Anthony Pierri: From Pastor to Marketing Strategist

Anthony Pierri’s career pivot is one of the most dramatic on the show. He spent years in ministry, serving as a pastor and working closely with people through some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Then he walked away from it to build a career in marketing. That sounds like a 180-degree turn, but Anthony explained to Ethan why the skills are more connected than you would think — understanding people, communicating a message that resonates, and building trust with an audience. He got specific about the transition period: the identity crisis of leaving a vocation that defined him, the financial uncertainty of starting over, and the realization that marketing, when done with integrity, is just another form of service. His journey from purpose-driven ministry to purpose-driven marketing connects to Alex Demczack’s message about knowing your identity before your strategy — Anthony did not abandon his values when he changed careers, he applied them in a new context.

Greg Davis: From Restaurant Industry to Leadership and Tech

Greg Davis spent years in the restaurant industry before pivoting into leadership roles in the tech space. He told Ethan that the skills he built working in restaurants — reading a room, managing chaos, motivating a team under pressure, and making hundreds of fast decisions every shift — turned out to be exactly what the corporate world needed. Greg described the specific moment he realized that his experience in hospitality was not something to leave behind but something to leverage. He talked about the interviews where he had to reframe his resume, the mentors who saw potential that traditional hiring managers missed, and the leadership philosophy he built by managing kitchen teams that carried directly into managing tech teams. His story pairs well with RJ Parrish’s episode — both guests discovered that the skills from their previous careers were not wasted, they were foundational.

RJ Parrish: From Psychology to Video Production

RJ Parrish studied psychology and used that foundation to build something entirely different: a career in video production and storytelling. He told Ethan that understanding human behavior — what motivates people, what captures attention, what creates emotional connection — is the hidden advantage in content creation. RJ walked through his transition step by step: picking up a camera with zero formal training, learning video production through YouTube tutorials and trial and error, landing his first paid project, and gradually building a business around helping other people tell their stories. He was honest about the period where he questioned whether he had made the right choice, and the moment he realized he was finally doing work that aligned with who he actually is. His one-step-at-a-time philosophy connects to Brandon Simonis’s approach to learning as the path forward and Bradwin Jordan’s concept of becoming who you were meant to be.

Brandon Simonis: Graduating into a Pandemic and Building Anyway

Brandon Simonis entered the workforce at one of the worst possible moments — right as the pandemic shut everything down. The career path he expected simply did not exist anymore. Instead of waiting for things to return to normal, Brandon started learning. He told Ethan about using the forced downtime to develop new skills, explore industries he never would have considered, and build a professional identity from scratch without the traditional safety net of a clear career ladder. Brandon was specific about the courses he took, the projects he built to prove his abilities, and the mindset shift that turned a crisis into a launchpad. His story is especially relevant for anyone who has had their plans disrupted and needs to figure out what comes next. His emphasis on continuous learning connects to Chris Whited’s message about winning the future one step at a time.

Chris Whited: From the Farm to Insurance — and Lessons That Transfer

Chris Whited grew up on a farm where both grandfathers worked the same county their entire lives. That background gave him something that most career-pivoters lack: patience. Chris applied the farming mentality — you cannot rush a harvest — to his career in insurance sales, and it worked. He told Ethan about the adjustment from rural life to a competitive sales environment, the habits he brought from the farm that gave him an edge, and the daily practices that keep him grounded even in high-pressure situations. Chris’s pivot was not about rejecting where he came from but about translating those roots into a new context. His story complements Greg Davis’s restaurant-to-tech journey — both found that the most valuable skills are the ones you did not realize you were building.

Tyler Webb: Refusing to Wait for Permission

Tyler Webb’s career pivot was less about changing industries and more about changing his relationship with authority. He described the moment he stopped waiting for established players to give him a seat at the table and started building his own table instead. Tyler talked about the specific rejections that shaped his path, the projects he launched without anyone’s blessing, and why being told no turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to his career. His pivot was psychological as much as professional — going from someone who sought validation to someone who creates his own opportunities. That mindset shift echoes what Randi Lynn Quigley talked about in her episode on empowerment: nobody else is going to give you permission to be powerful.

Matt LeBris: Turning Failure into a Whole New Direction

Matt LeBris did not plan to pivot. Life made the decision for him. After experiencing significant setbacks and what most people would call failures, Matt had to rebuild from a fundamentally different starting point. He told Ethan about the period where he had to honestly assess what went wrong, separate his identity from his circumstances, and figure out what he actually wanted next — not what he thought he was supposed to want. Matt was specific about the steps he took to reinvent himself: the mentors he sought out, the skills he developed, and the moment he realized that failure was not the end of his story but the beginning of a better one. His episode connects back to the Overcoming Adversity roundup, because career pivots and adversity are often the same thing viewed from different angles.

