How do we navigate the complexities of our lives with resilience and purpose in a world filled with uncertainty and constant change? --- Today I take a short journey (11 minutes) into the depths of personal responsibility, societal challenges and the delicate balance between self-care and helping others. --- Have you ever found yourself grappling w…

I've been running this podcast now since 2017. It's been a fundamental catalyst in my own journey of self-expression and clarity of purpose. I did not know it was going to happen, I just started because it felt right and because deep down I knew I needed to do something to get what was in my head out. The original premise of the show was about unco…

The Journey of Men is a lonely one, even if we find ourselves surrounded by those we love. We are expected to carry the weight of life on our shoulders and be the rock everyone around us can lean on. I embrace that role whole heartedly. I strive to be the best man I can be for my son, for my daughter and for my wife. But embracing that role comes w…

You've invested 10,20,30 years into your profession and now you're standing there with an open calendar and a decision to make. There is a feeling of anticipation. The excitement for what's possible. The weight of previous responsibilities have lifted from your shoulders and this new found space to move and roam leaves you with a new focus. The sea…

If you find yourself at a cross roads of your life, whether its exploring retirement or transitioning into a new career or life focus, this message is for you. I never thought this idea of planning for retirement was a thing I needed to think about with any measure of intensity. But as I reflect on the last 15 years of my life, I am present to just…

Last week I came across a fantastically contagious individual I didn't know I needed to hear, until I did. Truth be told, that while I was hopeful that the masterclass would reveal some unknowns to me as it relates to the world of speaking on stage, I wasn't expecting much. The inner critic was busy being critical. And thankfully the inner creative…

Last year I had an interesting journey with my professional career and with my relationship to creativity. In some ways I really felt lost, a bit defeated and unsure of myself or my abilities to make decisions. It had me start to question why I even bother pursuing this idea of living a creative life. Wondering often, what that even means. I needed…

In this Musing Moment episode, I share my journey of navigating the delicate balance between creativity and practicality. Writing down my realizations and discoveries has been a game-changer, helping me connect the dots in unexpected ways. Today's conversation is all about harmonizing creativity with the need to follow through. It's a challenge man…

Welcome! I have a new curiosity I am exploring, for the next little while I will be speaking about the often misunderstood world of rituals. This came about when I sat down and had a conversation with Tanya from Body Art Motion and Jai from Zephrym about the upcoming art and performance showcase they're hosting called Ritual Arts. It's a little iro…

What happens when good intentions lead us down unpredictable paths? In today’s musing moment, a loss of a beloved 🐾 feline friend and a surprise adoption 🐱❤️ highlights the powerful connection between logic and passion.Av David Schmeikal

🎨 The Balancing Act: Control & Integrity 🌟 Humans seek freedom in their work, but often feel paralyzed. This stems from the interplay between control and integrity. 💡 Control: The Power to Influence Stability & Predictability Efficiency & Flexibility 🔍 Integrity: Honesty & Authenticity Authenticity & Connection Longevity & Meaning Finding balance c…

Picture this, you’re having a stroke The left side of your brain is turning off You’re leaving the linear external world Your identity is gone Your ability to communicate is gone All your past memories and your future aspirations, 3/4 of what defines you as a human being poof! And for 8 years you navigate pure bliss, free of morality, judgement and…

Some say we're spending about 82hrs per week consuming and collecting information. That's a staggering 69% of our waking hours. So many great ideas, yet so much missed meaning. So many really impactful moments I promised myself I would hold onto to be able to look back on, only to have it slip through my fingers. Not because it was no longer releva…

If the objective is to live your life by your design, then you should consider asking yourself this question:Who do you want to be known as, and who do you know yourself to be?Av David Schmeikal

As an artist, I think the biggest opportunity for you and for me is to learn how to tell our story. To reveal who we really are The experiences we've gone through The struggles that have defined us and the awareness, or confusion that's brought. The seeds of doubt that have settled in The influences that directed our focus, the deeper restlessness …

You say you're open, but you're really not.You're excited to share, but won't dare get caught.You've made discoveries, but stick with the familiar.what's true for you is not always aligned with your actions.As creatives, the opportunity for you is to lean in and put yourselves, your thoughts and your work out there for more people to interact with.…

To live a finite life in an infinite world... Defining who we are, what we do and the contribution we seek to provide in a constantly shifting world is a hard question to get absolutely clarity on because we ourselves are constantly evolving and changing. New discoveries, new priorities and new curiosities leave yesterday’s clarifying moment a dist…

