travelling optimist

Greetings optimists! I hope you are having an incredible day. It’s time to lend me your ears for another episode of the podcast to be unleashed upon your eardrums! So get yourself comfortable, turn the volume up a notch as I don’t want you to miss a second of this wonderful conversation - it’s amazing to have you join me.

My guest on the show is someone I have admired from a distance for a while. Based in the US, Mike Malatesta is a hugely successful entrepreneur, acclaimed author, business mentor and podcast host. Mike’s career spans more than 3 decades. A time where he experienced the highs and lows of being a business owner. It hasn’t all been plain sailing but there was a series of events throughout Mike’s life that have eventually shaped him and the trail he has been blazing. 

This is a story about not being afraid of taking a risk, moving home to start something fresh and exciting, having the tenacity to keep going despite having doubts about your ability. Keep an ear out for Don. I think most people will have had their own Don in their life at some point.

But without Don, Mike wouldn’t have met Butch Weiss and the subsequent founding of a business that catapulted them on the course of success.

This is an uplifting conversation about the trials and tribulations at the coal face of life and business, the tragedy of losing your friend and business partner and the subsequent drifting through life that we all sometimes find ourselves in. But Mike came through this phase with acceptance of what happened and and even stronger belief that if things could work once they can work again

So this is me and my friend Mike Malatesta a determined and humble man who dared to dream and was prepared to put the work in to breakthrough to success 

But ultimately this is a tale of a guy from Milwaukee who was never afraid to reset the sails of life and set a new course to greater accomplishments and happiness.

You can connect with Mike and order his acclaimed books at his website - www.mikemalatesta.com

KEEP THE OPTIMISM LEVELS HIGH

Greeting optimists and a very happy new year to you all. Here’s to a fabulous 2022 and I couldn’t think of any other person to kick off the podcast in 2022 than my guest Richard Kaufman.

Rich is a guy who has been through a lot in life. The loss of his father when he was very young, drink dependency from the age of 12, drug use, he was thrown out of the military and he would be the first to admit that his destructive behaviour was leading him down a path to oblivion. 
But the kindness and forgiving nature of a business owner in the winter of 1988 was a huge turning point for him. As you will hear in the conversation, Rich had an angel looking down on him that night and he’s not looked back. There have been a couple of blips along the way, but we all have those right?

More importantly though, since that fateful night in 1988 Rich has been sober, that’s 33 years. That alone is a monumental achievement and he is rightly proud of it.

Rich returned to the military for another stint, this time after a harsh comment from one of his peers, who didn’t think he could make it in the military. This set the wheels in motion for becoming soldier of the year and rising among the ranks to become the leader that was always inside of him.

This conversation is littered with insight and wonderful stories, from spending time with Lennox Lewis to having the chutzpah to ask for advice from Gary Vaynerchuck.

But behind this success is a man who would do anything for anyone, a man who is infinitely humble and so grateful for the people he has in his life.

His is the human embodiment of a phoenix, he’s had his fair share of his back against a wall moments and been seemingly lost and not knowing which way to turn. But everytime Rich rises from those flames to re-invent himself and truly be the Comeback king!.

This is a conversation about willpower, tenacity, it’s about learning from your mistakes and importantly not being afraid to ask for help. It’s a conversation about how a man’s start in life has not determined his future.

But ultimately this is the story of a guy, who gets back up every time he’s knocked down, learns from his experience and marches on with happiness in his heart and a spring in his step towards his goals and dreams. 
Oh and don’t ever join the military with orange hair! 

Please connect with Rich on all the socials
His Vertical Momentum Podcast
Linked in
Instagram
Facebook

You can buy RIch's book, A Hero's Journey here on Amazon

This episode is dedicated to the life of Simon Jordan. The father of flow!

We've all got a story right? Yes, of course we have. My guest on this episode of the Travelling Optimist  has a story and experience of life that is not just compelling, it's mind blowingly cool.

My guest today is the incredible Deborah Henley.  Deborah is a mum, business leader, Master NLP practitioner, clinical hypnotherapist, entrepreneur, coach, best selling author and her work has been featured on the BBC, channel 5, GMTV and the UK’s national press.  Deborah is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and relayed her story with grace and eloquence and spoke openly about the times of struggle and sadness but also the times of joy and victory. 

She is a woman who is leading a wonderful and hugely interesting life and our conversation takes us from Hong Kong to Peru - back to the UK. Guiding people round the vineyards of Burgundy by bike and life on the waves of the major oceans where she sought solace and ultimately found happiness.

I first came across Deborah Henley via, friend of the show, Simon Jordan. I loved the fact that Deborah empowers people by helping them find their story. So I delved a bit deeper in to her own story and the more I learned about her life and experiences , the more I wanted her to come on the show. 

