THE SHOW
Behind the Brilliance wraps its latest season with breakthrough insights from Harvard happiness professor Tal Ben-Shahar, clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen, mortality expert Jodi Wellman, SparkToro CEO Rand Fishkin, serial entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau, and wildlife biologist Rae Wynn-Grant, among others.
This comprehensive recap extracts the most actionable frameworks from each conversation, covering everything from redefining perfectionism and embracing negative emotions to building million-dollar solo businesses and finding meaning through mortality awareness. The episode includes a curated listening guide based on your specific goals – whether you’re struggling with perfectionism, launching something new, questioning your career direction, or following an unconventional path.
The recap concludes with reflections on the season’s central theme: learning to work with human nature rather than against it. Essential listening for anyone who wants to understand what made Season 15 special and where to dive in next.
Featured insights from: 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.
TOPICS COVERED
- The psychology of happiness and how to embrace negative emotions (Tal Ben-Shahar)
- The roots of perfectionism and practical ways to separate identity from performance (Ellen Hendriksen)
- Why mortality reminders can motivate us to focus on what matters (Jodi Wellman)
- Empathy-driven marketing and building trust with an audience (Rand Fishkin)
- Rethinking risk: why working for yourself can be the safest choice (Chris Guillebeau)
- Tiny experiments, curiosity, and detaching identity from projects (Anne-Laure Le Cunff)
- The rise of million-dollar one-person businesses and the solo economy (Elaine Pofeldt)
- Passion and persistence as drivers of meaningful contributions (Rae Wynn-Grant)
- Redefining success and embracing difficulty in meaningful work (Ahad Khan)
- Bootstrapping, unit economics, and lessons for first-time founders (Sieva Kozinsky)
- A curated listening guide: which episodes to start with depending on goals
- Key reflections and common themes carried forward into Season 16
THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Lisa’s new Substack – The Joy of Logging Off
