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Coming up next on Passion Struck.
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There s no logical reason why an obstacle course show should work in prime time on NBC, American Ninja Warrior.
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It doesn t make any sense if you look at it as an obstacle course show, but it s so much more than that.
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But it s really about the people who run.
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We celebrate the attempt.
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That s the only athletic competition where the athletes root for each other.
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It s the only athletic competition where we usually don t have a winner in the end.
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There s only been two times in the 14 previous seasons where we ve had people actually climb the four stages of Mount Midoriyama and win a million dollars.
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It s only happened twice.
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It s the only athletic event where men and women compete on the same course.
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There s no handicaps.
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There s this really lovely community that s around the sport.
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If you ve watched the show,
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And John, I know you have.
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Thank you for watching.
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It s really about the people who run.
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It s about their story.
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We tell their stories.
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You re so vested in who they are.
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Welcome to Passion Struck.
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Hi, I m your host, John R. Miles.
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And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips and guidance of the world s most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you.
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Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself.
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If you re new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays.
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We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes.
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Now, let s go out there and become passion struck.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 348 of PassionStruck, ranked consistently by Apple as one of the top 10 most popular health podcasts and the number one alternative health podcast.
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And thank you to all of you who come back to the show weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be better, and impact the world.
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PassionStruck is on syndicated radio on the Brushwood Media Network.
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You can catch us Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 p.m.
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Eastern Time on Apple Music TuneIn, or wherever you listen to your music.
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If you re new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, we have episode starter packs, which are collections of our fans  favorite episodes that we organize, and we convene topics that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything that we do here on the show.
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Either go to Spotify or passionstruck.com slash starter packs to get started.
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In case you missed it, earlier in the week, I interviewed Dr. Neha Sangwan, a CEO, physician, engineer, and communications specialist.
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She is the author of the upcoming book, Powered by Me, where she uncovers the profound effects of unhealed trauma on burnout and empowers individuals to discover what truly energizes them and provides greater purpose in life.
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I also wanted to say thank you so much for your ratings and reviews.
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If you loved today s episode, or the other one that I mentioned, we would appreciate you giving it a five-star review and sharing it with your friends and families.
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I know we and our guests love to see comments from our listeners.
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In today s episode, I have the privilege of sitting down with a true pioneer in the world of non-fiction television, Arthur Smith.
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As chairman of A. Smith & Co.
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Productions, Arthur has left an indelible mark on the industry.
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Producing some of the longest-running unscripted series in television history, including the iconic Hell s Kitchen and the cultural phenomenon American Ninja Warrior.
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Honored as one of variety s titans of unscripted TV, inducted into the Real Screen Awards Hall of Fame, and awarded Producer of the Year by Broadcasting and Cable, Smith s career trajectory has been nothing short of extraordinary.
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From his early days as a 22-year-old wonder kid breaking into sports production at CBC in Canada to becoming the youngest ever head of CBC Sports and later revolutionizing sports television at Fox Sportsnet, Arthur s journey has been defined by innovation and audacity.
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In his latest book, Reach, Arthur takes us on a thrilling ride behind the scenes, sharing adventures, triumphs, and hard-won lessons from his astonishing career.
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From rubbing shoulders with television icon Dick Clark in Hollywood to collaborating with Dwayne The Rock Johnson on the Titan Games,
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Arthur s stories are a testament to the power of hard work, taking risks, and reaching for your dreams.
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From his remarkable experiences, Arthur shares profound insights in designing a life that is both purposeful and meaningful, unveiling the secret behind creating intentional life storylines where dreams and goals merge seamlessly to create a compelling narrative that guides our journey.
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drawing parallels between casting for television shows and surrounding ourselves with the right people in our life, those who uplift, inspire, and support us.
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Peering into the future, Arthur envisions the unfolding chapters of intentional living and the transformative power it can bring.
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Taking us behind the scenes of his life, Arthur opens up about the high-intensity moments that defined his personal and professional growth.
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Throughout his illustrious career, Arthur has collaborated with a diverse array of iconic figures, including Marlon Brando, Gordon Ramsay, Magic Johnson, Little Richard, Wayne Gretzky, Simon Cowell, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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From these unique encounters, he imparts invaluable wisdom and memorable stories that resonate deeply with aspiring dreamers.
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So get ready to immerse yourself in the art of intentional storytelling.
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Let s welcome the visionary Arthur Smith to the Passionstruck podcast.
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Thank you for choosing Passionstruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.
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Now, let that journey begin.
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I am so absolutely honored and thrilled to have Arthur Smith on Passionstruck.
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Welcome, Arthur.
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Well, thank you, John.
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Great to be here.
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I always like to open these episodes up by trying to give the audience some background on you.
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In your case, your upbringing and the values instilled in you by your parents played a pivotal role in shaping the person you are today.
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The foundation they provided for you is evident in your pursuit of reaching, and we re going to be talking about your brand new book, Reach, beyond your expectations.
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How do you believe your strong Jewish values, and we were just talking about values before we get on the show, emphasis on doing the right thing and gratitude have influenced your approach to intentional living?
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Yeah, the book and my belief is the more you try, the luckier you get.
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I believe we make our good fortune.
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I believe when we reach, we find out what we re capable of, but it s much easier to reach when you re reaching from a strong foundation.
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And that foundation was my parents.
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I talk about the analogy of when you re,
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standing on a sturdy table and you re trying to change a light bulb, it s much easier than standing on a wobbly table.
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And for me, like I said, that foundation was my parents.
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And not everybody is blessed with great parents.
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I was.
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And it doesn t mean you re doomed if you don t have great parents.
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You just got to find a way to build a foundation with family and friends or
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and your relationships.
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My dad, who s the greatest man I ll ever know, his saying, one of the sayings that sticks with me is that it s never the wrong time to do the right thing, and it s never the right time to do the wrong thing.
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And that was the code that I was brought up with.
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And my mom was all about pushing, all about going for your dreams and never giving up.
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Even though they didn t understand the entertainment business when I decided to go that route, they knew it was something I was believing.
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Of course, they had some concerns.
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I grew up in Montreal, no connection to the entertainment business whatsoever, but they believed in me.
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And I believe if you make a child feel special,
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they may actually believe it.
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And that s what they did for me.
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And I grew up as a very shy kid, very shy.
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And I had a turning point in my life.
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And I talk about in the book, something happened to me when I was nine years old, that changed the course of my life.
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And it was a situation where I was forced to put myself out there and reach, I had no choice but to reach.
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And subconsciously it stuck with me because at nine years old, you don t realize these things are happening to you.
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And that kind of changed the course of my life.
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And when I trace my life and every reach that I ve done over my career.