The Takeaway: The Best Careers Are Rarely Planned

These seven guests prove that a career does not have to follow a straight line to end up somewhere remarkable. Anthony Pierri went from pastor to marketer. Greg Davis went from restaurants to tech leadership. RJ Parrish went from psychology to video production. Brandon Simonis graduated into a pandemic and built anyway. Each one found that the pivot was not a detour — it was the path. If you are in the middle of your own career change, or thinking about one, their stories will remind you that the only wrong move is staying somewhere that no longer fits. Explore more episodes in the Encourage Mindset Podcast archive and follow the show on YouTube.

Alex Demczack: Know Your Identity, Know Your Why

Alex Demczack built his entire framework around identity before strategy. He told Ethan that most people skip straight to goals and tactics without ever answering the foundational question: who am I, and why does any of this matter? Alex walked through his own process of stripping away the external expectations — the career path his family assumed he would take, the version of success that looked good on paper but felt hollow — and rebuilding from his actual values. His approach is practical, not abstract: he talks about writing down what you believe, stress-testing those beliefs against how you actually spend your time, and making real changes when the two do not match. If you want to understand why purpose-driven people outperform everyone else, Alex’s episode is where to start. His message connects directly to what Nelson Dickson talks about — you cannot live your purpose until you accept who you already are.

Nelson Dickson: You Are Enough — Embrace Your Uniqueness

Nelson Dickson brought a message that sounds simple on the surface but cuts deep when you actually sit with it: you are enough, right now, as you are. Nelson shared his own journey of constantly measuring himself against other people’s benchmarks and how that comparison trap drained his energy and kept him stuck. The turning point came when he decided to stop trying to be a version of someone else and lean into the things that made him different. He talked about the specific moment he realized his so-called weaknesses were actually the traits that set him apart — and how embracing those traits opened up opportunities he never would have found by following the conventional path. His conversation pairs well with Cara Terrance’s episode on self-confidence, because both guests discovered that authenticity is not just a feel-good idea — it is a competitive advantage.

Bradwin Jordan: Breakthroughs — Become the Person You Were Meant to Be

Bradwin Jordan does not use the word “breakthrough” casually. For him, it means the moment you stop living as the person your circumstances shaped you into and start becoming the person you were actually designed to be. Bradwin described the internal war that happens during that transition — the fear of leaving behind a familiar identity even when it is no longer serving you, the resistance from people who liked you better when you were smaller, and the lonely stretch of road between who you were and who you are becoming. His honesty about that in-between phase is what makes the episode stand out. He also touched on how breakthroughs are rarely one giant leap — they happen through a series of small decisions that accumulate over time. That incremental mindset echoes what Dr. Lucy Johnson shared about the power of small wins in her episode.

Carrie Krueger: Purposeful Growth Through Intentional Living

Carrie Krueger brought a perspective on growth that goes beyond hustle culture. She talked about how real growth is not about doing more — it is about doing the right things with intention. Carrie described her own experience of saying yes to everything, burning out, and then having to rebuild her life around what actually mattered to her instead of what other people expected. She shared specific practices she uses to stay aligned with her purpose: regular check-ins with herself, creating boundaries around her time and energy, and surrounding herself with people who support her real goals rather than her old patterns. Her episode connects naturally with Randi Lynn Quigley’s conversation about empowerment, since both women found that the biggest growth happens when you stop asking for permission to live your own life.

Elizabeth Rhyno: Joy — Let Loose and Live Fully

Elizabeth Rhyno flipped the script on the typical self-improvement conversation by focusing on joy. Not happiness as a fleeting emotion, but joy as a deliberate way of living. Elizabeth told Ethan about the period in her life when she was checking every box — career, relationships, health — and still felt like something fundamental was missing. The missing piece turned out to be permission to enjoy her own life without guilt. She talked about unlearning the belief that struggle equals worthiness, and how letting loose and having fun actually made her more productive, more creative, and a better leader. Her emphasis on joy as a form of identity — not a reward you earn after suffering — makes her episode a refreshing counterpoint to the grind-focused episodes. It also connects to what Charlie Connelly said about authenticity: when you stop performing, you find out what actually brings you alive.

Cara Terrance: How to Build Unbreakable Self-Confidence

Cara Terrance got specific about the mechanics of self-confidence in a way that goes beyond generic affirmations. She described confidence not as a personality trait you either have or you don’t, but as a skill you build through evidence. Cara walked through her own story of being deeply insecure early in her career, the specific moments that started to shift her self-image, and the daily practices she now uses to maintain her confidence even when things go wrong. One of the most memorable parts of the conversation was her framework for turning negative self-talk into action — instead of arguing with the critical voice in her head, she started collecting proof that it was wrong. Her approach to confidence connects to what Alex Demczack talks about with identity: once you know who you are, confidence becomes a byproduct rather than a pursuit.

