Latest / PCMA Convene Podcast / Interview: The Quiet Advantage: Why Presence Is an Event Leader's Greatest Competitive Edge
Transcript
- Convene Podcast Transcript Convene Interview, ep. 33 *Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast. Today, we're exploring why presence may be one of the most powerful and overlooked leadership skills in today's fast-moving, always-connected world. My guest is Jesse Israel, a five-time Audible worldwide bestselling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of The Big Quiet. He has led some of the largest meditations on earth, worked with leaders ranging from CEOs and senior White House advisors to Grammy and Academy Award winners, and recently delivered a keynote at PCMA's Business Events Summit. In this conversation, we discuss how event professionals can navigate uncertainty, make better decisions under pressure, and create environments where teams and attendees thrive. We also explore why quiet and mindfulness are more than personal wellness practices. They are practical leadership tools that can help us cut through noise, build stronger organizations, and design more meaningful event experiences. We start now. Hi Jessie and welcome to the Convene Podcast. Such an honor. Jesse Israel: Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. Magdalina Atanassova: Tell me before the Be Quiet. You built a successful career in the music industry, signing platinum artists and leading a record label. Now, when you're looking back, how did your own experiences with anxiety change your definition of success and eventually your understanding of leadership? Jesse Israel: When I started my record label, I was 20 years old. I was a sophomore at NYU, so my roommate and I started that the label together and it was really this project. There was a band that was making music at Wesleyan College called MGMT. No one had heard of them at the time and we decided that we would all come together and figure out how to put their music out to the world. None of us knew what we were doing, but the band was really talented and they had their song Kids, which you might know and listeners might know. At the time nobody knew except for students on campus at Wesleyan University and they were playing the song Kids at parties, you know, 10 times in a row. So we saw that there was something there and we wound up learning really just by trying. And after a few years of a lot of challenge, the band really took off and our label took off. So I found myself graduating college as, you know, a young man in my 20s, having really just run a full time business while also being a student. And in my early 20s I was having panic attacks and I didn't really know what those were. I didn't really understand the concept of burnout. For me, I've always had, I'd probably say a more sensitive system. But being in the music industry and you know, all the concerts and the late nights and the deal making and just the constant Pushing and that that kind of relentless grind for me was really challenging. So I was ultimately in this place where I was young. I had this kind of cool, sexy, growing business, but I didn't feel well inside and I didn't look well either. So to answer your question, I had this thing that looked really successful, but it wasn't allowing me to appreciate and enjoy my life and feel good. As I moved through my life, it was a really important moment for me to look at. Is this worth it? Or is there. Is there another way I can be doing it? Because I really felt called to building this business and to signing bands and sharing music that made the world a brighter place. But it wasn't worth it if. If I was experiencing what I was experiencing with my health and my mental health. So for me, I knew that if I was going to step into my best leadership and really bring the best of who I was to my work and to this mission at the time, I needed to find other ways to do it because the way that I was working wasn't working. And I think that's actually the case for a lot of people. So it pushed me to look at other ways to navigate my work in the world. Magdalina Atanassova: I love the fact that you didn't just quit, you didn't just say, it's not worth it, something wrong with what I'm doing, but rather you decided to look inside and see why things are not clicking, so to say. And by the way, what an awesome band to start with. I mean, I don't know if our. Our listeners know kids, but I think I'll link it in the show notes and you have to correct that. So tell me, many people think of quiet as really the absence of activity, and especially I think in our case, in the events world, and you've built an entire movement around it. What do you think we're fundamentally misunderstood about quiet. Jesse Israel: Yeah. For context, for listeners. What I'll quickly say is that when I learned about the power of meditation and I started bringing meditation to my work in the music industry, so specifically being at really, really, really loud, intense, like some of the loudest places on earth music festivals, I would find moments where I could slip away from the crowd and close my eyes and reconnect with myself and go into these moments of stillness While there were 10 stages blasting music and, you know, hundreds of thousands of drunk people running around, the sun beating down and everybody's screaming. And there was something really powerful about creating quiet in the face of all of this noise. You know, I felt like I Was I was able to become the eye of the storm in these, you know, these places of chaos. And it really helped me when I would go back to the music festival and networking and working