Sara Avant Stover is a business strategist, Internal Family Systems practitioner and author based in Boulder, Colorado. She works with female spiritual entrepreneurs to help them with both the spiritual and practical aspects of building a business and pursuing inner transformation. She draws on 25 years as a yoga and meditation practitioner and a teacher, author, and entrepreneur. 

Sara is an "overachiever." She started dancing ballet at the age of three and continued until she went to college. She was also an entrepreneur, making and selling candy, T-shirts, and jewelry boxes from a young age. As a young adult, Sara realized the level of competition in ballet was leading to unhealthy behaviors and so she stopped. She graduated from Barnard College Phi Beta Kappa and applied to work in the Peace Corps. That's when things started to change. 

While undergoing health exams for the Peace Corps, Sara was told she had early signs of cervical cancer. Because she would need medical exams every three months, she was not able to go to Africa. A meeting with an old high school teacher opened up an alternative: going to teach in Thailand, where she could get the health care she needed. She thought she'd be there a year; she ended up staying for nine years, traveling around the world at intervals while keeping Thailand as her home base. She also became a yoga teacher and started offering teacher trainings as well as writing for magazines in the U.S. on yoga and spirituality. 

Sara returned to the U.S. in her 30s and, with the help of her business partner, embarked on building her business online. She wrote and published her first book, The Way of the Happy Woman. She now offers private mentoring to female spiritual entrepreneurs, conducts programs and retreats, and has written two more books. The Handbook for the Heartbroken comes out this month. 

Sara is informed by her deep practices in meditation and yoga, but also by Internal Family Systems, a psychological, evidence-based approach that teaches people how to look at different parts of themselves while holding fast to what she calls the "essential self." In doing this people can learn to listen to their fears without allowing them to hold them back.  

Sara believes in entrepreneurship as spiritual practice, and is deeply interested in the intersection of money, business, and spirituality. She has learned to peel back the outside messages and tune into her "still small voice." Learning to listen to that voice is a central teaching she uses with the women she mentors to help them break free of barriers and build their spiritual businesses. 

Sara will be leading retreats this year at the Drala Mountain Center in Colorado and the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts. For more information go to saraavantstover.com. 

Connect With Sara Avant Stover 

Website

www.saraavantstover.com

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/saraavantstover/

Facebook

www.facebook.com/saraavantstoverauthor

Instagram

www.instagram.com/saraavantstover

Book

handbookfortheheartbroken.com

"All the past and all the future are present in this moment." — Blake D. Bauer

Blake D. Bauer is the author of the international best-seller You Were Not Born To Suffer. A speaker and teacher, he has studied a wide range of modalities, including psychology, nutrition, traditional Chinese medicine, and past life regression therapy-hypnosis. All that Blake has learned started as a quest when he was 18 to simply find a way to stop the pain he was experiencing. He found his calling in helping others find optimal mental, physical and emotional health. 

When Blake was a senior in high school, he was co-captain of his football team. One night he'd partied a bit too hard and found himself with a DUI, ending his aspirations to play football in college. Blake withdrew from the world and woke up every morning wondering how to stop the suffering and pain. Eventually he found yoga and meditation, which he credits with saving his life. 

Learning to meditate was only the beginning. Looking back, Blake realized he had to create a space of unconditional acceptance, of self-love and how this applies to all aspects of life. You can't really truly love another until you learn to love yourself, Blake says. Meditation, where you quiet the mind and simply observe your thoughts, is a space where you can learn this. 

Blake also observes the lack of initiation rituals in our culture, pointing to his own experimentation with alcohol and drugs and getting arrested as a kind of unhealthy self-initiation. Blake grew up seeing people in his family, including his biological father, achieve success but lose it all because of substance abuse. When he realized he was following the same path, he became determined to make a different life for himself. While he's studied various fields relating to the health of the body and mind, he has found qi gong, a Chinese practice of movement, especially meaningful. Meditation continues to be the core practice he uses as well as teaches. 

