Want to Amplify Your Impact? Connect and Activate Your Potential

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor Elise Cortez.

1:04 Hi. There, welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has been brought to you with passion or pride since February of twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in this week. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we've not met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and loco therapist, speaker and author, and my team and I at Gusto Now help companies to enlive and fortify their operations by building a high performance, invigorated culture and leadership activated by meeting and purpose. Our mission is to help our clients create a destination workplace where people flock to join, are intrinsically motivated to perform with their best, can grow under their fuller potential, and are committed to stay and dynamically deliver on the company's mission, which all translates to higher profits for you. You can learn more about us and now we can work together at gustodashnow dot com and Elisecoortes dot com. Now getting in today's program we have with us today. Pam August of the firm Connecting Potential, where she guides organizations, teams and leaders to unlock the potential that is already there for transformational results.

1:59 She is the Director of Culture Activation at west Jet, one of Canada's most admired corporate cultures were for fourteen years, she was a fierce champion and developer of people in culture as a key enabler of strategic success. She's the author of Potential, How to connect to What's already there for Exponential Impact, which we'll be talking about today. She joined it today from her home and Prince Edward, Rhode Island. She also homes in Calgary, Canada. Pam, welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you, Elisa. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me. Welcome. As we were saying before we got on air, where were kindred spirits and doing some similar kind of work, care about some similar things, and I do like to celebrate authors that bring their works into the world.

2:40 So looks a look at this beautiful. Thing that you put into the world. My third baby. It's totally a baby, as we were talking about, So party congratulations, Pam. It's beautiful, it's tight, it all hangs together beautifully. I love your model, which we'll talk about. But to kick us off here, I think it's important that we part with your really powerful story that you share in your book that really kicked off your own appetite to understand and grow potential. Let's start there. Yeah, Oh gosh, I mean, it's a story that real came into my memory. I remembered it during the writing process, and it became very clear that it was the inciting incident, the thing that led me to this life journey. And it was a really, really lousy story. It was an example of everything not to do. Yeah, and you know, I was a young person a little bit of a spoiler alert. It's a story at the beginning of the book.

3:43 And I was a young woman who had really spent my whole life perfecting what I called the three p's, which are pleasing, performing, and the third pe perfecting, and there probably was a fifth P, which was pressure. And so I really believed in order to be worthy and worthwhile, I had to do those things. And I was always at person she would be amazing if she'd only just apply herself. And I found my thing, or so I thought, Well, I did find my thing, and I was put into though a very toxic learning environment, and I was told some horrific words that at the time were probably it was probably the second most devastating conversation I'd ever had in my life. And you know, at the time. It set me into quite a talesman. That led me, not led me to but probably was a catalyst for a lot of healing and really going deep inside to ask what is it? What is it that I own? What is it that others own? And what is it? And who do I want to be in this world? And did you want me to share the quote?

4:56 Because I mean, yes, I think it's important because if somebody would receive the kind of message that you got, it would be interesting to see how they would handle that, especially at the younger age that you were. Yeah, so I was. I think I was twenty three at the time, and the words were this from a person in power, an instructor in a college program that had power over my education and my career. Really, who said I need to tell you that you have a personality defect that will prevent you from ever being successful in life. I'm only telling you this because I care and you need to know it. Now. Even as I say the words now and it was a long time ago, my heart pounds. Yeah, yeah, because I actually believed it to be true already, sure, and this was just affirmation. Yeah.

5:48 Well, I was laughing because the bit about I'm only telling you this because I care. Is the part that really, you know, sings it home. But listeners and viewers, I want you to think back for yourselves. Every one of you has something that so I'm kind of mess that you have been that's been delivered to you that is sitting hanging heavily on your heart and weighing down, detracting you from realizing more of your own potential. So this conversation is for you too, all of us and I have a story like that too, which we don't need to talk about now because we're going to talk about the good stuff in your book. But it's important that we anchor that with where because you've blown way past what with this person thought of you. But the one important thing that you've come to that I really appreciated about your book is you've really distinguished that most of us tend to employ a problem oriented thinking way of going through life. And of course you know that's one way to do it. You of course embrace the potential piece.

