Join us for a discussion with Vince Staub, a leadership and risk management professional, discussing his experiences and insights on living free. We cover topics such as mindfulness, personal mission statements, and the impact of the Live Free program on Vince's life. We talk about the journey of self-awareness, recognizing negative self-talk, and the process of transitioning from a confined state to a free state. Vince shares his experience with balancing internal control, the role of leadership, and the ongoing pursuit of living free.

Takeaways

• Mindfulness as a tool for being present and living free
• The importance of developing a personal mission statement Self-awareness and recognition of negative self-talk are crucial for transitioning from a confined state to a free state.
• The journey to living free is an ongoing process that involves recognizing and remapping patterns of behavior and thought.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Live Free Podcast
• 01:12 Vince Staub's Background and Recent Adventures
• 05:20 Living Free and Overcoming Fear and Pressure
• 06:31 Identity-Based Freedom and Faith
• 08:59 Principles from the Live Free Program
• 13:45 Mindfulness and Personal Mission Statements
• 16:41 The Impact of Live Free Program
• 21:42 Recognizing Negative Self-Talk
• 22:19 Transitioning from Confined State to Free State
• 24:12 Challenges of Control
• 34:46 The Role of Leadership
• 37:50 The Ongoing Pursuit of Living Free

Ray Gorman, a physical therapist and founder of Engage Movement, shares his journey from feeling restricted and stuck in his career to intentionally building a life around freedom and possibility. He emphasizes the importance of designing a life and business by choice, rather than default, and challenges the notion of sacrificing one thing for another. Ray's story highlights the power of questioning traditional rules and embracing uncertainty as a path to personal and professional fulfillment. The conversation delves into the themes of personal growth, identity, and mindset, exploring the impact of beliefs on behavior and the importance of perspective in overcoming challenges. It also touches on the role of mentors and the power of choice in shaping one's path.

Takeaways

• Intentional Design
• Embracing Uncertainty Personal growth is about shedding limiting beliefs and embracing new perspectives.
• Identity and mindset play a crucial role in shaping behavior and overcoming challenges.

Chapters

• 00:00 The Journey to Freedom
• 03:01 Choosing Your Path
• 06:00 The Myth of Sacrifice
• 08:58 Embracing Uncertainty
• 11:56 Rewriting the Rules
• 17:50 Questioning Tradition
• 23:55 Designing by Choice
• 25:39 Shifting Perspectives and Reinventing Life
• 27:22 Efficiency and Adaptation in Work and Life
• 29:14 Personal Growth and Identity
• 32:44 Empowerment Through Choice and Mentorship
• 36:22 Overcoming Victimhood and Embracing Change
• 39:21 The Power of Perspective and Identity
• 47:08 Taking Action and Seeking Help

Karen and Bryson discuss ever-so-present frustration of unwanted automatic responses and the impact they have on behavior and emotions. They explain the Three Powers: Focus, Meaning, and Action, and how they influence our reactions to stimuli. The discussion provides insight into understanding and managing automatic responses, offering a tool to increase awareness and shift away from negative automatic reactions. We hope you enjoy this engaging conversation of the power of awareness and insight, the pathway for change, the three keys to lasting change, the need for structure and support, the Live Free Program, the impact of the Live Free Protocol, living free from a personal perspective, empowerment through choice, and a call to action for change.

Schedule a call with Bryson:
https://calendly.com/bryson-transcendous/discovery-call-w-bryson

Takeaways

• Automatic Responses
• Three Powers: Focus, Meaning, Action Automatic responses can be changed through awareness, insight, and a structured approach.
• Creating lasting change requires working with underlying beliefs, developing tools and skills, and having a supportive community.

In this episode, Bryson sits down with Dr. Seth Barr, a Doctor of Chiropractic based in Delafield, Wisconsin, to explore the deep connection between the body, mind, pain, healing, and freedom.

