Latest / Authentic Living / Heart-Based Conscious Leadership with Julianna Bootsman
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:11And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:36Hi, everyone.
- 0:37It's Roxanne Derhodge with Authentic Living with Roxanne today.
- 0:40I have a colleague Juliana Bootsman, Julianna, and I actually belonged to a same speaker's
- 0:45bureau.
- 0:47And we met probably about a month ago and realized we had this luscious conversation
- 0:53about, conscious leadership, which is the, the speakers' beer that we belong to.
- 0:59So I guess the question becomes, what is conscious leadership?
- 1:03And I guess from my definition, it's it's about where you are aware about the presence that
- 1:10you're bringing into a situation as you lead from the micro level from, you know, the space
- 1:16that you are leading and what's, your frontward facing customer gets all the way up to your
- 1:22senior leadership team or your CEO level.
- 1:25So Juliana has, you know, started a business about over 10 years ago now, and it's called
- 1:31White box leadership.
- 1:33I'm gonna talk a little bit about that title because I just listened to a an amazing, video
- 1:37that where she explains it.
- 1:39And Juliana, work.
- 1:41She's a chief spiritual officer.
- 1:42I love that title.
- 1:44So, Julianna, thanks so much for being here today, to share your wisdom with my audience.
- 1:50Thank you so much for having me Roxanne.
- 1:54So let's talk a little bit about Juliana.
- 1:56Like, you know, I I I always love the back story about why, you know, today, you know,
- 2:01you're doing this amazing work, in corporate culture.
- 2:05What got you wanting to to get involved in conscious leadership.
- 2:11Yeah.
- 2:12Well, I love how you started the conversation here right off right off the top this morning
- 2:17or whatever time anyone's listening to it, but it's morning for us.
- 2:20But the when we think about conscious leadership and what the word is and if you
- 2:24think about being conscious, where that often takes us is the idea of being awake.
- 2:31And, in, you know, there can be a lot of talk about woke people.
- 2:35And so I'm not really going there, but it's the idea of being awake And when we're awake, we're
- 2:39more aware.
- 2:40When we're more aware of all that is going on in the situations that we're in, in the very
- 2:47present moment that we're in, we're able to respond in a way that comes from a higher level
- 2:53of wisdom a higher level of, deeper level of connection and then ultimately create, change,
- 3:00transformation, and just offer whatever is going to be to of the highest good in that
- 3:07moment.
- 3:08And so that that's really, you know, where where this comes from for me.
- 3:13And so, my my inspiration or my sort of calling to come into this work came from, my own my own
- 3:23journey of of becoming more conscious and awake to what's really going on in my own life.
- 3:29I I like to say I have had 4 successful careers, but only one vocation, and that
- 3:34vocation is to love.
- 3:36And when I went through and followed the thread of my life from starting out as my first
- 3:42passion, my first thing that was no plan b.
- 3:44It was only a plan a.
- 3:45That was to be a professional dancer.
- 3:48And so I pursued that, and I I went with that.
- 3:52I went and I met, like, moved to New York.
- 3:55And at that point, started to meet all the fears, all the doubts, all the item.
- 3:59I'm not, you know, how where do I measure up against the rest?
- 4:03Lots of other backstory there.
- 4:05There's a, I've got a chapter coming out in a book specifically with that story more there.
- 4:10But, you know, from there though, I went into, okay, what am I gonna do now if I'm not gonna
- 4:16do it be a dancer where do I go now?
- 4:17And I ended up finding myself in PR and marketing and, or actually before that, I went
- 4:23into dance and teaching dance.
- 4:25So I started that was where, really, for me, where the coaching began, working with these
- 4:29young dancers, really able to see them beyond what it is that they do as their craft, as
- 4:35their talent, which it would be dance, but into who they are at a soul level.
- 4:39And when I could work with them and see them and connect with them on that level, they were
- 4:44able to, improve and and and perform and and and show up at such a higher level without them
- 4:54actually having to train or practice anymore.
- 4:57It's like something activated in them.
