Life in the And

Goodbye Life in the AND, Hello Shift Starters

Let's Start Some Shift!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Shift Starters with Erin Baker. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify

Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help me reach more Shift Starters, like you.

Join me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content, information, and to request your FREE 7 Questions for Tackling Fear workbook, visit our website.

I have been wanting to have Bex Taylor-Klaus on the podcast ever since I decided Life in the And was going to be a thing. Bex - the eldest child of previous guests Elaine and David Taylor-Klaus - is someone whom you may know from their role as Sin in CW's Arrow, Audrey in MTV's Scream, the voice of Pidge in Voltron: Legendary Defenders, or as the non-binary Deputy Brianna Bishop in Fox's procedural drama, Deputy. An "Accidental AND," Bex is a non-binary individual - an identity that we all need to talk more about in society.

In this episode, Bex and I explore what it means to be non-binary and what it looks like in Hollywood. We illustrate Bex's experience with gender & identity as a child and how they discovered the non-binary identity. We elaborate on the non-binary identity's characteristic as a spectrum and explain why it's not about being "in the middle." We emphasize the importance of letting people know that they are not alone and underscore the power of standing in your truth and speaking it.

"You are who you are. Who you are can change, and you can figure it out as you go along." - Bex Taylor-Klaus

This week on Life in the AND:

• Bex's childhood experience and how they discovered the non-binary spectrum
• Why Bex loves Dorothy from Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• How Bex came out as non-binary for the first time during an argument
• The power of knowing and speaking your truth
• Pitching Deputy's Breanna Bishop to Fox TV and why the show means so much to Bex
• Transforming pain and heartache into art and content
• Gatekeeping in the queer community
• What the non-binary spectrum is and why it's not about being "in the middle"
• The superpower of non-binary humans
• How we can become an AND with the pronouns we use and why it's okay to let other people be confused
• Our destiny to make a mark in the world
• Why Bex likes to play characters that make people uncomfortable
• The beauty of our human brains and the squiggly ANDpersand

Resources Mentioned:

• Lessons from Being Complex AND Raising Complex Humans with Elaine Taylor-Klaus
• We Need Our Heads AND Our Hearts with David Taylor-Klaus

Connect with Bex Taylor-Klaus:

• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Instagram
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Facebook
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Twitter
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Tumblr

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit our website and join The Heart Leader Launchpad Facebook group.

Sean Smith is someone whom I call a teacher, mentor, and a friend. He is a Neuro-Transformational Coach and Founder of the MVP Success Systems, through which he helps passionate people become successful and authentic life coaches. He recently penned And, a poem about independence, our country, and the world. It is a poem that reflects not only his ability to hold honest and uncomfortable conversations but also his desire to bridge the country's social, political, and racial divides. Sean is a man on a mission to heal the world - and a person I am glad to have in my life.

In this episode, Sean and I discuss what it would take to create AND in a world of "us" versus "them," of "we" and "the others." We explore what could happen to a country if its citizens lived a life in the AND as well as discuss how our sense of belonging informs our decisions and beliefs. We explore the story of a young white supremacist whom Sean met when he was a probation officer, explain how we go into survival mode when our validity is threatened, and contemplate on how white people, including myself, benefit from racism even when we are not consciously racists. We also explore how powerful humanity can become when they acknowledge the existence of both light and dark within them.

"If we can live a life in the AND, if we can look at our differences from a place of love and compassion, all our divides would be healed." - Sean Smith

This week on Life in the AND:

• A reading from Sean's poem, And
• How we are born in the And before we get "Or'd"
• What it means for the country when its citizens live a life in the AND
• Lessons from improv's "Yes, And…" game and our tendency to look for what's different rather than what the similarities are between us
• Healing the world's greatest political divides through empathy and compassion
• The pain of being ostracized in the Black community and the need for belonging
• How certain conversations and environments force us into survival mode
• The story of a young white supremacist and how our mortal fear of abandonment pushes us into bad decisions
• Acknowledging that a person can NOT be racist and receive the benefits of racism at the same time
• Contemplating on how I have perpetuated racism, whether consciously or unconsciously, as a white person
• How we can have compassion for a person and not enable their toxic behavior
• The difference between controlling and suppressing an emotion
• William the Werewolf and how anger can be a productive emotion
• The importance of committing to personal values over validation from other people
• The relationship between knowing, trusting the self, and their relevance in politics
• The power of humanity when they're at their AND