When Blake was 24, he started pitching his book idea to publishers. He was rejected 100 times. He eventually self-published his book, which was later bought by a publisher and has become an international best seller. While he's pleased with its success, the lesson he learned by all those rejections was showing him that he was still looking for validation from outside himself. It was deciding for himself his ideas had value that made the difference. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• Blake's approach to meditation 
• The key to a healthy relationship 
• The two questions Blake asked himself every day when trying to relieve his suffering 
• The superpower Blake didn't know he had 
• How loving yourself is the basis of all healing 

Connect With Blake D. Bauer 

Websites

Unconditional Self-Love

15 min meditation

https://vimeo.com/768757355

Meditation intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOUxF8l9csc

LinkedIn

Blake D. Bauer on LinkedIn

Facebook

Blake D. Bauer

Instagram

Blake D. Bauer

Book

You Were Not Born To Suffer

The 2024 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration

Join us from September 22-26 for The Do Nothing Leadership Retreat. The retreat offers business leaders, entrepreneurs, and those seeking a more mindful life the most rewarding challenge they may ever take — a leadership-focused mindfulness and meditation retreat.

Discover why meditation and mindfulness practices can positively impact your life. After slowing down, unplugging, and looking within, you’ll understand why presence and awareness are the greatest gifts we can offer ourselves and others.

Get Rob’s Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast, plus other great articles and insights. https://robdube.com/contact

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

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twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.robdube.com

Rob and Gino Wickman’s book, Shine, How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom, is available now for pre-order here. 

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

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"Relationships are where we receive the greatest fulfillment and the greatest challenge."  — Elysabeth Williamson

Today's guest is Elysabeth Williamson, a self-taught yoga teacher of 35 years who developed Principle-Based Partner Yoga,™ a system of yoga that focuses on relationship and connection with others. She also uses this work to encourage people to think and talk about death and dying as a way to live life more fully. She is the author of the award-winning book The Pleasures and Principles of Partner Yoga and is working on a second book, Becoming Fully Human: How Learning To Feel Saved My Life. 

Williamson had a challenging start in life, marked by a mother with mental illness and addictions. This, she says, brought her to seek out healing and understanding, noting "human suffering is the great equalizer." She believes that "we're born into a circumstance that our soul is choosing" and that her life's work has been to integrate her human self with the wisdom nature we are all born with. 

Williamson started doing yoga when she was 16. At that time, the 1970s, there were not many places to learn yoga. After playing and touring with a rock band fo several years, at the age of 28 she returned to yoga and started learning more. She says that for her, yoga was about reconnecting with her intuition, and that many of the movements were ones she'd been doing since childhood. As yoga became more popular, Williamson resisted the trend of "competitive" yoga and instead developed a teaching based around the principles of relationship, which became her partner yoga system.

 Rather than focusing on just the physical, Williamson's teaching is based on universal qualities of humanity and the idea that yoga can be used to help people get in touch with and cultivate more of these principles. 

Williamson also completed training as a hospice worker, which she found helped her to prepare for her mother's death. Though she ultimately concluded, based on witnessing her mother's death, that how we live is how we die, she was able to come to peace and forgiveness for her childhood. She brings what she's learned to her teachings, offering workshops where she challenges people to look at and talk about death and dying. Williamson notes that many traditions use meditations on death to come to a deeper awakening to life.

Williamson strives to create a safe and supportive space for people to voice their fears about death. She uses the sivasana pose as a tool to help people relax and be guided into the "ultimate surrender." Participants report coming away from these experiences with less fear and more joy.  One woman told her 10 years after attending a workshop that it had helped her when she was witnessing her mother's death. 