- 4:58And I and one of my first experience I call, like, my first sort of god moment was in that
- 5:05space of of dance where, I was at a convention and that was a, you know, there was a lot of
- 5:12dancers at this convention in LA and people that I had, you know, I would look at and say
- 5:17they're way better than me.
- 5:18And so I kind of felt like I'm like, Now I'm here, but I'm not really the best.
- 5:21And, but I loved dance.
- 5:24Like, it is it is an expression of my soul and my spirit.
- 5:27And so this one incredible choreographer was teaching us this routine, and it was my groups,
- 5:32like, you know, 50 of us at a time were were performing or getting to kind of do the routine
- 5:36And I just had my back.
- 5:38We started with our backs to the stage, and in this giant ballroom in a hotel, and I just put
- 5:44my arms to my side, and I just said, let it all go.
- 5:46Just let yourself go completely.
- 5:49And I let myself go completely into the music, into the routine, into all of it.
- 5:53And I moved and danced, like, I had never before.
- 5:56I tears running down my face.
- 5:58My ballet teacher's on the side.
- 5:59She has tears running down her face, and I The routine finished sisland, I've never seen you
- 6:03move like that.
- 6:04So I've never felt myself move like that before.
- 6:07And so I didn't have to train harder.
- 6:09I didn't have to do anything more.
- 6:10All I needed to do in that moment was actually let go and connect into a true part of myself.
- 6:17And so there was a letting go but it coming away that allowed me to perform at a level that
- 6:21I couldn't reach otherwise.
- 6:24And so I I I took my and I worked with my dancers that I worked with with my students in
- 6:29that way.
- 6:30And then I went into PR, and marketing.
- 6:33And and in there, the core of that work, which became like this common thread, was was to
- 6:39support people to live at the true expression of who they really are.
- 6:43So that's what happened to me in that moment at in this in this, at this dance convention.
- 6:50It's what I did with my my students in dance.
- 6:52When I worked with organizations in PR Marketing cations.
- 6:56It was about getting to the court, who are you really, and how do I guide you to live in, how
- 7:01do I support you to live in more authentically into that expression?
- 7:04But what happened in the PR and marketing communications, like, I would do branding work
- 7:08and all of that.
- 7:09I loved it.
- 7:10It was really great at it.
- 7:12But the organizations, you know, that in a in a company, making sure that you've got your
- 7:18marketing materials, making sure that you've got your branding right, making sure you've the
- 7:22right tagline.
- 7:23We would create all of that, and it would be authentic to who they really are based on what
- 7:28we were learning about them.
- 7:30But it was almost like we would jump ahead.
- 7:32And and so it's like we gave them a fancy new coat and a new car and a new house but the
- 7:38inner work wasn't being done within the organization for them to actually know what it
- 7:42feels like to truly live that expression.
- 7:45And not just look like it.
- 7:48And that's where it started to become out of alignment for me with with just doing the PR
- 7:52and marketing.
- 7:53And I thought And and by that point, I already knew I am a coach, and my gift is to be able to
- 7:59see people at the level of their soul spirit and draw that out and work with them from the
- 8:04inside out, not from the outside in.
- 8:06So I had to get myself.
- 8:07I had to be honored that truth in myself, and that's where I shifted my company into
- 8:12primarily, the conscious conscious leadership work.
- 8:15And, and by that, really supporting people to Always, you know, leave better than they came,
- 8:22but really live into that true expression, true essence of who they are.
- 8:25And I believe when we do that, We then show up with the full authentic true data of what's
- 8:31true for us, and we're able to then gather that from the world around us.
- 8:35And then we can create what is highest and best and good for for then the extending community
- 8:41outside of our organizations, outside of who we are as individual leaders, so yeah.
- 8:47So that's a bit of the Well,
- 8:48and that's nothing.
- 8:49I love
- 8:50I love what you said.
- 8:51It's letting go and being awake.
- 8:54Right?
- 8:54So try to explain that a little bit more because I I I know what that is because, of
- 9:00course, when I coach and you know, and work with people.
- 9:03I understand that first.
- 9:04But for the average person that may be listening, that doesn't have that sense, what
- 9:09that is.