6:39 But why do you think most of us tend to employ the problem solving approach instead of the potential one? Yeah? And I think, well, gosh, I think there's no shortage of problems in the world to solve right, not to say not to say that that solving problems is not a worthy pursuit and an important endeavor. I mean, it's it's why I have the work I do, why you have the work you do, why many of us have the work that we have. The problem with a problem mindset is is that when we have a mindset of problem, that's all we see, yea. And really, you know, we come by it honestly because we're wired to act first, feel second, think last, because we're wired to be safe, to discern, you know, discover or uncover or detect threat, and then think about what we need to do to act to stay safe. And so we have this you know, negativity bias that's wired into us that serves us well in some situations. The problem is we use it in all situations, or at least far too many. And so when we see a problem, what we're doing is we're priming ourselves to take action on something. We want to move away from something that potentially is a threat or an annoyance or a frustration. But that a way response

8:11 in our nervous system or what I call operating system is perceived like a threat, and it creates a neurochemical cocktail that includes things like cortisol and adrenaline and all of those things that actually contract us and disconnect all the parts of us that make it harder to actually get where we want to go, which is our potential, much less solve the problem that we want to avoid, which comes from that problem mindset beautifully explained. Okay, so now let's take it another step further here if we abandon that approach and we now embrace the potential thinking mindset paint for us the promise of that.

8:51 Yeah, So I would say, in any situation, in any challenge, in any difficulty, there is some thing that wants to happen, and that's something is potential. And just before this call, I shared a very I do this as a facilitator and coach and educator. What's present for me in the moment is always what comes out. And so we just had a quick chat about this, and one of my dearest and longest friends made the essential and excruciatingly difficult decision to stop cancer treatment after four and a half years of dealing with ovarian cancer. And this woman, I know she wouldn't mind me telling her story, but I will keep her name confidential. Is she's just the most incredible human because throughout these four and a half extremely difficult years, eighty rounds of chemo five surgeries, septic clots in her lungs, Like we're talking existential threats here, what she was able to do was be real with the problem, be real with the trauma, be real with the difficult.

10:01 And then what felt very quickly to me observing and being with her was turn it into what wants to happen here? And the thing like just even now, you know, there's been more bad news, and what wants to happen is she wants to connect with people. She wants to use this time to form, reform, reinvigorate connections, you know, like it's to me, it's it's I don't inspiring is not even enough of a word, because it's so much deeper than that and so potential, you know. And again, you know, in a more like everyday occurrence, I was working with a leader who's really challenged and dealing with conflict. Problem.

10:47 I'm challenged dealing with conflict, yes, And I said to her, so what wants to happen instead? And she said, I want to show up powerfully to work through challenges and still be colleguial or in a relationship. I said, okay, that's the potential. So I said, what shifted when you move from so say to yourself, I'm not good at I'm not good at conflict. The challenge is conflict. What happens? And she goes like this, and I say, okay, so now what happens when you say the potential? What wants to happen is for me to show up in a way that builds relationship and deals with messy issues. What's different? And she said, well, I lean forward. I said yes, because potential is what we move toward. I didn't say this in the book, or maybe I did. I can't remember.

11:35 Now the potential is all around us. The only place that's not is behind us. I think you did say that in the book. Yeah, one of the things I like about what you said about potential. And then I do want to talk about adversity because that's so powerful. As you know, you say, we have a deep need to bring it that is potential together and connect it. It is this force, this energy, and our desire and ability to connect it that is the catalyst and activator of personal and professional growth, deep learning and transformed relationships, teams, families and organizations. So powerful, Pam. And that's what you were just describing with your friend. Yeah, yeah, like it is. And again I wanted to then come back to the more kind of everyday example, right, because this thing called potential is always there in big and small, yes, right, in all of it, wanting to be connected. And it is really like, if you think about it in science terms, there's potential energy, right, and it's when you complete the circuit that the light goes off or the sound happens or whatever, you know, the air conditioning comes on. It is this point of connection.

