The Conscious Entrepreneur

EP32: Advice For Early Stage Founders

“Getting better at business and growing as a person are very dovetailed together. They’ve been very mutually beneficial.” Entrepreneur Matthew Bellows’ career is proof that professional and personal success work in tandem. Recognizing time as a person’s most precious commodity, he was drawn to entrepreneurship as a means of gaining asymmetric returns on that time. He was moved to co-found Bodeswell, a company which invented self-service financial planning software, after sorting through his late father’s estate and becoming frustrated with the state of the financial planning space. Matthew joins The Conscious Entrepreneur podcast to discuss what he’s learned throughout his evolution from founder and CEO of WGR Media, to CEO and later Executive Chairman at Yesware, and now a General Partner at Grit Capital. 
 
He’ll explain what it was like to cede his CEO position at Yesware, and what it taught him about the true mission of business. He’ll share what it was like to have American Express acquire Bodeswell, and the best way other entrepreneurs can prepare their companies for a similar acquisition. Learn what the biggest mistakes and assumptions are that most entrepreneurs make and what they can be doing differently. 
 
Throughout his career, Matthew has maintained a seated meditation practice. Now a meditation teacher, he reveals on today’s episode how this practice has profoundly impacted both his professional and personal life. 
 
Quotes
“I needed to find some activity, professional activity, that would have potential for asymmetric returns on my time. In other words, just working for what amounts to an hourly wage, even if it’s a very good hourly wage, it has linear returns on your time, and your time is the only thing you’ve actually got in your life. So, what would be the things that I could do that would potentially break that linear curve into an exponential curve.” (4:31 | Matthew Bellows)
“Sitting meditation for me provided a foundation to weather the storms that came. The storms absolutely came; there was no dodging the difficulties of going through that kind of process. But at least I felt like, for the most part, I had a ground and when I lost my ground, when I lost my foundation, I had a place to come back to.” (14:07 | Matthew Bellows) 
“It was very difficult to let go and to turn over the reins, in a sense. But at the end of the day, you’re not building a company for yourself. This is not a personal aggrandizement project, this is not something that is for any one person or any one investor. You’re building a company to serve customers and in order to serve customers your company needs to keep growing.” (22:26 | Matthew Bellows)
“The combination of getting better at business and growing as a person, I think, are very dovetailed together. They’ve been very mutually beneficial.” (35:36 | Matthew Bellows) 
“You need to be prepared—mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially— to wander in the desert for a year or two years, just trying to figure out, ‘Is this even a thing?’ So many people think, ‘I’m going to go and it’s going to just click,’ or they think, ‘Oh my God, I need to raise outside capital, and then I can figure out if this is a thing.” Neither of those two paths are optimal.” (37:59 | Matthew Bellows)
 
Links
Connect with Matthew Bellows:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbellows/
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP31: How to Feel Extraordinary All the Time

Most people, explains today’s guest Finnian Kelly, pursue outcomes—like success in business or making a certain amount of money—in hopes of creating a resulting feeling. In fact, Finnian, a former wealth manager and now a leading intentionality coach, explains that through breathwork and by tapping into the Universal Intelligence to whom we all have access, that the feeling produces the outcome, and with much more ease. 
 
Drawing from his forthcoming book “Intentionality: A Groundbreaking Guide to Breath, Consciousness and Radical Self-Transformation,” Finnian offers powerful antidotes to the social conditioning we commonly experience, to help bring us closer to the things we truly want.  He’ll explain the five key principles of intentionality, as well as how to develop an expansive mindset. Learn why breath is the bridge between the conscious and the subconscious and why repetition is the key to re-coding that subconscious.
 
Too many people, particularly entrepreneurs, make the mistake of thinking that success has to be hard. Instead, Finnian offers an approach to tap into the unlimited energy that’s available to all of us once we remove the limiting beliefs and old stories holding us back.
 
