The Perfectly Imperfect Journey

Revolution of the Soul with Seane Corn

One part yoga teacher, one part revolutionary and ALL Heart, Seane Corn joins the podcast this week to discuss her extraordinary life, share her wisdom and inspire us all to action.  Seane did not grow up in a religious family. Nor was yoga or meditation part of her life growing up. But when she found yoga and meditation - and it found her - her life profoundly changed. Listen in to hear Seane’s perfectly imperfect journey and how yoga helped her deal with childhood trauma, OCD, and unhealthy behaviors, set her on the path to social activism, as well as the importance of balancing activism and rest.  

Bio

Seane Corn (she/her) is an internationally-acclaimed yoga teacher, author, and public speaker who has been at the forefront of yoga, activism, and community service for 28 years. Known for her social activism and impassioned teaching style, Seane is raw, honest, articulate, and spiritually inspired in her self-expression. Her leadership and commitment to justice for all beings, along with 30+ years of yoga practice, have galvanized thousands to practice, pray, find more purpose, and activate change from the inside out.  A longtime student, Seane models authenticity in her yoga journey and is considered an artist in her craft.

 

Seane has chosen to use her platform to bring awareness to global issues, including social justice, sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS awareness, and animal rights. In 2005, she was named “National Yoga Ambassador” for YouthAIDS, and in 2013 received both the Global Green International Environmental Leadership Award and the Humanitarian Award from the Smithsonian Institute. She co-founded the organization Off the Mat, Into the World®, which trained leaders in community activism. Seane also co-founded the Global Seva Challenge, which raised over $3.5 million by activating yoga and wellness communities in fund and awareness-raising efforts. Her first book Revolution of the Soul, was published in Fall 2019. Her online program, Align With Source, has a global reach of thousands and has been a touchstone of community support during the pandemic.

 

https://seanecorn.com/

https://seane-corn.myshopify.com/collections/books

Gratitude Through the Lens of the Pandemic

Every year, right around this time, inboxes, blogs and day-time television are filled with discussions about gratitude. Google “why is gratitude good?” and you’ll get millions of results. While we’re happy to jump on the bandwagon, this time we’re doing it with a twist. We asked several of our friends (and one new friend!), what they’re grateful for with regards to the pandemic. While everyone agreed COVID has been a universally horrible situation, we got some truly beautiful instances of gratitude that we’re excited to share. 
To round things out, Sherry and Anne also model how to express gratitude, to each other, live and unrehearsed.  

 

Special thanks to our Guests:

Lori Martin

Brandon Blanchard

Joseph Asaro

Carmen Palo

Rebecca Kilday

Robin Berning

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Well Being of We with Kerri Kelly

Kerri Kelly, author of American Detox, joins us on the podcast this week to talk about her life and the lessons she learned through the process of writing her book. Kerri takes us on parts of her journey, beginning with 9/11 and how that changed her life as she grappled with tremendous loss, both personally and societally.  Ultimately, Kerri takes a hard look at the way healthcare functions (or doesn’t), while never shying away from the role we as individuals play. While this all sounds heavy, Kerri’s willingness to laugh at herself, share her story so openly and encourage us all to think more collectively is incredibly uplifting.

 

Bio: 

Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing wellbeing for all. A descendant of generations of firemen and first responders, Kerri has dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice. She’s been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems and mobilizing people to act. 

 

Links:

American Detox: https://www.americandetox.co/ 

CTZNWELL: https://www.ctznwell.org/

A Sense of Balance

Work / Life balance, integration, or just plain ol’ life balance - we hear this topic come up over and over as people try to seek the ultimate destination of “balance.” Join us on the podcast as we bust a few myths about what balance is and share some suggestions for cultivating a greater sense of balance in your own life.  