12:44 And so that is why I use that verb because often we talk about potential like it's something out there, you're right, but it's here now. It's here now, and I think that's so powerful something we can do. Yes, then and again and again this is where we also align, Pam. Is it's about that activation. It's also about you know, summoning your own sense of agency and so releasing your own beautiful energies toward that aim. That's another connection point that we have. And I love that just what you. Described, I know, I feel like we've been just circling around waiting to connect. Well, and like I said, I think somebody you know did a brain meil between us but just failed to help both of us at that it actually took place.

13:29 But so you talked about, you know, your friend going through I mean, just listen, listen. Listening to the list of what your friend has gone through just is astounding to me. Again, I'm a loco therapist, so I'm present to the tremendous depth of power and strength that we have, you know, in our own human spirit, and that's always there to be able to be activated as well. And so, but I'm also really present to it in my own life, you know, the notion of struggle, challenge, adversity. I remember, I used to say a long time ago in my life I probably won't amount to very much because I really haven't been through very much, and so I'll probably just have a you know, a sort of a under the radar, average life kind of thing. I sort of I still feel that the need there's such value in struggling challenge, especially depending on how we relate to that. Now.

14:16 I've since had a fair number of struggles since that time. So I hope I've allowed myself to elevate a little bit beyond what I thought I could do back then. But you know this notion. I love what you say. You say, the reality of resilience is it only develops through difficulty or challenge. It's never while we're sitting on the couch eating bond bonds. Ever, there is no app for it. Sorry, you say. While we can connect potential in situations that aren't difficult or challenging, what I have found is that difficulty and challenge lead to the most powerful connections of potential. These situations develop our resilience muscles and result in lasting transformations in their impact. Here here so powerful, m h. And I think part of it is to you know, I'm known as a and I do say in the book, I actually don't like the labels of positive and negative and largely due to our this you know, toxic positivity culture that we find ourselves in right where we're constantly being bombarded with what's wrong with us while at the same time being told just put on that smile, right.

15:18 And so I shared that early in the book and continue that theme throughout because I want I want people to know that it's okay if sometimes things suck, and it's okay when things don't work out, and it's okay when you screw up, when I screw up, all of it, all of it. It's just part of the human experience. And it's not to deny that those difficulties exist. And quite honestly, it's not often not the big things that take us down. It's the little things over and over and over again. Yes, yes, right, And so it's not to like, you know, it's not to deny that those exist.

16:05 It is to recognize that they actually can be and often are the catalyst to our biggest learning. Like when I ask groups, what has been you know, your biggest learning, it's often they report it through some kind of real difficulty, Right, I understand. That's a lot of the work that I do too, My dear, Here we go again. Yeah, well, let's let our listeners and viewers reflect on maybe some of the things that maybe have been difficult in their lives as we go into our first break, and then after the break, we're going to get into your beautiful connect potential operating system, which is so compelling. So I'm your host, doctor Alice Cortez, We've been on the year with Pam August of the firm Connecting Potential, where she guys organizations, teams, and leaders to unlock the potential that is already there for transformational results.

16:53 We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise A. L Se at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

18:02 Thanks for starting with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor really Scortes, as I too, am dedicated to helping create a world where people realize their potential at work are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business that betters the world. I continue to continue to research and write my own books. So one of my last ones came in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven your business. And I really wrote it to help leaders understand the changed workforce, what is it that they actually want from you as an employer, and then I give you twenty two best practices to build into your culture to provide that for them. If you are just now joining us. My guest is Pam August. She's the author of Potential, how to Connect What's already there for exponential impact, which we've been talking about today. So just before the break, we teased up that we wanted to share and get you to talk about your model.

18:52 I really appreciate when people can create a model that conveys so much information and brings all the contents together. And you've done that in your connect Potential operating system. So can you first kind of just outline it? I, as you saw in our notes, I captured it for myself because I wanted to be able to keep and understand it, but kind of walk us through it, please, Pam. Yeah, so so just a clarifying question, do you want me to walk through like the whole macro? Yeah, start big, right, so that we can understand you know why, you know, how does how do the components hang together? And then we can talk through the pieces of it perfect perfect, and so yeah, it's it's actually one of the things in the book that I'm so grateful to my book because it was the catalyst for me to really synthesize what I call a life work of learning.

