Community and Joy – An interview with Robin Zander by Nate Floyd

As part of the updates to this website and across the RPZ brand, I’ve recently sat down for a half dozen interviews with close friends. And instead of the typical “Robin conducts an interview”, I have asked them to interview me.

Today’s interview is with my dear friend, Nate Floyd. Nate and I have known each other for several years as members of SF Movement Practice. Beyond our shared physical practice, Nate is a salesman and a plant medicine guide, and over the years has become a close and valued friend.

In this interview, he asks me a wide variety of questions about life, meaning, and my personal approach to happiness. I hope you enjoy!

Dr. Emily Anhalt, Founder of Coa, on the Mental Health Revolution

My guest today is Dr. Emily Anhalt (@dremilyanhalt), a clinical psychologist and the co-founder of Coa, a startup building virtual and in-person centers to practice and improve mental health and resilience.

Emily spoke at a Responsive Conference event that I hosted on Mental Health in San Francisco in November 2019, and I was so impressed with her presentation on stage that I’ve been wanting to sit down with her ever since to talk about mental health.

Now, more than ever, this conversation is needed and I’m delighted that Emily is leading the way and sharing tools to improve wellbeing. Her research into the psychological components of leadership is fascinating, and I learn a lot every time I listen to Emily.

I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Jeremy Liew, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners on Doing the Impossible and Staying Relevant at 50

My guest today is Jeremy Liew (@jeremysliew), a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners

Jeremy heads up investments in consumer technology at Lightspeed, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and has invested in iconic and culturally relevant companies, including Snap, Giphy, Rothy’s, Affirm, Honest, Cheddar, and many more.

Jeremy is willing to embrace the beginner’s mind and practice things he doesn’t know how to do – even when it is uncomfortable. And as we discuss, that trait has paid dividends throughout his personal and professional life.

I know Jeremy personally through my own physical practice. We are both students of Johnny Sapinoso of San Francisco Movement Practice.

In this interview, Jeremy and I discuss his background and the various transitionary points in his personal life and professional career, how his “geeky youth” set the stage for work within the early Web 1.0 companies like AOL and Netscape, his first experience in sales in his mid-20s, and his discovery of and love for movement in recent years.

As a business operator and first time investor myself, we dive into how Jeremy recognizes consumer trends and the difference between being a business operator versus an investor.

I hope you enjoy this wide ranging conversation about startups, consumer trends, movement, and learning with my friend, Jeremy Liew.

Finding inner peace through 24 years of solitary confinement with Eldra Jackson III of Inside Circl‪e

Eldra is a TED main stage speaker and the co-executive director of Inside Circle, a non-profit which works to end cycles of incarceration and recidivism. Eldra was incarcerated for 24 years, with several years of that time spent in solitary confinement.

Eldra now spends most of his time sitting with people inside and outside the prison system, helping them uncover their own truths to find greater internal peace.

I first met Eldra through a Zander Media client, The Trium Group, where Eldra serves as a strategic advisor. I have since come to call him a friend. 

With their focus that “not all prisons have walls,” Inside Circle does transformative work to address the trauma and other wounds that create cycles of incarceration.

Any time spent with Eldra is time well spent. I’m also pleased to share that Zander Media now produces The Inside Circle Podcast with Eldra Jackson III, with guests including Byron Katie, founder of The Work, Soren Gordhamer, founder of Wisdom 2.0, and many more. I hope you enjoy this wide ranging conversation with my friend, Eldra Jackson III!

Jude Gomila: Golden and Mapping Human Knowledge

Welcome back to the Robin Zander Show! 

For today’s episode, I sat down with Jude Gomila to talk about his journey as an entrepreneur and his start-up Golden.

I first met Jude, and learned about Golden, when Zander Media was hired to create an explainer video about the company. We had 10 days to get up to speed on this company, craft a script, and put together this short video:

I was really looking forward to a more leisurely interview with Jude, but this conversation dramatically exceeded my expectations. 

Jude is a quirky, charismatic leader, who has invested in over 200 startups and is out to build the world’s first self-constructing knowledge database. Learn more about Golden at golden.com.

