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WORK TITLE: Love Louder
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://prestonsmiles.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/preston-smiles-10830881 * http://wanderlust.com/artist/preston-smiles/ * http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27274364-love-louder
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Partner of Alexi Panos.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Personal freedom coach, public speaker, and writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Preston Smiles is a personal freedom coach and public speaker. He speaks frequently about mind, body, and spiritual evolution and applying positive approaches to life. In his talks, Smiles emphasizes creating a better reality through the power of positive thought and action.
Love Louder
In 2016 Smiles published Love Louder: 33 Ways to Amplify Your Life. The volume offers thirty-three rules to follow for those looking to adopt a more positive and proactive approach to life. These tenets include learning from past mistakes, living with gratitude, and learning to forgive others instead of holding on to feelings of resentment.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly said that “Smiles’s life amplification system is a noble pursuit and its sleek design makes it convenient.” A contributor to the Enjoying Life a Day at a Time Web site suggested that “those who want to experience life to the fullest with emphasis on gentleness and love should go for this book.” The reviewer observed that the rules offered in the book are “timeless.”
Now or Never
Smiles also coauthored Now or Never: Your Epic Life in 5 Steps; The Bridge from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be with Alexi Panos, his partner, in 2016. The five steps covered include being aware of choices in life; responsibility; acting in the present; owning oneself; and enjoying life. The authors show readers how to identify the various factors that hold people back in life and how to deal with them.
Panos joined Smiles in a joint interview for the XOXO after Dark Web site, where they shared their thoughts on working together and enjoying life. Smiles discussed the importance of finding time for their relationship while also maintaining a busy schedule. He confessed, “Both of us have a deep understanding that life is not about the ‘when, then’ scenario: when the wedding is finally here, then we’ll make time for fun. When the book is launched, then we’ll have time to be present. So for us, it’s about focusing on the ‘F word’ … fun! We make sure that we schedule in play and have fun throughout our days, no matter what else is on the agenda: tickling, tackling, kissing, playing. For us, that’s the juice that keeps us going—that’s what it’s all about.”
In a review in Psych Central, Sophia Dembling commented that the book’s content “sounds great. Really. Accessing your higher self, an epic life, is a worthy goal. But it just might take more than five steps to get there, no matter how many exclamation points you use.” Dembling pointed out that “while the authors use examples from their own lives here and there throughout the book, Now or Never would have benefited tremendously from many more concrete examples and anecdotes, perhaps gleaned from the thousands of people the authors say they have helped in seminars and workshops.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 4, 2016, review of Love Louder: 33 Ways to Amplify Your Life, p. 74.
ONLINE
Enjoying Life a Day at a Time, https://enjoyinglifeadayatatime.wordpress.com/ (June 11, 2016), review of Love Louder.
Preston Smiles Home Page, https://prestonsmiles.com (February 22, 2017).
Psych Central, https://psychcentral.com/ (February 22, 2017), Sophia Dembling, review of Now or Never: Your Epic Life in 5 Steps; The Bridge from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
Wanderlust, https://wanderlust.com/ (February 22, 2017), author profile.
XOXO after Dark, http://xoxoafterdark.com/ (June 23, 2016), “Taking Time for Love with Alexi Panos and Preston Smiles,” author interview.
MY MISSION IS TO…
empower, inspire and ignite a mutli-generational movement of radical growth through conscious, creative content, acts of love and living boldly.
I believe we’re here to leave the planet better than we found it, and I’m committed to motivating others to join me on that mission, and live their best life NOW.
I’m a Personal Freedom Coach, who supports people in understanding & embracing their fears, so they can live the life of their dreams
It’s FREEDOM time.
I could list a bunch of things that would make me look “important” and “successful”, but what I want you to know about me is I truly care about people, our planet, and about maximizing my potential. I’m committed to knowing that when I leave this world that my tank was empty, because I gave ALL that I had and then some in the name of LOVE. So whether I’m speaking, leading workshops, writing books, or making conscious content through social media, it’s all in SERVICE of the same thing….LOVE. It’s the answer to everything and it’s so obvious that some of us miss it. So I’m here as a messenger to remind us all that when we AMPLIFY our LOVE we automatically amplify our LIVES.
COACHING
Personal freedom is having the capacity to give and receive love at the highest heights possible according to your soul’s signature. My program is about mind, body and spiritual evolution. I teach you how to liberate yourself from the downward spiral of unwanted thoughts, work with negative emotions instead of collapsing into them, and how to build on what’s already innately in you.