19:47 And then when it happened, it was one of those things that now it's become this core foundation that everything seems to connect to. So so what it is is and I'll kind of get into the elevator pitch for a moment, and then we can dive into elements. It's really the way I speak about it, it is one mindset shift from problem to potential. One operating system, which is us as human beings and our capacity to act, to feel, and to think, one core practice which is intend, notice, and move, and then three dimensions of exponential impact. Because what I found in my work and I'm sure you've found the very similar things. Is that working with thousands of people and hundreds of teams and organizations all over, is that this thing called potential lives simultaneously in three dimensions.

20:48 It lives within us as individuals, It lives between us in our relationships and teams, and it lives around us in this thing called culture and community. And because all three of those are connected to each other, if you influence any one of them, you actually influence every one of them. And so that's why I make this claim about exponential impact. Right. So again, it's one mindset shift, one operating system, one core practice, and three dimensions of impact. That's beautifully explained, very very very very crisp. Again, so what that also says, and I think I remember, I don't remember if you also were were a professor in the university system, were you? Yeah, I talked whole secondary for thirteen years. Yeah, yeah, I thought, I remember that I also have been a professor. And what I learned in that role is that, right, of course, that's what happened.

21:39 We ra issued the same way. Yeah. What I found is that when my students sent in their papers, the clarity of their writing indicated to me how much they understood the subject. When I got lost in their papers, I understood they didn't know what they were talking about. So this model really really signifies the strength of your own knowledge pan. It's very You're very welcome, it's very impressive, very tight. Thank you, I am yeah, yeah, thank you. That's all I've gotten that. Yeah, you know, you're welcome. So let's talk through this. Let's kind of dive through. We've already kind of handled, you know, the the the the mindset, from problem solving to potential. I love that you did break down this, you know, this idea of one opera system that we are, we do, act, feel and think. I think that's really important to understand those those pieces. I definitely want you to talk about, you know, the disconneated, disconnected operating system versus the connected one, because you distinguished those beautifully. But you tell me how it's how it's best to kind of really now start.

22:40 Well, I'll start with a fun little story. I think it's a fun story. I'll start with the story that hasn't happened yet, and then we'll go back and go through how fun is that? So so the fun story because I also do talk about in the book how we can time travel and. I loved that, by the way, I totally captured that. Yes, right, but we can't time travel in our bodies, at least not while we're recording this this you at this time. And so doctor Dan Siegel, who was a leading mind in mindfulness, and I had the opportunity to learn with him years ago in Toronto, and he's you know, I'm a fangirl. I view him as one of my mentors. So this is the future story. He's doing a mindfulness one day mindfulness workshop in Oxford in England. My husband and I are ridiculous fans of British crime drumas you're going to the UK because I mind up for his workshop. Well, of course i share his model in my book and I'm giving him a signed copy and so that's that is that's the future story, right. But tying it back though doctor Siegel so beautifully, and I encourage your listeners to look up his hand model of the brain because it's just such a simple, visceral way to know about our operating system, which basically we're designed super quick through our brainstem and all the accompanying and it's not as simple as I'm making it, but simple just to get the idea. We are designed for action first, and in fact, if we didn't move, we wouldn't even need a brain, right like, we are designed for action. Our operating system, meaning our brain, is part of a whole system that's

24:13 connected by the spinal cord. So we're designed for action first. We're designed for feeling second, which is the limbic system, which is literally the heart of the brain. And then we're designed to think last, which is the cortex. And on a good day, in a good moment, our operating system is connected. Our capacity and ability to act, feel, and think with energyes and effectiveness can happen. And I've got a joke, I can do Like you know, we're going through. Everything's going well. The reality is, though, the world is a challenging world. It's complex, it's complicated, it's uncertain, it's chaotic. It's it's all of these things and things happen that trigger us, that stress us, this wear us down.

24:57 And when that happens, as doctor Siegel puts it, we flip our and our ability to act, feel and think in an integrated Dan's words or connected my words way is gone. And so instead of energy ease, and effectiveness. We end up in states that I've identified as strain, swirl or stuck. And you know, again this is all like these these these these frames of energyes and effectiveness and strains, swirl, and stuck really come through a lot of my experiential learning, again working with thousands of people over years, and what I'm finding now and I'm testing as I'm doing my teaching and coaching and things like that, is when I ask people about to describe their state, it usually fits into one of those three things where they can move, but it's hard, they're strained, they're going a million miles an hour using a word that I don't use and I tell my readers not to use it starts with B right, or they end up in that place of stuck where they can't move right. So it's like we can move, but it hurts, we can't stop, or we can't move, and we've probably all had experiences of that. Whereas ease, well, energy is we're finished something and we actually feel energized by it. Ease is the thing's not easy necessarily, but our experience of it feels more easeful.

26:27 Yes. And then effectiveness is we can get it done, and we're always flipping between those two. I found myself just now in answering that question, catching one moment where I thought, my brain is whirling, breath out, Okay, we're back. It's beautiful, and it just it just it just really helps clarify, you know, where are you in this? And so that is that's the uh, that's the operating operation, can that's the acting. And I also found that fascinating that you that you aligned our different brains, you know, to acting, feeling and thinking. I think I knew that on some level, but that was so crisp. So that was really helpful to me, which then moves us in then to one practice intend, notice and move.

27:12 Yeah, and so where that came from is and and just you know, my book ended up being a real act of narrative nonfiction. That was not the book I planned to write. I planned to write a book that was more of a I would say, a clean how to MM And then the story I shared at the beginning was the catalyst for the storytelling in the book, and it really wanted to have to teach readers things that they could use. But then much more of my story ended up in the book. Than I had ever imagined, but it was what the book wanted so well. And nobody tells us when we when we start a book that books actually have their own personalities and sometimes their own agenda. Right, they don't tell us that, And so you get this surprise.

27:56 You know, as you're writing a book, I know what to mean. It started writing me. It was an incredible experience. And so. This, this model, this model framework of intent, notice and move really came from work I do in more the area of somatics and educational kinesiology, which is movement to help rewire our nervous system. I was an aerobics instructor a long time ago, and a bodybuilder and a yoga teacher and teach brain gym. So everything I do is always embodied. Then the reality is brains don't roll into the room. We all walk into our workplaces and we walk back into our homes as an embodied system. And so you know, the model of intent, notice and move is intended to be unintended, intended to be a dynamic because as human beings, we are dynamic systems. That intention setting intention primes our operating system to folks on where we want to go, who we want to be. The noticing part, the middle part of the framework recognizes the only place we can move from is where we are now, and if we don't notice our experience of now, we cannot be a choice about how we want to respond.

29:21 Right and then move is the thing that gets us from where we are or who we are being, to where we want to go or who we want to be. And in the book, I teach about actual physical movement, really focusing on the breath because it's our most powerful catalyst to regulate ourselves all the time. And then I do get into because I realized as I was doing this, Gosh, everything I do, whether I'm coaching a leader, working with teams, working as a culture strategist, teaching in the college system, it's always about here's where we want to go, Where are we now? What are the actions that we need to take to get there? Intend, notice, and move.

30:07 I think it's beautiful. And then you take us home and direct us through those three dimensions of exponential impact. Of course what you introduced ahead, and I think that's so powerful too, that last bit of your of your of your model. If you would take us through. That, Yeah, and I would say hmm gosh. So at least would you like me to take you through the parts or how the parts come together. Well, just this notion, just even what you did at the beginning, just to bring the whole thing together, right, because you know, this notion that you know it's within us, between us and around us is just really powerful when you turn on to that much potential. Yeah, so I would say, okay, yeah, so so it's it's it's one. So I think we've all had that experience right where we've had that experience where we're not feeling it. We walk into a meeting, they're not feeling it.

31:00 We leave the meeting, and everyone around us nothing, nobody's feeling it, right, Like, we get into that you know, that place, and then I think we've all had that experience where you come into a situation and there's someone or something something that happens between one person shows up with a lot of energy and potentiality, and they shift the dynamic that's happening in the relationships in that team. So people start talking to each other and then as a result of that, things out in the world that they're working in start to happen differently. And then they start coming back and they say, oh, well, this this thing happened. We made progress on this, and we made progress on that, and then that makes the team more cohesive, and then each member of that team feels more empowered as a member. It's I don't know if that did that get in.

32:03 No, that's absolutely beautiful. And now what that does is you've just put the whole thing together. Now, let's take our last break and let our listeners and kind of viewers think about how that system hangs DA because after the break, I want to talk about how we can optimize your system to enhance effectiveness and energy. But so let's let them think about this first while we take our last break. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We've had on the area with Pam August of the firm Connecting Potential, where she guys organizations, teams, and leaders to unlock the potential that is already there for transformation results. We've been going through her beautiful connect Potential operating system. She's now explained that to us. After the break, we're going to help you understand how to better optimize the system to enhance your own effectiveness and energy. We'll be right back, doctor Release courts As is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose.

33:31 This is Working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor e Release Cortes. I mentioned in the last break that my last book came out in March of twenty twenty three, The Greater Vitalization. What I did for you is I created a three page assessment that you can take off my Gusto Deshal site. It's free, and that will help you be able to identify where in your organization in terms of your culture that you're strong or where you might want to you want to shore some efforts up to actually get yourself into a place that meets the discerning needs of today's workforce.

34:19 If you are just joining us now, my guest is Pam August. She's the author of Potential, How to connect what's already there for exponential impact, which is what we've been talking about today. So now that we've explained that beautiful model here beautifully, now let's talk about how could people optimize the system to enhance their effectiveness and their energy? Yes, I knew. I knew this question. On the break, I was thinking about this. So I want to start. I want to start with this analogy. I guess we could. You know, I worked in the fitness industry, health and wellness. I was a nutritionist actually in a former life, remember yeah, but I didn't care what people ate, So it was a little bit of a career limiting move what interested in pos So anyway, but I worked in fitness for a long time. And so January January second, fitness clubs are full. January seventeenth, they're starting to empty out. And so here's the thing is, we can belong to the best workout facility, have the best equipment, best new runners, the best ergonomic leggings, the best trainer, and the best workout plan. If we do not do the reps, new muscles, do not run, that's it, right, Like, there's no shortcut to anything. It's just doing the practice of intent. So a way that that could look is I get up every morning and I ask myself, I say, what's a

35:51 word that captures how I want to show up today? Intent? Notice I check in, I check in, and I notice how I'm I know, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? What's my physical experience like right now? Move? What's the one thing I need to do to start my day to move me closer to how I want to show up and how I intend to be. That's an example, right, and so it's the same thing before coming on this radio show, I asked myself, how do I want to show up? How am I now? What's the thing that I need to do? And what often shows up? Which is why I teach it in my book in a number of different ways, is our breath is our most powerful tool to connect our potential. We're already doing it when we do it intentionally. It's in fact, it's the only autonomic body process that we can do consciously as well. That's how powerful it is. And so one of my favorite mantras is I breathe in, I am ready, breathe out, I'm relaxed, because the in breath gets us ready for action, the sympathetic nervous system. The outbreath lets us know we're safe and we can relax in action, which is the pair sympathetic nervous system. So I would really, you know, I tell my readers for

37:22 twenty one days. You know, in twenty one is probably not even the right number, but it's a place to start. Is you know, every day, three times a day, set an intention before you go into a meeting. How do you want to show up before you're having that conversation with your child for the fifth time in the month, how do you want to show up? Notice how you are now? And what I find and I've found this a lot is we like to skip the notice part because it's the reality is we're not going to be in alignment with our intention. Usually that's why we said it, and people, you know, we don't like that. It makes us uncomfortable. But the great thing about that discomfort. Is it actually gives us the energy to move?

38:07 Yes. Yes, And the reality is it's already happening. If we don't notice it, all we can do is continue reacting unconsciously. Once we notice our current state, like me coming on this interview. You know, I do a lot of speaking and a lot of interviews and a lot of conversations. Every single time I feel nervous, right, and so it's important to notice that and then say, so what do I need to do to show up the way I want to show up, which is clear and connecting. And so that noticing really is a superpower, especially in today's highly distracted world. And then that move, if you do nothing else, just focusing on your breath.

