Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Happy Stack Podcast, where we explore the science and strategies behind creating a happier, more fulfilling life. I'm Terianne Richards, and I partner with organizations to address the root causes of burnout, disengagement, and stress, equipping leaders and teams with the tools they need to thrive, both organizationally and personally. Each episode, we dive into practical habits, insights, and strategies to help high performers like you level up from the inside out. Let's get stacking.
Ravi, welcome to the Happy Stack Podcast.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I am looking forward to this.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm excited. All right, so I have to jump into it because it's right behind you. It says soul engineering.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: You're the chief soul geneer. Can you break down what that actually means to you?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: At its simplest, it's about how do you bring all of your heart and soul into work, into all of your life? And the generic is there are very simple processes that you can do to do that. This is not rocket science. I can say that I was a rocket scientist. You can trust me. It's about how you find those tiny, simple processes, simple habits that allow you to bring more of who you are into everything that you do to get more out of it.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: That's awesome. So you touched on it, so let's go there. So in a past life, which is still this life, you were a nuclear physicist. How do I even say that?
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Physicist.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah, physicist. All right. Which masters complexity. Right. And in all of the conversations we've had, in the work that you do, you speak a lot to the emphasis on simplicity, making things more simple. So first, share a little bit about your background about going from as a nuclear physicist to the work you do today, and then talk to me about how you've been able to simplify and create simplicity in some of the what I would consider harder pressure points, pain points for leaders. So let's start with your past, and then we'll land there.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Okay. Well, I was a geeky, nerdy kid who spoke math as a second language. And so physics was kind of fun. And I went into it, I did two degrees in it. And like you said, it's about working with complexity. And the secret to complexity is not what most people do, which is make it over complicated. It's about finding those simple, tiny pressure points where you put a little bit of pressure in here, here, here, and the whole system transforms. And the other thing about quantum physics is nothing is absolute. It's not the physics you learned in high school. It's all about probability. And how do you shift probabilities. And what happened was while I was doing my grad work in physics and then when I worked for a while I was also DJing at a nightclub. And I also ran basically the backbone that had been 2,000 volunteers for children's charity telethon. And somewhere along the way I realized that my passion people not eating radiation. So I went back to school, got an MBA and the very first job I got drafted into, we transformed the whole organization across the country. And this was before all of these books came out and whatever we were making it up as we went. And that's where I realized that organizations are complex systems. And the lens that I used as a physicist I could use in finding those pressure points in organizations. At the same time I was doing a lot of healing work myself, psychological spiritual healing work because of traumas from childhood. And I realized we as individuals are complex systems too. And it's not about huge massive work, it's about finding those pressure points. I was working in change at this organization for a while and then I went out later and started my consulting practice and found I can help my clients find those pressure points. And the same in my coaching work that it's not about. You know, often change is really laborious. But if you find those pressure points, it's very simple to shift major things in your life and in the organization. So that's a lens that I use, that's a lens I help my clients find.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: That's awesome. So what is a simple pressure point, if you will, that most leaders or individuals overlook that can possibly create the biggest shift for them?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Well, the biggest thing to me, I'm very biased. I believe in co creative leadership. People own what they create and most people, most leaders try to do to the people and they say we don't have time to do all this stuff, engagement, all this, that, that. But you know what, you have time to fix all the caca that happens because you didn't do it.
That's just a delusion. The reality is you've got more than enough time to engage people. And if you invest that time to engage, to admit things are so complex now that no one leader can have all the answers, they need to engage other people to find the different perspectives to co create the way forward. And if you can do that, like I can literally take a thousand person organization out for three days and engage the whole organization in crafting the strategy. But very few leaders have, if you don't mind my saying, the testicular fortitude, whether you're male or female irrelevant to actually do that. Because they need to control and the secret is controlling the right things, not everything. So the more you can engage your people, the more that you can admit you don't have all the answers and engage them in collectively understanding what's going on and crafting the way forward, the more power you have. Because people feel so disengaged, so disempowered in a lot of organizations, especially through all the craziness we went through with a pandemic and everything that came out out of it. Right. If you can engage them, hear them, involve them, you will get a whole lot more movement and you get a whole lot more innovation because it's not just you or your executive team.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: It's interesting that you say that. So, I mean, I think I would say most individuals that play in these spaces, you know, they're well read, they're listening to the podcast, they're watching the YouTube videos, and there definitely is, you know, a common thread of, you know, leaders need to lead in, they need to ask better questions, stay curious, bring people a part of the plan. Yet you still can go from organization to organization and still see so many leaders sort of. I don't know if it's a resenting of that, opposing that, or just the struggle with change as it is. Right. Change is complicated in its own form. Why do you feel or think or what are you seeing to why leaders struggle so much in transforming the way in which they approach change and helping their people evolve?
