RadReaders!!!! I’m excited to announce FWD: Thinking, Quartz at Work’s new podcast about bold individuals who have challenged the status quo to create meaningful careers. Most of us in the workforce have felt that itch, that yearning to do something different at one point or another. But then come the inevitable questions: What would I do? Do I have the skills? Is it risky? Learn the playbooks and strategies to drive your own career reinvention.

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Our first guest Tiago Forte returns to close out the first season of Rad Awakenings. Tiago’s the founder of Forte Labs, an education company focused on productivity and learning. He believes that technology has fundamentally changed the way we work – as entrepreneurs or as knowledge workers. With new multi-billion dollar industries being created each year, there are countless opportunities to create new “lanes” of expertise and ultimately “product-ize” that knowledge. This is a pragmatic conversation where he breaks down how to identify these new pockets of opportunity, become a full-stack freelancer, and create a distributed digital company – all because sharing knowledge is one of life’s greatest privileges.

+ SHOW NOTES: https://radreads.co/tiago-forte3/

+ THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR:

Does your life insurance policy match your life circumstances? Whether you’re newlyweds, new parents, or new entrepreneurs, Cambridge will work with you to protect what matters most: your family. As an independent broker, Cambridge always represents the client’s best interest, not the insurance companies’.  Contact Cambridge for a complimentary assessment on personal or life insurance planning.

+ SUBSCRIBE TO RADREADS: http://radreads.com/subscribe

April Rinne cannot be described with simple labels. She helps companies, policy makers, and non-profits navigate the new economy. She’s a global citizen, having visited over 100 countries in her lifetime and a “career portfolioist.” And while she works for herself, don’t for a second think that this limits the scope of her work: she’s a strategist, start-up advisor, and a World Economic Forum Young Leader who’s unafraid to tackle thorny questions. April’s life has been deeply influenced by her parents who died in a car accident when she was in her 20s. She lives their values of gratitude, adventure, and financial autonomy by constantly reinventing herself and her career and blazing her own trail each and every day.

+ SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/april-rinne

+ SUBSCRIBE: http://rad.family/subscribe

Sergio Brown played high school basketball with Derrick Rose, was coached by Bill Belichick in the NFL, has two degrees, and has worked at Google. Despite barely playing football in high school, Sergio learned the ins and outs of the game at Norte Dame and ultimately joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent. We discuss his 8 year career in the NFL, the glamor of game day, the physical toll on his body and the transitory life bouncing from team to team. And on current NFL issues, he shares his thoughts on kneeling during the anthem and if he’d let his future son play because of concussions. But an NFL career can only last so long, imagine the loss of identity when you go from being an NFL player to a former NFL player. So with his body pretty much intact, he started his next act, at Google.

+ SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/sergio-brown

+ JOIN THE RAD COMMUNITY: http://rad.family/subscribe

Corporate jobs and Sarah Peck do not mesh well – being slouched in front of a laptop under fluorescent lighting isn’t her idea of a career. Sarah’s mantra has always been: You don’t have to do things the way they’re always done. To give herself career options, she started a blog as a side hustle and within 3 years it was generating $30k. That, in combination with a minimalist lifestyle gave her the confidence to quit. Her career is now “a collection of projects” – she’s a writer, a startup advisor, yoga teacher and podcast host. She shares a DIY playbook to create, market, and sell digital products and her thoughts on credentialing and expertise in the digital age. We look at the work required to achieve diversity both in our networks and our ideas, and what her podcast, Startup Pregnant, can teach us about productivity, prioritization, and professional growth from bad ass new moms who are also entrepreneurs.

+ SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/sarah-peck

+ JOIN THE RAD COMMUNITY: http://rad.family/subscribe

Scott Norton is your prototypical millennial – a tinkerer with a creative and entrepreneurial streak . There’s a narrative that the financial crisis crushed economic mobility for an entire generation of Millennials – in fact, Scott’s first job was at Lehman Brothers in 2008. Yet for Scott, the crisis catalyzed a trip around Asia on a foldable bike spanning 23 countries and 100 cities. Upon his return he co-founded Sir Kensington’s, challenging the consumer goods “complex” of ketchup and mayonnaise. We explore mission-driven businesses – are they marketing hype or changing the world? Regardless, big business has taken to the idea; last year Unilever acquired them for a pretty penny. Scott’s got the belt notches: he’s a touch above 30 with a spectacular exit.  How does this change someone? For sure, it takes failure off the table. But contentment, being present with loved ones, a quiet mind, and yes – even freedom – don’t appear overnight and can remain viscerally elusive.

+ THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR:

Does your life insurance policy match your life circumstances? Whether you’re newlyweds, new parents, or new entrepreneurs, Cambridge will work with you to protect what matters most: your family. As an independent broker, Cambridge always represents the client’s best interest, not the insurance companies’.  Contact Cambridge for a complimentary assessment on personal or life insurance planning.

+ SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/scott-norton

+ SUPPORT THE PODCAST: http://patreon.com/radreads

What can data tell us about our own humanity? Giorgia Lupi is an information designer, artist and author with a love for creatively representing all types of data. She’s the co-founder of the design firm Accurat and few years ago, embarked on a small creative project with a friend. Every week they tracked a feeling, behavior, or event and then hand drew a postcard visualizing the observations. These post cards are delightful and were aggregated in a book called Dear Data and last year were acquired into MoMA’s permanent collection. Yet, even with this milestone contentment felt so elusive. Dear Data revealed that tracking the “mundane details” of our lives has the unintended consequence of putting us more in touch with our thoughts; forcing us to hit “pause” on our frenetic lives. And at the end, Giorgia shares a simple way for all of us to set up a small data project on our own lives.

+ THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR:

Does your life insurance policy match your life circumstances? Whether you’re newlyweds, new parents, or new entrepreneurs, Cambridge will work with you to protect what matters most: your family. As an independent broker, Cambridge always represents the client’s best interest, not the insurance companies’.  Contact Cambridge for a complimentary assessment on personal or life insurance planning.

+ SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/giorgia-lupi

+ SUPPORT THE PODCAST: http://patreon.com/radreads

Chris Schumacher was a hard partying Californian who dealt weed to support his lifestyle. Then one day a suitcase of drugs disappeared – and his life was forever changed. In the mix of rage over the stolen drugs and fear of the consequences, Chris took a man’s life and was sentenced to 16-to-life. Chris walked into “The Yard,” navigated the gangs, racial tensions, and the unwritten rules all while knowing that as a “lifer” there’s a good chance he was never getting out. Chris committed to taking responsibility, getting sober, and preparing himself, just in case, he was given a second chance. He got a college degree and joined a program from The Last Mile where he learned software engineering and developed the Fitness Monkey app. In 2017, after serving 17 years, a parole board granted him his freedom. We discuss his re-entry into society, how he explains his dating status on Tinder, what he’d tell naysayers who don’t believe in second chances, and what he misses most about jail.

+ SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/chris-schumacher

+ LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to self-exploration but don’t know how to begin, the Rad Family has got you covered. We’ve handpicked a group of talented coaches over at http://rad.family/coaching.

What’s happening in our brains as we mindlessly scroll social media? Or worse, when we angrily retweet posts from our tribe. Molly Crockett is an assistant psychology professor at Yale University, where she integrates classic social psychology with neuroscience. She explains how our brain’s reward system works and how this ties to digital moral outrage. Does outrage serve an evolutionary purpose? What are the social costs and incentives to the outraged individual? And what about the opposite, humble bragging and virtue signaling? Molly also shares how she applies her insights to lead a more focused and productive life.

+ SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/molly-crockett

+ LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to self-exploration but don’t know how to begin, the Rad Family has got you covered. We’ve handpicked a group of talented coaches over at http://rad.family/coaching.

Adam Schwartz is the co-founder and COO of TeePublic an e-commerce platform for independent creators. TeePublic is a high growth company with 50+ employees yet is completely self-funded. Is it a lifestyle business? We explore the negative connotation of the term and how it translates into constraints, profitability, and the “life” part of lifestyle. One thing’s for sure, irrespective of the name, entrepreneurs have very little mindspace for anything but their companies. And therein lies some of Adam’s anxiety around becoming a new father. How does one make room for a new person, when life and work are already all consuming? And consistent with the RadReads ethos, it comes down to the repeated topics of time scarcity, financial security, achievement and how this all ties into our sense of self worth.

+ SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/adam-schwartz

+ LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to self-exploration but don’t know how to begin, the Rad Family has got you covered. We’ve handpicked a group of talented coaches over at http://rad.family/coaching.