Are you ready to be playfully inspired? Mike Montague joins the Late Boomers Podcast for an uplifting conversation. Laugh along as Mike shares his favorite joke, and dives into the importance of play in our personal and professional lives. From the benefits of good stress to the essential nature of emotional work, Mike offers expert insights that will have you rethinking the value of play.
Creativity, it’s crucial yet overlooked in our education system – but not on this show! The spirited chat with Mike takes a hard look at the decline of creativity in education and the pressures our kids face. They discuss the need for a more playful approach to learning that encourages mistakes and nurtures creativity. As we reimagine our professional lives, Mike shares his thoughts on personal branding and how it can bring greater value and lead to a more fulfilling career.
Mike guides us to find more joy in our lives through play. He suggests joining groups, setting traps for play, and dedicating time for creation. The conversation dives deep into balancing work and play, transforming stress into positive tension, and teaching kids to be, rather than do. With Mike’s guidance, you’ll discover how to inject more play into your life and create your own successful third act. So, hit play, and let’s get started. This one’s going to be a game-changer.
(0:00:02) – Late Boomers (6 Minutes)
We are joined by special guest Mike Montague, the global head of content at Sandler Training and host of the How to Succeed and the Playful Humans podcast. Mike is an award-winning speaker, game show host, DJ, and an advocate for play. We discuss Mike’s background and his journey to success, and how play is essential in both our personal and professional lives. We also learn the importance of getting back to our playful roots with Mike’s favorite joke, “What did the bra say to the hat?” Join us for an inspiring conversation about the power of play and how it can bring more joy and creativity to our lives.
(0:06:09) – Benefits of Play, Being Playful Human (7 Minutes)
We explore the concept of play and how it should be seen as a positive tension. We discuss the difference between good and bad stress, the diminishing returns of intellectual work, and the importance of emotional work. Mike Montague shares his insight on the subject and provides an example of the backward laws of life, showing how the more you try to make someone love you, the less likely they are to do so.
(0:12:52) – The Decline of Creativity in Education (4 Minutes)
Mike Montague shares his insights into the education system and how it often steers people away from creativity, play, and improvisation. We discuss how the pressure to succeed is leading many kids to give up on sports, and how it’s important to have fun and make mistakes.
(0:17:04) – Reimagining Careers and Rethinking Questions (14 Minutes)
We discuss the importance of teaching kids how to be rather than what to do. Mike Montague looks at the concept of personal branding and how it’s key to creating a career that is designed for maximum fun, pleasure, and fulfillment. We look at how the education system often steers people away from creativity and improvisation, and the importance of leaning into one’s strengths. We also explore how combining two or three passions can help create a job with little competition and make the individual much more valuable.
(0:31:35) – Finding Joy and Play in Life (12 Minutes)
We explore the difference between work we love and play and how to find a way to make those things closer together. Mike shares his insights on how to find play in our lives, such as by joining groups, setting traps, and spending at least one day of the week creating more than we consume. We also look into the idea of having a unique perspective and how our experiences can be compared to a deck of cards that has never been shuffled into the same order since the beginning of time.
(0:43:20) – Guide to a Successful Third Act (1 Minutes)
Mike Montague shares his expertise on how to find balance between work and play, and how to make them closer together. He also touches on the diminishing returns of stress, and how to turn it into a positive tension. Tune in to gain valuable insights on the concept of personal branding, the importance of teaching children how to be rather than what to do, and how to create a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
