Steve Magness is an expert on performance and the author of the new book - Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness . He’s also the coauthor of the book Peak Performance. His writing has appeared in Outside, Runner’s World, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and several other publications. His expertise on elite sport and performance has also appeared in The New York Times, Business Insider, ESPN The Magazine and more. Steve has served as an...
Sep 16, 2022•54 min
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author and speaker, is the global programs and research manager for 4 Day Week Global, a non-profit focused on advancing the 4-day work week. He speaks around the world about the 4-day week and the future of work, and talks about how deliberate rest makes creative careers more productive and sustainable. Alex is the author of four books including Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less - Here’s How, and Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. He received his B.A. a...
Sep 08, 2022•59 min
Stephen Seiler, Professor in Sport Science at the University of Adger, is internationally known for his research publications and lectures about organization of endurance training and intensity distribution. His work has influenced international research around training intensity distribution and the “polarized training model.” His work includes descriptive and experimental approaches, where he’s investigated cyclists, rowers, cross-country skiers, orienteers, and distance runners. Dr. Seiler ha...
Aug 26, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Colin O’Brady is a 10-time world record breaking explorer, as well as a speaker, entrepreneur and expert on mindset. He completed the world’s first solo, unsupported and human-powered crossing of Antarctica. He set speed records for the Explorers Grand Slam and the Seven Summits and achieved the first human-powered ocean row across Drake Passage. He graduated from Yale University in economics and worked on Wall Street. He is the author of The Impossible First and the recently released T he 12-Ho...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min
My return to mountain bike racing after having kids has been so much fun! It's also had its fair share of challenges. I sat down with my husband, Matt to talk about what it's been like going from 1 to 2 children, traveling and racing with 2 small children, and the lessons we have learned along the way. We talked about expectations, how pre-race routines and rituals are now different (and messy), and what we are learning to make traveling with kids a little bit easier. We also recapped my High Ca...
Aug 11, 2022•55 min
Dr. Sasha Heinz is a developmental psychologist turned mindset coach. She has her own private coaching practice grounded in psychological science. Dr. Heinz teaches the tools to change lives for good, develop mental fitness and transcend stress, anxiety, and self-criticism. She teaches her clients the science of unstuck. She was one of the first 33 people in history to receive a degree in Positive Psychology. She received her BA from Harvard, Master’s in Applied Psychology from University of Pen...
Jul 31, 2022•56 min
Dr. Jonathan Foley is a world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, author and public speaker, and the executive director of Drawdown. Drawdown’s mission is to help the world reach the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to decline as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. Dr. Foley’s work focused on understanding the changing planet and finding solutions to sustain climate, ecosystems, and natural resources. He has...
Jul 22, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Olympian Lea Davison began mountain bike racing in 2001. Since then, she’s earned a silver medal at the 2016 World Championships, a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships, and finished 3rd overall in the 2015 World Cup series. Lea competed in the 2012 Olympic Games where she placed 11th and also in the 2016 Olympic Games where she placed 7th. Lea’s passion is getting the next generation of females riding mountain bikes, so she co-founded Little Bellas, a mentoring program on mountain bikes...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr
Mark Bowden is a body language expert, keynote speaker and bestselling author of the books Winning Body Language; Winning Body Language for Sales Professionals; Tame the Primitive Brain; and Truth & Lies, What People are Really Thinking. He’s well known for his TedX talk “The Importance of Being Authentic” and his YouTube channel and weekly show “The Behavior Panel.” Mark has a system of nonverbal communication called GesturePlane™ that helps audiences maximize the power of using their own b...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr
On this week’s podcast, Sonya sat down with Jamie Mason Cohen, a resilience and leadership development expert. A Canadian native, Certified Leadership Coach, and a work history that includes Saturday Night Live, Jamie teaches resilience, wellness, leadership and communication to organizations. Jamie works to cultivate resilience through unique performance assessment, the science of positive psychology and leadership strategies. He uses a “Speed Analysis’ process, where each person learns how the...
Jul 03, 2022•1 hr 10 min
One of my most interesting realizations recently is that I am at my best when I'm living in the present moment and I am at my worst when I'm comparing myself. I've been doing specific contemplative meditations on comparison to learn more because it's part of being human to compare ourselves to others. The human mind compares so it can make predictions about the future. It can be a positive thing, but it can also be detrimental to happiness and lack of fulfillment. Comparing without awareness beh...
Jul 03, 2022•20 min
Michelle Segar is the director of the University of Michigan’s Sports, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center, adviser to the Department of Health and Human Services, and chair of the United States National Physical Activity Plan’s Communication Committee, and author of the 2022 book The Joy Choice. The NIH-funded researcher at the University of Michigan, has three decades of experience studying how people adopt healthy behaviors in ways that can survive the complexity and unpredictabil...
Jun 24, 2022•58 min
Frank Overton is a full time cycling coach and a USA Cycling Level 1 coach since 2006. He founded FasCat Coaching in 2002 to live out his dream to help cyclists. He focuses primarily on masters road, gravel, fondo, time trial, mountain bike and cyclocross athletes who take their training seriously. He previously worked for the Priority Health Professional Cycling Team in 2006 as well as the US National Team in Europe for the 2007 World Cup race season. Frank raced competitively first as a semi-p...
Jun 17, 2022•58 min
Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. Look there, go there. Where focus goes, energy flows. Perhaps you've heard one or all of those phrases. Our thoughts and emotions generate our perspective and life experience. What we believe about ourselves, our day, the people around us, and the way the world works has an impact on the actions we take, how we show up in relationships, and how we move through life. -------------- The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co....
Jun 04, 2022•21 min
Payson McElveen is not your traditional professional mountain biker. After cycling at Fort Lewis College and becoming a two-time Marathon National Champion, Payson decided to focus more on longer events, instead of the traditional World Cup racing and pursuit of the Olympics. In 2017, he won his first national title at the 2017 Marathon Championships, and then won again in 2018. He continued his success in 2019, taking third place at the US National Cycling Trials, second at the Whiskey Off-Road...
May 27, 2022•1 hr
Wow, I can't believe I've had the privilege of doing this podcast for 5 years! Today is the 300th episode! Initially, I was going to do a mash-up of my favorite episodes. That is still coming. Instead, I decided to record an episode on what having a podcast has taught me (not lessons about what guests have taught me). Consistency There is No End Point Metrics Don't Matter As Much Continuing Education How to Listen Reaching Out, Rejection and Impostor Syndrome -------------- The Grow the Good Pod...
May 21, 2022•29 min
Britt Frank - therapist, teacher, speaker, and trauma specialist - focuses her work on helping others who feel stuck. Her life’s work developed out of a history of drug addiction, love addiction, borderline personality disorder, depression, an eating disorder and anxiety. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but her approach to her work comes from a deep understanding of what it feels like to be stuck. Britt tried numerous things to get better, and got worse, but once she was on the path to recovery...
May 13, 2022•1 hr
Sometimes life can feel hard and overwhelming. Big life changes often cause discomfort and stress, but out of it comes growth. Growth is something most of us want, but it's normally not something that feels good all the time. With growth can come a period of struggling, and sometimes that feeling of struggling can feel like it'll last forever. Personally, I am struggling right now. Having a newborn baby (second child) along with my son who just turned two, all while trying to meet the demands of...
May 06, 2022•22 min
This week’s podcast features a discussion with Stanford Female Athlete Science And Translational Research (FASTR) Program Director Dr. Emily Kraus and Lead Researcher Dr. Megan Roche. The FASTR program seeks to help close the gender gap in sports science research with an emphasis on early identification and interventions to prevent injury and identify ways to optimize performance in female athletes. The program hopes to “inspire female athletes to learn more about their bodies and embrace what m...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Fiona Oakes is an elite marathon runner, who has completed over 100 marathons and finished in the top 20 in two of the world’s Major Marathon series, winning the Main Start and placing in the top 20 in the Great North Run. She holds four Guinness recognized World Records in endurance events including being the fastest woman to run a Marathon on every Continent. But Fiona doesn’t consider herself a great runner. All of her runs and accolades are in service of a greater purpose - care and love for...