Dr. Barr shares the story of the patient who changed the trajectory of his career, how chiropractic care became more than a profession, and why helping people heal physically can often open the door to deeper emotional, relational, and personal transformation.

Together, Bryson and Dr. Barr discuss what it means to “live free” through the lens of physical health—not necessarily living free from all pain, but living free from the fear, stress, and limitation that pain can create. They explore how symptoms act as signals, how hope affects recovery, how the mind and body influence each other, and why healing requires active participation instead of passive treatment.

• Why pain is not just a problem, but a signal
• How physical limitation can affect confidence, identity, and emotional state
• The connection between chronic pain and the brain
• Why mindset and hope can shape the healing process
• How visualization and reframing support recovery
• Why the body ultimately does the healing
• The difference between symptom relief and long-term health
• How to start getting unstuck with two simple practices: walking and journaling
• Why agency, choice, and meaning matter in both physical and emotional healing

Living free does not mean avoiding all pain. It means learning how to listen to pain, respond to it, give it meaning, and use it as information that helps you move toward greater health, capability, and freedom.

Dr. Seth Barr practices at Live Free Health in Delafield, Wisconsin.

Website: LiveFreeWI.com
Instagram: @livefreewi

Have you done "the work" but are still looping in the same problems? In this first episode of the Live Free Podcast, Karen and Bryson unpack why high functioning, self aware people stay stuck, introduce Confined State and Free State, and share how their own failed attempts to change through external control and brute force willpower led them to build a brain based framework and eventually the Live Free Program.

If you've tried therapy, books, mindset work, habit apps, and more discipline but still find yourself reacting the same way under stress, this episode will feel uncomfortably familiar.

In the first episode of the Live Free Podcast, co founders Karen and Bryson open up about the two dead-end strategies they each used for years:

• Karen tried to control the external world, other people, outcomes, and environments, to finally feel some sense of certainty.
• Bryson tried to control the internal world with willpower, more optimization, stricter routines, higher standards, and ended up in burnout and frustration.

Both approaches worked for a while, then stopped working.

As they compared notes, they realized they were running into the same underlying problem: spending most of life in Confined State, threat mode, nervous system in survival, hyper-focused on problems, without a reliable way to shift into Free State, clear, resourced, creative, and actually building the life they want.

In this episode, you will hear:

• What Confined State and Free State actually feel like in real life
• How smart, self aware, high functioning people end up stuck in the same loops
• The moment they realized this was not a motivation problem but a state and wiring problem
• Why they decided to build the Live Free Program as a structured, brain based path out of those loops

This isn't a tactics episode or a quick fix formula. It's the language and framework that sets the tone for the whole show and an invitation to see your stuck patterns through a different lens.

If this conversation resonates and you want to go deeper, here are good starting points.

• The Hidden Reason Life Feels Overwhelming (PDF)
  Understand the underlying state and wiring patterns that make life feel heavier than it needs to.
  Link: The Hidden Reason Life Feels Overwhelming

• 6 Human Needs Quiz
  Identify which core needs are driving your behavior so you can stop fighting yourself and start working with your system.
  Link: Take the 6 Human Needs Quiz

• How to Break Patterns PDF
  A simple overview of the three levers you always control, Focus, Meaning, and Action, and how to start using them on purpose.
  Link: Download the 3 Powers PDF

• 27 Journal Prompts for Clarity
  Neuroscience-calibrated questions to help you process past experiences, create clarity in the present, and find direction for the future.
  Link: Get the 27 Journal Prompts

Join Karen, co-founder of Transcendous, as she welcomes Dr. Tatum Toner, MD, a board-certified family physician to this firery and bold interview episode of The Live Free Podcast.

Learn how Dr. Toner forged her own path against the mainstream current, stepping outside conventional medicine after her own experience with chronic illness pushed her to rethink “quick fixes” and rebuild trust in the body’s design.