PERSONAL FREEDOM COACH
I work from the belief that we create our reality with the thoughts we choose to give power to, the language we use, and the actions we take on a daily basis. If you get this and want to uncover and discover your unconscious beliefs, and activate your hidden potential, then I may be the coach for you.
Personal freedom is having the capacity to give and receive love at the highest heights possible according to your soul’s signature. My program is about mind, body and spiritual evolution. I teach you how to work with negative emotions instead of collapsing into them, liberate yourself from the downward spiral and how to build on what’s already innately in you.
My style is unorthodox, grounded, and steeped in my over 10 years of studying the human condition in myself, family, and clients. What makes my coaching unique is I am not married to any one style of coaching. I don’t believe in a one size fits all coaching program. I listen with a full heart, ask questions, and challenge you to step into the greatest version of you.
Our time together will include Skype calls, weekly assignments, powerful distinctions, practical tools, and so much more. We will literally build a powerful platform for you…together. It’s super intimate, one-on-one, coaching so I have to believe you’re committed, because we go deep and become, in essence, spiritual workout partners.
If you’re ready to take a leap of faith and take my hand to show you your way to freedom,
CHOOSE THE PATH THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU:
EXPERIENCE 1:
Personalized small group monthly sessions where dive deep into whatever is stopping you from living your greatness. Nothing is off limits and you’ll get access to a private FB group where the group will hold you accountable.
EXPERIENCE 2:
1 one hour Skype sessions a month with assignments, accountability and weekly emails.
EXPERIENCE 3:
We become best friends for 3 months. 3 one hour Skype or in person sessions a month with assignments, accountability, weekly emails and text message support.
Preston Smiles and Alexi Panos
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Social media super-couple Preston Smiles and Alexi Panos have created a massive love ripple throughout the world with their high energy, passion-filled videos, 12-week online training program The Bridge Method, and their groundbreaking workshop The Bridge Experience. As agents of change, passion and possibility, they both founded their own movements that inspire and contribute to people all over the planet. Preston’s Love Mob creates organized acts of love through bringing communities together; and Alexi’s non profit E.P.I.C. (Everyday People Initiating Change) brings clean, sustainable water to those in the developing world, while empowering global leaders through their Fellowship Program. Both Preston + Alexi are set to release their first solo books in June 2016 under the publishing house of Simon + Schuster; and will be releasing their first collaborative book with the same publisher in January 2017.
TAKING TIME FOR LOVE WITH ALEXI PANOS AND PRESTON SMILES
1 comment 23 June, 2016
Today XOXOAD welcomes Alexi Panos and Preston Smiles. Preston and Alexi are speakers, authors and transformational leaders and creators of The Bridge Method, an internationally acclaimed program helping hundreds of thousands of people create meaningful, joy-filled lives whatever their circumstances. And by the way? They’re engaged! We’ve had people who were married to their co-writers before, but this is the first time we’ve met a writer-couple who each have their own separate books published in the same week! We asked them to talk about their philosophies of life, their partnership, and how they balance their relationship with the pressures of being writers and entrepreneurs. Welcome, Alexi and Preston!
50 WaysLove Louder
Q: This month you both published new books, Alexi’s 50 Ways to Yay! and Preston’s Love Louder. At the same time you’re planning your wedding which is just around the corner. How do the two of you make time for one another and your relationship with all of this going on?
Preston: Both of us have a deep understanding that life is not about the “when, then” scenario: when the wedding is finally here, then we’ll make time for fun. When the book is launched, then we’ll have time to be present. So for us, it’s about focusing on the “F word”….FUN! We make sure that we schedule in play and have FUN throughout our days, no matter what else is on the agenda: tickling, tackling, kissing, playing. For us, that’s the juice that keeps us going—that’s what it’s all about.
Alexi: We definitely have a LOT moving right now—but we ALWAYS have our morning time! We set two alarms: the first one, our “snuggle alarm,” goes off to let us know it’s time to find each other and snuggle. Then, about 20 minutes later, we have a second alarm that tells us it’s time to get our butts out of bed! So no matter how busy our days may be, we have already made time to be physically connected and present with each other without any distractions.
Q: How do you keep your relationship fresh when you live together, work together, teach and create together?
