Episodes

Jeff Sanders is a productivity coach, personal development junky, and avid trail runner. He has completed six competitive marathons, two 50k ultra-marathons, two half marathons, and two 200-mile team relay races. Jeff writes and speaks through his blog and podcast about healthy habits, personal development, high energy, and rockin’ productivity. He also eats a lot of bananas. Make sure to check out Jeff’s Podcast: The 5AM Miracle. Please connect with me Subscribe, rate, and review in iTunes F...

Will Henshall and Jeff Straw of Focus at Will join Erik this time to talk about listening to the right kind of music to achieve better focus. Focus at Will is a new neuroscience based music service that helps you focus, reduce distractions and retain information when working, studying, writing and reading. The technology is based on hard science and proven to be extremely effective at extending your attention span. References in this episode: Focus at Will The Pomodoro Technique Please connec...

Mike Vardy is the Chief and founder of Productivityist, where he writes, speaks, coaches and podcasts on productivity and more. Mike and Erik cover a lot in this episode, and even mention their favorite Task Management Tool: ToDoist. ToDoist even generously has given Erik 5 premium accounts to give away. All given away! Mentioned in this episode: Podcast Movement Greg Hickman ToDoist Chase Reeves – Mike’s on Mic’s Scott Dinsmore – Live Your Legend Brett Kelly Assessing projects Don’t Just Shi...

Farnoosh Brock is a multi-passionate entrepreneur. She escaped her cushy 11-year corporate career to start her own company. Today she is a speaker, author, green juice expert, Ashtanga yogini, globe trotter, and oh yeah, just hired hubby into our company. This is her second full episode, and third appearance on the show overall. Make sure to go back and listen to her first episode, and the special 50th episode on tools she was a part of. This time, Farnoosh is back, and we talk about her new bo...

Brett Kelly writes about technology, efficiency, business and Evernote. You can spend hours and hours of your precious free time on experimentation and trial-and-error, trying to find the best way to make Evernote work for you. Or you can pick up Evernote Essentials and learn from the expert in an afternoon. In fact Brett used to work at Evernote until just recently. Mentioned in this episode: Evernote essentials Direct from Brett, Kindle, iBooks File This Fetch Eddie Smith Macdrifter Omnifoc...

Derek Coburn is the Co-founder of Cadre and a catalyst for connecting remarkable people. Derek is now a newly published author of Networking Is Not Working: Stop Collecting Business Cards and Start Making Meaningful Connections. Born out of Derek’s frustration with having spent thousands of fruitless hours attending traditional networking events, this book offers fresh, effective, unconventional strategies for growing and nurturing a powerful network. Mentioned in this episode: How to Use Netw...

Allison Vesterfelt quit her full time job to chase her dream of becoming a writer. Since that point she can’t help but write about what it looks like to live with less; to give up the things that aren’t important so she can chase the things that are. Allison’s book Packing Light is about just that. Inspired by the courage of a friend, and the story of The Rich Young Ruler from the Gospels, she decided to quit her full-time job, move out of her apartment, sell nearly everything she owned and spe...

Paul Jun is a writer and author at Motivated Mastery. He is all about connecting the dots between subjects like mastery, psychology, technology, philosophy, culture, self-awareness, and developing an understanding through self-education. Unstimulated by traditional education, Paul was motivated to study subjects that were practical to his goals and growth. He became a voracious reader and learned to used the (growing) resources available to facilitate his education. He connects the dots to impr...

Hugh Culver shows people how to work smarter and live better. As a teacher and mentor for other experts (speakers, seminar leaders, authors, and coaches) he helps entrepreneurs to serve more people, sell more products, and succeed more than they ever thought possible. As a professional speaker, he challenges people to drop their stories, plan better and take action everyday to lead an effective life. Hugh was also a professional adventure guide, ironman and marathon competitor, and a university...

Chris Brogan is Publisher and CEO of Owner Magazine, a business magazine helping you improve your worth by growing your capabilities and connections. He is the New York Times Bestselling author of six books and counting, including The Impact Equation, with Julien Smith. He lives in northern Massachusetts, where he frequently plays Minecraft with his kids. Make sure to listen to the first time Chris was on the show. The publish date of this episode is also Chris’s 44th Birthday. Happy Birthday Ch...

Claire Diaz-Ortiz returns to the show to share tips to stay sane in an all access, always on age. Claire first visited the show to talk about The Present Principle. Claire was an early employee at Twitter, where she was hired to lead social innovation, and where she still works today. She is also a speaker, author, blogger, and has two new books out: Greater Expectations: Succeed (and Stay Sane) in an On-Demand, All-Access, Always-On Age Hope Runs: An American Tourist, a Kenyan Boy, a Journey o...

Tony DiLorenzo and his wife Alisa created ONE Extraordinary Marriage to educate, entertain, encourage, and inspire people to have mind-blowing intimacy in their marriages. Tony & Alisa are experienced marriage coaches, podcasters, and speakers. They specialize in helping time-crunched couples take action and enjoy the sex, love, and commitment they desire in their marriage. Being fit and healthy and the associated intimacy it brings to their relationship have helped Tony and Alisa through good ...

