The Discomfort Practice with Betsy Reed

In this episode, I chat with the Founder & CEO of IONATE, inventor Matthew Williams. He is a systems architect by nature, mechatronic engineer by education, design leader and facilitator by passion. Having spent his career in the front seat of global systems-engineering companies, Matthew is equipped with a unique insight on how to build the most efficient electrical systems. Sustainability and where we get our energy from is increasingly important to our survival and thriving on this planet, because we can't continue to run on the type of resources that we've used for power in the past.

Matthew is originally from Australia. And early on, he recognized the technological disconnect between power grids and energy transition, basically getting away from fossil fuels. So his mission for the past 10 years has been to tackle this challenge. Matthew and his team at IONATE are building the technology backbone of a productive, decentralized and decarbonized power system of the future. Matthew is on his way to be the OG of the new way we create and run the power grid. As well as sharing uncomfortable moments in his business and personal life, Matthew shares an empowering outlook on how he deals with public speaking, failures and setbacks. Stay tuned for his inspiring story and so much more.

Key Points Discussed:

• The discomfort in Matthew's childhood from being an introvert and choosing a customer service role to confront his struggle has helped him in later life with public speaking (5:17)
• How Matthew uses his understanding of the amygdala (the brain almond): and that the physiological response to fear, anxiety and excitement is the same to help with his public speaking (8:16)
• Overcoming business failures and how that's helped him shape the success of his new business Ionate (11:13)
• The technology Matthew and his team have invented to create a functional way to deal with the worldwide issue of utilizing renewable energy and overcoming the issues of connecting it to the grid (18:24)
• How the technology is also about bringing down energy bill costs (24:47)
• How an early life lesson from his father about dealing with setbacks in a less emotional, more rational approach has been an inspiration for him (27:37)
• How a combination of a good engineering brain, a planned approach and also passion for creating change helps him overcome nervousness or fear that he encounters (42:32)

Connect with Matthew:

• Matthew on Linkedin
• Ionate Website

Connect with Betsy:

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

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In this solo episode I 'think out loud' about what has been coming up for me during a time of stress and anxiety, as I transition from one stage of life to the unknown of the next. Prompted by a recent podcast episode by Shaman Durek on 'witnessing all parts of ourselves,' I ask myself and you, the listener, questions like:

• What do you default to when you're anxious?
• What parts of your shadow side does stress bring up to be recognised and healed?
• How can you treat the parts of yourself you DON'T love the way you would a small child who's just learning a skill, instead of punishing that part?

I then tell you what I intend to do instead to interrupt my narrative, my perfectionist tendencies and my meanness to myself when my current stress brings up things I want to stuff down or punish. I take you through a process I teach (and will be practicing more), based on the science of building habits (because we all function the same way on this) to mindfully recognise, interrupt, practice (think or act differently) and reset our shadowy narratives and habits.

So settle yourself in and listen to me process out loud. I hope this is helpful for you too, as you hear my very real, very current process. It's uncomfortable for me to go through, and to share publicly, but that's my own Discomfort Practice and I welcome you to share yours with me on social media or by contacting me at [email protected]! Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a 5-star and written review on this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps me to reach new listeners and, hopefully, to reach someone on exactly the right day with exactly what they needed to hear. Let me know what you think of this episode and others!

In this episode, I chat with Leadership Coach and Founder of Inspire My Day – Tiffany Cheng. Tiffany shares what she learned from growing up in China and the disappointment she felt from her parents; who left her with her grandparents because she was not a boy. We talk about the work/life culture difference she has found living in Belgium, and the discomfort of juggling her corporate goal led career path and family life and how that ultimately didn't work. Tiffany shares how leaving corporate life very recently has already brought her into a place of living a more abundant and empowered life, even as she's still establishing herself (and getting used to the different pace and tasks) as an entrepreneur.

