What is your relationship to rest? How about your caretakers’ relationship to rest while you were young? What examples did they set? What attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors did they hold, and how does that still influence you today?

Today I’m talking with Ximena Vengoechea about the five rest profiles, productivity dysmorphia, “tiny transition time,” why paid work (no matter how much you love it) doesn’t count as pure play, and how she designed the book to deliver a restful experience beyond just the words themselves.

“Startup CEOs should not play the odds. When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer, and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same.”

—Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things

We are not meant to compare ourselves to eight billion people. I know I’m not the first to remind you that social platforms are status games on globalized steroids. With so much exposure to people who are (actually) smarter, funnier, prettier, and/or fill-in-the-blanker, the logical conclusion would be not to jump in. Right?

You can calm chaos at work, but it starts with a reality check from Charlie Gilkey, delivered with his signature wit and generosity: You might not have a team problem; you have a you problem.

It’s time to stop catering to air sandwiches, Crisco watermelons, broken printers, ghost plans, and other corrosive practices, and start implementing Charlie’s finely-tuned, road-tested systems instead.

“As long as we settle for thinking inside the brain, we’ll remain bound by the limits of that organ. But when we reach outside it with intention and skill, our thinking can be transformed. It can become as dynamic as our bodies, as airy as our spaces, as rich as our relationships—as capacious as the whole wide world.”

—Annie Murphy Paul, The Extended Mind

In this second half of a two-part solo series, I’m sharing X more strategies that have helped me build (and trust) my intuition at increasingly subtle levels. If you haven’t already, be sure to listen to Part One here first.

I’m excited to bring you this crossover episode with Rose Cox, founder of The HSP Business School and host of The Sensitive CEO Show podcast. She is one of the people I have been most excited to connect with across the globe the last few years, even though we have yet to meet IRL!

In this conversation, we dive into the world of highly sensitive people (HSPs), empaths, and introverts in the business world, with plenty of permission slips to stop doing what drains you. We discuss how to build a sustainable, soulful business that aligns with your energy, while embracing the strengths and challenges of being a sensitive CEO. Finally, we touch on Rose’s decision to pause her podcast (at least for now) after a year of releasing weekly episodes.

Intuition is always speaking to you in subtle ways. Are you listening?

Intuition isn’t a gift that is only bestowed on a special few; everyone can strengthen this muscle—how loudly you hear these signals, and the trust in yourself to take action on the information you’re receiving.

“Let’s build ESPN.com for strength, and convince *everyone* they can lift weights.” With this mission in mind, the first six months of building the BarBend platform were a blur for today’s guest. By the end of the first year in 2016, they had had 1.4 million readers. By 2022, they had over 31 million registered users, allowing them to sell the business in 2023.

In this conversation, we cover David Tao’s take on the media landscape and how to build a profitable content-based business; raising a seed round of funding from friends and family after getting rejected from every venture pitch; the biggest mistake he made while experimenting with monetization strategies; and how he navigated a successful acquisition with a shared vision at the new parent company, Pillar4.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” —Maya Angelou

Earlier this summer, I arrived late one day to the podcast studio, laying on the floor in lieu of actually recording anything. Should I take that as a sign to reduce my creative output?

Not necessarily.

If you haven’t already, check out our previous conversation in episode 165: Are your clients bringing out the best in you? Engineering the Evolution of Your Business with Ilise Benun and episode 465 of Marketing Mentor on How to Free Your Time.