[00:07:18] Speaker B: You're absolutely right. I mean, everyone knows what they should do and a lot of people think they are doing it. But if you go in and actually do. I really believe in concretizing things. So you can measure culture leadership with 360 surveys. With culture survey, you will find out some of the stark what's really happening. I think a lot of it is not modeled for us because we have been modeled. We've grown up through leaders that have not trusted. And so that's the way that it's generally done. We do what we're told. I mean, how often have you said something to your, you know, if you've got kids then suddenly go, oh my God, that's my parents speaking out my mouth. How the heck we learn very often experienced, right?
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: And it takes effort. Like my dad, I know, loved me very much, but he showed his love by working hard and providing for the family with my son. I wanted to be much more involved in my life to know him, for him to know me, to do things together. Which I did not have a model for that, but I created it. And I feel really good that I have been that type father. I'm not slamming my father. That's what he knew and that's what he did. I chose to be different. But it takes work to break that when you don't have that model. Right. It's the same thing with the leadership. It's. We have this delusion, and it is total delusion of control because we haven't learned how to trust, how to engage. And there are systems that you can use to do this. It's not complicated, can be a very quick learning curve. But most people have not had that experience.
And I think that's the biggest challenge. Like right now I'm just shaking my head because first of all, with the pandemic, if you'd ask people before the pandemic, could you trust people work at home, they would say, oh no, no, we don't trust them. But then they were forced into it. And you know what happened? Productivity went up. And yet now so many firms are forcing employees back to the workplace because they think they need to control them. They can't trust them if they're not there. And the trouble is, I mean, it boggles my mind that productivity is going to tank and you're going to have flocks of people leaving because they don't want to be treated like that.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Let's talk about that for a second. I actually just wrote an article, it got published today on the lessons learned and then forgotten from the pandemic in terms of leadership. And I definitely spoke to remote work and how it was helpful and it allowed people to have more autonomy and become more productive. And then somehow, just by nature of what we do as humans, which I'd love to speak to you about for a second, is that we just have this tendency to go back to what was. And so it's almost as though you can do the things and change and see the ROI of it, but somehow like a smoker goes back to the cigarette. We just go back to those old habits, even though the ROI of doing it the new way. But it's like there's not enough time. There hasn't been enough bandwidth to show that it's, you know. Cause it's not traditional, it's not the way we always did it. Can you sort of speak to that side of us as just humans, but especially in the corporate landscape of literally doing the thing? Like, I think the pandemic is actually a great example of doing the things and Seeing, oh, those fears we had, you know, not relevant. Oh, this actually does work. People are actually enjoying this. And even some of the things that they were doing during the pandemic where I found they were doing a lot of more checking in with people and ensuring that team members were still able to have some connections, some collaboration. A lot of organizations were doing like cook nights and like mixology nights and all of these things that were just bringing a lot of joy to their people and allowing them to build more cohesion. And then it was sort of like, okay, the pandemic's over. Everybody go back to work in your offices. We're not going to connect anymore, but embedded. So can you speak to that?