Quotes
“I thought that when I received all this I’d suddenly feel whole and happy and really fulfilled and peaceful, but instead the opposite happened. So, I had to go through the typical hero’s story of dismantling everything to discover what really matters to me.” (6:46 | Finnian Kelly)
“We are born with everything we need to build the life we’re searching for. And when I mention that, it really comes down to our breath, which is something we all have, and access to the Universal Mind which is this field of energy that all intelligence comes from. And I really want people to focus on this because a lot of people have a bit of a victim mindset, and it’s true, there is a lot of inequality in the world. But the one equalizer is that we all have access to these two things.” (9:29 | Finnian Kelly) 
“What is bad? It’s a story? There’s no such thing as bad or good. It’s all our perspective.” (15:34 | Finnian Kelly)
“Most people focus on the outcome, hoping it will give them a feeling, but if you have the feeling, it means you have to have the outcome. It just hasn’t materialized into the 3D, material realm yet.” (26:38 | Finnian Kelly) 
“Military organizations, sport organizations have been using this for a really long time but for some reason we don’t think it applies in the entrepreneurial world. We think, ‘No, business, it has to be hard work.’ And I’m telling you, there’s an easier way. Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to do work. You still have to do the activity, but it’s coming from a different place. It’s an intuitive place.” (27:56 | Finnian Kelly)
 
Links
Connect with Finnian Kelly:
Website: https://www.finniankelly.com/
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast. 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP30: Spiritual Wisdom in Entrepreneurship

“Disseminate spiritual wisdom.” This is a message Tami Simon heard loud and clear when she was just 21 and unsure of what she wanted to do and how she wanted to invest the sum of money she had inherited from her father. It remains her life’s purpose and the driving mission at the heart of Sounds True, the multimedia publishing company she founded. Sounds True  focuses on promoting spirituality, psychology, health and healing. She joins the Conscious Entrepreneur podcast to discuss the importance of being true to yourself, following your intuition, and why putting love ahead of money most often leads to money anyway. She compares founding and running a business to being in a long term relationship and, having recently passed on the CEO baton, what it feels like to let go.
 
Just as important as being yourself is allowing others to be themselves. One of the key components of the Inner MBA, which Sounds True puts on with LinkedIn and the annual Wisdom 2.0 conference, is learning how to make space for people who have different views from your own, learning to communicate and collaborate in order to achieve the best outcome for all. Creating such a culture within a corporation inevitably impacts the world at large.
 
Though she’s prone to a metaphor and a poetic line, Tami is committed to telling the truth, as it is one of the core principles, she says, of a spiritual entrepreneur. Join today’s discussion to hear more of Tami’s insights and initiatives which were well ahead of their time, and now, more timely than ever. 
 
Quotes
“For me it feels like a sacred contract, that’s one term that might shake people a bit. Or it feels like a promise that I made before I incarnated. It has that level of heft to it, in terms of how I experience it inside myself, as my purpose in life. And I’m very inspired by it. I continue to be inspired by it, it’s taken a lot of different forms over the years, and quite honestly it’s a little mysterious even to me.” (6:37 | Tami Simon)
“The interesting thing is, I tracked over time—every single love project ended up being financially successful. Every single one. And I think that part of it is if I loved it, it was for a reason. And maybe it hadn’t had the level of exposure yet, or whatever, but there was something very genuine there that was drawing me in.” (13:18 | Tami Simon) 
“Let die what needs to die so what can be born can be born.” (22:14 | Tami Simon)
“Be someone who says, ‘I take responsibility for the culture that we are creating together here. Here are my ideas. Be a vocal participant. And if we can invite and create organizations that encourage and welcome and inspire citizenship, we’ll find people acting like citizens in the world. And this is a connection that organizations can actually foster, the same kind of citizenship we want to see in our communities.” (38:49 | Tami Simon)
“If you don’t do it, people aren’t going to go to bat the next time. They’re not going to stand up and raise their hands if you just say, ’No, we’re going to make the economic decision, or what the professionals say.” (40:25 | Tami Simon)
“Spiritual integrity, as a person, is non-negotiable. It’s non-negotiable. How much money I make is negotiable.” (41:54 | Tami Simon) 
 
Links
Connect with Tami Simon:
https://innermba.soundstrue.com/
https://www.soundstrue.com/
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP29: The Burnout Breakthrough

“Going whichever way the wind blows, depending on what other people want, that’s driftwood in the ocean,” explains Dr. Neha Sangwan, CEO and Founder of Intuitive Intelligence Inc. and author of “Powered By Me.” “When I know who I am and make decisions based on my highest values, I become a sailboat with a rudder, charting my own course.” From an early age, Dr. Neha fulfilled her family’s needs and desires, leading her to become an internal medicine physician, a mechanical engineer at Motorola, as well as completely burnt out by age 31.  On today’s episode of The Conscious Entrepreneur, Neha talks to host Alex Raymond about the triad that comprises burnout, its alarm systems, and how to determine whether it’s acute or chronic.
 