Related Content:

• It's Time to Replace "Reach Your Potential" With an AND

Connect with Sean Smith:

• Sean Smith Website
• Sean Smith on Facebook
• Sean Smith on Twitter
• Sean Smith on YouTube
• Sean Smith on LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit our website and join The Heart Leader Launchpad Facebook group.

If you are the product of the five people you spend the most time with, then I am a product of Mahrukh Imtiaz. Mahrukh is part of my chosen family and, together with two others, we formed a group called Wednesday Wonders. By day, Mahrukh is the Project Manager for EY's US Talent Specialist Team and a cricketer for the Canadian Women's Cricket Team. But by night, she is a prolific content creator on TikTok. Mahrukh is dedicated to creating inspirational content that helps other people be the best version of themselves and the champions they want to be.

Mahrukh joins me today to describe the power of being a master and giving yourself permission to be a disaster. She shares what inspired her to start her journey as a content creator and explains why she chose to focus on TikTok over other social media platforms. She discusses what it means to NOT judge for your audience and highlights how she trains her brain to reframe anxiety into excitement. She also emphasizes the role of action in clarifying your life's purpose and underscores the importance of sharing your story.

"Be a disaster AND a master at the same time. Having that mindset permits you to produce content without judging yourself." - Mahrukh Imtiaz

This week on Life in the AND:

• Taking control of your life and being open for what's to come
• Our tendency to expect results right away
• Mahrukh's TikTok journey and the importance of attention
• What makes TikTok different from other social media platforms
• The power of shifting your mindset towards allowing yourself to be imperfect
• The impact of allowing yourself to become a master AND a disaster
• How to be patient with the macro and hustle in the micro
• My 90-day live journey and how you won't know your message until you speak it
• How imperfection can make you more relatable to people
• The value of not judging for your audience
• Training your brain to reframe anxiety into excitement and how they're physiologically the same thing
• The importance of sharing your perspective and story
• How getting into action creates clarity and confidence in your life's work
• Beating worries over doing the wrong thing through having high intentions and low attachment to outcomes

Related Content:

• I Control My Destiny AND So Does "The Universe"
• What Would You Do if You *Were* Afraid? How to Be Fearful AND Fearless
• What Becomes Possible When We have High Intention and Low Attachment to Our Goals

Connect with Mahrukh Imtiaz:

• Mahrukh Imtiaz Website
• Mahrukh Imtiaz on Facebook
• Mahrukh Imtiaz on Instagram
• Mahrukh Imtiaz on Twitter
• Mahrukh Imtiaz on TikTok
• Mahrukh Imtiaz on LinkedIn

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit my website and join The Heart Leader Launchpad Facebook group.

Niiamah Ashong is a pioneer and outlier on a mission to create a world of true inclusion and empowerment. He is the founder and leader of the World of Joy Movement where he brings his vision of true inclusivity and diversity into life by helping leaders and organizations leverage their uniqueness and strength. Before embarking on leading this movement, Niiamah worked with AppNexus as a People Experience Consultant and a Senior Consultant for management services firm Deloitte Consulting. Today, Niiamah is a dear friend and kindred spirit who continues to inspire me on my mission.

Niiamah joins me today to discuss the Ands we need to create a world of true inclusion. He shares his vision of an inclusive world and explains how he was inspired to make this vision a reality. He explores the paradox of inclusion and exclusion and illustrates how we can become inclusive while maintaining our differences. He also emphasizes the role of outliers, trailblazers, and mavericks in a divisive and uncertain world, and explores the possibility of being fearful and still being authentic.

