The Main Character Podcast with Zan Bennett: Recent Episodes
Zan Bennett
Conversations with interesting people about passion, the adventures of life, and the many perspectives on the pursuit of happiness and success.
Daniel and Zan talk about how to make an impactful life through changing how you see the world.
Show notes:
- Introduction to Designing Life
- The Importance of Conscious Life Choices
- Life Changes and Insights
- The Art of Friendship
- Cultural Differences in Social Interactions
- Choosing the Right City for You
- The Impact of Environment on Lifestyle
- Venture Capitalist Advice
- Finding Depth in Your Locale
- The Role of Adventure in Life
- Decision Making, Intuition, and Leadership
- Closing Thoughts
Hand-picked frameworks that have personally helped us in life, and that we hope may help you.
0:00 - Intro
1:20 - The grass is greener mindset
3:40 - Don't make decisions when angry
5:10 - The 3-second rule for taking action
6:40 - Circle of competence
8:10 - 80/20 rule
9:30 - Attachment styles in relationships
12:20 - Do things that don't scale
13:50 - Map is not the territory
15:30 - $1000/hr test for priorities
17:00 - Turning work into play
18:40 - Big T and Little T traumas
20:10 - No 7 mindset
21:30 - It's not being wrong that's bad, it's not knowing
23:20 - Focus on what interests you
24:30 - Having agency in your life
Life's most intriguing 'what ifs', challenging listeners to rethink setbacks, success, and self-perception.
Floating within an infinite space, we tend to look for a given "meaning". Yet many of the most fascinating among us craft our own purpose along the way. Through science and philosophy, this podcast liberates us from prescribed meaning. Our choices, not the void, shape our fleeting lives. This is a practice of shaping a perspective to define significance through boldly exercising agency in impermanence.
- Introduction
- Humans' brief existence compared to Earth's history
- Dinosaurs' lengthy reign on Earth
- Earth's age since formation
- When life began on Earth
- Human genetic similarity
- Human population bottlenecks
- Current population vs Earth's history
- Visualizing 8 billion people
- Visualizing population growth
- Optimistic nihilism and creating meaning
- Agency vs determinism
- Quantum physics hints at free will
- Embracing life's brevity while defining meaning
A framework to build a vision for your career, finding love, and building the life you want.
Practical frameworks to understand what growth strategies work depending on your business type. I have worked as an operator and strategist helping dozens of companies deploy strategies to scale, everything from startups that have yet to decide on their product, to companies worth billions in enterprise value.
This podcast is a high-level, beginner's manual to thinking about playbooks for growth.
Add me on LinkedIn here
The time I bought a one-way ticket to Australia, a dangerous situation at a shipwreck, and some life lessons that shaped me.
This is a solo podcast by Zan where he discusses "The Winning Mindset" uncovering the raw, honest truths about success with authentic, real-world strategies.
Let's face reality, together.
Welcome to the main character podcast, where we dive deep into the quest for happiness and how to achieve balance in our lives. In today's episode, we explore the delicate balance between ambition, legacy, and personal fulfillment. We'll unravel the enigma of living a life that outlives us, yet remains grounded in the present moment.
Follow Daniel on LinkedIn here.
Zan discusses the mindset of success. In this episode, he uses the example of 'how to think about pursuing your vocation' and walks you through both the frameworks he would use and specific examples. This is a great episode to listen to if you are considering a career shift or are wondering where to start on a personal journey and would like to hear about a structured, and battle-tested approach.
@maincharacters.us
Sam does things differently. He tells his story, of growth and overcoming the odds. He shares with us how he was completely broke and in a month made over $100,000 by seeing something no one else saw. We discuss the many definitions of self and of success and how the answer to happiness is not getting what you want, but eliminating the "want" in the first place.
You may follow Sam on Twitter at @sam_feldman_
Josh talks about starting a business at a young age and the career path it leads him down. We talk about the importance of setting a goal in life and working towards the things that really matter.
If you would like to reach Josh, you can't.
But send me a message and I will make sure it gets to him.