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It all comes back to that moment when I was nine years old.
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It was actually my parents who put me in that situation because they pushed me out there and it changed my life.
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So no doubt about it for people who read the book and for a lot of my friends and even people who don t know me.
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A lot of them say it s a love letter to my parents and it wasn t intended to be.
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It just is, and the lessons and things that I learned growing up stuck with me, and still to this day, they affect my decision.
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My moral compass was set by my parents.
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Thank you so much for that answer, and it makes me think back about my own life.
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And when I was a freshman in high school, I embraced one of my biggest fears, which was singing in front of people and auditioned for the Music Man musical and got the part of Winthrop.
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And I remember that was a pinnacle point for me of really understanding that when you put yourself out there, so many things that you would never expect end up happening to you.
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And I too have a book coming out in a few months in February.
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And instead of dedicating it to my parents, who I could have, I actually dedicated it to my two kids.
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who are now grown, as I know yours are too.
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And as a follow-on question to my last one, I did want to ask you, how do you ensure that these fundamental principles that were enrooted in you by your parents have continued to guide you in raising your own daughters and fostering a close-knit family connection that you cherish so deeply?
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Yeah, I find it s funny.
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We all, it happens to all of us is that we find ourselves saying things that sound a lot like our parents said to us.
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And for me, I sound like my dad all the time.
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And for me, that s the greatest compliment that I could possibly get.
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I have two older sisters.
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I have two daughters.
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I ve been surrounded by women my whole life.
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And when I m on the phone with my sisters, they say, you sound like dad.
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My dad s name is Saul.
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And I said, and every so often
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And they ll go, Saul, stop it.
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Because I sound just like him, which like I said, is the greatest compliment for me.
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So listen, growing, living in LA where there s a lot of money and there s a lot of spoiled, entitled young people.
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It s been a challenge.
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I have a great partner in my wife.
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The most important decision of your life is choosing your spouse to me.
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So I chose a great one.
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And together, we believe in the same core values.
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And yes, we want to be good to our children.
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And yes, we want them to have an easier life, but not to the point that we shield them so much that they don t experience disappointment and sadness.
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You want to protect your kids.
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You obviously want to protect your kids.
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But I know from my experience that my failures, my disappointments have made me a better person.
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Of course, you lead by example too.
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My kids could see how I was with my parents.
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I spoke to my mother every night.
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I had been living, she s no longer alive, but when she was alive, and I d been living in LA for quite some time, I spoke to my mother every night at 11 o clock Eastern, eight o clock Pacific time.
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And the funny thing about it is if I called her, John, at five to eight, she goes, what, you re not going to call me at 11?
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I go, Ma, it s five minutes from now, she goes, but that s our time.
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And my kids could see that.
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And I think they learned from that.
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And we d be in the middle of a movie.
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I literally would take the phone and say, Ma, I m in a movie, I can t talk.
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She goes, okay, son, that was it.
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That was the length of the conversation.
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I d be in the middle of directing or producing a television.
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I d go, standby on camera one.
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Ma, I gotta go in the middle of doing a show.
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And I never missed a call.
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I never, ever missed a call.
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I think you lead by example.
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The other thing, one of your,
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core belief systems that I was the passion struck core belief system, which everybody should check out because it s so dead on is how you start your day.
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How you start your day is so important.
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I m probably not doing it exactly right, John, but like how you start your day.
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And I begin my every day with prayer.
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I start every day with prayer.
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It s the first thing I do.
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I roll out of bed and I pray.
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The next thing I do is I work out.
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So I get my
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mental, spiritual thing going.
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I show my gratitude in the morning.
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And then I work out because that s the way I start my day.
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I ve been a gym guy my whole life and it helps get me going.
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It s my form of meditation in a way.
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And my kids see that.
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My kids see that.
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And my kids are grateful and they re respectful.
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And I think a lot has to do with the way my wife and I have tag teamed on that.
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And also the way they ve seen how I am with my parents.
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Even though my kids never lived in the same city as their grandparents, because I ve been living in LA so long, my kids were both born in LA.
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And every single Christmas vacation for 25 years, my kids were with my parents and it was quality time.
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And of course we went to Montreal for holidays and things like that.
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And we always found time to spend my parents.
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And just to give you an idea, I m sorry, I m going off topic here, but my daughter, Rachel, who s the oldest one, she came to me and she said, dad, I m thinking of getting a tattoo.
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And I was like, okay, but it s going to be a really small one.
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And I said.
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OK, fine.
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And she goes, it s just going to be really small.
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And it s something I want to do because it means a lot to me.
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And I said, OK.
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And I go, can you tell me what it s going to be?
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And she said, it s a little letter G. I said, G?
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I said, why G?
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She goes, Goldie, your mom, the impact she had on my life.
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And what are you going to say after that?
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So yeah, we have a very strong family core and we re still very close to our family.
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And most of our family is in Montreal and Toronto, but it s amazing how tight we are.
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I still speak to my sisters every day and I think relationships are everything.
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As proud as I am, I m a television producer and I ve done a lot of shows and I m very proud of the shows that I ve done, but I m way more proud of the relationships that I have with my family and my friends.
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And I, like you, really front load my day.
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I get up every morning at 5 a.m.
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and similar to you, the first thing I do is pray and then I say daily affirmations and set my intentions for the day on a walk with my dog and then go to the gym or ride a bike or etc.
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And I think it just is so important because in those
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to a couple of hours before the rest of the world is awake, I ve already grounded myself and given myself blessings for the day in how I want to lead it, plus have gotten my mind activated to take that next step.
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So I completely and wholeheartedly agree with what you re saying.
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You and I have another thing in common.
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Although we were in completely different industries, we have both led very diverse careers.
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Yours started seemingly serendipitously through an opportunity that led to acting.
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And then from there you got involved with CBC Sports, which if people aren t familiar with it, that s Canadian sports.
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You got involved with Dick Clark, running a sports division, really reinventing Fox Sports, and eventually starting your own production company.
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I wanted to ask, looking back on these pivotal moments, what key realizations did you have about yourself that guided you towards producing as being your true calling?
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Well, I had a fascination with the entertainment business.
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I talked about being shy before really shy and television actually kept me company.
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So I watched a lot of television, a lot of television and being through sports, playing sports that got me out of my shell.
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And I realized when I was playing sports that I liked being in the spotlight.
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And that led to acting.
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And there s some crazy story about how I got my first part in the movie that John was referring to.
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And that led to another movie.
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And that led to situation comedies and television commercials and a lot of other things.
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But every time I was on set, I was so fascinated with how things were made.
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And when I went to university in Toronto,
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I didn t want to go into theater arts.
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I wanted to, because it was too artsy for me.