Part of serving both ourselves and others in a “me-we world,” as Dr. Neha describes it, is strengthening the bond with those around you through healthy conflict and communication. Drawing from her book “Talk RX,” she provides scenarios and techniques for taking in data from others’ reactions as well as from your own, how not to personalize or assume the worst. When difficult conversations arise, she says, get curious, not furious.
 
The world is suffering silently from burnout and self-care culture isn’t cutting it. Join today’s conversation to hear Dr. Neha talk about the power of vulnerability in the workplace and why failure can be our greatest strength. 
 
Quotes
“By 31, I had learned to push through my body, not partner with it. I was the master of knowing what the world wanted from me, and not knowing at all what the sound of my own heart was. I had surpassed my emotions, I had stopped communicating, because who needed to hear what I had to say, I just needed to know what you wanted from me.” (6:46 | Dr. Neha Sangwan)
“What I think the world needs now more than ever, is us not only understanding who we are and picking up signals for ourselves, but when we miss them—because we have the passion of an entrepreneur, because we have the love of a doctor to serve—but the people around us, we are connected enough to them that we can trust them to say, ‘Hey, Neha, is everything OK?’” (8:17 | Neha Sangwan) 
“One thing I know, being an entrepreneur for about, I don’t know, 15 or 16 years now, is that I’ve gone to zero twice in this endeavor, and people say, ‘Oh, my God. Doesn’t that scare you? Isn’t that awful?’ And I say, ‘No. Now if I ever go to zero again, I know I have the confidence to rebuild. That needed to happen. It was necessary. It wasn’t a failure. It’s probably my greatest strength. It’s probably the reason I have conviction in my voice.” (41:35 | Dr. Neha Sangwan)
“You can’t predict the world but that’s why we’re entrepreneurs, because we’re willing to go in the rough terrain, and we’re willing to figure it out. That’s our greatest gift.” (42:34 | Dr. Neha Sangwan)
Links
Connect with Neha Sangwan:
https://intuitiveintelligenceinc.com/burnout-rx/
https://intuitiveintelligenceinc.com/ifive/
https://nehasangwan.com/events/
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP28: Ripples of Impact

“We know the anti-aging message, which is a lot of things get worse with age, and I really wanted to focus on what gets better with age and why,” says Chip Conley founder of the Modern Elder Academy and author of several books about the benefits of aging including “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age.” There is a U-curve to aging and happiness hits a low at about age 47. After that, happiness increases. We begin to change our mindset from being concerned with what it says on our resume, money or status to leaving a legacy. Short term memory gets weaker while wisdom and Emotional Intelligence expand. Chip reveals major misconceptions about aging, the most crucial component to a healthy life in your 80s and 90s—and it isn’t diet, exercise or stress management—and why men tend to struggle more than women.
 
Like many successful entrepreneurs, Chip realized around the age of 50 that he had wisdom he wanted to share and found himself as a “men-tern” (a combination of mentor and intern) at AirBnB. There he learned the imposter syndrome is overcome by developing explorer syndrome, the importance of trading a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and what mentors can learn from mentees.
 
In this episode of The Conscious Entrepreneur, you will learn that your greatest years may just be ahead of you and that what once was considered a midlife crisis, is actually a midlife chrysalis. 
 
Quotes
“The societal narrative on aging is ‘Just don’t do it,’ and once you hit your mid-life crisis around 45 or 50, it’s all downhill from there. But that’s the societal narrative. The personal narrative, based upon this research, is, actually, people get happier after 50.”  (5:33 | Chip Conley)
“One of the things we get wrong is that we think our body is the only playing field of life.” (7:53 | Chip Conley)
“There are a lot of tech bros in Silicon Valley trying to help us live forever but they tend to be extremely focused on the scientific, physical side of longevity, and not the socio-emotional side of longevity which frankly, at this point, has a greater impact.” (12:54 | Chip Conley) 
“Believing you can learn, this is a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset has this belief that you have a fixed amount of knowledge, or a fixed amount of capacity or skill and you’re supposed to optimize it, and you want to prove yourself and you want to win. A growth mindset is less focused on proving yourself and more focused on improving yourself. It’s not about winning, it’s about learning.” (30:46 | Chip Conley) 
 
Links
Connect with Chip Conley:
Website: https://www.meawisdom.com/
 
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast. 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP27: Purpose-Driven Capitalism