This conversation hits so many podcast sweet spots - dramatic pivots in life, heartbreak & joy, huge levels of personal courage, the overcoming of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and finding your purpose.

Its a conversation about leadership, perseverance, endurance, pain, adventure - it’s about always putting a metaphorical foot in front of the other despite your situation. 

This is a woman who is helping herself by helping others, she is helping others find their true self by getting them to dig deep in to their soul to find their story, to think about their future self and it’s producing incredible results for her clients. 

This is a conversation with a lady who has experienced the highs and lows that life threw at her and came out stronger, happier and more energized. 

But ultimately this is the story of a beautiful human who is not afraid to change course on her journey of life, has a never quit attitude and Deborah makes sure her light shines like the sun.

I hope you enjoy this one!

You can connect with Deborah on all the socials:
Linked In
Instagram
Twitter

Deborah’s book Your Leadership Story is available from all good book sellers, I would highly recommend you order a copy - it is a life changing book. You can also book yourself onto one of Deborah's incredible leadership courses via her website https://www.deborahhenley.com/ 

Finally thank you to Deborah for being a wonderful guest.

I appreciate the love - a

Tony Chiapetta is an incredible leader with a vision and a plan. He's a man on a mission, but it hasn't always been plain sailing. There's been a few bumps in the road, some steep learning curves and a number of very big decisions have had to be made along the way.

This is a conversation about his story and what he did to lift his business and ultimately his life from being in chaos to a place where his vision is aligned with his team and his clients. There’s synergy and happiness flowing in and out. He shares with us his strategy to achieve this flow and I think this is one of the most insightful conversations I’ve had so far on the podcast and I’m so grateful to Tony for sharing his story.

So this is me and Tony Chiapetta, talking about his life, setting the goal of studying at the University of Southern California and then having to tell his parents he didn’t want to become a doctor, setting up his IT business at the tender age of 23, making some tough decisions and his learnings along the way.

This is a conversation with someone who truly believed that what he was doing was absolutely the right thing to do and had the courage of his convictions to see it through. 

But ultimately this is about a guy from Southern California who has found that by being dedicated to serving his clients and by doing something you love it will bring you infinite rewards.

Please connect with Tony via the following channels:
Linked In
Website
Twitter

Thanks so much for listening, don't forget to share and leave a review. If you'd like to connect with me , that would be awesome just click here and all you need will be displayed gloriously before your eyes!

Steve
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Episode 29 is with the incredible magician, podcast host and leadership trainer Ricky Locke. 

To all of us in Ricky’s network we know that he’s one of life’s really decent, kind and funny people. He’s one of those people that you connect with immediately. Which is a good thing really because when you perform in front of strangers a lot – it helps to be able to build rapport straight away. 

But for those of you who don’t know Ricky he’s a man of many talents and tricks and this is really a chance to peer behind the bright lights of the magic circle, a select group of people that Ricky rightly and proudly belongs – and we catch a glimpse into the life of a young man who took a gamble on his talent. He took that leap of faith, as Steve Harvey said, he jumped off that cliff of life, pulled the chord and waited for his parachute to open. 

What he didn’t know was there was a worldwide pandemic around the corner and in the space of a few weeks his livelihood was swept from under his feet.

He started his superb podcast called Unlocked with Ricky Locke, he’d already built up a sizeable Youtube portfolio of videos and changed course to use technology to his advantage. 

So, this is me in conversation with Magician Ricky Locke talking about his life so far, it’s about being positive, it’s about showing up with optimism in your heart every day and it’s about having perspective and being connected with like-minded people.

Ricky is a really gifted, hard working guy, he always sees the best in people but ultimately this is about a talented man’s desire to align himself with his passion and just be happy.

You can connect with Ricky and I'd highly recommend it in the usual social plus his website is www.rickylocke.co.uk

Linked In
You Tube

Thanks so much for listening and spreading the word, I really appreciate it..
Stay well everyone
Steve
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Ex Navy Seal Commander Rich Diviney is my guest on the show. It was an incredible conversation and I really hope that you find some golden nuggets of insight to help you take your endeavours to the next level.

In a career spanning more than twenty years, Rich completed more than thirteen overseas deployments - eleven of which were to Iraq and Afghanistan. Being the officer in charge of training it led Rich to be able to identify a successful recruit’s core attributes – these are the innate traits for how a person performs as an individual or within a team.

It’s this knowledge and experience that led Rich to write his first book - The Attributes - 25 hidden drivers for optimal performance – if you go to The Attributes website you can take a test and see what attributes guide you and I would highly recommend you buy his book as well – I’ll put details in the show notes.

Rich is a true gentlemen, it was a real honour to have in on my podcast and I really hope that what we talk about in some way helps you identify what your attributes are and enable you to take your life to the next level.