- 9:09Try to if we could break it down in some way because it's it's I would say it's a somatic
- 9:15experience.
- 9:16Yeah.
- 9:17It's a and and it's an alignment with that truest sense of who you are meant to be.
- 9:23Yes.
- 9:23Not who you think you should be or what you're needing to project out to be, but just that
- 9:28sense that I often say it's like, I'm in that space of perfectness that I wasn't I came into
- 9:34the world as, and then I touched that.
- 9:37Yeah.
- 9:38I think one of the feelings or the experiences that we strive to be able to operate in is that
- 9:45a flow.
- 9:46And so and and and I think freedom is one of a top value for for many.
- 9:51And so especially people who are opinars or leaders, you know, often why you get into this
- 9:55because what you desire is a sense of freedom.
- 9:57You wanna be able to sort of be in control, but also have freedom.
- 10:02So it's this paradox of of creating, an environment and creating a place where we are
- 10:09free and being able to have a sense of control within those moments.
- 10:15And so be when we talk about being in flow, one of the one of the, analogies or whatever that
- 10:21comes up for me, is, I had a a a friend of mine who's who's a leader that I work with, tell me
- 10:28about a story where she was white water rafting and had fallen out of the boat and was in the
- 10:33rapid.
- 10:34And she was in the rapid, but she was trying to, like, grip and control and and, you know,
- 10:39like, And and what was happening when she was doing that was it was actually causing her to
- 10:43be drawn pulled under.
- 10:45And so what she had to do to be in the flow of everything that was happening in moment was
- 10:50actually let go.
- 10:52Let go be in a total place of, like, rest and let that let what was happening around her move
- 11:00with her.
- 11:01And by doing that, she could then float more.
- 11:04She could be able to really quickly see and respond to what she needed to rather than
- 11:09trying to grasp for things.
- 11:11And as we move through our world, there is a lot of moving parts happening around us all the
- 11:16time within ourselves, within our families, within our businesses, within just the nature
- 11:22and the world around us.
- 11:23That is not in our control.
- 11:26And our highest ability to be able to respond rather than react to things is to come from
- 11:32this state of rest and letting go.
- 11:35So it's like Which
- 11:36is a state that I think a lot of people are chasing though, Juliana, because Yeah.
- 11:40If you think if you think of, you you know, we we were just chatting before we go online about
- 11:45the concept of love versus fear.
- 11:47So let's talk a little bit about that because Ultimately, we know how little control we
- 11:54really have over things, and it's about getting to a pace of acceptance that we can only do
- 12:00what we can do, and then we have to let go in order to experience things.
- 12:03Right?
- 12:03So I think of when I looked, I'll give you an example.
- 12:06When I learned to dive, I love.
- 12:08I'm from Turinan to Bigo.
- 12:09Love.
- 12:10You know, grew up in the Caribbean sea.
- 12:12Beautiful love the water.
- 12:15But my thing was, when you learn to dive, guess what?
- 12:20You lose sensation.
- 12:21Right?
- 12:22So I had to take off you know, my mask.
- 12:26Right?
- 12:261 for most of us, if you think about what we take in internally, that visual is the
- 12:31protective lens that most human beings half.
- 12:34Well, I I felt I love the water.
- 12:35There's no way.
- 12:36I'm gonna I took off my my mask and I was in a ten foot pool.
- 12:42I fled cap flying up, flying up because I was so petrified, and I'll never forget what my
- 12:47instructor said to me.
- 12:50He said, it'll be okay so long as your regulator, which is the thing that you use to
- 12:55breathe, stays in your mouth.
- 12:57And I thought now I'm still freaking out because I can't see a thing, but I listened to
- 13:03his words, which was Just breathe.
- 13:06Yeah.
- 13:07And then I finally, I mean, got over the fear because I had lost that sensation.
- 13:12And then I was able to to follow instruction because if not, I was completely in fear mode
- 13:20Yeah.
- 13:20And so I was panicking, and that's the worst thing you can do.
- 13:24Yeah.
- 13:24You know?
