Bonus Episode - Craig Stanland
Table of Contents
Hereby, we would like to introduce you to a brand-new kind of episode on The IPS Podcast: bonus episodes. In these bonus episodes you get the chance to spend some more quality time with some of our guests as they take over the podcast.
Often when I am doing an interview, I do not have the chance to ask all of my questions because of time restrictions guests might have or because the question does not fit that specific interview.
These bonus episodes serve as a place where those questions are asked and answered.
In this first bonus episode, you get to spend some more time with Craig Stanland, who appeared in the previous episode on the podcast which was Episode 028: Life After Prison – Craig Stanland: Losing Everything You Have and How to Start Over.
Here is a short bio about Craig so you know a little about his story and why I interviewed him in episode 028 for the podcast:
In 2012, Craig made a decision that would change his whole life. He exploited the warranty policy of one of the world’s largest tech companies for his own financial gain.
Eventually, however, just under a year after Craig began operating his scheme, the FBI came knocking on his door in October 2013.
He was arrested and eventually sentenced to 2 years in federal prison, 3 years of supervised release, and payment of $834,307.00 in restitution.
Living with feelings of shame and guilt of going through this and losing his wife, his house, and his job set Craig on a totally different path in life.
Today, Craig is a reinvention architect, TEDx speaker, author and coach. He recently published his first book, Blank Canvas How I Reinvented Myself, delivered an incredible TEDx Talk titled How I Learned My Greatest Worth in Federal Prison, and is helping countless people live more fulfilling lives through his coaching.
The interview I did with Craig (episode 028) is truly an incredible episode that goes in-depth on the topic of making a mistake, living with shame, how to work through it, and how to forgive yourself.
Therefore, if you enjoy this bonus episode with Craig, you will love the interview.
With that, I will let Craig take over from here. Please enjoy this first bonus episode of the podcast with Craig Stanland.
- – This question might seem totally out of the blue, but I noticed you had two tattoos on your lower arm. Did you have them before your time in prison? Or did you get them after? What do they mean? [03:32]
- – What was something you did not share in your TEDx Talk that you wish you had? [08:31]
- – The days can often be more manageable than the nights. Because at night all kinds of thoughts can come to the surface. Knowing you were going to prison, what thoughts often kept you awake? Or what did you do before you went off to bed? [11:10]
- – What did your daily routine look like in prison? [13:25]
- – Your nickname was Smiley. Why do people in prison give all these nicknames to each other? [17:58]
- – What were the prison inmates you met like? What lessons did you learn from them? [19:38]
- – Who is Ed? Can you tell us something about him? When did he enter the picture? [25:25]
- – From what I gathered you read a lot of books in prison… Which books did you read and which ones helped you the most? [31:24]
- – Was it in prison that you tried meditation for the first time? What convinced you to start meditating? And what did it do for you? [36:56]
- – Someone listening right now might have suicidal thoughts. With the experience you’ve had and having worked through these feelings… What could you suggest to them? [38:47]
- – How did you rebuild trust again after breaking that of your loved ones like friends and family? [43:21]
- – What could you suggest to people who feel like there is no hope in life because of something they went through? [45:08]
Craig Stanland: The Questions That Were Not Asked
Check out the Interview Craig Did on The IPS Podcast
If you would like to listen to the interview Craig gave on The IPS Podcast, check out Episode 028: Life After Prison – Craig Stanland: Losing Everything You Have and How to Start Over. You can find the show notes by clicking ‘here’.

Resources Mentioned:
- – Blank Canvas: How I Reinvented My Life after Prison (Blank Canvas is a meditation on our remarkable capacity to rebuild and reinvent our lives. Through powerful storytelling, Craig proves that our greatest adversities do not have to be the end. Sometimes, they can be our greatest beginning.)
- – Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It (The bestselling self-published phenomenon addressing our urgent need for self-love in the world today. Now expanded with new reader oriented lessons, and a powerful and transformative personal story of the practice in action.)
- – Live Your Truth (We don’t stumble accidentally into an amazing life. It takes a conscious commitment to figuring out what we stand for – finding our truth.)
- – Rebirth (
- – Unbroken (In this captivating and lavishly illustrated young adult edition of her award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian’s courage, cunning, and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory)
- – The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream (Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.)
- – Man’s Search for Meaning (At the heart of Frankl’s theory of logotherapy (from the Greek word for “meaning”) is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but rather the discovery and pursuit of what the individual finds meaningful.)
- – Choose Yourself!: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream (With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher s own heartbreaking and inspiring story Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.)
- – How I Learned My Greatest Worth in Federal Prison (Craig Stanland is the author of the soon to be published memoir, The Blank Canvas. He is a transformational storyteller who lives in Brooklyn, NY and loves being out in nature, cars and connecting with friends.)
- – Marcus Aurelius (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors, and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161)
- – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, usually known as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in Cordoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy.)
- – Epictetus (Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece for the rest of his life. His teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion.)
- – Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, writer, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy.)
- – Kamal Ravikant (Kamal Ravikant is a founder, investor and an author.)
- – Heraclitus (Heraclitus of Ephesus was an Ancient Greek, pre-Socratic, Ionian philosopher and a native of the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. His appreciation for wordplay and oracular expressions, as well as paradoxical elements in his philosophy, earned him the epithet “The Obscure” from antiquity.)
- – Laura Hillenbrand (Laura Hillenbrand is an American author of books and magazine articles. Her two bestselling nonfiction books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, have sold over 13 million copies, and each was adapted for film.)
- – Viktor Frankl (Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. He was the founder of logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy which describes a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force.)
- – Paulo Coelho (Paulo Coelho de Souza is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist, best known for his novel The Alchemist. In 2014, he uploaded his personal papers online to create a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation. )
- – James Altucher (James Altucher is an American hedge-fund manager, author, podcaster and entrepreneur who has founded or cofounded over 20 companies. He has published 20 books and is a contributor to publications including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and The Huffington Post.)
- – Tim Ferriss (Timothy Ferriss is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, and lifestyle guru.)

FOLLOW Craig Stanland
You may also like these episodes:
- – EP 028: Life After Prison – Craig Stanland: Losing Everything You Have and How to Start Over
- – EP 011 – Richard Ayling on How to Become Superhuman, Master the Mind & Body, and Influence the Autonomic Nervous System
- – EP 006: Muni Natarajan – The Wisdom of a Monk Who Lived 37 Years in a Monastery
Question about this episode: From this bonus episode with Craig Stanland, which questions and answers did you enjoy and find value in?
Did you enjoy this episode?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Your Voice Matters!
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