The High Performance Life

Scott Danner
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  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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As High-Performers, we're all after three things: to do it all, have it all, and feel good about it, too. Some will say, "it's all about "balance", but I've got a different story to share with you…. This podcast is going to take you into the minds of some of the world's Top Performers in Business, Relationships, Health, and Mindset, and give you hands-on methods to move from feeling you're merely managing your High Performance Life, to MASTERING it.

  1. 3D AGO

    Why Corporate Culture Is Broken (It's Not What You Think) | Ashley Herd

    In this week's episode, I am joined by Ashley Herd! Ashley Herd is a former Chief People Officer and General Counsel, leadership speaker, and podcast host who has trained more than 250,000 managers through LinkedIn Learning and live corporate programs. Throughout her career, she has helped professionals navigate leadership challenges with greater clarity and confidence, translating complex workplace dynamics into practical tools leaders can actually use. After leading HR and Legal teams at McKinsey, Yum! Brands, and Modern Luxury, Ashley founded Manager Method to bring better management training to organizations of all sizes. She is a top LinkedIn Learning instructor and co-host of the HR Besties podcast. As CEO of Manager Method, Ashley equips managers with proven frameworks that strengthen accountability, communication, and team performance—because better managers build better workplaces. Her forthcoming book, The Manager Method (Feb 10, 2026), delivers a simple, repeatable approach for real-world leadership moments—hiring, feedback, conflict, and leading through change—grounded in her signature Pause–Consider–Act framework. Key Points • Culture is shaped by direct managers. • High performers can face accidental punishment. • Leadership involves feedback, conflict, and change. • "Pause, consider, act" enhances management. • A 60-second reset makes tough conversations easier. Best Quotes 03:15 - 03:25 • "I say to people often, it's hard to have this company culture. There's often manager cultures. If you're gonna look at Glassdoor for example, I mean, I've done this at places I've worked, and I will look at Glassdoor and I will see comments." 04:43 - 05:00 • "Well, you know, what's, what's kind of funny to that point? Such a great point. And what I, what I find is the bigger an organization gets, the harder culture becomes at a, at a grander scale. The the, and to your point, the more micro it becomes, who is, who is directly responsible for you?" 07:58 - 08:10 • "I remember my first day of my corporate job or my first week I was, I was doing in sales, I did this before I went to law school. I was cold calling chief financial officers for the like fortune 1000 Chief financial officers." 18:21 - 18:36 • "Because one thing I say is, as a leader, something that's important to know is nobody on your team should feel like they have to share things about them, especially personal things. But too often people feel afraid to share the real parts of, of themselves and their lives outside of work." Learn more about Ashley's book "Manager Method", click here: https://www.managermethod.com/book

    55 min

  2. FEB 3

    7 Truths About the Mind That Hold Us Back | Tim Packer

    In this week's episode, I am joined by Tim Packer! Tim is a celebrated Canadian artist and former police detective who walked away from a stable career to pursue a lifelong creative calling. Since making that leap, he has built a thriving, multi-million-dollar art business—selling original works, self-publishing prints, and running a top-tier online art academy that has helped thousands of artists grow both creatively and professionally. Through the Tim Packer Art Academy and his upcoming book, You Can Sell Your Art, Tim teaches artists how to master not only the creative side of their craft, but also the business fundamentals required for long-term success. Passionate about demystifying the art world, he challenges the myth that success is reserved for the "naturally talented," breaking down what actually works, what doesn't, and how artists can build sustainable careers doing what they love. Key Points • Growth mindset unlocked art career success. • Talent grows; it's not just bestowed. • Overcome fear and step into uncertainty. • Your potential talent is virtually limitless. • Impactful art goes beyond "good enough." Best Quotes 03:46 - 03:53 • "And as soon as I kind of came across the idea of the growth mindset, I thought, first of all, I thought, I don't really believe this." 04:48  • "And then January of 2000, I quit my job, walked away from my pension, and started my life as a full-time artist." 06:30 - 06:47 • "The very first thing you have to change is your mindset and the idea that you are not limited by the skills, competencies, whatever you have now, that you can improve on anything and that your potential talent is really unlimited." 09:17 - 09:27 • "It takes courage because you have to be okay with the uncertainty that comes about. Because a lot of the times, the choices you're making, they're not the logical, safe choices." 10:02 - 10:09 • "I mean, for me, I was, I was making my best year ever. I made like $280,000 from the sale of my art." 11:26 - 11:36 • "You have to have the courage that things might fail, but you also need to be smart about taking risks where failure's not gonna take you out of the game." 19:44 - 19:49 • "Once you have enough money to live the life you're comfortable with, well more money is just zeros in your Bank account." 23:18 - 23:29 • "If the more people that love your work and love it to the degree they actually make poor choices financially when they shouldn't be buying your work and they actually spend money on it. 'Cause they just have to have it." 40:08 - 40:13 • "Frustration comes about when the, what happens in reality doesn't meet our expectations."