Williamson will be offering a workshop as part of the Stanford University Contemplative Arts Summit in October. More information and other events can be found at partneryoga.net/events. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• Why Williamson focuses on relationship in her yoga teachings

• What she believes we can learn through relationships and connection

• What the hallmarks of a good teacher are

• Why she believes talking about and working with death is so important

• What people experience in a weekend retreat on death and dying 

• What she believes forgiveness is

• How Williamson has come to terms with her family and her past, including her brother's suicide

Connect With Elysabeth Williamson 

Websites

PartnerYoga.net

ElysabethWilliamson.com

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysabeth-williamson-98421a1aa/

Facebook

facebook.com/partneryoga

Twitter

https://twitter.com/ElysabethWilli1

Book

The Pleasures and Principles of Partner-Based Yoga

Available at https://partneryoga.net/shop-2/

The 2024 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration

Join us from September 22-26 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels. The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspectives – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast, plus other great articles and insights. https://robdube.com/contact

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

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Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.robdube.com

Rob and Gino Wickman’s book, Shine, How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom, is available now for pre-order here. 

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

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"Really, death is a journey into and through the mind."  — Andrew Holocek

 In this episode, I speak with Andrew Holecek, the author of several books on meditation and lucid dreaming. While he's had a career as a dental surgeon, he has had a lifelong interest in meditation and the wisdom traditions. In 1998, he went on a three-year retreat at Sopa Choling in Nova Scotia, Canada. He calls this experience "transformative," and it was in his last year he had the idea for his first book, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy. He has gone on to publish several other books on dying, meditation, and dream yoga and speaks and teaches on these topics. His teachings draw on Buddhism, but he stresses that all wisdom traditions have something to offer and often teach the same things in different ways. 

Andrew's book Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom From the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition explains that how we prepare to die is just as important as how we live. Many of the spiritual masters understand that death is just another phase of life, and they make no distinction between life and death. The best way to prepare for death is to become familiar with your own mind, and the best way to do this is through the practice of meditation. Further, living your life to the fullest and living a life of goodness are also spiritual practices that prepare you for death. These masters seek to be at the moment of looking forward to death when they die. Having no fear and no regrets are also states to aim for. Indeed, the "awakened ones" see death as liberation. 

Andrew's work on lucid dreaming further extends these ideas, as this practice is really about becoming more conscious and intentional. In his books about dream yoga and lucid dreaming, he explains that dream yoga incorporates but also transcends lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the act of becoming conscious when in a dream state, so that the "conscious mind can face the unconscious mind directly." It's a powerful practice that has helped people become more mindful and conscious in their awake states, as well as having mental and physical benefits. Most of our lives are spent in the phase of "non lucidity" or distraction; practicing meditation and lucid dreaming can help us become more conscious. It can "accelerate your psycho-spiritual development." 

Intention-setting is another important practice. At a dream yoga training, the teacher taught only that practice. This practice might involve the repetition of your intention throughout the course of the day, especially right before sleep.

As a dental surgeon and founder of Global Dental Relief, which provides dental care to people in developing countries, Andrew believes in the efficacy of Western medicine. However, as he notes, we are one of the only cultures that do not regard the dream state as important. He seeks to draw on the best of Eastern thought and Western medicine in his approach to sleep and dreaming. He gives examples of accounts of people who dreamed events that later became true and his own experiences with precognitive dreaming. 

Another topic Andrew has written about is "reverse meditation." This is a practice that teaches you to be with an unwanted experience instead of running away from it as an opportunity for transformation. Pain and suffering can be a pathway for change; tranquility "sedates, it doesn't liberate." The goal is to live in a state of expansion rather than contraction. Acceptance and open awareness are key in this practice. 

 Andrew offers retreats for people interested in learning more about his work and is hosting one in March in Costa Rica. He also hosts an online community, Night Club.

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• More about the best way to prepare to die 
• How death can be seen as a form of liberation 
• The power of lucid dreaming and practices that help you get there 
• How the dream state is a "truer dimension" 
• What Andrew thinks about dream interpretation 
• Why someone might want to practice reverse meditation  
• How to become less distracted and more aware 
• What the three phases of beginning meditation are 
• Why language can be a trigger and how to transform its power 
• What Andrew experienced when he met the Dalai Lama

