Creative Spirits Unleashed

In this episode of the podcast, I am reading chapters 8 and 9 of Dancing the Tightrope. I'm starting to put things together, as you will hear when you listen. At the very beginning of chapter eight, I had a wild experience going out and learning the negative-positive poll in a completely new or deeper way. 

Let me tell you something that's interesting about that particular super tool as I call it. It is eight years later,...

In this episode of the podcast, I’m reading Chapters 6 and 7, The Decision – Sort of, and Imbalance is a Good Thing. As you will hear, at this stage of the journey, I’m somewhat flailing. Looking back on it, I’m still surprised that I took the path I did. Some part of me saw the promise of taking the more difficult path – something that was typically not my norm.

It has been fascinating for me to go back and read these chapters sev...

This episode of the podcast features chapters 4 and 5 of Dancing the Tightrope. If you haven’t listened to the first 3 chapters, I suggest listening to those first. It will help make sense of what’s coming in these next few chapters.

When I listened back to Chapter 3, where I read the sidebar blog “Where’s My Choice Here?”, it was somewhat stunning to me that many of the threads that I pulled together for Dancing the Tightrope star...

This week’s episode is – drumroll – Chapter 3 of Dancing the Tightrope. I’m just going to say it – you were right and I was wrong! I’m speaking to those who’ve been telling me for a long time that they would appreciate an audio version of my book. 

Not only have I been getting great feedback and gratitude for providing the book in this form, but I have also surprisingly enjoyed reading it myself. After all, I wrote this over 4 year...

In my last episode of the podcast, I started an experiment by reading the first chapter of my book Dancing the Tightrope. My promise was that if I heard from my readers and listeners that it was valuable, I would do more. Secretly, I did not expect anything to come of it. Of course, I was wrong!

You have spoken (at least some of you!) and I am listening. This episode of the podcast is Chapter Two of Dancing the Tightrope. It covers...

This episode of the podcast is something new. Let’s call it an experiment. I’ll explain shortly, but first some context. 

Since I published Dancing the Tightrope, What Falling Off a Horse Taught Me About Embracing Pressure, Fear and Uncertainty in 2022, many people have asked me for an audio book. While I’m aware of the huge trend towards audio books, I’m not an audio-book listener. I love to read, and I LOVE to listen to podcasts....

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Chris Heron, who is the Director and Head Coach of Waterski and Wakeboard Scotland. Not only is he a coach, he is also the 3 time Scottish National Waterski Champion. 

This podcast happened because I just happened to open an email that came in through my contact form on my website. Nine times out of ten, those emails are junk solicitations. In this case, it was members of Chris’s waterski...

My guest for this episode is Chantel Prat. If her name is not already familiar to you, she is the author of the book The Neuroscience of You. What got me really excited about having her on the podcast was her willingness to play with ideas about learning from two sides of the coin: the science of it in her academic world and the experience of it in my world as a lay person. 

We met in 2023 at the Journey on Podcast Summit where we ...

My guest for this episode is Nancy Zintsmaster, who is co-founder and master trainer in The Carolyn Resnick Method Liberty Horsemanship. I’m going to start this introduction with a question: What would your life – and leadership  - look like if you were able to partner with others using connection and harmony rather than control, force or fear? That is the core question Nan and I explored in this conversation. We got into the deep ...

After a brief hiatus, the podcast is back with guest water skier Corey Vaughn. You may remember that we spoke in the Spring, where Corey described his 1000-day plan to see how far he could take his water ski goals if he chose to really go for it. In that conversation, he laid out some specific goals for the season, and promised to return in the Fall to review the season, regardless of the outcome. 

In this conversation, we review Co...

My guest for the episode is Jessie Dowling. She is an endurance rider who just completed the Tevis Cup last month and the Mongol Derby last year. Both of these events are some of the toughest horse races in the world. Given that, you might expect that Jessie has been at this for a very long time. However, this is a relatively new endeavor for her, as you will hear in this podcast. She basically says “I’m just a girl who loves horse...

For this episode, I have a returning guest in Stevie Delahunt. You may remember that she was on my podcast last November. We had just met at the Journey On Podcast Summit and realized that we were two kindred spirits. I simply had to have her back after she just completed the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile endurance ride on the Western States Trail in California. This ride is legendary, with only 50% of the entrants completing the full race...

My guest for this episode is Chris Dolman. He is the Producing Artistic Director for the Lake Lure Music Festival, an eclectic music festival producing world class music in multiple genres with renowned musicians and bands. Based in Western North Carolina, the Festival's supports the Lake Lure Classical Academy and Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach and their respective missions. Chris started his career working in radio before becomi...

My guest for this episode is Kerri Lake, founder of Generation of Harmony. When I share these introductions, it’s usually so that you, my listeners, can relate to the guest and find some common ground. In Kerri’s case, her title makes common ground quite simple: Human. That title really does describe the way Kerri shows up in the world. She seeks to contribute something of value to every interaction, as I discovered in this convers...

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Corey Vaughn. He’s a professional water skier who I’ve known for more than 15 years, through many of the ups and downs of our respective water ski journeys. It’s the beginning of water ski season here in the States and the end of the water ski season on the other side of the world. Corey just came back from Australia, where he finished 4th at the Moomba Masters, which was his best perform...

My guest for this episode of the Creative Spirits Unleashed podcast is Laurie Kaplan. I reached out to Laurie to be on the podcast after hearing her talk about her experience of the Gaucho Derby on the Greg and Dan Show in Peoria Illinois. The Gaucho Derby is a 500 km adventure race through Patagonia, and it’s billed as the world’s toughest horse race. That’s an understatement. Three of my former podcast guests were involved in the...

My guest for this episode is Jane Pike. I first heard Jane’s name in context of the World Equestrian Games in 2018. She was the mindset coach for Warwick and Robyn Schiller, who competed in reining, and scored their best scores during an extremely high-pressure event. Prior to those games, I had never heard of reining; however, it was the discipline that captivated me then and has ever since. Back to Jane. I was very intrigued by J...

My guest for this episode is Mary Connaughty-Sullivan. This was an incredibly special episode unlike any I've done before. Mary is the author of "Nudges from the Other Side." It is the story that she shares from her journal entries, along with a lot of poetry and her thoughts of losing her son, Aaron, at the age of 20. It's not only a heartbreaking story but also an uplifting one. You'll understand that as ...

My guest for this episode is Julie Ripley, who specializes in helping people regain their connection with self. She was also the Chief Financial Officer of a company in her mid-30’s when she realized that she was burned out. Given my own experience of near-burnout in my mid 30’s, you can imagine, we had a lot to talk about. If I had to characterize this conversation, I would say it’s about distinctions. For example, the distinction...