“Balance is not something you find, it is something you create.” - Jana Kingsford

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler

Toward the end of the podcast, Sherry introduces us to the “Balance Wheel,” which gives you a definitive snapshot of how balanced you feel about the various parts of your life. You can access the wheel here: https://tinyurl.com/balancewheel-pod-episode47 

Journey of Self-Awareness with Vanessa Loder

Vanessa Loder has been on a journey of self awareness, from playing on the soccer field as a teen and college student, to graduating at the top of her class at an Ivy League, to finding herself, in full business attire, sneaking out of her downtown San Francisco office to attend a hypnosis and past life seminar.  Along the way, she fine-tuned her ability to pay attention to what she calls the “energetic breadcrumbs,” giving her insight into her true heart’s desire.  Please listen in as Vanessa shares her perfectly imperfect journey, and gives some great advice for all of us to tune into our own inner wisdom.

 

“Women are so happy for a seat at the table, we haven’t really questioned how the table is set”  Vanessa Loder

 

To order Vanessa’s book and get some of her supplementary materials:  https://vanessaloder.com/soul-solution/

 

Some of the books Vanessa mentions:

Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

The Instruction by Ainslie MacLeod

Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin

 

Bio

Vanessa Loder is an acclaimed keynote speaker and sought-after expert on women’s leadership, mindfulness, stress management, rewiring your brain for happiness, owning your inner game, and sustainable success. Vanessa’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post and Glamour magazine. Her guided meditations have been streamed over 1 million times globally. Vanessa’s Tedx talk “How To Lean In Without Burning Out” has over 155,000 views. Loder is the author of the forthcoming book, The Soul Solution: A Guide for Brilliant, Overwhelmed Women to Quiet the Noise, Find Their Superpower and (Finally) Feel Satisfied, released by SoundsTrue in October 2022. 

 

In her previous life, Loder was a successful private equity investor who advised fast growing companies. She is a self-described over-achiever whose unfulfilling experience left her burned out, exhausted, and eager to find another way. 

 

After spending close to a decade working in finance on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, Vanessa felt that she had climbed to the top of the wrong ladder! Her personal transformation, subsequent research and work have led to thousands of women finding their way back to soul. 

 

Vanessa has worked with high performing teams and leaders at AirBnb, Bain & Co, Cambridge Associates, Castlight Health, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Dreamforce, Flextronics, Goldman Sachs, Google, LinkedIn, Mattel, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, PA Conference for Women, PG&E, PwC, Sheppard Mullin, Salesforce, StubHub!, Tedx, The Dailey Method, The Hamlin School, The North Face, The Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford MSx Women, ThoughtSpot, Uber, Upwork, Watermark, Women in Private Equity and many other organizations.

 

Vanessa received her MBA from Stanford University and her BA in Economics from Columbia University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Loder is certified as an Executive Coach by the Hendricks Institute and trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) by Carl Buchheit at NLP Marin. Vanessa currently lives in Lafayette, CA with her husband and two children, who remind her to take “mommy time-outs” when she’s about to lose her marbles.

Change The World By Changing Ourselves with Oneika Mays

Oneika Mays has always been a seeker, even as a young child. She grew up in a stable family structure, went to good schools, and even landed in a fulfilling career she loved. But there was always something nagging at her, just below the surface: she wanted to trust herself, but couldn’t quite get there. Then, one day in yoga class, her instructor said “You can change or be comfortable, but not both.” As tears streamed down her face she realized she needed a change, and was ready to embrace the discomfort.  Fast forward to today and Oneika is still a seeker, learning and transforming as she teaches yoga and meditation to individuals and groups both inside prison and on the outside. She has an amazing story - please join us to hear Oneika’s perfectly imperfect journey. 

 

About Oneika Mays:

Oneika Mays (LMT, E-RYT) transitioned to yoga and meditation from a 20 year career in

corporate retail leadership over 10 years ago. Oneika used that experience to support social

justice non-profits and teach meditation/yoga inside jails. Today, she is the first Mindfulness

Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. At Rikers she works one-on-one with community

members in a therapeutic setting. Sessions are a combination of modalities and are infused with

compassion. These sessions help people foster resilience and agency. She believes that our

justice system needs to focus on transformation and restoration rather than punishment. This

idea of liberation and compassion is woven into her work whether it’s in a jail, speaking to

audiences or teaching meditation. In addition to teaching meditation and yoga Oneika facilitates

workshops and trainings centered around resilience, liberation and compassion. She believes

that meditation, movement and mindfulness practices can forge a path to freedom.

