Conscious Leadership: Mark & Kirstin interview by Chaitali Desai

Hello my fellow rebels, says Chaitali, as she welcomes us to her The Beauty Confidential Lounge" podcast.

Chaitali has a colorful background from the traditional sciences of Molecular Genetics & Medical Technology to the more esoteric and spiritual sciences of Human Design, Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique, NLP, Intuitive, and so much more. She says, "I have learned how to embrace my inner Rebel to become a change maker at the forefront of a ripple effect for generations to come."

Join Chaitali weekly for real talk and practical ways to create this transformation within and without for yourself. She will explore different topics from confidence, empowerment, mindset, beauty, motherhood, leadership, and business just to name a few along with ways to take action in your life to create the transformation you desire.

Subscribe, rate, and review her show at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-beauty-confidential-lounge/id1593726487

Rishon graduated from the Wharton School with a degree in entrepreneurial management. From concert promotion, to co-founding Brick Wall Management, 10x Management and 10x Ascend, he has imbued his passions with purpose.

Rishon’s first book published by HarperCollins Leadership was released in Sept 2020. Game Changer: How To Be 10x in the Talent Economy, reveals the strategies companies and individuals can take to become 10x.

Rishon Blumberg

Rishon's Website

Rishon graduated from the Wharton School with a degree in entrepreneurial management. From concert promotion, to co-founding Brick Wall Management, 10x Management and 10x Ascend, he has imbued his passions with purpose.

@10xmanagement on Instagram

Rishon's Facebook group

@10xmgmt on Twitter

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy

Our guest is Dr. Dionne Payn from Newcastle, Australia.

“I teach investors how to make double-digit returns through ethical property investing as I believe that together we can end homelessness,” says Dr. Payn.

Dr Dionne Payn is co-founder and CEO of High Impact Property Investments. She specializes in partnering with investors looking for double-digit returns with projects that provide affordable and sustainable homes.

Right now, they are building affordable and sustainable rental homes for women over 55, the fastest-growing group facing homelessness.

She says, "We do this because we believe that through social enterprise and private investment we can transform lives and end homelessness, particularly in vulnerable women and children."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KQWn-UztVN0XoyS5O4JG1ICCB52WSN3d/view?usp=sharing

https://www.hipi.global/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionnepayn/

Dionne Payn

Dr. Dionne Payn is the Founder of High Impact Property Investments. They specialise in partnering investors looking for double digit returns with projects that provide affordable and sustainable homes.

Dionne 's Website

@dionnepayn on Instagram

Dionne on YouTube

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy

We are back for another great interview in our Entelechy Series   In today’s episode, we chat with Tames Rietjek.

Tames is an accomplished C-Level Executive with expertise and proven successes in financial markets, sustainability performance, financial crime prevention, stakeholder management, and business data science.  Currently, Tames is the Business Development at Ocean Cleanup, a company whose mission is to rid the oceans of plastic.

He was first involved with environmental impact when he developed and launched an exchange in carbon emission rights, and carbon credits under the Kyoto protocol. Under this project, they were cleaning up dirty air, also known as the abusive consequences of economic development. The project was intended to have countries share the burden of the cost of global warming. However, the market on the Kyoto protocol was flooded with financial crime which took away the basis of trust in the carbon credit itself. It was during a raid by the national security agencies at the Euro exchanges in carbon credits who were investigating the number of criminal transactions that were facilitated by those exchanges. Tames was responsible for financial crime prevention and regulatory compliance and risk management of the Exchange, which proved to be the one where they could not find any criminal transaction. 

There are about 30,000 to 35,000 rivers in the world. But only about 1000  rivers are responsible for 80% to 85% of the plastic that reaches the ocean. Most of these rivers are located in Southeast Asia & Central and South America. This already reduces the problem to very specific geographic areas.

Oceans cleanup believes that by taking one step at a time,  we could get rid of all the legacy plastic that’s in the ocean. The journey started by involving a very scientific and technology-driven approach by first identifying the problem and running a few pilot projects to see what technology and what approach would serve the solution best. 

The ocean is filled with legacy plastics because of a lack of filtered systems from when the plastic is consumed to when it ends up in the ocean.  

Tames and his team are now deploying river technology solutions that catch plastic or catch trash before it reaches the ocean. So to not only take out the legacy plastic but also make sure that the tap is closed and it doesn't continue to grow.

When it comes to leading a team working on trying to find solutions in search of a complex project, a lot of team dynamics come into play.  As a leader, the organization itself is spending a lot of time and effort to facilitate that psychological safety. People are encouraged to speak up. We have a lot of group meetings. We share a lot of the knowledge internally and everyone's invited to chip in their, 2 cents. 

In summary, the way to effect this change is to change the mindset of people and the society as a whole.

You can reach out to Tames on:

Website: theoceancleanup.com

LinkedIn:  Tames Rietdjik

Facebook: Theoceancleanup

Instagram: Theoceancleanup

Tames Rietdijk

Tames Rietdijk, 55 years old, with a background in sustainable banking and finance, supported by technology services, in an international, B2B context. Solid knowledge of financial accounting, product management and trading mechanisms. My 35-year career includes the launch of the trading platform in carbon emission rights and a solution provider for financial crime prevention as a CEO/co-founder....

