WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.019 How did your brand come into play? And when did 00:00:04.019 --> 00:00:07.900 you start that? And how does that relate to your 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:18.260 vision that you so value? Well, it's been a journey, 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:25.120 a development. So I think the fundamentals that 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.899 I've always wanted to achieve remain the same. 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:37.719 When I left the Marines, I set up Phoenix Obsidian. 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:42.100 And then Phoenix Obsidian morphed into Serenity 00:00:42.100 --> 00:00:45.799 in Leadership. And Serenity in Leadership now 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:52.240 is giving birth to rewilding the corporate mind. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:01:01.659 So it has been this journey. Things are... they're 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:06.920 in tune with each other, but it has been a development. 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:13.659 So Phoenix Obsidian was really picturing the 00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:17.140 Phoenix, this beautiful bird that lives for 500 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:24.700 years. And it was about, come fly with me, fly 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:33.510 on my back, see... how things are uh from a wide 00:01:33.510 --> 00:01:40.170 perspective um and obsidian is a is volcanic 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:44.150 glass so it was about um bringing healing into 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:49.730 business really um serenity and leadership took 00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:55.629 that sort of idea and then said well what kind 00:01:55.629 --> 00:01:59.549 of What kind of state do we need to be in as 00:01:59.549 --> 00:02:03.989 things are increasingly changing? And that was 00:02:03.989 --> 00:02:11.129 really finding a place of serenity within so 00:02:11.129 --> 00:02:14.310 that whatever's going on around you, you have 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:19.770 a grounded approach where you are aware of your 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:23.889 own process and you're not sort of totally knocked 00:02:23.889 --> 00:02:26.479 off your game all the time. by all the different 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:30.319 things that are happening around you uh thank 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:40.319 you sorry go on go ahead um so how how does that 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:44.199 um how was that journey like when you started 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:47.800 that brand and how long ago was that well phoenix 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:53.439 obsidian was born in 1994 yeah uh and serenity 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.659 in leadership came out of some work I was doing 00:02:56.659 --> 00:03:06.939 in India. And that was in 2016. Yeah. So Serenity, 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.159 as I say, it's been a development journey. But 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:15.159 for me, there's a huge amount of congruence in 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:19.659 the thinking behind those different sort of envelopes, 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:29.719 if you like. What lessons did you learn in being 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:32.740 an entrepreneur in both the brands, I would say? 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:37.099 I bet you learned a lot. I think our audience 00:03:37.099 --> 00:03:39.219 really appreciates the good, bad, and the ugly 00:03:39.219 --> 00:03:42.819 of entrepreneurship. So when you were trying 00:03:42.819 --> 00:03:44.759 to create that brand or creating the brand and 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:46.759 running with it, what are some of the most significant 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.419 lessons that you learned throughout that journey? 00:03:51.339 --> 00:03:55.780 Well, I think the major thing is how much do 00:03:55.780 --> 00:03:58.800 you believe in your own brand? You know, Phoenix 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.400 Obsidian was a kind of weird name for most people. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.680 You know, a lot of people who go into consultancy, 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:09.259 they just use their own surname, you know, Joe 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:14.159 Bloggs and Co., Fred Smith and Co., and Associates. 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:19.629 And that was never my... way of looking at things 00:04:19.629 --> 00:04:24.029 i wanted to see i i wanted to sort of represent 00:04:24.029 --> 00:04:28.670 what was deep inside me and for some people that 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:32.329 was kind of a bit too wacky but i think really 00:04:32.329 --> 00:04:36.790 uh the point was that i'm too wacky for you then 00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:38.350 you're not ready for what i'm going to bring 00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:43.670 so one of the learnings was to to have confidence 00:04:43.670 --> 00:04:47.269 and faith in what i was presenting and it would 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:49.290 resonate with the right people and we could do 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:54.449 the right kind of work together um and you know 00:04:54.449 --> 00:04:57.290 i i think to a lesser extent we have the same 00:04:57.290 --> 00:05:00.649 with serenity and leadership because it's like 00:05:00.649 --> 00:05:04.470 well who the hell who who the hell thinks that 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:06.649 they should be serene when they're leading you 00:05:06.649 --> 00:05:08.730 know we all got to be macho and we're all big 00:05:08.730 --> 00:05:11.750 ego and we're all going out there and we're gonna 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:16.199 win well you know life's a bit more complicated 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:21.180 than that um and so i think taking a stand and 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:24.459 saying no this is how this this is what we stand 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:27.959 for this is what we believe in uh if it if it's 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:30.199 good for you then come work with us because we 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:33.939 can do amazing things and if if we're too wacky 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:36.980 then come back in a couple of years and see if 00:05:36.980 --> 00:05:43.250 we can then tell me more about about the the 00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:47.709 name you chose, Serenian Leadership, and switching 00:05:47.709 --> 00:05:51.889 from the Obsidian brand to Serenian Leadership. 00:05:52.009 --> 00:05:54.069 What was that transition like and why specifically 00:05:54.069 --> 00:06:01.050 did you choose that brand? Well, as I say, it 00:06:01.050 --> 00:06:07.149 actually came out of a retreat that I did in 00:06:07.149 --> 00:06:12.439 India. It was a darkness retreat. I spent seven 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:17.019 days in darkness. And that sort of gave me some 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:22.480 space to think and reflect. And I think that 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:24.480 one of the things I came out with there was a 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:34.699 greater sense of my own serenity. And I think... 