Jonathan Raymond: Good Authority
In this episode of the Art of Authenticity, I had a deep conversation with Jonathan Raymond about authority and leadership, along with his new book, Good Authority.
Jonathan is the author of the upcoming book Good Authority and the owner of Refound, an advisory firm that offers accountability skills training programs for owners, executives, and managers. He is the former CEO and Chief Brand Officer of EMyth, where he led the transformation of a global coaching brand and has worked in tech, clean tech, and the nonprofit world after graduating law school in 1998. After twenty years of not being able to decide whether he was a business development guy or a personal growth teacher, Jonathan stopped trying to figure it out.
When it comes to authenticity, leadership, and authority, there's probably no one better to speak to than Jonathan Raymond. In our personal and professional lives, the challenge of leading people while empowering them instead of disempowering them is more important than ever. And authenticity is the key to unlocking good leadership — or as Jonathan calls it in his new book, good authority.I think you'll enjoy this episode if you have trouble being your authentic self while in a leadership role of any kind — I know I got a lot out of this conversation. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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Why Jonathan stopped trying to figure out if he was a business development guy or personal growth teacher [02:15]
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Refactoring how people can translate over the lessons learned from ancient introspective practices into their daily roles [04:37]
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Some of the interesting events in Jonathans life that lead to the creation of his book [06:08]
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How Jonathan was disempowering employees through his initial leadership style [08:29]
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Feedback that is both personal and professional at the same time [10:30]
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Helping people grow by increasing the ability to see how their behavior affects other people [13:12]
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The economic cost of overanalyzing habits of employees [15:57]
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Jonathans secret tactic: “Reset the table” by explaining that something has been on your mind and you waited to long to say it you can open up communication [17:45]
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Jonathan provides an example of “Owning the context” [19:14]
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Emotional transparency: saying what you are feeling so you don’t act it out [20:14]
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Discussing the meaning behind the title “More Yoda. Less Superman”. – “Feeling a sense of I got this, the teams got this, and we can deal with anything that comes” [22:27]
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On placing the quote, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are,” at the beginning of the book and thoughts on being authentic [26:23]
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What does and authentic life mean to Jonathan? No regrets on making choices and taking risks [28:27]
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Walking trails help in times of stress and struggle [29:29]
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Jonathan discusses how he works on actively asking for and offering people for help [30:40]
Episode Resources
Jonathan's book, Good Authority (also found at Refound)Download the TranscriptDownload the MP3
James Clear: Are Goals Just Guesses?
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with James Clear about systems over goals and how to reach new heights of productivity...without the stress.James Clear is a writer. He covers behavioral psychology, habit formation, and performance improvement. His work has been covered by dozens of major media outlets like TIME, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and more. Over 700,000 people read his articles each month and more than 350,000 subscribe to his popular email newsletter.He studies successful people across a wide range of disciplines — entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and more — to uncover the habits and routines that make these people the best at what they do. Then, he shares what he learns on his blog and in his newsletter.
For those of you who haven’t checked out
, you're missing out. He writes about behavioral psychology, habit formation, performance improvement and “how small habits can change our lives and society for the better.” All of these topics help us live more authentically...provided we get them right.The reason speaking with James was so fascinating is because there's so much overlap with what he does and what my clients struggle with. So many of my clients ask the question:
“How do I implement, have the discipline, the motivation to change my life?”