So, this is me and navy Seal Commander Rich Diviney talking about life as a Navy Seal, it’s about:

• having the right mindset 
• Optimal not peak performance
• The power of humour and laughter 
• Never ever doubt yourself

But Ultimately this is all about one man’s desire to be the best he can be in all areas of his life, his need to keep challenging himself and to lead a life of discovery.

Website - The Attributes
What Are Your Attributes? Take the Assessment
You can connect with Rich on Linked In, Instagram & Facebook

Okay, I took the Attributes assessment and here are my results. I'd love to see what yours were. You can email me at thetravellingoptimist@gmail.com 

My Grit scores
Courage                (5.49) MEDIUM  
Perseverance       (4.52) MEDIUM       
Adaptability           (5.44) MEDIUM         
Resilience             (5.83) MEDIUM 

My Mental Acuity scores
Situational Awareness           (4.91) MEDIUM          
Compartmentalization           (6.28) HIGH       
Task Switching                      (7.71) HIGH         
Learnability                            (8.15) HIGH 

My Drive scores
Self Efficacy                (4.97) MEDIUM          
Discipline                    (5.6) MEDIUM       
Open Mindedness       (4.17) MEDIUM         
Cunning                      (4.95) MEDIUM 
Narcissism                  (4.8)  MEDIUM 

Take care everyone, choose optimism every day and be the best you can be.
Steve
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Hello everyone and welcome to the home of optimism, insight and uplifting stories.

Okay - When I started the podcast, almost a year ago, I wanted to be able to connect everyone who would listen with people who are doing extraordinary things and leading extraordinary lives to, in some way hopefully, inspire us all. 

Although he would never admit it, Thomas Kim is someone who is doing incredible things in a way that you’d never think is possible. Not everyone could take an ordinary car wash business and turn it into a co-operative and community hub that serves the community. Business aside - if anything can bring some perspective into our lives right now, Thomas’s incredible story will surely do it. 

His father left home when he was seven and left the family at a time that would have seen many children crumble. Nowadays, rightly or wrongly, the words resilience and strength are sometimes overplayed when describing people. But Thomas Kim knows exactly what those words mean. The events of the day his father left have weaved a golden thread through his life – He wouldn’t be where he is today If that hadn’t of happened. Thomas is one of those beautiful people who only see the good in things. Searching for positives in every situation.

Belief is a word that features heavily in his life. He has an unwavering belief in his faith, a jedi like belief in the power of lifting people and communities to a better life through gratitude and trust.

This belief was tested in the most tragic of ways, a way that no parent should ever be tested but out of tragedy came hope. Out of tragedy came a vulnerability and a deeper inner strength that he didn’t know he and his wife, Evelyn, had. 

This is a conversation about the kindest of humans, it’s about courage, vulnerability and hope. 

It’s about lifting people up, not knock them down. 

It’s a story about giving people a chance, terrible loss but more than anything it’s about living a wonderful terrible life.

Please do connect with Thomas via the channels below to find out more on the incredible covid cleaning technology he is using and the inspirational way he puts purpose over profit.
LinkedIn
Everclean website

Thanks so much for listening - don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Google.

We'll be back soon with another episode of the Travelling Optimist very soon.

Hello and welcome to the Travelling Optimist Podcast. I hope you are well and things are going fabulously. Whatever you are doing, I hope you are blazing a trail in these weird times.

Todays guest is the best parenting coach on the planet - Sue Atkins. Sue has been featured on the BBC, SKY, Channel 5 and various national radio stations. Sue is the Parenting Coach for Disney but my favourite description of Sue is that she is the 21st century Mary Poppins!
On top of that she a NLP Master Practitioner and EFT Practitioner too.

Sue talks about parenting skills and offers some tips to get through this era of corona virus if you have kids, but these insights are perfect for adults to use for themselves too. We all go on marketing and business courses all the time but we don't ever go on courses for the MOST important job of our lives - raising happy children!

You can reach out to Sue via her website www.sueatkinsparentingcoach.com
and Linked-In here.

I am so grateful to everyone for listening, thank you. Stay well so you can blaze a trail!
Hugs
Steve
x

Welcome to The Travelling Optimist Podcast with Steve Ody.

Simon Jordan is an all round top guy. He's mindfulness personified and has a deep understanding of his purpose in life.

Simon Jordan, best selling author, speaker, coach, entrepreneur and lover of wildlife and the planet, takes us on a journey from the Dorset coast in the UK to the mountains of the Himalayas. Via some incredible insight on how to lead a life full of abundance and in 'flow'.

We hear about his adventures from swimming in the Sea, we can't miss an opportunity to mention the amazing Wim Hof (The Ice Man), how optimism (obvs) has played a positive part throughout his life, a top tip on vodka and what was that about Yak dung Simon?