Preston: We focus on what’s here NOW. Life is full of magic when you’re focused on what’s currently present. We don’t try to be anywhere other than HERE—if sadness there, we don’t try to hurry up and get through it—we BE with it. If happiness is there—we don’t rush past it—we dance in it.
Alexi: Well when you put it that way it sounds like such a feat! Ha! Honestly, we play quite a bit. We are both extremely silly humans and even when we’re working, we’re taking things pretty lightly. We’ll brainstorm while giving each other piggy back rides. We’ll have dance-off’s to Michael Jackson while mind mapping on our chalkboards. And we are constantly bringing sarcasm and jokes to what we do. We get that the human potential business is serious stuff—so we aim to bring as much fun to it as possible. Plus—we created and built our business to include an immense amount of travel which is always mixing it up–creating spontaneity and adventure!
restonandAlexijumping
Q: We’ve been following your videos from Bali and Australia just to name a few. It seems like your work takes you to some of the most romantic places on earth. This is the stuff of romance novels. How does your partnership, both in life and in work feed your creativity and inspire you?
Preston: Alexi is my guru. Just her being her helps me see all the places where I’m shining and where I need to work on. Anybody who’s ever been in a committed relationship knows that sometimes out of your greatest pain, comes your greatest gain; that in the uncomfortable conversations and in having to face oneself, we truly grow into the powerhouse beings that we are.
Alexi: It’s everything. Relationships in life are EVERYTHING. We’re constantly in relationship: with ourselves, with our surroundings, with our work, and obviously with each other. The beauty of what we have is that our bond touches so many other parts of what we’re in relationship to. And because we bring each other so much joy, so much inspiration and we continue to challenge each other and hold each other to the highest versions of ourselves, our creativity flourishes. Love is a life force energy—-and anyone that’s been in love knows how it just invigorates you and leaves you completely inspired. We see the world differently. All of the sudden, everything seems possible—and we both live with that feeling on a day to day basis which is just the biggest blessing in the world.
Q: Writing can be a solitary pursuit. What’s it like to fall in love with a writer?
Preston: Alexi and I both can be nerdy, home-bodies—so it actually works out really well. Our desires, sensibilities and ways of viewing the world is very much aligned. I understand, as a partner, when to give her/our relationship room to breathe so that creativity can flow. With all that said, she’s my best friend and it’s really pretty easy—plus I’ve got an amazing sounding board to bounce ideas off of!
Alexi: The beauty is we both know what it takes! The creative struggle can be SO real at times, and sometimes the process calls for alone time, sometimes it calls for playing outside, and sometimes it calls for a complete meltdown! The gift is, we were both writing at the same time, so we were totally understanding and open to what we needed during the process of completing these books! It really is amazing though to know that I love someone who is using his voice to give back and to support others in the world with his message—that alone inspires me so much.
Love Louder: 33 Ways to Amplify Your Life
Publishers Weekly. 263.14 (Apr. 4, 2016): p74.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Full Text:
Love Louder: 33 Ways to Amplify Your Life
Preston Smiles. S&S/North StarWay, $13.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-5011-2014-5
Life coach Smiles presents a concise but unoriginal system of 33 tenets designed for creating a positive outlook and, consequently, a more fulfilling life. These tenets range from the abstract ("trust the journey of life") to the more tangible (spend more time in nature). Smiles encourages living with gratitude, choosing forgiveness over resentment, and turning "wounds into wisdom." Many tips involve mental retraining to enhance self-confidence, such as learning it's okay to say "no" with the "People Pleaser Recovery Program," respecting intuition, and ditching society's warped standards in favor of authenticity, which involves creating a vision of success independent of those standards and designing a proper course of action towards one's individual goals. The systeme is a pastiche, interspersing instruction with inspirational quotes and hashtagged "challenges" that encourage making necessary changes such as reorienting one's "disempowering language" and identifying and eliminating bad habits. Smiles's life amplification system is a noble pursuit and its sleek design makes it convenient, but it largely consists of material that has been covered well by others. Agent: Steve Ross, Abrams Artist Agency. (June)
Home » Library » Book Review: Now or Never
Book Review: Now or Never By Alexi Panos and Preston Smiles
Reviewed by Sophia Dembling
~ 3 min read
Book Review: Now or Never
Coming out just in time for New Year’s Resolution season, Now or Never: Your Epic Life in 5 Steps promises a prescription for whatever it is you want to accomplish in your life — lose weight, better job, better love life. It’s all there, it’s all good, with an excess of CAPITALIZATIONS, italics, and enthusiasm! Actually, Panos and Smiles almost lost me with the book’s opening salvo, “Hello, you sexy beast!” — that’s just a little too familiar, too pandering and all-up-in-my-face. But, OK, maybe other people like flattery with their self-help.
