Deep Sit Podcast

This is the first interview in a special series spotlighting the Inspiring Children Foundation. I'm starting off the series with co-founder Ryan Wolfington. Ryan and I met during a social hour of the Mindful Leadership Summit in Washington DC where I was doing interviews for the Meditate This! Podcast. I'm standing at my table just cleaning up and putting away my mic, and this lone wolf appears out of the crowd and asks what I'm up to, and the next thing you know we've been standing there talking for about an hour and half. I found a lot in common with Ryan, certainly a passion for meditation and mindfulness, eating plant based, but something about him seemed a little off. You know different from most people I've met. As I talked to him over the next couple days of the summit, it became apparent that Ryan operates completely on intuition, doing what he feels is right, with little or no agenda. Quite honestly, until I sat down with him for this interview two months after that initial meeting, he was a total enigma. But then I learned that Ryan used to be a much different person, perhaps more "normal" if you will.

He grew up in Philadelphia, part of a big Irish Catholic family, and from a young age he and his twin brother Sean were a on a path to greatness, full of ambition. Ryan aspired to be a titan in business, but something got in the way if his aspirations. That something was what you might call the abyss, a feeling of nothingness, emptiness, or meaninglessness in life. He was a 26 year old, president of a company making almost a half million dollars on track to achieve everything he ever dreamed of and then found himself lying in bed one day, feeling like he was dying crying out to god for help. After an event you'll hear about in this interview, Ryan examined his life with a deep heartfelt sadness and honesty. He eventually harnessed the same energy he had once used on his way to becoming powerful in business, to becoming a complete human being, living by intuition only and with deep sense of meaning. He underwent a personal transformation that has led him to living with peace, happiness, and joy.

Meaningful relationships are important to Ryan, and we start off this interview talking about the earliest and most meaningful relationship in his life with his twin brother Sean. In Part 1 we cover his personal transformation and then continue in Part 2 discussing the start of the Foundation and the challenges along the way. There is a lot in here, a lot of insight, wisdom, emotion, and honesty. And by the end you will see clearly why the Foundation has positively affected the lives of so many children. Something they often say in the Foundation is if you do right you feel right. It's as simple as that. And nothing sums up the message of this interview better than that. So please welcome, Ryan Wolfington, co-founder of Inspiring Children Foundation.

Thanks for listening,

PF

www.DeepSitPodcast.com

This is the first interview in a special series spotlighting the Inspiring Children Foundation. I'm starting off the series with co-founder Ryan Wolfington. Ryan and I met during a social hour of the Mindful Leadership Summit in Washington DC where I was doing interviews for the Meditate This! Podcast. I'm standing at my table just cleaning up and putting away my mic, and this lone wolf appears out of the crowd and asks what I'm up to, and the next thing you know we've been standing there talking for about an hour and half. I found a lot in common with Ryan, certainly a passion for meditation and mindfulness, eating plant based, but something about him seemed a little off. You know different from most people I've met. As I talked to him over the next couple days of the summit, it became apparent that Ryan operates completely on intuition, doing what he feels is right, with little or no agenda. Quite honestly, until I sat down with him for this interview two months after that initial meeting, he was a total enigma. But then I learned that Ryan used to be a much different person, perhaps more "normal" if you will.

He grew up in Philadelphia, part of a big Irish Catholic family, and from a young age he and his twin brother Sean were a on a path to greatness, full of ambition. Ryan aspired to be a titan in business, but something got in the way if his aspirations. That something was what you might call the abyss, a feeling of nothingness, emptiness, or meaninglessness in life. He was a 26 year old, president of a company making almost a half million dollars on track to achieve everything he ever dreamed of and then found himself lying in bed one day, feeling like he was dying crying out to god for help. After an event you'll hear about in this interview, Ryan examined his life with a deep heartfelt sadness and honesty. He eventually harnessed the same energy he had once used on his way to becoming powerful in business, to becoming a complete human being, living by intuition only and with deep sense of meaning. He underwent a personal transformation that has led him to living with peace, happiness, and joy.

Meaningful relationships are important to Ryan, and we start off this interview talking about the earliest and most meaningful relationship in his life with his twin brother Sean. In Part 1 we cover his personal transformation and then continue in Part 2 discussing the start of the Foundation and the challenges along the way. There is a lot in here, a lot of insight, wisdom, emotion, and honesty. And by the end you will see clearly why the Foundation has positively affected the lives of so many children. Something they often say in the Foundation is if you do right you feel right. It's as simple as that. And nothing sums up the message of this interview better than that. So please welcome, Ryan Wolfington, co-founder of Inspiring Children Foundation.

Thanks for listening,

PF

www.DeepSitPodcast.com

In Their Own Words - An Introduction to the Inspiring Children Foundation

Today we are kicking off a series of interviews spotlighting an amazing organization called the Inspiring Children Foundation. You are going to hear from a group of inspiring individuals, many of whom are just teenagers. But let me be the first to tell you that these "kids" have wisdom beyond their years.

The Foundation was started by Ryan Wolfington and renowned Las Vegas tennis coach Marty Hennessy, and is designed to provide children, many of whom come from difficult and disadvantaged life situations, the tools necessary to become their very best in academics, athletics, interpersonal skills, and leadership positions. They are becoming professionals in life. It is done using a variety of tools including mentoring, project-driven learning, entrepreneurship, a focus on education and athletics, and a special emphasis on mindfulness and self-awareness.

It started about 16 years ago, with the simple goal of helping one child make the right life choice of staying in school and staying out of trouble. There was no Foundation or even a vision of what was to come. It was simply Marty and Ryan showing interest in a child who was taking tennis lessons, a young teenager named Frideric, who they saw as extremely vulnerable to peer pressure and potentially making some poor life choices.

