Sounds Good with Branden Harvey – Details, episodes & analysis

Sounds Good Season Finale // If you've been looking for a sign to change your life, this is it. As you've probably figured out by now, life isn't a linear line. It's full of ups and downs, uncertainty, and confusion; however, what guides us through is intentionality. That's what illustrator and author Adam J. Kurtz's fourth book, You Are Here (For Now): A Guide to Finding Your Way, tackles. In it are essays and illustrations aimed to help readers with personal transformation — instead of simply living life getting through it day by day, Kurtz wants you to actually enjoy where you are and who you are.

As a best-selling designer, artist, and public speaker (whose work has been featured in the New Yorker, NYLON, and more), Adam has dedicated his whole life to finding the humor, truth, and optimism in being alive. He channels the lessons he's learned through his art and wants you to know that it's all going to be okay. His art and stationary brand has been sold all over the world and he's amassed a big social media following through his work in mental health. In this episode, Adam J. Kurtz talks to us about what purpose really means to him and how we’re never as alone as we feel.


Guest: Adam J. Kurtz, author of You Are Here (For Now): A Guide to Finding Your Way
Order You Are Here (For Now) on Bookshop or Amazon and follow Adam J. Kurtz on Instagram and Twitter


Sponsor: For purpose-driven brands and organizations looking for an agency specializing in collaborative problem solving and expert craftsmanship — learn more about Moon March moonmarch.com.
Sponsor: Listen to the podcast Breaking Glass at breakingglasspodcast.com/good.

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The gap between good intentions and real change is a big one to fill. While many companies are interested in making their workplaces more diverse, it’s not enough to simply want more inclusion. It takes real systemic change to transform any professional setting into an equitable one and many value-driven organizations find themselves stuck at being just short of making real progress. Thankfully, that’s what our next guest is working to solve. Bethaney Wilkinson is the author of The Diversity Gap, a guide to instituting diversity efforts in workplaces.

Bethaney’s lived experience as a Black woman in Georgia has been a driving force in writing The Diversity Gap. She's spent over 10 years working with values-driven organizations to diversify their teams, serve their neighbors, and pursue social change with integrity and authenticity. She’s also the founder of The Diversity Gap Academy, an online learning platform which aims to provide leaders with racial justice education. In this episode, Bethaney shares what racial justice means to her and how people can create an inclusive workplace environment where everyone can feel safe.


Guest: Bethaney Wilkinson, author of The Diversity Gap and founder of the Diversity Gap Academy
Order The Diversity Gap (Amazon) (Bookshop) and visit thediversitygap.com


Sponsor: For purpose-driven brands and organizations looking for an agency specializing in collaborative problem solving and expert craftsmanship — learn more about Moon March moonmarch.com.
Sponsor: Listen to the podcast Breaking Glass at breakingglasspodcast.com/good.


→ Get more Good Good Good at the all-new https://goodgoodgood.co
→ Join 30,000 weekly Goodnewsletter readers at https://goodgoodgood.co/goodnewsletter
→ Become a subscriber and get the Goodnewspaper at https://goodgoodgood.co/subscribe

Growing — whether in our personal or professional lives — requires change. But change can be terrifying, no matter what stage in your life you’re at. Fortunately, there are people who can help us deal with change — and show us how it can transform our lives and the communities around us.

Josh Chambers has done it all. Prior to being an entrepreneur and the founder of the Moon March agency, he was an aid worker, an advertising executive, and a professional athlete. Now, with his agency, he helps people navigate change — and he helps businesses do good by helping them to their fullest potential.

Whether he’s helping brands show what they do best through thoughtfully executed campaigns or helping business owners grow into their brand identity, Josh sets an example of how to make change work in our favor. No matter how scary, change can be an opportunity for growth and thanks to his decades of experience, Josh is able to share exactly how that mindset has benefited him and others.

This is a bonus episode!


Guest: Josh Chambers, CEO of Moon March
If you’re looking for an agency that builds and designs brands and campaigns for good, check out MoonMarch.com.
If you want to learn more about navigating change and coaching, visit JoshChambers.com.
And if you feel like you’re ready to make a change and sign up for coaching, you can email Josh at [email protected].


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Award-winning writer Esmé Wang knows from personal experience how tough it is to be ambitious and deal with limitation. She is a woman who lives with chronic illness, including late-stage Lyme disease and schizoaffective disorder. She believes that just because one lives with limitations — whether they be caregiving responsibilities, disability, chronic illness, or any other life circumstance that cause you to feel fenced in, doesn’t mean a person can’t leave a legacy of creative resilience.

