Conscious Enterprises

Dr. Karuna Sabnani treats disease with modalities beyond conventional medication – she believes that optimum health can be achieved through approaches that value what nature has to offer, herbalism, contemplation, and most notably, feeding your senses. As a speaker and teacher of the principles of pleasure, Dr. Karuna is a naturopathic doctor with a deep understanding of holistic health.

I feel a personal appreciation for her work because I have found that my own journey back to wellness has depended on fostering a more nature-centric approach to life and an awareness that “consumption” is a lot more than what you eat. Dr. Karuna’s work validates all of this for me.

We discuss so much in this conversation, including naturopathic vs conventional healthcare, pleasure as medicine, and some great wellness tips to get you through the holiday season.

Click here to listen on Spotify

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• Founder of Karuna Naturopathic Healthcare

  • Natural & Naturopathic Medicine Expert

  • http://www.karunanaturopathic.com/

• Creator of The Real Detox + Pleasure Rx

• Dr. Karuna at Conscious Enterprises panel event at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen

• What exactly is Naturopathic & Ayurvedic medicine? How does it differ from conventional medicine?

• Some issues that Dr. Karuna sees with conventional medicine today and how Ayurvedic principles fill these gaps?

• How Dr. Karuna got into medicine

• Pleasure and “pleasure as medicine”

• The connection between Pleasure and Purpose?

• How business leaders can utilize an understanding of pleasure to improve their business

• The difference between pleasure-seeking or instant gratification type pleasure VS sustainable pleasure or “fulfillment”

• Everyone is concerned with COVID and health these days - how Dr. Karuna thinks the pandemic is affecting our ability to reach optimum wellness

• Wellness tips for professionals working from home these days

• Holiday advice from Dr. Karuna  

• Dr. Karuna’s measure of “success” 

• How Dr. Karuna sees the world evolving 10 years from now

• Valuable advice you for professionals and entrepreneurs

Dr. Karuna Sabnani is founder of Karuna Naturopathic Healthcare. She works virtually with patients internationally.  

She has been on national television networks including The Dr. Oz show. Her advice has appeared in a variety of publications including Cosmopolitan, Business Insider, Yoga Journal, Martha Stewart, and Allure Magazines.

Dr. Karuna applies Ayurvedic philosophy, and the healing power of nature with her patients. For over 15 years, patients have come to Dr. Sabnani to learn how to get a lean body, restful sleep, restored energy, clear skin, strong digestion and stress reduction.  They often feel a sense of ease, balance and health after following Dr. Sabnani’s suggestions. 

She works with patients nationally + internationally.  She has been the health and beauty advisor to supermodel IMAN’S company, Iman Cosmetics. She has been a writer for The Huffington Post and her advice has been sought after in Cosmo, Yoga Journal and Allure Magazines. 

She speaks worldwide about the importance of beauty + pleasure in Wellness.  She launched the PLEASURE RX course and the Five Sense Experience in 2019. 

 www.karunanaturopathic.com

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Facebook

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Rian Doris is the co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Flow Research Collective, studying, deconstructing and training peak performance and flow states for leaders.

Alongside 8X Nationally Best-Selling Author Steven Kotler (one of the world’s leading speakers, researchers and authors in neuroscience and peak performance), Rian has drawn from his own personal challenges with mental health and performance to create the science-based approach in their research and training.

I’m especially thrilled to have connected with Rian and the Flow Research Collective because they are boosting the evolution of leadership by training leaders to understand their own brains on a neurobiological, psychological and chemical level.

Rian shares an abundance of useful resources in this conversation, linked below, but most notably, be sure to check out his TEDx Talk, Why Hustle Doesn’t Lead to Success. It’s a goodie:)

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

• Co-Founder & COO, Flow Research Collective

• TEDx Talk:

  • Why Hustle Doesn’t Lead to Success:

• Rian’s background and a childhood dealing with a head injury growing up in Ireland

• Motivation and interest in personal development, philosophy, consciousness, flow states and peak performance

• Tony Robbins

• Rian’s educational background in Philosophy and Masters Degree in Applied Neuroscience

• Keith Ferazzi & Never Eat Alone

• Thought leaders who brought mindfulness to the west:

  • Dr. Dan Siegel ,

  • Jon Kabat Zinn ,

  • Jack Kornfield

• Steven Kotler & Stealing Fire

  • (all of you interested in this conversation should read this book!)

