The Discomfort Practice with Betsy Reed

In this episode, I'll be sitting down with Ben Bowen, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Shared Path Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation in Australia. Shared Path is a social enterprise that aims to incubate indigenous entrepreneurial talent and business skills. They develop small enterprises and micro-businesses to use as training grounds for indigenous people to develop their own capacity and their own enterprises. That enables indigenous communities to positively impact social issues and achieve economic independence through business development and community capacity. Access to tech and skill in working with it also gives them the freedom to stay on their ancestral land, rather than having to relocate to cities to find work.

Ben is an indigenous Australian whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of what's now known as Sydney's inner west. He has been a professional athlete, a corporate coach and facilitator, and a designer of innovative health and education programs. Ben will share the Shared Path backstory and talk about some of the embedded biases in the tech industry that affect indigenous communities, the indigenous success model (and what we can learn from it to ensure much needed collective change), and the opportunities and empowerment that technology has been bringing to indigenous communities who are adopting it (Like language preservation and remote access to jobs). Stay tuned for that and so much more.

Key Points Discussed:

• The standout moments that changed his life and now drive who he is and what he does in the world (04:25)
• Promoting the meaningful education of indigenous kids so they can take advantage of local opportunities to grow their communities (06:25)
• How the idea for Shared Path was conceived and how they have leveraged technology to achieve their mission (10:35)
• Helping the wider community rediscover relevant and valuable but forgotten indigenous wisdom (16:48)
• Why it's critical to free ourselves from the systems that make it more difficult to change and be adaptable (22:01)
• The massive impact of bias in tech on indigenous communities (24:22)
• Technology to the rescue: How indigenous communities are continuously empowered by the technologies that they adopt (31:44)
• Riding the Covid wave to better represent indigenous communities and link them with the rest of the world regardless of their location (36:40)
• Employing technology to facilitate cultural preservation (41:15)
• Reflecting, Inspiring, and Growing: The power of the indigenous success model (46:29)
• Seeing past our deficit and bias to see indigenous communities as who they really are (50:44)

Connect with Ben Bowen:

• Ben on LinkedIn
• Ben on Twitter

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

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If you haven't checked out the first half of this conversation, go back to episode 44; it really lays the groundwork for this one. It's all about how we manage conversations in which we can disagree without having to hate each other. Connect with Adam & find out more about Tula on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamnosal/

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Check out episode 45 for the second part of this conversation, focusing on Adam's tech startup & mission to help people make tech more human.

Find Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed to get more info about Adam and Tula

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Dive into this season, explore past episodes and join Betsy in exploring the usefulness of discomfort.

Find Betsy on Instagram and Twitter @thebetsyreed Share this podcast with other people!

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The Discomfort Practice will be taking August off, so catch up on episodes you haven't listened to yet, get some rest yourself and tune in for Season 3, launching in September.

Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed

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Betsy and Nicole talk about somatics, neuroscience, trauma and discomfort and Betsy does a bit of somatic experiencing herself.

Find Nicole on IG @nlohse and Betsy @thebetsyreed

In this Discomfort Running Buddies chat with Betsy's IRL friend, voiceover artist Jen Carr (who's also a mindful eating coach), they talk about stepping into their gifts, what it took to give themselves permission to use their voices and speak up in the world, and how following what's easy has taken them amazing places.

They shoot the shit on vocal technique, the value of breathing, power poses and other juicy nuggets on how to unleash your voice and personal power on the world.

Find Jen's voice on the Passport podcast. She's on IG @mindandplate Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed

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Betsy & Marilise talk about lessons in submissive & dominant power via pro dominatrix Kasia Urbaniak's book 'Unbound,' when life shows you you're 'climbing the wrong mountain' the power of being able to ask for help. Mmm, juicy.

Marilise's Tedx talk from June 2021 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za6AMABaBtA You can find her on IG @marilisebasson Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed

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Find Chitra on IG @chitrasthings Betsy is @thebetsyreed

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She also invites listeners to contribute to the planning of Season 3, launching in September and focused on the discomfort and inspiration of 'stepping into the new human experience.'

Get in touch if you like: [email protected] / IG @thebetsyreed