Locally Sourced Joey Joey Held

Personal finance is a finicky subject for a lot of people – especially for personal trainers. They’re just kind of thrown into the mix without any kind of real preparation. In this episode, Nelson Toriano joins us to chat about his new book, For the Fit but Poor Personal Trainer: A Guide on How to Train Money - Not Muscle - To Grow.
Nelson shares how he came up with this personal finance idea (wine was involved, as is the case with many great ideas). And he also dishes out lots of easily digestible advice for managing your finances, from product lifecycles to doing your taxes. Even if you’re not a personal trainer, there are plenty of helpful business tips and resources in here, so take copious notes, y’all. He walks us through the process of writing a book, and we give heaps of praise to the voice actors that make things like audiobooks possible.
Nelson E Toriano is a distinguished fitness and business educator. He received his MBA from California State University, East Bay, and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate from Stanford University. For more than 15 years, he has held leadership roles in various companies in Silicon Valley while simultaneously teaching group exercise classes and training clients. He eventually ventured on his own to build Coach Nelly Toriano, LLC, a fitness education company focusing on financial literacy.
His debut book For the Fit but Poor Personal Trainer: A Guide on How to Train Money - Not Muscle - To Grow intends to clarify financial concepts for personal trainers. Nelson advocates for personal trainers to understand the functions of money in totality. By doing so, he helps personal trainers create lucrative career paths that is right for them. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. He’s got a podcast of his own, too – check it out here!

It’s a spirited Chicago episode, y’all! I’m joined by Austin blogger Jin Laqui, who, like me, grew up in the Windy City. And we’re watching the Thursday Night Football game between beloved Chicago Bears and the visiting Dallas Cowboys. Watch this fun Bryzzo Souvenir Co. commercial and get misty-eyed as Jin talks about weeping when the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. What a time to be alive!
Luckily, you don’t have to be from Chicago to enjoy this podcast. Joey shares a story about a Boston Red Sox fan embracing the hatred of the New York Yankees crowd when he visited the Bronx earlier this year – who among us hasn’t wanted to silence the haters? Jin also does a REALLY weird ASMR with a bottle of tequila. And since there’s live TV on we’ll give commentary on random commercials and goings-on throughout the episode.
Additionally, Jin shares how she got into writing and food photography, including a fun award she won in college. And since we’re both fans of puns, it seems like a great time to jump into the magic that is the O. Henry Pun Off. Joey has a cartwheeling story, too! Neither one of us are great at cartwheels, either – but hey, they’re still therapeutic to do. Plus, remember calculator games? We’re covering so much stuff in this episode!
Jin works at Bumble, as well. If you’ve ever wanted tips on improving your dating profile – LISTEN UP. Of course, since we’re watching football, we each have some terrific tales from the gridiron. Have you ever played football with your friends?
Thanks for listening – be sure to follow Jin at The Laqui One or on Instagram!

Hope you've got your bags packed and are ready to roll! I'm joined by Adrienne Ritter, who quit her job and traveled throughout the United States and 14 different countries in four months during what she's calling her “life sabbatical.”
Adrienne shares how traveling has given her a better sense of balance in life and what it’s like being an American abroad. Foreigners have a very specific sense of what America is, and the U.S. still has a spotlight on it, despite every country having their own things going on.
Adrienne also talks through the glorification of travel. For example, the Louvre’s main attraction isn’t the Mona Lisa – it’s the spectacle of people lining up to take a photo with the Mona Lisa. Travel isn’t always about the Instagram, y’all. Stop and take a moment to look around. Things like the grocery stores, public transportation, and simply the nuances of daily life can be much more enlightening.
For folks who aren’t as experienced traveling abroad, Adrienne shares her top travel tips, including the benefits of planning less, giving yourself a rest day, and using helpful apps like Maps.me and Klook.
Oh, did I mention Adrienne joined a cult during her travels to Brazil? I didn’t? How silly of me! She discusses how she came across a cult, how she got involved, and what the entire experience was like. We also chat about our craziest “What? Oh hell no! Hold up, huh? Oh, okay!” moments while traveling.
Want to learn more about travel and follow along with Adrienne’s adventures? Follow her on Instagram or visit her site, Grown Up Dreads.

Dave MacDonald from Crafted1K joins the podcast to talk all things cartooning. Dave talks about how he developed a love of comics and doodling at a young age (shout out to Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield) and how accidentally stumbling into a sales career led to his current business.
Crafted 1K helps businesses share their message via engaging cartoons. Dave chats about how brands should know what their goals and messages are, and how cartoons and comics can lead to happy customers. Dave discusses the three benefits using cartoons: people better remember them thanks to the “humor effect,” they’re fun to share, and they’re more effective than a standard text. If you read information paired with an image, you retain info 65 percent better than if you just read the text alone.
Additionally, we talk about how different and impactful a message can be if your audience consumes it over multiple days instead of all at once (a la the Netflix binge effect).
Dave and I are also both HUGE fans of Calvin and Hobbes, so we chat about our favorite strips from the series. If you’ve never read Calvin and Hobbes, first of all, I am so sorry. Secondly, please pick up a collection from your local bookstore or even right here on Amazon.
But before you do that, visit Dave at his site Crafted1K and sign up for his Saturday Morning Cartoons, or say hello over on Instagram.

Robert Kerbeck is the founder of the Malibu Writers Circle and a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Kerbeck’s work earned him a mentorship by the managing editor of the highly-esteemed Tin House. Kerbeck’s first-person account of the Woolsey Fire was read by over a million people as an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. His essays and short stories have been featured in the Atticus Review, Narratively, Cimarron Review, and The Normal School. His short story, Reconnected, was adapted into a film and appeared at film festivals worldwide. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and an award-winning actor.
 
Robert is also the author of the new book Malibu Burning. His book offers the unique experience of telling the story of the incredibly destructive Woolsey Fire through the eyes of several people who lived it – including Robert himself. Robert talks about his encounter with the blaze, how he went from not even considering a book to actually making one happen, and what’s being done to try and prevent these destructive fires in the future.
In addition to being a writer, Robert is an established actor, appearing in more than 50 television shows and movies. Perhaps one of his finest roles was in an exercise video with O.J. Simpson just a week before the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Robert shares the story of recording that video. We also chat about his role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and how cool it is to have a trading card with his likeness on it–and a rare-valued one, at that!
Robert also dives into some of his favorite stories he’s written, which include ping pong, Kevin Dillon, Leonardo DiCaprio and a $25,000 bottle of wine.

This episode features Mark Struczewski, a.k.a. Mister Productivity. We chat about how Mark went from losing his job to becoming an entrepreneur and helping people be productive in a distracted world. Mark dives into a few of the challenges and opportunities of the entrepreneurial world, but we both know why you’re here: to learn how to be more productive.
“Complexity is the gateway to procrastination” – these are SIMPLE tips that anyone can follow. None of these Buzzfeed-esque “47 Ways You Can Fix Your Wandering Mind.” We’re keepin’ it simple so you can keep it productive.
Mark also shares the top five distractions we need to be aware of, and how to tame each one: social media, email, people, entertainment, and you and your mindset. Again, these are super easy things that anyone can do. And it’ll lead to you boosting your efficiency and being more productive.
By the end of this episode, you’ll be ready to take on the world – without getting distracted. There’s only one question left. Now that you’re more productive, what are you going to accomplish?
Check out Mark’s website and be sure to sign up for his seven-day productivity challenge for an even greater treasure trove of tips on being more productive and conquering your goals.