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I just couldn t deal with all the method acting.
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And I used to say, I don t want to be a tree.
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So I was looking at ways of expanding my skillset in terms of the entertainment business.
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Although I thought I was going to be an actor.
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That s what I thought my profession was going to be.
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But the more and more I was on set, and the more and more I got into how television was made, the more I realized that was more for me.
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I know this is going to sound like a tangent, but it all makes sense to me, is that my mom, when I used to tell her that I got a part, she used to say something to me.
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And it used to drive me a little bit crazy.
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She used to say, there s more for you, Arthur.
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And first I took it like, what am I not doing enough?
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I just got a television commercial.
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Why is she saying that?
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Is she saying that to keep me more grounded?
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Why is she saying that?
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And yeah, it just happened again and again.
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And I never asked her why she said that until a certain point.
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I can t remember what it was, something I just got some acting gig and I got, and I said, what do you mean by that?
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She goes, I just don t think acting is all you re supposed to do.
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I think there s more for you out there.
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And I was always a leader.
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I was always a captain of a sports team and everything else like that.
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And she thought I was going to be happier and more complete if I was in some position where I was leading.
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And she saw that in me and I didn t.
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I was very happy, or at least
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When I was doing, I was so happy to get an acting job.
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I was happy, but anyhow, and, but the real guiding principle of my life goes back to what I talk about in the book.
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And that is.
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I believe the more you try the luckier you get, as I said before, we make our good fortune.
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And so many of the things that have happened to me is because I put myself out there and that s why I stress in the book, not be afraid to be vulnerable, not to be afraid to make mistakes because we learn from everything.
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And not everything has gone well for me.
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John, thank you.
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You were talking about some of the things that I ve done and Dick Clark got me my green card.
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I was the youngest head of CBC sports when I was 28 years old.
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I started producing and directing when I was 22.
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I did an Olympics when I was 24.
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All those things.
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And I ve run this very successful production company for 23 years.
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But there s failure in there, and there s disappointment.
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But I believe things are meant to be.
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There s a great Jewish word called b sheret.
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And b sheret means it s meant to be.
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And I believe everything that s happened to me was meant to be.
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And sometimes when things happen to you, when disappointments happen to you, and I say this to my children, is that you may not realize in the moment why this has happened to you.
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And sometimes it takes a year or two years or five years
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And then you realize that it wasn t meant to be all the twists and turns of our lives.
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Everything is meant to be.
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And it s a good thing.
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It s a good thing to realize when I was younger, I was sure I was disappointed and angry, but now when things happen to me, I go, you know what?
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It s not meant to be.
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And then because I know someday I ll figure out why, like I said, it may not be in the moment.
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Well, I wanted to ask you a follow on question on that because oftentimes mistakes offer valuable insights, but I think it s how we respond to those mistakes that offers even more valuable insights about who we are as individuals.
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What advice would you have along those lines to a young listener of today s program?
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To me, it s, this is going to almost sound cliche is to learn from your mistakes.
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You learn more from your mistakes, from your successes.
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which also sounds like another cliche, but it s so true.
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It s so true.
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We all have a view of ourselves and then you get guided by what is reality by sometimes the mistakes that you made.
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In 1984, I produced the Los Angeles Olympics and I was 24 years old and I had really established myself as the leading sports producer in Canada.
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And I thought I was ready to make my next move to CBS sports.
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And I managed to get an interview with the executive producer of CBS sports.
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I was feeling a little too good about myself, just a little too good about myself because everything I had tried up until that point, it just worked out for me.
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The acting, the producing, the directing, everything was working out for me, not with struggles and disappointments, but for the most part in the big picture, everything was working for me.
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And I flew to New York.
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And for my interview, and I knew things didn t get off to a great start because the flight attendant.
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And this is so bizarre.
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The flight attendant on the plane was my boss s wife.
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What are the odds of that happening?
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Of all the flights, of all the trips, that particular day, that time of day, because there s eight flights a day from Toronto to New York, just even that alone.
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But the fact that I didn t even know Toronto to New York was a route of hers and she was the flight attendant and I probably should have just got off the plane right there because it was a bad omen.
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And she said to me, she goes, Oh, you re going to New York.
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Oh.
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And Oh, you brought some tapes.
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And I said, yeah, I, I m going to show them to my friends.
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And I go, she doesn t believe me.
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She s going to call my boss.
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My boss is going to be mad that I m looking for another job or whatever.
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Anyhow, I get to this interview and this, the interview was with this guy, Terry O Neill, who was the executive producer of CBS sports.
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And the interview seemed to go well.
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And then at the end, he said, listen, very nice meeting you.
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You ve accomplished a lot.
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Great.
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There s nothing here for you.
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And I went to leave and thanked them and said, okay, it wasn t a total loss.
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Maybe someday in the future, I ll, he ll offer me a job.
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And I get to the elevator and I realized that I had the tapes in my bag and I hadn t given him the tapes, which was the whole idea for him to see my work.
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And I go back there and I, just to put the tapes on his desk.
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Cause he s not in the office.
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He wasn t there.
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He just, he must ve dashed out to another meeting or gone to the men s room or something like that.
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And then I m looking for a pen to write him a note.
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And as I look for a pen, I see my resume in the garbage, in the trash.
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And it was such a low moment for me to be dismissed in such a way.
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And so me being me, I was angry.
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And I took the resume out of the garbage and wrote him a note saying, thank you for taking the time to meet with me.
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Terror.
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And I left.
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And I was very hurt by it.
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Like I said, to be dismissed in such a way after flying
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from Toronto after risking my job and to be pushed away like that.
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And it took me a while to figure out why this happened to me or why this failure was okay and that it just wasn t meant to be.
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Well, first of all, I wasn t ready.
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And sometimes you re not ready.
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And I will say that I d rather people not edit themselves and really push forward.
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It s okay.
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But I learned disappointment and I learned from that.
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Like I said, sometimes you re not ready and sometimes it s just not your time.
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And as it turned out, it really wasn t meant to be because what ended up happening.
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And it wouldn t have happened had I got a job at CBS Sports as I went on to produce two more Olympic games.
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I became president of CBC Sports, and then I got an offer from Dick Clark and Dick Clark took my green card and moved me to LA.
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And then all this other wonderful stuff happened.
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And so that was a big lesson that I learned.
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The big thing I say to young people is go for it.
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And I think neutral is the worst place to be.
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And if you re not exactly sure what you want to do, I say guess.
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Just guess, just get going, get moving, because you will learn from it.
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And during my career, I have worked at a number of places, and I had one job at Universal where I was a senior vice president of the television group.
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John didn t mention it because I was there for only a year, and it was the worst job I ve ever had.