Charlie Connelly: Growth, Leadership, and Staying True to Yourself

Charlie Connelly brought a grounded perspective on what it means to lead without losing yourself in the process. He talked about the pressure to conform to a leadership mold that did not fit him — the aggressive, always-on style that dominates business culture — and how he decided to lead from his actual personality instead. Charlie shared specific examples of times when being authentic cost him opportunities in the short term but built trust and loyalty that paid off exponentially over time. His conversation with Ethan kept circling back to a central idea: the most effective version of you is the real version, not a performance. That message resonates with Nelson Dickson’s “you are enough” philosophy and Elizabeth Rhyno’s call to let loose and stop performing.

Randi Lynn Quigley: Empowerment Starts from Within

Randi Lynn Quigley brought raw energy to her episode about empowerment and personal agency. She shared her story of spending years in environments that diminished her voice, and the turning point when she realized that nobody else was going to give her permission to be powerful — she had to take it. Randi Lynn got specific about what that looked like in practice: leaving situations that no longer served her, speaking up even when her voice shook, and building a life around her own values instead of someone else’s agenda. She also addressed the guilt that often comes with prioritizing yourself, especially for women, and offered a reframe that resonated: taking care of yourself is not selfish, it is the foundation that everything else is built on. Her message connects to Bradwin Jordan’s episode about breakthroughs — both guests found that becoming who you were meant to be requires walking away from who you were expected to be.

Damien Foglio: Follow Your Passion, Not Your Fear

Damien Foglio closed out this theme with a conversation about what happens when you let passion, not fear, drive your decisions. Damien described the period in his life when fear was running the show — fear of judgment, fear of failure, fear of looking foolish — and how that fear kept him trapped in a life that looked fine on the outside but felt empty on the inside. The shift happened when he started asking a different question: what would I do if I knew nobody was watching? That question led him to pursue the things he actually cared about, and the results surprised even him. His episode ties the entire identity theme together because it gets at the root of why so many people never find their purpose — they are too busy managing other people’s perceptions to listen to their own instincts.

The Takeaway: Identity Is Not Found, It Is Built

These nine conversations all point to the same conclusion: your identity is not something you discover in a single moment of clarity. It is something you build, day by day, through honest self-reflection, courageous decisions, and the willingness to let go of who you thought you were supposed to be. Whether it is Alex Demczack’s framework for knowing your why, Cara Terrance’s evidence-based approach to confidence, or Damien Foglio’s decision to follow passion over fear, every guest found their way to the same place — a life that actually feels like theirs. Explore more episodes in the Encourage Mindset Podcast archive and follow the show on YouTube.

Chris Whited: Win the Future One Step at a Time

Chris Whited grew up on a farm where both grandfathers worked the same county. That background taught him something that stuck: you cannot rush a harvest. Chris applies the same thinking to his career in insurance sales. His daily habits are not complicated — they are consistent. He talks about building self-confidence through small, repeatable actions and why the people who win are not the most talented, they are the ones who show up every single day. His approach echoes what RJ Parrish calls building the life you want one step at a time.

Merrick Calmer: You Pay Now in Sweat or Later in Regret

Merrick Calmer frames discipline as a simple transaction: you either pay the price now, through effort and discomfort, or you pay it later through regret. There is no free option. Merrick’s episode is a gut check for anyone who keeps telling themselves they will start tomorrow. His philosophy pairs naturally with Tim Tonella’s episode about how winners stop wasting time — both guests argue that time is the one asset you cannot earn back.

Dan Marzullo: Discipline and Focus Are the Real Cheat Code

Dan Marzullo calls discipline and focus the real cheat code to winning. Not strategy. Not connections. Not timing. Discipline. Dan breaks down what that looks like in practice — the boring, unglamorous daily decisions that compound into results nobody can replicate by working harder for a weekend. His episode is one of the most direct on the podcast about what separates people who talk about goals from people who actually hit them.

Scott Zimmerman: The Real Flex Is Staying Accountable When It Gets Hard

Scott Zimmerman redefines what it means to flex. It is not about showing off results — it is about staying accountable during the stretches when nothing seems to be working. Scott’s episode is about the gap between motivation and discipline: motivation gets you started, but accountability is what keeps you going when the excitement fades. This connects directly to what Chip Baker describes as doing the little things with great effort on a consistent basis.