"True inclusion is about being celebrated and valued for the things that make you different." - Niiamah Ashong

This week on Life in the AND:

• What inclusion means for Niiamah and why it's more about difference than sameness
• Creating a world of true inclusion and what it looks like in 2045
• How innovation comes when people who are different from each other work together
• The "Yes And" game and why And is a skill set that could be honed
• Where Niiamah's mission of creating an inclusive world started and how he came to realize it
• How inclusion and exclusion go hand in hand, and how we can create a space of diversity that accepts outliers and trailblazers
• The characteristics that make trailblazers, outliers, and mavericks, and what makes them important in a world of uncertainty
• Self-identifying as an outlier and how we are alone and belonging at the same time
• The difference between belonging versus fitting-in
• The costs of owning authenticity and uniqueness and why trailblazing isn't safe
• Handling both sides of fear and what it means to be fearful and fear less at the same time

Connect with Niiamah Ashong:

• Niiamah Ashong
• Trailblazer Tribe
• Niiamah Ashong on YouTube
• Niiamah Ashong on Instagram
• Niiamah Ashong on LinkedIn

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit our website.

Shelley Paxton is internationally recognized as The Burnout Fighter and Fire Re-igniter. She is the Chicago-based author of Soulbbatical: A Corporate Rebel's Guide to Finding Your Best Life, a book where she shares her journey from working in Corporate America as the CMO of Harley-Davidson to becoming the Chief Soul Officer of her life and career. Shelley has spent over 25 years in the corporate world as a highly regarded marketing and advertising executive with some of the world's most iconic brands, including Visa, McDonald's, and AOL. Her work has been recognized and featured in multiple media publications including Thrive Global, Forbes, PBS, and CBS. Since taking her Soulbbatical in 2016 and launching her company, Shelley has been on a mission to liberate a billion souls by inspiring them to embrace their greatest truth, purpose, and possibility.

Shelley joins me today to share all of the "Ands" in her life and career. She discusses her ballsy move to liberate a billion souls by creating a title wave of change in people's lives and organizations. She discusses the magic that can happen when you trust AND surrender to your soul's process instead of the corporate process or the process of others. She discusses how you can trust, surrender, and follow your soul's desires while working in the corporate environment and why the first step to reconnecting to your soul is to get reacquainted with yourself and your personal values. She also explains the difference between rebelling for something versus rebelling against something and why she believes, deep down, everyone has a rebel soul.

"You have to know where you're heading, and you first have to know yourself because getting reconnected with your soul really is getting reconnected with your GPS system." - Shelley Paxton

This week on Life in the AND:

• Shelley's big, audacious goal of liberating a billion souls - one soul at a time
• How Shelley stays grounded in holding onto her big, overarching goal while liberating one individual soul at a time
• The magic that happens when you trust AND surrender to your soul's process
• Bridging the gap between working in the corporate world while following your soul's desires
• Getting reacquainted with yourself and your values and why it's the first step to reconnecting to your soul
• Choosing to believe that crisis always comes as a gift to teach us a lesson
• Why Shelley believes everyone has a rebel soul
• How your 'ands' are the lego pieces of your life
• Using fear as fuel to get to where you want to go
• Why Shelley believes trusting and surrendering to your soul's desires is the "And" everyone should stand for

Resources Mentioned:

• The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Connect with Shelley Paxton:

• Soulbbatical
• Rebel Souls Podcast
• Book: Sabbatical: A Corporate Rebel's Guide to Finding Your Best Life
• Shelley Paxton on LinkedIn
• Shelley Paxton on Instagram
• Soulbbatical on Facebook
• Shelley Paxton on Twitter

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit our website.

As 2020 draws to a close, and winter is upon us, I start my final episode of the year. Life in the AND is about to rebrAND and expAND. I'm non-binary and non-conventional, I want to bring more of me to the podcast and I'm committed to it not being run of the mill.

In this episode, I reflect on the journey this podcast has taken me on, and the clarity it has given me to move forward as I think about what 2021 holds. I explore what rebranding and expanding means for me, explain what it means to be committed and unattached. I also speak about some of the inspirational guests who have contributed to my podcast so far; Shelly Paxton, Sean Smith, Bex Taylor-Klaus and Niiamah Ashong.

