Welcome back, friends. It's season two of the Dr. Denise Simpson podcast. We're back. Listen, I'm so happy that you have chosen to come back with me too. I took a very necessary break to recalibrate, to recuperate, to reset, and I'm happy to be back. Thank you so much for having me. And of course, with my clients, for those that are open to talking about spirituality and leadership, they are very excited to see what's coming up, especially with this book that I announced. It's in the making. It has been written in five D reality, but since we live in three D and We are living in three D the work has to be done. So I'm working on that right now. And I'm so excited. We have some possibilities of a literary agent or two, and we're looking at maybe even some self-publishing opportunities. If that's the literary agent route does not work. Traditional publishing does not work. We have so many other incredible ways to be able to publish this book for you, the leader, the leader who I'm obsessed with, who I'm absolutely obsessed with. Listen, you may be up at three in the morning thinking about what you need to do the next day or who you need to talk to or what employee you need to get on the same page with. my three AM call is what is, what can I, how can I help her or him or they, how can I help them be better leaders? And how can I help them find more peace in their bodies and their nervous systems in their lives and their leadership practice? Like, I'm waking up in the middle of the night finding ways, thinking of ways to support you on your leadership journey. Because listen, nobody supported me on mine. Now, I didn't do this alone, right? I didn't become who I am today without the help of so many incredible leaders in my life, personal and professional. But listen, there were more bad than good out there for me. There were more bad than good. And I think you are seeing that too in the world of politics, right? on the global stage, right? Even in your backyard, the representatives that are there to support you and your families, We are seeing some interesting behaviors. And not that that's new. Bad leadership has always been a thing. Bad leadership is never going away. But what I want to do is support you, the very well-intended leader, the leader who was called into leadership, the leader who was pulled. It's like, I don't know how I got here, Denise, but by the grace of God, I'm here. And oh, yeah, it could have been the grace of God that I'm here. Oh, huh. Let's put two and two together. All right. So you are who I want to support. You are who I'm obsessed with because someone needs to obsess over you, my friend. While you're obsessing over your teammates, over your followers, over your community members, even your family members, someone needs to obsess over you. Now, not in a creepy way, not in a creepy way, but in a refreshing way. It's like somebody is seeing you for who you truly are. Like the divine intelligence that's in you right here, right now, without having to change, without having to be perfect, without having to go get a master's degree or a PhD. I'm looking at you right here, right now, present day, and I am perfect. appreciating the gifts that you have, the anointing on your life and on this incredible leadership practice that you are embodying and imbuing and engaging every single day in. Like this is what I'm talking about in that I am looking at you and the incredible, the blessings that you have been bestowed? And then how are you showing up giving them to others? Because I believe we leaders are called to give. If you're in leadership to take, I may not be talking to the right person right now, or open your ears, open your heart, and maybe this will resonate in some way with you. But listen, I believe that we leaders are Called into leadership, it's very much the servant leader approach by Robert Greenleaf, right? He says, you were first called to serve, number one. Number two, you then found a way to serve them through leadership. That's why servant leadership is so instrumental in what I do as a contemplative leader. Now, contemplatives, this approach, unlike servant leader, this approach, contemplative leadership approach, takes us ten layers deep. We are explicit in the anchoring into our spiritual principles. That's the difference between contemplatives and servant leaders. We are not afraid to talk about spirituality. This is in religion. You want to talk about religion, go to church, go to mass, go to your, your services. This is not where we're going to do that. I'm not a theologian. I cannot all pretend to be one, but I'm very, very deeply rooted in Christian mysticism because I happen to be one. So when we contemplatives get together, Ooh, it's deep. My friend, you want depth. You want truth in the depth. Right here. You want truth, you're going to find it in depth. And this is what we do as contemplatives. We go ten layers deep because we're anchored in our spiritual principles. Five to be exact. Five universal leader principles that we use to operationalize. That's just a fancy word of saying we put it into practice what contemplative leadership approach is about. So we're measured by our successes and failures. That's leadership, my friend. Performance reviews are out now, right? Or they're getting ready to be done, right? Okay, so we are measured, can't get away from that. We live in a spiritual world and a material world. These are two worlds that we must integrate, right? So we live also in the material world where we are judged by our performance. We are measured, right? by the successes or failures that our teams have made, right? We are responsible for a lot more than just, you know, leadership. No, there's depth in our roles. But we're very clear as contemplatives that we are, you know, spiritual beings living in these material worlds. But so many of us have compartmentalized those worlds, right? We have compartmentalized these worlds because we We don't think spirituality has a space in our leadership practice, right? Just like, now listen, I know, because I know a lot of leaders and I've known some really interesting ones that have