• Steven Kotler’s rigorous scientific approach to flow

• Peter Diamandis

• How Rian went from an admiring fan to business partner with Steven Kotler

• How Rian’s struggles with mental health and performance due to his brain injury has helped him understand and connect to the work at the Flow Research Collective so deeply

• What is “Flow”? 

• How flow effects performance, wellbeing, creativity, learning, happiness, etc.

• Martin Seligman, father of positive psychology

• Training consciousness shifts into flow

• 22 Flow Triggers to access flow states

• Certain activities that inherently induce flow

• Flow Cycle

• Herb Benson & The Breakout Principle

• Flow Blockers

• Best strategies to remove blockers before building triggers

• Rian’s personal flow triggers and strategies for eliminating distraction

• “Knowledge Work” – flow follows focus

• “Flow Hygiene” – priming your system - how nutrition, exercise, sleep and general wellness influence flow states

• Social support is as crucial as food physiologically and psychologically

• How business leaders can utilize flow states to increase performance or maximize their impact

• Mihai Csikszentmihalyi – “The Godfather of Flow Psychology”

• Group Flow:

  • “Yes, and….”

  • Vulnerability

  • Risk

  • Familiarity

  • Equal Participation

  • Shared Goals

  • Close Listening

  • Efficient Operations

• The dark side of flow

• Flow Strategy: identifying your process of getting into flow

• Hacks for professionals working from home

• Dopamine & Norepinephrine

• Dropping cognitive load

• Environmental boundaries vs time boundaries

• Transition Rituals

• Breathwork vs Mindfulness

• James Nestor & Breath

• Rian’s TED Talk – “Why Hustle Doesn’t Lead to Success”

• Rian explains why hustle doesn’t lead to success from the perspective of effort and productivity

• Maximizing output from the least amount of input – “doing more with less”

  • Strategic timing

  • Delegating effectively

  • Elimination

• Productivity declines after 35 hours per week

• McKenzie Study

• Rian’s definition of success and how he measures himself on success

• Earl Nightingdale

• How Rian sees the world evolving 10 years from now and how he sees himself contributing to it

• The Future is Faster Than You Think

• Valuable advice from Rian for entrepreneurs and professionals

• What happens in the brain during sleep 

• Dr. Andrew Huberman – Board of Directors, Flow Research Collective

• Yoga Nidra for sleep

Rian Doris is the Co-Founder & COO at the Flow Research Collective, a research and training institute focused on decoding the neuroscience of flow states and training leaders to achieve peak performance.

Rian lives at the intersection of entrepreneurship and academia—from starting his first business at age 18 to studying Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin and an MSc in Applied Neuroscience at King's College, London.

 On the academic side, Rian has lead research initiatives with Imperial College London, University of Southern California, the University of Zurich and Deloitte.

 On the entrepreneurial side, Rian has worked intimately with numerous world-leading experts in peak performance such as Keith Ferrazzi, Dr. Dan Siegel, and Steven Kotler, his partner at Flow Research Collective.

 Rian has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, TedX and Big Think.

WORK-LIFE AFTER COVID:

Wondering how to stay healthy and sane as we emerge out of our stay-at-home orders?

In this live-feed episode from Conscious Enterprises’ instagram account (@conscious.enterprises), we discuss challenges, shifts and precautions that businesses and professionals are making during times of global pandemic, as well as valuable tips to keep your immune system strong during these bizarre times.

Dr. Rafatjah shares with us her own personal experiences as a business owner during quarantine before providing many useful tips to stay healthy, sane and fit. She also advocates for regenerative farming techniques.

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

Dr. Soyona Rafatjah is a board-certified Family Medicine physician and Co-Founder and Medical Director of PrimeHealth. Dr. Rafatjah is passionate about helping her patients reach their health goals. She helps them to address the root cause of their issues and focuses on disease prevention in addition to treatment. With the knowledge and tools she gives them, her patients feel in control of their own health.