    1h 9m

  3. JAN 27

    Why You Have Love & Relationships All Wrong | Baya Voce

    Baya Voce is a relationship repair expert who helps couples rebuild connection when communication has broken down and loneliness has taken hold. With a Master of Social Work from Columbia University and advanced training in Relational Life Therapy under Terry Real, she combines evidence-based therapeutic approaches with the clarity, practicality, and directness of coaching. In addition to her clinical and coaching work, Baya collaborates with Rick Doblin and MAPS, alongside Columbia University, on research exploring MDMA-assisted couples therapy and its potential to deepen relational connection. Her TEDx talk on loneliness—viewed more than five million times—highlights the often-unspoken emotional cost of disconnection in modern relationships. Based in Austin, Texas, Baya works with couples seeking reconnection, greater clarity, or even a respectful separation, grounded in her core belief that genuine repair is the most powerful antidote to loneliness. Key Points • Impact of phones on relationship intimacy • Translation of complaints to growth opportunities • Relational loneliness vs. solitary loneliness • Enlightened self-interest in partnerships • Shifting from "fixing" to self-evolving within conflict Best Quotes 17:34 - 17:42 • "What are the understanding, what are the relationship needs, which are gonna be very different than your individual preferences." 22:03 - 22:10 • "Maybe I wanna be more independent. I wanna feel actually like I can handle the tension of differentiation." 23:34 - 23:43 • "But how, how I look back on the giving is that I'm so all on all the time that as I've gotten older..." 48:46 - 48:50 • "When two people can come into couples therapy and be like, here's the thing that's really hard for me." 51:18 - 51:23 • "We have a culture where phones are a, are a, they're like a third pillar in our relationships."

    1h 1m

  4. JAN 20

    How To Reclaim Your Health In 2026 | Dr. Aaron Hartman

    Dr. Aaron Hartman, MD is a board-certified Family Medicine physician, an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP), and the founder of Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine (RIFM). A Virginia native, he completed his medical training at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Medical College of Virginia, finishing his Family Medicine residency at MCV. He later earned advanced credentials in Integrative, Holistic, and Functional Medicine through the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine, the American Board of Physician Specialties, and the Institute for Functional Medicine. Dr. Hartman also served as a Major in the U.S. Air Force, holding leadership roles including Clinic Director and Medical Director, with assignments that included Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. In addition to founding the Virginia Research Center, he has participated in numerous clinical trials—contributing to research published in The Lancet—and has served as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the VCU School of Medicine since 2011. He is the author of UnCurable, a deeply personal account of his adopted daughter Anna, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and given a bleak prognosis. Through her story, Dr. Hartman introduces what he describes as a "hidden revolution" in functional medicine, challenging conventional assumptions about what is possible in health and healing. Key Points • Healthcare's blind spots exposed • The impact of diet on health discussed • Personal stories of medical defiance • The role of self-advocacy in health • Importance of foundational health practices Best Quotes 03:52 - 04:00 • "You'll get referred to five specialists to get five different diagnoses, six different medications, three surgery recommendations, and leave, having no idea what's going on." 08:53 - 08:56 • "The experts don't know and they don't know what they don't know." 09:07 - 09:11 • "I call these blind spots. These are things that, that we think to be true though just aren't true." 20:00 - 20:06 • "My journey with my family was I'm this typical doctor, academic minded, you know, above average intelligence, hard worker."   24:45 - 24:52 • "The book, we talked about this, but my, my admonition is the people is don't accept the standard of care, don't accept status quo."

    55 min

  5. JAN 13

    The Power of Breath, Surrender & Finding Peace in Uncertainty | Anthony Abbagnano

    In this week's episode, I am joined by Anthony Abbagnano! Anthony is the founder of Alchemy of Breath, a globally recognized breathwork community that has helped thousands of people reclaim their power through the transformative practice of conscious breathing. His personal journey, shared in his book, details how he overcame profound challenges through breathwork and mindfulness, ultimately leading him to create a life rooted in purpose, balance, and service. A pioneer in the digital breathwork space, Anthony was the first to bring breathwork online. He serves as curator for online breathwork on the board of the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA) and holds a faculty position with the Shift Network. His Breathe the World online breathwork sessions draw hundreds of participants each week and support a growing global community of more than 170,000 people. Anthony has spoken alongside leading voices in personal growth and wellness, including Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, Peter Levine, Alex Howard, Wim Hof, and Fleet Maull, further solidifying his role as a trusted guide in the global breathwork movement. Key Points • One breath studied equals a lifetime learned • Inner calm is attainable in outer chaos • Mastery vs. Mystery in life's journey • The transforming power of acknowledgment • Survival instincts can reside with success Best Quotes 02:31 - 02:50 • "I contracted an illness and I'd already left behind my work. I had a very successful company in Italy where I was working with architecture and had about 300 people working for me, restoring buildings and finding beautiful old buildings for English and American people." 03:07 - 03:17 • "So I spent time in Asia. I left the company to run on its own, had it kind of sorted and went to Asia." 08:07 - 08:16 • "And so I didn't know it was gonna be a breakthrough. I thought this was the end in all the forms it could possibly show itself." 39:12 - 39:26 • "We use control to tell you what to do, to tell each other better ways to criticize each other, to make people more like us, to, to, to feel better by pointing out someone else's problem problems." 50:10 - 50:16 • "So there's something about restoring choice that needs to happen for someone to get traction."

