23: Extreme Performance Training, Boozy Cupcakes and Kicking Life in the Dick with Brooke Siem
Mar 9, 2019
Brooke Siem talks about her work as an Extreme Performance Training (XPT) certified coach and explains the theory and practice behind the XPT workshop she conducted in New York City the day before the recording, in which Matt participated. She discusses the value of sitting in 3-minute ice baths to practice calming your body down through breath work in high intensity situations, a technique that is subsequently transferrable to handling high stress situations in business, travel and life. She then explains how she works remotely as a “breath coach” with private clients that include professional poker players, and shares her tips for the most important steps to developing a meaningful breath practice. She also shares her personal back story of her professional ballet dancing career getting unexpectedly derailed and how she then pivoted and pursued a culinary career—becoming a chef, opening the Prohibition Bakery in Manhattan to sell “boozy cupcakes”, authoring a cookbook, and competing (and winning) on the Food Network TV show “Chopped”. Brooke also opens up about her personal struggles with eating disorders, suicidal tendencies and living half her life on a cocktail of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs. She shares her life changing decision at age 30 to get off all prescription drugs, became a digital nomad, and join the Remote Year program to travel the world with a community of 50 people for a year. Brooke explains how her discovery of non-traditional “self-compassion’ therapy helped her heal past traumas, overcome her eating disorders, and begin a process of self-renewal. She also shares how the Remote Year experience and subsequent world travel helped enable her to re-discover herself and re-take control over her life and her future.