Connect With Andrew Holecek 

Websites

www.andrewholecek.com

Night Club: nightclub.andrewholecek.com

Global Dental Relief: www.globaldentalrelief.org

Podcast

www.edgeofmindpodcast.com

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/andrewholecek/

Facebook

www.facebook.com/andrewholecekauthor

X (Twitter)

www.twitter.com/andrewholecek

Books:

www.andrewholecek.com/andrew-holecek-books

The 2024 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration (5 spots remaining)

Join us from September 22-26 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels. The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspectives – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast, plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

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Facebook: 

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Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

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Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

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Pre-order Rob’s newest book, co-authored with bestselling author and founder of EOS Worldwide, Gino Wickman, Shine, How Looking Inward Is The Key To Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom. The book will be available on March 26, 2024.

"The fundamental idea of gross national happiness is to say that the center of our attention should be the happiness of all people as well as all life forms."  — Tho Va Hinh

This week I speak to a returning guest, Tho Va Hinh, author of The Culture of Happiness and founder of the Eurasia Foundation and the Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing. He's designed the Happy Schools curriculum, which started its first program in Vietnam and is now being tried in Switzerland and Germany.  He is also a Buddhist teacher ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Tho's early life was shaped by being the child of a Vietnamese diplomat father and a French mother. Though he did not directly witness the Vietnam War growing up, he was impacted by it through extended family. He saw both sides, he explains. While he at first thought he'd study to be a doctor, he chose a less conventional path: he became a performer and dance teacher. The type of dance he did was Eurythmy, a dance form developed by Rudolf Steiner, whose philosophies shape Waldorf schools. 

Tho explains his early interest in Eurythmy and his journey as a teacher and a Buddhist have all been driven by a desire to connect inner transformational work with the outer work of social change.He pursued a PhD in psychology and education when he was over 40. He has held leadership roles in schools, including director of Camphill Seminar of Curative Education in Switzerland and director of learning and development for the International Committee of the Red Cross.  While serving in the latter role, he saw firsthand the devastating impact of wars in such places as Palestine and Darfur. He began to seek out ways to change the root of the problems, rather than addressing the consequences of violence. 

Tho's interests led him to Bhutan, where the government has implemented an alternative framework to replace the Gross National Product:  Gross National Happiness. He explains how and why this framework is based on the premise that the guiding principle for a society should be on wellbeing for individuals, connection with others, and caring for the planet. The economic system is only one part of this larger framework. However, most societies use the Gross National Product - an economic index - as one of the most important markers of how a society is doing. Tho describes the process of implementing an index to measure Gross National Happiness instead and how this has led to his development of the Happy Schools curriculum. 

Tho has also helped implement the principles of Gross National Happiness into business, working with companies in Vietnam, Switzerland and Germany. One first step is to gather information through employee surveys to find out what needs and concerns workers have in order to find ways that the company can help improve their employees' wellbeing. So far, the results have been encouraging, with leaders reporting higher employee engagement and a more positive work culture. \

Tho says that schools and businesses that have adopted these principles have proven more resilient through the pandemic and ultimately have come out stronger, and he's eager to see this grow in the future. His latest project hopes to do just that, through the creation of a "Happy Village" in Vietnam.

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• How Tho's father responded when he told him he was going to study Eurythmy instead of medicine
• What Tho thinks of the current culture of information and how people need time to integrate all the information they are taking in 
• His experience of meeting Thich Nhat Hanh for the first time 
• The definition of dharma and why true Buddhist teachings are about freedom 
• Why he he started working on Gross National Happiness in Bhutan 
• What Tho thinks about artificial intelligence 
• How we need to shift education to respond to our current culture and create a better future 
• What Happy Schools teach and the results so far  
• The importance of gratitude in a happiness practice 
• How Rob took the principles and Gross National Happiness and applied them to his own business 
• To view the Happy Schools documentary mentioned in the podcast,  go to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib0PC9-y-KI

Connect With Tho Va Hinh

Websites

Eurasian Learning  Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing

Happy Schools

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/havinhtho/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/eurasialearninginstitute

Twitter

https://twitter.com/HaVinhTho

Book: Culture of Happiness

https://www.parallax.org/product/a-culture-of-happiness/

The 2023 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration (5 spots remaining)

Join us from October 8-12 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

amzn.to/2y9N1TK

“When we're no longer grasping for the money, it often flows more easily to us."  — Spencer Sherman

This week's guest is Spencer Sherman, CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners, a certified mindfulness teacher and author of The Cure for Money Madness. He also teaches people how to have a healthier relationship with money through his online courses and is on the faculty at NYU's Inner MBA program. 