Chip Baker: Simple Habits, Consistent Effort, Big Difference

Chip Baker is a fourth-generation educator who has interviewed over two hundred people through his platform, The Success Chronicles. The common thread he found across every single one of them: none of them relied on talent alone. They built simple habits and executed them with consistent effort. Chip emphasizes that the thing that lights you on fire does not start with a grand revelation — it starts with doing the basics well, over and over, until momentum takes hold.

Dr. Lucy Johnson: Small Wins Build Big Results

Dr. Lucy Johnson teaches digital literacies at UW-Eau Claire, and her approach to habits is grounded in how she advises students. Instead of cramming for exams or pulling all-nighters on projects, she advocates for ten to fifteen minutes of daily progress. Those small sessions compound into better work, lower stress, and a habit pattern that serves you long after college. She also recommends Glennon Doyle’s Untamed as a book that reshaped how she thinks about reaching your potential without taming yourself to fit someone else’s expectations.

Tim Tonella: Stop Wasting Time and Build Something Real

Tim Tonella does not mince words. His episode title says it all — stop wasting time. Tim’s insight is that most people dramatically underestimate how much time they waste on things that do not move the needle, and the gap between where they are and where they want to be is almost entirely explained by how they spend the hours between seven in the morning and ten at night. His approach to time management connects to what Dan Marzullo describes as the discipline to focus on what actually matters.

Steve Pivnik: Built to Finish

Steve Pivnik brings the habits conversation into entrepreneurship. Being built to finish means developing the daily practices that keep you moving toward completion — not just starting strong, but maintaining the discipline to see things through. His perspective complements Dave Gulas’s episode about surviving the fall after the initial momentum fades.

Erin Nevicosi: Lifestyle Changes Through Fitness and Exercise

Erin Nevicosi brings the habits conversation into the physical realm. Her episode is about how fitness and exercise are not just about looking better — they are about building the discipline muscle that transfers into every other area of your life. The person who can get themselves to the gym at six in the morning is the same person who can make a difficult phone call or finish a project when nobody is watching.

What All Nine Have in Common

None of these guests built their success on a single breakthrough moment. Every one of them points to the boring, repeatable, daily things as the actual engine. Chris farms it. Merrick sweats it. Dan focuses it. The verb changes, but the principle stays the same: consistency beats intensity every time. Explore the full collection of episodes in the Encourage Mindset Podcast archive.

Chandler Lyles: Leadership Should Suck If You Are Doing It Right

Chandler Lyles does not sugarcoat what it takes to lead. He tells Ethan straight out that if leadership feels comfortable, you are probably not doing it well. His episode focuses on a topic most leaders avoid entirely: criticism. Chandler argues that the ability to absorb criticism from the people you are trying to lead — and use it to get better — is the single most underrated leadership skill. The guests who talk about accountability like Scott Zimmerman hit on similar themes, but Chandler frames it as a competitive advantage rather than a burden.

Patrick Coggins: Why Great Leaders Listen More Than They Speak

Patrick Coggins flips the script on what most people think leadership looks like. Instead of the loudest voice in the room, Patrick makes the case that the best leaders are the best listeners. His episode is a practical breakdown of how to build trust by shutting up and paying attention — a skill that sounds simple but that almost nobody actually practices. If you enjoyed Patrick’s perspective on leading through listening, Angie Lion’s episode on compassion explores a closely related idea from a different angle.

Greg Davis: From Third-Generation Restaurateur to Tech Leader

Greg Davis came from three generations of restaurant industry experience before making a dramatic career pivot into technology. That transition required him to lead in an environment where he was no longer the expert — and that is where his insights get interesting. Greg talks about how fixing your focus is the precondition for leading effectively, especially when you are building something in a space where you do not have decades of pattern recognition to fall back on.

Mike Durnin: Becoming a Champion Leader From Within

Mike Durnin takes leadership inward. His episode is about leading from within — the idea that external leadership is only as strong as the internal work you have done on yourself. Mike connects this to discipline and self-awareness in ways that echo what Dan Marzullo says about discipline being the real cheat code. The difference is that Mike applies it specifically to how you show up for other people, not just for your own goals.

Ronen Wasserman: Human-First Teams in an AI World

Ronen Wasserman brings the conversation into the future. His episode tackles what leadership looks like in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, and his answer is counterintuitive: the more technology advances, the more important human-first leadership becomes. Ronen talks about building teams where people feel seen and valued — not replaced — and how that approach actually drives better results than optimizing everything for efficiency.

John Preston: Purpose-Driven Leadership

John Preston connects leadership directly to purpose. Without a clear sense of why you are leading — and who you are leading for — the mechanics of management become hollow. John’s episode pairs well with Alex Demczack’s conversation about knowing your identity and your why, because both guests argue that self-knowledge is the foundation that everything else is built on.