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think leaders need. Well, one thing you said that that's really key is that there's no time to do stuff, right? So one of the things people do not invest in because, oh my God, we're so busy, we can't do that, is personal growth. And if you want to grow your leadership, leadership growth is self growth. You cannot grow as a leader unless you grow as a person. So this is work that needs to be done. Why am I insecure with this? Why am I not? And often you need to work with someone, a coach, maybe a counselor. Why am I not letting go of these behaviors? But that takes courage to face yourself, to face what's, you know, you're avoiding. There's something in that, is not wanting to let go. So what is that? Even though you've got evidence that productivity goes up, it's going back to what you're secure in. So why is it that you need those behaviors to happen? And that takes a lot of self reflection, a lot of self work. And what the, you know, the thing a lot of people have used since the pandemic. We don't have time. So much is changing. I don't know, you know, don't have time to do my work. How could I have time to do that? And I believe part of this is that's where you have to start. It goes back to Covey's Quadrant two stuff, right? We need to invest in those things that are not urgent to do right now, but they're critically important because it shifts everything. Invest that time first and then every schedule around it. Everything else always fits. But we rationalize that we can't fit it in because we're trying to fit it in. You schedule these things first your personal growth, and then you schedule everything else and it fits. And it's not a matter of changing everything at Once, but making it a regular commitment to that journey. This never ends. The best leaders that I've met never get there. They're always on that journey of how do I get better, what do I do more? You know, they appreciate what they got, but it's okay. They're always learning, always reflecting, always get, you know, are you getting 360 feedback? If you're a leader, what you think of your leadership is 2% of your leadership.
Confidential. 360 feedback gives you and the right feedback relates it to what specific behaviors that you're doing. And then guess what, you've got a map. You now know which behaviors you need to change. Perception of one person is subjective, but if you get perception of a group of people, it becomes an objective measure. Just in marketing, you ask people how expensive you think this product is, how easily usable. One person's view, subjective. But you put them together, you get a perceptual map, then you can build marketing strategy around it. Same thing with leadership.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's interesting because you sort of started this with saying that for leaders really to get that growth that they require for their organizations, for their teams, it actually starts with them going inwards. Right. For them to go innerly and have a conversation with themselves to figure out well where are those fears and what are those hang ups and why are you change? And I think that there's probably, maybe not a lot but a few people who may think of going inward and doing that internal stuff as being maybe woo or too soft for the corporate landscape. Can you sort of speak to why that's a myth or a misconception and why that is from what I believe, the work that you do foundational for the growth of them as a leader and then the organization.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean let's go back to what I believe the core difference between management and leadership. You manage things, you lead people. Leading people requires emotional intelligence. It requires you. It's messy. And that's I think another reason people avoid this is because it's messy. Working with people. There's no clear answer. You have to be willing to step out into the unknown and not really know how you're going to get there, but just trust your yourself that you can make it up and figure out how to get there. A lot of people like left brain stuff. Now here's another gap too. A lot of people get promoted into leadership because they were good at the skill that the group was doing and they're never given any training or development in leadership skills. All that's promoted Them is tenure over time. So they've got technical skills, but not people skills. I mean you can find all sorts of research that show that the most effective leaders are those that have the emotional intelligence that do the woo work. As you put it. It is not the left brain stuff that moves people forward. That might get you some short term results, but it's not going to give you sustainable results. And if you cannot be involved, engage, connect with your people. And now it's critical. We are in the biggest labor crisis in history.
If you do not engage people, you can't beat them up like we did for decades. They will leave like that, Poof, they're gone. If you will not retain the talent you need, you'll not keep them, you'll not attract them, you'll be gone. You will not have anyone to do the work. So, you know, it doesn't matter what's been done before. It's irrelevant whether you are right or wrong. You're just not going to have the people.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Yeah, a hundred percent. So if you had a leader sitting on the other side of, you know, whether they're watching this via video or audio and they're that leader that maybe has not done a lot of the inner work, has, whether they've avoided it or just haven't felt that it was important, but they're listening to this and there's a few, you know, maybe yellow and orange bells going off in their head saying, you know, like hey, like maybe this is something that I should tap into and begin to develop. What is the first thing that you would tell them to do? What's that first action step that they could maybe begin to do to start doing the inner work?