James talks about all sorts of ways to think about goal setting, taking action, and changing habits. He writes about the practical things, like putting your gym shoes next to your bed before you wake up so that you can run in the morning, but then also the psychology behind why we set goals but we can’t actually follow through them.We think it’s just us. We think we’re lazy, we think that we’re not motivated. If you want to improve this area of your life, I can't think of a better episode to listen to than this one.I know you’ll love listening to this conversation as much as I loved having it. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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James’s personal story — forced to overcome major hurdles, he learned to focus on small wins [3:05]
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On the importance of having a good team [6:50]
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How James displayed entrepreneurial behavior without realizing it at first when he was in graduate school [8:36]
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James’s early years as an entrepreneur involved incubating his skill sets [10:23]
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James’s turning point — starting http://jamesclear.com/ and feeling invested in writing about behavior change and high performance [11:15]
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How James views goals, setting goals, and how to think about that process first [14:20]
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Entrepreneurship, marriage, and children as the three great teachers in life — accepting that there is no finish line [15:05]
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Committing to systems over goals allows happiness now, instead of it always being postponed until the next goal is finally reached [18:20]
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Most experiments that you run in your business will not work because results are very contextual—you must keep experimenting and measure/track your results [19:06]
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Measure backward over a short time span (instead of measuring forward) to improve over time [20:55]
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Forget willpower, change your environment — i.e., priming your environment to make the good behaviors easier and the bad behaviors harder [26:35]
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Keystone habits have a cascade effect: changing one or two key behaviors influences a lot of other areas as well [28:33]
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To figure out your keystone habit(s), experiment but also ask yourself what goes right on the days when you’re at your best [30:40]
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How James got so interested in the importance of sleep — sleep-deprived people become blind to their own performance decline [33:00]
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Questioning the cultural belief that sleep must suffer because “a busy person is an important person” — why occasional laziness can be very healthy [35:59]
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What does it mean to have an authentic life? James’s yearly integrity report, where he admits faults to progress forward [38:04]
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James’s top practices for authenticity — his keystone habits of lifting weights (testing the body) and writing (testing the mind) [40:15]
Books Mentioned in this Episode
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Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit
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Mason Currey, Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work
More About James
James’s first book will be out soon from Penguin Random House in the next year. Find all his books at http://jamesclear.com/books. Subscribe to his weekly newsletter at http://jamesclear.com/newsletter.
Episode Resources
Zach Obront: On Finding a Business That's Authentic
In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a deep conversation with Zach Obront, the co-founder of Book in a Box, about his new company and authentic entrepreneurship.Zach Obront is a cofounder of Book in a Box. Book in a Box is a new type of publishing company focused on allowing busy experts with important messages to share their book without the usual barriers. Writing a book can be almost impossible for people who are really busy so Book in a Box helps by transcribing the book for the expert, they grew from zero to 300 authors in a very short period.
Zach and I go back quite a bit. I met Zach because I was launching of my book
Emotional Obesity
, and at the time Zach was a guy who was helping others like myself launch books. So, we have an interesting history together and it ties in to Zach’s business,
.Zach is here to talk about entrepreneurship. How he tried a whole bunch of different things, something took off, and what that process looked like in real time. He really dives into the details here, so for anyone trying to get something started or move it into the next level, Zach has a really candid, honest discussion here.He also talks about working on a business that is meaningful and authentic and fun.Thank you
so
much for tuning in. I’m sure you’ll love today’s episode.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
-
How Zach and Tucker found a business that "took off" [02:43]
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How Book in a Box was the obvious choice out of a multitude of author-focused businesses [07:42]
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Why it's better to do everything for authors instead of piecemeal [08:31]
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What he says to authors who say "I just want to write a book" [09:42]
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Thinking through a book as a businessperson vs. as an author [11:02]
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The Book in a Box process and how it enables more people to share their story [12:11]
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Definition of success for an author [14:20]
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How BIAB helps authors define their goals [16:21]
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How he decided to shut down all other businesses to focus on Book in a Box [17:44]
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Why it was hard for him to let go [19:11]
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The next 12 months for Book in a Box [21:05]
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What an authentic life means to Zach [24:12]
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Why he journals...a lot [25:13]
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On if he had a "turning point moment" [29:38]
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On why people don't finish what they start [30:55]
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Other things he does besides journaling to stay authentic [32:10]
More About Zach and Book in a Box:
Episode Resources
Ashley Turner: Walking the Winding Path of Authentic Truth
In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a deep conversation with Ashley Turner, a yoga instructor, marriage and family psychotherapy intern, and an ordained priestess.Ashley is not only an M.A., MFTI yoga meditation instructor, she is a marriage and family psychotherapy intern, writer...and also an ordained priestess.She has been on list as 100 Most Influential Yoga Instructors in the US, 40 Under 40 health and wellness sector of the Wall Street MNA advisory list.She is the founder of Yoga Psych and Soul, advance yoga psychotherapy training, the cofounder of Urban Priestess and the creator of nine bestselling yoga DVD’s and online coursesand co-author of Aroma Yoga.