Through an intimate, patient-physician partnership, and a whole-body approach, she and her patients develop a personalized treatment plan which adjusts to their needs and environment over time.

• PrimeHealth

• Home Exercise Equipment:

  • resistance bands

  • kettlebells

  • pull up bars

• Desk Elliptical

  • Cubii

• Standing Desk

  • Uplift

• Regenerative Farming

  • Corner Post Meats

  • White Oak Pastures

  • Wild Pastures

  • US Wellness Meats

  • Vital Choice (fish)

• Supplements:

  • Online Store

What makes a person influential in an age of distrust? Advertising and marketing master, Jason Harris has cracked the code and shares his introspective principles and character-building habits in his bestselling book, The Soulful Art of Persuasion.

Jason Harris is the co-founder and CEO of Mekanism, a creative agency serving brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, OK Cupid and HBO. He’s also founded the Creative Alliance, a consortium of 100 ad agencies using their advertising powers for good by creating socially impactful campaigns. Under his leadership, Mekanism was named to Ad Age’s Agency A-list, twice to their Best Places to Work, and to the Creativity 50. Jason has been named in the Top 10 Most Influential Social Impact Leaders as well as the 4A’s list of “100 People Who Make Advertising Great.” His methods are studied in cases at Harvard Business School.

Some highlights from this conversation include Jason’s career and challenges in advertising, his work for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, seeking fulfillment, why he founded the Creative Alliance, how he learned to become “soulfully persuasive”, how Jason measures success and valuable advice for professionals and entrepreneurs.

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

• Co-Founder & CEO of Mekanism

  • Alaska Airlines, Ben & Jerry’s, OkCupid, HBO, MillerCoors, Peloton, The United Nations

• Co-Founder of the Creative Alliance

• Global Board of Directors, Advertising Week

• Board of Directors, United Nations Social Impact Leadership Council

• Author, The Soulful Art of Persuasion

• Jason’s upbringing and how he got into advertising

• A first job working for Miller Coors

• Attributes that make a successful CEO

• The type of corporate culture that makes an agency thrive

• Retaining talent

• The United Nations Social Impact Leadership Council

• Sustainable Development Goals

• Why Jason founded The Creative Alliance

• Using advertising powers for good

• Working with the Obama-Biden administration on social good campaigns

• Using advertising powers for good

• Why Jason wrote The Soulful Art of Persuasion

• How to get organized to write a book

• The four main principles in The Soulful Art of Persuasion

• How Jason has transformed into authenticity and vulnerability and learned to embody the principles of becoming soulfully persuasive over the course of two decades

• How to train yourself to become more generous

• Misconceptions about empathy

• Jason’s definition of empathy and why it’s so valuable in persuasion

• Why you should use positive persuasion when negative persuasion can be so effective

• Axe Body Spray

• Conscious Enterprises at Advertising Week panel

• Meditation takes many forms

• Jason’s morning routine

• Gratitude journaling with kids

• Jason’s measure of his success professionally vs personally

• New Group Therapy

• The evolution of purpose-driven work

• Mind-body connections

• Valuable advice for professionals

  
  

Jason Harris is the CEO of the award-winning creative agency Mekanism and the cofounder of the Creative Alliance. Harris works closely with brands through a blend of soul and science to create provocative campaigns that engage audiences. Iconic brands include Peloton, Ben & Jerry’s, MillerCoors, HBO, and the United Nations. Under his leadership, Mekanism was named to Ad Age’s Agency A-list, twice to their Best Places to Work, and to the Creativity 50. Harris has been named in the Top 10 Most Influential Social Impact Leaders, as well as the 4A’s list of “100 People Who Make Advertising Great.” His methods are studied in cases at Harvard Business School.

If you want some reassurance that big corporations and major luxury brands are leading the evolution of business, this episode is for you. Hannah Bronfman is the Director of Sustainability & Impact for all the Starwood Hotels & Resorts properties, including the 1 Hotels and the Baccarat Hotels. She has a zest for her work and an expertises that is incomparable.

