Dream Big Podcast

Eva launched the Dream Big Podcast in October 2016 at the age of 7. This week we are celebrating Eva’s birthday (she turns 11) and her 200th episode! In discussing what we should do for this special episode, Eva decided she wanted to share the #1 secret she has learned from recording and publishing 200 episodes. In addition, we created a special poem to commemorate this milestone. Be sure to follow us on social media (links in the ...

Like millions of other kids with March, April and May birthdays, Eva’s big birthday plans have been cancelled.  Her elementary school graduation -- at least the big celebration that has been planned - is also not happening.   We feel for all the high school and college seniors who are missing out on the festivities associated with traditional commencements.  In this episode, Eva explains that while she was initially bummed out abou...

Eva wanted to take a break from the Pandemic-related content for the week, and share an incredibly touching story that has recently resurfaced.  It’s the story of Natalie Gilbert, who in 1993 at the age of 13, forgot the lyrics of the National Anthem in front of 20,000 fans at a NBA playoff game.  The biggest moment of Natalie’s life quickly became the most terrifying.  The whole stadium went silent -- yet one man, Maurice Cheeks, ...

We have definitely noticed that Eva’s happiest moments during this crisis have been out in nature.  Whether that’s been on bike rides or walks in the neighborhood (practicing social distancing of course), or sitting on the low climbing tree in our yard, or escaping with the family to an off-the-beaten-path hiking trail -- these times in nature have been pure magic for our family.  In this episode, Eva shares the scientifically prov...

Today’s episode is the first in a series of episodes we plan to call Rhyme Time.   When you see “Rhyme Time” in the title of the episode, you know it is going to have a poem that our family wrote and a short discussion of the meaning of that poem.  This week’s poem is called Practice Makes Progress. We want to thank Eva’s recent guest IN-Q - one of the world’s greatest living poets - for reminding us how much we love poetry and ins...

The other day, as we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air, we came across a house that was completely overrun with weeds.   This neighbor clearly had surrendered to mother nature -- and had not made any effort to mow the lawn or otherwise care for the property in what looked like years.  Seeing this house reminded us of a great analogy from the classic personal growth book As A Man Thinketh, published...

Currently with much of the world still under stay-at-home orders, we are not seeing our friends, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins -- at least not in-person.  But I can tell you who we are seeing PLENTY OF -- and that’s our immediate family. In our case, that’s Olga (mom), Alex (dad), Eva (you all know her!),and Sophia (sister).  When you spend that much time with the same people day-after-day, week-after-week, everyone is b...

One of our family’s favorite teachers is Brendon Burchard.   Ever since this pandemic started, Brendon has been sharing amazing ideas on how to train your brain and actually use this time as an opportunity to grow.   In this episode, Eva share’s Brendon’s concept of adopting a role model mindset. Specifically, for our younger Big Dreamers, Eva explains what it means to be a role model, and why COVID-19 presents a once-in-a-lifetime...

We believe that kids (and adults) can always find time to learn new skills BUT obviously your time is much more limited when you are at school from 8am-3pm and have after-school activities too!  Those excuses don’t really work when you are stuck at home, right? And while many schools are still offering online classes -- if we are being honest there are now many hours per day that have freed up as a result of the pandemic.   Eva’s c...

Mel Robbins was Eva’s guest in Episode 47 of the Dream Big Podcast.   We are great admirers of her work, and not surprisingly, Mel has really stepped up for her community during the pandemic.  In one recent Instagram post, she described how what we are experiencing right now feels like going through rough turbulence on an airplane.  And how the calm demeanor of the pilot and stewards has such a powerful impact on the emotions of th...

These are chaotic times.  For the past 3 weeks, we haven’t seen our friends or relatives in person.  We haven’t really even left the house, other than a few times per day to go on walks or bike rides around the neighborhood.   We don’t know if this will be our reality for a few more weeks or a number of months - but ultimately our communities will re-open, kids will be back at school, and we’ll be able to hug our friends and family...

If you turn on the 24-7 news machine, 99.9% of stories are about the terrible illness, death and havoc that the Corona Pandemic is unleashing on the world.  We do stay informed, especially with regards to health guidelines, but we are purposefully avoiding most news stories and we certainly don’t let our kids watch it.   Why? Because, as we learned in Episode 188, we must stand guard at the door of our mind. While we don’t let the ...

There’s a powerful phrase by one of the original legends in personal development, Jim Rohn, who would often say that “Stand Guard At the Door of Your Mind.”  When our kids hear the words “Stand Guard,” they likely think about the Queen's Guard that is charged with guarding the official royal residences in the United Kingdom.  Last year before we entered this new CoronaVirus no-travel reality, Eva and I went to London and had th...

It was a great honor to have IN-Q as a guest on the Dream Big Podcast.   IN-Q is based in Los Angeles, so we were even fortunate enough to meet IN-Q and do the interview face-to-face, just a few weeks before the Stay At Home orders took effect.  If you are not familiar with IN-Q’s work, you should be! IN-Q is one of today’s greatest living poets. He’s a National Poetry Slam champion and multi-platinum songwriter. His groundbreaking...

In our last episode, we revealed how after a very chaotic Week 1 of this new stay-at-home reality, we made huge strides by coming up with a daily planning system for our family.  This past week we made another huge improvement by literally gamifying our day. The game is called Score 4, and the goal of the game is to see if you can score 4 points. To do so, you need to score 1 point in each of the following 4 categories: (1) Body; (...

The first week of having the kiddos home from school was definitely a challenge.  We continue to work full-time with important calls scheduled throughout the day, and Eva and Sophia also have online Zoom classes to join.   We know from chatting with our friends that Week 1 was chaotic for everyone. It became quickly apparent that we needed to get our family on the same page, and make adjustments to meet the challenges of this new r...

Ever since Eva launched the podcast in October 2016, we have published a new episode every monday.  We have not missed a single Monday since we launched because it is our commitment to all you Big Dreamers to create content that will train your brain to be strong and optimistic no matter the circumstances.   Given these challenging times and the fact that Eva is home from school, we are going to double down on our efforts and produ...

It’s been a challenging week for the entire world.  The stock market is crashing. “Stay At Home” orders have been issued.  Kids are home from school. And outside our immediate family, we can’t interact in-person with our closest family and friends.  Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that people are stressed, angry, and scared. But we can’t let those negative emotions consume our lives, and that is especially the case for...

We know that these are very scary, uncertain times.   That stress is further magnified as millions of kids (including ours) are home from school, and even worse, are isolated from friends and relatives.  Now, more than ever, our kids need to train their brain to stay upbeat and positive as we navigate this challenging period in human history. We feel we are in a unique position to help given Eva’s podcast.  We have over 180 episode...