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Well, the first thing those bells, what's turnover been like? What is absenteeism? You know, we've also got another thing that's not absenteeism. When they're not physically there, presenteeism is they're physically there, but hello, nobody home. So it's what's short term disability? Like all of these, you know, these are some of the alarm bells, right? Are you having consistent trouble making deadlines about hitting productivity? These are the things you need to look at because it's gonna keep going. Are you working longer and longer and longer? A simple thing that they can do as a first step. Like I'm still a scientist in many ways. I like science. Like even with the woo woo, I like science and being scientific. Bring in a consultant to do a 360 survey on your leadership and that takes courage. It really does. All of this takes courage to be able to look at yourself. It doesn't mean you're wrong, it doesn't mean you're broken, but it's how do you improve? I'm always on a journey of improvement the moment I find something's wrong. Okay, great. Now how do I change that? How do I shift that? How do you move forward? It's not beating yourself up, it's not being afraid of being exposed. It's about being on a journey of growth. So that's a very simple thing. There are things that you can do that culture. Surveys. Again, if you're doing surveys, I would recommend working through a consultant so that you get honest feedback because people won't feel comfortable putting truthful numbers down for leadership survey or culture. But there's place like Gallup organization has an eight question survey and culture I think it's not huge but it will let you know some of the warning signs where you're at. And if you don't know where you're at in concrete terms, if you can't concretize the wound, you can't move forward.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fair. That's 100% fair. So I want to sort of flip the switch but before we do that because I want to talk a little bit about you as a human and as an entrepreneur. But before we do that, if you had a leader that's listening today and they're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, sort of not sure what those next steps would be in their sort of their leadership growth. What's one soulful invitation you'd offer them?
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest challenge that most people have now is their internal self dialogue, the monkey mind. It's overwhelming. People cannot sleep. You know, I speak at conferences and ask how many people regularly have trouble sleeping at night because their brain won't shut off and anywhere from 80 to 90% of hands go up. It is what you talked about what keeps us from that. You know, it's all these doubts running on in our mind. When we do some things, we beat ourselves up. Then after we've done something, we're beating ourselves up. But before if there's some meeting coming up, we're always anxious, playing out worst case scenarios. That self dialogue. I've not found one useful thing for that other than comparing two products in the grocery store. So that's one thing I can mention at some point I've actually found a Jedi mind trick and I've got a free E course where you can within a week learn to shut off that self Dialogue like that, anytime you want, go to sleep, shut off the beating you.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, I'll be sure to get that link from you to share in the show notes for the audience. That would be awesome.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: So let's flip the switch. I want to talk about you. What's been one defining moment in your journey that has really shaped who you are today?
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Wow, that's a really good question. One defining moment. There's so many. The first thing that pops to mind, it's when I finally grew out of, you know, I reached a point as a physicist where, okay, this is fun, but it's not my passion. And then I started realizing how much I loved working with people and the energy I got with that. So this is back to, you know, I really believe in strengths based leadership. But it's not just what you're strong at, it's what you're passionate about. Right. If I was working by my strengths, I would still be buried 7 meters underground eating radiation because working with complexity. But my passion is people. So now I do that with people, with organizations who change, with individuals who coaching and retreats. And I help them find their way through that complexity. So that realization probably was the big turning point for me. And it was in many, many ways because that's. I never would have thought I would go into business. Oh my gosh. I was a real snotty science student in my first few degrees, like, oh, business. And it was a total shift.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: I love that. So what's a belief or mindset shift that has had the biggest impact then that you would say on your career?
[00:22:38] Speaker B: On my career, I think the biggest thing, and it's something I follow now easily, is following my intuition. Right. And it has saved my life, my intuition, literally. But still, after I did that job I was telling you about with the organizational change all across the country is awesome. But I burned out. And so I came back here to Nova Scotia. I was living out west and I tried out teaching in the universities for a few years. Loved it. Loved working with students, hated the bureaucracy. And my gut said that rather than going back and getting a job in an organization, I should step out and do create a consulting practice. But I didn't feel ready. And it was interesting that the person that was in charge of the department I was in left and a new head of that department came in and I. We didn't match in many ways. And so very surreptitiously they took away my option for coming back the next year. And so sometimes the universe just gives you a Kick in the butt and says, now. And it was like, I wasn't ready to step out, but I got pushed out of this. I was like, okay, middle of a recession. I have no business contacts out here because all of mine were west of here. Let's go for it. And it was like, that's where I learned to trust my intuition. It was the right thing to do.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: So interesting how, you know, again, I think everybody has intuition. A lot of people potentially ignore it. But it's interesting when you follow it and then you start to follow it. I find, like, it becomes like a muscle. Whereas I'll be driving and going to do something, and my intuition would be like, yeah, we shouldn't do that today. And then I won't go and do the thing. And then all of a sudden, you know, maybe there was a car accident or the event actually was canceled. And before I drove two hours to get to it, you know, like, just these random things where the universe is conspiring internally with me and, you know, subconsciously it's giving me the answers. And I used to think this was a load of bull because it's not very logical. And I'm a pretty logical person. So for me to get to a spot where I started to listen to it, I can remember a years ago trying to get me to get in tune with my intuition, and I'm just like, this is some weird stuff. But now I believe I'm a believer now.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, and I think you can be totally scientific. In fact, in a lot of my coaching clients, I'll tell them to keep a logbook, write down every decision they make, big or small, write down what their intuition says, what they did, don't necessarily follow it. And then what happened? So if it's like to drive somewhere to go to lunch here or there, pretty quick to get the consequences. Some decisions may take longer to see the consequences. And I've found for myself and most of my clients find, you know, it's like, forget 50 shades of gray. There's not a shade of gray. It's black and white. Every time you follow your intuition, even if it's the stupidest thing, it works out. And every time you ignored it, even if you were doing the most rational choice, kaka blows up in your face.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Kaka.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
And so you can, you know, you can absolutely prove to yourself whether or not this works for you.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: I love that. So let me ask you this. What is one thing that you do in your life that helps you stack happiness? When life starts to feel A little overwhelming.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Well, I think you know this. It's dance.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: I do know this. Okay, you gotta share with everyone. Like, you were the most unique human. I mean, I've met some pretty unique people, but, like nuclear physicist turns consultant turns coach. What is it? Salsa dancing. Is that what you do?
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Oh, I do many, many styles.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Probably about 10 years old dancing. And like, just.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Yeah, my faves are salsa.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Oh, and also, what was it that you were doing in Costa Rica? When I saw you, you were doing like.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Oh, bachata.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So no, you were doing like Tai chi or something?
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Tai Chi. Yeah.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: See? Okay, so let's dig into that a little bit. Let's talk about your dancing. Okay. What kind of dancing do you do and when did you start dancing?
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Okay, here's an interesting thing. I do many, many, many styles, but my favorites are salsa, bachata dances, Argentine tango and west coast swing. I've always been drawn to dance, but I had no sense of rhythm when I started. But something kept pulling me. So, like, in university, I went downtown to take disco classes, and I would come back to my room in rez and stomp through and over and over. In my 20s, I got into jazz and modern and I got to know the people in the studio and let me go in after classes. And I would go over and over and over. Like, I'd install it, Right. And then when I get in ballroom in my 30s, again, same thing over and over. Like, people look at me now, they don't believe I didn't have rhythm. I installed rhythm, but it's again, feeling the intuition, feeling the pull. Something pulled me to dance and it's joy for me. Right. And you know, the Tai chi, I do yoga as well, but Tai chi more so now. And in a way, that's sort more sort of a dance. And maybe that's part of it, but I meditate. And you also talked about the woo. Woo, Right. I mean, that's another aspect of me I'm very aware of. And this will. You know, the first reaction to a lot of people will be to roll their eyes. I'm very aware of energy. I'm a Reiki master trained in many modalities. But I very much believe in the thoughts that create things. But I come at it also from the quantum physics side. I know what reality is. I know that these things that we call our bodies are illusion. Everything that, that, you know, it's. I know that it's packets of energy in mostly empty space. I mean, if you go down, everyone knows about atoms, but if you go down below, below, below, sub, sub, subatomic particles, you get what are called virtual particles that make up everything that's you, everything that's me, everything in the universe, they don't exist. But everything acts as if they exist. But when you look for them with these massive colliders like in Europe and all, they appear. But when you stop looking for them, they disappear. But everything acts as if they exist. So in quantum, that's the mind blowing.