20 Minutes with Bronwyn

Let's Talk About Gaslighting

In 1944, Ingrid Bergman starred in a film called Gaslight, for which she later won an Oscar. In case you've never seen it, Gaslight is a film about psychological abuse in the Edwardian age, but the behavior is so archetypal, so familiar, that the term has endured and is popular even NOW in 2020. Maybe even MORE so in 2020 than ever before.

I myself have been the target of gaslighting, but I’ve learned how to spot it, how to stop it, and how to fortify my own mind so that I’m not quite so vulnerable to it.

Today’s episode is focused on helping you to become Gaslight resistant … literate … averse.

Our Social Dilemma : My Conversation with Dr. Anna Lembke

I recently saw a Netflix documentary that rocked my world, and I'm guessing you've seen it too.

It’s called The Social Dilemma. Netflix describes it as a “documentary-drama hybrid” that explores “the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.”

What makes this film extraordinary is that it’s forcing us to face what we already know to be true about social media … That our mental health, our democracy, and our humanity are in the balance.

My guest today is Dr. Anna Lembke who you will recognize from the film, as she offered her wisdom on the addictive nature of social media. Dr. Lembke is an Associate Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine, Stanford’s School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.

In 2016, she published a best-selling book on the prescription drug epidemic, Drug Dealer, MD – How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop and is currently at work on a new book, out next year.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of this interview is when she discloses her own personal form of addictive behavior. You’re not gonna believe it. And I BLESS her for her vulnerability and openness.

Get ready. You’re gonna LOVE this conversation.

Why You Need a "Success Bully" : My Conversation with Keita Williams

I am thrilled for you to meet Keita Williams, professional butt-kicker and founder of Success Bully—an elite accountability practice dedicated to supporting high performing “Type A”s who are looking to take their great to GREATER. 

I talk to lots of performance coaches, but what interested me about Keita's work is the focus on systems of accountability. Research shows that if we set specific accountability appointments, goal accomplishment goes up to 95%. Success Bully merges this powerful combination of strategic goal setting and accountability for real action, and I am VERY interested in real action.

The Success Bully team has facilitated workshops for notable brands like: Amazon, Alley to the Valley, Apptio, DomainTools, Facebook’, Ladies Get Paid, Microsoft, Meredith Corp., PartnerTap, O’Reilly Media, and WeWork Labs.

So get ready and gird your loins. Because she’s about to kick butt, in the best possible way.

The Wood Between Worlds : Why You Need a Transition Ritual

If you’re like me, and so many people I work with, people are relying on you to bring your A game every single day. To the sales pitch. To the team meeting. To your family. To your community. The problem is that these days—unlike our pre-Covid lives—there are no natural transitions and breaks in the day. We don’t have the car ride to work.
The subway ride home. The shutting down of the laptop so we can pack up our bags and head home to sort out dinner.

It's the perfect storm for burnout, friends. In this episode, I share one of the most powerful practices for avoiding burnout, and why I think it's time each of us cultivated a proper Transition Ritual.

The Empathy Edge: My Conversation with Maria Ross

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”

That is a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and it speaks to something that has become quite top-of-mind for us these days: empathy.

The concept of empathy is finally enjoying some well-deserved attention in the zeitgeist right now. We are seeing the limits of a black/white, right/wrong view of the world. We crave connection and understanding not through judgement and confrontation, but through the lens of understanding … through the lens of empathy.

My guest today is Maria Ross, author of The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success, a Playbook for Brands, Leaders and Teams. In it, Maria shares some fantastic stories from executives, changemakers, and leaders of all stripes proving that empathy is not only good for us at a personal level, but that it is also great for business.

The Empathy Edge is full of practical tips, insights, and opportunities to exercise empathy, and I am thrilled to bring you this conversation with Maria Ross.

How to Communicate with Mastery : My Conversation with JD Schramm

Have you ever met someone and just known you were going to become friends?

That’s exactly what happened to me when I met my guest today, the amazing JD Schramm. JD and I met when I was doing the speaker coaching for the TEDxStanford program, and immediately connected. JD founded the Mastery in Communication Initiative at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he’s served as a lecturer in Organizational Behavior for 13 years. JD has given not one but TWO TED Talks, which have nearly 2 million views. And earlier this year, before Covid hit, he launched a new book into the world called Communicate with Mastery: Speak with Conviction and Write for Impact.

The book is so helpful, so practical, and so filled with great stories, I wanted to bring him on to talk about it.

In Pursuit of Pleasure

A few years ago, I was in a 1:1 coaching session with a very bright young woman who came to our session with a very specific communication problem: She felt she lacked “presence” in the room.

Jane and I worked on lots of different ways to show up in the room … ways to signal her power, her strength, her intelligence. Ways of replacing the negative thought patterns she was telling herself about herself and about the people with whom she was meeting. But one of the pieces of advice I gave her made her do a double take.

I asked her: what do you to bring pleasure and joy into your life? In this episode, I make my case for the connection between "presence" and our commitment to cultivating pleasure and joy in our lives.

The Art of Reinventing Yourself: My Conversation with Nick Onken

It seems every week, I hear of a new round of layoffs, and more talented people losing their livelihoods. It's tempting to feel helpless, hopeless, and at the mercy of circumstances way beyond our control. But my guest today has the kind of perspective and advice we need now more than ever ... the value of changing the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Meet Nick Onken, a photographer who has shot celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Gerard Butler, Jessica Alba, and entrepreneurs like Tony Robbins, Jay Shetty, Todd Herman, Latham Thomas, Gabby Bernstein, and Lewis Howes. But he’s also a … wait for it… hat maker AND podcast host. If you need a shot of inspiration, Nick has so much to say about creativity and staying in flow, despite what may or may not be happening all around you.

Eyes Wide Open

Usually, when I plan a podcast episode for you, I plan it from the highest possible vibe I can offer. I pray. I meditate. I call forth my highest self. I create a mental state of Xanadu. It’s where I believe all of the juice is. All of the real inspiration. If I’m honest, I think I’m attached to a self-concept that is dependent on being positive all the time. But this is a season of life that is calling us not to be relentlessly positive, but rather, relentlessly open and awake.

"I'm a Black Man First, Journalist Second" : My Conversation with Deion Broxton

At the beginning of this Coronavirus nightmare, as we sat isolated in our houses glued to screens, we craved laughter. We craved moments of humanity, of humor. My guest today gave us just that. You are about to meet Deion Broxton, a reporter with NBC affiliate KMTV, who became an overnight celebrity when a clip of his went viral for an unintentional moment captured on film … the moment when he faced down a herd of bison. The video has been viewed over 11 million times … And it is hilarious. But I wondered what the backstory was. Not just the bison backstory, but Deion’s backstory. But I wondered what the backstory was. Not just the bison backstory, but Deion’s backstory. Tune in, and meet the man behind the moment.