To Matt Haloran, we are 99.99% alike, we are all more than friends and acquaintances, we are family. Having come from humble beginnings, Matt has been everyone, from a therapist, to a life coach, to a successful entrepreneur yet, what makes him the most successful it is his ability to listen deeply and discover what is so unique about you; in order…

How can the right leadership navigate the recent, and history repeated, events in order to continue moving forward? There really is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ leadership; just misled leaders. Leading and navigating with your team is a process that grows with the amount of obstacles you face and overcome. Trust in an organization and in the public, as we…

The future. We all have one. The big difference lives between those who spend the time to create one to work towards instead of being at the effect of other people's ideas of how the future should go. A vision gives us passion, drive and direction. Living in anticipation of a compelling future is a life worth living, as everything we do supports us…

How can leaders make a bigger difference in their employees lives? Should leaders be quiet in the shadows and notice what is going on in order to empower whom they are leading? As Leaders, we need to lead by example. If your employees don’t see you living, breathing and acting on your vision; it is not effective, and it’s not empowering. It all rev…

Who Do You Need To Be To Build Resilience For The Future Maya and I talk about the last quarter. The projects we were working on and the lessons they presented. The gapple with trying to get it right, the power of just going with the flow and the benefit of implementing custom systems and structures that supports (not constraints) creativity. I kno…

The game of entrepreneurship keeps you driven and hungry. Busy building and doing, and rarely with a clear plan. At the beginning that's a good thing! What better environment to figure things out but rolling up your sleeves and digging in. While there is always a part of us that wished we would have had MORE support, insight, awareness, mentorship.…

Are you actually making progress in the area of building real equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace?A great, simple measure to use in your own organization's progress is to ask a simple question: Are you comfortable or not?If you’re not stretching or expanding to address this within your companyThen it's likely you’re not making enough p…

What do you do to keep going? How do you avoid the trap of quick money and the long term cost of taking shortcuts now? How do you keep your people happy and your business profitable as you grind away while at the same time work to create something meaningful for everyone involved? Join me as I speak with Erik Hytonen as he shares his journey. Like …

I have a cat in heat for a second time (back to back with a very short, 2 week buffer). If you’ve experienced this before, you will understand. If you haven’t, you’ve been warned. And be ready to accept responsibility for how it’s going to go. How aware are you of those nagging voices that are constantly crying out? Constantly demanding attention, …

Financial Advisors...They have a direct impact on the livelihoods, future life experiences, and overall emotional wellbeing of their clients. Unfortunately, the financial industry as a whole has taken some big hits in the trust space. And it’s brought a level of caution with how we proceed going forward. Never mind bringing people together around a…

What do you do with an empty concrete canvas that has 12 decades of history weaved through it? How do keep small businesses viable in the shadow of corporate giants? How do you break down years of status quo as you re-create and reconnect a community back to its electric roots at the same time embracing what's next? Adrian Urlacher, Amanda Weightma…

My guest today has a unique lens to the world of being human and doing business. His name is Jayson Lowe, CEO of Ascendant Financial. He will be the first to admit that it is because of the mentorship and leadership of others that has gotten him to where he’s at in his life. And while he could never articulate the gratitude that’s necessary to hono…

A friend shared something really personal last week. She did a great job of leading the charge on how to embrace your vulnerable human side powerfully. She got real and raw and it was needed. Not just for her to do but for the reminder that it provided us. Namely how important it is to have a community of people around you, holding you up when you …

Today on E3 we share about: My last speaking gig at i4 and some of the elevated self-awareness that showed up. Zoom calls! Talking heads is now the new normal and how do we ensure we don’t get too comfortable in it. Multitasking vs focused effort. The building blocks that are helping us set stronger foundations for our businesses and our family The…

In today's episode we talk about: Physical wellbeing The practice of doing nothing The process of going from good to great (and being ok with sucking during the process) When ego shows up as you work towards your aspirational goals for the future Doing what you love doing, and having it become a viable business Finding your tribe ___________ Maya a…

Maya and David have been in business together for as long as they’ve been married. They are into their 13th year, have been through 6 iterations of their businesses to date, are proud parents of twin 9 year olds (which they’ve now homeschooling in our “new normal”). They share what it’s taken to keep their relationship just as much a priority as th…

