Big Questions With Cal Fussman

After starting out on a Ford Assembly line, Joe made a fortune starting and selling a digital marketing agency and serving as CEO of an automotive tech company. When he decided to stop drinking alcohol for 75 days to improve his health, Joe came up with the idea to create a new business. A non-alcoholic brewery with a mission to create the best non-alcoholic beers on the planet. That covers many styles and flavors. It’s called Go Brewing. And it arrives at your door at a time when many people are beginning to change their drinking habits to support a healthier lifestyle. Cal lifted the Jab Jab Grapefruit IPA and can tell that Joe’s instincts and timing are right on. Listen up, and check it out!

Cal brings in the New Year with a conversation that takes his friend Natalie Baird-King from hell to heaven. After getting overwhelmed by patterns of abuse that stemmed from her childhood, Natalie became a lawyer to defend similar victims. But it was her medicinal use of ayahuasca that, she says, actually took her to heaven, taught her how to forgive and how to teach others to make peace with the past. It’s a great way to start a new year! Cheers!

Cal looks back on a year of conversations to highlight nuggets of wisdom, along with the advice that is changing his life. This episode could change yours, as well. So enjoy! Much health and happiness in the New Year. The Best Is Yet To Come!

Ever wonder how much more you could get out of life if you were more aware of everything going on around you? Cal has. Which led him to Dan Donachie. Dan brings the most out of world class athletes and people across a variety of fields through meditation and awareness. And he’ll get the most out of your sense of awareness if you follow the meditative suggestions he gives Cal. Want to be amazed what you can find out about yourself? It all starts at the tip of your nose.

This is one of the wildest episodes you’re ever going to hear. Goose McGrath has gone from breaking his spine as an adolescent in a motorbike accident to becoming addicted to morphine after it was overprescribed, then going cold turkey, to losing everything he had, to traveling with abandon around the world, to alcohol and drug abuse and waking up homeless on a floor with $50 to his name, to finding the love of his life and founding Dashdot, a real estate investment company that brings in more than $2 million a month. Goose is living proof that if you struggle, you can go far. Enjoy the rollercoaster ride!

Cal’s conversation with the Chief Marketing Officer of Delta looks at how she came to be named one of the most influential CMOs in the world by Forbes. A glance at her career trajectory shows how to get the most out of where you are, what you’re doing and lifting those around you.

Cal gets some takeaways from the author of Four Billionaires and Parking Attendant. The book has been reviewed as, “a blueprint for building a career and a life.” Chris has worked in the communications department at the White House, run the public affairs office at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and worked with billionaires as Director of Global Communications at the Carlyle Group. The 80-20 rule can change your life – and there’s a lot more!

Quite a few people have recently told Cal how the Thanksgiving table has somehow changed since we were locked in by the pandemic. But air travel has returned to a high level during this holiday season. Cal’s conversation with Avery and Brian Baker reveals that the table has always been transforming over time. People who shape the holiday for decades pass on, leaving empty seats at the table. But Brian and Avery have learned how to fill them and continue to make the most out of Cal’s favorite day of the year. Pass the mashed potatoes and have a great holiday!

How do you know if your good idea is a good idea? What’s the secret sauce behind turning a good idea into an innovative company? Why are roughly only 10 percent of startups successful? Furst, a beloved Professor and director of the Center for Deliberate Innovation at George Tech, has answers that we can all apply to the way we think about innovation. He’s founded companies and his book, The Heart of Innovation, was recently published. Cal set up a creative way to look at the topic, bringing in his pal, Adam McGraw, to join the conversation. McGraw recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of his startup – CREW -- which uses authentic connections to enable CEOs and senior executives to get the most out of themselves. Cal has seen CREW in action and come away Impressed. He wants to know what Furst thinks. Check it out . . . and apply the takeaways to your own life.

Cal’s old pal has written a new book: The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worry About What People Think of You. And he shows Cal how to stop wasting time doing just that. But that’s not all. The psychologist for Super Bowl and Olympic champions tells Cal to triple down on visualizing a successful future, and teaches him exercises to achieve what he visualizes. Great anecdotes on self-awareness, clarity and conviction. A treasure trove of advice.

There were many company leaders tasked with holding together the people who worked for them during the pandemic. But who was there to support them? There’s a lot of loneliness at the top. Cal talks with the son and father combo, Adam and Andy McGraw, about the company they started to help executives from different companies support each other through authentic connection. The company is called Crew, and it completely aligns with Cal’s mission to bring people together through the right questions, focused listening and great storytelling. This episode also showcases the benefits of connecting with someone a generation older or younger for transformational growth.  

When Cal finds himself dwelling on the past in a world filled with conflicts, he gets an unexpected phone call and advice from his friend, Dr. Shlain: Reduce the past to its essence, keep your feet in the present moment and put your mind 90 percent in the future – all at the same time. No need for psychedelics, here. It’s as simple as: If you can see far, you can think far. This mind-bending tactic is designed to allow anybody to move forward and get the clearest thinking of their lives. Give it a try!

The Hamas attack on Israel was like nothing anyone in that country had ever seen and it took the world to a new and very tense place. Cal was set to talk with the comedian Paul Ollinger as news of the barbarity of the attack broke, and their conversation veered toward the few days in history that are never forgotten -- and the unexpected ways they can impact us going forward.

Philip Shucet, a Big Questions listener, took the equivalent of a selfie on ChatGPT when he asked the artificial intelligence model to tell him who he is. ChatGPT offered a very different description of Philip Shucet than he would of himself – even though Philip is apparently the only one in the world by that name. Philip tried to correct the errant information produced by ChatGPT, -- which didn’t do much good, and only frustrated him further. We’re at an early stage of AI, and ChatGPT is sure to improve. But this episode leads to the question: Have you checked out how ChatGPT describes you to the world?

Last year, the author of Never Binge Again helped listeners of Big Questions enjoy Thanksgiving a little more by showing us how to eat less. This year he has a strategy to diminish sugar intake on Halloween. The average American consumes the equivalent of 144 teaspoons of sugar on October 31 st. Dr. Livingston helped his own mother turn Halloween into Hallowean. And he can do the same for all of us. It starts with making a plan when you buy holiday candy.

Cal speaks with the man who founded Paul Mitchell hair care products after borrowing $700 while living out of his car, which led to his founding of the tequila company Patron. This episode is all about the wisdom the soon to be 80-year-old accumulated along the way – which we can all put to great use. Please, get the most out of it.

Cal talks with Sarah Dusek about how she went from food stamps to creating and selling a $100-million company. Sarah gives step-by-step advice that can help anybody turn the right idea into a fortune. Use it well!

We’re taught from birth to measure wealth in currency, but Joe Huff and Bridget Hilton have created one of the largest surveys on life experiences ever done. And their research shows that the number one regret of the dying isn’t about money, it’s about the experiences people wished they’d had – but never did. Bridget and Joe have written a book called Experiential Billionaire that includes tools to show you how to live a life with a mountain of experiences and few regrets. You will not regret listening to this episode.

Cal replays the conversation with a man who was working on the 81 st floor of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 when the hijacked planes hit. Michael Wright describes how he survived when he reached the ground and one of the towers fell on his head. We should remember, so that we never forget. Please pass this episode on to anyone you know who might like to hear it. It will be relevant 500 years from now.

The world of sports is about being the best you can be. Award-winning sportswriter Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post has compiled wisdom from the courts and fields into a book titled The Right Call. We can bring so many of the tactics that elevate athletes and coaches into our own work and personal lives. This episode is a walking treasure trove . . .