an appreciation for movement and using his body.

But the inspiration to design was calling; it was music or clothes, feeling he might be tone deaf he chose clothes.  

Olly started a t-shirt design business producing and selling shirts on the London street markets.  But T-shirts would never make him rich, so he looked to his other passion, snowboarding. 

Coming up with a unique design for a snowboarding jacket, he located a company that agreed to produce them if he could sell 500 jackets. He returned with an order for 5000, and his business was born.

He was just 23 and starting a business with no plan, and it worked. 

For seven years, he did some fantastic stuff, creating a lifestyle business and taking it to over a million pounds, but that journey involved compromise, and it stopped feeding his soul. Now with a young family, he sold the brand and took some time out to be with his kids and consider his next steps.

He transitioned to Health and Fitness and set about creating a natural fitness brand, and this time life did not roll so easy seven years later. He was depressed, in debt and unhappy. 

Our conversation is about his journey out of the hole he had created. He discovered the darker sides of marketing in the fitness industry.  As already mentioned, it is a deep conversation about this world and what the system will do to us when we allow it.


Today Olly Herman-Taylor calls himself a Bio Hacker and high-performance coach. He helps entrepreneurs upgrade their mindset, transform their health, uncover their purpose and create a life they love. He is also the host Torchbearer™ podcast and co-founder of Rare Partners, a story-based communication agency.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/olly-hermon-taylor-creating-a-life-to-love

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however, the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

In this show, we are exploring freedom, making choices and living the life you want to live, but more importantly, we are looking at the value of caring.  

We all care about those close to us, family and friends, but what about other people? Caring is an underrated value. My guest's formative years were at a unique school where he learned the value and importance of caring. It has shaped his life and work, bringing him everything he ever wanted.

Matt Ward was born the 3rd child to a low-income family with problems. He is the only sibling to finish High school, go to college and avoid prison.

How he avoided the path to jail is down to the universe giving him a break. At the age of 10 (sixth grade), he received a scholarship to the Milton Hershey Boarding School.

Attending this school put Matt on a new path; it taught him values, one of which was caring, and it became the theme of his life.

He left the Hershey School and went to college, he was interested and hotel and restaurant management, but that did not work out for him, as he did not have the interest or patience for cooking.

While volunteering at a youth football club in 1999, an opportunity appeared.  They needed a website for this new internet craze, and Matt got asked to build it. Once other clubs saw the result, they all wanted a website, so he started a web design business. 

The business grew year on year and employed eight people. Matt’s focus was always sales and relationships. He particularly enjoyed speaking at events and meeting people.

By 2018 the business was still growing but not feeding his soul; he was working hard but felt he was going nowhere. He sold it to one of his employees for a seven-figure sum and stepped out into the world of professional speaking.

Our conversation as always is about the journey. It is about self-discovery,  the moving towards freedom and living by the phrase “ Do me ”. 

We talk about friendship and building relationships, it is a place where men often struggle when the context is outside of work.  Matt thrives around the idea of freedom and the joy of living. His purpose is speaking and sharing the concept of caring but also about sharing the school that changed his life.

Since starting on his speaking journey, Matt has written three books,  The host at The Mass Business Podcast, a paid keynote speaker and a word-of-mouth referral consultant.

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/matt-ward-the-value-of-caring

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Are you setting your course, are you taking that first step?  

My guest on the show is an example of someone living a good life by design a man who came from humble beginnings.  

Rocky Lalvani was born in India, when he was two years old, the family emigrated to the US, and while it was a great opportunity, the family had to start at the bottom. 

It was a tough beginning, but they worked hard as immigrant families do, the American dream inspired them, and they built their wealth.

During Rocky’s early life, there were lots of success and money conversations with other ex-pat communities.  While listening to these family chats, he learned the importance of negotiation and how to hustle. 

Starting with his paper route, he discovers how good service leads to good tips. At college, he was buying and selling stuff until he secured a real-estate licence to sell properties.

After finishing high school and going to college, he did a degree in Economics and went out into the world to work.