- 13:25But I I know you and I bringing it back to what we were talking about.
- 13:28You and I were talking a little bit about love Yeah.
- 13:31In business.
- 13:32And I wanna talk a little bit between the polarities between fear and love.
- 13:37And as human beings, the space that we go into as human beings and how we interface with the
- 13:42world and how you, as a, spur chief spiritual officer, How do you kind of use that word of
- 13:50love, which are oftentimes in corporate environments?
- 13:53It's kinda like, that's a little bit woo woo.
- 13:55Tell me a little bit about that concept of love.
- 13:58Well, I I see love as one of the most, powerful resources that we have accessible to us and
- 14:07it's accessible to everybody.
- 14:09And it's often, I think, one of the most underutilized or misunderstood of how to
- 14:14actually use it and and what do we mean?
- 14:16So we're talking about, like companionate love.
- 14:19We're talking about, like compassion and empathy and and care.
- 14:25And if we think about, you know, the places that we do truly love something.
- 14:33There's an expansiveness to it.
- 14:36There's a desire for something to thrive there's a natural instinct to give rather than
- 14:42to take.
- 14:43And so by that, it's this outpouring.
- 14:45And so when we feel ourselves in a state of love, about anything it is, there's, it's
- 14:51expansive.
- 14:53It are what happens.
- 14:54And so sometimes I like to go into science and, like, when we think of just like biologically
- 14:58what begins to happen within the cells of our body.
- 15:01So we can take it outside of, as a chief spiritual officer, sometimes that can take
- 15:06people into the place of religion or whatever, but what we're really talking about here is an
- 15:10alive spirit.
- 15:13And if we look at, like sports teams, or I think about, like, my children's schools, or I
- 15:21think about even a a city, and we have, like, spirit days And we talk about, like, you know,
- 15:26we want the spirit of some place to be like, hi and good.
- 15:30That's what we're talking about.
- 15:31And when our spirit is alive and high, our ability to engage from a very expansive and
- 15:37open place, where if we think about even like the cells in our body, they're now not
- 15:43constricted.
- 15:44And then you brought it back to your breath.
- 15:46And so that's, you know, like, just you're okay.
- 15:48You're gonna breathe.
- 15:50And so when we are connected into a place where our spirit is alive, our breath actually
- 15:55becomes more fluid, less constricted, and our breath is our life force.
- 16:01And so really, one of the teachings that I use in the work that I do in all of the corporate
- 16:07leadership and and corporate conscious leadership I do, I integrate and support us to
- 16:12be paying attention awake to our breath.
- 16:16Because we want our our system, our physical body, to be functioning as freely with as much
- 16:24ease as possible.
- 16:26We want it to be well and healthy.
- 16:28And in order to do that, we need to be able to be in a place that is light.
- 16:34Right.
- 16:34And, like, with heart rate variability too, right, the study with the Harvard Institute,
- 16:40you know, they they they show about resonance.
- 16:43Right?
- 16:43So, like, how when you put people in attunement that are in a meditative state Obviously, we we
- 16:50lower it and we drop down into that essence versus if you, you know, look at people that
- 16:54are in stressed states how, you know, they they're they're kind of out of resonance with
- 16:59their heartbeat.
- 17:00And then when you put people that are kind of, if you and I were to say even meditate online,
- 17:06even on because we're not physically together, we can we can align heart to heart which
- 17:11impacts your be your our hearts to be able to be more rhythmic together.
- 17:15So it's it's fascinating what you're saying.
- 17:17So a true But again, from a corporate perspective, oftentimes, you'll hear people say
- 17:23it's tactical.
- 17:24It's bottom line.
- 17:25We have to report to the board.
- 17:27We have our you know, or keep performance indicators.
- 17:30We're off track and people go interfere, which becomes more more KPI driven, which is we're
- 17:36off track versus going into the space that you're talking about.
- 17:40So let's talk a little bit about when you work, with leaders or or different environments.
- 17:46How is it that you decide if they're ready to do some of this work?
- 17:50Let's say you get a call like I do and, you know, people are saying they want certain
- 17:54things.