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Stuff that you said, that my brain's not even activated right now. Like say that again in a way that my brain can understand what you just said.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: These virtual particles, virtual meaning they're not really there. Everything that makes us up acts as if they exist. But they don't exist until you look for them. When you look for them, they appear. When you stop looking, they disappear. But another thing about quantum physics is observation. It's like the very act of observing changes the result. And it's not just in quantum physics. There have been more real world examples where they're scientifically recorded, where the belief of the scientists changed the results. Two scientists that had different beliefs systems changed the results of the experiment. Wow. So, you know, I really do believe my life. I've seen evidence, I've approached this very rigorously and I've seen evidence that when I believe something, it increases the odds that it will happen. If I don't, if I'm doubting myself, if I'm usually it'll blow up in my face.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: So true. It's interesting that you say that because you know, in any work that I do, I mean there's always going to be an aspect of what's the outcome? What's the goal that you want? And then my next question typically is, do you believe it is possible? A lot of times we have these big dreams and big goals and things that we're all chasing. Sometimes it's because society's told us or it's what like, you know, a business book said is the next right thing for us. But if you don't believe it to be true, you typically do everything to the opposite of making it happen. Right? You just, you don't act in such a way that will bring it to fruition. Whereas when you believe something to be true, you can sort of start to build the path of getting yourself to that spot. And so there's that.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: But I think there's also a deeper woo woo thing where you push away stuff that could help you. Or if you're talking, are you talking.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: About like resonance and Manifestation right now?
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you can look at that with those words or there's even from a pure psychological thing. We have what's called a reticular activation system in our brains that filters all the information that goes into us. If you believe something, you will see the opportunities that connect you.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: True story. Because I never saw a white Mazda in my life before. And the second I bought a white Mazda, all I see are white Mazdas everywhere.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: But did everyone go buy one the same day as me? It's like, no. I've just activated a certain part of my brain that ensures they're there and I see them.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: So let me give you two real world examples of how belief shapes reality that people don't want to see. Tell me, because it is totally number one is the stock market. It is not based on reality, it's based on belief.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: True that, 100%.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: But people don't will not admit that. It is not based on the analysis of the company and the what makes it, you know, the belief of what's happening changes. Poof. The stock shift and all the caca. That's.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Oh yeah, it's like if Elon Musk does anything wild in unruly stocks are either going up or down.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah, right. And it's got nothing to do with fundamentals.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: You're very right on that one. Yeah. Okay, what's the next one?
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Strategic planning. I've been doing strategic planning for organizations for three decades. And what you do is you create a vision, a five year vision, three year vision, and then three year milestones, two year milestone, one year milestone. Then you take the one year plan, build the operational quarterly, you fill in the first quarter, the rest you got milestones. You're not really sure it's going to get there, but all sorts of stuff happen that get you there. And once you start moving in that direction, you start finding opportunities you could never have imagined possible. But the vision is basically that vision. You get all the people excited, energized about it. And here's the first steps, then you move forward towards that with each milestone. And stuff comes in for that plan later in year one, in year two, in year three that you could not never have imagined.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Interesting. I gotta let that one, I gotta let that one sort of percolate because that is a very, I mean I think that works a lot in leadership and in business.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: When you start making the moves with, you know, you sort of have clarity of where you're headed. You may not always know the how, but the how sort of Starts to unwind in front of the Jills.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, this is where I bring something else from physics, the law of uncertainty. Because you don't know everything in quantum physics. You cannot know. It's impossible, okay? The more you know one thing, the velocity of a particle, the less you know where it is. If you think of a strategy, if you are here, and this is your vision, okay, you can either know the target or the path. You cannot map the path and have the target. It's like saying, I want to drive to Chicago from here. Well, let's drive to Toronto from here, given the times right now. And I want to know exactly what time I'm going to be at which light. Exactly what time I'm going to be at this place, at this impossible. You don't know the construction, you don't know the traffic. But you've got general milestones, okay, that I'm leaving from Halifax. I'll be in Montreal by this time. I'll be by around this time, by this night. I'll be in Toronto by this. And then you make it up as you go along the way, and you adapt.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: I love this analogy.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: You cannot build a strategic plan for the next three years mapping out what everyone will do. It's not possible. Too much is gonna change.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: You are so right. So what shall they do instead?
