Soulful Impact with Brooks Barron (Brooks Barron)
Explore every episode of Soulful Impact with Brooks Barron
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jun 2024 | Welcome to the Soulful Impact Podcast (Intro episode) | 00:28:05 | |
In this introductory episode, I share about the philosophical orientation and purpose of this podcast: To explore a new definition of impact. Perhaps our greatest potential for making positive impact comes not by focusing exclusively on external results and trying to control ourselves and the world to be a certain way, but instead from paying close attention to the place within ourselves from which our actions arise — holding clear and uncompromising intention while simultaneously trusting and surrendering to whatever emerges from the deepest truth within ourselves. I suggest that Soulful Impact is what we create when we remember, embody and trust that deeper truth inside. This episode lays the groundwork for the podcast as an ongoing exploration of that possibility. In the second half of the episode, I share my own personal story in vulnerable and rich detail. My hopes in sharing my story in this way are: * Help you get to know me on a soul level * Share the context and motivation behind my passion for Soulful Impact * Offer an example that you might relate to in some way, thereby inspiring your own deeper exploration of connecting with soul and pursuing Soulful Impact. Enjoy! -Brooks Links & Resources Watch this episode on YouTube Connect with Brooks on LinkedIn, Instagram and X Soulful Impact: www.soulfulimpact.co * Get newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to Soulful Impact on Substack Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe | |||
| 27 Jun 2024 | Experiencing the Deepest Truth of What You Already Are with Jim Dethmer | 01:11:31 | |
Jim Dethmer is Co-Founder of The Conscious Leadership Group, one of the most successful and sought-after executive coaches in the world, and one of my closest and most treasured mentors. In this conversation, I get Jim’s take on the meaning of soul and what it might look like to create Soulful Impact in our lives. Jim is incredibly skilled at distilling deep wisdom into practical and relatable terms, which is part of why I thought he’d be a perfect first guest on this podcast. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about Jim is his radiant, wise and loving presence. In this episode, we explore how that gift — the Soulful Impact that just naturally flows from him as he embodies the deepest truth of his own being — has been cultivated and earned through intense life experience. Jim opens up about his prior life chapter as an evangelical Christian minister, which despite making him quite successful and somewhat of a celebrity figure within that world, wasn’t deeply aligned with his soul. Jim reflects how the failure of that path was a result of looking outside himself to find something that can only be discovered from within. Jim’s humility is truly inspiring — I once heard him say “I don’t think I’ve ever had a single original thought” — and yet I experience him as one of the most powerful, skilled and empowering leaders I’ve ever known. This episode is a delicious exploration into the deeper truth of who and what we really are, how life conspires in support of us waking up to that deeper truth, and how we can orient ourselves to live from that truth — with joy, gratitude and awe — each and every day. -- Links & Resources Watch this episode on YouTube Connect with Brooks on LinkedIn, Instagram and X Soulful Impact: www.soulfulimpact.co Get newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe on Substack The Conscious Leadership Group: www.conscious.is Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe | |||
| 01 Aug 2024 | True Initiations, Modern Addiction and Awakened Recovery w/ Alex Olshonsky | 01:38:01 | |
Alex Olshonsky is the philosopher and writer behind the popular Substack newsletter Deep Fix. He’s also the Co-Founder of Natura Care Programs (a novel non-profit harnessing psychedelics to support addiction recovery), a somatic therapist, and an executive coach. Most recently, Alex is the creator of Life Not Wasted, an awesome online course which charts a path for all of us to enjoy a fulfilling life free from modern addictions. Alex (known by his friends as “Olo”) knows a thing or two about addiction. As an ambitious and anxious twenty-something pursuing a sexy tech career in San Francisco, he fell into severe drug addiction that nearly cost him his life. In this episode, Olo and I dig deep into what that experience was like for him, how he found his way through, and how — somewhat incredibly — that harrowing journey ultimately bore the fruits of what I now see as his soul’s incredible gifts. Olo reflects at the end of the interview that it was one of the deepest conversations he’s ever had about the intricacies of his story. Through the lens of Alex’s story, he and I explore the seemingly innate human longing for initiation, what makes a true initiation, and how our souls can find their way into initiation even in the absence of support and guidance from our mainstream culture. We discuss Alex’s view on the phenomenon he calls “modern addiction” — essentially, the somewhat ubiquitous experience in modern life of losing ourselves into any number of (often tech-enabled) distractions and dopamine loops that pull us into a negative cycle of reciprocally narrowing our experience and ourselves. Alex points out the reality that in this day in age, it’s much less of a question of whether or not you are an addict, and more of a question of where you fall on the addiction spectrum. He also offers his take on how we can find our way out of the negative cycle of modern addiction — a path he calls “awakened recovery.” In essence, by adopting ways of seeing and being that bring us deeper into the present moment and a fuller experience of our truest selves, we can unfold into a positive cycle of reciprocal opening that leads us to a profoundly fulfilling, clear, and beautiful experience of modern life. Last but not least, this episode was recorded on the eve of Alex crossing the threshold into becoming a father. The serendipity of that timing was not lost on either of us, and I'm so excited to welcome him — and all his hard-earned wisdom and love — into the family of fathers across the globe. I deeply enjoyed this conversation, and found it enlightening and expansive. I hope you do, too. -- Links & Resources * Watch this episode on YouTube * Connect with Brooks on LinkedIn, Instagram and X * Soulful Impact: soulfulimpact.co * Alex’s website: deepfix.co * Alex’s Substack: deepfix.substack.com * Life Not Wasted online course: lifenotwasted.org * Natura Care Programs: naturacareprograms.org -- Get newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to Soulful Impact on Substack Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe | |||