In this episode Spencer and I dig into how our relationship with money is shaped by our parents, cultural messages, and the historical events we live through. Spencer grew up in Queens, where, he says, a lot of people focus on working hard, but he also grew up with the sense that there was never enough. After earning an MBA at Wharton Business School, he went to work for an investment firm. There, he focused on making moneynd and working long hours. 

Only when a fire broke out in his building did Sherman start to question whether money was needed for happiness at the expense of his health. He went on a ten-day silent retreat because, he says, "I'm a sucker for a challenge." That experience taught him that he could feel joy and a sense of having enough with few possessions, by just going inward. It was the beginning of redefining net worth to include more than just numbers on the balance sheet. 

Once he incorporated more mindfulness in his life, Spencer took a step back and started working on his relationship with money. He opened his own business and learned to set boundaries around his time for self-care activities like sleep and exercise. His business was one of the first to offer fee-only services, so he could help people objectively with their financial planning. In 2002, he joined with a friend to create Abacus Wealth Partners, a values-driven financial firm.

One practice Spencer teaches in his workshops is helping people become more conscious and aware of their thoughts and feelings around money. For example, he sometimes experiences anxiety about making a big purchase, even though he has the money. In those moments, Spencer explains, he reverts to being a child and feeling afraid he's going to run out of money. He has to take a moment, take a breath (he calls it the "money breath") and remind himself he's okay, that his adult self is in control. Similarly, he advises people take a few days to consider any big purchases, to make sure they are not acting out of impulse. 

Money can be our greatest teacher, Spencer says. Once we stop and become aware of our relationship with money, we can learn so much more about ourselves. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• How lessons about money are learned, from previous generations and from the events we live through as a child and adolescent. 
• How improving our relationship with money can help us cultivate patience and  resilience. 
• Why finding your own balance - with work and play, with risk and safety - is important.
• How gratitude can help us focus more on what we have and less on what we don't.
• Why feeling the sense of "enoughness" may be the key in shifting to a healthier relationship with money, and open up more abundance into your life. 
• What practice Spencer has used when he's felt envious. 
• How a taxi driver in India taught him about having enough.
• What leaders can learn from the Dalai Lama. 
• Why beginners are often better at investing over the long term. 

Connect With Spencer Sherman

Website

www.spencer-sherman.com

Instagram

Mindful Spencer

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindfulspencer/

The 2023 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration (5 spots remaining)

Join us from October 8-12 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

amzn.to/2y9N1TK

“If we want to be free, at some point we have to plant our staff in the ground and say, 'I am here.'"  — Koshin Paley Ellison

This week's guest is Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, founder and guiding teacher of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. Ellison is an author, Jungian psychotherapist and ACPE Certified Chaplain Educator. Koshin has served as the co-director for Contemplative Care Services in the Department of Integrative Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School's Center for Integrative Medicine. His most recent book is Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage and Compassion. 

While Koshin has extensive education, he explains that it's ultimately all been in search of deeper meaning. As a young man he discovered the poetry of Marie Howe and was moved to seek her out as a teacher. He subsequently studied under her, earning an MFA. Then, after serving as a hospital chaplain, he went on to get a degree in social work in order to learn how to help others better. This led him to studying psychoanalysis. But clearly what has most deeply informed Koshin's life is his practice of Zen meditation, which he's formally studied since 1987. 