Aaron Mikulsky: Leadership and Business Growth

Aaron Mikulsky brings the leadership conversation into the context of scaling a business. Growth creates new leadership challenges — the skills that got you from zero to ten are not the same ones that get you from ten to a hundred. Aaron’s episode is practical and specific about what changes when the team gets bigger and the stakes get higher.

Andrew Wolfram: Innovation and Forward Thinking

Andrew Wolfram approaches leadership through the lens of innovation. His argument is that the best leaders are not just managing what exists — they are building what comes next. That forward-thinking orientation requires a different kind of courage than day-to-day management, and Andrew talks about what it takes to lead people toward something that does not exist yet.

The Takeaway

Across all eight of these episodes, one theme keeps surfacing: real leadership is not about having authority. It is about earning trust, staying uncomfortable, and doing the internal work that makes your external impact credible. Whether it is Chandler absorbing criticism or Patrick learning to listen, every guest on this list earned their leadership perspective the hard way. Explore all episodes in the Encourage Mindset Podcast archive.

Christian Anderson: From Hollywood Actor to Priest to Professional Speaker

Christian Anderson spent a decade in Los Angeles working on sitcoms, episodics, and commercials before a spiritual calling pulled him toward seminary and ministry. That is not one career pivot — it is two. Hollywood to the priesthood to the speaking stage. Christian’s episode is one of the rawest on the podcast because he does not pretend any of those transitions were smooth. He talks about what rock bottom actually felt like and how the decision to rebuild was not a single dramatic moment but a series of small, unglamorous choices made over months and years.

Josh Roybal: Hit by a Car at 16, Trapped in Vietnam During COVID

If you think you have had a rough year, Josh Roybal’s story will put things in perspective. At sixteen, he was struck by a car going fifty-five miles per hour. Years later, he found himself stranded in Vietnam for two years during the pandemic — with his wife and newborn baby. Instead of breaking, Josh developed a philosophy around patience and what he calls winning life’s bonus rounds. His episode is a masterclass in how the worst circumstances can produce the clearest thinking, if you let them.

Dennis Yu: Immigrant Story to Digital Marketing Pioneer

Before Dennis Yu became one of the early engineers at Yahoo and launched a mission to create a million jobs worldwide, he was navigating the challenges of being an immigrant in America. This episode is personal for Ethan — Dennis was a guest speaker in one of his college communications classes, and that encounter shaped Ethan’s trajectory. Dennis’s core belief is simple and direct: adversity builds champions. Not comfort. Not luck. Adversity. His story backs it up completely.

Dave Gulas: Starting Strong Is Easy — Surviving the Fall Is the Real Test

A lot of people can launch something. Dave Gulas asks the harder question: can you survive when it falls apart? Dave’s episode digs into the reality that the early momentum of any venture — a business, a career change, a relationship — eventually fades, and what you do in that valley determines everything. He is brutally honest about the moments when quitting felt like the rational choice and what kept him going anyway.

Chip Baker: You Are Not Broken, You Are Building

Fourth-generation educator Chip Baker carries a handwritten card from his grandfather everywhere he goes. The message on it became the title of his episode: you are not broken, you are building. Chip watched his mother choose faith over fear during a cancer diagnosis, and that experience cemented a philosophy he now teaches through his platform, The Success Chronicles. His reframe — that struggle is construction, not destruction — is one of the most memorable lines from any episode on the podcast.

Eric Smith: Twenty-Two Years in Roofing and Starting Over

Eric Smith started his first roofing company at twenty-one. He built it, sold it, worked across restoration and public adjusting, and then launched Pak Exteriors for a second run. Two decades in one industry — and the willingness to start from scratch more than once. Eric’s episode is about what happens when the business you built no longer fits the person you have become, and why the best things in business come from complexity and difficulty rather than from playing it safe.

Matt LeBris: Leaving Shark Tank’s Damon John to Build His Own Thing

Working alongside Damon John of Shark Tank for years gave Matt LeBris a front-row seat to world-class entrepreneurship. But eventually he had to face his own version of adversity: stepping away from that security to build his own podcast, Decoding Success, and his branding agency, 1B Branding. Matt’s episode is about turning failure into fuel — and his core insight is that life will keep teaching you the same lesson until you finally learn it.

The Common Thread

What connects all seven of these guests is not optimism or hustle culture platitudes. It is something more grounded than that. Every single one of them had a moment where the rational move was to stop — and they did not. Christian Anderson could have stayed comfortable in any one of his careers. Josh Roybal could have given in to the fear of being stranded overseas with a baby. Dennis Yu could have used his immigrant experience as an excuse instead of fuel. They all chose to keep building.

