Dream Big Podcast

Born and raised in Caracas-Venezuela, Michelle Poler is a creative and passionate social entrepreneur, keynote speaker, fear-facer, and branding strategist.   Michelle was not always a fear-facer. In fact, as a child and young adult, Michelle avoided all her fears and did everything in her power to never step foot outside of her comfort zone.   In this podcast episode, Michelle shares how an assignment she received in graduate school changed her life forever. Indeed, Michelle has become so passionate about encouraging others to face their fears that she founded Hello Fears, a social movement that has reached over 70 million people worldwide and has empowered thousands to step outside of their comfort zone and tap into their full potential. For our show notes, visit DreamBigPodcast.com/ 159

Towards the tail end of summer, Eva told Alex and I that she wanted to run for student council representative for her class.  Only 2 students are selected per classroom (and last year over 10 had run!), so she asked if we had any tips on how to persuade her classmates to vote for her.    We came up with a 3-part strategy, and we’re happy to share that she was elected so the strategy worked! In this episode, Eva shares her top 3 secrets on (1) what she in the weeks before the election (likely the most important key to her victory); (2) what she did on the day of the election, including some great tips on what she said during her speech and why that was so effective; and (3) what she has done after the election.   This is a great episode of any young Big Dreamer who hopes to run for student council one day, and there are important lessons for anyone who is interested in being a leader and gaining the support of your peers. For show notes, please visit DreamBigPodcast.com/158

Eva typically works super hard to secure guests for the podcast.  We research guests, film personalized invite videos, diligently follow-up -- but every so often we hit the lottery and the opportunity for Eva to interview an amazing guest falls right in our laps.   In this case, we received an email introduction from Humble The Poet (guest in Episode 146) connecting us with his friend Neil Parishca. In addition to being Humble’s friend, Neil also happens to be the New York Times bestselling author of five books, including The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation, which together have spent over 200 weeks on bestseller lists and have sold over 1,000,000 copies. He hosts the Apple 'Best of 2018' award-winning podcast 3 Books with Neil Pasricha, which features live conversations with guests such as Malcolm Gladwell, Judy Blume, David Sedaris, and Chris Anderson of TED. He gives over fifty speeches a year to audiences such as Royal Families in the Middle East, SXSW, and Shopify. Prior to his current work, Neil completed his MBA from Harvard Business School and spent a decade as Director of Leadership at Walmart.  For our show notes, visit DreamBigPodcast.com/ 157

Last December, we were invited by our dear friends Jackie and Chris to spend the weekend at their cabin in Lake Arrowhead.  The highlight of the weekend for Eva was riding her own go-kart for the very first time. There is a go-kart track in Lake Arrowhead Village, and Eva had just barely made the height requirement and was permitted to ride on her own.   We were graciously invited again to join Jackie and Chirs this summer, so right away Eva asked if we could ride go-karts again. When we arrived at the track, the cashier told Eva she could not ride because she was not tall enough. Eva was understandably upset -- given that 8 months ago she had been allowed to ride so she had not even entertained the possibility that this would happen.  In this episode, Eva shares two very important lessons with our Big Dreamers about how she responded to this “NO” -- and how she ultimately was able to get a “YES” and once again make riding go-karts a highlight of the weekend. This is a powerful episode because Eva could have easily let that “NO” ruin her day, and perhaps the entire weekend. For show notes, please visit DreamBigPodcast.com/156

This is Alex, Eva’s dad, writing.  Last month, I took Eva on a daddy-daughter date to Dodger stadium.   Eva had been asking to go to a Dodgers game for some time now -- and I finally got the tickets and put it on the calendar.  I turned out to be an incredible evening -- filled with memories that she and I will never forget. I always knew that Eva was a powerful young lady -- so I guess it should not have been a surprise that minutes after telling me it would be amazing to come home with a foul ball -- she indeed had a foul ball in her hands.    I have many friends who have been to hundreds of games and have yet to catch a foul ball, and Eva got one at her very first game! As Eva shares in the episode, the whole day and evening was magical, and Eva shares a powerful lesson that I’m sure both kids and adults could hear about how to make your experiences in life magical -- even when it is not your very 1st Dodger game :)   Enjoy!