The Ambitious Sloth Podcast

Luuk Hartsema, UI/UX developer at Spindle talks to me about his perspectives on leadership, altruism and being privileged. He tells stories of his travels in South Africa, how that shaped his view on the privilege he has and how he fulfils his leadership position. 

In my opinion, a very humble and generous man with a sense of purpose and doing good in the world. 

ROWING SOLO ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN  Julen Sánchez is on his way to making a difference for our planet. He got me inspired by just listening to his plan of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, by himself for 8000km and additional 4000km on his bicycle to get from Paris to Pittsburgh. We talk about how a “normal” psychology student gets the idea of doing something only a few people have done before, his journey behind it and how small seemingly coincidental situations can be a starting point of taking on a life-changing adventure. 



In short: “He is going to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean to raise money for Sustainability Charities.” 

If you find this inspiring or a good cause check out his links and share them with a friend who’d like that too. 

"You are one of the most determined and consistent persons!" That the quote that describes Chris probably the best. This recipe helped him to grow his podcast to 40.000 downloads/month (Entrepreneur Motivation Podcast) and is the thing that comes naturally to him. He is extremely good at making a consistent effort and also tracking it properly to keep this up. After that recording, I also started again to track my efforts and worked on my productivity. So if you need some inspiration for that, he is your guy.

Another of his superpowers is his flow of speaking. It seems almost like a trivial thing but the ability to speak without any ehms makes just such a difference in listening to him. I know how tough that can be especially when you want to make it "perfect" for podcasting or really any speaking gig. 

This episode was a podcast swap so I also talk about my Vipassana Meditation experience in Nepal and struggles with my own goalsetting. 

In this episode we talked about how Frank made his way from an orphanage to a serial entreprenerd, the purpose of his online hustle and somehow ended up talking about dating. This fun interview is for everyone interested in new technologies, bitcoin and how to make money with it, dating for introverts and for those who are interested in the meaning of life and superpowers. 

Frank Oonk was born as an orphan in Jakarta Indonesia, learned how to code, compose, animate and design since he was 8. Started one of the first VR/IoT/Software companies of the Netherlands when he was 29 and sold it to VolkerWessels Telecom. Now he is 36, a dad and a "serial entreprenerd" and investor. But the most important thing to him is that all of this is to give others more possibilities and to spend time with his daughter. 

JUST 5MIN/DAY OF SILENCE CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Regina Larko is a Viennese living in Hong Kong, audio addict, passionate about social impact, a working mom who tries to keep it all together. Somehow managing, with lots of strong coffee along the way :-) She is also a TEDx speaker, podcast host and a huge change maker in the podcasting business in HK.

At first, we talked about the challenges one has while doing a podcast and how we deal with them. Later, we jump into the topic of mindfulness, meditation, journaling, what happens when you start being still and observe what's going on inside of you.

INSPIRE PEOPLE. A doctor who loves to inspire people with my story. My life is full of events that I initially considered as failures. But they seem to catapulted me to where I am right now. I realized that these events taught me a lot of lessons. So they're not failures but learnings.

Rainier is a specialist for genomic medicine in cancer research while he tries to inspire people and make them aware of the importance of self-love, gratitude and self-worth as fundamental ingredients for a beautiful life. 

Max Elster, talked about the importance of relationships in business, that he wants to be remembered for as being supportive and shared his most important values in life. 

EVERYTHING IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING, so am I. The change in season is mainly due to my personal development but this necessarily also changes the style of the podcast. The topics go deeper, the focus is more towards the person and really getting to know their perspective on things like love, death, values, fulfilment and purpose. We got a lot more into the conversation that means I also share more of my perspectives on those topics.

"Let's talk about deep sh*t!" is one of the ways you could describe the new season with.

I hope you enjoy this developed form of the podcast and get some value out of it. My goal with this podcast is to make you rethink your previous life about what makes you happy, fulfilled and give you a sense purpose. I think those topics are barely discussed even though they are essential for a happy life. 

If you don't know what you are aiming for, you are certainly going to miss. 

TITLE EXPLANATION IN MIN 41!
Sophia works as a life & mindset coach and helps millennials to create a new life path to live with more self-confidence, clarity and zest for life.

Living in China, working in a startup and having a perfect life, she felt tortured and lost at the same time. After diving deep into personal development and solo travelling through Mexico, she decided to take a leap of faith and studied to become a life coach.

She strongly believes that every single one of us is creating their reality with their own thoughts. It’s her mission to help people around the world to step from the victim into the creator mentality.

MATCH YOUR PASSION WITH YOUR COMPETENCIES. Werner is one of the most ambitious people I met during my studies and now created his startup to have an impact on people’s life. He created this company to educate businesses on their carbon emission footprint and all this triggered by profound experience in South Korea. We also discussed his view on becoming happy and to contribute to something bigger than yourself.

His 3 big lessons are:
Find what is the core value you want to create.
Contribute to something bigger than yourself.
Connect the heart with the head.

SEE YOUR OWN VALUE. Dorothée Loorbach is a speaker, coach, writer and entrepreneur. A couple of years ago she was completely broke, however, through a great idea and the determination to solve the problem she uncovered her false beliefs about money, the limiting belief about her self-worth and how to deal with fear. Also topics like her ayahuasca-experience. Her 3 big truths are:

Value yourself.  
Breath.  
Take the first step despite the fear.  

SEE YOUR OWN VALUE. Dorothée Loorbach is a speaker, coach, writer and entrepreneur. A couple of years ago she was completely broke, however, through a great idea and the determination to solve the problem she uncovered her false beliefs about money, the limiting belief about her self-worth and how to deal with fear. Also topics like her ayahuasca-experience. Her 3 big truths are:
Value yourself.  
Breath.  
Take the first step despite the fear.  

The Story Behind The Ambitious Sloth

Why should you listen to my podcast if you don’t even know me? Even if you do it’s not quite clear.

So the reason why I started was not very exciting, I just liked to talk to people I find interesting. However, that quickly grew and developed into the theme of people who overcame some incredible adversity or limiting believes. Something I struggled with back in the old school days as well. I was genuinely convinced of not being smart enough to get through this.

Luckily, very slowly a change started right after I graduated. Now, about 4 years later I seem to be in a good direction of dealing with it. But if that works with this belief, I’m sure it works with much more! That’s why I seek the experience from others who have done much more than I did to get inspired by what is possible.

Since that worked for me incredibly good I’d like to share those experiences and stories with others they get a new perspective and might start a change as well.

And, let’s be honest we all have some thoughts telling us we can’t do something or telling us we are not good at something.

This is a new episode of the Ambitious Sloth Podcast! This episode is a bit different and not everybody might be super interested in Buddhism but as you’ll hear later on, my guest Anthony has actually super interesting perspectives taken from Buddhism and put into the so called “normal” life and even though he is a Buddhism teacher he super down to earth and practical. So I really enjoyed the months I stayed in Hong Kong with the constant visits in the buddhism center and the people I met there. But now let’s just get into the episode you can hopefully learn about the concepts of the mind in Buddhism and the impermanence of things and how it might actually help you in your daily life.

Listen until the end! There is something special 😉

Structure:

• What do you think people generally think about Buddhism?
• In a sentence, what is your description of Buddhism?
• What is the concept of mind and awareness?
• What role does impermanence play in Buddhism?
• How do you implement it in your daily life?
• What could people do to try it out?

This is a new episode of the Ambitious Sloth Podcast! This episode is a bit different and not everybody might be super interested in Buddhism but as you’ll hear, later on, my guest Anthony has actually super interesting perspectives taken from Buddhism and put into the so-called “normal” life and even though he is a Buddhism teacher he super down to earth and practical. So I really enjoyed the months I stayed in Hong Kong with constant visits to the Buddhism centre and the people I met there. But now let’s just get into the episode you can hopefully learn about the concepts of the mind in Buddhism and the impermanence of things and how it might actually help you in your daily life.

Listen until the end! There is something special 😉

Structure:

• What do you think people generally think about Buddhism?
• In a sentence, what is your description of Buddhism?
• What is the concept of mind and awareness?
• What role does impermanence play in Buddhism?
• How do you implement it in your daily life?
• What could people do to try it out?

The fun, knowledgeable and wise chef without stomach told me how his perspective on life changed due to his severe stomach cancer and what he is now doing to help others achieve a similar mindset change! He is also a television show host in Georgia in which he lives the example of a simple yet healthy diet even without having a stomach. Additionally, he gives many tips on how to easily adopt a good diet and always blends in with his fun and enthusiastic personality! It was a great pleasure to interview him and hope he can reach many more to establish his perspective of life!

Summary:

1. How did you get the German name "Hans Rueffert"?
2. An old lady asks: "What do you do to pay my pension?"
3. How was Hans 1.0 (before cancer)?
4. What did it feel like being the old Hans?
5. What was the first that crossed your mind when you heard you had cancer?
6. How does nutrition affect your body?
   Julia Enders author of "Gut"
   Probiotics
   
7. Food cravings
8. See your healthy diet as a savings account
   How did you get the mindset established?
   
9. If you get annoyed by the traffic, just turn on your favourite song on the radio!
10. 3 Life lessons:
    Slow Down!
    Being Mindful
    Quality over Quantity
    

------
Important Links:

Emile Nijssen, the tech unicorn, is Co-founder of Athom.com and keeps pushing him and his team forward to innovate and create new products that make life easier, more sustainable and more fun. He is constantly having new ideas and wants to know everything from the smallest coding line to the macro marketing vision. Listen to the inspiring interview with Emile after which you'll also want to have such a smart home like he has!