That is the recurring message across the Encourage Mindset Podcast: the setback is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of a better one. If any of these stories resonated with you, explore more episodes in the Encourage Mindset Podcast archive or subscribe on YouTube for new conversations every week.

Watch the Full Episode with Matt LeBris

From Working with Damon John to Building His Own Brand

Matt LeBris opens the conversation with gratitude — a theme that runs throughout the entire episode — and then drops a background that immediately grabs your attention. He worked with Damon John of Shark Tank for numerous years before deciding to venture off on his own. That experience gave him a front-row seat to world-class entrepreneurship, but it also planted a seed: he wanted to build something that was entirely his. So he launched 1B Branding, his agency, and Decoding Success, his podcast where he interviews people about the principles behind their achievements.

Matt is quick to clarify that he is not positioning himself as someone who has it all figured out. He comes on the show, as he puts it, vulnerable and transparent. He calls himself a work in progress and says he still has a lot to learn. That honesty sets the tone for a conversation that feels real rather than performative — which is exactly what makes this episode stand out.

Why Life Keeps Teaching You the Same Lesson Until You Learn It

One of the most memorable moments in the episode comes when Matt shares his philosophy on failure. A lesson in your life will continuously pop up until you learn it, he tells Ethan. It might not show up the same way every time — the circumstances change, the people change, the context changes — but the core lesson keeps presenting itself until you finally internalize it. Matt has experienced this firsthand and says that recognizing the pattern is half the battle.

His method for processing failure is simple but disciplined: he writes it down. After an experience goes sideways, Matt journals about what happened, how he reacted, what he could have done better, and what the lesson was supposed to be. He acknowledges that it sounds basic, but says that the physical act of writing it out forces him to confront the situation honestly rather than letting it fade into the background where the same mistake can happen again.

Sensory Deprivation Tanks: Matt’s Secret for Clearing His Mind

When Ethan asks about how Matt disconnects and recharges, the answer is unexpected: float tanks. Matt is a devoted user of sensory deprivation tanks — the pitch-dark, soundproof, body-temperature saltwater pods that strip away every external stimulus. He explains that floating is his absolute best way of disconnecting because it pulls you completely out of real time. With no light, no sound, and nothing to smell except faint salt water, all you are left with is your own thoughts.

Matt says the experiences he has had while floating are unlike anything he gets from traditional meditation or apps like Calm. Memories from childhood come rushing back — he recalls a time in second grade when he stuck a crayon up his nose and his mom did not believe him until he blew it out. That kind of deep, random recall simply does not happen at a desk or during a guided meditation session, he says. For Matt, float tanks are where real mental clarity lives, and he recommends them to anyone looking for a way to truly unplug from the noise of daily life.

The Go-Giver and Why Reading Changed His Trajectory

Matt admits he is not the biggest reader, which makes his book recommendation all the more meaningful. The first book someone told him to read was The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann — a short book, about one hundred and ten pages, that he could not put down. He read it in roughly an hour and was immediately drawn into its message about giving value to others as the foundation for success.

Ethan connects with this recommendation and the two of them bond over the idea that the right book at the right time can shift your entire perspective. For Matt, The Go-Giver was that book — it reinforced the principles he was already learning from working alongside Damon John and gave him a framework for how he wanted to approach his own business and podcast.

Minimum Effort, Maximum Output: The Small Habit That Changed Everything

When Ethan asks about a habit that requires the least effort but makes the greatest difference, Matt goes in a direction nobody expects: gut health testing. He talks about a company called Viome that sends you a test kit, analyzes your gut biome, and then recommends supplements — prebiotics, probiotics, and multivitamins — based on the findings. The company suggests retesting every six months as your health improves and changes.

It is a perfect example of the episode’s broader theme: small changes, done consistently, can produce outsized results. Matt frames gut health as something that takes almost no effort — you do the test, you follow the recommendations — but the potential impact on energy, clarity, and overall health can be dramatic. He uses it as a practical illustration of the mindset he preaches: you do not need to overhaul your entire life to see real improvement. Sometimes the smallest adjustments are the ones that matter most.

How Decoding Success Was Born

Toward the end of the episode, Matt shares the origin story of his podcast. He never actually wanted to start one. At the time, he was working with Damon John and had no intention of launching his own show. But the idea grew naturally out of the conversations he was already having and the access he had to extraordinary people. He realized that those conversations — about how people decoded their own success — deserved a platform. So Decoding Success was born, and it became both a creative outlet and a way for Matt to continue learning from the people he admires while sharing those lessons with a broader audience.

Matt closes the episode the same way he opened it: with genuine gratitude. He thanks Ethan for the platform and encourages listeners to approach their own journeys with the same combination of vulnerability, curiosity, and willingness to fail forward that has defined his career so far.

