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Terry McMullen Podcast Host

I spent much of my career trying to consult companies on how to better achieve their goals. I was a Finance major, a Harvard Business School graduate, and a business strategist. I've always been curious and I've always loved trying to solve problems. It was a really good fit for a while, but then life happened.

Within the span of a couple of years I had a son, my sister tragically passed away, and my wife became severely ill with Multiple Sclerosis. All of a sudden everything I thought I knew about life didn't seem to make sense anymore. I needed to raise my son and teach him how to be a good person but I realized I didn't even know what it meant to be a good person, let alone know how to teach him to be one. I also realized that I wasn't capable of being the person my wife needed me to be to help care for her. Simply put, I wasn't good enough.

For a long time that left me angry at life. I didn't want to face the reality that I needed to be better. But fortunately, I still had that curiosity. I knew I didn't have the wisdom needed yet, but I decided to go on a journey to try to find it. It started with me studying cognitive psychology, sociology, and philosophy. I was trying to better understand human nature and why we do the things we do. I thought if I could study enough I could figure out where the flaws were in my mind and fix them.

Eventually I realized it wasn't that easy. If I was going to get better I needed to work at it every day. I needed to constantly be reflecting and learning about myself. I needed to swim in my insecurities and ego issues to gain clarity on who I really was. And maybe most importantly I needed to seek the wisdom of others, so that I could gain better perspective.

So I did what everyone does in 2022-- I started a podcast. I set out on a mission, but not a mission to make money or gain followers (although hey--those things might be nice). Instead the mission was to talk to as many people as I could and better understand their approach to life. I wanted to learn about who they were, how they think, and what matters most to them.

I call the show "What's the value?" because I start every episode with the same question-- what's the value that is most important to you and guides your life? Then we have a raw, authentic conversation about it. We question, we probe, and we explore-- all in the hopes of learning something new.

To this point I've done over 130 episodes with all sorts of different people; business leaders, religious figures, politicians, youth activists, police officers, martial artists, psychologists, Youtube influencers, and even my own friends and family. Through all of this learning, from my personal life, professional career, and the podcast, I decided it might be a good idea to start sharing it. Not because I think I have all the answers but because I think I've been curious about life in a way that might be useful for you.

I really hope you find it useful and I am always open to any thoughts or feedback you can share. We are in this journey together.

Recent Content

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"Acceptance" – Sean Gill

Sean has been playing and creating music for over 30 years. He has spent most of his working life as a self-employed freelancer, playing in a jazz trio at wine bars, editing audiobooks, creating websi…

Sean has been playin…

Sean has been playing and creating music for over 30 years. He has spent most of his working life as a self-employed freelancer, playing in a jazz trio at wine bars, editing audiobooks, creating websites, and playing electric guitar with an orchestra. As you'll hear Sean explain, towards the end of the show, he is one of those people where music just made sense to him from a very early age. There is a real magic to it that allowed him to feel some comfort in a world that otherwise seemed impossible to navigate. Interestingly though, we spent most of the show talking more about his philosophi…

Listen · 53:06
Terry McMullen May 26, 2023
"Accountability" – Sandhya Jha

Sandhya is an author and anti-oppression consultant with 20 years of community organizing experience. She particularly loves helping organizations get Diversity/Equity/Inclusion teams off the ground. …

Sandhya is an author…

Sandhya is an author and anti-oppression consultant with 20 years of community organizing experience. She particularly loves helping organizations get Diversity/Equity/Inclusion teams off the ground. These types of topics are really interesting to me, not only for the obvious reason of how important they are to reduce unnecessary suffering, but also because they speak directly to the complexity of human nature. Trying to understand the root cause of oppression and inequity (which I think is critical to actually addressing the issues) requires you to understand human nature. This made for a g…

Listen · 50:54
Terry McMullen May 22, 2023
"Integrity (and excitement)" – Tim Bui

My guest today, Tim, has a really diverse and interesting background. He's trained martial arts for most of his life, he's been a successful serial entrepreneur, he's studied under Buddhist monks, and…

My guest today, Tim,…

My guest today, Tim, has a really diverse and interesting background. He's trained martial arts for most of his life, he's been a successful serial entrepreneur, he's studied under Buddhist monks, and he's now a high performance life coach. He wants to use all of these experiences and learnings to help shift the world into the most inspirational and connected place possible. That is what Tim is about, maximizing potential. As he put it during the show, humans in many ways are god-like but we don't realize it. We have such an amazing ability to connect, collaborate, and create; but often we ge…

Listen · 53:48
Terry McMullen May 16, 2023
"Self-honesty" – Matthew Garnier

My guest, Matt, recently published a comedic memoir about religious upbringing, "Swept Up: Lessons From the End Times" (https://amzn.to/3I2rqB2). The book includes "tales (and lessons) from church, ho…

My guest, Matt, rece…

My guest, Matt, recently published a comedic memoir about religious upbringing, "Swept Up: Lessons From the End Times" (https://amzn.to/3I2rqB2). The book includes "tales (and lessons) from church, home-schooling, and a few strange years at a major evangelical university." This background helps explain his value of "self-honesty, because as Matt put it, he was raised to rely on certainty to guide him through life. From a very young age he was taught about God, heaven, hell, and the other various religious doctrines of Christianity. For a kid like Matt, who from a young age tried to question …

Listen · 1:04:12
Terry McMullen May 12, 2023
"Agathos" – Josh Bachynski

Josh (author, PhD, SEO/AI expert-- http://youtube.com/jbachyns) started the show by talking about the concept of agathos and how he is a radical optimist. Agathos is a greek word, with a lot of meanin…

Josh (author, PhD, S…

Josh (author, PhD, SEO/AI expert-- http://youtube.com/jbachyns) started the show by talking about the concept of agathos and how he is a radical optimist. Agathos is a greek word, with a lot of meanings, but Plato most famously used it to mean "the good." By "the good" he meant the ideal or most optimal good that exists. So when Josh says he values agathos or that he is radical optimist, he means there is nothing more important, nothing more logical, and nothing more obvious than focusing on the ideal good. It is interesting because typically I think people process that one of two ways. The f…

Listen · 1:07:23
Terry McMullen May 9, 2023
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