Jude is a fellow circus performer and a polymath with interests ranging from robotics, space, and the learning process. He, and his company Golden, are on a quest to map all of human knowledge. 

I hope you enjoy this interview!

Achieving Radical Alignment with Alex Jamieson & Bob Gower

Welcome back to another episode of the Robin Zander Show!

My guests today are Alex Jamieson and Bob Gower, co-authors of the new book, Radical Alignment. This book is designed to help people achieve more joy and less drama – at work and in daily life.

Bob Gower is an organizational design consultant. He supported my curation leading up to the first Responsive Conference, where he gave a talk on “How Not To Join a Cult.”

Alex Jamieson was the co-producer and co-star of the academy award nominated documentary, Super Size Me. She is a leadership coach, radio show host, and nutrition consultant.

Together, Bob and Alex gave a talk at Responsive Conference 2018 on “Getting to Hell Yes.”

In their new book, Radical Alignment, they teach a simple process for individuals and teams to establish clear boundaries with less drama and more joy.

I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Chris Fussell, former Navy SEAL, on How to Organize during Crisis

I’m really pleased to share my live conversation with Chris Fussell, former Navy SEAL and Chief of Staff to General Stanley McChrystal, who was himself in charge of Special Operations during the Iraq War.

Chris is now the President of the McChrystal Group and spoke onstage at Responsive Conference 2016. He is the first person I look to about how we can respond to crisis and we spent this webinar with the Responsive.org community discussing how people around the world can organize amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic.

I hope you find this useful!

If you are interested in more from Chris, here is the talk he gave at the first annual Responsive Conference.

David Hanrahan, CHRO of Eventbrite, on Remote Work, Parenting, and Mental Health in the time of Coronavirus

Welcome back to the Robin Zander Show, and an entirely different world. The Coronavirus Pandemic has the entire world in an uproar.

In today’s podcast, I have a conversation with David Hanrahan, CHRO of Eventbrite, about taking a large company entirely remote in under 2 weeks, parenting tactics when so many of us are working from home, changes to the events business, and maintaining mental health.

We keep our conversation short and tactical sharing specific tools and practices that can help you at home.

Enjoy!

If you want more from David Hanrahan, you might enjoy his talk at Responsive Conference 2019 on Mental Health at Work.

25 Days in Ghana with my Mother

Larabanga, a Sudanese style mosque and the oldest mosque in W. Africa

This fall I spent 3.5 weeks traveling with my mother in Ghana, Africa.

Before embarking for this trip, I had never had a particularly strong desire to go to West Africa. I’ve always wanted to visit many different places, like Morocco, Peru, and Nepal, but West Africa never quite made it on my list.

By contrast, my mother has dreamed of visiting Ghana ever since attending graduate school. She is a professional visual artist and has painted textiles from around the world for longer than I have been alive. In graduate school, she discovered the Kente textiles, which are the traditional yellow, gold fabrics of Ghana, and she has always been curious to see where they are made.

My mother trying out the traditional Kente looms in the Bon Wire weaving village, Ghana.

The relationship between me and my mom is complicated. She frequently drives me crazy, so traveling in close quarters for several weeks in a foreign country was a bold test for our relationship. How does the old joke go? “Why do your parents push your buttons? Because they installed them!”

When people have asked how our trip to Ghana went, I’ve been saying that I condensed 10 years of therapy into 3.5 weeks. But even that — while there is some truth to it — doesn’t give enough credence to my role in the relationship.

Just prior to going to Africa, I proposed that my mother and I go see a therapist together — a preparatory measure that might help shepard the trip to Ghana. One of the things that I brought up in therapy is the history of co-dependence in my family.

I think of co-dependence as me being unhappy with someone else’s condition, so much so, that I feel the need to change someone else in order to be happy myself.

My mother’s father died of alcoholism, and while I did not know my grandparents well myself, I suspect that my grandmother was codependent with my grandfather. My mother’s brother, my uncle, struggled with addiction, and died of associated complications. And, I suspect, other members of my family have echoed these codependent patterns, as well. And then here I am, 3 generations later, realizing that I have been codependent with my mother.