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Because even though I was recruited by Lou Wasserman and Sid Scheinberg, who are legends of the entertainment business, who are running Universal, and I had a great contract with amazing French benefits, and I was miserable.
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because I was an executive, a pure executive.
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And my joy is from making, my joy is from producing.
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And I learned a lot.
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So, but I m glad I did it.
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I m glad I experienced it because I would have never now.
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You learn from every experience.
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You learn from every disappointment.
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The worst thing that you can do is edit yourself or overanalyze and not get going.
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I m so glad that you brought up the importance of action because I think it is something that so many people don t understand.
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And I agree with you.
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I think so many people today are living what I call on autopilot or they re living as if they re in a pinball game where they re just getting bounced around instead of taking control and intentionally focus the actions on getting to where they want.
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And I was lucky enough when I was younger to have two great mentors
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Both of them happened to be when I was in the military.
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One of them was Commander Fitzsimmons, who really taught me that you need to have this great long-term vision, but if you re not present in the moment and taking actions every single day to get towards it, you re not going to get there.
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I also had another mentor who I brought up many times on this show, a former astronaut, Wendy Lawrence, who has this motto that you have to give yourself permission to dream the dream.
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And for her, that was becoming an astronaut many times on her journey.
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She didn t know how she was going to get there, but she kept taking intentional action along the steps that she knew would get her closer to that.
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But I think so many people today get stuck and they just stay there and they don t
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take those even small microsteps that would lead them closer to where they want to go.
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So I think that s such an important thing that you just brought up.
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Well, I wanted to go to some of the things that you were just talking about.
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You have gotten to be in the high-intensity control room, as you mentioned, at several Olympics, to collaborating with Dwayne The Rock Johnson on the Titan Games.
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Along the way, you have been involved in some of the most pivotal sports and television moments in history.
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How have these experiences contributed to you understanding the importance of how to do intentional storytelling and shaping narratives that resonate with audiences?
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Even though I ve worked in sports and I ve worked in entertainment and variety, but the one thing that I ve always wanted to do, and it s still the main focus of what we do today, is I always want to do content that makes you feel something.
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And maybe it s because I m emotional or sensitive, or maybe it was because I was brought up by women who didn t care about sports and I wanted them to watch what I was doing.
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So I m always trying to do content that makes you feel something and getting vested in character.
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And I believe that you can make a television show about almost anything if you care about the people who are in it.
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Of course, that comes with great storytelling and everything else.
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And so that s what I m always striving to do.
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The other thing that goes back to the core belief system, that s why so many of the things that you said in your passion struck core belief system hold true for me, is
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I believe in taking chances and taking risks and not doing what others have done before.
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And we talked about the longest running show that I ve had is Hell s Kitchen, which has been on for 22 seasons, which now seems like not much of a risk, but in 2004, there had never been a successful food show on network television.
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Gordon Ramsay is the most famous chef in the world, but in 2004, nobody knew who he was.
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And when I was first approached about doing something with Gordon Ramsay, an executive at Fox had sent me the tape.
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And I looked at the tape.
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It was a show that Gordon was doing in the UK.
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And I was leery about doing a food show on network television because it hadn t been done before.
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But I was at least open-minded to watch the tape.
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And I loved Gordon, but I didn t like the show.
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that they had.
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And so my intention with making that one, you have to realize who your market is and we re going on Fox.
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We re not going on the Food Network.
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So I have to have a show that appeals to non foodies.
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And so by design, the show was more about aspirations and people living their dream and working with this very difficult perfectionist.
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And it was the stories of those chefs.
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And to me, I really dove into
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these people were and what people who work in restaurants do every day and how admirable is the work that they do.
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But I also saw an opportunity to treat it like a sports event, which is my background.
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The dinner service is like a game.
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There s a clock.
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There s a competition.
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You re pushing food out.
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And then the before service is like a pregame.
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And then after service is like a post game.
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I said, I know sports, but anyhow, listen, I believe in taking chances.
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I believe calculated obviously and pushing.
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And that s been a lot of the success of my career.
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It s funny when I was at CBC and I got this really early break when I was 22 years old and I wasn t well because I didn t pay my dues.
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I started producing when I was very young.
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And I remember sitting in these meeting rooms where we having these creative discussions.
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And at first I was very timid only because I was new and I was young and I was working with people who I admired and who are legendary to me.
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And we would talk about, we d have these creative brainstorms.
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And at first I was like really reticent about what to say or when to jump in.
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And then there was one day and I said, I m just going to go for it.
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And I mentioned an idea and it got a great response.
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And I said, Oh, I m never going to hold back again.
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I m not going to hold back.
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And I haven t shut up since.
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So, like I said, I think the success that I ve had and no matter what genre I worked in goes back to what I said initially is content that makes you feel something.
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That s been my guide.
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There s no logical reason why an obstacle course show should work in prime time on NBC, American Ninja Warrior.
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It doesn t make any sense if you look at it as an obstacle course show, but it s so much more than that.
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American Ninja Warrior
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And I m so blessed to be part of the show.
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And it s funny, because it s a blending of my sports and entertainment background.
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But it s really about the people who run.
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It s got some very unique features that we celebrate the attempt.
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And so much of it is, it s the only athletic competition where the athletes root for each other.
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It s the only athletic competition where we usually don t have a winner in the end, because there s only been two times in the 14 previous seasons where we ve had people actually climb the four stages of Mount Midoriyama and win a million dollars.
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It s only happened twice.
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It s the only athletic event where men and women compete on the same course.
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There s no handicaps.
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And, and there s this really lovely community that s around the sport.
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And like I said, it was very unlike anything else.
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And of course, if you ve watched the show.
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And John, I know you have.
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Thank you for watching.
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It s really about the people who run.
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It s about their story.
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We tell their stories.
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You re so vested in who they are that you care about the result.
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Recently, we had a guy, this guy, Gary Wayland, who s run on our course before, and he s got one leg, he s got a prosthetic, and he s just an amazing human being.
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And he lost his leg.
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He was having knee replacement surgery and something went horribly wrong and they amputated his leg.
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And he comes back, he s done the course before every few years and he s a firefighter and he s just this great guy.
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And this past season, the balance obstacle, if you have one leg and a prosthetic leg, it s almost impossible.
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It s impossible.
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But Gary, he s tried it before and he always fails.
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He does the first few obstacles and everybody cheers for him.
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And we celebrate the attempt of Gary getting up there and not being afraid.
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And this year he s on the balance obstacle and he falls.
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But as he s falling, he catches himself on the balance obstacle.
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And then somehow he pulls his prosthetic leg onto the platform and he just pushes off as hard as he can and he lands on the other side.
