Lisa summarizes Season 14, Defying the Odds, with reflections on the strategies shared and helpful recaps.

240 – Dr. Andrew Newberg

241 – Cin Fabre

242 – Tyler Denk

243 – Jim Fielding

244 – Dr. Valerie Daniels-Carter

245 – Simone Stolzoff

246 – Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg

247 – Andrew Barnes

248 – Jamila Souffrant

249 – Kevin Kelly

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Kevin Kelly is a modern creative pioneer. He was a polymath before it was cool. His career as a writer, founder, photographer, and editor extends across industries and continents. A world traveler and lifelong learner, Kevin’s ideas such as 1000 True Fans have inspired a generation of builders and artists to exercise full agency over their creative pursuits.

Kevin was on a short list of dream guests I’ve long held for Behind the Brilliance, and our conversation did not disappoint. He was candid and thoughtful as we covered a wide range of topics including career and life design, religion, decision making, unpopular opinions, and much more. This is an excellent listen for the dreamers, doers, and builders who want to hear the embodiment of integrating passion, purpose, and profit with thoughtful optimism. 

Behind His Brilliance: Luck + Not caring what others think

Say hi to Kevin on X (Twitter): @kevin2kelly

KEVIN KELLY | AUTHOR + CO-FOUNDER, WIRED

​​ Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is Excellent Advice for Living, a book of 450 modern proverbs for good living. He is co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, a membership organization that champions long-term thinking and acting as a good ancestor to future generations. And he is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. Other books by Kelly include 1) The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, 2) Out of Control, his 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems, 3) The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels, 4) What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and 5) Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia.  He is best known for his radical optimism about the future.

-the decision making framework Kevin developed over 5 decades of his career

-the inception and growth of WIRED

-why pursuing a range of interests can be more valuable than specializations (with important caveats)

-Kevin’s religious conversion and how it changed his life

-important reflections on leveraging and time management

-how a trip to Asia changed Kevin’s life

And much more!

THE SHOW

Jamila Souffrant’s expertise in personal finance is informed by her own experience turning financial uncertainty into financial freedom. She and her husband saved $169,000 in 2 years and redefined their future with smart money decisions. Now she’s guiding people from diverse backgrounds to more fulfilled lives through her personal finance podcast, Journey to Launch, and her new book, Your Journey to Financial Freedom.

​​Jamila’s work has been featured in Money Magazine, CNBC, and more. The Journey To Launch Podcast was listed by the NYTimes as a podcast to help you get better with your money.  

We covered a wide range of topics at the intersection of lifestyle and personal finance including creating financial independence, decoupling time and money, how to approaching spending vs saving vs earning, the specific mindset work that’s critical to the personal finance journey and much more. We touched on FIRE which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early which is a movement that targets building a nest egg and retiring to do what you’d prefer to do with your time whether that’s work that earns less, more time with family, or something else.

This episode is penultimate installment of our season long discussions around integrating work and life. Money is obviously a hufge part of that so this conversation helps to frame up our motivations for how much we work, what we work on, and what we do with our earnings.

THE GUEST

JAMILA SOUFFRANT | PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT + AUTHOR

​​Jamila Souffrant is the author of Your Journey To Financial Freedom: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Wealth and Happiness ((Hanover Square Press December 5, 2023) shares  and the host of the Journey To Launch podcast. She is a go-to thought leader in the personal finance field and her work has been featured in BuzzFeed, ESSENCE, Refinery 29, Money Magazine, CNBC, CBS, Business Insider and more. The Journey To Launch Podcast has over 4+ million total downloads and was listed by the NYTimes as a podcast to help you get better with your money.  Jamila and her husband saved $169,000 in two years. They live in Brooklyn, NY with their three children.

TOPICS COVERED

-the difference between financial independence and financial freedom and why it matters

-redefining luxury in non-monetary terms

-the necessity of simplicity on the journey to financial freedom

-age, regret, and keeping the journey in context

-how to create an effective spending plan

-Jamila’s hardest money lesson learned

-finding the balance between productivity and punishment

And much more!