"Zen," Koshin explains, simply means sitting meditation. It's one of the various practices of meditation, and all are valid routes to self-reflection and exploration. It was this practice that enabled him to sit with and be present with the dying as a hospital chaplain. He started in this work when his grandmother was dying, who observed that he and his "Zen people" were the only people who could be fully present with her, without distraction, fear, or busy-ness. He credits her as the real founder of the Zen Center for Contemplative Care. In an effort to bring these principles to the medical community, Koshin helps doctors and other clinicians bring a contemplative practice to their work and their lives, enabling them to be more present for their patients, as well as themselves. 

Ultimately, what's important, Koshin says, is that we not get too attached to our identity. We take on different identities throughout our days and lives depending on the situation we're in. Letting go of attachment to one's identity is key. He also believes that suffering is rooted in the gap between what we believe to be right and good and how we act daily, and he strives to help people to close that gap in order to live more authentic, meaningful lives.

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• How a traumatic memory from Koshin's childhood came back to him and how he responded 
• His first lesson as an 11-year-old karate student 
• His own moments of insight with being attached to his identity  
• Why Buddhism is still relevant today
• How anxiety is an addiction 
• How he finds gratitude and appreciation in everyday life 

Connect With Koshin Paley Ellison

Website

https://zencare.org

Instagram

@koshipaleyellison

The 2023 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration (5 spots remaining)

Join us from October 8-12 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

amzn.to/2y9N1TK

"I just believe we were put here for a purpose." – Don Lupo

This week's guest is Don Lupo, an advocate for the homeless and others in need. Twenty-three years ago, Lupo left a career as a successful businessman to start a new career in service to his community, the city of Birmingham, AL. In 2016, he was awarded the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award and was named one of the "Top 50 Over 50" in the state of Alabama; in 2018 he was awarded the Civilian Service Award by the Birmingham Police Department. 

One of the defining moments of Lupo's life was the passing of his mother when he was 16 years old. He explains how her unconditional love for him as well as her commitment to being of service to others have inspired him throughout his life. Another defining moment was reading some words on the back of an envelope that exhorted him to "love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe any that are naked." This message was a "slap in the face," he says, prompting him to find a way to help others. He now includes these words in his social media posts. Lupo, who directs the Mayor's Office of Citizens' Assistance, says that he doesn't see his job as work, but as a way he can be of service to others. 

Lupo has certainly found ways to serve and has done a lot of work serving the homeless in the city of Birmingham. He is proud to say that almost every homeless person in the city is known by name, and if he doesn't know theirs, they know his. As a board member for Firehouse Ministries, a homeless shelter and outreach agency, he worked on raising funds for a new facility. Despite the odds, they raised $7 million in six months. Lupo believes in the vital importance of the work of Firehouse, saying that we are all "just one step" away from being homeless and that if he ever needed somewhere to go, he knows he could go there. 

In a profile in Good Grit Magazine, Lupo was called "the man to call when you need to get something done—especially connecting those in need with available resources." 

Lupo stresses that he could never have accomplished all he has without the help of others. In one example he shares that after his daughter convinced him to go on Facebook and ask for the 1500 toothbrushes the shelter needed, he was offered way more than he needed. All he had to do was ask. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• What happened when Don Lupo met the Dalai Lama 
• What he thinks would help address the problem of homelessness 
• What he thought as he stood next to the mayor when they went to talk to protestors over a statue
• How his faith and belief in service has motivated him throughout his life

Connect With Don Lupo

Facebook 

The 2023 Do Nothing Retreat is open for registration (7 spots remaining)

Join us from October 8-12 for The Do Nothing Retreat,  a mindfulness meditation retreat suitable for meditators at all levels The retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

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Jay Steinfeld |  Experimenting and Enjoying the Ride 

"You really never know when you set out to do anything, if it's going to work. If you do know, then you're not experimenting enough."  — Jay Steinfeld 

This week's guest is Jay Steinfeld, author of Lead from the Core and founder of Blinds.com, which he sold to Home Depot in 2014. Steinfeld remained the company's CEO until he left in 2020 to not retire but, as he calls it, "rewire." He teaches business and entrepreneurship at Rice University, serves on multiple boards, and is active in charitable organizations.