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And our talent, Matt Eisman and Akbar, who are play-by-play, go absolutely crazy.
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The crowd goes crazy.
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It was the biggest moment of the night.
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He didn t complete the rest of the course.
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It did not matter.
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It was that moment.
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And you could see it on his face.
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You could see it on his face.
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Talk about reaching.
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And I think it was Matt or Akbar.
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I think they both said it.
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They go, what s your excuse?
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What s your excuse?
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And I get chills when I think about it.
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And I think that s one of the wonders of the show.
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Wow.
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I am on such a tangent, John.
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I, you started me going and I m like, it s called passion struck and you can tell I m very passionate about content that makes you feel something, content that gets you, that hits you in the heart.
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Well, I m going to go on a tangent here for a second myself, because your story reminded me of two people who I admire.
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One of them is a Marine Corps Sergeant Kristi Ennis, who on the last mission was on a helicopter and ended up crashing and she ended up losing her leg.
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And she has gone on to climb the tallest peaks as a mountain climber, is a skier, does all these things.
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Then the other person I wanted to bring up is my friend Jen Bricker-Bauer, who was born without legs, but her parents who adopted her told her that anything in her life is possible.
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And so she went on to become the first abled-bodied high school athlete to ever win the tumbling competition state championships in the state of Illinois.
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And now she s gone on to be an aerialist.
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She actually opened the Britney Spears World Tour a while back, but is now
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on the verge of having a baby if she hasn t had one already and it just you see these people and I know many people who in the military who have come through lost limbs and injuries and it s just so amazing what you put your mind to what you can accomplish on the other side of hardship so I do appreciate you bringing that up.
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I did want to go back though to this whole concept of risk-taking
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Because I read that in the future, you would like to see the networks taking bigger risks on high concept shows and formats.
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Why do you believe that is where the next groundbreaking show will emerge?
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If you look back on the history of television, so many of the big hits have come from things that have not been done before, big risks over the years.
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And I believe our viewers crave freshness.
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And so to me, shows that are derivative, shows that you ve seen before, just don t cut through and I don t think are as impactful.
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And so for me, I m always reaching, there s that great word again, I m always reaching to do things that are different.
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And like for us, we talked about, I talked about Hell s Kitchen, I talked about Ninja Warrior.
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And at the time they were both big risks and they re our longest running shows.
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There had never been a show like American Ninja Warrior before.
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There had never been a show like Hell s Kitchen before.
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Now there are, but they re, none of them are as successful as the original.
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It s not just true with me.
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Of course, this is a pattern that we see in television.
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This is why, whether it s Seinfeld or whether it s All in the Family and what that show represented at that time, or The Masked Singer.
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which is crazy, but works.
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All of those shows in their time are things that cut through and are things that are, they re pioneers.
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Even a show like Dancing with Stars, when it first came on a number of years ago, people were laughing at it.
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I remember when the first commercials were coming out about the show, people thought it was so silly and so cheesy and so corny.
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I think they re in their 30th season.
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and survivor, for that matter.
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The biggest hits and the biggest successes come from risk and taking chances.
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And sometimes, by the way, when I say that, it s not necessarily the idea that s completely different, but there s something in the producing of the idea that s different.
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It could be the point of view.
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It could be the style of the way it s shot.
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It could be the show itself.
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It could be the content itself.
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But there s some new offering that says, hey, we re doing it better.
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We re doing it different.
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Like I said, that s where I think the biggest hits come from.
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Squid Games.
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Bizarre.
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Wild on Netflix.
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Nothing like it before.
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We love to be exposed to new things and new concepts.
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And I think the audience has an appetite for that.
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Yeah, I think a great example of that is also in nighttime television where so many of the talk shows are exactly the same, but look at what the in the car karaoke and other things that he has done on that show have done to just make it so much different and make people want to watch it over just replicating a model that someone else has done since Arson was around.
3
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So it really does have an impact.
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I did want to ask you another question on storytelling.
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One of the favorite interviews I ve listened to was one that Hilary Swank did with Tom Bilyeu on Impact Theory, and I thought it was one of the best interviews I d ever heard Hilary give.
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But he asked her, when someone comes up to you and says, who are you?
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What do you say to them?
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And she goes, well, it s so easy.
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to say I m an actress, I m a producer, I m a director, I m this or that.
3
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But she goes, what I really am is a storyteller.
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And what I like to do in whatever role I m in is similar to what you re saying, Arthur.
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She likes to capture people s imagination, love, emotion through the impact of the stories that she tells.
3
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My question for you is, how can intentional storytelling be harnessed by the listeners today to share their own narratives and impact their world in a more positive way?
3
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I think that, to me, the best way to get your point across, whether you re trying to get a raise in your job or whether you re trying to deal with a difficult situation, is with sincerity.
3
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And when you speak the truth and you tell your story in that manner, I find that to be the most effective way.
3
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At our office, at our company, we have a lot of young people and a lot of people of different levels and the climate that we encourage at the
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company is that you can say anything to anybody.
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You can criticize anybody as long as you do it in a respectful way and you re sincere.
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You never attack the person.
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But you can criticize the work.
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And I ve had production assistants come up to me and say, I don t think that s the right thing to do.
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I encourage that.
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I love hearing stuff like that.
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Doesn t mean I m going to listen to it.
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It doesn t mean I m going to do it.
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I will always listen to it, I should say.
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But I think that when people are putting themselves out there, when people are, like I said, telling their story to the world, whether it s trying to get a job or whether it s sharing their experiences, I just believe in being sincere.
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and being passionate is the way to go.
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And it s amazing when you put yourself out there and people see that you re not afraid of being vulnerable and not afraid about sharing your story, that the reception that you get, and I always appreciate it.
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Like when somebody comes to me and they re applying for a job or they have an idea for a show, it starts with them being so open and honest.
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That engages me right from the very beginning.
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One of the things that I think people often see is the end result that someone achieves through significant hard work.
4
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For instance, yourself, they see the position that you re in now, but what they don t see are all the things that led up to where you re at now and how you got there.
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And I wanted to go back to Dwayne Johnson for a second because today he s the highest paid actor in Hollywood, if I have it correct.
4
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But I used him as a focal point in a chapter of my own book on the importance of reinventing yourself.
4
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And what a lot of people don t recognize when they look at The Rock is that his life by no means was some picnic.
4
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And he had to go through so much turmoil, especially when he was young, that there was a point in time where I don t even think if he knew he could climb out of
4
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the state that he was in.
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Since you know him personally and your experience working with him, what are the characteristics in him that you see that others could learn from that exemplify how he has managed to get to where he is in his life?
4
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It s funny when you work in sports and entertainment, you get to meet people.