The five steps prescribe by the authors to achieve an epic life are:
You always have a choice.
Be radically responsible.
Act now.
Own who you are.
Have a blast.
That first step is about identifying the unconscious biases and impulses under which we operate in life. This includes asking people for “feedback interviews,” which sound equal parts enlightening and excruciating. The authors recommend such questions as “How would you describe me in three words?”; “What would you say are three areas I could improve on?”; “What are three things you LOVE about how I am with you in our relationship?”; “What would you say are my negative patterns that I may not be aware of?”
From there, you are urged to assume “radical responsibility” for your feelings. The authors write, “…pain is inevitable but suffering is a CHOICE. When we choose radical responsibility, we choose the empowering perspective that we are responsible for our experience of the event — no matter how undesirable or beautiful it may be.”
The premise is, of course, indisputable. We do have a choice about whether to be victims or wallow in “victim consciousness,” but the authors wander into some potentially inflammatory territory when they write, “Another great example is people who consume standard packaged food from the grocery store for most of their adult life. If you take into consideration the chemicals, sugars, and preservatives found in these foods, people who choose to eat such foods on a consistent basis could have helped bring about their cancer, heart disease, or diabetes. Based on their choices, they created the ENVIRONMENT for disease to occur.” People struggling with health problems don’t really like being scolded and shamed by strangers.
Step three, “Act now,” starts with conscious breathing and centering before proceeding into facing your fear, reframing failure, rewriting the stories you attach to events. “Own who you are” is about recognizing what you truly value and what your own definition of success is, and opening up to the full truth of your humanity (what the authors, with multiple exclamation points, call getting naked). “Have a blast” is all about rediscovering the value of fun in life.
None of the advice in the book is groundbreaking, all of it makes sense. I rarely follow the full, exhausting program prescribed in books like this, but rather read them to glean nuggets that resonate with me, that can be mantras spurring me to healthy action.
I found a couple in here: “Your complaint is your mission” (griping about something is a clue that you need to do something about it); “The comfort zone is where dreams go to die” (you can’t live an “epic” life without doing things that scare you); and “Goals are BS,” which struck me as the freshest thought in the book — the authors suggest we drop the idea of setting concrete goals and instead aspire to a feeling, so as not to lock ourselves into what we think is the right road to wherever it is we hope to go. “Set the goal of how we want to feel first so that we can then surrender to however that may end up revealing itself to us,” they write, followed by fill-in-the-blanks for goals and routes there.
The problem with this book, though, is its very broad strokes. While I don’t quibble with the ideas and goals, the presentation is so abstract as to make focusing on them difficult. The premises are basic and could be helpful to people who might not have thought along these lines before, and the perky tone might be motivating to anyone feeling stuck (and who doesn’t find it off-putting), but the authors have tried to pack so much into their five steps that seeing the connections can be difficult. What might work in a seminar format, where you can let your mind bob along on the presenter’s words and wander into tributaries, can be overwhelming and even confusing in book form.
While the authors use examples from their own lives here and there throughout the book, Now or Never would have benefited tremendously from many more concrete examples and anecdotes, perhaps gleaned from the thousands of people the authors say they have helped in seminars and workshops.
“The higher self is where our genius lives,” the authors writer. “It’s a direct line to the source, opening up your life to limitless creativity, harmony and pure, unadulterated abundance.”
Sounds great. Really. Accessing your higher self, an epic life, is a worthy goal. But it just might take more than five steps to get there, no matter how many exclamation points you use.
Now or Never: Your Epic Life in 5 Steps
North Star Way, December 2016
Hardcover, 240 pages
$23.99
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Now or Never’
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By W. James Antle III - Special to The Washington Times - - Tuesday, January 17, 2012
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
NOW OR NEVER: SAVING AMERICA FROM ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
By Sen. Jim DeMint
Center Street, $24.99, 304 pages
Is there a more influential conservative in Congress than Sen. Jim DeMint? The South Carolina Republican has emerged as a kingmaker in GOP nominating contests, irritating the party establishment by supporting conservative challengers against big-spending incumbents.