- 17:55How do you kind of assess whether the readiness for someone to kinda enter into this work with
- 18:01you, Julianna.
- 18:02Mhmm.
- 18:03It comes from the leadership.
- 18:05If the leadership has a connection and a and a and a draw to wanting to to caring for the
- 18:10well-being of the people in the organization.
- 18:13And so, when I think about love and leadership and what is love, it's the long term care of,
- 18:19care and concern for the well-being of others.
- 18:22So it's not just this just for this moment or this project.
- 18:26With the people in your you're looking for long term sustainability here.
- 18:30You're looking for legacy.
- 18:32You're wanting to see and have an organization that is well and in always, purpose, profit,
- 18:40performance, people, all of it.
- 18:43And so if that matters to you, then we have to look at the at the whole, person.
- 18:49And if the and I I often say the work of a chief spiritual officer is about keeping the
- 18:53lights on.
- 18:55And that's the light of people within your organization.
- 18:58The spiritual light.
- 18:59Tapping means that.
- 19:00Within your people is dim.
- 19:03Or an or or or or constricted or flickering, your organization, your keep are eventually
- 19:11going to be affected.
- 19:13And sometimes you can jimmy up all sorts of hot cords and you can find all sorts of ways to,
- 19:17like, keep those lights on and you can do and at some point, it's gonna just short circuit.
- 19:23So tell me about a scenario that maybe you've come across and and of some of the things that
- 19:31has not gone gone well with some organizations that they want they want this, but maybe
- 19:38they're maybe they're bit too hasty and they try to implement some of these things and they
- 19:42fall flat.
- 19:43Do you have any scenarios or situations that maybe you've come across in your time working
- 19:48with some organizations to share.
- 19:52Yeah.
- 19:53I think sometimes what happens in though in situations where it doesn't where it's like we
- 19:58want it.
- 19:58We kind of it's it's that, it's like I wanna I want to run that marathon but I'm but it's I
- 20:07want it now.
- 20:08Like, I wanna just get up and and go and do it.
- 20:10It's the long term commitment and and connection to being able to continue to nurture
- 20:18it and to connect into it.
- 20:19And so it's where they're looking at it from a place where it's just like, let's bring in the
- 20:25speaker or the person or the thing and, like, we're just gonna do this one program, and then
- 20:29all of a sudden, everything's gonna like this is gonna work.
- 20:32They're not looking at it from a perspective of how do we build this into the operations of our
- 20:36company.
- 20:37Right.
- 20:37So they're looking at a almost like a like a putting up a band aid on on potentially what
- 20:42the issue is instead of backing up and saying, while we're having maybe more conflict or maybe
- 20:48we're missing deadlines, let's just do a time management thing or, whatever.
- 20:53Just kinda looking, backing up and saying, you know, why is it not working well?
- 20:57What what's happening?
- 20:59Who are your new people who have left?
- 21:01There's hybrid.
- 21:02There's remote.
- 21:02There's in person.
- 21:03There's so many moving parts to your point.
- 21:05And if you just kinda create a solution, It might address it, you know, in the interim for
- 21:10a short period of time.
- 21:11And then, of course, it's gonna often say it bubbles up, but it might show itself in a
- 21:15different packaging.
- 21:16Yeah.
- 21:17Yes.
- 21:17And so and so from and so that is why the work that I do, is really working with organizations
- 21:24too.
- 21:25Building this into operations of your organization.
- 21:28And a lot of what, has often sort of been historical in when we're doing the inner work
- 21:35of the organization or call it professional development or whatever that is, is it's like
- 21:40one off courses.
- 21:41That people will go to, and they'll help, and they'll do something good.
- 21:44And you can get a lot of good from it, but for long term integration and change that really
- 21:50sticks.
- 21:51We know through so many examples, whether it's you're trying to make a, like, a, you know, a
- 21:57lifestyle change within your exercise or your diet or whatever, it's the it's being able to
- 22:03connect into what is actually true for us as an organization, who we are, And how do we
- 22:08continue to know that we're looking for we're this is this is an ongoing thing.