Connect with the Encourage Mindset Podcast

Want more conversations about entrepreneurship, mindset, and turning setbacks into fuel? Subscribe to the Encourage Mindset Podcast on YouTube for new episodes every week.

Related Episodes You Might Enjoy

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these related episodes from the Encourage Mindset Podcast:

• Dennis Yu: Adversity Builds Champions
• Eric Smith: Building a Winning Mindset in Business
• Dave Gulas: Starting Strong Is Easy But Can You Survive The Fall?

This episode is also featured in:

• When the Plan Changes: 7 Encourage Mindset Guests Who Made Bold Career Pivots and Never Looked Back
• 7 Encourage Mindset Guests Who Turned Rock Bottom Into a Breakthrough

Watch the Full Episode with Dr. Lucy Johnson

From Digital Literacies Professor to Mindset Advocate

Dr. Lucy Johnson teaches digital literacies at UW-Eau Claire, a field that sits at the intersection of technology, communication, and education. But her interest in mindset goes well beyond the classroom. She serves as the faculty adviser to the E3 student organization, which focuses on helping students professionalize themselves, build networks, and recruit speakers who can help them grow. She tells Ethan that watching these students recruit members and develop as professionals during the organization’s first year has been one of the most rewarding parts of her role on campus.

What becomes clear quickly in the conversation is that Dr. Johnson is not the kind of professor who stays behind a lectern. She is deeply invested in the whole-person development of her students — their confidence, their habits, and their ability to see the bigger picture when the semester gets overwhelming.

Why Small Wins Matter More Than You Think

The core of the episode centers on an idea that sounds simple but is deceptively powerful: small wins compound into big results. Dr. Johnson explains that many students — and professionals, for that matter — get so caught up in the immediate pressure of the next exam or the next major project that they lose sight of the larger goals those tasks are building toward. The graduation date. The career milestone. The life they are trying to construct.

Her advice is to build mindful moments into your day where you consciously connect each smaller task to the bigger outcome it serves. That paper you are writing is not just a paper — it is a stepping stone toward your degree. That meeting you are preparing for is not just another obligation — it is a building block in a career you are actively constructing. When you start seeing your daily tasks as stepping stones rather than isolated burdens, Dr. Johnson says, you stop feeling consumed by them and start feeling empowered by them.

The Procrastination Trap and the Power of Ten Minutes a Day

Ethan brings up a habit that most students know all too well: procrastinating until the last possible day before a deadline. Dr. Johnson laughs at this because she has seen it countless times, and she pushes back with a straightforward alternative. Instead of cramming everything into the final night, why not spend ten or fifteen minutes a day chipping away at the project? Those small daily sessions add up quickly, and more importantly, they keep the material fresh in your mind so you are not starting from scratch when the deadline looms.

She connects this back to the larger theme of the episode — small wins build big results. The student who does fifteen minutes of work today and fifteen minutes tomorrow is not just closer to finishing the assignment. They are training their brain to approach work in a sustainable way, which is a habit that will serve them long after they leave campus. Ethan adds that he has experienced this himself — when he breaks something into small daily actions, the quality of the work is better and the stress is dramatically lower.

Glennon Doyle, Untamed, and Reaching Your Fullest Potential

When Ethan asks Dr. Johnson for a book recommendation — something that can help people find their motivation or improve their mindset — she does not hesitate. She recommends Untamed by Glennon Doyle, the bestselling author who is married to retired U.S. women’s soccer star Abby Wambach. Dr. Johnson acknowledges that the book’s primary audience might be women, but she believes the takeaways transfer to anyone regardless of gender or stage of life.

The central idea she pulls from the book is about not taming yourself. So many people spend their lives conforming to external measures of success or shrinking themselves to fit expectations that were never theirs to begin with. Dr. Johnson says the book’s message about reaching your fullest potential in whatever setting you find yourself in resonated deeply with her and is something she now carries into her teaching and advising.

Morning Routines, Snooze Buttons, and Building Real Habits

Toward the end of the conversation, Ethan and Dr. Johnson talk about the gap between intention and execution — specifically when it comes to morning routines. Ethan makes the point that anyone can say they are going to get up at five in the morning, but the real question is whether they actually get up when the alarm goes off or hit the snooze button. Dr. Johnson agrees and ties it back to the broader conversation: developing a routine is about making small, consistent choices that compound over time.

She also acknowledges the context of the conversation — this episode was recorded during the pandemic, when many students were attending classes online instead of in person and feeling depleted and exhausted by the end of the semester. Even in that environment, she says, small check-ins with yourself to retrain your brain can make the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling like you are making progress. It is not about overhauling your entire life overnight. It is about those small, mindful moments that remind you the work you are doing right now is connected to something bigger.