Tiffany helps senior leaders overcome influencing decisions and communications to drive change at work; so they can achieve their business goals, realize their career purpose, grow personally and accomplish what they set out to achieve. She shares a compelling backstory on what led her to leave corporate life in order to pursue her passion and launch her business Inspire My Day. Stay tuned for her inspiring story and so much more.

Key Points Discussed:

• The discomfort in Tiffany's childhood, which helped shape who she is. (4:27)
• Living in China and finding role models in powerful American women (14:08)
• Experiencing the difference in work ethics between China and Europe, whilst working at Volvo (20:09)
• Landing Tiffany's dream job that she had envisaged 16 years prior, and the discomfort that it brought: taking her away from her family (25:06)
• Leaving comfort of corporate life to launch her dream business (29:33)
• The struggles of being an entrepreneur (44:11)
• What Tiffany's business Inspire My Day is all about (46:41)
• Why making 10 year plans in business is important (1:09:36)

Connect with Tiffany:

• Tiffany's Website
• Tiffany on Linkedin

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I am super excited to welcome back, Traver Boehm. This is his second time in this podcast - and that is because he is awesome (which you will discover when you listen). Traver founded the UNcivilized men's movement, and is inspiring millions of men around the world to shift their experience of masculinity by combining the primal masculine with the divine masculine, combining strength and consciousness.

He's the author of the books, Today I Rise, and ManUNcivilized. UNcivilized is about harnessing the inherent primal power and leadership of men and coupling it with the deeply conscious divine masculine. Traver is a specimen of 'classic masculinity,' as a former CrossFit gym owner and an MMA fighter, but he's also a licensed acupuncturist who does yoga and meditates. So I'd say he's a balanced man.

Our conversation is largely unscripted and it took us to uncomfortable yet beautiful and timely topics. Traver talks about the need for people, especially men, to find connection and shares insights on how men can find healing and support, which is not something society says they usually get to have access to. We talk about one of his focus topics - what "The Nice Guy" looks like and why "Killing the Nice Guy" is important.

Curious? Good. Join us in this exciting, uncomfortable, and high-value conversation. I hope it ignites a fire within to step into your true self and let it ripple out to be part of the healing this world needs. Send it to men you know and keep the conversation going.

Key Points Discussed:

• Traver's recent experience in Costa Rica and other incidents that made him realize how fragile life can be and that people need help, especially with mental health (02:52)
• Killing the nice guy (11:16)
• The need for men to reach for connection under challenging times (14:30)
• Taking out the things that stop you from being magical and powerful (16:39)
• What to do to help people, especially men, who are still on track to break themselves (21:42)
• People need time and a chance to repair the trauma brought by the recent pandemic (27:55)
• Why do people not feel like they don't have permission to change the things that are quite self-destructive(30:28)
• How can men be with the discomfort to want to change, process it, and where they go from there (33:03)
• How men can find that safe support (38:46)
• Getting back to what's real (43:21)
• The Nice Guy (45:35)
• The covert contracts (51:21)
• Why kill the Nice Guy (55:52)
• Traver's discomfort running buddies (1:03:35)
• Imagine how it would feel to have people around to support you on a shitty day (1:08:20)
• Connection is even more valuable right now (1:10:37)
• Believe (1:13:01)

Resources Mentioned:

• Man UNcivilized
• Today I Rise by Traver Boehm
• Man UNcivilized by Traver Boehm
• The UNcivilized Podcast with Traver Boehm

Connect with Traver:

• Traver's website
• Traver on Instagram
• Traver on YouTube

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this solo episode, I warmly welcome you to Season 4 of the Discomfort Practice podcast. As always, in this new season, you will find conversations with creatives, activists, leaders, scientists and a host of others about conscious discomfort, the role it's played in their lives and the value of discomfort in us moving forward as a society. But what's going to be a new 'take' on discomfort – and something I'm really excited about this season – is that it is likely to be a little more raw and unscripted. It will include interviews with those I consider the pioneers of discomfort and solo episodes which dive into the stories of my own heroes of discomfort, as well as more about my own personal journey and thoughts. As always, I'll aim to model that embracing discomfort and choosing not to be 'good' can instead free you to bring something great to the world. As someone who deeply values and pursues consciousness and healing, I want to bring that to you, and to the world. So settle yourselves in and let's get uncomfortable this season. I hope it's a pleasure…