[00:34:18] Speaker B: You set the vision. You set milestones, Then you take the one year milestone, break it into quarterly milestones, operationalize that first quarter and maybe a little bit for the others. And each quarter, you review, adjust. Okay, well, how are we doing end of the year? Let's check this against our one year milestone. Is the year two milestone still there? Boom, boom, you know, and you move forward. It's just an ongoing process. Right?
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Love it, love it, love it. Okay, so I want to sort of close this off with, I guess what I would say a thought that you want to leave. So sort of a. If you were to sort of wrap this up today with a landing thought, a landing message, that you would hope that the listeners who are listening to this or watching this would take away from this conversation, what would that Cole's.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Note be with the pandemic? A lot of people realized who used to be the workaholics and just going, you know, 80 hours a week, it's not worth it. There's more to life. And that's what led to the great resignation. All the people leaving the exodus and the church is continuing. If you have had that feeling and feel yourself starting to get pulled back to the familiar, this is like the pulling people back to the workplace. Be courageous. Invest that time in you to really start to get clear on what's important to you. Where do you want to be? What's the legacy you want to leave? To me, my mantra through some challenging times recently has just been choose joy. And when it came to me, there was not a lot joyful in my life, but I was going, okay, which path will lead. Lead me to joy, right? And now I'm finding more and more and more joy, but it's an active decision. Where do I go? How do I be courageous enough? How do I find the allies to support me, which could be friends, it could be professional, coach, counselor. How do I make the time to do this reflective work? I love to do beach walks. Oh, my God, it's so healing. And it's time for me not to think, just to be. And so much shifts and be courageous. What is it that is in you that needs to be said, that's waiting to be expressed?
[00:36:40] Speaker A: So this actually leads me quite well into a few sort of, what I'll call them, lightning round questions that I want to throw at you. And you sort of. You opened the door for this one. So what is a habit or a ritual that brings you joy every day? Now I'm feeling like it's your dance, but maybe it's something deeper because I don't know. Do you dance every day?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: I have. I don't right now, but it's meditative practices. Dance is actually a mindfulness practice for me because you can't think about anything else. Because as a lead, I'm choreographing in that moment, I'm present. But it's my mindfulness practices, whether it's meditation, whether it's beach walking, whether it's dance. Those times where I can just be, everything goes away.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: That's beautiful. What's a book, A podcast, A quote that has really influenced you and your life's work.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: This quote has been attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt and Thomas Edison, so I don't know which it's. You wouldn't worry about so much what other people think of you if you realized how rarely they do.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: That's a good one. That could help a lot of people. If you had to describe your approach to happiness in one word, what would it be?
[00:37:56] Speaker B: One word.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: I know.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Wow. Breathe.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Why breathe?
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Because it brings you into the present stillness. And that's where all the answers are. Not here. This is. The head is useless.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: I love that. And final question. What is something you have learned about yourself? Recently.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: Recently a lot.
I have everything I need.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: I have everything I need.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: And I'm talking in here, not just outside.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Do you want to share more about that?
[00:38:25] Speaker B: We are often looking outside for something, something. Whether it's things that are conspicuous consumption, to show that with this, that for recognition for whatever. But I believe the outside is just a reflection of what's inside. It's a mirror. And so if you're not complete inside, in and of yourself, you never, ever, ever, ever. Doesn't matter what you get, doesn't matter who adores you, you're never going to be complete outside.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: So fair and so true. Ravi, it has been a pleasure having this conversation with you today. I know you want it to sort of offer the audience something. What is it that you wanted to share?
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Well, that Jedi mind trick on how to shut off your self talk, I think the biggest thing, and by the way, sleep is the biggest build of resilience right now. So if you just go to Silentselftalk.com, you can get the free E course. It'll take you about a week to build the habit, taking about 15 minutes a day. Not at once. A minute here, a minute there and 10 minutes there and you'll be able to just shut it off like that.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: I'm gonna go take the course.
Thank you so much, my friend.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Thank you. This was a pleasure.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Thank you.
Hey, thanks for listening to the Happy Stack podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little extra happiness in their life. Let's keep stacking those wins together. See you next time.