Eleanor Allen joins The Conscious Entrepreneur podcast to discuss the power of business to act as a force for good. It’s a culture, she says, that is formed from the top. Following her passion for environmentalism and entrepreneurship, she worked as CEO of clean water charity Water for People and while there, she attended an inner development program run by a non-profit out of Paris called the Well-Being Project. 
There, while gaining tools and learning skills to help prevent the pitfalls frequently experienced by those in the social impact space—high rates of burnout, divorce, and depression—she also learned to be vulnerable, unlock her heart and to deal with her biggest fears, worries and impediments. Believing similar strategies would make CEOs better and more aligned with their missions, she founded Catapult for Change, a public benefit corporation (PBC) where, through her coaching and consulting services, she helps entrepreneurs launch new ideas that are grounded in well-being. 
After Water for People, Eleanor worked as a lead executive for B Lab, a global nonprofit which works to transform the economy so that it benefits all people, communities, and the planet. She explains what it takes for for-profit corporations to become B Corps—certified by B Lab to meet vigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. She explains the difference between working under a shareholder’s mindset versus a stakeholder’s mindset, and balancing a mission with the ever-present need to make a profit. 
She and host Alex Raymond discuss her plans for a future of conscious capitalism in which all businesses run as B Corps. They also discuss the issue of corporate greenwashing and the importance of diversity in the workplace. 
 
Quotes
“I did have a very strong belief, and still do, of ‘Don’t stay too long in the seat.’ When you have a top job, don’t get too comfortable. And I had gotten to the point where I was super comfortable.” (6:56 | Eleanor Allen)
“I truly believe, and this has a lot to do with my own personal journey—that unlocking the full potential of leaders, of their teams and then of the greater organization, can really bring out the best in people and help them prepare for their future success.” (10:28 | Eleanor Allen)
“If you have a good, diverse mix of people with diversity of thought, diversity of experience, and diversity of where they are in the world, you’re going to get a stronger mix of ideas and almost certainly, better outcomes.” (31:40 | Eleanor Allen) 
“It is about organizational culture change, but we know it needs the tone at the top and the leadership to do these microshift and change their practices so that changes ripple through the organization.” (38:50 | Eleanor Allen)
Links
Connect with Eleanor Allen:
Website:https://catapultforchange.com/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanor-allen/
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
 
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP26: The Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom

“Entrepreneurs are in a very small category in this world, and as such, it might seem like you’re kind of nutty sometimes in your own head and that people don’t get you except for your peers.”
Join us on The Conscious Entrepreneur as Rob Dube, co-founder of The 10 Disciplines, delves into the key insights of his latest book, “Shine: How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom,” co-authored with Gino Wickman. This episode explores how entrepreneurs can achieve genuine freedom by embracing self-discovery and creating the life they've always wanted.
Rob emphasizes that entrepreneurs are unique, driven individuals who possess the power to change the world with their ideas and resilience. Yet, this drive often has its roots in past traumas, leading to challenges such as difficulty relaxing, delegating, and connecting with non-entrepreneurs. Despite these obstacles, Rob argues that the solution isn't to suppress this drive but to channel it more effectively through self-awareness. 
“Shine” encourages entrepreneurs to reflect on their motivations, whether they stem from love or ego, and offers a framework for using this awareness to make better decisions and align closer with their true desires. Rob assures listeners that true success and peace come from authenticity and self-understanding, leading to a life where one can operate at their highest potential.
Tune in to discover how to navigate the journey of self-discovery, redefine success, and unlock your true potential as an entrepreneur.
 