Key Points Discussed:

• How the Discomfort Practice was born out the discomfort of Covid lockdown. (0:12)
• Season Four's focus on the OGs of discomfort: the pioneers. Interviews with Betsy's modern-day heroes; as well as delving into the stories of past heroes. (3:24)
• Betsy delves into her past and her own discomfort journey. (3:38)
• Society tells us we need to be good, but what about if we reject the idea of being good, in order to fulfill our greatness. (8:15)
• This season will be a little more raw, unfiltered and unscripted. (9:21)

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

As with all of my solo episodes of The Discomfort Practice, in thise one I share what's on my mind just now, and it's the most personal I've gotten yet. In fact, I even get a bit weepy.I talk about walking into The Void - the shapeless, undefined unknown in which all things are unclear. It's a bit anxiety-inducing at times, but it's also the place where evolution and transformation take place. I don't know when my time in this current iteration of The Void is going to be end, but I am certain that I will flow out of it when I or whatever is being shaped for me is ready.

So click 'play,' settle in for a few breaths with me and take a brief moment out of your day to listen, to feel, to let this land with you. And if you yourself are in The Void, know that you're not alone. We are going through a collective awakening, so there are many of us there. And it's going to end well…

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and let me and others know what you got out of it. Don't forget to tune into my other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I sit are with someone who has truly 'walked his talk' - and is still walking it in a very impactful way. Paul Dunnis a four times TEDx speaker and was one of the first 10 People in Hewlett Packard Australia. After starting at HP - one of Australia's first computer companies - he founded the Results Corporation, where he's worked with more than23,000 businesses. He's been honoured as a Social Innovation Fellow in his current home of Singapore, featured in Forbes magazine with Sir Richard Branson as a 'disrupter in business' and written several books, including one called The Firm Of The Future, which is widely regarded as one of the most important of its type ever written.

His unique business development programs are nowused by an estimated 226,000 companies in the world. Paul is not one to let the grass grow under his feet, so he'sspending his "retirement years" enabling other leaders, business owners, and enterprises to define their purpose. Paul now serves as the Chairman of the consultancy firm, B1G1, enabling businesses to connect and give back in new ways, and creating over 289 million giving impacts globally.

We talk about the role of leaders and employees infacilitating transformational change, creating positive impact on the world and helping to put purpose at the heart of the companies that they lead and work for. Paul also explained what a "Giving Impact" is and how it works, so listen in for that.

This is a jam-packed episode, full of beautiful ideas about how people like us can transform the world and the world of business, so tune in now and enjoy.

Key Points Discussed:

• Paul's shaping moments with Jim Rohn where he made a transition from his job leading to what he's doing now (05:44)
• Connection, meaning, and purpose (17:09)
• Purpose higher than ourselves leads us to thrive (23:11)
• It's how we show up (27:25)
• Learning takes place at the edge of chaos (31:12)
• What is a Giving Impact (32:23)
• The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world (40:46)
• More about giving impacts and the people involved (45:29)
• Democratizing the whole giving process (49:08)
• Filtering the people you work with (51:27)
• Being an "actionist" (55:59)
• Having a more emphatic, intuitive, and creative leadership (1:02:18)
• Rewilding yourself (1:05:25)
• What excited Paul about the future (1:07:46)
• What makes your future become more powerful than your past (1:10:10)

Resources Mentioned:

• Paul Dunn in B1G1
• B1G1: Business For Good
• The Firm Of The Future by Paul Dunn
• Teeming by Tamsin Wooley-Barker
• Nicola Sturgeon

Connect with Paul:

• Paul on LinkedIn

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, my guest is someone whose work I have followed for a while and am always impressed by. She's also part of a 'power couple' I admire deeply. Kim Polman is an international public speaker, a polymath, and a citizen of the world. She's an American by birth, has lived all over the world and has lived in London (where she's now based) for many years.