Jay's predominant approach to life and to business is to learn as much as possible, with the understanding that you're never going to know it all. He believes in experimentation, and in taking small steps to try something new to figure out if it's something he wants to build on. The loss of two important people in his life—his mother when he was a teenager and his wife after 25 years of marriage, both to cancer in their late 40s—also motivated him to learn and come to a better understanding of how he wanted to live his life. Two texts he cites as influential are Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel and The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.

Jay explains how being value-led drove him in building his company. One of these values is experimenting without fear of failure. By articulating and modeling the core values of the company, he was able to hire people who would not be afraid to speak up and experiment. He was also able to guide his business as it was sold to Home Depot, making sure that the people who had helped him build his business were recognized, appreciated, and well compensated for all they did. Honesty is another value Jay discusses in this episode, where he advises CEOs to "not be chickenshit" but to be the one who tells people what they need to know. 

Another value Jay discusses is to "enjoy the ride." Having challenges and facing the unknown have been motivating for him, and he loves working with others to come up with new ideas and solutions. He believes his greatest achievement is assembling teams of people who succeeded at doing things he could never have done alone. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• How the loss of Jay Steinfeld's mother and wife affected how sees the world 
• How he approaches social media 
• How he went about planning for his "rewirement" and the one person he wanted to meet 
• When it might make sense to give up 
• How to model and send the message to employees that experimentation is valued 
• What you need to do if an employee is not performing up to expectations 
• What to do before selling a business 

Connect With Jay Steinfeld

Website

www.jaysteinfeld.com

Link to download first chapter of book:

www.jaysteinfeld.com/thebook

Book page on Amazon:

Lead from the Core: The Four Principles for Profit and Prosperity

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/jaysteinfeld

Twitter

www.twitter.com/jaysteinfeld

The 2022 Leading with Genuine Care Retreat is at full capacity.* 

*If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please click here and fill out the form. If a current attendee is not able to attend, we will contact you right away.

The Leading with Genuine Care Leadership Retreat is a mindfulness meditation retreat specifically designed for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Suitable for meditators at all levels, the retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper, leadership-based mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

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Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

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"I'm on a mission to share with the world that you can have a good quality of life and a successful business."  — Dr. Sabrina Starling 

This week's guest is Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist, bestselling author of the How To Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation and host of the Profit by Design podcast. Sabrina's company, Tap the Potential, helps entrepreneurs learn how to build successful businesses without sacrificing their quality of life, health, and relationships. 

Many entrepreneurs put off taking time to be with their families, to travel, or to take care of themselves until it's too late. Dr. Starling believes entrepreneurs need to take time away from their businesses and encourages them to eventually get to a place where they can take four-week vacations, as she discusses in her book. When entrepreneurs hear of the four-week vacation, most think it's impossible. It's also frightening.

Starling acknowledges that four weeks fully away from work is not going to be something entrepreneurs do when they are in the startup phase. It's something that takes time to build up to, and should be done gradually and with forethought and planning. It means putting systems and people into place that will run your business without you. As scary as that might be, it's the key to achieving a full, happy life that isn't solely about your business. Starling points out that in her research on successful entrepreneurs, those who build their business to eventually operate without them are the ones who thrive and avoid burnout. 

In order to get to that place, Starling says entrepreneurs need to "slim down" the business, and find that "sweet spot" where you are serving and adding value to the 20% of your customers who account for 80% of your business. By focusing in this way, you can set up systems, hire the right people, and ultimately be able to pay attention to other aspects of life.  