As a passionate proponent of luxury and consciousness coexisting, I have always had a special admiration for brands like 1 Hotels in particular. If you’ve ever had the pleasure at staying at one of their properties, dining at one of their sustainable or zero-waste restaurants, or perhaps even attending a Conscious Enterprises LIVE event at one of their locations, you know that the ambiance exudes luxury, while holding an equally prominent respect to nature. And this exquisite balance that they have struck clearly comes from deep within the company and their leadership.

If there’s one thing that is apparent, by the sheer existence of this role and this perfectly suited impact-maker, about their CEO, Barry Sternlicht and his SH Group, it’s that he clearly understands that making an impact on the world externally comes from cleaning up his internal systems and processes within the organization. And that’s exactly what Hannah seems to live to do.

In this conversation we discuss Hannah’s fine tuned training in green buildings, engineering  and environmentally minded city planning, the global definition of sustainability vs a personal definition of sustainability, waste management, bedtime stories and how the world is evolving.

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

• Director of Sustainability & Impact for SH Group:

  • Starwood Hotels & Resorts (1 Hotels & Baccarat Hotel)

• Teaches at Columbia University about green buildings

• Background in program implementation on corporate real estate and hospitality

• Trained as an Engineer

• 10 years of experience as a sustainability and green buildings expert

• Hannah’s fine tuned training for green buildings in cities

• What appeals to Hannah about environmental planning

• From Portland to NYC

• How New York City compares to other cities in sustainability

• Sustainability by a global definition VS personal definition

• The initiatives Hannah is working on to keep the 1 Hotels and SH Group properties sustainable and impactful

• Waste Management

• Some things that the average person within a corporation or the average business can do to make themselves more impactful or sustainable

• Balancing the scales of luxury and sustainability

• Barry Sternlicht

• LEED Certification

• Low VOC paints (volatile organic compound)

• Why running is just as much for mental health as physical health

• Calm app for meditation

• Bedtime stories

• How Hannah measures success

• Using metrics to measure a team’s accomplishments

• Being obsessed with waste

• Misfits Market

• Hannah’s view of a world evolution towards simplification

• Valuable advice for professionals committed to impact, sustainability and consciousness

Hannah Bronfman is the Director of Impact and Sustainability for SH Group. Hannah has over 10 years of experience as a sustainability and green building expert, including a background in program implementation and communications with a special focus on corporate real estate and hospitality. She has worked with organizations to incorporate sustainability across their business practices, from corporate-level initiatives and policies to building-portfolio management.

In her role, Hannah works with our property and corporate teams to enhance our sustainability strategy, implement new programs, and ensure that our sustainable business and building strategies bolster the 1 Hotels brand.

Hannah joined SH Group from WSP USA (formerly YR&G) where she was the Director of the Corporate Sustainability Team. Key clients included Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Tishman Speyer, The Dust Organization, and the US Green Building Council. Prior to WSP, Hannah held technical positions within MEP engineering firms, working specifically on green building design and operations of buildings. Hannah is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University teaching courses on sustainable construction management.

Hannah holds a bachelor’s degree in General Science and Geography from the University of Oregon. Additionally, she studied visual communications at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts.

Imagine if happiness was not just your personal mission in life, but you made it your career goal to spread happiness. Arnaud Collery is not just an expert in happiness, but is living this mission to make happiness a profession and a system in businesses and organizations. After a diverse career in finance, acting and film, Arnaud found his fulfillment by indoctrinating Chief Happiness Officers across the globe. Beyond teaching programs that create sustainable happiness for leaders and organizations, Arnaud is also reaching the masses through his event series, Standup for Passion. His TedX talks are a must-watch if you are interested in how we can begin to make happiness a measurable value for businesses and society.

At the time of filming this interview, Arnaud was living in NYC, but has since moved back to Bordeaux as he continues international events.

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

• Founder of Standup for Passion

• Global Chief Happiness Officer

• CEO of Kikai Mining (Happiness Innovation Agency)

• Leadership Coach & Team Building Trainer

• Author, “Mr. Happiness”

• TedX Speaker:

  • Ted X Lille "La passion, le moteur de notre vie" April 2018

  • Ted X Maastricht. "Share your story before you die!" November 2016

  • Ted X Aruba. "What is a Chief Happiness Officer" September 2015.