Tatum is the founder of Renaissance Wellness, a creative vision that began as a print magazine concept and evolved into a contributor-driven publication and community.

In this conversation, we stay focused on what it means to live free in real life: how identity shifts actually happen, what fear does to decision-making, and how boundaries and self-trust become the foundation for clarity, peace, and forward momentum.

In this interview, we cover

• What “living free” looks like when life is still busy and demanding
• How fear quietly drives patterns, people-pleasing, and overthinking
• Boundaries that protect peace without isolation
• Rebuilding self-trust after burnout and survival mode
• Returning to alignment when you feel pulled off-center

If this conversation resonates and you want to go deeper, here are good starting points.

• The Hidden Reason Life Feels Overwhelming (PDF)
  Understand the underlying state and wiring patterns that make life feel heavier than it needs to.
  Link: The Hidden Reason Life Feels Overwhelming
• 6 Human Needs Quiz
  Identify which core needs are driving your behavior so you can stop fighting yourself and start working with your system.
  Link: Take the 6 Human Needs Quiz
• How to Break Patterns PDF
  A simple overview of the three levers you always control, Focus, Meaning, and Action, and how to start using them on purpose.
  Link: Download the 3 Powers PDF
• 27 Journal Prompts for Clarity
  Neuroscience-calibrated questions to help you process past experiences, create clarity in the present, and find direction for the future.
  Link: Get the 27 Journal Prompts

Keywords: Dr. Tatum Toner MD, Renaissance Wellness, living free, alignment, self-trust, boundaries, overwhelm, nervous system, identity shift, clarity, holistic wellness, non-toxic living.

We tend to think our experiences shape the words we use. But it’s usually the other way around.

In this episode, Karen and Bryson explore how language literally changes how the brain processes an event, how we feel it in the moment, and how we remember it later, and they share practical ways to use this principle to shift from Confined State toward Free State in everyday life.

Most of us assume language is just a description of what already happened: “I’m nervous,” “That was a disaster,” “I’m stuck.”

But neurologically, it works in the opposite direction far more often than we realize.

In this episode of the Live Free Podcast, Karen and Bryson dive into how the specific words and phrases you choose actually shape your experience, both in real time and in memory.

Drawing on the film Arrival as a metaphor (where learning a new language changes how the main character experiences time) they unpack how language:

• Directs your focus, which shifts what your brain treats as threat vs opportunity
• Changes the meaning your nervous system assigns to physical sensations (e.g., “nervous” vs “excited”)
• Influences whether you process an event more like Confined State (threat-mode) or Free State (creative, resourced mode)
• Rewrites your internal “maps” when you talk about an experience later, changing how similar situations will feel in the future

This isn’t about fake positivity or cute affirmations. It’s about understanding that every phrase carries a neurochemical and experiential consequence—and learning to use that deliberately to support the life you’re actually trying to build.

Why is it so hard to stay consistent with habits you genuinely want? In this episode, Karen and Bryson break down the neuroscience behind motivation, the internal dissonance that shows up when you try to live differently, and how to work with your brain (not against it) so new behaviors actually stick.

You don’t lack desire. You don’t even lack self-awareness. But the habits and changes you want still don’t stick the way you know they could.

In this episode of the Live Free Podcast, Karen and Bryson unpack what’s really happening in your brain and nervous system when you try to be consistent with new habits, routines, or identity-level changes.

They explore:

• Why “I just need more motivation” is the wrong diagnosis
• How your brain’s existing wiring and maps create dissonance when you try to live differently
• Why consistency feels easy in some seasons and nearly impossible in others
• What Confined State vs Free State have to do with follow-through
• Practical, neuroscience-informed ways to reduce internal resistance and make new behaviors feel more natural over time

This is not a hype talk about discipline or “no excuses.” It’s a grounded look at motivation, habit formation, and change through a neuro-based lens, so you can understand what your system is doing, stop fighting it, and start building the kind of consistency that actually lasts.