"'AND' is this powerful, expansive word that creates possibility" – Erin Baker

This week on Life in the AND:

• A reflection on my podcast journey
• Is winter a time to slow down or speed up?
• Why it's time to rebrand and expand
• Being committed and unattached
• The power of 'AND'
• Highlights from some of my favorite guests

Connect with my former guests who are in encore in December:

• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Instagram
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Facebook
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Twitter
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Tumblr

• Niiamah Ashong
• Trailblazer Tribe
• Niiamah Ashong on YouTube
• Niiamah Ashong on Instagram
• Niiamah Ashong on LinkedIn

• Sean Smith Website
• Sean Smith on Facebook
• Sean Smith on Twitter
• Sean Smith on YouTube
• Sean Smith on LinkedIn
• Email:[email protected]

• Soulbbatical
• Rebel Souls Podcast
• Book: Sabbatical: A Corporate Rebel's Guide to Finding Your Best Life
• Shelley Paxton on LinkedIn
• Shelley Paxton on Instagram
• Soulbbatical on Facebook
• Shelley Paxton on Twitter

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit my website.

I have been wanting to have Bex Taylor-Klaus on the podcast ever since I decided Life in the And was going to be a thing. Bex - the eldest child of previous guests Elaine and David Taylor-Klaus - is someone whom you may know from their role as Sin in CW's Arrow, Audrey in MTV's Scream, the voice of Pidge in Voltron: Legendary Defenders, or as the non-binary Deputy Brianna Bishop in Fox's procedural drama, Deputy. An "Accidental AND," Bex is a non-binary individual - an identity that we all need to talk more about in society.

In this episode, Bex and I explore what it means to be non-binary and what it looks like in Hollywood. We illustrate Bex's experience with gender & identity as a child and how they discovered the non-binary identity. We elaborate on the non-binary identity's characteristic as a spectrum and explain why it's not about being "in the middle." We emphasize the importance of letting people know that they are not alone and underscore the power of standing in your truth and speaking it.

"You are who you are. Who you are can change, and you can figure it out as you go along." - Bex Taylor-Klaus

This week on Life in the AND:

• Bex's childhood experience and how they discovered the non-binary spectrum
• Why Bex loves Dorothy from Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• How Bex came out as non-binary for the first time during an argument
• The power of knowing and speaking your truth
• Pitching Deputy's Breanna Bishop to Fox TV and why the show means so much to Bex
• Transforming pain and heartache into art and content
• Gatekeeping in the queer community
• What the non-binary spectrum is and why it's not about being "in the middle"
• The superpower of non-binary humans
• How we can become an AND with the pronouns we use and why it's okay to let other people be confused
• Our destiny to make a mark in the world
• Why Bex likes to play characters that make people uncomfortable
• The beauty of our human brains and the squiggly ANDpersand

Resources Mentioned:

• Lessons from Being Complex AND Raising Complex Humans with Elaine Taylor-Klaus
• We Need Our Heads AND Our Hearts with David Taylor-Klaus

Connect with Bex Taylor-Klaus:

• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Instagram
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Facebook
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Twitter
• Bex Taylor-Klaus on Tumblr

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit our website.

David Taylor-Klaus is a brilliant linguist who greatly inspires me. Before founding DTK Coaching, David was CEO of Digital Positions, an internet strategy and web development organization he co-founded. Despite guiding executives to become aware of how values can impact growth, David realized that he wasn't consciously living his life as an entrepreneur, business partner, father, and husband. This insight ultimately led David to found DTK Coaching, through which he reconnects entrepreneurs and senior executives with their families.

Today, David and I explore what it means to live and lead with the head and the heart. We discuss how money can distract us from the things that are important to us and how we can reconnect with our hearts by going deep with our values. David shares the story of how he discovered his life's work and what it means to be a heart-centered leader. We also discuss what "bully values" are and emphasize the power of language to reflect and create how we think of the world.

