Life 2.0

What happens when genuine transformation meets unchecked power?

Before Tony Robbins filled stadiums, before The Secret became a global phenomenon, before transformation became a multi-billion-dollar industry, there was Erhard Seminars Training (est). And behind est was a young woman who would help build one of the most influential personal development organizations in history—while struggling to find her own authentic voice in the process.

In Sex, Power, and Transformation, Marcia Martin takes you inside the explosive rise of the Human Potential Movement, revealing the untold story of how a small San Francisco seminar exploded into a cultural phenomenon that transformed millions of lives.

Mine included.

The first person that comes to mind every November 1st is the late, great Walter Payton, who passed away on this date in 1999. I had the good fortune of working with "Sweetness" for a few years, and as it turns out, today is also Day of the Dead for millions of people who take this day to remember those they have lost over the years. With tomorrow being All Souls Day, it seemed appropriate to share some names from my life that have gone before me. I've had ten friends since March make their transition, and each of their passings is a reminder of how important not to count the days, but make the days count. David Stoddard's music used by permission.

For most of the year, my dad was a mild-mannered banker, avid bowler, and frustrated architect. But, in October, he transformed himself into "The Count" and used his design skills to build out one of the most popular haunted houses in Chicago for over twenty years. A steady cast of werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, creepy cavemen, and assorted ghouls and goblins waited in the darkness to scare the crap out of people. In this episode, I have an exclusive conversation with one of the "original monsters," Sam "The Mummy" Wright, who drank the tanna leaves and went off in search of victims on Berteau Street back in the day.

Throwback Thursday.

Had occasion yesterday to drive east on Washington St. into the city and found myself in somewhat familiar place as I hit the stop sign on Aberdeen, one block west of Carpenter Street. To my left, what was once Harpo Studios (now McDonald's Corporate Headquarters), and on the south side of the street, is where the studios of Oprah Radio were located, which now appear to be condos.

I have a ton of memories from my years working on the Oprah & Friends Satellite project, and then I remembered what happened just around this time of year back in 2008, when we had an uninvited visitor show up.

It might be one of the most bone-chilling, hair-raising, and unexplained experiences in my life, which was also witnessed by three other people.

 

"Neils Petersen will not be forgotten."

We live in a time when we are virtually closer than ever before, but also further apart from one another. Too much information (TMI) leads to Turbulent Mind Syndrome (TMS) as we cannot possibly assimilate all the headlines begging our attention, that serve one purpose-to kick off our fight or flight response, and drench our central nervous system with stuff we can't do anything about-except rachet up our anger meter and get the blame-thrower out to torch people who disagree with us. I offer a few options that I use to keep me from going over the deep end and forgetting how much of a gift it is to be alive. 

As Buckminster Fuller said, "Our technology is surpassing our humanity."

A little backup from John Denver on this one, and as always, JD's music is used by permission from the Denver Estate.

My journey as a book coach/ghostwriter/publisher has brought me down some interesting paths. Each project brings with it a certain sense of fate, as if the person I'm working with and I have a date with destiny.

Of the dozen or more books I've helped bring into the world, that sense of the unseen hand guiding me to someone was never more apparent than when I met Trudy Gronning in 2015.

She'd grown up in Munich when it was under the rule of Hitler during WWII. She'd witnessed terrible things, endured the death of her beloved father, who was a renowned violinist, and the horrors of The "Night of Shattered Glass," commonly known as Kristallnacht. She battled MS since her mid-20s and was a single mom back when that was a serious liability as a German living in post-war America. 

Trudy's life was a testament to faith and her belief that tomorrow would be better than today.

After two years of work, her book "A Matter of Grace" was published in 2017 when she was 88 years young, and we became very close friends during the process. I was saddend to hear the news that Trudy Gronning has passed away at the age of 96.

This tribute/rememberance episode features audio from some of our most intimate conversations about her incredible life. 

Godspeed my dear friend.

It's one thing to take a lunch break, quite another to drop everything I'm doing to watch "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" for the 438th time. But that's exactly what happened today. But what I didn't know was that apparently, the Gill-Man (as well as all the other favorite movie monsters) is really a metaphor for something else in life. The same goes for the Wizard of Oz, which I will never look at the same way again. All this psychoanalysis aside, if the creature features allow me to be 12 years old for a couple of hours again, that's all I need to know.

I haven't played high school football since Gerald Ford was president, but that really doesn't matter-because today is game day! For the past eleven seasons, a huge huddle of Schurz Bulldogs has gathered once a year to not only have a major all-school reunion called "The Bulldog Bash", but also raise some serious coin for kids who have no idea who we are, or why we support them as we do.

We're paying it back by paying it forward.

On a day when thousands will protest against something without knowing if it will change anything, a few hundred of us will be taking action that we absolutely know will make a world of difference. 

28 years ago today, October 12th, 1997, John Denver's experimental aircraft plunged into the waters of Monterey Bay, and he died at the age of 53. Ever since that day, I've continued to honor the man and his music, and his support of my work, long before I could see it myself. I wasn't planning on doing this podcast, but then early this morning, I remembered that I wouldn't even be behind a microphone without him, and so, here are some songs and stories from JD.

His voice still matters.

Music is used by permission of the John Denver Estate.

Albert Einstein is the gold standard when it comes to being a genius. Is it possible that each of us has an "inner Albert" that remains dormant until something comes along and shakes us up and wakes us up to the possibilities life has to offer? Kenn Hundley (younger brother of the legendary Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley) has had an interesting path to say the least, and he shares the concept that embedded in our DNA, lies the genius gene, that once accessed, can change your life for the better.