🎙️ The Doug Thompson Podcast: Storytelling, Speaker Secrets & Epic Laughs! 😂🔥🚀

🎙️ Tired of boring corporate babble? Welcome to The Doug Thompson Podcast—where storytelling meets real-world wisdom with a splash of humor and authenticity. Doug, a tech-savvy "edutainer" and passionate BBQ enthusiast, chats with charismatic speakers and trendsetting event planners, giving you exclusive hacks to land dream gigs and craft events worth talking about. Subscribe now, because life’s too short to settle for dull stories—this is the caffeine kick your adulting routine needs! ☕️🎉🚀

🎙️ The Doug Thompson Podcast: Storytelling, Speaker Secrets & Epic Laughs! 😂🔥🚀 is a education podcast hosted by Doug Thompson, with 136 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Doug Thompson hosts 🎙️ The Doug Thompson Podcast: Storytelling, Speaker Secrets & Epic Laughs! 😂🔥🚀, a education show with 136 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #144

  Eleven Two-Dollar Bills and a Hundred-Minute Story

  Oct 1, 202631 minS10

  John Bennardo had eleven two-dollar bills sitting in a checkbook box in a drawer, the kind of thing everybody's got and nobody thinks twice about. He decided to make a movie about it. Two years and a stack of interviews later, The Two Dollar Bill Documentary turned out to not really be about currency at all. It was about memory, luck, and the strange, specific things that connect total strangers. John is a filmmaker, author, and self-described fan of the absurd. He's also a cancer survivor who learned as a teenager that humor was the only way to get through a hospital bed and an eleven-hour surgery, and a guy who treats every wild idea, a poker-table sketch comedy show, a satirical novel about cancel culture, a puzzle app that never made a dime, as another chapter in the same book instead of a separate career. Doug and John talk about noticing the small stuff nobody else sees, why "I don't have time" is never really the reason not to start something, and what it means to leave a library behind instead of a résumé. Connect with John: Website: https://johnbennardo.com Documentary: https://2dollarbillmovie.com Documentary YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTwoDollarBillDocumentary Personal YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@johnbennardo Poker Studs Comedy: https://pokerstudscomedy.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JBennardo222 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnbennardoauthor Connect with Doug: Website: https://thedougthompson.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/thedougthompson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedougthompson If this conversation stayed with you, follow Storytelling for Real Life so you don't miss the next one. A rating or review helps more people find the show. And if someone you know keeps shelving a weird idea because it seems too small to matter, send this one their way.

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  Episode #143

  Life Happens. Then You Choose

  Sep 20, 202631 minS10

  Russ Hedge has spent most of his life connecting people. He has worked in sales and marketing for decades, built communities, hosted shows, written books, and encouraged people to show up as themselves. But a melanoma diagnosis changed the way he thought about time, purpose, and the choices we make when life takes a hard left turn. In this conversation, Russ and I talk about the idea behind his book, *Life Happens… and Then You Choose.* Not because we get to control everything that comes our way. We do not. But because we still get a say in what happens next. We talk about connection before selling, authenticity before performance, the quiet fear that keeps people playing smaller than they are, and why a little gratitude before your feet hit the floor can change the way you walk through the day. Russ also shares what his cancer journey taught him about living more intentionally, building real community, and choosing the story you live after life hands you a chapter you never planned to write. Connect with Russ Hedge: Website: https://www.russhedge.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russhedge/ Book: https://www.russhedge.com/buy-book-now Connect with Doug Thompson: Website: https://thedougthompsontx.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/thedougthompson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedougthompson Instagram & Threads: @thedougthompson Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0xHMEppHHHV54MAJU5AYoY

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  Episode #142

  ● Becoming Un-Numb: Dr. Stephanie Byerly on the High Achievers Who Feel Nothing

  Sep 10, 202629 minS10

  My guest today is Dr. Stephanie Byerly. She's an anesthesiologist, which she'll tell you herself is a mouthful. She's also a coach and speaker who works with high achieving women who look great on paper and feel almost nothing underneath. Stephanie spent years achieving her way to the top of academic medicine, all while carrying trauma she didn't know was steering the car. It took a facilitator in a psychodrama session to hand her the line that cracked everything open: you've been numb your whole life, and every day, you make people numb for a living. We talk about how trauma lives in the body long before you have words for it, how girls learn the cage they're supposed to fit into by age nine or ten, and why scrolling social media can leave you carrying trauma that never actually happened to you. We also get into what it costs to set boundaries after years of being the reliable one, and why the discomfort of change is the actual price of the life you say you want. If you've built a life that looks right from the outside and feels flat on the inside, this conversation is for you. Stephanie is the founder of The UNNUMB Method and The UNNUMB Collective. Find her at stephaniebyerly.com, or on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook at Stephanie Byerly MD. If this episode landed for you, follow Storytelling for Real Life wherever you listen, leave a rating or review, and send this one to somebody who's been running on empty and calling it fine. Website: stephaniebyerly.com Socials: LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook — all @StephanieByerlyMD

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  Episode #142

  After the Screen Went Quiet

  Sep 1, 202635 minS10

  On September 11, 2001, Rick DellaRatta watched the world change in real time. He did not set out to write a poem that day. The words simply started coming, one line after another, because he needed somewhere to put what he was seeing and feeling. That poem became part of the story behind Jazz for Peace. In this conversation, Rick and I talk about the way music can bring people together when language, religion, politics, or fear get in the way. We talk about creativity, the strange human habit of recognizing artists too late, what happens when envy gets louder than appreciation, and why we may need more than technology to move forward well. Rick also sits down at the piano and gives the conversation a reminder that some things are better experienced than explained. This is a conversation about art, connection, deep listening, and what happens when one person decides to keep creating after the world hands him a day he never planned to live through. Learn more about Rick and Jazz for Peace: https://jazzforpeace.org https://www.rickdellaratta.com YouTube search: JFP25 More from Doug Thompson: https://thedougthompson.com NOTE: This episode was not recorded on the normal platform due to an outage at the time of recording so there are difference from the normal format.

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  Episode #140

  Be Curious About the Humans Around You

  Aug 15, 202634 minS10

  Leilani Garrett has spent years inside corporate environments where strategy decks, metrics, and serious meetings often take up most of the room. Her work now asks a quieter question: what happens to the humans inside all of that? In this conversation, Doug and Leilani talk about storytelling as a bridge between people, not just a tool for marketing or presentation. Leilani explains why innovation depends on trust, why AI still needs human judgment, and why leaders should pay attention to the quiet contributors who may be doing excellent work without asking to be seen. One of the most useful moments is her idea of small story-based exercises, like asking people when they were genuinely proud at work. Not as a gimmick. As a way to help people feel known. For planners, Leilani brings warmth, corporate credibility, and practical judgment. She understands the room and still keeps the people in focus.

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