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I ve worked with Dwayne and I ve been in sports.
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I, and there s stories in the book about Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky and Dick Clark was my mentor.
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And I worked with Paul Allen and all these stories are covered in the book.
4
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Dwayne, I m not referring to any of these people, but a lot of times when you work in the business, you sometimes you get disappointed when you actually get to work with them.
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And with Dwayne, I was more impressed after I spent time with him.
4
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And I was impressed.
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I knew people that had worked with Dwayne.
4
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And of course I knew about his public image and everything else like that, but he s so thoughtful.
4
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And so of course he s charming, but he s humble.
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He still has that humility.
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Even though it s funny, you can have, you can be humble and have a big ego as well.
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He s got both of them.
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And.
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Dwayne, there s a few things that Dwayne says and he lives his life by it.
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He says he s the hardest worker in the room and he is.
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And we were talking so much about how to achieve and putting yourself out there.
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All those things are true, but you have to have the work ethic that goes with it.
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Dwayne works incredibly hard.
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And as we were preparing for the Titan games that we did two seasons of the Titan games, I saw the work ethic.
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He was willing to put in the work.
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He doesn t just show up.
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He s really into whatever he s doing, whatever he s in the moment, whatever movie or show that he is on, he does the work.
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He is prepared.
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He asks a lot of questions.
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So he s prepared.
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And what I loved about him, he s also trusting.
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He s very trusting.
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He s doesn t have that air about him where he doesn t let himself go and believe in the experts that he s working with.
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The other wonderful thing that goes with the work ethic, the talent, the charisma and everything else that Dwayne has is another thing is that he says, and it s not unique to him, the saying, but it s almost, it feels like it s his thing because he says it so much.
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And that is, let me see if I can get it right.
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Oh yeah.
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It s nice to be important.
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but it s more important to be nice.
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And he lives by that.
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He lives by that.
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And so much of what Dwayne wants to accomplish with his life, beyond being the most successful Dwayne Johnson that he could be, is to inspire others.
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If you follow his social media, which there s 370 million followers, it s all about that.
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It s all about inspiration.
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And that s why, quite frankly, we were able to convince him to do the Titan Games because Wayne could do anything that he wants.
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It s not about.
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It s not about how much money I can make, because he s going to make a lot of money.
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As you said, he s the highest paid movie star.
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And for him to do a television show at this point in his career, he doesn t need to.
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But there was something in the core of the Titan Games that got to him.
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The Titan Games was an opportunity for everyday people to be superheroes and face on these challenges.
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And that spoke to who Dwayne was.
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And he was very involved in everything that we did.
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He doesn t just show up.
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And there s a lot of talent who does.
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So I was very impressed by his work ethic, his dedication, his humility.
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Right from the very beginning, from the first time I met him, I felt like I had known him for years.
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Totally disarmed me about what our relationship is going to be.
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And just an amazing human being.
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And I talk about the story, and there s a story in the book that I talk about when American Ninja Warrior had been nominated for an Emmy Award.
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And the Emmy Awards was in the middle of shooting, and we had a very difficult schedule.
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And we were shooting about an hour outside of LA.
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I had to go to the Emmy Awards because I wanted to be there for my gang and everything else like that.
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And we didn t win.
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And I came back, and the first person I saw on the set was Dwayne.
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And he said, so did you win?
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And I go, no.
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He goes, well, it s an honor to be nominated.
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And we were all rooting for you.
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And just to have that
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presence of what I was experiencing and he was so kind just to think about me in that light.
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And Dwayne also realizes that you don t get there alone.
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He realizes that all his successes have been
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Partially attributed, obviously, to the people he s had around them and Dwayne has had the same group of people around them forever.
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The guy who runs his television is a guy who wrote for him at the WWE who s very talented this guy Brian go works very talented guy, but he stuck with them.
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His manager and the chairman of his company, chairwoman of the company, I should say, is Danny Garcia, who s brilliant, and it s his ex-wife, which is amazing.
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The head of his movie division, of which there have been a ton of successes, is a guy by the name of Hiram Garcia, and that s his ex-brother-in-law.
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And this group of people that he s got around them have been with him for decades now.
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Believe me, they re all excellent at what they do, but there is a tendency when you re a movie star of that level, that that s very rare that you re not changing and evolving and changing your agents and doing that and that.
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So he s loyal.
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He s loyal and he s just an amazing guy and he deserves every success.
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And not only because he s talented, but he s worked his butt off trying to get there too.
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Another question along the lines of Dwayne, and that is Dwayne almost made it into the NFL coming out of University of Miami, ended up going into the WWE, as we all know.
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But I understand that you re currently working on projects with both the NFL and WE.
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And if I have it right, a tentative name for the WWE show is going to be Superstars of Tomorrow.
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Can you share any more about either one of those opportunities?
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Yes.
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So I work with the NFL.
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We ve been working with the NFL for the last number of years.
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I was actually just in New York with them.
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We were just having meetings and it was very interesting.
4
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A number of years ago, we got a phone call at the office from someone claiming to be part of the NFL and the receptionist gave it to the most junior person in development.
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And this person comes into my office and they have no idea about sports or the NFL or what they re just, the person they gave it to was the person who knew least amounts about sports.
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And they said, I just got a call from the National Football League.
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And I said, yeah, the NFL called you.
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Oh, no, the National Football League.
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That tells you that when I said the NFL, he didn t realize, regardless.
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So this went on.
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And I said, we know people at the NFL.
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That s such a strange call.
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And I said, it can t be the NFL.
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I said, it has to be a producer who wants to go with us to the NFL.
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And it was about their skills competition, that they wanted to reinvent their skills competition.
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Anyhow, I didn t believe him that it was the NFL, but sure enough, it was somebody in the operations department.
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And apparently they were fans of Ninja Warrior.
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They were fans of another show we did called Dunking and a bunch of other stuff.
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And they realized it was the same production company.
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And so about four or five years ago, we started to work with them on their skills competition, which is the quarterback challenge and all this other good stuff.
4
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And then last year, for the first time in NFL history, there was no game.
4
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And we worked with the NFL to reinvent the Pro Bowl experience.
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It s now called the Pro Bowl games.
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And there s a skills competition.
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competition that happens on Thursday.
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And then instead of the game, there s a series of flag football games and a number of skills competitions.
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So that s what we re doing.
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It s going to be in Orlando next year.
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It s happening in February.
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It s going to be awesome.
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It s going to be much better than last year because we learned a lot.
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So that s the other thing.
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The thing that we re doing with the W, I am so excited about it.
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And I just watched a rough cut for our first episode.
5
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It s still shooting and we re shooting and editing at the same time.
5
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And that project is for Roku.