What a shit show. Your life as you remember it is no longer as it was. And likely never will be. What are you doing to be ready for the next chapter of your story? How prepared are you?What are you doing to grow and expand yourself?How are you taking on the inner critic that is there, right on queue to tell you how much you suck, that what you’re d…

In this episode, Maya and Leah talk about their "crazy" summer stories before heading to High School. Enjoy!!! Cheers, Maya and Leah --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maya269/message

On today's episode, Alison Masniuk, a Calgary based digital content strategist and I have dig into where she's at with her career. What's working and what's not. Your life is a game. The game is to become better than you of yesterday. In the beginning, you will not be extraordinary, and that is ok. Excellence, mastery, confidence, certainty are all…

You have a choice. Every day you encounter a myriad of choices, some that you are aware of, others that you are not. All of which take you down an inevitably predictable path. The actions you take outline the past, define your present, and determine your future. Everywhere you look you'll find exactly what you are looking for. Read that one more ti…

Sometimes life gets hard. Bad things happen to good people. We all have our own version of something terrible that has happened to us or around us and whether we like it or not it shapes who we are. Overcoming the trials and tribulations in life isn't just something that happens, it's something that we need to drive us forward and push us to greate…

Just like everything else on this beautiful planet we call earth, Racism has undergone an evolution of sorts. There is a lot to be said about the leaps and bounds we have taken as a collective species. Most of our spiritual enlightenment has occurred in the last 100 years so we are still young in the grand scheme of things. It's important to bear i…

Have you ever felt like you didn't see something that other people could? We know what we know, and we know what we don't know. But how do you know what you don't know? There is more to life than meets the eye and being present to it can focus your self-development. Acknowledging that there is more out there than you can comprehend means you have a…

Running a creative agency or studio? You may be full of crap. ----more---- Still with me? Great! You might be ready for real change then. Here’s the thing... Most of us are really frightened to say when things aren’t working. And this goes for any business owner. As creatives, we fool ourselves into thinking we just need to do a little more and cre…

This weekends episode touches on 2 things 1. Your inaction in what you want in life 2. The chaos that is the COVID-19 and just how deeply it's impacting everyone and what the opportunity might actually be if you're open to it hearing. And if you need someone to chat with please reach out. sayhi@thegyst.life…

How many times have you said to yourself, once I have "x" I'll be ready and you've either not done the work to get "x" or you have "x" and now your reason for not taking the action you said you wanted to take is because now you need "y"? Ya...been there. Many times. Like us talking about live streaming for about 1 year now... This is us taking the …

Happiness is not something to chase, It just comes If you’re willing to play. It’s a long game that requires patience and a whole lot of commitment. Nothing is certain despite our best efforts to guide and direct it and happiness and living your life your way, while available to everyone is not something we’ll all achieve because we get caught up i…

en·ti·tled “believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.” Ever get that feeling that we should have a thing just because? Despite having done little to no work that would begin the process of having it show up? Thinking that we are, in some capacity owed that which we do not have yet? And we spend a shit ton of t…

What’s the formula for living your best life on your terms? There’s no tried and true method. And it’s different for everyone. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from hearing how others are navigating that process. And that’s what this podcast series is about. Over drinks Jay and I have a chat about his journey of human being in this world. Shou…

Today we get into a topic as pervasive as the very air we breathe - social programming. We do the best we can with the resources we have available to us. What is easy to forget is that we’re all connected. You, your kids, your parents, grandparents and great grandparents. And we’re all working through and dealing with a hangover of their upbringing…

Who controls the flow of money in your life? What do you know about commercial banking vs private banking? Yes, that’s a thing. When it comes to managing money, we are always taught to go to someone else. You want to invest, go see a stockbroker or mutual fund advisor, you need money? Go borrow from a Bank. One of my mentors, R. Nelson Nash says th…

You know you’re on your path to purpose if you’re enjoying it. If you’re not, keep opening different doors. This path to purpose is one that Laurie has been on for a long time and when she asks herself if she’s found her purpose yet, she is reminded of the fact that for her she really enjoys taking the meandering path of getting somewhere. Whether …

Perspective. What’s yours and how do you share it? Sometimes that’s all it takes for another person to see something they’ve never seen before and completely changes how we view the world and our place in it. The funny thing about that perspective is that it was always there, the only thing that changed was your ability to see it. Everyone has a ba…