The High Perfomance Life Scott Danner

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Simon Alexander Ong!
Simon is a former banker who suffered extreme burnout. Today he is an award-winning life coach, coaching many male clients with life skills, mostly on how to balance high-flying jobs with their mental health.
In his brand new book ENERGIZE, Simon introduces you to the art and science of energy management. In a world where we are always 'on', he coaches you to work with your natural energy resources to recognize your most energized state - when to push and when to recoup - so that you can work sustainably towards your biggest goals.
Simon believes that the greatest investment you can make is in yourself. Because the more you grow, the more you feel alive. And the world needs more people like this! 

Key Points
• Life without regret: act now
• Energy, not time, boosts productivity
• Embrace diversity in teamwork
• The art of selling your energy
• Resilience and learning from rejections

Best Quotes
03:42 - 03:52
• "Productivity is less about doing more and more about doing less, simplifying our routines and our schedules so we have the oxygen to focus on the things that actually matter."
05:07 - 05:24
• "If we want to thrive over the long term, there has to be this, this rhythm, if you will, between work and rest periods where yes, you're focused on getting, getting stuff done and moving towards the goals that you have for yourself, but also periods where you can rest with intention."
06:37 - 06:47
• "If you're healthy, you are in a very privileged position. You, you can have lots of hope streams and goals, but if you're sick, you only, you only have one. You only have one goal just to be well again."
08:07 - 08:20
• "Because if you have clarity on what the best version of you looks like, what they do, who they spend time with, how they show up each day, then you have clarity on the future identity that you can work from."
22:33 - 22:52
• "Because pain can be a great force, a great catalyst for us to do something different. So as an example, one of the pains I like to create to instill some inspiration inside of someone is the pain of getting to the end of your life and being filled with regret."
26:27 - 26:44
• "Because once I lost my mom and then my grandfather a few years later, it really brought home how fragile life is. I knew at those points that there was no fear to be had. I'm gonna die at some point anyway."
27:14 - 27:27
• "Your first of anything is gonna suck, guaranteed it's gonna suck. But you've gotta get over those first few in order to get to your 20th, your 21st, and your 22nd, where people start to take notice."
 
For more about Simon: https://www.simonalexanderong.com/



 

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Dr. Stan Tatkin!

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy®. He is also an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine.
In 2010 he and his wife, Tracey created the PACT Institute, to train mental health professionals to think and work through a psychobiological lens in their clinical practice.
Tatkin’s work, based on a social-emotional capacity model, focuses on what partners can and cannot do to mitigate threat reactions during stressful interactive sequences.
Dr. Tatkin is the author of We Do, Wired for Love, Your Brain on Love, Relationship Rx, Wired for Dating, What Every Therapist Ought to Know, and co-author of Love and War in Intimate Relationships, and his latest title, In Each Other’s Care.
He has just released an updated version of Wired for Love this June which can be found on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Love-Understanding-Attachment-
Relationship/dp/1648482961/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Key Points
• Impact of technology on relationships
• Embracing life’s imperfections together
• The power of face-to-face communication
• Secure functioning in modern partnerships
• Continuous courtship keeps love alive
• Rekindle romance with 'ROM weekends'


Best Quotes
01:34 - 01:41
• "All people are difficult. All people are disappointing. All people are a pain in the butt. And that's no, no exceptions."
03:17 - 03:28
• "The amygdala is a, is a fear alarm center. And so it's being triggered more frequently because that person at the side brain kind of is wary."
05:42 - 05:48
• "We actually store each other's faces in our heads for weeks and months without ever looking at them."
05:48 - 06:00
• "This is the law of energy conservation. We do the least amount necessary. And if we think we know our spouse, then we go about thinking that we're wrong because we're not really paying attention."
30:13 - 30:21
• "It doesn't matter what your partner's going through, you are, that's your wing person. You are responsible to that person."



For more about Dr. Stan Tatkin visit: www.thepactinstitute.com
 

I recently had an interview with David Robson. (You should check it out if you haven't already!)

But our conversation got me thinking about the power of having a positive mindset and outlook on life.

Here are my thoughts!

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Lavina Mehta MBE!
Lavina Mehta MBE, founder of Feel Good With Lavina, is a 46-year-old Personal Trainer, Bestselling Author, Wellness Coach, TED Speaker and mom to three. Lavina was awarded an MBE for services to health and fitness during Covid-19. 
Her mission is to help all ages (up to 100) Feel Good physically, mentally and reduce risks of common chronic diseases through her concept of “Exercise Snacking” & free desk/chair workouts (as seen on TV & Radio with her mother in law.) Her slogan is to “Exercise for Sanity not Vanity.” 
Lavina is a Patron of the Menopause Mandate.  Lavina is a proud Ambassador for Diabetes UK, Wellbeing of Women and Alzheimer’s Society, as well as supporting many charities. 
She has been sharing her own perimenopause journey on social media and press to help normalise the conversation, especially in the workplace and in the South Asian community where many women are suffering in silence.  
She wants to break the taboos, raise awareness, change the narrative and help women feel empowered to find solutions, as well as educating the men around us.  