Further, once these systems are put into place, you can take time off that you need to nourish and replenish yourself. Starling calls these times "soul-batticals." After you come back from these periods away, and you see that the systems and people are running your business, you can focus on growth or the next step in your journey, rather than responding to crisis after crisis. Under this framework, it's entirely possible to work reasonable work hours—40 hours, or even fewer, rather than the 70 or 80 hours a week many entrepreneurs do. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• Where you need to be in order to take a four-week vacation—and how to get there 
• Why it's important to find work-life balance now, so you can be present in the lives of the people you love
• What thriving entrepreneurs do to build successful businesses while maintaining time and space for other pursuits 
• What types of questions to ask when faced with problems 
• What $10,000 per hour activities are—and why you need to focus on them 

Connect With Dr. Sabrina Starling  

Website

TapthePotential.com

For the Better Business, Better Life Assessment: 

https://www.tapthepotential.com/assessment

To download "How To Make Your Time Worth $10,000 an Hour," with chart:

www.tapthepotential.com/10k

Book: The 4 Week Vacation

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/drsabrina

Twitter

www.twitter.com/drsabrina

Facebook

www.facebook.com/sabrinastarlingTTP

www.facebook.com/TapthePotential

The 2022 Leading with Genuine Care Retreat is at full capacity.* 

*If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please click here and fill out the form. If a current attendee is not able to attend, we will contact you right away.

The Leading with Genuine Care Leadership Retreat is a mindfulness meditation retreat specifically designed for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Suitable for meditators at all levels, the retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper, leadership-based mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

amzn.to/2y9N1TK

Nicole Glaros | It's About the How, Not the What

“It's so much more powerful to be a 'we' than an 'I.' You get so much further when it's ours, not mine."  — Nicole Glaros

This week's guest is Nicole Glaros, partner and chief investment strategy officer at Techstars, a venture capital firm in Boulder, Colorado. Nicole joined Techstars in 2008, bringing her experience as a three-time startup founder and her work with an early business incubator. Since joining Techstars, she's helped build it exponentially from a small firm to a global powerhouse and serves on the board of a variety of companies. 

Nicole is in transition, having decided to step away from her role at Techstars. She  describes her current position as being at the top of the mountain and looking around. You spend so much time just climbing up there, you don't have little time to rest or look around, she explains. Nicole is now figuring out her next steps on her journey, stopping to ask what she wants rather than reacting to whatever comes her way.

Nicole values people helping and supporting others. When she first came to Colorado, there was little going on for entrepreneurs and startups. It was through the active engagement and openness to giving advice and collaborating that it has become a flourishing, vital scene for startups. Unfortunately, COVID did some damage to this culture, and Nicole acknowledges that the next generation needs to step up and start doing the work previous generations did of helping others. Nicole explains that this kind of thinking stems back to the question of, "If not us, then who?" 

Similarly, Nicole believes that peer groups can play an important role for entrepreneurs in supporting and encouraging growth. She doesn't believe people learn by reading or passively taking in information. Instead, we learn by doing, and CEOs need to model the types of behaviors and habits they want the people who work for them to follow. 

As a board member and startup advisor, Nicole also understands the challenge of making hard decisions and concludes that it's more about the how than the what. She explains in an example how one company was told they had to cut expenses by laying off half the workforce. Instead, the CEO explored other solutions, and with the support of employees, found alternative ways to cut expenses. 

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

• Nicole's thoughts about "conscious" entrepreneurship, and what term she likes better
• The one thing she did that made a huge impact on her productivity while at Techstars
• How and why peer groups can help entrepreneurs 
• How your thoughts and beliefs can impact your life 
• How to shift your mindset through awareness 
• The question CEOs could ask that might mean a huge shift in work culture
• What she gets out of participating in challenging sports like mountain climbing and boxing 

Connect With Nicole Glaros  

Websites

Nearly Nicole

Techstars

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nglaros/

Twitter

@nglaros

The 2022 Leading with Genuine Care Retreat is at full capacity.* 

*If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please click here and fill out the form. If a current attendee is not able to attend, we will contact you right away.

The Leading with Genuine Care Leadership Retreat is a mindfulness meditation retreat specifically designed for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Suitable for meditators at all levels, the retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper, leadership-based mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned. 

Get Rob’s Weekly Newsletter

Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you’ll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.

https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide 

Follow Rob Dube on Social Media 

LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/robdube 

Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1

Twitter: 

twitter.com/robddube 

Rob Dube’s Website

www.donothingbook.com

Buy Rob’s book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take

amzn.to/2y9N1TK