Quotes
“Isn’t it funny, but not funny, how things just come together in life when you allow yourself to let go and follow what’s on the inside.” (4:31 | Rob Dube)
“When we say ‘maximize your energy,’ we’re talking about vibrating high, every single day.” (28:02 | Rob Dube)
“The resilience–when you keep getting knocked down over and over again–the resilience we have is unbelievable. Except for a momentary blip where we doubt ourselves, but then we just get right back up. It’s a super power.”  (30: 21 | Rob Dube)
“For me, I had these traumatic experiences, as I mentioned at the outset. So, what did I want to do? I wanted to control my life. How can I control my life in business? If I go get a job, I can’t control that. So, I decided being an entrepreneur was the way I was going to control things, even though I later found out I can’t control anything. But you think you can because you’re self-employed. I’m going to make my own way.” (32:32 | Rob Dube)
“Your true self is the real you. It’s the most authentic version of who you are. It’s unshaped by societal expectations, professional roles or social masks. It’s the core identity that remains constant beneath the various hats that you wear in different areas of your life and it’s typically buried behind your ego, your personality and the suit of armor that you’ve developed over your lifetime, often due to some kind of pain, trauma, conditioning, imprints, things of that nature.” (40:56 | Rob Dube ) 
“One of the things that entrepreneurs fear is that driven nature that they have and that in some way they think that if they let go of that edge, for peace, they won’t be as they hoped. And what we’re saying is, you’re not going to have to let go of the driven nature, you’re actually going to use it better.”  (47:26 | Rob Dube) 
Links
Connect with Rob Dube:
Book: https://the10disciplines.com/shine/
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
 

EP25: Less Corporate, More Conscious

“I really had to face off with myself,” says Dom Farnan, founder of DotConnect, about the courage, humility and work it took to admit that since 2019, when she transitioned from a solopreneur to leading a team of nearly 100 people, she had been acting as a toxic boss. She was controlling, deep in her ego, and helped foster a culture of drama and gossip. In 2020, however, after hiring a coach, attending the MasterMind personal growth summit, and reading books such as “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership,” she began to create a conscious culture with her team, a “Dot 2.0,” as she calls it. And she chronicled the whole journey in a book entitled “Now Here: A Journey from Toxic Boss to Conscious Connector.”
On this episode of The Conscious Entrepreneur, Dom explains how she dealt with the skepticism and eye rolling she received from certain team members when she explained the new direction in which she’d be taking the company. She discusses which of the 15 commitments she uses most often in her daily practice, the therapeutic modalities she incorporates into meetings and the deep digging she did to find the source of her toxicity. 
As Alex notes, of all the resources available to entrepreneurs, bosses, and CEOs, there are few that deal with the inner feelings involved with those positions. Dom describes the burnout that led her to create a team in the first place as well as her struggles with imposter syndrome and how she leaned on fellow women entrepreneurs when male counterparts rattled her confidence. Led by DotConnect’s Vivid Vision mission statement, Dom and her team are continuing to co-create a more conscious working environment. 
 
Quotes
“I was really scared. I thought my clients wouldn’t want to still work with people who were not me. I was really big in my ego, ‘Oh, they’ll only work with me.’ Well, it turns out that they would work with my team, whoever I endorsed to bring in.” (5:20 | Dom Farnan)
“I didn’t know that I was toxic, I wouldn’t have called myself that. That wasn’t a term that was even on my radar. But how that showed up in my company was there was drama, there was gossip, there was probably a sense of insecurity from the team. I was super emotionally reactive. I was a perfectionist and so if things didn’t go exactly perfect, my way, I would lose my mind over the small details and very much controlling of everything.”  (9:54 | Dom Farnan) 
“I just really had to unlearn everything that I thought I knew, so it’s been an unbecoming-who-I-thought-I-was process, and now a kind of putting-myself-back-together process.” (10:58 | Dom Farnan) 
“I put that out into the world and I shared it with the team, and some people were excited and some people left. They just weren’t aligned and didn’t want to support the vision, which was totally acceptable. That’s exactly, actually, what I wanted to happen. I wanted it to weed out anybody who wasn’t game for it.” (22:02 | Dom Farnan)
Links
Connect with Dom Farnan:
Website:https://www.domfarnan.com/
Vivid Vision: https://dotconnectllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/VIVID-VISION-X-DC-1-1.pdf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dom-farnan/
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP24: A Modern Trail Guide to Leading a More Intentional Life with Bart Foster

“It’s not just outside in nature, it’s out of your comfort zone and outside of corporate norms, and doing things a little bit differently.” Shortly after moving to Boulder, CO, Bart Foster, founder and CEO of BusinessOutside, took a meeting with a fellow entrepreneur. Instead of meeting for lunch or coffee, they went for a walk. Hiking in nature, Bart found, imbued him with a sense of creativity, vulnerability, renewed energy and wellbeing, and allowed him to open up to his colleague about a recent professional trauma. 
Soon he began rethinking traditional workplace settings and culture, and how we can cut through mindless small talk and ask questions that “go deeper, faster” and generate more genuine and productive business relationships. Motion, he says, causes emotion.
After all, time is precious. He explains how he used the “zip code strategy,” taught by Jim Sharpe of Harvard Business School to move his family from Atlanta to Boulder. Picking out where you want to live first, and figuring out the rest later is part of Bart’s goal to minimize regret. 
Bart’s story is one of personal growth, creativity, and self-discovery in entrepreneurship. He walks listeners through some questions they can ask themselves to determine their personal value set, outside of the values assigned by society, and how to create what he calls “a gratitude loop.” 
 