As you can tell, Ashley does a lot. She blends eastern and western practices in her path to living authentically, even becoming an ordained priestess. I wasn’t totally sure what that entailed, but she explains it in this episode.She goes into how to blend eastern-western yoga techniques, meditation, philosophy and traditional western psychotherapy into building a life that is deeply authentic and meaningful. She is someone who has been on the path of authenticity her whole life and she really goes into a lot of detail about how she keeps that truth alive in her life on a daily and sometimes even hourly basis.I know you’re going to love today’s show, check it out and thank you again so much for listening.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
Show Notes
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Ashley explains how she got into yoga [03:14]
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How she “took yoga off the mat” [04:50]
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What “yoga off the mat” really means [05:50]
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What issues she sees with her clients time and time again [08:47]
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How she balances Eastern and Western practices [11:19]
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What the word “surrender” means to her [13:11]
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How she actually practices surrendering in moments of despair [17:23]
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How she became an ordained priestess [19:00]
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What an authentic life means to her [23:57]
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The habits that help her keep living her authentic truth [27:42]
More About Ashley:
Episode Resources
Kute Blackson: Transformation and Authentic Leadership
In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I talked with Kute Blackson, a transformational leader and author of You. Are. The. One.Kute Blackson is an utterly unique visionary in the world of human potential. Unlike those who promise to simply help people “get” what they want, Kute’s life work instead reveals to people what they have to give, by liberating who they are most truly and deeply. The focus: Freedom.Kute’s own background and experience lay out the blueprint for his approach to liberating others, setting their gifts and greatness free. Born in Ghana, West Africa, his multicultural upbringing as the child of a Japanese mother and Ghanaian father, raised in London, and on 4 different continents defies all stereotype. Kute is a global authority in “Transformational Immersion Journeys”.He is known worldwide for creating the unique and revolutionary “Liberation Experience,” where he travels with an individual client, one-on-one, across India, for 14 days, as well as the creator of the group process “Boundless Bliss—The Bali Breakthrough Experience”.
I was so honored to have Kute Blackson on the show. His bestselling novel, You. Are. The. One. is a fantastic look at authentic leadership and development.He realized that the “outside-in approach” doesn’t work for personal development and replaced it with an “inside-out approach”. This helps the individual get in touch with who they really are, the process of breaking free so they can live, give and share their truest expression of self. This is what Kute calls liberated living.Today, we talked about authenticity, Kute uses some of the same terminology that I feel strongly, peeling back the layers of self, how we’re just energetic, beautiful beings from birth and what happens, how those layers get added on, how you can remove them, how to get back, step up and rise up into the life that you were meant to live.I hope you enjoy today’s show, I loved chatting with him and I know that you’re going to be as inspired as I was.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
More About Kute:
Resources
Brian Kurtz: Marketing, Marketing, and more Marketing
In this episode of Art of Authenticity, I had a deep conversation with Brian Kurtz about authentic marketing.Brian is a veteran in the marketing industry. He ran Boardroom Inc. where he was the director ofmarketing for the company and they grew the company to $150 million in sales at it’s height, reaching over a billion people.This guy has been in the email marketing space for 30 years, has tons of experience. He’s recently gone out on his own to a new group called Titans Marketing where he offers educational materials, coaching consulting.I had so much fun chatting with him today. When I wrote my book, the very first piece of advice I got was:
“Hey Laura, you’ve got to start an email list."
I was thinking, "What do we need an email list for? I’m trying to write a book, which is already a ton of work. How can I think about an email list?”Truth be told, I had a bit of an allergic reaction to marketing myself. I thought the whole thing was just a little uncomfortable.Brian dives into why marketing isn’t some kind of evil, devilish thing that you have to do, it’s really about how to bring the value of your message forward in a compelling way to reach audiences. Wedive into all sorts of tactical advice about how to think about marketing down to thepsychological things that might be in your way.He’s filled with tons of information and I really enjoyed hearing about what he had to offer and learned a ton.I hope you like today’s episode. If you’re starting a business or you’re in one and you want totake it to the next level, this episode is for you.
Thanks for Listening
Again, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!
About Brian Kurtz
Under Brian's marketing leadership and during his tenure, Boardroom’s revenues went from approximately $5 million (in 1981) to a high of over $150 million (in 2006).His mission for the next 35 years (as the Founder of “Titans Marketing LLC”), is to be the bridge between the eternal truths of direct response marketing and all that is considered state-of-the-art direct response marketing today.In September of 2014, to kick off that mission, Brian hosted what has been called the event of the decade: "Titans of Direct Response." "Titans” brought together the greatest minds in direct response marketing from the last 50 years...both as speakers and attendees. Titans Mastermind is the next big step in that mission as “The Bridge.”Brian writes and speaks regularly; recent content can be found at www.briankurtz.me.
Resources
Download the TranscriptDownload the MP3