with the bands and enjoying the music, I felt like a different person. And I was able to last late into the night, clear and energized, because I took space even within a really chaotic environment to refuel myself. So this is a big part of what I speak about and what my work is about today. So your question around, you know, how might we look at quiet differently and find value in quiet? You know, for me, it starts with understanding that we can create quiet anywhere and it doesn't matter how loud or how chaotic something is. And for so many of us, the noise is really loud today that with the right tools, with the right strategies, and with the right permission, we can bring micro moments or more extended moments of quiet into our lives, into our work, into the ways that we lead with our families, with our teams, before meetings, on our own. Right? There's so much of it that's available to us if we start to think outside of the box and learn how to implement it. But what I really liked about what you said is we think of quiet as something that is more passive. And what I've grown to really love about speaking about the power of quiet, or more specifically, how to quiet and cut through noise, which is what so much of my work as a speaker is about, is that you've got the maybe what we think of as more passive forms of quiet stillness practices, solo time, or micro moments of solo time, changing our relationship with our devices so we can control them instead of having them control us. Right? So some of that might kind of fall more into that and a passive space of quiet, but there's this whole other world of how we quiet noise that's actually active. That's actually the stuff that I get most excited to talk about today. And I'll just give you a quick example. When the noise in our heads gets really loud, which is the one that I think so many of us are dealing with today, and what I mean by that is the self doubt, the overthinking, the imposter syndrome, the worry, the comparison to others, the not enoughness, you know, the stories that we tell ourselves and to keep us small, to keep us safe, when that noise gets really loud again, like it is for so many of us today, what I've seen is the best way to quiet that noise is actually not necessarily passive. Quiet practices like meditation, the best way to Quiet. The noise in our heads when it gets really loud is through connection with other people. It's through being of service in the work that we do and the ways that we show up in the world. It's through assigning meaning to why we're here and to our roles and to our tasks and to our work. When we can assign meaning to something greater than ourselves, we find a strength within ourselves that allows us to cut through noise. I think unlike anything, right? So these are just a couple of quick examples, but it's really about how do we balance the passive quiet that we need to give ourselves permission, that requires discipline to practice, and then the active quiet for. For. For quieting noise so we can really cut through what's coming at us today. Magdalina Atanassova: I really love it. And really to really shush that voice of saying that we're not enough by proving through action is really makes so much sense, right? When we prove to ourselves we are big enough and we can do all these things we can imagine, then what proof that does that little voice have in our heads? Jesse Israel: Oh, true. And that voice really quiets down when it's not the only voice that we're talking to, right? If we isolate, if we push ourselves away, if we keep things inside, like so many of us tend to do when our fight or flight response goes on, right. It's a form of survival, of protecting ourselves. So we isolate. I still do it often myself. And when that happens, it's just us with that one voice. But when we step into connection, right? When we choose connection with other people, when we work within cultures that are able to give a feeling or texture of belonging, right? When collaboration and service is built into what we do, there are other voices. There are positive voices. You know, there are collaborative voices. There are voices that hear us, that reflect things back differently. And that's when the voice in our heads quiets down. And that's also when what's possible really expands. Magdalina Atanassova: And you made me think of really the workplace today. Those successful workplaces have leaders who show us by example how to cut through the noise. What good practices have you seen of good leaders? You know, building those great work cultures that just help you, help you see more of you. Jesse Israel: I love that question. Specifically Usain leaders that help you see more of yourself. This is so important. You know, the way that I like to think about my work through helping people. Quiet noise is that when we quiet the noise, we can hear who we really are and we can bring the best of who we are into our workplace, to our teams, to the people we lead to, the people that we report to. Right. Ultimately in service of our organization, but also of our customers and our families, our communities. Right? This stuff, as we get clear about who we are, if that's through our own leadership, through self leadership, if that's the people that lead us, as we get clear about who we are, we can bring the best of who we are to our work and to our lives. So to answer your question, one of my favorite practices that I see great leaders do, that I also talk about in my keynotes and in my work, when it comes to quieting noise, is this concept of activating the zone of genius in yourself and in the people that you lead. And Gay Hendricks initially came up with the term, it kind of put my own spin on Gay's thinking around the zone of genius. The way that I like to look at the zone of genius is it's the sweet spot. It's the intersection of what you're uniquely good at that feeds you energy when you do it, and also serves a needle. It's that trifecta, what you're uniquely good at, what gives you energy when you do it, what serves a need. We've all got multiple zones of genius. And we've got em in our work lives, we've got em in our personal lives. What I've seen is that we perform at our best. We have our greatest levels of capacity. We're most likely to experience resilience that allows us to cut through noise and uncertainty. Right when fear and uncertainty gets heaviest, we tend to get small. But if we are able to plug in our zone of genius and give those gifts and take action in those moments when the fear and uncertainty gets loud, we're able to really clearly cut through it in a way that's really profound. So when we're able to be on our zone of genius, we perform at our best. And when we're making more zone of genius time in our personal lives, it feeds us energy to perform at our best at work. And what I've seen is that great leaders and organizations will take the time to really actually understand the zone of genius of their people. And they'll assign tasks and responsibilities based on their zone of genius. And then when organizations map out zone of genius with role with their people, what I see is that they become unstoppable because it doesn't matter how loud the noise gets. These people are just fueled with something greater within themselves because they're connected to what they're really here to do. I'll give you A really quick example of when I've seen this sort of zone of genius leadership work really well. And before I give the example, I want to also name. It's not realistic for us to be in our zone of genius all the time or for the people that we lead to be in our zone of genius all the time. Like, let's be real about that. There are going to be lots of things that we have to do that we don't want to do. And of course we want to figure out the best way to do those things. But we want to make sure that we're also optimizing for the zone of genius, identifying what it is for ourselves and supporting the people that we lead and getting clear on what theirs is. So really, really quick story. Example here. I got to tour with Oprah on her most recent arena tour. It was a 10 week arena tour across the US and it was awesome. I got to do a short 10 minute keynote and bring a silent practice into these big arenas and do a conversation with Oprah. And what was really cool about that experience was not just being able to, you know, reach and impact so many people around the US but being able to learn from Oprah. Being able to actually see her in her element for 10 weeks straight was a pretty unique experience. And at the very last tour stop, it was in Denver, the tour completed and there was a wrap party later that night. And they rented out this, this big venue and there was dinner and there was drinks and there was 200 plus people on the touring staff. There's a big team here, plus Oprah's executive team. And I think most people in Oprah's position at something like a wrap party would show up briefly, maybe, you know, shake a couple hands and leave. What Oprah did was she had a small stage built right within the middle of this venue. So after people were eating and drinking, she gathered everybody around and she took probably two and a half, maybe three hours where one by one, she invited onto this stage the people on her team that have worked with her for years. People on her executive team, people on the AV team on the tour, people that help with, you know, with, with guest lists and check ins. It means there's wide range of people who help make what she does possible. And with each people she brought on stage, she didn't just thank them, she was able to specifically name their Zona Genius. She was able to see what their greatest gifts were, acknowledge them, recognize them, and then thank them for what they brought to making it happen. And I watched for Two and a half hours. Every person get off that stage, so committed to that work, to working for Oprah, you know, to bringing her work to the world. And Oprah has insane retention. I mean, most of her people have worked with her for 30 plus years. You don't usually see that with people who are in these sort of high power, influential roles. They actually have a lot of turnover with the people they work with. And I felt like I got a little snapshot into Oprah's success with retention. You know, she sees people and she celebrates people at that zone of genius level. Magdalina Atanassova: We can geek around the zone of genius. I love all the books. Just the whole concept, like I'm practicing some of the things in the book every day to, to this extent. I am so great. It's great. Jesse Israel: Yeah, I try, I try my best to as well. It's not easy, right. It really takes, it takes discipline, it takes reflection. And it's awesome to hear that. It's something that you're looking at, that you're focusing on. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. And I think it gives you a really nice filter. And he addresses that in the books, right? It's a really nice filter of looking in the world and the opportunities that come your way and just quiet the noise this way. Does it feed my zone genius, yes or no? Well, then if it's a no, I'm sorry. Just may sound sexy, but it's not fitting. It's not supporting me in my zonal genius. And I, I love this story and just the words that you say. Oprah sees her people. It's not just, just a name, just someone she knows is there, but she really sees the person for who they are and what their zone of genius is. I mean, that's one level up. And I wonder. So you were on this great arena tour with her, but you also were at Business Event Summit for PCMA and you had a keynote. So I wonder what conversations stayed with you after the keynote. What were the questions or reactions from the audience that really reinforced why this message really is resonating right now. Jesse Israel: I had such a blast at this event. You know, I was in Puerto Rico. We got to do it at the Coca Cola Music hall there, this, you know, legendary place. I had dinner with, with, with a bunch of the folks afterwards and spent the whole next day there with people. And it was cool because I got to hear the reflections from people in the business events world, business events professionals. And a couple things really stood out to me. And this is something that I have been seeing more and more in my work as a speaker in the past year, people were really appreciating the permission that they felt I was giving them to be human. In a moment where there's so much focus on AI and technology. And I just want to say we must focus on AI and technology. I mean, we all know this. It's so critical. It's changing so quickly. It's also so additive and so exciting. And what I've heard and what I've seen for a while now, the rooms that I walk into when I speak are filled with people who are, yes, excited about AI, but ultimately, there's a lot of fear around AI. There's a fear of being replaced, there's a fear of falling behind, there's a fear of becoming irrelevant. And the reflections that I was getting from some of the members at the PCMA event was this appreciation of almost like a pairing of if there's going to be focus on AI and superintelligence and the speed of change and how we could have keep up and adapt. It's so important that there's also space and speakers that help people feel inspired, feel grounded, feel like themselves, feel like a human in a moment where we can feel like we're losing our humanness. And I really appreciated that reflection. And I've been seeing that more and more as I'm speaking and keynoting more and more events. I often will keynote the closing slot. You know, I like to leave people sealed with an energy where they feel really good and really hopeful and really clear about the action that they can take when they leave their meeting. And what I've been seeing is that I'm often getting paired with an AI speaker who's either opening or somewhere else within the event. And then I'm able to bring the human piece to it as well, because both of these things are so important, right? While AI becomes more and more landscape changing and life changing, we also must make sure that we are not becoming fully reliant on it, but that we are also bringing the best of who we are as individual and as humans to our work and to our lives. We must focus on both right now. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I hear you. So, speaking about you closing a lot of events, I wonder if you're advising an event organizer who's designing a conference today. What's one intentional event design decision that could have an outsized impact on how people think, connect, or lead? Jesse Israel: There are a handful that come to mind. You know, the first one, I just want to acknowledge that event professionals know events very well. And my experience is really just through speaking at lots of events and also through organizing my own events, which are very different than business events, and also having organized many retreats, large scale retreats. And I'd say the two things that come to mind most, which probably not anything new or surprising to people, but are really important over programming and not giving people enough space to just be at these meetings is a real issue. And I hear it all the time. People who are coming to meetings are excited to be there. They're with their colleagues. Oftentimes they're in a place that's not at home and it's great. And they've got tons of emails that they're kind of falling behind on. They still have their work duties. They've also got their families who don't have their support. So when there is too much programming and there's not enough space to catch up to rest, I think it starts to pull away from people's ability to really be present and get the most out of the meeting. So really scheduling, intentionally scheduling and celebrating free time at these events is so meaningful and I think such a gift to the attendees. Then the other one is just around food. I know that we don't always have food choices because so much of it is based on venues and it can be really limited. But just making sure that the foods that are being provided are foods that are going to support people to be able to be as focused and have the best sustenance as possible as they're meeting people, as they're learning, as they're experiencing social anxiety. And all these things that come up that really can impact our nervous system. They're just making sure there's lots of protein and that there are options that in addition to things that also will allow people to not feel heavy or too sleepy. Magdalina Atanassova: You mentioned it that you're, you're closing a lot of events. What do you think it's costing us? Not intentionally designing for reflection at the end. Jesse Israel: Any meeting or any event, if it's, if it's a half day or if it's four days, how people leave, how people feel when they leave, I think has so much to do with the success