The Startup Sessions with Michael Knouse

Episode 97: Creating a Deeply Meaningful Life with Toku McCree

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What if you could show up exactly as you are and that was good enough?

My guest this week is a pro at asking tough questions – the kind of questions that will most likely cause you to become a better person in all areas of life. Toku McCree worked in the music business before spending 2 ½ years at a Zen monastery. During his time at the monastery, he received the name Gentoku, which means, “manifesting virtue or present sincerity.”

Toku now works as a Mindfulness Based executive coach, a writer, a speaker and thought leader in the mindfulness community. His philosophy is based on the understanding that awareness alone is the most powerful catalyst for change.

“What are you willing to do today to go after you dreams?”

Toku coaches influential leaders and those who aspire to be. For Toku, there are a lot of things he’s great at but coaching is what he loves the most. He doesn’t give his clients what they want, he gives them more than they ever imagined.

If you want to create a deeply meaningful life while taking your business to the next level, Toku will help you get there.

Here are some of Toku’s favorite things:

Most Influential Book
  • The Prosperous Coach: Increase Income and Impact for You and Your Clients by Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin
    • Business Super Power
    • Being direct and honest.
      • Most Effective Strategy for Growing Your Business
      • Service – serving people in a really powerful way.
        • Favorite Business Tool or Resource
        • Meditation and communication.
          • Most Recent Exciting Adventure
          • For Toku, coaching is the most thrilling adventure because every time he gets on the phone with a client, he never knows what they will ask, what challenges they are facing or how he will need to show up to serve them.
            • Show Highlights
            • The backstory of Toku and the emergence of Unexecutive.
            • The mindset it takes to move past the first level of success.
            • The burden of success and asking questions that demand more of you.
            • Instead of asking yourself, “am I worth it?”, start asking “what am I willing to do today to serve the people I feel willing and inspired to serve?”
            • One of the most important questions you can ask: “What is the story I’m telling myself and why am I telling it?”
            • Are you trying to be impressive vs. showing up powerfully as yourself?
            • Why the most powerful moments in life are most likely those where you’re being the most vulnerable.
            • Toku’s surprising answer when I ask what “legacy” means to him.
            • Toku talks about how to care more and show up in a more powerful way than you ever thought possible.
            • If you want to continue to be successful and live a life that is deeply meaningful, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable on a regular basis.
            • Why Toku is not willing to let his weaknesses and fear of failure stop him from serving the people he cares about.
              • Links for Toku:
              • UNEXECUTIVE
              • Dear Seth Godin – A blog post by Toku
              • Toku’s TEDx 
              • Contact Toku
              • Say hello to Toku on Facebook and Twitter
                • Mentioned in this episode:
                • Jesse Jacobs of Samovar Tea Lounge
                • Leo Babauta of Zen Habits
                  • Question: How do you show up as your best self? The post Episode 97: Creating a Deeply Meaningful Life with Toku McCree first appeared on Michael Knouse.
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                  The Startup Sessions with Michael KnouseBy Michael Knouse: Empowering Visionary Entrepreneurs to Create a Life of Meaning Through a Business with Soul
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