For quite some time I’ve had the desire to create a journal for my own productivity and intentional living. If you’ve listened to the podcast before you’ve heard me mention it. There is nothing on the market like I wanted and so I decided to create one myself, call it the Mindsoak Daily Journal, use it for a while and then see about releasing it to the masses.

Then one day I was going through Instagram and came upon an advertisement for something called “Mind Journal”. My jaw dropped and I quickly clicked on the link to see who the son of a bleep was who stole my idea.

It was then I was first introduced to this Ollie Aplin fellow. He seemed nice enough from his picture, but I still wasn’t sold. Then I started seeing the images of the journal and I fell in love with the design and the idea of Mind Journal.

I hastily pulled up his website, found the Contact Me section and wrote out an email basically saying, “I had a similar idea, you got to it first, your design is beautiful, I am so happy this product exists and I want you to come on the podcast.”

I hit send and figured I’d never hear from him.

But I did. And Ollie was wonderful. And we got on the phone and talked about the journals and what we wanted in a journal. What we liked about good design. And what we want from life. And we clicked. And then Ollie was nice enough to send me a Mind Journal. And I unboxed it. And I was in awe of his design and product presentation. And I walked around showing everyone how amazing it was. And then we recorded a conversation for the podcast.

And Ollie was as brilliant as his journal.

“I’m just a normal guy, that’s just been through some stuff.” -Ollie Aplin

We discuss why he had the idea for creating a journal that did not exist. Ollie is a graphic designer by day so when you see the Mind Journal you are going to want to sleep in it. It’s so comfortable and welcoming and beautiful.

He explains coping with the loss of his mother to suicide as a young man. How he initially coped with the grieving and what lead him to exploring therapy and journaling. And what success he had doing both. Since Ollie says it better than I ever could, here is a video summing up his journey and the creation of the Mind Journal.

So, if you want this same level of exploration in your journaling go pick up the Mind Journal. You won’t regret it.

You can purchase the Mind Journal at www.mindjournals.com. You can learn more about Ollie on Twitter at @OllieAplin_, on Instagram at @ollieaplin. You can also follow Mind Journal on Twitter at @mindjournals_.

Thank you again Ollie…I owe you a journal my brother!

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Oh the joys of geekdom! Always uplifting. Always rewarding. And always a catalyst for great conversation and the making of new friends.

No more so than when I got to sit down with Meg Bonney for a new episode. Meg and I immediately hit it off when our conversation meandered through writing novels to comic books to our personal coffee tips and tricks.

She’s like my long lost geeky sister!

But besides being my long lost geeky sister, Meg is also the author of a new YA fantasy series called Everly. Book One of the Everly series is being released next week (next week!) from our friends over at Pandamoon. I already ordered my copy and can’t wait to dive into this new world Meg created. From what she tells us on the podcast, Everly certainly sounds like an interesting place to visit.

Meg also talks about how she sets herself up to write, which is always fascinating to hear. I love hearing author’s writing and productivity hacks and I walked away more inspired than ever to jump back into my own fictional worlds.

And then the podcast takes a turn into real geeky territory and we start talking superheroes, comic books and tv shows. Meg is a tv fanatic and could probably beat anyone in a round of Geek Jeopardy. We talk the CW’s Green Arrow, Flash and Supergirl shows and discuss Meg’s review writing at PureFandom.com and HiddenRemote.com.

But the completely amazing event takes place when I give her, the self entitled ‘Friends’ Super Fan, a Friends trivia quiz of 28 questions. Tough questions. Of which a mere mortal may only get one or two correct. Meg only missed a few…and even the one’s she missed she was able to describe in full once she was reminded of the answer. I was planning on only asking 10 to 12 questions, but once she started rattling off correct answers so effortlessly I couldn’t stop myself from asking all of them.

Dana Faletti told me Meg was Pandamoon’s “entertainment guru” and she was spot on with the title.

So, without further ado, enjoy listening to Meg’s episode. And then after that head on over to Amazon and order up “Everly” and support an amazing writer, person and geek.

To find out more about Meg, check out her website at www.megbonney.com. Or find her on Twitter at @MegBonneyWriter.

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I do love me some Joe Cardamone. And for the last several months (closing in on a year) I’ve been selfishly keeping him from you. Sure, technically he’s been writing a bunch of insightful essays for Mindsoak and I guess he’s got his own life where he shares all of his talents, but in terms of the Mindsoak podcasting world, it’s been a while.

So today I’m excited to release another Joe Cardamone episode to the Mindsoak universe. We talk script writing and acting and improv and directing and a bunch of other stuff. We catch up on his creative endeavors and the 13,758 awards he and Twelvesteed Productions have won (might be an exaggeration, but not by much). We find out that since we last talked to Joe, acting has become his thing. His major thing. From a teenage-puppy-love thing to married-with-kids thing. He’s digging it.

Listening to Joe living his creativity is as inspiring as it is entertaining. All at the same time. Like a good 2 for 1 deal.

To learn more about Joe and all his projects, click on the links below:

Joe Cardamone is @bonafidejoe on Twitter.

At his fancy website at josephcardamone.com.

Twelvesteed Productions

Pint and Prose

And make sure to check all Joe’s essays on Mindsoak if you want to get smarterer and stuff!

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Howdy, Michael C. Bryan here and welcome to another episode of The Michael C. Bryan Hour- where nothing is taboo. Disclaimer: things might get provocative. Discretion is advised.

Unconditional love – not needing anyone to do shit for us.

I made that definition up. It doesn’t exist anywhere, but it should. The idea of unconditional love came around at the end of my conversation with this week’s guest, Aja. While we did talk about racism, education and all things feminism, the end of the call came to the place where, I suspect, most of my coaching and/or interviews on the podcast are going to come, and that’s to the question of how much we do, or do not, embrace the idea of unconditional love for ourselves. Not for others; for ourselves.