Interspersed with details of the #5thingsclear project a worldwide community of lovers of the planet, Plus news on a new book he has put together, celebrating the community of all weather sea swimmers that Simon belongs to - order a copy, all proceeds go to a mental health charity, https://westbaywildswimmingbook.co.uk/.

If you'd like to get in contact with Simon or order the excellent and free e-book '5 Steps to Creating a Powerful Brand' just click through to his website here.

The world has gone a bit bananas, please take care everyone.
Thanks for listening
Steve
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Please do subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon and leave me a review or rating, thank you so much.

if you have any examples of being in flow email us at thetravellingoptimist@gmail.com

Sometimes you can just get carried away in the moment can't you?

I found myself in need of a willing guinea pig, to help me with some new podcast equipment and test it all works. In to the breach, unknowingly, steps the incredible Richard Harvey from Pharian Ltd . It turned out to be the most lovely chat after finding out he got a 1st in English Language and Linguistics at University!

Never one to miss an opportunity and also to really make sure the new 'stuff' works, I asked him what the difference between descriptive and prescriptive language is. All of a sudden our IT guru Richard became very animated with hand gestures and thoughtful commentary, the like of which I never knew existed!

I do feel I lured him in a bit, sorry Richard, but I found his knowledge of the English language totally awesome! It was one of those serendipitous moments and I'm so glad he had the time to chat with me.

I hope you enjoy it everyone. Stay well and thank you so much for listening.

Please subscribe to the podcast and don't forget to give me a 5* rating please on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon. I am so grateful..
Hugs.   

This latest episode of The Travelling Optimist Podcast takes us, well me mainly, down memory lane and I talk to the lovely Sue Ricketts who was my very first boss in travel. We discuss all things Jetsave, careers and Sue shares with us a few tips for anyone starting their journey in to work, like I did way back in 1987. 
Sue really guided me perfectly on my journey with work, sales and travel. Those principles have helped me throughout out my career! Thanks Sue. 
Don't forget to subscribe and download the podcast on your player of choice and please do let me have any feedback you have about work, any tips you have or reminisce about your time at Jetsave!
Hugs
Steve
x

This is the last episode in the series of Corona beating podcasts. It's been such an enlightening experience and this last episode is a real beauty! Jim talks about some simple but effective ways to combat this difficult time we are experiencing and ways to feel great.
 
 "Hey everyone, how are you. How’s week two of the lockdown going? 

This first series of my podcasts has centred around giving you strategies to help you navigate these choppy waters, to steer a course for yourself and your loved ones that you wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so without this enforced period of sequestration

There’s no doubt the world will be a different place when we venture out of our cocoonment. What I truly hope is that everyone comes out of the other side with a different perspective on their life. Perhaps we will be more about community than self, more about talking than texting, more volunteerism over materialism. Whatever it is lets all make a decision to come out of this stronger and better. The show is afterall about optimism!

I have huge pleasure introducing someone that I’ve known for a few years now and really looked on in admiration his enthusiasm and zest for life, his business, his clients and genuinely is one of the nicest guys on the planet. He is one of those rare people that after just a moment with him you are immediately more optimistic and motivated. We’re going to delve a bit deeper and try to find out some of his secrets to a happy and healthy life

Jim passed out as a Royal Marines Commando in 2009. With a plan to only ever serve 4-5 years, he was, in his words, lucky enough to be quite busy during that period, serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan, along with training packages in Germany and Egypt.

About 9 months before he left, he attended open trials for the Great Britain Bobsleigh Team, having been a Sprinter in his youth, and spent every hour of the home stretch of his military career training, and became 1 of only 6 men and women to make the International Team, from the 130 that initially trialled that year.

2 years later, and having spent huge stretches of time out of the Country and competing for Team GB, Jim moved to East Grinstead, where he started ATLAS Fitness Conditioning, a functional fitness training business designed to help busy, working people build a great foundation of strength and fitness.

5 years on and ATLAS boasts a team of 6 amazing coaches. It’s these trusted coaches’ ability to hold down the fort that allows Jim to pursue his other passion - travel….."

Jim can be contacted through his website www.afconditioning.co.uk where you can claim your FREE 2 week unlimited class pass (subject to Corona restrictions)
 
To finish I would just like to say it’s been a huge privilege to have spoken to all of my last four guests and I hope that you have found their advice and help something that you can incorporate into your life during these tough times. I guarantee you will not regret it and you will be ready, ready to take on life when we come out of the other side of this virus.

Xavier Rudd wrote in his song,  Follow the Sun - “Tomorrow is a new day for everyone, brand new moon and a brand new sun”. Remember the sun has risen millions of times before you and I were here and it will after we’re gone, so in this microcosm of time that we have on this earth  LET'S make the most of it.

Stay safe, stay strong.
 Steve
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