267 Eric Nehrlich on How to Shape the Next Chapter of Your Career (When You're Already Successful)
Behind the Brilliance
In this expansive conversation, Lisa talks with executive coach and author Eric Nehrlich. His career path reads like a masterclass in strategic pivoting: physics PhD dropout turned software engineer, product manager, Google finance analyst, and eventually Chief of Staff in Google’s C suite before launching his own executive coaching practice. But his journey reveals something more profound than professional flexibility. It's a story about unlearning the toxic relationship between achievement and suffering, understanding when "working harder" becomes counterproductive, and discovering...
info_outline
266 How to Get the Best Sleep of Your Life, According to Science
Behind the Brilliance
Board-certified sleep specialist returns to Behind the Brilliance for a wide-ranging and deeply practical masterclass on the three biological essentials that keep most people from thriving: sleep, hydration, and breathing. He reveals how to improve sleep, energy, and long-term health and goes beyond basic wellness advice to help us understand the foundational mechanics that determine energy, health, and well-being. From jet lag strategies to weighted blankets to getting back to sleep in the middle of the night, Dr. Breus delivers practical solutions that work in the real world because...
info_outline
265 Kate O'Neill on Navigating the Future of Technology Without Losing Our Humanity
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Kate O'Neill is a strategist, futurist, and author who helps leaders navigate the intersection of technology and humanity. After building her career in Silicon Valley—including as one of Netflix's early employees—Kate has become one of the most thoughtful voices on how we can harness technological advancement to improve life and work without losing our humanity in the process. In this conversation, we connect key ideas between technology’s impact on the future of work, individual lives and careers, and innovation efforts inside companies. Kate shares her journey from linguistics...
info_outline
264 Tina Lifford on Achieving Inner Fitness in a Shifting World
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Actress, author, and Inner Fitness Project founder Tina Lifford returns to Behind the Brilliance for a follow up years after her crowd-pleasing interview in episode 115. Fresh off the release of her new book The Inner Fitness Revolution, Tina brings decades of wisdom about building sustainable creative careers and developing the inner work that makes external success fulfilling. This conversation goes deep on the frameworks Tina has developed through her own spiritual journey from understanding the "three selves" (surviving, thriving, infinite) to making self-empowering choices in any...
info_outline
263 Jordan Grumet on Having More Than Enough
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Physician and author joins Lisa for a wide-ranging, deeply reflective conversation about what happens when the life you worked toward no longer defines who you are. Jordan shares his personal journey through medicine, financial independence, and hospice care, including the unexpected panic that followed reaching financial freedom earlier than anticipated. What was supposed to be a moment of celebration was a terrifying realization: without work, his identity collapsed. Drawing from his work with the dying and his own experience of burnout, he explains why money and achievement...
info_outline
262 Beyond Goals and Resolutions: 6 Strategies for a Better Year
Behind the Brilliance
In this special year-end episode of Behind the Brilliance, Lisa presents six evidence-based strategies for designing a year that feels good while you're living it. Moving beyond traditional goal-setting advice, this episode explores the psychological architecture behind sustainable achievement: why updating your self-concept matters more than willpower, how to engineer habits that survive bad days, and why strategic incompetence is a sophisticated choice rather than a failure. Lisa shares a liberating perspective on deciding what deserves optimization versus maintenance and makes the case for...
info_outline
261 The Best of Season 15
Behind the Brilliance
Season 15 of Behind the Brilliance delivered a mix of leading voices in psychology, entrepreneurship, and life design. This special recap distills the most powerful insights into one place highlighting big ideas and useful tools on happiness, resilience, and building a life and business on your own terms. Guests include Tal Ben-Shahar, Ellen Hendriksen, Jodi Wellman, Rand Fishkin, Chris Guillebeau, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Elaine Pofeldt, Rae Wynn-Grant, Ahad Khan, and Sieva Kozinsky. The episode also includes a listening guide to match your interest with the relevant episode. The recap...
info_outline
260 Chris Guillebeau on Escaping Time Anxiety and Building a Self-Directed Life
Behind the Brilliance
, bestselling author and creator of The Art of Nonconformity, joins Lisa to explore what it really takes to build a self-directed life. He shares his unconventional path from high school dropout and aid worker in West Africa to global traveler, author of nine books, and entrepreneur. Chris unpacks the philosophy behind his work—why you don’t have to live your life the way others expect—and introduces the concept of time anxiety, the tension between the fear of running out of time and the paralysis of endless choices. The conversation covers everything from the psychology of...
info_outline
259 Sieva Kozinsky on The Path from early failures to Enduring Ventures: lessons on fear, focus, and the long game
Behind the Brilliance
THE SHOW In this episode of Behind the Brilliance, entrepreneur and investor Sieva Kozinsky joins the show to share his journey from first-generation immigrant beginnings to co-founding Enduring Ventures, a holding company that acquires and grows businesses for the long game. Sieva opens up about the fear that fueled his early ventures, the lessons learned from failed startups and pivots, and why fundraising can sometimes blind founders to what really matters. We dive deep into the psychology of selling a company, the art of negotiation with founders, and how legacy is built (or...
info_outline
258 Rand Fishkin on Escaping Status Anxiety, Rebuilding Identity, and Building a Business That Doesn’t Break You
Behind the Brilliance
THE SHOW What happens when you build the company of your dreams, only to realize the dream came with tradeoffs you didn’t see coming? In this candid conversation, Rand Fishkin — cofounder of Moz and SparkToro — shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career: turning a $39 side experiment into a multimillion-dollar SaaS, raising venture capital for the wrong reasons, walking away from a $40M acquisition offer, and rebuilding his identity after leaving the company he founded. Along the way, Rand unpacks the philosophy he lives by now: designing work around the life you want, not the...
info_outlineTyler Denk is making a name for himself as a CEO who building a modern company that brings fresh energy to an old space: e-mail. He’s powering the world’s most beloved newsletters through Beehiiv, the company he founded in 2021. beehiiv is an all-in-one product suite for newsletter.
Tyler joined Morning Brew as the second employee, leading product and engineering, and helped them scale up until the acquisition by Business Insider in 2020. He then had a stint at Google as a Product Lead on the YouTube Music team, before ultimately leaving to start beehiiv in 2021, where he is currently the CEO.
Tyler’s story is an inspiring journey in strartups and aligning personal values with business vision.
Behind His Brilliance: Family
Say hi Tyler on X/Twitter: @denk_tweets