00:06:36.589 --> 00:06:39.649 one of the things that we reflected on during 00:06:39.649 --> 00:06:43.269 that period of darkness was the masculine and 00:06:43.269 --> 00:06:46.750 the feminine and how the as i saw it the feminine 00:06:46.750 --> 00:06:51.730 is suppressed in both men and women in business 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:56.709 while in life in society uh in the west particularly 00:06:56.709 --> 00:07:03.480 um although probably in most societies And I 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:06.339 just felt like the feminine needs to come forward. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.560 It's not like we don't need the masculine. We 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.860 need a functional masculine. We need a functional 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:19.319 feminine. But people need to feel able to express 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:24.420 themselves, their deeper selves, as opposed to 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.959 feeling like part of me is not acceptable, so 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:33.470 I've got to suppress it. it's the opposite of 00:07:33.470 --> 00:07:35.129 serene when you're doing that because you're 00:07:35.129 --> 00:07:39.649 using a lot of energy to not be your full self 00:07:39.649 --> 00:07:43.750 and i thought right well i want people to be 00:07:43.750 --> 00:07:46.949 them for their full selves bring their full selves 00:07:46.949 --> 00:07:50.389 to work uh and and feel like they can really 00:07:50.389 --> 00:07:56.110 express themselves entirely and in order to do 00:07:56.110 --> 00:07:58.310 that it's much easier if you're coming from a 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.819 a congruent place of serenity within you. So 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:04.579 I think that was the kind of thought process 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:07.920 that went to creating serenity in leadership. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.079 Thank you for sharing that with me. I really 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:16.540 appreciate that. My next question for you, Tom, 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:22.740 is if you could imagine serenity in leadership 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:26.459 in the foreseeable future ahead, where do you 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:33.059 see Where do you see it going? Where are you 00:08:33.059 --> 00:08:43.899 going with your vision? Well, I've been writing 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:46.480 a book for the last sort of six months and it's 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:51.600 nearly complete now. And the title of that book 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:57.399 is Rewilding the Corporate Mind. i'm doing is 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:07.259 developing the idea of um how um different estates 00:09:07.259 --> 00:09:12.399 around the world are saying let nature take over 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:17.159 let let nature be the leader rather than having 00:09:17.159 --> 00:09:27.970 a structured approach to farming where the earth 00:09:27.970 --> 00:09:32.070 has been overused to the extent that it's almost 00:09:32.070 --> 00:09:36.409 completely exhausted. And really, I then apply 00:09:36.409 --> 00:09:38.950 that principle to leadership and the leadership 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:41.970 that we need for the future, which is absolutely 00:09:41.970 --> 00:09:44.610 not the leadership that has got us to where we 00:09:44.610 --> 00:09:47.570 are today. And you can see around the world in 00:09:47.570 --> 00:09:52.169 various countries that the last, the death throes 00:09:52.570 --> 00:09:56.730 of the old systems of leadership i mean typically 00:09:56.730 --> 00:09:59.929 right now being lived out in in the united states 00:09:59.929 --> 00:10:06.149 and so what i'm saying is that the leadership 00:10:06.149 --> 00:10:10.649 for the future is completely different and it's 00:10:10.649 --> 00:10:15.230 honoring where we've come from it's honoring 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:21.389 our own inner wisdom it's honoring people It's 00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:25.029 absolutely not this divide and rule. It's not 00:10:25.029 --> 00:10:35.590 about a kind of directive style which says, you 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:42.690 do this. It's much more about seeing a situation 00:10:42.690 --> 00:10:50.429 as a whole system and acknowledging that we are... 00:10:50.730 --> 00:10:53.149 We're not the leaders in this. We are part of 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:56.549 the system. And then you're working with the 00:10:56.549 --> 00:11:03.870 system to bring about changes that really reflect 00:11:03.870 --> 00:11:12.629 the deeper movement that is taking place. So 00:11:12.629 --> 00:11:16.230 I don't know whether that sort of is really making 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:25.860 it clear. I think that so often in organizations, 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:32.179 I see leaders say, ah, there's the problem. Let's 00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:35.279 fix that problem. And what they do in fixing 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.240 that problem is they create, they sow the seeds 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.460 of three more problems because they're not looking 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:44.600 at the whole system. They're only focusing in 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:47.720 on one thing. And I think it's really important 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.580 that we understand we have got to look at the 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:54.019 whole system, which means that we've got to reflect 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.259 and we've got to look at the different aspects 00:11:56.259 --> 00:12:00.740 and how they make up the whole. And then all 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:04.539 this fix it, fix it. What's the solution? Move 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:08.700 on. Doesn't work. Doesn't work. Life is much 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:11.139 too complex and it's moving much too quickly. 00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:15.710 So we need people who honor the system. not try 00:12:15.710 --> 00:12:19.250 and break it or dictate to it because it doesn't 00:12:19.250 --> 00:12:21.269 work. Thank you for being here today. I'm really 00:12:21.269 --> 00:12:23.230 happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 00:12:23.429 --> 00:12:25.850 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 00:12:25.850 --> 00:12:28.490 as these episodes continue to move forward. This 00:12:28.490 --> 00:12:30.370 is going to get more and more fun. We'll have 00:12:30.370 --> 00:12:32.190 more and more engagement as well. We'll invite 00:12:32.190 --> 00:12:34.590 people to participate in the show. And thank 00:12:34.590 --> 00:12:36.570 you for giving us your time and attention. Have 00:12:36.570 --> 00:12:39.190 an excellent time building out your vision and 00:12:39.190 --> 00:12:40.350 becoming a vision pro yourself.