Fucking Jerry Maguire movie. Screwed everything up for most of us when it comes to dating.

It’s like what one of my favorite spiritual teachers once said – there ain’t no way you can have a happy ending without a happy journey. Inadvertent pun intended. And being of service first to others, and not ourselves, is a recipe for an unhappy journey. That’s not to say we don’t help others. It means if we help ourselves first, we can’t help but help others.

Cue the music and let the confetti rain.

Aja understands this. She understands she’s already this thing she’s trying to become. It’s the same for all of us. I’ve had coaching clients tell me in AA there’s talk that they’re broken and need to be healed. I’ve never been in AA so I don’t know how valid that is, but if it, it’s fucked up thinking. None of us are broken. We’re fine as we are. We’ve just forgotten that somewhere along the way because we believe what people tell us.

What I loved about talking with Aja was how she’s the new breed of forward thinking people who are driving forward the idea of radical inclusion. In the call it was so refreshing to talk about the mixing of genders and races which is the Oneness of our world. I know I capitalized Oneness and made it a noun. It’s not obnoxious, I promise. It’s the truth. It’s what Einstein was talking about. The thing we’re all reaching for. The emotional understanding that we’re all connected and always have been.

Which brings us back to this pesky idea of unconditional love again. Fucking Jerry Maguire. We don’t need anyone to complete us. We are complete. But then perhaps that’s the point of movies like fucking Jerry Maguire. To drive us towards that rush of radical independent love which we only know we want by watching silly movies about needing someone to complete us.

See what you did Aja? You got me going on this and I’m afraid I won’t stop for days now. Damn you.

More about Aja:
Aja Martinez always knew she would teach, she always knew she would write. Never one to play “house” as a child, she would line up her stuffed animals and her baby brother for “school time”. When tasked with “show and tell” in the first grade, Aja didn’t spend time deciding on her best toy to bring to school; she instead wrote a book and read it to her class. A professor of rhetoric and writing, Aja is a lifelong student and is most alive when she is learning from and engaging with brilliant students, colleagues, or her daughter. As a momma, Aja and her teen daughter love to travel, try new food, and play video games. They, along with their giant ginger tabby cats, Jack and Bruce, live a pretty charmed life.

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I love finding new music. More specifically I love finding new artists who are putting out great music. And even better? I love finding great music from a new artist who is as humble and gracious as my guest on today’s podcast, Morgan St. Jean.

Morgan and I “met” on Twitter after I fell in love with her song “Addicted”. I reached out, hoping I could get her to come on and discuss her life and music and was pleasantly surprised when she was excited to be a part of Mindsoak.

We change the Mindsoak format a little for this episode so it’s not just a regular “talky” episode. It’s much more. We learn about Morgan’s life, how she got into singing, the trials, the tribulations, the mindsoaky stuff we usually discuss on the podcast.

But then we change up the format a bit and play each of Morgan’s new singles and then follow up with a discussion about the song and what the lyrics mean to her.

You will hear the songs in the podcast, but if you would like to listen to the tracks without having to rewind the podcast here they are:

Addicted
Drown
Reckless Heart

Morgan is emotionally honest during our discussion and gives a heartfelt explanation of each song. Since past relationships are the catalyst for the songs she eloquently expresses the emotions she was living through at the time. It’s inspiring to hear her discuss what she’s learned from these past relationships, how she’s adapted and how she continues to press on knowing she’s a greater person for living through these experiences…even the bad ones.

We also tease out her song “Out of Love” which will be released soon. We give just a hint of the song, but oh man…it is so good. Do yourself a favor and follow Morgan on Twitter at @morganstmusic so you know the day it’s released. It’s an amazing song.

Morgan isn’t done with Mindsoak though. She’s agreed to continue contributing essays and I’ll be having her back on the podcast in the future to catch up and hear more of her songs. If you’d like to read Morgan’s first essay make sure to read “Love & Work”. It’s a wonderful read.

I’d also like to give a big thanks to you Morgan. You’ve been more than a pleasure to collaborate with and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to showcase your talent on Mindsoak. I know I’m not running a music website and I appreciate you taking the time to dig deeper into the meaning of the songs and sharing your journey with us. I know it will be inspiring for my listeners and I know I’m better for having the opportunity to work with you. So a big thanks to you.

To learn more about Morgan make sure to follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud and at her website, www.morganstjean.com.

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And she’s back. Sarah K. Stephens returns for another episode of Psychobabble on the Mindsoak Podcast. This marks the second Psychobabble episode and the third time Sarah has come on the podcast to discuss all things psychology, development and parenting.

In this episode we dive in to parenting with online safety in mind and the negative effects of online pornography on healthy sexuality and relationships. Both Sarah and I discuss sexuality with clients and students on a daily basis. You know, because sexuality is a part of everyone’s life. So even though the conversation is about sex, it’s not awkward. Trust me.

Hopefully you will get some new ideas, new tips and an understanding about how to be a more effective parent while working through these issues of online safety and pornography. And remember, Sarah and I definitely have strong opinions about all these topics but they are just opinions. I know this sounds very liability-ish, and it is, but more importantly it’s a reminder that our opinions don’t represent everyone or every situation. If it sounds like some of our opinions won’t work in your family then don’t try them.

Here are some links we reference in the podcast:

Sarah’s essay titled “Why Are We Told There’s One ‘Right’ Kind of Girl?”

Another essay by Sarah titled “Brave New World: Parental Monitoring in the Age of Social Media”.

Sarah references a book by Peggy Orenstein called “Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape”. A must read.

And let me not forget! Sarah’s debut novel, A Flash of Red is set to release on December 13th! Boom!

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