• Comedian, Actor, Artist

• Arnaud’s extraordinarily international life, beginning in Champagne

• Where Arnaud believes needs the most happiness work

• The personal tragedy in Arnaud’s personal life that was the catalyst for him becoming so engrossed in happiness

• The least and most fulfilling parts of Arnaud’s diverse career

• Gallup stat that “unhappy employees cost $450-$550 Billion in lost productivity per year”

• How corporations utilize Arnaud’s teachings as Chief Happiness Officers into their businesses

• Are people meant to be happy all day every day?

• Emotional Honesty

• How Arnaud gets his nature fix at Ananda Ashram

• Arnaud’s intentions and goals with Stand Up for Passion

• Challenges vs Routines

• How Arnaud measures success

• Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness

• The world’s evolution through Arnaud’s perspective

• Valuable advice for entrepreneurs

Since 2014, Arnaud Collery has been working in the transformation space, both corporate and personal. He coaches c-suite teams and runs standupforpassion.com, a global platform on personal inspirational stories. 

Arnaud has coached 1000+ stories (youtube.com/standupforpassion) 100+ teams, led 100+ workshops and trained 100+ Chief Happiness Speakers. 10 000 pp attended our events. 100 + speeches (3 Tedx, Harvard, Google, UN,..) Published author. Worked with.. United Nations, Dior, Cartier, Novartis, L'Oreal, Nestle, Danone, BMW, Careem. He now coaches the next generation of Chief Happiness Officers in his own training programs.

Keynotes:
World Happiness Report -NY

Word Happiness Summit

Miami Happiness at work-Copenhagen

Happiness 360 - Aruba

Happiness innovation- Dubai

Happiness Effect- Kuwait

Happy Folk - Paris

Yes, he is in fact a “lord”. But that is a whole conversation for another time.

Lord Matthew Scheckner is the Global CEO of Advertising Week, a platform where businesses and brands are discussing what he calls society’s “real issues” in a collective of conferences, seminars, special events and live entertainment in New York City, Mexico City, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Johannesburg.

But prior to bringing together international professionals for Advertising Week, Matt fostered an entrepreneurial drive and work ethic that spanned from washing dishes, to the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and starting an his first agency during the emergence of sports marketing.

If you’re looking for inspiration, advice and wisdom from a master networker who has created a global community, bringing together many tens-of-thousands to congregate internationally, this is a conversation you’ll want to listen carefully. 

In this conversation, we discuss Matt’s super interesting career trajectory to Advertising Week, the surprising reason he focused on advertising, his thoughts on corporate responsibility around data & privacy issues, the importance of opportunities to connect on a human level with other people, and how Advertising Week has become a platform for business and social impact.

Click here to listen on Spotify

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• Global CEO of Advertising Week

• Founder of Stillwell Partners

• Graduate of Emory University

• 6 countries, heading into 16 years in NY

• Graduating from Emory in 1986 as a professional breeding ground

• Originally planning to be a lawyer

• First jobs delivering the Penny Saver (for a literal penny!), the New York Post, working at bagel shops and delis, and many other odd jobs

• Interning at the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in the 80’s

• The emergence of “sports marketing” and treating sports as economic development

• “The Commission on the Year 2000” – Matt’s first job out of college, under NYC’s Mayor Koch

• Maximizing utilization of the waterfront

• Tax implications of the Meadowlands

• Becoming the first Executive Director of the New York City Sports Commission at age 23

• Winning the 1998 Good Will Games

• Building the olympic sized pool in Eisenhower Park

• The downfall of these programs with Mayor Giuliani

• Matt’s first business venture in sports marketing

• Dabbling in a multitude of projects

• DDB

• 4 A’s – The American Association of Advertising Agencies

• The ideation for Advertising Week

• Matt’s business model

• Radio City events

• A secret apartment in Radio City, The Roxy Suite

• Proposing the first Advertising Week event to Mayor Bloomberg in 2004

• The first opening gala at Gracie Mansion

• Seed money

• 4A’s, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, Havas, WPP

• Changing from non-profit to for-profit

• Matt’s partner, Lance Pillersdorf

• Expanding to London, Tokyo, Mexico City, Johannesburg, to a global network

• Year-round content business

• Why Advertising?