left their heart and their home, excuse me, their heart and their head and their spirit at home. At least they think they left them at home. I have always said, you take your brain and your heart and now your spirit everywhere you go. So if you think that, that you're leaving that part of your life at home, best be mistaken. You have got to listen to me when I say this. You take it all everywhere you go. It is unconscious. You are showing up with the big heart that you have. You're showing up with the big brain that you have and that big spiritual life that you have. So if you think you're compartmentalizing, you're not. You're not. The brain science says, sorry, you think you are, but unconsciously, because you are walking every day, you know, every day, ninety five percent unconscious. That's the brain science. You are unconscious. And if your spiritual practice is already rooted in your unconscious, you're showing up already a spiritual leader in the workplace. Yikes. Right? For some of you, you're like, I'm sorry, what did you just say? You mean I can't compartmentalize this spirit life? What? You mean that has so much to do with my decision making and that has to do with how I'm interacting every day with my employees? You mean when I'm in that board meeting, I'm taking my spiritual life with me? Yeah. Yeah. You take your brain and your heart everywhere you go while you also take your spiritual body everywhere you go. So I want to talk a little bit about integrating the spirituality into strategy. Strategy is just your professional life, your leader life, right? So many of us think we're compartmentalizing. Again, I just said, we're not, you can't, it's impossible. It's impossible. I know so many of us have tried to do that, but what has that cost you? What has that cost you? Thinking that you are compartmentalizing, leaving your heart, your soul at home, and then showing up into the workplace hard and soulless and rigid and inflexible and revengeful. How many of our leaders out there are out for revenge? I mean, there's no purpose. There's no life in them. There's no meaning in them. How many of you have encountered a leader out there who's doing more bad than good? Who's instilling fear instead of thriving and abundance and expansion in the workplace? They're contracting their employees. They are... restricting their employees. They are keeping them from being these incredible divine leaders themselves, right? So how many of you have seen what that has cost some of these leaders? Now, listen, I'm not telling everybody you have to have spiritual life to be an incredible leader. My book will show you that most definitely it's the best way to do leadership. But autonomy is important here. So you're sovereign. You're able to decide whether spirituality has a place in your life or even in your leadership practice. Good, fine, cool. But I'm talking to the people. who know they were called for something greater and they want to do leadership differently, then come, my friend. Join. Join. Help. Join this movement. Help us create this movement because we don't want leaders to keep suffering out here. I don't want for you to keep Neglecting that spiritual side of your life where that spiritual life can certainly enrich your leadership practice. So this episode is about that. Giving permission to those of you out here who have thought you've been compartmentalizing your spiritual life, I want to open up the conversation of permitting yourself to integrate your spiritual self and your professional self and bringing them together. Integration. So in this book that I'm writing on contemplative leadership and the five universal leader principles, I talk about this concept called the sacred split, a sacred split. We are splitting ourselves in half. And that's just basically saying we think we've been compartmentalizing our spiritual practice and our spiritual life. and leaving it in the closet at home and not bringing it with us into our professional lives, into our leadership practice. Well, the sacred split is costing you so much more than you think. Now, a lot of us leaders came into this field or into our industries in these roles of leader because I do believe Robert Greenleaf and he's saying that you were first called to serve. You were first called to give. And then secondly, you chose a leadership role to be able to have that capacity to do that. I believe that. I believe that you were inherently called to serve and to give to others. That's what leadership is. This is service. But so many leaders out here have gotten this twisted. We see it in America on the political stage. We see it on the global stage with global wars that are happening right now. We're seeing this with AI and the tech industry. We're seeing so much of that split. We're seeing how leaders go into leadership for power, for possession, for profit, right? It's an abuse of their power as leaders. But for those that I'm talking to, and I'd like to think that the majority of us out here, good meaning leaders out here, listen, we're ordinary and average. We're not on a global stage. We're not running a country either. But I believe that who I'm talking to right now is the average ordinary leader out here who was called into leadership because you were inherently called to serve and to give to others. I mean, think about how many of you start nonprofits after having a full career in a for-profit industry. How many of you are starting foundations? How many of you are starting scholarships and other funding for people? You are being called to lead in various capacities in different fields and different roles, which you inherently were called. I love Robert Greenleaf and the servant leader approach. It's so beautiful. Now, contemplatives, we're not afraid to say, well, we're anchored. We're anchored in our spirituality and we have divine callings. We each have a divine assignment, a divine assignment to And that if I, as a leader, believe that I have a divine assignment because I have such a rich spiritual practice, and I believe I have a divine assignment to lead and to steward these individuals that were called to