He did many jobs and eventually built a solid business creating operational and management spreadsheets for small businesses.

Rocky’s challenge was that he found it almost impossible to take the first steps and move his life forward. Our conversation is not about the work he did but the wisdom he developed. We touch on mentors, health, fitness, food and more. All of the steps that help him move forward and build the life he wanted.

Today Rocky calls himself the Chief Profitability Adviser for business owners. He teaches them how to ensure they get paid and that they make pro

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/rocky-lalvani-taking-the-first-step

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Our conversation is a little different this week as this story has no fall, crash or upheaval. However, it is about good communication and the search for meaning and purpose.

My guest is unusual in that he is younger than most. What makes him interesting is he is the third generation of a thriving family business. The transition between father and son was without drama. 

Steve Cook was born in Oklahoma and has never left. 

As a child, Steve mirrored his dad and wanted to be like him. As he went to college, his Dad became a restauranter, and steve followed that interest in his studies.

By the time Steve was leaving college, the family had sold the restaurant and bought into the family horse feed business.

On stepping out into the world of work, Steve considered various careers before entering the family business. There is a lot of potential baggage when it comes to working with family.

Our conversation is about his journey into the business, finding his feet up to the point where he took it over. The company is one of the largest feed suppliers in the USA, which is due to the successful working relationship between Steve and his father.

We take about his challenges and, of course, the usual five questions.

Steve did not say he was passionate about horse feed, but he is passionate about business and what it takes to run it well.

That is how we met as steve is the host of the Better Business Podcast and squeezing the sponge is his view on getting the most out of life.   

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/steve-cook-squeezing-the-sponge

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

Do you pick your challenges? Are you ready to make a break to get what you want? 

My guest on the show today is one of those people. He tells me he has been lucky and life has treated him well, and it has, but I suspect that is because he was prepared to take the opportunities as they arrived.

Jürgen Strauss was born in Germany as a child; his family emigrated to Australia. In the late 1950s, Australia was a very English culture. As a German-speaking child with a funny name and accent, he experienced a lot of prejudice.

His father was an engineer looking for something practical and went to college and got a degree in chemistry. Staying in education, he used his language skills to find a post-doctoral fellowship at a German university.

It was amazing to be back in his motherland, and the work was challenging and exciting.

After two years, he left to work at the chemical company Agfa. At the time leading manufacturer of chemical film and processing. He was part of the team that developed some unique chemistry for a photographic paper that could develop slide images. It went to market simultaneously as the first digital cameras appeared.

Jurgen could see the writing on the wall. By now, he was married and with a young child. Taking his family's historical lead, I guess they chose to return to Australia.

Our conversation is a beautiful story of progression; we cover values, networking, relationships and being an introvert in business and the power of podcasting.  

Further details about this podcast, along with my guest's website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/jurgen-strauss-valued-relationships

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people's stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

I have a special admiration for those with a natural talent for music and performance, I had the acting bug in my 20s, and still, I love singing in groups. 

Our guest in the show is a creative powerhouse; she has written and performed numerous one-woman shows and has three musicals to her name. She plays, sings, composes and, has written five books plus she speaks at live events. 

Deborah Johnson's life is about the expression of creativity; that journey began when she was nine.

She was born to a musical family with a sister playing the violin. Deborah was guided to the piano and progressed quickly in her ability to play and sing. 

She was the young little pianist who would do a solo piece at events and fairs. 

Deborah took on her first students when she was 13. After college with an MA, she taught music at all levels, but her passion has always been creation and performance. That has been a story of discipline and dedication to her craft. As she says, “ It is putting in the reps,” she believes in hard work to get a result..

In our conversation, we touch on her process, her fear, and what drives her.

Deborah is a solopreneur and is constantly looking for the next creative project. She has been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards after more than  20 years in the entertainment industry. She's built numerous self-driven businesses and is an expert on how to constantly reinvent yourself in the gig economy.

Deborah is actively speaking and performing for both live and virtual events and will continue with her creative projects, as she said, “ Until my kids put me in a home.”