• The importance of exclusive locations for AW’s special events

• Highlighting the social and experiential part of life

• How to grow an international network around the globe

• Getting quoted in The Wall Street Journal

• Matt’s motivation and drive

• The challenge to create authenticity in each international location

• Leveraging the AW platform to talk about important “real issues”

• Emma Stone on mental health and wellness

• Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and the United States Surgeon General discussing the opiod crisis

• D&AD Impact Awards

• Cannes Lions

• Social Impact topics: Health & Wellness, Diversity & Inclusion, Sustainability, Responsible Production

• Matt’s perspective on how social impact is emerging in businesses

• Unilever and sustainability

• Brands that are doing good are good for business

• Corporate responsibility around advertising and over-consumption of media

• Data and privacy issues

• How Matt measures success for himself and his business

• Valuable advice for entrepreneurs

Matt Scheckner is CEO of Stillwell Partners, a New York City based boutique consultancy. Stillwell is best known as the producer of Advertising Week, the world’s largest advertising / marketing / media industry summit.  The Week is conducted in New York City, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Mexico City and launches in Africa in 2019. Under Scheckner’s leadership, which dates back to 2004, the B2B event has evolved into a vibrant, global tent-pole event and is the world’s pre-eminent annual platform uniting the ad tech, brand/client, creative, marketing and media communities. Scheckner’s signature recipe of blending thought leadership with one-of-a-kind evening experiences for the entire industry ecosystem propels Advertising Week. The annual festival-style event is now in year fifteen (15) in the USA, going into year seven (7) in Europe, year three (3) in Tokyo and just a few months ago launched successfully in Mexico City and Sydney. Planning is well underway to launch in Africa in 2019 and Advertising Week’s related year-round content initiatives, notable AW360, continue to grow.

Stillwell’s origin is derived from Coney Island. For 20+ years, on the historic corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, Stillwell has produced the annual Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest and ESPN broadcast. 

Scheckner has served on the Board of Governors of the Friars Club and stands alongside such luminaries as Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, and Henny Youngman, as winner of the “Friar of the Year” - - a distinction he was awarded by his fellow Friars in 2011. He is active with many causes, including the launch of War Child in the United States, Comic Relief UK, London’s Roundhouse and Tuesday’s Children, which honored Scheckner as their 2013 Gala Honoree. Scheckner also served as Chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Communications Advisory Council and led a public campaign that generated $300 million towards construction and completion of the World Trade Center Memorial. 

From 2006-2008, Scheckner served as Consigliere at Yahoo!, where he produced the industry’s first digital Upfront, “Broadband on Broadway” in 2007 and managed the corporation’s relationships with Madison Avenue. He also conceived and produced major corporate experiential programs around the world - - from Cannes to Pebble Beach - - and led the company’s support of the Tribeca Film Festival, an early harbinger of the modern-day explosion of creative content streaming on the web. 

For more than a decade (1995-2006), Scheckner owned and ran Empire Sports & Entertainment, a New York City-based marketing and strategic consulting firm. One of Empire’s largest clients was Radio City Productions. Under Scheckner’s direction, Empire produced major events outside the Music Hall including the 1997 opening of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Pepsi’s 1999 Centennial Celebration, which featured Ray Charles, Riverdance and the Rolling Stones and several Super Bowl Halftimes.  

Scheckner also played a central role in shaping the Music Hall’s overall strategic plan including its acquisition by Madison Square Garden and landmark renovation in the year 2000. 

Empire also served as SFX’s marketing agency developing strategies to secure more than $200 million in sponsorship across SFX’s live sports and entertainment properties.  The company also partnered with Ken Sunshine and the Nashville-based Opryland to produce “Always . . . Patsy Cline” Off-Broadway. The show ran for a year at the Variety Arts Theater. 