5
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And it s the first time that the W has really peeled the curtain off of how people get contracts with the W.E.
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in pursuit of being the next W.E.
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superstar, the next Dwayne Johnson, the next John Cena.
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And it shows the process.
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And the W.E.
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has this program where they recruit athletes
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from everywhere a lot of them from colleges and they invite them to a camp and in this camp they go through all the things all these tests that a great professional wrestler needs to have which is
5
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athleticism, personality, the ability to think fast on your feet, charisma, the look, the style.
5
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And we see that process and it s amazing.
5
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It is so cool.
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And eventually a number of them.
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get contracts, and when Triple H, who s in charge of the whole program, and Vince s right hand, we see the moment when they get their contracts, and it s the most emotional thing.
5
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And then we see them, the select few who get contracts, we then follow them to Orlando, where the WWE has their performance center, where they start to build them into wrestlers.
5
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And it s such a great journey.
5
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Stylistically, it feels like Hard Knocks, the HBO show, the NFL show, just stylistically.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cause it s a documentary series, but it s wonderful.
5
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And the characters are amazing and the athletes are great.
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And there s great rivalries.
5
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It is television that will make you feel something for sure.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cause you re, you re going to get very vested in who these people are.
5
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And then someday we may have the next John Cena or Dwayne Johnson.
5
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That ll come out of the group.
5
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John Cena is actually a partner on the project with us.
5
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He s one of the executive producers and John s amazing too.
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So, so yeah, I m really excited about that.
5
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So I m going to have to figure out how to get a ticket to that NFL opportunity in Orlando since I m so close to it.
5
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But I ve also had a little bit of a peek into the WWE myself because Thaddeus Bullard, who went by Titus O Neal in the WWE is a friend of mine.
5
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And I just love everything that he has done as well.
5
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And I know he s friends with both of those other gentlemen you just mentioned.
5
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And I did want to do a call out about Paul Allen, who you brought up earlier.
5
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I don t know Paul personally.
5
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I was a senior executive at Dell and I ve met Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.
5
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But I was talking to a friend of mine, Sean Springs, who played cornerback for the Seahawks.
5
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And I asked him,
5
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Out of your time there, what was one of the biggest takeaways that you had or greatest things that came out of it?
5
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And he said, above far and beyond, it was Paul Allen s mentorship of me into who I am today.
5
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And I don t think we hear stories like that about these people and what happens behind closed doors and in the unseen.
5
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moments.
5
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But I bring this up because we started this whole episode out about you talking about the importance of relationship and collaboration, and Paul Allen, Simon Cowell, and others are people you ve collaborated with, and it s been extremely instrumental in your work with these prominent personalities.
5
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How do you approach intentional collaboration, and what advice would you have for listeners on how they can make this art a bigger portion of their success?
5
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Well, it goes back to some of the things I ve mentioned along the way here, is that when you re working with people who are at the top of their profession, at the top of their field, and even if they re not, I approach every meeting the same way, is be prepared, do the work, be sincere.
5
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honest.
5
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And that s what I think about.
5
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Every time I ve ever walked into a meeting, I ve always prepared.
5
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It s just preparing for today s podcast.
5
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John, I listened to a number of your podcasts.
5
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I ve read about your core belief system because I think that s really important.
5
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And it s always amazing to me when young people show up and want a job at our company.
5
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And if they don t know anything about our company,
5
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The meeting s over.
5
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It s a complete turnoff.
5
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And I also believe that whatever job or whatever gig we re hired, we re paid to tell the truth.
5
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And so I m always very open with my opinions and with all that being respectful, being diplomatic, but finding a way to get my opinion across, because I think that s the reason why I m there.
5
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So I was with, I was Paul Allen s media consultant for two years and it was an amazing journey with Paul.
5
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Amazing.
5
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And nice to hear that, that story about the football player who played for the Seahawks and Paul is talk about passion.
5
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So much of what Paul did, especially after his life, after Microsoft came from his, what he wanted to do, what he felt so strongly about.
5
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It wasn t about making money.
5
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This is at the time Paul was, when I started working with him was.
5
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the third or fourth richest man in the world.
5
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And so much of what motivated him was things that he believed in.
5
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He bought the Seahawks, not because he was a huge football fan, but because he didn t want the team to leave Seattle.
5
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He bought the Trailblazers, Portland Trailblazers, because he did love basketball.
5
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He s very passionate about the NBA.
5
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He built the, I don t know what it s called today, but the music museum, which originally was called the Jimi Hendrix Music Museum in Seattle because of his love for music.
5
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And so much of his investments
5
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was in new technology and new entrepreneurs.
5
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And so all the things that I was doing for him, there were a number of things that I would bring to him.
5
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There s a story I tell in the book about something I brought to him, of which Paul had an opportunity to really cash in and make a lot of money on a genre that he could have owned.
5
SPEAKER_01
And he said to me, this is a great presentation.
5
SPEAKER_01
I can see that there s great potential, but you know what?
5
SPEAKER_01
I m not into it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, what do you mean?
5
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You re not into it.
5
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You have a, you re going to, you re going to, you could have a chance to make a lot of money.
5
SPEAKER_01
And he goes, I m just not into it.
5
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And that was Paul.
5
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That was Paul.
5
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He, whatever he got into, he had the luxury of it.
5
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But I think that s, I think that s how him and Bill Gates had so much success.
5
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And Bill Gates was an incredible businessman and Paul was a great engineer.
5
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He was a great creative.
5
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And that s where his joy comes from.
5
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And I respect that a lot.
5
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Listen, I would be doing what I d be doing if I wasn t making any money.
5
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I didn t do any of this.
5
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I didn t do what I m doing for money.
5
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In fact, all the proceeds from this book are going to a foundation that I started called the REACH Foundation.
5
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Because I didn t write the book for money.
5
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I wrote the book because it was something inside of me that I needed to get out.
5
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And it was something that I wanted to pass some advice that I wanted to get out there.
5
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I found that as I continued to lecture and talk at universities and talk to people, that the power of reach always keeps coming up.
5
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And I said, I just got to write this book.
5
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I just got to do it.
5
SPEAKER_01
But in turn, so much of this chapter of my life
5
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is about giving back.
5
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So I ve always tried, I was taught very young by my parents to help people who don t have as much as I have, to be philanthropic, to all the thinking of others.
5
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And so I ve always done it, but I wanted to devote more of my time to doing that.
5
SPEAKER_01
And writing the book is the beginning of that chapter.
5
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And then, like I said, I started this foundation.
5
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I think I m off topic, but anyway, I ll come back.
5
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But working with, I guess I should say working with all these personalities and going back to, I think what the original question was that,
5
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is you got to do the work.