| 22 Aug 2024 | Why Soul Is More Important Now Than Ever Before w/ Scott Britton | 01:08:48 | |
Watch this episode on YouTube. Welcome to Soulful Impact, a newsletter and podcast exploring a new definition of impact. My guest on today’s episode is Scott Britton. Scott was a co-founder of Troops, a successful tech startup that was acquired by Salesforce in 2022. He’s now the author of a popular newsletter called Consciousness: The Doorway to Human Evolution and the host of the Evolution.FM Podcast. Scott’s deeper story is that while he was finding traditional success with his startup, he was also undergoing a process of spiritual awakening that, in his own words, felt sometimes like a living hell. Since coming through that awakening journey, Scott has committed himself to helping other high-achieving entrepreneurial folks find the synergy between their calling to spiritual growth and their desire to build and accomplish meaningful things in modern day life. He’s recently been building an awesome community for entrepreneurs on the spiritual path, which is part of how he and I first connected. Scott and I discuss in practical terms how to connect with and be guided by our souls, why it’s perhaps more important to do so now than ever before, and how we can find our own way to a resonant connection with soul that’s characterized by empowerment and unconditional love — as opposed to the orientation of control and shame that so often permeates many aspects of modern day religion. Another favorite part of this conversation for me was digging in with Scott around his idea of impact. As two Princeton grads who have found our way to the spiritual path, it was fun to compare notes and explore the possibility that, as Scott puts it, “it’s damn near impossible to have the maximum impact if you’re not in alignment with your soul.” Last but not least, Scott closes out this episode with some very on-point and helpful advice around how to navigate some of the more challenging aspects of the spiritual journey, such as dark nights of the soul, learning to let go, and surrendering into trust. Please enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think! -Brooks -- Links & Resources * Follow Brooks on Instagram or LinkedIn * Soulful Impact: soulfulimpact.co * Scott’s Newsletter: blog.scottbritton.me * Scott’s Podcast: Evolution.FM * Connect with Scott on X (Twitter): @britton -- Get newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to Soulful Impact on Substack Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe | |||
| 09 Oct 2024 | The Somatics of Soul w/ Franziska Gonder | 01:27:57 | |
Watch this episode on YouTube. Our bodies might be the most powerful and important tool we have as human beings when it comes to the journey of remembering our deeper truth and living in alignment with our souls. In modern culture, which is still largely dominated by the ego, we are often conditioned to create a really unhealthy relationship with our bodies. We see our bodies as limited, we criticize them and wish they were different. We experience their needs as inconvenient and contrary to what we need to get done or how we think we should be. We get confused between the genuine needs of our bodies, which can be met the vast majority of the time, and the insatiable needs of our egos. It’s not our bodies that drive us into unhealthy behavior like overeating and addiction. Those are the ego’s doing — and then our bodies get stuck in habit and inertia as they attempt to adapt. Learning to listen to and follow the genuine needs and deeper knowing of our bodies can be a long road when we’ve spent most or all of our lives ignoring or working against them. But it is so incredibly worth it. Because a clear relationship with a healthy body is a dynamite connection to our intuition. When we learn to listen and develop healthy relationship, our bodies become divine tuning forks that we can use to navigate everything from practical decisions in everyday life to the mysterious calling of our souls. My guest on today’s episode is a master of this terrain. Franziska Gonder is an executive and somatic leadership coach to high-performing founders, CEOs, investors and elite political operatives. She is recognized around the world as a leading voice on the intersection between somatics and leadership. Like just about anyone I know who has developed a strong connection to soul and a genuine capacity for somatically-attuned leadership, Franzi’s wisdom was initially earned the hard way. In her particular case, it was the unexpected death of her father that interrupted her unrelenting young-professional achievement drive, forced her to face how burned out she really was, and ultimately gave her the opportunity to connect fully with her body and begin a deep healing journey. In this episode, Franzi and I unpack what that experience was really like for her, and how it informs the powerful leader, coach and mentor she is today. Franzi offers the compelling reflection that Soulful Impact creates success on a wholistic level, while narrower versions of impact are likely to include negative side effects. One of the most inspiring moments in this episode for me was the opportunity to talk to Franzi about the journey of parenting. Her level of attunement to her kids — a natural outcome of her own somatic journey and awareness — is nothing short of remarkable. She shares how that has allowed her family to navigate a journey of healing that goes beyond what is currently explainable by science. — Links & Resources * Follow Brooks on Instagram or LinkedIn * Soulful Impact: soulfulimpact.co * Franzi’s website: franziskagonder.com * Franzi’s Substack: Leadership That Heals The World * Follow Franzi on LinkedIn or Twitter/X * If you like this episode and want to hear more from these two, check out Franzi’s interview with Brooks on her podcast from last year — Get newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to Soulful Impact on Substack Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe | |||