Build Your Utopia

In episode 9 of Build Your Utopia, Josh and Ben dive in by discussing this past week in their personal lives. Ben and Josh both were at a wonderful wedding of Ben's sister-in-law. They both had a blast and had heaps of praise on how the wedding was conducted. Josh in particular really loved the levity of the wedding vs. some of the other stiffer weddings out there, notably Catholic weddings. (Josh is Christian, no knock on Catholicism) This past week was filled with another rock-solid, valuable guest for Utopians, Brandon Epstein of Entrepreneur Fitness. During this episode, Ben and Josh discuss how the episode impacted them and discuss several of the takeaways from that episode. (If you haven't listened to it, go here) Brandon was great, because he was relatable. Ben and Josh both stumbled out of the gates a bit in their early 20s, like Brandon. Brandon's belief in getting into a "flow state" is a challenging subject for both Ben and Josh. Ben, in particular, reflects in this episode on how hard it is for hi

Brandon Epstein is our honored guest on episode 8 of Build Your Utopia. Brandon is a leader in work performance optimization by optimizing emotional and health in his clients. He does this with his specialty in helping people get into a "flow state". He's also the CEO of Entrepreneur Fitness, is a former collegiate athlete, and former fitness model. In college is where he learned how to unlock certain "flow states" to help perform your best in different scenarios. The core principle of "flow" is mind body actualization – this is when your thoughts, your spirit and your mindset are all in complete harmony with your movements, your biology and your physiology.  He uses this consistently and effectively to make positive impacts on his client's emotional and personal health. This allows his clients to optimize their minds and body in unison so they can be their best. (If you want to learn more about a flow state, go read Brandon's article on his blog about flow states here) Brandon wasn't always focused on positi

In this episode of Build Your Utopia, Ben and Josh discuss this week's episode and review the stellar reviews received on iTunes. Earlier this week, Matt Maszczak of Balance is Bunk was on the show. This episode (listen to it here) did a great job of shining a light on what it is like to be an entrepreneur and how challenging it is to keep a work-life balance. Ben, in particular, really had an affinity for Matt's story (and sort of had a bromance with him since they both have an audio engineering background). Ben and Josh spoke about how Matt stated that life never stays in perfect balance. Also, they discussed how the balance of life is either seen as a pendulum or a scale. Here is what they were trying to break down, there are people that swing back and forth to extremes from working like a madman (or woman) one second to going to the extremes of enjoying life the next. These are people that look at work-life balance as a pendulum. Then, there are people that look at work-life balance as a scale and try to

On this episode of Build Your Utopia, we are delighted to talk to Matt Maszczak of Balance Is Bunk. This is an exciting episode as Matt has an opposite view (although not completely contradictory) to finding a balance between work and life. As an individual with extensive background in audio, sales, and construction, why would Matt leave that behind and start his own company debunking balance? Matt, Josh, and Ben discuss how hard it is to start something new. How do you know when your project is done before you present it to the world? Do you keep woking on it until it is perfect, or do you get out to the world when it is functional? Why would you want to purposefully unbalance your life? Can unbalance also help you build your utopia? Matt, Josh, and Ben talk about the other ways you can be successful. The path of high school to college to job to spouse to house to kids to sending the kids to school isn't the only path you can take. Mike Rowe WORKS is a great example of an alternate path. Matt has taken an im

In this episode of Build Your Utopia, Ben Thompson and Josh Marsden review this week's valuable content from John Allen Mollenhauer, an expert in Superfoods and Life Performance Optimization. This week's episode was very, very powerful.  If you haven't listened to it, listen to it here. During this episode, we discuss the long list of take-ways from that episode and how we personally feel about some of the wisdom dropped in John's interview. To start, we discussed how hard it is to juggle life when you run a business. As you may know, Josh Marsden, Co-Host of Build Your Utopia, runs ICE Accelerate Marketing Automation Services, a full featured digital marketing agency. Josh started his entrepreneurial journey in late 2012 and discusses how lonely the journey can be at times. If you have any interest in being an entrepreneur, prepare yourself for how alone it can feel at times. However, to quote John's interview "It's our true nature to move forward and not rest." Therefore, it's in our DNA to endure challenge

Today on Build Your Utopia, we had the honor of having John Allen Mollenhauer as our first guest.   For those of you that do not know about John, you are in for a real treat. John is a expert in every definition of the word in Superfoods and Life Optimization.   By definition, Superfoods are nutrient-rich foods that are considered to be beneficial for both health and well-being. John is a great advocate of following a plant-based diet with 80% plants. However, he wasn't always this way.   A former bodybuilder, at one point he was quite the opposite as you can imagine. His current philosophy came from years of abuse on his own body with high protein, highly-supplemented diets that led him to a path of discovery, research, education, and enlightenment.   This new found purpose led him to creating Nutrient Rich, a leader in Superfood Nutrition with a breadth of fantastic Superfood products.   John didn't stop there. He also co-wrote The Curse of the Capable with Dr. Arthur Ciaramicoli, a former instructor at Har

In today’s episode, we put our co-host Josh Marsden on the hot seat! You will find out what Josh’s personal Utopia is that he is aiming for, what makes him happy, and why. Like many single hard-working entrepreneurs, Josh is looking for that one person that makes him feel complete. The challenge is finding that one person when you are trying to run a successful company, it takes so much time! Josh loves two Benjamins, for good reasons. Find out what shaped Build Your Utopia’s other half in his early years and the struggles that he saw as a child that molded him to be a money-motivated, success-driven, Type A, hard working, ambitious man. As hard as it was for Josh to share this, he speaks about some of the the fights he saw as a child, how his relationship with his father impacts him today, and what he wants for his son, Benjamin. What you will find here are several examples of how Josh takes negatives throughout his life and turns them into positives. When college didn’t work out the first time, he partied..

Why would a successful, top representative at a Fortune 100 company want to start Build Your Utopia, a podcast about identifying and crushing your goals while maintaining your work-life balance? Ben Thompson, co-host of Build Your Utopia, is this guy. Call him the "no" man.. just kidding. He's just not the typically, politically-charged, "yes" man, that you find throughout most corporate crypts.. I mean settings. What does Ben love? What keeps him happy? In this episode all this is shared and more. During this first interview led episode, Ben shares with Utopians what his personal Utopia is. Does he want to live on a beach? Drink mojitos all day? What is Ben's personal Utopia? Find out about Ben's background that led to his current Utopia with his lovely wife, Tahnee. This is the same interview structure that you can expect in our future episodes with some truly remarkable people that we have coming on the show. Finally, find out what you should be looking for in love. Not that we are love doctors... As alway

Why did we create Build Your Utopia? Join us for today's very first episode as we discuss with you, our esteemed audience, why we created Build Your Utopia. This process took us several months of hard work, sweat, tears, and labor. However, because it meant so much to us, we didn't sweat it. In fact, we loved it because of how we believe in what the podcast can do for others, what it can inspire you to achieve, and how it can help you overcome the #1 challenge (in our humble opinions) as to why people fail to live fruitful, meaningful, and rich with content lives. What makes this show different from any others is how we are bringing on so many successful and inspirational guests, sometimes multiple guests all at once on the show. The entertainment value is phenomenal when you have multiple people discussing the same topic and we feel that brings something very unique to the podcasting world. You'll also find out in this episode how we created our interview structure, starting with how we came up with our Avat