By Michael Gibbons When it comes to issues concerning work, school or family, most people have someone they look to for advice. Karel Vredenburg is that kind of person. Except when he gives advice, tens of thousands of people listen.
The Toronto father of four records a podcast in his home called Life Habits Mentoring with Karel Vredenburg. Through his program, he provides information, insights and advice in order to help people in their day-to-day lives. He stresses the importance of forming good habits and eliminating bad ones. Topics on the 30 minute podcast have ranged from improving sleep to being more assertive.
“It’s really kind of a neat process,” Vredenburg said. “You can just make something available in iTunes and if people discover it, then they go and listen to it.”
“I’m not saying ‘Here’s the silver bullet,’” he said. “It’s sort of just down-to-earth, practical advice. It’s like talking to a friend.”
Vredenburg, 55, was born in the Netherlands and moved to Toronto at the age of eight. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Toronto in both psychology and cognitive science. He is currently the director of user experience design at IBM, which means he oversees the design of the company’s products and systems in order to optimize the way users interact with them. Due to the nature of his work, Vredenburg has become a keen observer of human interaction and has mentored thousands of people over the years.
It was one of his colleagues at IBM who suggested Vredenburg create a podcast about developing positive habits.
“I was noticing that I was starting to repeat myself in terms of particular types of advice,” he said. “I just started to record those bits of advice and initially made them available inside IBM. Somebody suggested I make it available in iTunes and then people could access it inside and outside IBM, so I did that.”
Fifty episodes later, Vredenburg has accumulated a following of approximately 30,000 people from around the world.
Kristin O’Connor is one of those listeners. O’Connor, 35, lives in New York with her partner and adopted son. She stumbled upon Vredenburg’s podcast about a year ago and found it helpful, especially when her parents decided not to support her same-sex marriage. One thing she enjoys about the podcast is its interactivity.
“It’s a community,” she said. “I actually sent him an email. I said ‘While I very much agree with many of your points about making strained family relationships work, I think you need to do one on when they don’t work.’ Within a month, there was a podcast on exactly that.”
Vredenburg incorporates a high level of interactivity with his listeners because of his day job, where user feedback is essential to creating a good product. And the parallels between product design and the podcast don’t end there. Vredenburg believes that simplicity is the key to success in both areas.
“Almost any topic that you go to, if you simplify … there’s an ideal point that we get to that makes it just right,” he said. “I think most people’s lives are way too complicated.”
Simplifying life through the creation of positive habits is often a difficult task. As part of her company, Smarts and Stamina, Marie-Josee Shaar consults organizations on how to increase health and productivity by forming positive habits. She has been a guest on Life Habits Mentoring several times.
“The habit needs to solve a problem, or help a goal or do something for you,” she said. “If it fits your lifestyle and your desires and who you are inside and want to be, then you have a shot.”
For Vredenburg, positive habits are not formed overnight. It requires patience and determination.
“When I say habits, I mean something that is a skill that you’ve learned, that you have practised to the point where it’s now second nature to you to carry out in a desirable way.”
Through his dedication to listener feedback, Vredenburg has created a show format that works well and that he’s comfortable with. He now includes more lists on the show, as well as famous quotes, which have gathered a positive response from his audience. When it comes to his favourite quote, Vredenburg cites the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Words Vredenburg has lived his life by.
Photo by FHKE, available under a Creative Commons Attributions 2.0 Generic License.
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