Lavina promotes the power of exercise, strength training and lifestyle changes to help women ‘feel good’ and embrace this phase and beyond.  
Lavina’s new book "The Feel Good Fix" hit #1 Bestseller before publication across Amazon in Menopause, Fitness Training & Exercise and Fitness Categories, hitting the top 100 books at number 60; and on publication, it hit #1 Bestseller in Fitness & Training on Amazon.  


Key Points
• Perimenopause can impact mood and memory
• Men should join the menopause conversation
• It's never too late to start exercising
• Social connection vital for a happy life
• Quick, simple exercises benefit daily life
• Why every "exercise snack" counts
 
Best Quotes
04:16 - 04:27
• "I was pretty alarmed that these statistics that I researched just before the Covid pandemic were like, were six times more likely than the average white person here to have type two diabetes."
05:26 - 05:39
• "It was just transformational that made me wanna research the science and sit the exams just out of my own knowledge, not even thinking that it's gonna be a future career path."
07:05 - 07:15
• "It's like the different goals I think, you know, 'cause I was older, I wasn't striving to do it to get a six pack or to go on social media."
08:29 - 08:40
• "But it was the gym and it was lifting weights and having that out sort of that space for myself that gave me the chance to actually deal with grief
10:50 - 11:08
• "But the amazing the, but the point that I'm getting at is I'm much, I feel accomplished before I even start my day air quotes here. Yeah. And, and I've, I've already accomplished enough for myself where I feel like I've done enough to invest in my body to invest in my mind."


Website: https://feelgoodwithlavina.com/
 

In this week's episode, I am joined by Jeff Wetzler!

Jeff Wetzler is a leadership expert best known as the co-founder of Transcend, a diverse team of educators and innovators rewriting the way we deliver education.
He recently wrote Ask, a book all about the art of asking questions.
Jeff has been on a quarter-century quest to transform learning opportunities, blending his unique set of leadership experiences in the fields of business and education.
He has pursued his quest as a management consultant to the world’s top corporations, as a learning facilitator for leaders around the world, as Chief Learning Officer at Teach For America, and most recently, as co-CEO of Transcend, a nationally recognized innovation organization.
Jeff earned a Doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Brown University. He is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow.
He lives in New York with his wife, two children and their puppy.

Key Points
• Choose curiosity to deepen connections
• Make it safe for honest dialogue
• Pose quality questions for learning
• Listen to uncover unspoken truths
• Reflect and reconnect to grow together
Best Quotes
03:42 - 03:59
• "Absolutely. If, you know, if you are just interacting with someone to get something from them or to, you know, to get, get a piece of information people might be happy to share the first time, but if that continues to happen over and over again, people are basically like, this person doesn't care about me."
04:27 - 04:36
• "BS listening stands for back to self listening. So when you know, when someone is listening to you and you tell 'em something and then they say, well, that reminds me of this thing about me, or whatever. That is back to self listening."
06:07 - 06:12
• " Sometimes the most important things will only come out if you let the silence do its work."
06:16 - 06:26
• "I interviewed a lot of professional listeners for the book and one category of professional listeners that I interviewed with psychotherapists, and they, they talk about this thing called the doorknob moment."

To learn more about Jeff:
https://www.askapproach.com/
https://transcendeducation.org/team/jeff-wetzler/

In this week's episode, I am joined by Yanni Hufnagel!
Yanni transitioned from a successful career as a men's college basketball coach to creating a health-focused drink and a mission to offer healthy hydration accessible to all.
And so, Lemon Perfect was born, bottled water infused with organic lemons, electrolytes, and vitamin C.
Creating a new company in the food and beverage space was no small feat. While it’s relatively easy to get started, securing shelf space, managing margins, and outmaneuvering extremely large and resourced products creates considerable barriers to entry.
Yanni Hufnagel, a first time founder, former division I college basketball coach with no background in the CPG space was able to raise over $37M and achieve national distribution in 5 short years with Lemon Perfect.
 
Key Points
• Balance is a myth in entrepreneurship
• High stakes of building a beverage brand
• The art of talent evaluation
• Strategy behind beverage innovation
• Aiming for a billion-dollar business
 
Best Quotes
03:24 - 03:40
• "It's not realistic. It's not realistic. We have 91 incredible people. Many of decorators have families. I have over 300 investors. We've raised $99 million."
04:54 - 05:10
• "I think I'm crazy enough, I wanna do this one more time. And so winning, winning, winning and being acquired or, or finding our way to liquidity, very, very important."
08:10 - 08:28
• "My psychology, it is what it is. It's not for everyone, but that's how I'm wired. And I'm not gonna change because maybe the world says, oh, you have to have great balance. Yes, I want our people to have great ba I want most of our people."
10:19 - 10:30
• "And I would imagine that if you look at the most successful entrepreneurs, they're out of balance."
12:29 - 12:39
• "You can't have great freedom and balance and, you know, it just, it's, I just don't think you can have it all."
46:32 - 46:45
• "I've gotta have, you know, certainly a longer term lens, I think in this environment right now where you have, you know, some, some pricing headwinds or you know, where, where the consumer's slowing down a little bit."