Prior to incorporating Empire in 1995, Scheckner served as Counsel on Sports Marketing for the flagship office of Hill & Knowlton, a global public relations firm where he founded the firm’s sports and entertainment practice.

From 1987 through 1994, Scheckner served as Executive Director of the New York City Sports Commission, a not-for-profit organization founded during the Koch administration. During his tenure with the Commission, Scheckner was directly responsible for successful bids for the 1993 Olympic Congress of the USA and the 1998 Goodwill Games. He saved the Jerome Boxing Club in the South Bronx from eviction and secured City funds to renovate the Club; fulfilled New York City Marathon founder Fred Lebow’s request to secure the entire Verrazano Bridge as the Marathon’s starting point; closed Central Park for the Tour de Trump cycling race; stopped City government in it’s tracks by bringing Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes to City Hall; led New York City’s bid to host 1994 World Cup matches; and successfully secured City and Community Board approval to stage an Indy Car Race in lower Manhattan. 

Prior to assuming his post with the Sports Commission, Scheckner served as a Policy Analyst with the Mayor’s Commission on the Year 2000, a blue-ribbon planning group, where he was responsible for the Commission's work on demographics, economic development, education, transportation and water front development.

Among Scheckner's other professional honors, he was selected as a member of Crain's New York Business "Forty Under Forty" at the age of 28. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the New York University Management Institute, and was appointed coordinator of NYU's annual Summer Institute on Sports and Event Marketing in 1995. In 1998, Scheckner was appointed to a similar post as an Adjunct Professor of the Columbia Graduate School of Business. Globally, Scheckner has lectured in Sao Paolo with Pele on sports marketing, among other venues.

Scheckner resides in Port Washington, NY with his wife Ila and their children, Benny and Eliza. Sadly, his dog Lambeau passed in 2010 but lives on in memory. He is a graduate of Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts. Regarding personal pursuits, Scheckner has the distinction of having been one of two severely injured softball-playing Friars during a 2009 outfield crash in Central Park; he is an avid golfer; and competes with pride in the Friars Pool tournaments, having finished as high as 6thplace.

Conscious Enterprises curated a discussion on Impact & Introspection in celebration of the launch of Barry Sternlicht’s 1 Hotel West Hollywood.

These impressive entrepreneurs & CEO’s gathered for an evening of meaningful conversation followed by a Mix & Mingle at the 1 Hotel’s zero-waste restaurant and bar.

Some topics we discussed:

Can luxury and conscious lifestyle coexist?

How do successful CEO's and entrepreneurs manage imposter syndrome?

How does your relationship with your body affect what your are producing as an entrepreneur?

What are some of the benefits of being a "mindful leader"?

Please subscribe, rate 5 stars and share this episode with anyone you think would enjoy this conversation!

Subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on social media to stay updated on our next events.

SPEAKERS:

• Christopher Gavigan

  • co-Founder & Chief Purpose Officer of The Honest Company

  • Founder & CEO of Prima

• Kevin Peake

  • co-Founder & President of Next Health

• Suze Yalof Schwartz

  • Founder & CEO of Unplug Meditation

• Luke Storey

  • Founder of The Life Stylist

  • co-Founder of School of Style

• Roxana Rafatjah

  • Founder of Conscious Enterprises

  • (moderator)

  
  

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

We are beyond honored to have partnered with Donna Karan’s Philosophy of Living, Urban Zen, on this event.

In celebration of Women’s History Month (March 2019), we gathered for a mix & mingle in this spectacular urban sanctuary for a discussion about Women, Business & Mind-Body Connection.

These awe-inspiring female panelists spoke about balancing masculine & feminine energy, their “aha moment” in business, how introspection has contributed to their external impact, and how meditation helps hone in on the mind-body-energy connection.

Please subscribe, rate 5 stars and share this episode with anyone you think would enjoy this conversation!

Subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on social media to stay updated on our next events.