Mr. DeMint’s is the most coveted, though elusive, endorsement in his state’s pivotal presidential primary. He has been a leader in the fights over health care reform, the debt ceiling, the balanced-budget amendment and a whole host of other issues.
Jim DeMint is no Johnny-come-lately to the need for limited government and spending restraint. When other Republicans were going along with new regulations, the biggest new entitlement (entirely paid for with borrowed money) since the Great Society, and doubling the size of the Department of Education, Mr. DeMint said no and voted his conscience.
Now he has written an arresting new book, “Now or Never: Saving America From Economic Collapse.” His basic argument is that the country is saddled by crippling government debt and we don’t have much time to fix our fiscal imbalances. As President Reagan memorably asked, “If not now, when?”
Mr. DeMint divides the book into chapters describing the country’s economic problems, analyzing possible solutions and calling for decisive political action. Each chapter is preceded by an introduction written by a prominent conservative. Fellow senators - Tom Coburn, Patrick J. Toomey, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio - are contributors, as are former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Rep. Steve King. Sen. Rand Paul writes the foreword.
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This all-star cast should be unsurprising. Mr. DeMint aided Mr. Toomey, Mr. Lee, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Paul in their primary fights when many other Republicans feared they would be too right-wing. Now they are a powerful base of support on Capitol Hill for Mr. DeMint’s uncompromising brand of conservatism.
Some have criticized the book for using overly apocalyptic language. But what other words can be used when discussing a $15 trillion national debt that equals the size of the entire U.S. economy? Even this is a trifling figure compared to the unfunded liabilities of the major entitlement programs.
It has become a cliche to say every four years that the next election is the most important in our lifetimes. Yet the longer action is delayed, the deeper the federal government is in the hole and the more drastic become the possible solutions. Thus, those who pose as defenders of the social safety net as they stand in the way of entitlement reform may be, in fact, complicit in the safety net’s shredding.
While the book primarily is about the fiscal and economic challenges that lie ahead, Mr. DeMint does not call for a social-issues truce while we confront what Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has called the new “Red Menace” of red ink. He argues that economic and social conservatism cannot be separated.
“Some politicians have suggested that social issues be set aside while we address our fiscal crisis, but this view belies the real root causes of the nation’s reckless spending and crushing debt,” Mr. DeMint writes. “Cultural pathologies caused by the unintended consequences of naive social policies have contributed to many of America’s economic and fiscal problems.”
Ultimately, Mr. DeMint contends, we have no choice but to rein in federal spending, unleash the productive private sector and encourage strong values. Above all else, he writes that Congress must take seriously its oath to uphold the Constitution, noting that “the explicit functions of the federal government are found in Article I, Section 8.” If more of Mr. DeMint’s colleagues had voted accordingly, the crisis he laments could have been averted.
It may not be morning in America anymore. But it’s still not too late.
W. James Antle III is associate editor of the American Spectator.
Love Louder: A Review
ON JUNE 11, 2016 BY JOYJUMPIN BOOK, BOOK REVIEW, HAPPINESS, LIFE, NON FICTION, PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, SELF HELP
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Love Louder_review
Author: Preston Smiles
Publisher: North Star Way
Genre: Personal Development/ Motivational
Source: ARC from netgalley
Expected Release Date:7-6-2016
Aim of the book: To present methods that help to embrace your life, getting rid of obstacles and live life with love.
Review: The author is an ex gang member who took a turn to improve his life and has gathered all his knowledge and shared it with the world. He presents 33 tools of inspiration to help live life in its bestest version possible.
Layout
Each chapter starts with a short motivational information followed by a “love louder” affirmation or challenge, which are really really original and cool.
Sometimes a few quotes are also thrown in the mix.
He details and explains things by using his own personal experiences.
Some of the tools for inspiration include
Setting intention
Being grateful
Being selfless
Forgiveness
Observing yourself
And many many more.
Relationships, well being, meditation etc. are also given a spot in the book.
Some of the exercises are really really powerful, like forgiveness exercise and dealing with break down.
You could go about tackling one challenge each day, but they are so diverse that they can be used whenever the need arises.
My opinion: The book manages to fulfill what it promised. The rules that are presented are indeed timeless, you only need to apply them and stay committed to improving your life.
My Rating: 6 out of 10
Recommended for: Those who want to experience life to the fullest with emphasis on gentleness and love should go for this book.
I received this ARC from netgalley for review purposes.