We are back for another great interview in our Entelechy Series   In today’s episode, we chat with Jinny Uppal, an award-winning author, business leader, and team builder.  She has over 20+ year track record of driving transformational growth in Fortune 500 telecom, e-commerce, and retail businesses including companies like Khol, Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, IBM, etc

Jinny’s recent book titled IN/Action: Rethinking the path to results, where she helps you leverage the power of a thoughtful pause to discover newer paths to great results while exploring the downside of the prevalent cultural bias toward unnecessary and counter-productive action. The book captures insights into the benefits of reflective thinking and thoughtful pauses while presenting a less stressful and more efficient way of achieving more by “doing” less. 

Jinny got inspired to write this book after she found herself without a conventional job in 2020, she had always worked in a highly structured environment where action-oriented people were valued, and not being in this kind of space really distressed her. At that low point of her life, Jinny self-analyzed and realized her career had a couple of pivots. Every time she was about to start a new career, she had come from a moment of downtime. This period of non-action made her realize that what really drives great progress is inaction.

Jinny gives a few pointers on how to help inaction give you results:

• Strategic inaction implies a choice. If you're thinking long-term, it's being here for the long game. It's not about doing this today for the sake of doing it. It’s doing this because you want to live to see another day.
•  If you're working in a very complex and dynamic environment, very often the thing to do is wait for better information to come along or wait for things to sort themselves out. So you are not interfering with the flow of what's happening. People who are very action-oriented, are almost overacting at this point.  You don't need to because you're wasting your own mental bandwidth, physical time, and doing things that are not needed.
•  In the book, she stresses it's all about taking thoughtful pauses, long enough for creative ideas to come through. Letting intuition make room for creation to come through you, as opposed to you chasing the idea. 
• As a leader, you can’t mandate your people to change but if you live this way yourself as a leader and people see the consequences, the change in your behavior they will do what you are doing.
• When it comes to team collaboration, the pause experienced enhances communication. The power of verbal silence in conversations, negotiations, in team meetings. There's a science to prove that something as simple as a thoughtful pause of a few seconds in a meeting just leads to better outcomes for a team meeting.

In conclusion, the first steps you can start doing are building restorative habits and giving yourself intermittent breaks throughout the day. Very few people truly control their schedules. You can't take a day off or days off at once, but instead, develop a habit of taking 10-minute breaks once a day, or a couple of times a week and do nothing, allowing your mind to declutter. 

You can connect with Jinny on the following platforms 

Jinny’s Website: jinnyupal.com

LinkedIn: jinnyupal

Book: IN/ACTION: Rethinking the path into results

Jinny Uppal

Jinny Uppal is a technology and business strategist and senior leader with a 20+ year career growing and transforming Fortune 500 telecom, ecommerce and retail...

We are back for another great interview in our Entelechy Series.  In today’s episode, we chat with Geeta Sidhu Robb.

She is an Author, Speaker, Life Coach, CEO & Founder Nosh Detox. She also sits on the board of a Montessori group and is the Chair of Women's Development Board, a Microloan Foundation a women's empowerment and poverty alleviation charity supporting women in Southern Africa. 

Geeta’s story starts when she was very successful but suddenly she lost everything and had to start her life from scratch. This included having to live with her friend as she looked for a new job. That was where Geeta started noshdetox.com which is an organic food and juice program delivery business back in 2008.

As a business leader and a charity chair, Geeta believes in living & leading from her purpose. Standing up for what you believe in and having the courage to change the course of the river.  

As the chair of Microloan Foundation, Geeta says that the benefits of empowering one woman has a ripple effect in that she uses the resources to grow her family, and benefit the community at large. 

She says that the moment we start to see the world as a community, then we are able to contribute to not just cases in the developing world but right where you are in your neighborhood. 

Geeta encourages corporates to have more compassion and not just take resources but remember that the priority is on the people who live in those communities where the resources are found. 

Her work in Montessori teaches children to grow at their own pace so that they don't feel wrong about not growing at someone else's pace. This eventually creates strong and stable adults. She is now scaling this model of teaching children to areas that have refugee children. In that way, breaking the vicious cycle of children who are faced with trauma and that's all they grow up knowing.

In conclusion, Geeta says Change is inevitable and suffering is totally optional. So you must constantly work on yourself because you are the biggest impediment to your own growth. 

You can reach Geeta at:

Geeta’s Website: Nosh Detox

Instagram: @geetasidhurobb

LinkedIn: Geeta Sidhu Robb

Microloan Foundation: Microloan Foundation

We are back for another great interview in our Entelechy Series   

In today’s episode, we chat with Anita Gardyne, the CEO of Onēva, an in-home care platform allowing enterprises and government agencies to connect employees and their families with trusted caregivers and service providers.

Onēva technology app connects FBI background check caregivers who provide in-home services like infant/child care, elder care, special needs care, pet care with individuals or companies offering their employees benefits such as these. 