Chris Ducker was working 14-hour days, six days a week, spending very little time with family and working ‘in’ his business, instead of ‘on’ it and was tired in every possible way. He’s come a long way since then, creating the new business Virtual Staff Finder, the New Business Podcast, and his new book – Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business. He’s also released a podcast series that corresponds to the new book. I...

Dustin Riechmann is the creator of the site Engaged Marriage, where he seeks to help you live a married life you love. Dustin Riechmann is just a normal guy with a passion for marriage and life and a knack for helping others achieve big things. He’s an engineer by trade, and tries to be a good husband and a mostly patient Dad to his three great kids. Dustin and Erik are doing a live online workshop and recording called “How to Enjoy More Quality Time & Be Super Productive as a Couple”. Sign up ...

Jim Woods is a Writer, Coach, and Instigator. He is the co-author of ‘Ready Aim Fire! – A Practical Guide to Making and Achieving Goals’. The book is also co-authored by the host of this podcast, Erik Fisher. In this more raw episode than usual, Erik and Jim talk a bit about personal productivity struggles, how life is seasonal, the need to simplify, and why they rebranded their 1st book a few months after it’s release. Referenced in this episode: Derek Webb‘s appearance on the Life in the Woo...

Merlin Mann is an Independent Writer, Speaker, and Broadcaster at MerlinMann.com and Cohost of Back to Work Podcast on the 5 by 5 Podcast Network with Dan Benjamin. You can find Merlin’s previous appearance on this podcast here. Covered in this episode: Back to Work Episode 153: ‘Anxiety’s a Goat‘ Getting Things Done by David Allen ©DavidCo, 2001. The unknown inboxes out there that we don’t know about that keep us up at night The inboxes we have accepted Being sober about acknowledging the...

Donald Miller is all about story. He is the author of several books, including multiple New York Times Best Sellers. Donald is also the founder of Storyline, an organization that helps people live better stories. He’s helped thousands overcome a sense of meaninglessness by helping them create their Storyline life plan. If you’re struggling with a sense of meaningless, pick up Storyline today. After studying story for years and successfully using the elements of story to engage customers, Don cre...

David Sparks is an Orange County, California business attorney, geek, podcaster on the Mac Power Users podcast, blogger, and author who writes about finding the best tools, hardware, and workflows for using Apple products to get work done. David also writes for Macworld magazine and speaks about technology. Mentioned in this episode: Unclutter Drafts Publishing on the iBooks Store Why Email Isn’t Work. (And Why It Is) by Claire Diaz-Ortiz The Mac Sparky Field Guides Series must be good.It lo...

Crystal Paine is the founder of the popular blog MoneySavingMom.com. The mission of the blog is talking about Intentional Finance, Intentional Family, and Intentional Business. Her new book Say Goodbye to Survival Mode is aimed as a help to the super busy, the stressed out, and the overtired. In it, she gives you ways to: Feel healthier and more energetic by setting priorities and boundaries Eliminate stress with savvy management of your time, money, and home Get more done by setting realist...

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of four books including his most recent, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average & Do Work that Matters. For 15 years he’s helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team. Most recently he’s spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges, companies and churches. In 2010 he used his influence with his tribe to build two kindergartens in Vi...

Tony Stubblebine is the CEO and Co-founder of Lift. Before that he was the founder of CrowdVine, and contributor to Wesabe, Odeo, and O’Reilly Media. Lift is an app designed to help you unlock your potential and help you reach your goals. Lift provides you steps and milestones to make goals manageable, daily motivation, and community support. Covered in this episode: Lift 2.0 Positive reinforcement towards goals from an exterior source Cognitive Budget Decision fatigue Habits alleviate cogni...

New York Times best-selling author Michael Hyatt returns to the show to talk about his proven, five-step process to help you get clear, get motivated, and get started on the path toward achieving your most important goals. Between being the CEO of a major corporation, building his own personal platform, and managing his family, Michael’s life has been busy. And yet, he has consistently made progress and accomplished goals that he set for himself each year. Covered in this episode: The differen...

Chris LoCurto returns to the show to talk about understanding personality styles. You can listen to his previous episode here, and make sure to subscribe to his blog, podcast, and grab his personality styles video and workbook. Check out @ChrisLoCurto on Beyond the To-Do List talking about understanding personality styles! http://t.co/tOwpPjNFkP — Erik Fisher (@ErikJFisher) November 19, 2013 Tweetable quotes from Chris: If your team doesn't know how to communicate, they’re doing 1/2 the produ...

Ray Edwards is an author, speaker, copywriter, and fellow-podcaster on his successful podcast ‘The Ray Edwards Show’. Ray has many creative insights in entrepreneurship and productivity. Ray is also the author of the #1 Amazon Bestseller Writing Riches. Please make sure to visit this episodes sponsor captureapps.com/todo for a great way to record audio notes with markers and text! Mentioned in this episode: OmniFocus, GTD, and You – Implementing the Getting Things Done® Trip it Expensify Scan ...