Since those early days, the impact from the Foundation is nothing short of amazing.

Thousands of kids have been served by the Foundation. There is a select group of children chosen for the what's called the Leadership Program. Ninety-Five percent of them have earned academic and athletic scholarships to colleges such as: Stanford, Princeton, Oxford, Yale, Georgetown University, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania-Wharton School of Business, Vanderbilt, United States Air Force Academy, The Citadel, Villanova, Williams, Vassar and many others.

The Foundation is funded through donation, but I know first hand from being there that it thrives on volunteering and sweat equity, if you will, on the part of parents, the children, and community supporters. They operate a very tight budget and the return on donation is high.

From the $3 million donated to the foundation over the years, over $18 MILLION IN COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS have been earned by the youth.

What you are going to pick up immediately is the clarity with which these kids see life. They have learned to trust in themselves, and have become leaders among their friends, families, and communities.

It makes me think about a growing concern that the education system in this country is broken, and kids are not well prepared for the life ahead of them, much less able to handle the moral and ethical challenges they will confront in high school and college. But after several visits and spending time with these kids, my hope is renewed that the blueprint drawn up by the Foundation can set a new standard for educating and preparing youth to be whole humans, capable of deep and meaningful relationships, living with mindful awareness, in the pursuit of wisdom. And to that end, the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology is in the process of documenting the foundation's success and creating a curriculum that can scale even further. Currently the Foundation's program is being duplicated by 22 organizations around the world.

You may have noticed that the music behind the opening montage and the one you will hear as we head out is by the singer-songwriter Jewel, who took notice of the Foundation and how they align with the principles she personally developed to navigate a very challenging early life of her own. She started a non-profit organization called Jewel Never Broken to teach these lessons and has now partnered with Inspiring Children to provide online resources for mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and wellness, through her site, JewelNeverBroken.com.

So I'll let some of the kids take us out on this episode with their thoughts on the Foundation and how it has affected their lives. Then tune in for my conversation with co-founder Ryan Wolfington, whose fascinating and insightful story of personal transformation is where this all got started. Thanks for joining me on Deep Sit and I hope you enjoy my interview series spotlighting the Inspiring Children Foundation.

Thanks for listening,

PF

All interviews will be available on www.DeepSitPodcast.com

Today on the show I bring you someone who is bound to put a smile on your face because of his positive attitude and terrific sense of humor, but he will also challenge you to consider your relationship to what is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable and perplexing problems we face across the globe. Mark Horvath isn't just an advocate for homeless people, he was that homeless guy, and he's now well-known for starting a non-profit media company called Invisible People, which through video offerings on it's website, YouTube, and social media channels, gets up close and personal with people living on the street.

His videos are raw and unedited, giving full transparency by focusing his lens, and our attention, on people who most of us will walk or drive past just about every day. What he did for me with his videos was give me an opportunity to hear the answers to questions I'm basically too afraid to ask when I see a homeless person – what happened, how did you get here, and how can I help? And he isn't trying to paint any pictures here or even make you feel bad or guilty for their situation. He's bringing awareness to a condition that he believes can be solved, but unfortunately sees as getting much worse unless we take start taking action

The first reason I wanted to talk to Mark was to understand what drives him to do this work. He is someone who lives with a clear sense of purpose and in his own words he has never felt closer to a destiny in his life, than he does right now. How many of us can say that? And what would it take for us to find such an acute awareness of our purpose or meaning in life.

We kick off the conversation with Mark's take on mindfulness and meditation how pain can drive people to introspection. You see, Mark doesn't believe he was called to do this work, but that he was forced. And as uncomfortable as that might sound, it's what gets him out of bed each day to live a fulfilling life. We talk about his life story, his personal experience with being homeless, some of the solutions and ideas he has for ending it, but also what worries him. We get into how someone struggling with homelessness possibly finds purpose or meaning in life. And you won't want to miss how he describes the meaning in his life.

It won't take long for you to recognize how Mark is spilling over with passion for his work and the energy he brings to this interview just about obliterated the outline I had prepared in doing my research. I had intended to start out right away with his backstory and become familiar with his life up until becoming homeless. But in our pre-interview banter we started talking about his take on mindfulness and meditation. And I'm glad I captured it because this provided a philosophical framework and baseline that shows up as we progress through his life and his life's work. But a little randomness is what makes this conversation so good....he is genuine, honest, and very fun to talk to. So please welcome Mark Horvath, founder of Invisible People.

Thanks for listening,

PF

www.DeepSitPodcast.com

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My guest today is Emily Esfahani Smith, author of the book The Power of Meaning. As a matter of fact, Emily was the first person I invited as a guest on this podcast and this interview really sets up the perfect framework for what's to come. Pay special attention here as the pillars that support a meaningful life, as Emily defines them, come up time and again in the guest interviews that follow.

I spend quite a bit of time talking to Emily about self-transcendence, which I saw as a common thread throughout her book. It seems that people find the most meaning in life, when they focus outside themselves. Whether it's serving other people, or becoming absorbed in a specific task, not thinking or even being aware of yourself is highly correlated to sense of meaning, purpose, and ultimately enduring happiness. We also talk about self-awareness and meditation as places to begin the search for meaning, and I ask Emily about the pros and cons of belief and ideology, and how they can fill us with meaning, but can often be harmful to ourselves or even the world around us.

Emily has a masters from the University of Pennsylvania in applied positive psychology, and in addition to her career as a journalist and author, she is an editor at the Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

She's written for many publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Atlantic. And as you hear right at the beginning, she has been connected with this question of how we find meaning in life, from a very young age.

So, let's get to it. I bring you Emily Esfahani Smith

Thanks for listening!

For more please visit www.DeepSitPodcast.com