PS - Please excuse my lack of personality/voice at the event - I was recovering from a fever:)

• Emily Fletcher, Founder of Ziva Meditation

• Dr. Karuna Sabnani, Founder of Karuna Naturopathic Healthcare

• Danielle Posa, Founder of Wellbeing Hacker

• Roxana Rafatjah (moderator)

Click here to listen on Spotify

Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple Podcasts

HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO:

FULL EVENT VIDEO:

Rachelle Robinett is by far the most connected to plants than anyone I’ve ever met. Her understanding and obsession with herbs, diet and how they affect the body is incomparable. She is a plant-based wellness practitioner, the founder of Supernatural Café – a company dedicated to real world wellness, currently the resident herbalist at CAP Beauty in the west village (in NYC); she is Integrative Health Certified and Clinical Herbalism Certified, and is the creator of some delightful new herbal supplements called HRBLS. She has also worked with brands such as Alchemist’s Kitchen, ABC Home, Elixir Bar @ The Assemblage.

In this conversation we discuss Rachelle’s journey from Seattle to New York City to work in fashion and advertising before becoming an entrepreneur committed to creating accessibility to plant & herbal life. She gives us some fantastic tips on herbs we should all be integrating into our diets. We talk about plant medicines and Rachelle shares her experience with ayahuasca ceremonies. And she also shares valuable advice for entrepreneurs.

Click here to listen on Spotify

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• Plant-based wellness practitioner

• Founder of Supernatural Café – “a company dedicated to real world wellness”

• Resident Herbalist at CAP Beauty

• Complimentary & Integrative Health Certified

• Clinical Herbalism Certified

• Creator of HRBLS

·      Rachelle’s career trajectory from Rainier Valley farm to Manhattan fashion before plant-based entrepreneurship

·      Nutrition & Plant Chemicals as a personal practice

·      Food prep

·      Entrepreneurship as a byproduct of plant-obsession

·      Convergence

·      Rachelle’s herbalism work with brands such as Alchemist’s Kitchen, ABC Home, Elixir Bar @ The Assemblage

·      The balance between effectiveness of an herb vs trendiness of popular

·      Rachelle’s recommendations of herbs that can combat stress & anxiety

o   Lavender

o   Oat Tops

o   Red Clover

·      Rachelle’s perspective of failure

·      Planting seeds

·      Work-Life Balance

·      Rachelle’s business as a “conscious enterprise”

·      HRBLS

·      Making taking herbs accessible

·      Herbs that most people could benefit from taking today

o   Ashwaganda or other adaptogens

o   More greens for everyone!

o   Prebiotics

§  Yuca

§  Cassava

§  Fibrous, starchy veggies & root herbs

·      Kale

·      Rachelle’s thoughts on the use of psychedelics and plant medicines

·      Rachelle’s six plant medicine ceremonies with ayahuascha & san pedro

·      Difference between San Pedro & Ayahuascha

·      Epiphanies

·      Rachelle’s diet

·      Rachelle’s personal wellness routine

·      Hopes for the next 5 years of the state of the world and nature

·      How Rachelle measures success

·      Valuable advice for entrepreneurs

Rachelle Robinett is a plant-based wellness practitioner combining holistic, natural medicine with practical lifestyle work to help people find balanced, lasting health. She holds certificates in Complementary and Integrative Health, and Clinical Herbalism, and has been studying the relationship between plants and people her entire life - be that on a farm in the Pacific Northwest (where she grew up) to time with healers, specialists, and shaman in farther-away places.

Rachelle is the founder of Supernatural - a company dedicated to real-world wellness - that includes an herbal cafe, a product line of plant-based remedies, ongoing workshops and events, and personal health coaching.

Entrenched in the wellness world, but with an eye on the rest of the world, she brings a global perspective to individual health, and also that of businesses and brands.

In addition to Supernatural, Rachelle manages the Bowery Cannabis Club with The Alchemist's Kitchen, and offers professional consulting for companies of all sizes.

Specialties & Studies: Complementary & Integrative Health.  Clinical Family Herbalism. Ayurveda & yoga. Herbalism & traditional medicine. Meditation Teacher trained. Plant-based nutrition. Positive psychology. Reiki I attunement. Mindfulness & minimalism. Spirituality & science.