Esmé Weijun Wang is a novelist and essayist. Her debut novel, The Border of Paradise, was called a Best Book of 2016 by NPR and one of the 25 Best Novels of 2016 by Electric Literature. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best of  Young American Novelists” in 2017, and is the recipient of the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize for her forthcoming essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias. In her blog, The Unexpected Shape, she provides resources that assist ambitious people who live with limitations

In this conversation, Branden and Esmé tackle the question of why people living with illness need both the practice and living-out of resilience in their daily lives — and how boundaries laid out in life’s game can make things more interesting.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/esme

Becca Stevens is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, founder and president of Thistle Farms. After experiencing the death of her father and subsequent child abuse when she was 5, Becca longed to open a sanctuary for survivors offering a loving community. In 1997, five women who had experienced trafficking, violence, and addiction were welcomed home.

20 years later, Thistle Farms continues to welcome women with free residence that provide housing, medical care, therapy and education for two years. Residents and graduates earn income through one of four social enterprises. Becca has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC World News and NPR, was recently named a 2016 CNN Hero and a White House “Champion of Change" in 2011. Her newest book, Love Heals, was published in 2017.

In this conversation, Branden and Becca go deep into the shared humanity, peace and harmony that we all long for — and ultimately, how to create the time and space for healing to happen.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/becca

What if our deepest fears are shining guideposts, lighting the way to what we truly want in life? Instead of pushing them aside, what happens if we begin listening to our fears—and allow them to lead us bravely into the unknown?

Author and illustrator Meera Lee Patel has taken the big, scary concept of fear and crafted a personal, yet universal love letter to it in her newest book My Friend Fear: Finding Magic in the Unknown. Using her own experience with anxiety, Patel help readers examines fear — where it comes from, how it can hold you back, and how it can be harnessed into a power for good.

In this Sounds Good conversation, Branden and Meera go deep into the difference between leading lives that are driven by curiosity or security — and the power of changing the story that your fear tells you.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/meera

We are so much more than our bodies or anyone’s opinion of it. We have too much to offer and too much important work to do to spend time worrying about catching up to society’s standards that all-too-often silence our self-assuredness.

Dana Falsetti is an advocate for women who want to find the confidence to live life more fully. Originally known for her strength in yoga, Dana now uses her platform to inspire critical thinking, self-awareness, and confidence across multiple media including her podcast, public speaking engagements, writing, and brand partnerships — in addition to her international yoga workshops.

She has been featured in print and online publications including but not limited to: Seventeen, People, Shape, Upworthy, Mantra, NY Magazine.. In addition, she was the 2017 Shorty Award winner in the Health and Wellness category.

In this conversation, Branden and Dana dive deep into the need for us all to come home to ourselves — and eventually, showing up in the world exactly who we are and lifting the collective consciousness.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/dana

Author, speaker, and life coach Natalie Norton’s life has been put through the ringer. She is no stranger to pain. Tragedy began with the unexpected death of her younger brother in 2007. After this event, her life slowly unraveled over the next few years with the death of her youngest son, a failed adoption of 3 beautiful children who had been living in Natalie’s home for 2 years when the state unexpectedly reunified them with their biological mother. Furthermore, a sudden ‘brain surge’/seizure left Natalie unable to communicate, remember her own name or identify her children as her own. Most recently, her 11 year old son was struck by a a compact SUV while crossing the street — leaving him no option but to spend a month in the ICU. Today, his recovery is still ongoing.

This unbelievably painful sequence of events is a mapping of Natalie’s life that, miraculously, has lead her to conclude that it’s worth sticking around for the miracle.

In this conversation, Branden and Natalie delve deep into the truth of why a personal commitment to passion and drive changes everything and the idea that our lives are meant to be so much more than the pain inside of it.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/natalie

Today, there are good reasons to doubt the effectiveness of many elements of conventional activism—oftentimes marked by aggression, extreme extroversion and violence. Award-winning campaigner Sarah Corbett started looking for alternatives that appealed to the introvert, namely, craftivism. Sarah’s gentle protest approach to craftivism aims to change the world with deliberate, thoughtful actions that provoke reflection and respectful conversation instead of aggression and division.

She’s a world-traveling storyteller, has given several TEDx Talks and wrote A Little Book of Craftivism which was published in 2013, and How To Be A Craftivist, published in 2017. Also notable to mention, Malala has attended one of her workshops.

In this conversation, Branden and Sarah chat about how craftivism can be for everyone. From skilled crafters to burnt out activists, gentle protest can be for those people who want to challenge injustice in the world but don’t know what to do, where to start or how to prioritize their energies and time.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/sarahcorbett

Our ability to empathize, belong and love rests on our willingness to be vulnerable. In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen.

Jenna Kutcher is passionate about showing something deeper than perfect online. She’s a small-town Wisconsin girl who has single-handedly built a six-figure income photography business, fostered a massive social media following and currently hosts and produces the podcast “The Goal Digger Podcast” where she uses her platform to share the deepest parts of herself with intention.

In this conversation, Branden and Jenna go beneath the surface of her story — her journey of how she sees herself, her second miscarriage and the what no one told her about working for yourself.

More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/jenna