No matter how large or small the company, the characteristics, emotional intelligence, and general mood of the leader inevitably impacts the entire operation. In fact, that correlation between the mood of the leader (CEO, president, owner, etc.) and the bottomline performance of the company has been proven in several studies. Pascal Renders has been at the forefront of this type of work, as a consultant for large corporations, particularly in his years in Belgium, where he garnered a reputation for getting deep and personal with business leaders to address areas of struggle. A transpersonal psychotherapist, Pascal believes in a holistic view of addressing systemic problems within organizations and that if you do not deal with the deep underlying issues, behavioral patterns of company leaders will continue no matter how an organization may shake up personnel or its structure. This is one of the most interesting conversations I have had in regard to leadership, which is a topic we often delve into on the podcast. It's definitely worth the listen! Also in this episode, we cover: "bad bosses," the ineffectiveness of typical corporate approaches to instilling values and company culture, compartmentalizing and the pitfalls of it, catastrophic team-building sessions, respect for employees, challenging his future wife, Alexandra, to align her company with her own values, discovering a new modality to address trauma, Pascal's work with individuals and couples, the mind vs. the brain, family constellations, generational trauma, emotional intelligence, HeartMath, his organization United Inner States of Freedom, bringing the best out of people and much more.I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Pascal Renders.

Pascal's bio:

A native of Belgium, Pascal is a dynamic, multi-lingual professional well versed in a wide variety of business functions. For the past 12 years, as Founder and CEO of Quantumize, Pascal has provided executive and life coaching to a broad range of companies and individuals throughout Europe and the US. His clients are family offices, and companies in the banking, insurance, and investment management industries. He has also worked with companies in the retail, food, luxury goods, leisure, and cosmetics industries. Earlier, Pascal was an Operations and General Manager for companies in the food and leisure, and HR and consulting industries. He began his professional life as a Start-Up and Business Development Manager for a Brussels-based family owned business invested in the leisure industry.
Pascal completed training in Systematic Coaching, Destination Coaching Methodology, Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Systemic Constellation Work, Body-Oriented Trauma Resolution, and is an accredited practitioner of HeartMath, Insights Discovery, Emotional and Social Competence Indicator, and the Birth into Being Method.

After graduating from St Jan Berchmans, a renowned Jesuit High School in Brussels, Pascal also earned a combined BA/MA in English-Spanish Translation from the University of Brussels and holds an Executive MBA from Antwerp Management School (AMS).

www.innerstatesoffreedom.com.

Sure, Carrie Wright appeared on the podcast to plug the Berkshire Art Center (formerly IS183) annual Gala, Metallic Couture Disco, Saturday April 1st, but we certainly had to cover more ground than that. We started from the beginning when Carrie "grew up" on Bousquet Mountain, then went on Colorado State, and continued her journey on various ski mountains with a core group of friends, including her future husband, Bill. An artist herself, Carrie has been one of the most visible organizers and advocates in the Berkshire arts scene, including her work in the 10x10 festivals and, of course, her work supporting IS183. After the pandemic disruption, she reinvented herself and became a licensed realtor. At first, she feared that her new role would diminish her ability to give back to the community, as she did when she worked in the non-profit world. Turns out that this was not the case, and Carrie feels like she's able to do more than ever to support others. Also in this episode we cover: Carrie's sing-talking with her kids and a demonstration in the episode, the photo and video events before the event to promote past IS183 galas, DJ Ryan Brown, the different ways to pronounce Palmer's variety store on Elm St., Bill and son Pilot's Instagram reviews of tin fish and more.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Carrie Wright.

For the love of the game. Steve Kotski has dedicated himself, not only as a Dad and coach, but as the president of the National League division of Pittsfield Little League. For him, his passion was solidified back when he was a kid as a baseball and hockey player rising through the ranks and forging lasting friendships and a solid work ethic. Today, he works to instill those values in the players on his team and in the 9-12 year olds throughout the league. And at the same time, in a day in age when Little League has become quite competitive, it's important to make sure the kids have fun! In this episode, we cover: the specialization of youth sports vs. playing multiple sports throughout the year, the different characteristics of the American and National divisions in Pittsfield Little League, maintaining fields and the volunteers and coaches who do it (including Steve), tryouts for Little League (they're coming up this weekend!), the culture of travel teams, all-star teams, the Jimmy Fund tournament, 1791 and Pittsfield as the home of baseball, teaching resilience in kids and getting back up and swinging again after striking out, advice for parents and coaches, drills for parents to help kids with mechanics, Steve's wife Amy's role in supporting the team and league, and her amazing business Designer Consigner at the Allendale Underground, the return of Legion ball, Lou Orazio and the success of the Berkshire Adult Baseball League, and much more!

I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Steve Kotski.

It was a concept that brought so much joy to their own family on vacations in the past, Heather and Jeff King knew that it was a business ripe for success in the Berkshires. After nearly three years open, a second location and further expansion into other locations, Shire Donuts just continues to put smiles on the faces of happy customers. And why not? Who doesn't love a great donut? It's just one of the recent ventures that Heather and Jeff have taken together after decades of working the traditional salaried 40-hour per week jobs. The other, being real estate, came when they were nudged along by their friends and colleagues Jay and Jennifer Nocher. True to form, Heather and Jeff work as a team leading with their own particular strengths as they focus on building long-term relationships for buyers and sellers. As they look to expand Shire into other retail locations, they are also considering the move into south county, and Great Barrington, in particular. We also cover in this episode: managing customer service with, often, long lines of customers (especially when the shops first opened), quality control "Heather-approved" donuts and training their workers ("donut artists), the product marketing and selling itself through social media and world-of-mouth, Heather and Jeff's first date at Ye Olde Forge, the dynamics of the current real estate market, tricks to keep donuts fresh after purchase (hint: it includes a container and a piece of bread), the value proposition of being open just three days per week, Dunkin' and Donut Man, expanding offerings of coffee with their partner Currency Coffee, working with their daughters Lauren and Chloe and more.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jeff and Heather King.

Merging the mission of her company into full alignment with her authentic true self took a powerful leap of faith. This was a particularly bold move in the no-nonsense profit-driven industry of financial advising. But, for Alexandra Dest Renders, "it was time to get real." Those were the words of her husband, and business coach, Pascal Renders, who threw down the gauntlet and challenged her. In spite of more than three decades of great success in her industry, Alexandra was still "fragmented" and her business didn't truly reflect herself as an individual who is "deeply sentient, highly intuitive, and very sensitive to other humans." Today, her firm Willow Investments for Loving Change stands on her core values. She believes that "capitalism is not only ripe for a change but it is necessary for the well-being of humanity." That's a far cry from the classic Gordon Gekko "greed is good" philosophy, which we discuss in this episode. We also cover: the masks that are often worn in the corporate and business world, particularly on Wall Street, being vulnerable, following your inner compass, Alexandra's early professional successes and being a "closet" intuitive, quietly combining her analytical and psychic abilities, the launching on her new newsletter the "Economic Intuitive," the continuing weakening of the dollar (petro dollar), the emerging importance of local community sustainability, the ongoing challenges in the housing market amid the high cost of building materials, the spiritual experience in Grand Central Station that led her to the Berkshires, her journey from a diagnosis of MS to full health utilizing natural healing, taking the leap into starting her own business years ago, her vision for leadership and the partnership with her husband, Pascal, helping develop more leaders, and much more. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Alexandra Dest Renders.