- 22:13And so I work with companies to be able to go and assess and sort audit them from, like, I
- 22:18call, I call it like an energy audit almost.
- 22:21It's like a like a life force audit.
- 22:23Where is the life for us of your organization right now, what's it operating at, and what's
- 22:28going to work best for the rhythm of your organization, for the rhythm and the and of who
- 22:34your people really are.
- 22:36And then we create and we adapt it for that because you want this to be able to be just now
- 22:41a part of how your company breeds we bring it back.
- 22:44So do you do it at every level when you do the assessment?
- 22:47Are you starting with senior leadership, kinda, middle management, front line and kinda the
- 22:52interface with the front facing customer.
- 22:55Are you doing it at that every level?
- 22:58Because, like, to your point, you have to start at the most senior level because you could, you
- 23:02know, you can address, the middle management, you know, implications, but if you don't have
- 23:07the flow from what's coming from the very top to the, you know, kind of the main engine,
- 23:12which is your middle managers, that's that's, you know, it's gonna do about a buck against
- 23:16each other.
- 23:17Yeah.
- 23:17Yeah.
- 23:18So ideally, that's what we do is we we then get to take a cross section depending on the size
- 23:22of the organization and really kind of look at what's really happening here.
- 23:26Where is everybody really not.
- 23:28And so, we open up and do, like, a full, conversation with as many people from the
- 23:35organization from different parts that are willing to have the conversation with us.
- 23:39And from there, we get to really hear what, you know, Renee Brown says, connection is to be
- 23:45seen heard and valued.
- 23:47So that's the first step that we do is we make sure that we see here and that the people
- 23:51within the organization are valued.
- 23:53And then based on what we actually hear from them, we were bond with the we've heard what
- 24:00you've shared and here's how we're responding and this is what we're integrating into this
- 24:03program.
- 24:05That is that is customized for the organization.
- 24:09It becomes their conscious leadership program.
- 24:11And the results of what we've seen in the program that we've put through there's one
- 24:17company that I have as a global organization.
- 24:18So we're working with people in from all over the world.
- 24:22So I've got people in my program from Spain and Italy and, across the states and different
- 24:28parts of Canada in, Ireland and just all over the world.
- 24:34And what I find so incredible is that there actually isn't that much difference between
- 24:39what we're all dealing with.
- 24:40It comes down to the same things of of, like, feeling of burnout, feeling of am I worthy,
- 24:49feeling of, the desires want to be able to always do more of perfectionism, just all of
- 24:55these things of, you know, simple things of just, like, physically, I'm not taking care of
- 25:00myself well enough spiritually.
- 25:01I'm not attending to myself.
- 25:03It's so much of the same things that show up, but what ends up happening is through the
- 25:09program, that we've created for this organization and that we create for the
- 25:13organizations that's rooted in, in all of the elements of consciousness and compassion,
- 25:18empathy, love, and how to just be able to a high level of self awareness, emotional
- 25:23intelligence is the environment that they're working in hasn't changed.
- 25:29But their ability to respond to the environment has changed.
- 25:32And as a result, they feel less stressed.
- 25:35They feel more capable They genuinely feel happier.
- 25:39The connections amongst the people in the organization, even though so many of them are
- 25:43working virtually in different parts has has gotten better because they're connecting with
- 25:48people through even the programming.
- 25:50They have common language to use.
- 25:52They feel seen and heard in an organization that they don't feel alone in the fact that,
- 25:58oh, we actually wanna operate from place of love too and these are the things that matter
- 26:03to us.
- 26:03And and I can't believe I work in an organization that also cares about these
- 26:07things.
- 26:08It's sort of like this unspoken goodness that nobody's bringing to the surface because we're
- 26:14all just getting the work done.
- 26:16This was such a great interview that we decided to turn it into a 2 part series.
- 26:20Be sure to tune in next week for part 2.
- 26:23So you don't miss out on the amazing content.
- 26:27Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive health
- 26:32change.
- 26:33Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne.
- 26:39Visit rock and Durhaj.com/blueprint.
- 26:44We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.