 

Currently Oneika is working on a scripted project she created, Blur, a story about two atypical

teenagers navigating their identity in the 1980s. Her co-writer is Steven Mclaine. Oneika is

bringing meditation and yoga to Arizona as a featured presenter at the Sedona Yoga Festival.

She is also the co-host of the soon to be released podcast, But You Don’t Sound Black with

Rasheed J. Daniel. She can currently be seen on TBS’ Lost Resort.

Instagram: https://Instagram.com/oneikamays
Website: www.oneikamays.com 

Featured presenter at Embodied Philosophy’s conference, “Radical Teaching.” Oneika’s talk is “Disrupting with Love.”
https://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/event/radical-teaching-roundup/

Board Member: One Love Prison Meditation Project: https://onelovepmp.org/

Projects in development:

Creator/Writer - BLUR

Production Company - TeamSheed

Producer- Rasheed J. Daniel

 

Consultant/Co-host - FREE SPIRIT

Producer- Ben Dwork

Creator- Becca Elrich

 

Contributor

Co-host Spiritual Citizenship Conference 2021- In Conversation with Cornel West

Faculty- Interdependence Project - Meditation Teacher Training

 

Featured

NY1

Yoga Journal

CNBC

Aligned Magazine

Tarka Journal

Taking Up Space

What does it mean to “take up space”? Why is it important?  We have been so inspired and impressed by the way so many of our guests have chosen to let their voices be heard, their opinions known, and their stories told. Join us this week as Anne and Sherry discuss the big and small ways to “take up space” and the reasons we think it’s important. We also offer up a few practices you can use to become more skillful and confident with inhabiting spaces in ways that are meaningful to you.   

 

Amy Cuddy Ted Talk:  https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are?language=en

Rosa Parks:  https://www.ledablack.com/take-up-space/

Having Way Too Much Fun with Rachel Bitecofer

Please note that there’s some pretty salty language in this episode.

This is a milestone episode for us. Sherry has admired Rachel Bitecofer’s work from behind her Twitter screen for years.  When she used that same screen to ask Rachel to join us on the podcast, we were both thrilled she said yes.  

We are even more thrilled with the conversation we got to have with Rachel. Like most of us, she’s had a bumpy road to get to where she is today: a well respected political scientist, polling expert, and commentator who has appeared in the NY Times Opinion pages, on The Daily Show, and in many other publications. But it took her a while to figure it out. After following the Grateful Dead around for a while, she did find out what her “thing” was, and enrolled in a junior college, and ultimately got her Ph.D. And how did she figure it out?  She paid attention to what was fun. Lucky for us, politics was fun for her, and the rest of us are better because of it. Please listen in to Rachel’s perfectly imperfect journey, not to mention her uproariously funny sense of humor.  

 

As long as I get to experience life, I’m pretty happy.  ~ Rachel Bitecofer

Bio

Rachel Bitecofer. Ph.D. is a political scientist and election forecaster turned political strategist. Her interviews and analysis have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Politico, The New Republic, Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC and many other prominent news sources.

Rachel was recognized for her novel theory that predicted the size of the “Blue Wave” in the 2018 midterm elections much earlier than other forecasters. She then used her methodology to anticipate that Democrats would recapture the presidency in 2020, more than a year out from the election.

Known as The Election Whisperer, Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer offers hold-no-punches political commentary and has become a sought-after political strategist. She earned a Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia.

Rachel hosts the political podcast The Cycle, on Substack and works directly with Democratic candidates and organizations, including Matters of State Strategies, as a political strategist. Rachel’s book, “Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game," co-authored with Aaron Murphy, was recently acquired by Crown Publishing and will drop in 2023.