Join us for this delightful conversation with Deborah Johnson.

Further details about this podcast along with my guest's website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/deborah-johnson-real-and-authentic

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people's stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

It can be said that life is about the connections, collaborations and relationships that we build. While it is possible to go through life alone, it would be a lonely journey.

My guest in the show at the time of recording was in his 70th year and is still in daily contact with a friend from grade school. They met when they were just four years old.


Our conversation is the celebration of an ongoing journey Paul Baron has 50 years of business experience. That was not the plan; he graduated college with a mathematics degree and became a teacher while studying for a master's. 

He also liked to play tennis at a high level. A tennis partner and friend pointed out there were no retail options for professional Tennis or sports goods in their town. It was 1974; everything in retail would be new; they opened the first of 3 pro tennis shops. Paul's path in teaching and mathematics ended, and his business career began.

Over the last 40 years, he has been a product specialist identifying gaps in the US market, working with companies in the UK, Australia, USSR and China to fill those opportunities. He has had success and failures but has always enjoyed the journey.

Paul is your classic gentleman salesman, charming and full of stories. He is a mentor in the local start-up community in Bloomington and sits on the advisory board for business school at the University of North Carolina. He never entirely left teaching behind.
 
There is much to be learnt from our conversation, like the changes that modern technology has brought into the sales journey, which he calls the new rules of selling.

Paul has retired many times but always finds a new reason to get back into a business. The latest significant investment is a vertical printing machine that can print an image directly to a wall or surface. 

I hope you enjoy the conversation with Paul Baron 

Further details about this podcast along with my guest's website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/paul-baron-life-long-relationships

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people's stories, however the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion

Recovery from a financial wipeout is never easy, but there is always the danger of repeating the past patterns.  My guest on the show today is a serial entrepreneur, and has started nine separate companies, she had an amazing journey through these different projects.

Like all of our storytellers on this show, there is much to be discovered in the rebuilding process.


Silja Thor was born in Iceland; after finishing high school, the plan was to go to university and get a job in international development. However, she decided to put uni on hold, take a job as an Air Hostess and travel for a year.

It was 2004 she was 21years old and living in Edinburgh when she started her first business in telecoms, it was very successful. She was young and naive and did not understand VAT, but it all worked out.

By 2006 she had exited the company and returned to Iceland because it was booming; she opened a new business connecting trade services. By 2008  she was employing staff, and everything was going in the right direction.

There was a little bit of sadness with a breakup with a business partner, but she bought him out, and the only way was up.

The Prime minister said, “God bless Iceland.” 

The financial crash in October 2008 took her business, her saving and her home.


Our conversation is a recovery story, but it is about how you recover and rebuild. Silja was in danger of repeating past errors by creating a business that would again consume her.

A few years on, now living in the Netherlands and with a new successful business, newly divorced and a single Mum. She noticed that her daughter was always the last one to leave daycare and that she was missing her growing up. That realisation changed her perspective; it changed how she does business and how she runs her life. 


Today Silja Thor is a business mentor, speaker & author who helps clients build successful and profitable businesses without sacrificing personal lives. It is about aligning every part of their business with their zone of genius to set the stage for the growth they want to achieve.  

Further details about this podcast along with my Guest’s website and social links are all available at:

https://www.lifepassionandbusiness.com/silja-thor-when-the-bubble-bursts

Life Passion & Business is dedicated to exploring what it takes to be Extraordinary, to face challenges and rejoice in the opportunities they bring, and expand our vision into new ways of thinking and living.

There is a lot to gain from listening to other people’s stories, however, the real work begins by taking action in your own life.

For full details of Events, Resources and Services visit:
www.lifepassionandbusiness.com

Support For Podcasters:

Running a podcast is fun, but it takes time and dedication. Whenever you enjoy a podcast please share your appreciation with comments, likes, shares and reviews. It helps other listeners find good content and supports the content creators and their guests.

Another way you can support the Life Passion & Business podcast is with small donations: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeandpassion