Amid all the buzzwords and reports on the future of work, I find Sarah Kessler's stories about the gig economy to be the most insightful and the most human. Her stories and her book, Gigged , give an accurate picture of some of the upsides of the gig economy, but also some of the downsides. She shares stories of people that are sleeping in their office making five cents per task on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to creative freelancers who can make six-figure salaries working from anywhere. She also s...
Nov 28, 2018•37 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Lydia Lee was a self-described "multi-potentialite" growing up and loves to experiment and play games growing up. You can probably draw a straight line from her hosting television shows for the stuffed animals in her room to her current YouTube channel Screw The Cubicle TV. However, life is never that simple. Lydia is based in Bali where she is the Founder and Corporate Escape Coach of Screw The Cubicle, a movement to inspire people to break free from the shackles of conventional work. From buil...
Nov 14, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Wade Foster was graduating during the worst recession in the past 100 years and traditional employers were simply not hiring anyone. He reached out to a local software company in Missouri and talked them into hiring him to work on marketing. The experience "opened his eyes" to the digital world and the enormous opportunities that were beginning to emerge. He also tapped into a "thirst for developing new skills" that pushed him to learn how to code. The idea for Zapier emerged from some work Wade...
Nov 07, 2018•49 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Nemo Ashong's bold vision is "a truly inclusive and empowered world" He helps people to be fully expressed and to be more authentic, be more unique and be more powerful. This conversation brought out some vulnerability in both of us and we barely scratched the surface around some tough topics like diversity, & inclusion. I live for this type of tough conversation and appreciate that podcasts give the kind of space to explore topics with nuance. I'm not sure we ended up with any clear answers...
Oct 31, 2018•52 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Ervin Ling followed the default path as an actuary, passing test after test. After passing all the tests, he found himself working harder than he was ever working. As he stared at the television and saw his friends on TV during a weekend trip to the Final Four, he realized he didn't want to keep doing this. He declared (after a few drinks, nonetheless) to his friends, "If UConn wins the national championship, I'm going to quit my job." As any good number-driven actuary would, he didn't quit his ...
Oct 24, 2018•41 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Ted Bauer is a freelance writer and content strategist who writes prolifically about the future of work. In this episode, he talks about some of his experiences in the corporate world. He shares a story of how he broke the record for the number of story ideas when he first joined ESPN which both captures his frustrations with the corporate world and also illuminates his process of how he generates new ideas for his writing. We talk a bit about technology and his view is that people are using tec...
Oct 17, 2018•37 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast While Shayne has built a successful marketing consulting firm, there was no "plan" to do this. His first exposure to marketing was out of necessity - his professor let students boost their low economics grades by joining the marketing group he ran. Shayne quickly applied the lessons to his DJ gigs on the side in college and became more interested in how to build real relationships with people through incredible experiences. He brings this same passion to his work today. Shayne has had many "dumb...
Oct 10, 2018•43 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Learn More 📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold) : The Pathless Path 😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community 📲Connect + Follow Paul Twitter: @p_millerd Instagram: @pathlesspaul Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People) Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe 🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast: Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth I use Tra...
Oct 03, 2018•37 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Jacqueline Jensen has been a digital nomad for 3.5 years, living and working globally. It might surprise you to find out then, that she's written a book called " Travel Isn't The Answer. " While counter-intuitive, she argues for a return to awe and wonder with what is already around us. She talks about different moments of wonder she has experienced (including a breathtaking view in Montenegro) and different techniques for how people can "Live With a Sense of Curiosity, Passion, and Awe Anywhere...
Sep 26, 2018•45 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Laura Gallaher joins me from Serbia, where she is part of Remote Year, a community that travels to twelve locations within a year with a cohort of people working remotely. Laura is an organizational psychologist who studied humor and communication in the workplace and notably completed a dissertation with "that's what she said" in the title (office fans, anyone?). With a title like that it was probably clear that Academia would be too limiting for her. We talk a bit about humor and how it ca...
Sep 19, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew is a Practical Philosopher who believes that "there may be no greater vexation in our time than the question of how to make a living in a manner that accords with leading a good life." We dive deep into the questions of "what is the good life?" and what he means by "sustaining life." He also shares his perspective on the concept of "Total Work," a phrase first put forth in 1947 by the German Philosopher Josef Pieper and shares how that phrase became central to his current writing on the t...
Sep 12, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Paul provides a summer update: Shifting the podcast from making sense of the future of work => "The Human Side Of The Future Of Work" Early lessons from the digital course experiment, Solopreneur Shift I'm moving to Asia... Boundless Links My article on beanie babies and doing things that don't make sense = > yes, please Check out the latest tools, including the Freelance Target Income Calculator Want an e-mail of 5 good reads every Sunday? Subscribe to #boundlessreads **This podcast is su...
Aug 08, 2018•11 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Tony grew up around entrepreneurs but did not use the label at the time. At age 19, he was going to college in Maryland and felt the pull to something bigger. He decided to move to New York City with $300 to his name and started modeling to pay the bills. He got a lot of pushback from the people in his life about the move but knew he had to take the leap. Despite many setbacks and almost running out of many several times, he kept his head down and stayed in the city, saying to himself "you canno...
Jul 18, 2018•57 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Learn More 📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold) : The Pathless Path 😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community 📲Connect + Follow Paul Twitter: @p_millerd Instagram: @pathlesspaul Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People) Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe 🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast: Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth I use Tra...
Jun 20, 2018•45 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast In this short "reflection" episode, I check in on where my head is at one year into my freelance journey and share some of the opportunities I have had, how I have changed my mindset over the last year and how people have reacted to me carving a different path in the world. Some things mentioned in the show: Links: Awakening - Quitting The Default Path Questioning Work 📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More 📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold) : The Pathless Path 😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths...
Jun 13, 2018•20 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Luke grew up on a commune and then ended up as a co-founder and CEO of a startup that raised $87 million. He talks about his unique path and how that shaped his thoughts about building an organization. He raises the central tension of organizations in a free market economy - the fact that our corporations are run more like authoritarian states with centrally planned economies than free-markets. We talk about lessons he learned as he built his company and his perspective that he shares in his art...
Jun 06, 2018•48 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Candace was first inspired by her mother who always looked for solutions to problems rather than admitting defeat so always had an entrepreneurial spirit. She had also been practicing yoga for several years (also with her mother) before deciding to invest more time and signing up for a Yoga workshop in Thailand while recovering from a challenging case of lyme disease. This leap of faith led to her thinking about yoga more seriously and starting to experiment with different projects such as a DVD...
May 30, 2018•52 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Stephen has been self-employed for more than 18 years. At first, it was by accident. He referred to himself as a “reluctant freelancer.” We talk about how that mindset evolved into one where he now sees self-employment as THE option for today’s world. He is the founder of Life Skills That Matter, a platform, and community to help people to build the real skills they need to build a life they are proud of. There are many future of work “thought leaders” but that title would sell Stephen too short...
May 23, 2018•45 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Nita Baum is a rock star self-employed freelancer. She has been working on her own for over a decade and now splits her time across many domains, describing herself as an "entrepreneur, co-creator, facilitator, mentor-coach, and community-builder." A lot of her current work focuses on supporting and working with people who are carving their own paths as freelancers, which evolved from her helping hundreds of people informally over the year. In 2013, she turned this into a business, launching b*f...
May 09, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast This was an interview of Paul on the Unleashed podcast hosted by Will Bachman, who is the founder of Umbrex, a platform for independent consultants. Will's podcast interviews many freelancers who are working independently and I can't recommend it enough. Check out the unleashed Podcast => Subscribe Today ------ Weekly #BoundlessReads Newsletter - 5 Things Every Week: Subscribe Now Book Recommendations Mentioned: Designing Your Life , Burnett How Will You Measure Your Life , Christensen Tuesda...
May 02, 2018•41 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Damien Peters is a self-described "personal finance nerd" - which explains how he ended up founding WealthNoir.com , a platform to preach and teach about the importance of financial freedom and generational wealth to Black millennial professionals. He started blogging over ten years ago and has recently focused more on writing as he increases his focus on building Wealth Noir. Damien is also a big fan of travel and recently made the decision to move out of San Francisco and move with his family ...
Apr 25, 2018•52 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Connor's path as an entrepreneur began when he was in college via an AIM chat with a classmate in one of his classes. What started as a textbook e-commerce business led him to build a sizeable business selling things on Amazon.com. Through his work on that, he ended up working with many freelancers across the globe on a variety of different projects. Realizing that he had developed skills in recruiting and working effectively with freelancers led him to start FreeUp.com. where he vets the best f...
Apr 18, 2018•42 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Jen Morilla is an impact travel influencer. What does that mean? It means she travels the world and writes about her experiences but also has a central mission. At first, she started out with the mission to "change the world" that has since gotten more specific. She has been bringing water filters to many different villages across the globe and impacted an estimated 12,000 people globally What has been meaningful for her is not bringing the water filters, but teaching people how to solve problem...
Apr 11, 2018•52 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Romy is an employee engagement consultant turned coach. She built her career consulting for and working in Fortune 100 companies on all challenges employee-related. Her mission is to drive meaningful and behavior-based change for mid-level leaders that helps them operate in a more productive and human way in the workplace. There are a lot of coaches out there, but what makes Romy stand out is that she has a lot of experience working with senior executives in her consulting career and she has dee...
Apr 04, 2018•45 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Tanya Alvarez is the Co-Founder, and CEO of OwnersUP is a platform which advances solopreneurs business through accountability, goal setting, and community. Over the past fifteen years, Tanya has accumulated marketing experience with international & US companies such as Nike and US Olympics. She started her first company at the age of 25 and grew it to be a profitable company from credit card debt to over $1mm in gross revenue the first year. Since then, she has founded, bootstrapped, sold a...
Mar 28, 2018•42 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Pauri started playing Tennis when he was seven and it has turned into a clear passion. He wasn't always sure that was the path he wanted to take, but when a job as a teacher fell through because he decided to attend his sister's wedding, he picked up some coaching work to make some money. One thing turned into another and he is now the head women's and men's coach at Wheaton College. As a coach, he is in the position of constantly having to think about how to motivate different types of people a...
Mar 21, 2018•49 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Ben is the founder and COO of Omelas, a startup that is focused on using technology to fight propaganda. Ben's journey, however, does not start there. His journey is a classic case of "do not try this at home" - as we walk through Ben's story, I found myself impressed at the number of rejections and roadblocks he faced. Early in his career, he thought he landed his dream job, at the State Department, only to have the offer reneged. This led him to put his passion (which was diplomacy), to the si...
Mar 14, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast This is a copy of the interview I did with Stephen Warley on the Life Skills That Matter Podcast. Stephen is a bit of a role model for me. We have similar missions and ways of seeing the world. He interviewed me on Facebook live and I thought we had an interesting discussion on doing things that matter, defining priorities and how to figure out the answer "what do you want to do?" (which I think is an absurdly bad question!) Show Notes: Life Skills That Matter (Episode 174) Podcast Information :...
Mar 07, 2018•45 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Amma Marfo cracked me up several times on this podcast. It is no surprise then, that she describes herself as "thoughtful yet incurably silly." She also defines herself by three words: humor, creativity, and energy - something we talk about at the beginning of the podcast. Like many freelancers, she does so many things - she is a speaker, teacher, coach, and podcaster and has a lot of insight around the future of education and what helps people succeed in school. If you are interested in writing...
Feb 28, 2018•47 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast I discovered Tom by reading a piece he wrote on freelance consulting. I was fascinated with his approach and how similar it was to mine - especially coming from a completely different perspective - digital marketing & content. We talk in depth about how he thinks about content in today's world, his thoughts on personal branding, how writing helps him create and leads to serendipitous connections and how he manages a diversity of interests. We also geek out about our love of all things Ribbon...
Feb 21, 2018•54 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast 