Previously, she served as a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, a centrist think-tank in Washington, D.C., a senior advisor to The Lincoln Project, and a Lecturer in Political Science at Christopher Newport University, where she conducted and analyzed polling for the Wason Center of Public Policy.

Rachel lives in Oregon and tweets prolifically to more than 140,000 followers from @rachelbitecofer.

Website: https://thecycle.substack.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelBitecofer

Epic Performances with Bryan Gillette

“Sometimes we work to our perceived limit when we could probably work a little past that.” Bryan Gillette is not a guy who thinks small as it comes to athletics or adventure. He has run multiple ulta-races, including eight back-to-back marathons. However, he still believes he could have swung a little higher. This is a great metaphor for all of us - in what ways are we letting our mindset hold us back, whether from an athletic endeavor, getting our next job, or becoming 

more involved in the community? Join us to hear about Bryan’s perfectly imperfect journey, and his newly-released book, EPIC Performance: Lessons from 100 Executives and Endurance Athletes on Reaching Your Peak.  

 

Bio:

BRYAN GILLETTE knows what it is like to reach the peak as he has stood on the summits of many mountains and successfully completed many physically and mentally challenging ultra-distance endurance events. He’s reached several ‘summits’ in his career as well.

Bryan has over 25 years’ experience in Leadership and Organizational Development with executive and senior-level responsibilities in small and large companies. Before starting his consulting practice, he was on the Executive Committee as the Vice President of Human Resources for a mid-size, global-technology company. In addition to running Human Resources and Payroll, he has extensive experience in Leadership Development, Organizational Design, Communications, and Mergers & Acquisitions.

His experience also includes coaching at all levels on a variety of issues such as change management, performance improvement, and communications. He takes a pragmatic approach and brings firsthand experience having managed teams of 2 to 270 people and multi-million-dollar projects. Although he is a former company executive, Bryan is known to roll up his sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done.

In these 25 years, he has taught leadership courses in many countries, consulted with executives, conducted needs analysis, and developed programs that drive the desired performance for the company to meet its objectives. With the consolidation of companies over the years, he has integrated over 40 acquisitions ranging from 8-person to 1,000+ person companies.

He holds an MBA from California State University and two Bachelors’ degrees from the University of California, Davis in Organizational Behavior and Communications.

To give back to the community, Bryan started up and ran the Bridge of Opportunity, a 501(c)3 foundation, to provide foster kids scholarships to attend college. He was the Co-Chair and founding Board Member for iGATE, a non-profit incubator to assist small green-related companies. And, he was the Co-Race Director for the Pleasanton Run for Education, a 3,000-person running race, which raised $250,000 for the local schools during his 4 years.

For recreation, he is a dedicated endurance athlete completing many long-distance cycling or running events including cycling across the United States, cycling 300 miles in 24 hours, and running 200 miles around Lake Tahoe in 76 hours. As an avid traveler, he recently spent one year with his wife and two boys traveling through South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

His book, EPIC Performance: Lessons from 100 Executives and Endurance Athletes on Reaching Your Peak based on his experiences reaching lofty goals as well as the experience of 100+ CEOs, CxOs, founders, and endurance athletes who have also reached amazing goals will be published Summer 2022.

Links:
Website: https://summitinggroup.com/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/EPIC-Performance-Executives-Endurance-Athletes/dp/1637552173/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/epic-performance-bryan-gillette/1141372406
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryangillette/

Saying Yes to Yes

In the 2008 movie, Yes Man, Jim Carey plays a guy just sort of bumping along in his normal, everyday existence. He says “no” regularly, and prefers the comfort of his couch to exploring anything new. 

On any given day, this might describe a lot of us. How often are we unconscious to the ways we show up (or not!) in the world? Inspired by this movie and Shonda Rhimes’ great book, Year of Yes, Sherry and Anne discuss “saying yes,” even when that “yes” is to a “no.”  We suggest that we all have the opportunity to bring more consciousness to the way we live, work and play.  Join us to hear about some of our own experiences of saying yes, and how to cultivate a practice that could become your regular way of operating.