Apr 22, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Bob Doyle is a law of attraction expert and coach. The law of attraction is a belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life. He focuses heavily on helping people decide who they want to be and how they want to express themselves. Bob has been teaching these principles through programs, live events, podcasts, coaching, writing and more since 1998. He’s best known for his contribution to the film and book “The Secret.” He has recently shifted...
Apr 14, 2022•52 min
In 2017, Hillary Allen experienced a life threatening accident that had the potential to completely derail her career as an endurance athlete. She fell 150 feet off a ridge-line during a race in Norway. With 14 broken bones, she was told she’d never run again, and most definitely not compete at an elite level. She overcame the odds and made a full recovery to return to elite level racing. Hillary, nicknamed “Hillygoat” because of her love and skill for running fast on steep, technical mountain t...
Apr 07, 2022•59 min
Small wins are possibly one of the most important aspects of progress, motivation, and confidence in our lives that are overlooked. The reality is that they are the building blocks, the steps, the brush strokes to building a masterpiece. No one suddenly has a big, flashy achievement. They are the many steps to get there that build resilience and character, not the achievement itself. The irony is that a lot of people feel silly when they acknowledge something small or simple. We tend to rank sma...
Mar 31, 2022•22 min
James Lawrence, also known as the Iron Cowboy, is a mindset and fitness coach, best known for testing his mental and physical limits. In 2021, James set out to complete 100 Ironman-distance triathlons in 100 days. He ended up doing 101 triathlons in 101 days. The Conquer 100 wasn’t the first time James tested his athletic limits. It started when his wife signed him up for a marathon. But one marathon wasn’t enough, so he tried a sprint triathlon. He was hooked, and in 2011, he completed 20 half-...
Mar 24, 2022•59 min
Cycling has been a lifeline for Haley Smith. Haley, a top professional cyclist, competed in the cross-country event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning the bronze medal, and was named to the 2020 Canadian Olympic team and competed in the delayed summer games in 2021. She recently signed with Maxxis Factory Racing after a decade with Norco. But cycling has been more than competition to Haley; it’s been a tool to manage her mental health. In this week’s podcast, Sonya sat down with Haley to ta...
Mar 17, 2022•57 min
Dr. Diana Hill focuses on ACT - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - and specializes in evidence-based and compassion-focused approaches. Diana started as a biopsychology major and also practiced yoga and mindfulness to manage her struggles with anxiety and eating. After her undergraduate degree, she went for her PhD in clinical psychology. She became the clinical director at La Luna Center, an intensive outpatient center for eating disorders that embraces feminine, and holistic, integrative appr...
Mar 10, 2022•59 min
Impostor Syndrome - you've heard of it. You've probably felt it. It happens when we discount our ability in a certain area or areas, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. For example, I've been World Champion. I've won major races around the world. I've been US National Champion 4 times. I have been a paid professional athlete since 2014…. and yet at times… I still do not feel like I am a “real pro.” Boom. Impostor Syndrome. Imposter Syndrome shows up in many areas of our lives (even if we h...
Mar 04, 2022•28 min
Gretchen Rubin has a knack for taking a huge amount of information and making it clear and relatable for the masses. Her focus is happiness and human nature and has several bestselling books, including The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies. Her work draws from cutting-edge science, the wisdom of the ages, lessons from popular culture, and her own experiences to explore how we can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. Her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rub...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Brian Asbill, MD, board certified in Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Lipidology, had a career defining moment back in 2013 (he’ll talk about this during the podcast). One of his patients, who had already survived two open heart surgeries and was still experiencing chest pain, came in to see him after a recommendation for a third surgery by a different doctor. Brian had a book in his office by Caldwell Esselstyn called Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which he decided to share with the pat...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr
Today, you'll learn the difference between fierce self-compassion and tender self-compassion. In 2017, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Kristin Neff to talk about her book “Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself,” and the basics of self-compassion. This week, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Kristin, doing a deeper dive into self-compassion and learning more about her latest book “Fierce Self Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Thei...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 2 min