Anita grew up in the 80s when she went to UC Berkley to study economics & economics in Black communities.  One of the eye-opening lessons for her was seeing the disparity in neighborhoods & communities based on their color. A good example of this was despite growing up in Richmond California, which was next to Silicon Valley, her community never seemed to grow from it. She later got an MBA in economics & economics in the black community. While she studied, she also worked in technology for AT&T and later on moved up in her career to join companies such as Levi Straus, Bell & Seagate. 

All along Anita had at the back of her mind how growing up, she was her family's caregiver. She had to take care of her niece and nephews who were autistic. Fast forward to years later, Anita had to stay home to raise her children while taking care of her parents, When it was time to go back to work, she tried to find a caregiver to fill her needs of taking care of her parents and her children but, she couldn't find a caregiver she trusted to look after her family. 

Anita identified a gap in the homecare system and built Onēva to fill it. Onēva, brings a blend of technology (AI), emotional intelligence (EI), and Spiritual Intelligence (SI). Onēva means Trust.

One of the benefits of using Onēva is that it's an employee benefits app. Through strong mentorship and partnership with Microsoft and Acrisure, Anita and her team have been able to build into the app a section where employers can add Onēva into their HR systems so that employees can benefit from having access to trusted care and in turn helps employers attract and retain employees.

In addition to this, Onēva is bridging the gap between unskilled/skilled workers getting access to well-paying jobs in that the caregivers on the platform are able to set their own rates and hours, therefore creating new small business owners, and leveling the playing field.   

In conclusion, Anita wants entrepreneurs to know that every founder has their own journey and every journey has lessons in the form of challenges. 

You can find more information about Onēva on

Onēva Website: Onēva.com

LinkedIn:Anita Gardyne

Anita Gardyne

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy

Today, we talk with Troy Akin, the founder of Eco Sports.

Troy's story: "I was an NCAA tennis player that always had a passion for health and marketing. I turned vegan for health reasons in 2019. I was playing golf with another vegan friend one day and he asked if my golf glove was vegan. I didn't even think about the fact that sports products could be vegan. After going down the rabbit hole, just about every sport uses animal products mainly including leather for Balls. But even Tennis uses sheep skin in their tennis balls. Not to mention most of these products you can't recycle or aren't biodegradable. I sought to change that. So In November 2021, Eco Sports is releasing Eco Friendly sporting goods. We will continue to add more products each quarter so we can be the go-to sporting goods store to a) help save the planet; b) have a non-animal product option; and c) exceed the quality and durability of sporting goods currently out there.

Troy Akin

Troy's Website

Eco Sports is a sustainable sporting goods company. With Global Warming, Animal Welfare, and a Less Toxic work environment in mind, Eco Sports was created. Eco Sports uses a Biodegradable, Recyclable, Vegan material for all its Sporting Goods with can’t be found in mainstream Sporting Good Stores. This material is as durable and high quality as any pig or cow skin. Our initial products are focusing on enhancing leather intensive products like Basketballs, Footballs, Soccer Balls, Volleyballs, and Baseball Gloves. Eco Sports is also committed to making the packaging sustainable and to never use plastic or aluminum. Eco Sports promises to give back by donating 10% of the profits immediately to plant trees across the nation on the consumers behalf. We have a goal of improving and evolving all sporting goods with a non animal product, improving our earth we all love and share, and giving back and partnering with many organizations doing the RIGHT THING.

@troyakin on Instagram

Troy's Facebook page

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy

Mason is a serial entrepreneur with fresh food, organics, and sustainability always at the core. His current venture, Mostlygreen.life® is a media company working to make sustainability and environmental awareness more fun and approachable.

Mason just left Cece’s® Veggie Co., a category-creating company making high-quality, fresh pasta out of vegetables. Cece’s recently earned the #3 spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the country.

Mason and his businesses have also received national innovation awards from CPG industry groups, Dell and PC Magazine. Also, they have received more than 30 diverse local and national awards and have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and many more. Mason is an avid mentor and has served on numerous non-profit boards.

Mason Arnold

Mason's Website

Mason is a serial entrepreneur with fresh food, organics and sustainability always at the core. His current venture, Mostlygreen.life® is a media company working to make sustainability and environmental awareness more fun and approachable. Mason just left Cece’s® Veggie Co., a category-creating company making high-quality, fresh pasta out of vegetables. Cece’s recently earned the #3 spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the country.

@mostlygreen.life on Instagram

@mostlygreen on Twitter

Mason on YouTube

Mason's Facebook page

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy

Liz Kislik — Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor and TEDx speaker — offers surprising insights and successful techniques for leadership, mastering collaboration, conflict, talent development, and customer loyalty.

Her combination of practical experience, true stories, and current research will inspire listeners to start making a difference right away.

Liz Kislik

Liz's Website

Liz Kislik — Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor and TEDx speaker — offers surprising insights and successful techniques for leadership, mastering collaboration, conflict, talent development, and customer loyalty. Her combination of practical experience, true stories, and current research will inspire listeners to start making a difference right away.

@LizKislik on Twitter

Liz on YouTube

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Kirstin Gooldy