my energy field, to this field right here, to this team, then they must each have a divine assignment too. Ooh, wow. That's interesting. Now things get interesting. Now things get interesting. So we're servant leadership leaders. ended, where Robert Greenleaf left off, contemplative leadership picks up and says, nah, nah, nah, we're going to take this ten layers deep and we're going to be explicit about our spirituality. We're not afraid to talk about source, God, creator. We're not afraid to talk about spiritual principles around here. No, why? No one's going to stop us. No one can. Because this is such an intimate practice between the leader and their creator, whoever they believe, whether it's, you know, higher calling, universal intelligence, whether it is, you know, whatever, name it, source, creator, God, whatever, right? You have a rich spiritual life or one that you have been teetering on because of this sacred split that you are encountering. But for the most part, you know, you are called to do great things and not everybody is called to do leadership. I'll talk about that on another podcast, but I thought I was so arrogant and I thought, Oh, I can create any, anybody out here and turn them into a great leader. I can take, give me anybody and I will turn them into a great leader. I thought that I was in the business of training and development. I was in the business of training and developing leaders. So of course that was my arrogant perspective. And, uh, After all this time, so many leaders proved me wrong. So many leaders proved to me that they belonged somewhere other than in the role of a leader. So many of them out there showed me that I was dead wrong. And that's when I turned to my spiritual practice and my spiritual principles. And I said, yeah. Okay, you're right. Not everyone is called to lead. Not everyone should be in leadership. But for those of you who have that pull, who have that call, you don't know how you got here, but you're here and you're doing the best that you can. Those of you who know that, Come, join, listen closely, open your heart, open your mind, suspend your beliefs, come into this field of energy. I'm not trying to hypnotize you right now. I'm just trying to call you into this new approach so that you can integrate your spiritual self and your professional self You can't compartmentalize this. That's the brain science. Sorry, can't do that. You're taking it all everywhere anyway, right? So now what do we do? Okay, so we find awareness around that. And okay, if that's true, Denise, then where do we go from here? Okay, if that's true, that I have a divine calling. Okay, I can see that. I can feel that. I know that much. But now what? How do I bring my spiritual self, my spiritual life into the leadership practice without losing myself or without looking like an idiot, without doing more harm to my people than good? How do I bring that spiritual life into my leadership life? Where do we begin? Well, I'll tell you where you want to go next. You want to join me in the sanctuary. It's free, my friend. It's free. Okay, so don't get all crazy like another program. No, this is a community. So I took us off of Facebook. I took us off of IG and even off of LinkedIn. And I created my own community because I didn't want you to get bothered with the algorithm. I didn't want you to get bothered with advertisements. I didn't want you to get bothered with doom scrolling. I wanted us away because contemplatives... Since I can't get you in a sanctuary in person, I thought, well, let me build one on the web. It's the safest space for contemplatives like us to talk about spirituality and leadership. It is the most sacred. It's safe and it is sacred. This is where we are explicitly talking about our spiritual lives and how we get to enrich them and how we get to incorporate them, integrate them into our professional lives. And we do that through the five universal leader principles. and you're going to want to join us in the sanctuary. It's free today. It may not be free tomorrow. I don't know what's going to happen, but I just know I need to help some leaders out here. I know I want to help so many of you out here. I want to help you bring peace to your life, to your leadership practice, and to your nervous system. We do three modalities in the sanctuary, and we're going to begin with somatic work, then subconscious work, and then spiritual work. These are three very important modalities that are going to help us operationalize these principles because we got to put them into practice and we're going to have to measure them, right? We don't have empirical research being super honest, no empirical research right now on these three principles. And so we want to take them and then train our leaders into using them with those three modalities so that you can go be a better leader because we deserve more integrated, more spiritual leaders out here who are driven by giving, who are driven by serving others. I'm tired of the greed. I'm tired of those fear mongers. I'm tired of these people in positions of power who are clearly abusing their power. And there's just not enough out here. Not enough of us out here who are doing the good work. Right. There's just not enough of us out here because we've been trained by some really bad leaders to do what they're doing. And so we're just perpetuating this. It's a vicious cycle of really bad, toxic, harmful leaders. So I'm trying to balance that out. OK, I'm trying to balance that out, trying to even us out. and bringing more spiritual leaders into secular places. Again, this isn't religion. This is all about spirituality. It's about you, leader. It's about taking that spiritual, incredible life that you already have outside of leadership, so you think it's outside of leadership. I'm just asking you to find awareness around the integration of having both, and having both. Because when you show up, fully integrated, no longer a split, no longer a sacred split in your life. You are fully integrated and you show up in the workplace. You are a different leader. You behave differently. You speak differently. You carry