"There's knowing in one's head and knowing in one's heart. Connect with both, so you don't enter a boxing ring with one arm tied behind your back" - David Taylor-Klaus

This week on Life in the AND:

• Getting caught up in the human doing and away from human being
• Woo-woo spiritual coaching and how David helps entrepreneurs reconnect with their families
• The importance of reconnecting with the heart first and how our mind blocks our connection with the heart
• David's story, the undercurrent to his life's work, and how he discovered that he needed to reconnect with his heart
• The isolating power of entrepreneurship and what makes an empowered environment conducive to change
• What it means to be a heart-centered leader
• Money as an agreed-upon fiction and how it gets in the way of letting the heart drive impact
• Time, community, family, spirituality, and other currencies that truly measure our success
• How values can connect us to what truly matters
• What aspirational, competing, and bully values are and how you can make values work for you
• Value conflicts in our political divides and how recent events amplified our need to question what's important
• Words create worlds and how the power of AND creates possibility
• The ability of language to let us see and create how we think
• The impact of knowing in your heart and how it's different from knowing in your head

Related Content:

• In a World of Either/Or, How Do We Create an AND? With Sean Smith

Connect with David Taylor-Klaus:

• DTK Coaching
• David Taylor-Klaus on LinkedIn
• David Taylor-Klaus on Facebook
• David Taylor-Klaus on Twitter
• David Taylor-Klaus on Pinterest
• David Taylor-Klaus on Vimeo
• BOOK: Mindset Mondays with DTK: 52 Ways to REWIRE Your Thinking and Transform Your Life by David Taylor-Klaus & Laurie Shiers

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit my website.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus is a professional certified parenting coach, speaker, and author of The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids with ADHD, Anxiety, and More. For most of her life, Elaine struggled with attention and learning issues, and when she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 40, everything made sense to her. This realization later led her to earning a coaching certification, co-founding Impact Parents, and dedicating her life to helping parents raise complex children with ADHD, anxiety, and learning disabilities.

In this episode, Elaine and I discuss what it's like to live a life with undiagnosed ADHD and reveal the three powerful words that could change your life. We explain how coaching can be an effective tool in managing ADHD despite its difference from therapy and why Elaine teaches parents coaching tools to help raise complex children. We also explore how the brain is an AND, and illustrate how taking care of our children starts with having compassion for ourselves.

"The notion that any of us have a singular experience is absurd. To be human is to always be in some complexity of navigating this and that." - Elaine Taylor-Klaus

This week on Life in the AND:

• A life with ADHD and how Elaine didn't realize she had it until she was 40
• The former stigmatizing name of ADHD and how girls were never diagnosed with it
• What it was like for Elaine to live a life with undiagnosed ADHD
• Three powerful words that could change your life
• How coaching is a philosophy different from therapy and why it's effective in managing chronic conditions
• Radical acceptance and the foundation of coaching and its language
• Why Elaine trains parents in fundamental coaching skills to empower complex children
• Lawnmower parenting and the coach approach to life
• The ripple effect of self-love and self-compassion
• Using the "Up Until Now" mindset to live a more authentic life
• Expanding Impact ADHD to Impact Parents
• The paradox of control

Resources Mentioned:

• Women with Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life by Sari Solden, 2nd Edition
• Nowhere to Hide: Why Kids with ADHD and LD Hate School and What We Can Do About It by Jerome Schultz

Related Content:

• It's Time to Replace "Reach Your Potential" with an AND
• I Control My Destiny and So Does "The Universe"

Connect with Elaine Taylor-Klaus:

• Impact Parents
• Impact Parents on LinkedIn
• Impact Parents on Instagram
• Impact Parents on Facebook
• Impact Parents on Twitter
• Elaine Taylor-Klaus on LinkedIn
• BOOK: The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids with ADHD, Anxiety, and More: What Parents & Teachers Really Need to Know to Empower Complicated Kids with Confidence and Calm

Embrace Life in the AND

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Life in the AND, the podcast helping you embrace the AND in your life to cultivate more authenticity, creativity, inclusiveness, and love in every area of the world around you. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share your favorite episodes across social media. And for more great content and information, be sure to visit my website.