of the event. And because attendees take in so much information not just from what's presented to them on stage, through speakers or executive teams, whatever might be presented to them, but also through the network, the connections that they're making. Right. The learnings that they're having in breakout groups and workshops. There is so much input and information that they're taking in at these events. And if we send people back out into the world without carving out some space to reflect on what the top takeaways were, how they can, you know, pull one or two of those and implement them, you know, apply them into action as they leave, and that they can bring them back to their teams, to their companies, to their families, to their communities. When we miss that moment, we miss out on a really important integration opportunity. So this is why I feel like in closing events, which I have the honor of doing often, there are kind of two pieces that feel really important. One is making sure that there is space made where we can slow down and reflect on what's most important. This is something that. It feels important to me is. Is sealing in the values and themes that the meeting planners have hoped to make clear to their people throughout that event, making sure that the closing keynote really lands those themes, close those themes, and then gives people an opportunity to get clear on what are those key takeaways, how will they implement them moving forward. And then the other piece is just to leave people with excitement, with hope, you know, with inspiration, with motivation, not in a cheesy rah rah way. That's not. It's not really my style. I feel like I really like bringing people into a grounded place that has them feeling lit up and hopeful and ready to take action in a way that's. I don't know, that's maybe more based on an energy of presence than it is on an energy of, like, high rah rah power. Although I think both can be great. But, yeah, leading people in a place where they feel hopeful and excited about the future and the role that they play in it is a really important energy to leave people with, especially with the uncertainty that people are feeling today. Magdalina Atanassova: I love it. And I think it kind of comes full circle to quieting that bad voice in our heads. It's telling us we can't do anything and wearing posters. Jesse Israel: Yeah, it's so real. And that voice can really be effective. Magdalina Atanassova: It can. It has some ways. Jesse, tell me, was there anything we didn't mention, but we definitely should before we wrap up? Jesse Israel: Only the other thing that comes to mind, I would say, is that when it comes to what I speak about, but also when it comes to what I think so many people are feeling challenged by right now in the world and in the workplace and within associations and corporations, is the nuance of how we experience noise today. And what I mean by that is I really see that there are three types of noise that particularly affect us most. The noise of the world, the noise in our heads and the noise in our bodies. And we've sort of touched on all of them. But I thought it might be helpful to just really briefly kind of pinpoint what those are because so many people are experiencing them today, again, regardless of what their work is, regardless of what industry they're in. So when we can bring awareness to where the noise is, it makes it a lot easier to learn how to quiet it. The noise of the world is the information overload. It's the constant connectivity. It's the news media, the doom scrolling, the notifications, the pings. It's what's constantly coming at us. But it's also that the way that the world tells us that we're not enough or we're too much or we're bad or wrong for who we are. The noise in our heads is what we talked about earlier. It's the stories we tell ourselves, it's the overthinking, the worry, the self doubt, the imposter syndrome that I see so many of us deal with. If we're at an entry level position at a corporation or if we're running the corporation, that noise tends to be really loud and really similar. And then the noise in our bodies, it's how our bodies are responding to all of this. And that noise in our bodies looks like burnout, anxiety, exhaustion, the dysregulation of our nervous system, that sort of stuckness and go, go, go, go go mode. So it can feel heavy when I break it all down. But the reason why I break it all down is to remind people they're not alone in what they're feeling. This noise is everywhere today. This noise is really not likely going to stop or get quieter anytime soon. So how can we take action to learn how to effectively quiet all of this? Because when we quiet the noise, we were able to unlock what's possible and what we're able to bring to our work into our lives. So yeah, I think I'll end with that. Thank you for making space for that. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, absolutely. And is there a place that people can find you other than a website, which I'll definitely link something that you're doing in the States that people can probably come join you and practice with you. Jesse Israel: I would say stay tuned on my Instagram @JesseIsrael and my website, JesseIsrael.com as I have more events coming up and more offerings, I'll be sharing them through there. Magdalina Atanassova: Awesome. Well, definitely there will be links in the show, notes for people, for quick access. Jesse, I can only say a huge thank you for this conversation. It was a pleasure. Jesse Israel: Thank you so much for having me. Magdalina Atanassova: Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.