Connect with the Encourage Mindset Podcast

Want more conversations about mindset, education, and personal growth? Subscribe to the Encourage Mindset Podcast on YouTube for new episodes every week.

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Watch the Full Episode with Chip Baker

Fourth-Generation Educator Turned Author and Speaker

Chip Baker comes from a family of educators — four generations deep. He spent years as a teacher and coach before transitioning into speaking, life coaching, and writing. He describes the shift as a natural extension of what he has always done: pouring into people. A little over four years ago, he launched The Success Chronicles with the goal of interviewing everyday people who had done remarkable things. To date, he has interviewed more than two hundred people, and the common thread he has found across all of them is that none of them see themselves as special. They are regular people who made consistent choices to show up and do the work.

What makes The Success Chronicles different, Chip says, is that it is not about celebrities or famous entrepreneurs. It is about the teacher down the hall, the coach in the next town, the neighbor who quietly built something meaningful. He believes those stories resonate more deeply because they feel attainable — you look at these people and think, if they can do it, maybe I can too.

The Card from His Grandfather That Changed Everything

One of the most powerful moments in the conversation comes when Chip talks about his grandfather. He carries a card with him at all times — a physical card his grandfather gave him — that carries the message that shaped the title of this episode: you are not broken, you are building. Chip explains that his grandfather was one of the most influential people in his life, and that simple phrase became a foundation for how he approaches adversity. When things feel like they are falling apart, that card is a reminder that the struggle is not destruction — it is construction. He is not broken. He is in the process of being built into something stronger.

Chip tells Ethan that this idea is central to how he coaches people. So many people come to him feeling like they are damaged or behind or that something is fundamentally wrong with them. His answer is always the same: you are not broken, you are building. That reframe changes everything because it shifts the narrative from victimhood to progress.

Simple Habits and the Power of One Percent Better

When Ethan asks about mindset and what separates people who grow from people who stay stuck, Chip brings it back to habits. He is not talking about massive overhauls or dramatic life changes. He is talking about the small, boring, daily things that most people overlook. Showing up on time. Doing the little things with great effort on a consistent basis. Chip emphasizes that a little consistent effort can make a big difference — and that it all starts with those simple habits.

Ethan agrees, adding that getting one percent better every day is how you stack small steps into big goals. Chip nods at this and pushes the idea further: the thing that lights you on fire and gets you excited does not start with some grand revelation. It starts with doing the basics well, over and over, until momentum takes hold.

Growing Through Tough Things — Not Just Going Through Them

Chip shares one of his signature phrases during the conversation: none of us are immune from growing through tough things. He pauses and asks Ethan if he caught the word choice — growing, not going. That distinction matters to Chip because it changes the entire posture of how someone approaches hardship. Going through something implies survival. Growing through something implies transformation.

He explains that when setbacks come — and they will, regardless of who you are or where you come from — the key is to remain humble and hungry. Humble enough to know you do not have all the answers. Hungry enough to keep pushing forward anyway. That combination, Chip says, is what sustains self-motivation when the road gets rough.

His Mother’s Cancer Diagnosis and Choosing Faith Over Fear

The conversation takes a deeply personal turn when Chip shares that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. He tells Ethan that watching his mother navigate that diagnosis taught him one of the most important lessons of his life: she chose faith over fear. She did not deny the reality of what she was facing, but she refused to let fear dictate how she moved through it. That decision — faith over fear — became a guiding principle for Chip and reinforced what his grandfather had always taught him about building through adversity rather than being broken by it.

Chip does not sugarcoat how difficult that experience was. But he frames it as one more example of the people in his life who modeled what it looks like to face something devastating and still choose to grow through it.

Legacy and Leaving Tracks for the Next Generation

Toward the end of the episode, the conversation turns to legacy. Chip talks about the importance of leaving tracks — not just achieving things for yourself, but building something that the next generation can follow. He ties this back to his family’s four generations of educators and to The Success Chronicles itself, which he sees as a way of documenting and preserving stories that might otherwise be forgotten.

He also emphasizes the power of being present. Your presence is the present, Chip says. Do not get so caught up in learning from the past or planning for the future that you miss the moment you are in right now. If you take each moment and attack it with everything you have, you can stack those moments and eventually look back proud of what you have built.

Connect with the Encourage Mindset Podcast

Want more conversations about mindset, resilience, and personal growth? Subscribe to the Encourage Mindset Podcast on YouTube for new episodes every week.

Related Episodes You Might Enjoy

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these related episodes from the Encourage Mindset Podcast:

• Damien Foglio: Passion and Perseverance
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This episode is also featured in:

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