Julia has a wonderful way to see the world. We talk about many things, including her life and the path that lead her to a job she loves in a city full of people she cares about. We talk about living a life where luck happens more often and how assigning meaning to everyday things can create a world full of purpose and positive reminders.
Follow Julia on Instagram: @juliayano or on LinkedIn
Lili talks about life growing up in Mexico City, the pros and cons of traveling, and why she chases orcas around the world.
Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgarzon/
Hannah tells her story of traveling the world. We discuss life-changing moments, type-2 fun, and our visions of the future. Hannah is one of the rare wonderful people that speaks with her heart. She's a connector, a visionary, and an adventurer to the core.
Kelly Conway is a friend and a mentor of mine. When he was 27 his wife was pregnant with twins and he took out a second mortgage on his house to start a business. Kelly developed into a world-class salesman, a seasoned CEO, and a compassionate leader. He sold his first business for tens of millions, then built and sold his second business for 4X his first. In this podcast, we talk about what it means to find your vocation, what it takes to be a leader, and strategies to build a world-class team.
Keith talks about setting ambitious goals, learning and growing throughout life, taking more risks, and getting over the fear of failure.
Daniel lives in Lisbon, Portugal, and works remotely as a professional personal finance writer. His articles regularly get tens of thousands of views and he has learned the art of monetizing an audience through writing content. We discuss specific frameworks, how to get started, and the journey of hacking a digitally remote lifestyle.
Daniel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dschoester/
Daniel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dschoes/?hl=en
Jessica tells her story of incredible fortitude, strength, and perseverance from overcoming anxiety to being lost in a broken healthcare system to finding her vocation and building frameworks that have guided her towards a path of happiness and success.
Jessica on Twitter: @jlynn_mills
Jessica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicalmills/
Hannah and I met in a coliving house in 2021 in Austin, Texas. We talk about what it's like to move to a new city, the path to reinventing yourself, and the many stories and tribulations of figuring out what life is all about.
Eleah and I talk about her life growing up in a cult and what it was like to forge a life of independence and generally the adventures of life.
Keith Hodges is an engineer who recently quit his job to travel the world. Kait Norris and Avery Meeker are a couple who have been traveling through national parks in a custom-built van on the tail end of a trip around the world. Kait works for HR of a popular European dating app. Avery is an ornithologist (a scientist that studies birds) and an entrepreneur, launching the world's first bird-friendly small-batch coffee company, Big Year Coffee. In this podcast, we discuss gun rights, government programs that train crows, and the meaning of consciousness.
EPISODE LINKS:
- Big Year Coffee: https://bigyearcoffee.com/
- Gun Statistics in the United States: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/
- Facts about Crows: https://corvidresearch.blog/faqs-about-crows/
PODCAST INFO:
- Podcast website: https://www.zanbennett.com/
Lio Slama is a french architect, an artist, and the CEO and founder of AskNeo, a New York tech company that is building more authentic communication tools for B2C businesses. In this podcast, we discuss his life, from what it was like growing up in France, to becoming the head Architect for the International Labor Organization, a part of the United Nations, then going to Columbia University, and how that drove him to start his own SaaS startup.
EPISODE LINKS:
- Lio Slama’s website: http://lioslama.com/
- Lio Slama’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lioslama/
- AskNeo’s website: https://askneo.io
PODCAST INFO:
- Podcast website: https://www.zanbennett.com/
Scott King is the founder and chief climate advocate of Mission Zero. He is building a movement to address climate change. He is also one of the founders of Ready Talk, a full-stack cloud communications platform that was sold in 2018.
EPISODE LINKS:
- Scott King’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-king-boulder/
- Mission Zero's website: https://missionzero.io/
PODCAST INFO:
- Podcast website: https://www.zanbennett.com/
Paul Grignon is a climate change advocate, and COO of Mission Zero. His early career in the oil industry led him down a path towards renewable energy and the fight against climate change. Paul speaks with passion, knowledge, and often frustration on the economic consequences of our current energy system.
EPISODE LINKS:
Paul & Kelly Grignon's GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/5f66742c
Paul Grignon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-grignon-31921b1a7/
Mission Zero's website: https://missionzero.io/
Documentary "Here Comes the Sun": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://www.zanbennett.com/