38:56 Where you lost your sounds a little bit, maybecome closer to your computer. Yeah, we got that, I think. Okay, So that was beautiful, just beautiful. You know, just a couple of weeks ago, now, we had Finny and Kelly on the program, and he was talking very much about breath work, and he's in Denver, and he really taught us a lot about the power of breath work. I'm guessing that if just a couple of our listeners and viewers are just heard you explain that you want them to do this, you know, check in process. Three times a day. We're quinn, I could maybe do it once, but three sounds like a lot. But we've had other people on the program also giving very very similar advice. Three times a day is the is an important number. Can you maybe say a bit more about why three times a day? Three? Three is really a magic number? And and you know three like I'll I'll just ask listeners right now to finish this silently in their heads, finish these statements location, location, earthwind and right, blood, sweat and lights, camera action right.

39:59 Three is a magic number. And I found out through Google research that one of the reasons three is such a powerful number. It's the smallest unit that forms a pattern. Right if we go we're waiting for the third like one two three one two three one two three, It is a powerful pattern former. And so that's why we all, that's why number three three shows up so often in everything, because it's sticky. Right now, having said that, if three times in one day is way too much, make it three times a week. Make it a Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

40:41 Maybe make it a Monday, a Monday, Friday and a Sunday, right. Right, just start exactly get emotion, Yes, just start. And honestly it's you know, what's what. We'll get to this later. But what's the one thing? Right? The three is a powerful number, you know. I so appreciate that. And the other thing, there are so many things about your book too that we could deal deeper into some of the stuff that I had planned to cover. I feel like you already did, but one thing I definitely wanted to speak more too, because increasingly this program has evolved so much over the nine and a half years i've been hosting it, but I find myself really getting really interested in neuroscience. And I really liked how you explain how you are connecting the potential operating system starts by looking at the brain and then really recognizing how that interaction takes place. So you say in the book about you starting to notice, you say, the operating system is much more than above the ears brain, and then you go on to say that neuroscience clearly shows that the human brain is part of a dynamic, interconnected system and the whole body via the nervous system, and you say, the neurons, the cells that make up the nervous system are found throughout the body. So when you hear things like trust your gut, or go with your trust your heart, or go with your gut, there is an actual scientific basis for that, and I think it's fascinating. So if you could maybe say a bit more help our listeners and viewers really understand this notion

42:13 of this interconnected brain, well. Oh gosh, I mean so the simplest example is people we say things, I need to sleep on it, I need to go get some fresh air to clear my head. We know that if we go for a walk and move our bodies, we can actually think more clearly. We feel better after being in nature, going to the gym. I'll really hone into to one specific thing that I'm becoming I'm learning much more about these days, and that's the vagus nerve. Yes, yes, and so the vegus nerve is a nerve that really runs, you know, from our trunk all the way through our whole system up up into our brain. And the vagus nerve is a powerful app evator when it's regulating properly of our para, sympathetic, our rest, and digest nervous system. And so one of the things I learned recently in a program I was taking called the Neuroscience of Coaching, is that we and as a yoga teacher, I always tell my students to belly breathe, you know, breathe deeply. Well, one of the things that happens when we breathe deeply is we actually put pressure on the vagus nerve that helps to tone it, which is why it's so calming. Right, there are more nerve impulses going from the gut to the brain than the brain to the gut. Right. And so if our body, if our body, our brain below our ears is our

43:46 sensory input system for our environment. All of our senses. I mean, we do have sight and hearing that's above the ears, But all of the tactile things, the pro preceptors, the things that let us know where we are in space, touch, feel, sensation, all of those things come in through these channels that are embodied in the body. Channels. They go to our brain. Our brain then uses past experience and future prediction to say, oh, these signals tell me this thing, So now this is the action I need to take. And these happen in milliseconds and so then what happens is signals then go back into the body where we take action. Right, So that again that intending starts us in this above the year brain. The noticing when we notice what we're thinking, feeling, and experiencing, takes us into the whole system and then move, whether it's physical action or more action like I have, this conversation again becomes a whole body thing. And I recently learned from Oh gosh, I'm going to forget Amanda's last name, Amanda Blake. Amanda Blake, your body is your brain.

45:03 And I love what she said here because I'm a strong proponent and have been for decades of experiential learning. Right that we have to experience something, we need to be able to observe and reflect on it, we need to be able to conceptualize it somehow, and then we need to actively experiment with it in order for learning to be complete. And she goes as far to say that sustained change and transformation must be experienced and embodied. Otherwise it's just conceptual perception, is what she calls it, or what I call it, just an interesting idea. That's so powerful. The body is the vehicle with which we experience the world and with which we act on our experience, and it's part of an interconnected system.

45:54 Well, and that goes back to your first career. All the more reason that we need to take really good care of this special I often think about the body, you know, especially when we're thinking about how we're so different. You know, I was issued this body. I didn't have any say in the matter, but so you know, I was issued this thing, and this is my my my vehicle to experience life. And so part of what I'm aware of is taking good care of it, giving it good food and exercise and rest and different experiences. So just all the more reason that you're really painting the picture of why to keep that strong and vital well. And us being strong and vital. If we come back to the three dimensions, how we show up as impact absolutely wired to mirror each other. We're wired to qan sense and react or respond. And so you you said it when when we jumped on, Oh, I love you know, I love your energy, right, I love your energy. And it's it's it becomes this thing that this is where when we say this, you need to show up. So what is it to show up? We need to show up in a way that we can bring our energy, that we can move with ease and we can be effective.

47:08 How might we do that? I propose its intend, notice and move right? How do we do that as individuals? There's a variety of different ways. How do we do it in teams? It's very similar, right, you know, as a team? How do we want to be as a team. How do we want to show up? How do we know that we are working as a team. What do we notice about our team right now? Oh? We notice we're in silos. What's the action that we need to take. We need to come together? Right? We use the language of movement even when we're talking about things that are more cognitive. So true. Okay, so that was a beautiful Come to the close here, Pamita already, because the show goes by so fast.

47:51 It's really a good conversation. So let me give you a chance to close the conversations you like, you know that this show is listening to our people around the world. They care either about elevating their own exp p of work and realizing more of their own potential. They're trying to become a better leader. They care about building a powerful effective culture always you like to leave them with. I knew you were going to ask me this specific questions, and now I'm going what do I want them to know? There's so many things. I think what I want listeners to know is wherever you are right now is exactly where you need to be because it's where you are right and the only place that we can move from is where we are now. So just take a moment and notice you know, where are you now as an individual?

48:42 Where are you now as a team? Where are you now as an organization, as a parent, as a partner, as a friend. Ask yourself how an alignment is where I am now with how I intend or want to be, and what's one action I can take to move integrate our life? It beautiful way to finish well, beautiful way to finish, new friend, Thank you so much for being on working on purpose and sharing your heart, thinking soul with with with me and listeners and viewers. It is wonderful to know you, to learn from you, and we remain connected. Thank you, Pam grateful, Thank you listeners and viewers. You're going to want to learn more about Pam August and stay connected with her as well about including learning more about the work she does it Connecting Potential, or learn more about her new book, or get your own copy.

49:30 It's called Potential how to connect what's already there for exponential impact. So one thing that you could do, she's just doing a little cheerleading stand. One thing that you could do is go to her website to start. It's Connectingpotential dot c because she's in Canada Connectingpotential dot ca A. You can also find her very easily on LinkedIn and encourage you to open that conversation. Last week, you've missed the live show, you can always catch it via recorded podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. We were on with James Keys, the former CEO of seven to eleven in block Buster. He has had a lifetime commitment of education, serving as a founding director of the Dallas Education Foundation and is the founder of the Education Is Freedom Foundation. He's also the author of Education Is Freedom The Future Is in Your Hands, which is what we talked about.

50:15 It was an incredibly inspiring conversation which in fact we plan to bring back on a future day because there was so much we still wanted to discuss. Next week will be on with Hunter Hastings talking about his new book Aberrant Capitalism, The Decay and Revival of Customer Capitalism, which shares the journey of how entrepreneurial capitalism evolved in the world in US, where it began its downfall, and the promise of yet another emergent era now in the corporations in the digital age. See you there, and remember work as one of the best means and realize ways of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.