A special episode of Taking the Leap where I discuss my challenges with the Holiday Season, finding our way to self-care, my new podcast and the upcoming Season 2 of Taking the Leap!

Show notes at: seanhoward.ca/19

Ramey Barnett is one of the smartest, funniest and most fiery people I know. But I was still floored when she and her wife quit their jobs and took a year to find themselves. The year is up and they are not going back. We talk about courage, their journey and how to take control of our lives.

Show notes at: seanhoward.ca/18

Terry was one of the people who inspired me to become a writer. He walked away from NASA at 50 and turned to writing an epic science fiction series that is now generating enough revenue that Terry is considering becoming a full-time writer. We talk about fearing rejection, finding your audience and the myth of "overnight success."

Show notes at: seanhoward.ca/17

This week I am speaking with Charlotte Eriksson, otherwise known as The Glass Child. She is a poet, writer, storyteller, musician and artist. We are speaking about her first book, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles. This book starts with her leaving home at 18 and choosing to live on the streets of London in order to follow her purpose. I love her story. 

I adored Charlotte's epic and heart-tugging story in her lovely book, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: In Search for the Great Perhaps.

Show notes at: seanhoward.ca/16

This week I am speaking with Otto Scharmer – senior lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management, co-founder of the Presencing Institute, founding chair of the MIT IDEAS Program, social innovator and an amazing facilitator of personal, organizational and societal change. We speak about stillness, transformation, and his latest book, Leading from the Emerging Future.

show notes: seanhoward.ca/15

This week I am speaking with prop stylist, world traveler, gardener and photography fiend Chelsea Fuss. She is a childhood friend and has a very successful lifestyle blog called Frolic. Then one day she announced she was shutting all this down and heading overseas to work on farms in trade for her room and board. Two weeks later, she was on the journey of a lifetime. 

Show notes: seanhoward.ca/14

I am totally an adult-onset writer and Ann Handley's Everybody Writes totally turned my life around. I went from being deathly afraid of writing to actually writing and releasing my first book. Ann Handley's book made this totally possible for me. As artists, we have to learn how to market ourselves and our work and this often means writing – whether thats product listings, websites, scripts, brochures and more.

Show notes: seanhoward.ca/13

This week I am speaking to Laura Packer about experiencing and facing soul-crushing grief. We recorded this a few months before the one year anniversary of the loss of her soul-mate and husband Kevin. A date that just passed the week before this post went live.

I first came across Laura’s writing when I read a post on her blog about what not to say to someone who is grieving. I began to follow her on her journey and I can't thank her enough for being so open to sharing her vulnerability, wisdom and love with me.

Show notes: seanhoward.ca/12

What a joy to have Eric Portelance in front of a microphone again. We used to host Attention Surplus together and I was so excited to learn about his latest epic leap. We discuss what it feels like to announce our purpose to the world, how people respond and finding the courage to find and pursue our craft.

Please note that there is some swearing in today's show.

Show notes: seanhoward.ca/11

I've been following Deb's podcast for some time. She speaks of the things that matter to our hearts, our soul and our planet. Since this recording, I was able to spend a day with her and her two dogs laughing, walking and exploring these topics even more. I can't thank Deb enough for all that she has shared. We're speaking about her Status Quo Crusher Revolution manifesto, pain as a gateway to our purpose and living in love not fear.

Note: there is an instance of swearing in today's show. 

This week I am speaking with Richard Derham. Richard is a Canadian lawyer and the principal of Derham Law. We are speaking about his journey and the social enterprise he launched to help at-risk youth. We spend quite a bit of our talk answering the legal questions you submitted.

This week I am speaking with musician, web developer and urban exploration photographer extraordinaire, Chris Luckhardt. We are talking about slowing down, finding lost passions and dealing with interests that grow beyond being hobbies. Chris outs himself in two surprising ways in this episode.

I had decided to walk away from photography, but I had these tickets to attend After Dark in St. Louis. This would be my last hurrah. Or so I thought until I met Brooke Shaden. She showed me that fine art photography was within my reach. Over those three days, she would show me how to transform my photography. I am far from alone when I say that Brooke Shaden changed my life. She has a community of hundreds of thousands who would likely chime in with similar stories. 

Note that this was recorded in December of 2014. When we refer to next year, we are speaking of this year (2015).

Time for me to come clean. I totally have a man crush on David duChemin and not just because he is one of the most talented, giving and purpose-driven photographers on the planet. His book changed my life. I was in the process of shutting down my photography studio and getting a "real job" when I happened to read his latest book, How to Feed a Starving Artist. It gave me the confidence to choose the harder path, re-focus my photography business and launch this podcast. David and I talk about life choices, pricing and forgetting that the rules even exist.

P.S. David has written more than two books. I was just giddy with excitement to be speaking with David.