5
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You got to be prepared.
5
SPEAKER_01
You got to be sincere.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do not be afraid to say your opinions because you ll be respected for it.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s what you re there for.
5
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Those are my keys.
5
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The next question I was going to ask you, which is where you were spending your time now and what the impact of Reach was going to have through your foundation.
5
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And I m just going to end on this question then.
5
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In Reach, you offer insights because it s a memoir into your hard-won lessons.
5
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What is one key takeaway you hope listeners today will internalize to help them shape their own intentional journeys?
5
SPEAKER_01
The big message is when you reach, you realize the difference between a pipe dream and what you haven t dared to try just yet.
5
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That s what I believe.
5
SPEAKER_01
And if you can see it, you can do it.
5
SPEAKER_01
And you can t win the lottery unless you buy a ticket.
5
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How many more expressions can I come up with?
5
SPEAKER_01
How many more models can I come up with in the last few minutes?
5
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I will tell you something, John, something happened to me.
5
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The people who are listening today have a choice whether to buy the book or not.
5
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But the one person who doesn t have a choice
5
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is the audio engineer who records the audio book.
5
SPEAKER_01
So that person has no choice.
5
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That person has to listen to you, read your book.
5
SPEAKER_01
So when I was doing the audio book, which was a few months ago, and it took me four days and you spend six or seven hours in an audio, in a voiceover booth.
5
SPEAKER_01
And the guy who was the audio engineer, I was just the session of the day.
5
SPEAKER_01
And he really wasn t that friendly.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I m pretty friendly.
5
SPEAKER_01
So I m always trying to engage people in conversation.
6
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And he was a tough person to engage in conversation.
6
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He was there to do a job.
6
SPEAKER_00
And really for four days, the only thing he would say to me was stop.
6
SPEAKER_00
You re too close to the mic or stop popping your peas or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it was all technical things.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I d go out for lunch and say, Hey, you want to grab a bite?
6
SPEAKER_00
And he d be going, no, I m good.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I don t know this guy, either.
6
SPEAKER_00
He doesn t like me or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
I, whatever, I m not going to change, but apparently this.
6
SPEAKER_00
So, and then for my, when I left my last session.
6
SPEAKER_00
I go over to thank him for the four days that he s had to listen to me drone on and on.
6
SPEAKER_00
And he says to me, there s something I need to tell you.
6
SPEAKER_00
He says, you ve changed my life.
6
SPEAKER_00
I said, what?
6
SPEAKER_00
He goes, you ve changed my life.
6
SPEAKER_00
I realized I wasn t reaching enough in my life.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I ve been thinking about it.
6
SPEAKER_00
And every day you ve come in and you ve told me these stories of your life and your career.
6
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, I m changing today.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I said, can I give you a hug?
6
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, yeah, OK.
6
SPEAKER_00
I gave the guy a hug and I said, listen, I m there for you if you ever want to talk.
6
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, no, I appreciate that.
6
SPEAKER_00
He goes, thank you.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I, I sat in my car for 10 minutes and I was like, wow, what a blessing, what a blessing that has been.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I don t know if the book is going to have that effect on everybody.
6
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Probably won t, but I d like to say it s a memoir with a purpose.
6
SPEAKER_00
And yes, it s a story of my life.
6
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And yes, there are stories about.
6
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Rupert Murdoch and Simon Cowell and Dwayne and Gordon and Dick Clark and Donald Trump s in the book.
6
SPEAKER_00
And yes, there s a lot of really interesting stories, but they re all stories that I ve selected with the intention.
6
SPEAKER_00
There s your word, John, but the intention of showing the power of rage and the power of extending yourself.
6
SPEAKER_00
And so I hope it not only entertains people, which I think it will, but I also hope it inspires people.
6
SPEAKER_02
Well, I love ending on that point, Arthur.
6
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If a listener wants to know more about you and what you re doing, where s the best place for them to go?
6
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Well, there s the A. Smith and Co.
6
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Productions website.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then people can follow me on Instagram, ArthurSmith11.
6
SPEAKER_00
11 is my lucky number, so they can follow me there.
6
SPEAKER_00
And thanks so much for the time.
6
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It s amazing talking to you.
6
SPEAKER_00
Like I said, when I just got into your background and reading your core belief system, I was like, this is a guy I m going to get along with.
6
SPEAKER_00
I love what you ve said.
6
SPEAKER_00
I love it.
6
SPEAKER_02
Well, thank you so much for being on the show.
6
SPEAKER_02
It was such an honor for you to be here and I m so glad we could do it.
6
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
6
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I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with Arthur Smith.
6
SPEAKER_02
What an awesome discussion that was.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I wanted to thank Arthur and Blackstone Publishing for the honor of coming on today s show.
6
SPEAKER_02
Links to all things Arthur will be in the show notes.
6
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Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature
6
SPEAKER_02
here on the show.
6
SPEAKER_02
Videos are on YouTube at both John R. Miles and Passionstruck Clips.
6
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I have exciting news that my new book, Passionstruck, which is all about the science of living an intentional life, is now available for pre-order.
6
SPEAKER_02
Links will be in the show notes.
6
SPEAKER_02
Advertise your deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals.
6
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You can find me at John R. Miles on all the social channels.
6
SPEAKER_02
You can sign up for my LinkedIn newsletter, or you can go to PassionStruck.com or John R. Miles to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
6
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Lastly, you can find us on the Brushwood Media Network, where my syndicated radio show appears every Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 p.m.
6
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Eastern Time.
6
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Links will all be in the show notes.
6
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You re about to hear a preview of the PassionStruck podcast interview that I did with visionary leadership expert and futurist Jacob Morgan.
6
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Jacob has focused his entire career on unraveling the mystery of leadership, and he s uncovered something extraordinary—the secret behind harnessing vulnerability as a superpower, something he aptly calls the Vulnerable Leader Equation.
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Jacob s latest book, Leading with Vulnerability, isn t just another leadership book.
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It s an invitation to a paradigm-shifting adventure that will forever alter the way that you perceive leadership.
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Intention is really doing things with purpose.
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One of the frameworks that I have in the book is called the vulnerability wheel.
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It s really around how do you know if you should be vulnerable or be leading with vulnerability at work?
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What criteria?
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Like, did you just go up to people and start talking?
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Like, is there some kind of a shortcut or a checklist that you can use?
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And at the center of this vulnerability wheel, which is a series of concentric circles, is intention.
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And that is understanding why it is that you want to do or share whatever it is that you want to do or share.
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The fee for the show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful or interesting.
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If you know someone who would love Arthur Smith s episode, then please share it with them.
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The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you love and care about.
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In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen.
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Now go out there and become passion struck.