    1h 8m

  6. JAN 6

    The Hidden Cost of Compliance, Why Saying Yes Is The Biggest Risk of Your Life | Dr. Sunita Sah

    In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Sunita Sah! Sunita is a Cornell professor, former physician, and one of the world's leading experts on compliance and defiance. Dr. Sunita Sah is a national bestselling author, award-winning professor at Cornell University, and expert in organizational psychology. She is a former physician and management consultant whose research focuses on influence, authority, compliance, and defiance. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American, among others. Her book, Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes, explores how to reclaim agency and speak up when it matters. The paperback edition, How to Speak Up When It Matters, releases February 24, 2026. Key Takeaways Why we've misunderstood the word defy The hidden cost of always saying yes Compliance vs. true consent What "false defiance" looks like The five elements of a true yes or no How to teach kids (and ourselves) to say no without confrontation

    52 min

  7. 12/30/2025

    I Quit Alcohol for 365 Days... Here's What Happened | Clifford Stephan

    Clifford Stephan is the founder of Booze Vacation, a health and wellness company created for high-performing men who want to elevate their lives and careers by leveraging the benefits of taking a strategic break from alcohol. He is also the founder of OneCompensation, a successful Bay Area compensation consulting firm that has helped Silicon Valley companies—including Google, LinkedIn, Kaiser Permanente, and Motorola Mobility—attract, engage, and retain top talent. In his mid-40s, Clifford realized that his regular, "semi-responsible" drinking was quietly undermining his health and long-term potential. He chose to take a year-long break from alcohol—what he called a "booze vacation." That decision reset both his body and his relationship with drinking, ultimately inspiring him to create Booze Vacation so other men could take a structured break, reclaim their health, and expand their professional capacity. Clifford holds a B.S. in Nutritional Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has completed more than a dozen long-course triathlons, and is determined to "kick ass and take names" well into his 80s and beyond. Key Points • Booze breaks can upgrade your baseline • Wearables expose alcohol's impact on health • Breaks from alcohol can recalibrate cravings • Sleep, fitness, and mood improve sans alcohol • Life clarity and enhanced performance without alcohol • Clifford's Booze Vacation concept explained Best Quotes 01:45 - 01:58 • "Yeah, in short, scratching my own itch and yeah, I don't like the term cutting. It sounds kind of, you know, negative, harsh, we, we use in term taking an extended vacation from drinking." 02:54 - 03:03 • "I had, I had got sleep apnea, which was a pretty, pretty bad about that. And yeah, just wasn't feeling my best." 05:30 - 05:49 • "I think that when I started wearing the whoop in 2019, it was probably one of the most eye-opening things that I had done because I, I've worn it consecutively for many years now, and you can tell really quickly what alcohol does to your body." 07:58 - 08:06 • "It's a kind of a lifetime lifestyle experiment. And especially men of success. I think it's important that if you make it to the mountain top, you wanna stay there and enjoy it as long as possible." 10:41 - 10:51 • "You're gonna need more, it's gonna be harder on your aging body and you're gonna find yourself continually in lowered and lower states and, and, and kicking the crap outta yourself a lot faster."

    42 min

  8. 12/23/2025

    Communication Expert: Modern Technology Has Created Modern Communication Issues | Andrew Brodsky

    Andrew Brodsky is an award-winning professor, management consultant, and virtual communications expert at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Recognized by Poets&Quants as one of the "World's 40 Best Business School Professors Under 40," Andrew is widely regarded for his work at the intersection of workplace technology, communication, and productivity. He also serves as the CEO of Ping Group, where he helps organizations improve how people connect and perform in modern, digitally driven workplaces. Andrew earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from The Wharton School. He currently lives in Austin with his wife and two rescue dogs. Key Points • Crafting Effective Virtual Messages • Enhancing Trust in Digital Relationships • Pros & Cons of Remote Communication • Leveraging AI for Productivity • Personal Anecdotes & Communication Research Best Quotes 03:49 - 03:56 • "The old way of the office was if you had a question, you'd go to your coworkers' cubicle or office and ask them." 05:10 - 05:15 • "I was left with an immune deficiency. So I'm often having to communicate with others from a distance." 05:42 - 05:58 • "And if you show up and you have the right energy and you, you're, you're animated, you're, you're empathetically listening, you know, there's so many things and some people, you know, this thing just draws them down like immediately you're on the computer and, and they're shutting down and they're getting uncomfortable." 17:23 - 17:39 • "One of a good example of this is research on the email urgency bias where basically these researchers found that when people receive an email, they ex they think the sender wants a response a lot more quickly than they actually do."

    53 min
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As High-Performers, we're all after three things: to do it all, have it all, and feel good about it, too. Some will say, "it's all about "balance", but I've got a different story to share with you…. This podcast is going to take you into the minds of some of the world's Top Performers in Business, Relationships, Health, and Mindset, and give you hands-on methods to move from feeling you're merely managing your High Performance Life, to MASTERING it.

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