She's been an environmentalist for decades, has taught music and is vice chair of a charity dedicated to literacy for blind and visually impaired children in East Africa. But, most importantly for the focus of our interview here, Kim is an avid advocate of the Golden Rule, 'treating others and the planet as you would wish to be treated.' In 2016, she and Stephen Vasconcellos-Sharpe invited 25 of the world's most respected leaders and thinkers, like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Vice President Al Gore, to talk about Golden-Rule roadmaps for business and government.

In our conversation, we focus on what the Golden Rule means for leaders - and in real life for everyday people. Kim talks about the ripple effect of 'doing to others what you would want done to you' in the world of work and in the world. We touch on the value of connection and interconnectedness and how that flavours any action we take. Kim unpacks the discomfort of change through the metaphor of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. It's messy and a little bit gross… but the end is worth it.So, join us as we reflect together on what happens when the Golden Rule guides a leader or a business, and how it is exactly what we all need to shift our thinking, our behavior and the world around us. Because we are all connected and any individual can make a difference.

Key Points Discussed:

• How everyday life news brought discomfort to Kim that inspired her in her journey (05:10)
• The simplicity of the golden rule that cuts through the world's complexity (08:20)
• The hunger among leaders to embrace the golden rule (12:44)
• How the golden rule emerge as Kim's guiding principle (15:24)
• The personal becoming public (16:56)
• Work communication guiding rule: Kindness first (20:01)
• The appreciation that we are all connected and giving empathy and compassion (22:03)
• A Marshal Plan for the environment (23:51)
• The need for balance (25:17)
• The necessary discomfort of knitting together and activating the imaginal cells (27:48)
• What are you feeling hearing this principle (31:00)
• It's the storm before the calm, and you are not alone in this greater desire for connection, walk on (34:22)
• How to apply the golden rule today (35:58)
• The awareness that the old way of doing things just isn't working anymore and coming with a new way of thinking (41:32)
• The importance of being rather than merely doing (47:39)
• Surviving the lockdowns and learning lessons from the experience (53:07)

Resources Mentioned:

• Reboot The Future
• Reboot The Future Facebook Page

Connect with Kim:

• Kim on Reboot The Future
• Kim on Twitter

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

I've been on a roll with solo episodes, after admitting they are part of my discomfort practice. And then I met the summer 2022 heatwave in Europe. Barcelona summers are usually brutal, but this one has been particularly rough. But it's also been quite clarifying. Having very little energy creates utility: what do I actually want to put my energy into?

Extreme weather, discomfort, pressure - all of these can be forces to help each of us clarify what really matters and let go of the things that we're tired of putting subconscious effort or energy into. For me, that's meant realising some of the grudges or bitterness I've been holding onto and asking myself 'Do I really have energy for this?' The answer has been a resounding no, so I talk about the rituals I build into my calendar regularly to give myself space to let go of whatever comes up to be let go of so I can imagine and step into the most magical, joyful version of my life possible.

So, join me and, as you listen, see what comes up for you that you're ready to stop tripping over to make space for the truly great life you can lead.

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and share what you've loved about it. Don't forget to tune into my other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!

Back due to popular demand, here's a bonus meditation for you. I lead you through a meditation on the question 'What do I need to give myself?' Whether you're tired and stressed or feeling fine it's a great question to ask yourself regularly. Because as the great RuPaul says (I love drag queens, so here you go): 'Honey if you can't love yourself how the hell you gonna love someone else?' EXACTLY. So, join me in this special meditation episode to find out - and then give yourself - what you need.

Key Points Discussed:

• Getting into a meditation position - standing, sitting, lying down, etc. (00:41)
• Getting present with what's going on with your body and mind (01:32)
• Thinking about what you need to give yourself (03:18)
• Thinking about what is getting in the way (04:18)
• Giving yourself what you need (05:43)

Connect with Betsy:

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

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!