Quotes
“I realized when I’m outside, I’m more creative, I’m more authentic, I’m more innovative. I feel happier, I feel more alive, I feel more energetic.” (4:12 | Bart Foster) 
“What I learned is if I can go deeper, quicker, it gives other people the permission.”(10:09 | Bart Foster)
“It’s lonely. We often feel that we have to put up this mask, this veneer, ‘I’m raising capital,” and all these things. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard to be an entrepreneur and it’s lonely,” (11:50 | Bart Foster)
“I got people to be vulnerable. I got them outside, we walked and all of a sudden, you could just feel it, the energy was different. And that just put me on this journey of, ‘Hey, I wonder if there’s a different way to do business?’” (23:40 | Bart Foster) 
“It’s not just outside in nature, it’s out of your comfort zone and outside of corporate norms, and doing things a little bit differently.” (24:52 | Bart Foster)
“Health, money and time. How do we calibrate to maximize our life energy? That’s what I’m trying to do.” (33:40 | Bart Foster)
“Shared experiences, not advice. We say to have empathy, not to judge. You want to have no judgment and just say, ‘Hey, this is what happened to me, here’s how I handled it.’ And then you get to make the decision.” (39:34 | Bart Foster)
 
Links
Connect with Bart Foster:
Website: https://www.businessoutside.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fosterbart/
Connection Questions: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/658f0890ea656379d1a749a6/t/659db7683bf81b506ddc4a06/1704834920419/BusinessOutside+Connection+Questions.pdf
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

EP23: Transcending The Entrepreneurial Journey

“The real source of why I’m starting this company is actually deep love–deep love for myself, deep love and a desire for connection for anybody that struggles with loneliness,” said Tracy Lawrence of founding her company Chewse. The company, which provides group format catering for offices, was founded as a response to the social isolation and bullying she experienced as a kid in school. 
Throughout the next decade she would have subsequent encounters with loneliness which she met with rigorous introspection, honesty, and courage. Each time she emerged with an understanding that while she was fully empowered on her own, we are all interconnected and can—and must—rely on each other in order to thrive. 
Her journey brought her into the world of psychedelics and after selling Chewse, she began to practice psychedelic integration work and now does healing coaching in Honolulu. She explains modalities that listeners can engage in to promote their own healing, including Peter Levine’s alternative therapy known as somatic experiencing, as well as helpful teachings from Richard Schwartz and Joe Dispenza. 
On today’s episode of the Conscious Entrepreneur, Tracy takes us through her experiences with burnout, and shares what she learned from and about her team each time she chose to be honest and vulnerable with them instead of hiding her emotions. 
 
Quotes
“I built a company that was group format-style catering because I wanted to make sure nobody ever ate alone.” (5:42 | Tracy Lawrence) 
“I thought ‘No, no, no.’ Leaders do not express fear. We are always in control and we are always powerful.’ No fear. We’re courageous.” (9:19 | Tracy Lawrence)
“And in the moment, I looked at the team, and I told them, I said, I love working with you. And genuinely, I would be so devastated if we didn't raise this round, and we didn't get a chance to work together. And there was not a dry eye in the room. And it was a huge moment for my personal leadership philosophy being developed.” (9:46 | Tracy Lawrence)
“In the psychedelic world, and in that journey, what happens is that all of the defense systems, all your layers, what you might call the protectors, they all stand down. You’ll see them start to stand down in layers, so that you can really see what your pure, highest self looks like looking out at the world.” (21:14 | Tracy Lawrence) 
“There is no spiritual practice like being deathly ill and coming to terms with the fact that you might not wake up the next day.” (36:58 | Tracy Lawrence)
“If the brain thinks, the heart knows.” (45:44 | Tracy Lawrence)
Links
Connect with Tracy Lawrence:
Guide: https://tracy-lawrence.ck.page/banishburnout
Website: https://goloveengine.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracylawrence/
 
Connect with Alex Raymond:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/
Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/
 
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