yourself differently. There is a calm confidence. okay, what's my Caesar Milan? What's my dog trainer's name? I love him. He's not my dog trainer, but he talks about calm confidence. I love him so much, but it is true. You walk into the organization with this calm confidence. You know things are supposed to be the way they are. You know that these people were called into your sphere, into your energetic sphere for greater reasons, right? Reasons that you can never imagine. But they were called to you so that you could steward them in this capacity, right? You show up differently. You behave differently. You think differently. You show up with compassion. Oh, what? What? You actually show up with compassion when you integrate your spiritual self into your professional self? Yep. You show up as whole and complete instead of this sacred split. This split. Now, have you ever split a nail? Yikes. I split one right in the middle. Oh, my goodness. And it went way deep. Let me tell you, that split was painful. What is your sacred split causing you right now? Unfulfillment. Stress, anxiety, depression, worry. What is that doing to you right now? How are you showing up in the organization right now? Scared out of your mind, nervous, hateful, revengeful. Have you quite quit on your company already? Some of you have because you're in chronic burnout. So of course, of course, you're feeling the impact of the sacred split. So all I'm doing today is just opening up, opening up an opportunity for you to say, huh, okay, I don't want to show up like this anymore. It's costing me a lot of pain and anguish. I don't know how I got here. I know there's burnout and I know I'm feeling overwhelmed. Maybe there is a different way to leave. Maybe there's a different, maybe what Denise is saying is true. Maybe there's some truth in that. And maybe I need to co-explore and see what that could look like for me. I'm already a spiritual person. I have a rich spiritual life. I believe I have a higher calling. I believe in so many things. And what if I would integrate that? What if I could integrate that? What could that look like for me? When my body find peace, when I finally get that rest, Could I finally sleep at night and not wake up in the middle of the night thinking about who I failed yesterday and what am I to do tomorrow? Right? What if I can Find a way to reconnect with this purpose and find fulfillment in the mundane daily practice called leadership. What if this works and what if I could really change the trajectory of this team? What if my legacy is a true impact on them and the world? What if? What if what Denise is saying is true? Don't you owe that to yourself to explore that? And we're going to do that in the sanctuary. It's a community that I created for me, for us. I am not a big social media person. A lot of you know that. Some of you are like, where are you? You're like, you come and go on Instagram. I'm like, yeah, because I just don't care about social media. I care about true, real connections with my people. That's the depth that I go to. I'm not surface level stuff. Keep TikTok. I'm cool. I don't care. But you want to get intimate here and talk specifically about how spirituality can help your leadership practice. And you're going to want to come to me because we'll anchor this, my friend. We're going to go all the way down, down, down to the depths of the ocean floor. That's where you're going to find me. I want meaningful connection with you, leader. I know you're craving it. I know you're wanting it because I'm feeling it. I know I want it. And I know what my collective wants. I know what my group wants. And I know you are craving for that spiritual depth. And the only place you can find the truth is in the depth. And you're going to meet me there. So let me put up on the screen a QR code. So I know this StreamYard is so funny. I use StreamYard by the way to stream this thing. So they just did this new feature of a QR code. So if you're watching this from your workplace and you have me like on LinkedIn or something or wherever, Facebook, wherever you're watching this, get your camera and then scan that QR code because that'll direct you straight to the page where you're gonna want to learn about the sanctuary and then join us in there because it's free. So again, if you're watching this video podcast, you're seeing the QR code on the screen. If you're listening to this on audio, go to the show notes. You're going to go there and click on that link. It's a long link, so I'm not going to try to tell you what it is. So you're going to want to go to the show notes. You can always go to my homepage at drdeniessimpson.com and click on the community tab and just get in there ASAP. so again it's called the sanctuary for contemplative leaders and it is brand new my friends brand new new new new because i wanted to create a space for us this is where again we get to be explicit about our spirituality um this is taking robert greenleaf's incredible work and taking it like ten thousand layers deeper um because we're not afraid to talk about spirituality we're not afraid to talk about the truth And so this is where we get to have that sacred and safe space for us to do that in. So scan your QR code that's on the screen, get in there ASAP or go to the show notes, click on that link and get in there ASAP because you're not going to want to miss this opportunity to join me. It's brand new and it is going to be incredible. We're going to put these five principles into practice. Leader, how fantastic to be back with you. I hope today's episode served you. This is episode number one of season number two. I am honored and so privileged to be able to do this with you. And I want to invite you into this new season with me. And then hopefully this new space called The Sanctuary. Take your time. Join us when you're ready. But don't wait too long because the sacred split that you're experiencing right now is costing you a lot. All right, leader. Thank you so much for your time. Cannot wait to see you on our next episode. And DM me. I'm always happy to receive your messages. So take good care. See you later.