When my mother is unhappy, I am unhappy. When she is angry, I am afraid of the consequences. As a 33-year-old adult man, I remain timid and intimidated by her emotions, and my default is to try to “fix” them.

I brought this up in conversation with the therapist. Some of it landed with my mother and some of it she denied, but regardless, speaking it aloud made a difference.

My intention for the trip was to show up loving and supportive of my mother, but refrain from letting her emotions affect my mood or trying to problem-solve for her. This concept set a new precedent for our relationship.

One of the hardest things to explain is the fact that I did not expect my mother to change as a result of my actions. The change that I was hoping for, and at least partially achieved, was in and for myself. At times throughout the trip, my mom was just as controlling as she has ever been. My work was to show up calm, compassionate, loving, and clear — no matter what she was doing in a specific moment.

The experience of this trip got me reflecting on where else in my life I may have acted with codependence. When I look back at my very first romantic relationship back in college, I see threads of the same codependency I have with my mother. My former partner and I were consistently care-taking for each other and unhappy if the other was displeased. That was not the only relationship where this has been the case. When I look at my history as a leader of teams, I have a lot of strengths: I am compassionate. I am a clear communicator. I care enormously about the well being of my people, but sometimes I care beyond a healthy limit. There are times when it is not okay with me for my employees to be unhappy.

“Love. Guide. And then let go of the outcome.”

I think of good leadership, whether with a family member, a romantic partner, or a business colleague, as having three principles: love, guide, and let go. Love them. Invite them towards what you are wanting. Then let go of the outcome. Historically, I have been unable to let go of the outcome.

While the trip to Ghana was by no means a magic cure-all, it pushed me to spend those 4 weeks practicing how to love, how to guide, and — especially that cursed third step — how to let go of the outcome.

The first week was really challenging. Primarily because Ghana was a very challenging location to travel through, but also because the consistency of daily practice and spending more time with my mother than I have since I was 18 provided a level of practice that allowed for long-term change.

Three days after returning from Ghana, I evacuated my family from the Sonoma County fires and was grateful to discover an ease in leadership with my parents that had never existed before. Packing the house until midnight, getting up at 3am — all the while, trying to figure out which time zone I was in — allowed me to find a level of collaboration with my family that had never existed previously.

A walking safari in Mole National Park

I’m excited to bring this significant change into all relationships in my life going forward — into romance and every work relationship that I will have for the rest of my career. I look forward to transferring this skill and being able to show up more clearly than I was able to previously. Perfectly? Of course not. But with a new and improved baseline for loving leadership.

Last weekend, my mother called me up and my mind immediately jumped to several things that I had promised to do for her but had not yet completed — calling travel insurance, paying bills, etc. Before I could say that I was getting to them, my mother stopped me to say that she really appreciated everything I had done to support her in Ghana and during the evacuations.

That acknowledgement is not the reason I went to Ghana and took 4 weeks out of a busy career. I did not expect my mother to change in any way as a result of our time together or even appreciate my efforts. My work was about unpacking the complexities of our relationship. But that acknowledgement was definitely the icing on the cake.

My mother and my relationship is not perfect — and it never will be — but I’m grateful to have spent time putting in the work with her. And I look forward to more.

Be More Loving with Sales – Zander Media Strategy Sessions

Recently while in NYC, I led a strategy workshop for an exclusive group of CEOs and founders who are building companies designed to thrive in the modern world.

Here, we discuss how to have more authenticity in our sales. Respecting others’ time and double checking that they are still available and willing to speak gives you initial buy in to the conversation.

You are much more likely to have a connection that will result in the long-term outcome you desire if you put the other person’s needs at the forefront. Focus on how you would like to show up for the conversation, because you are more likely to be successful if you sell lovingly than if you sell aggressively. Being present and considerate will amplify what you already do and who you really are.

Behavior Change – Zander Media Strategy Sessions

A few weeks ago in NYC, I led a strategy workshop for an exclusive group of CEOs and founders who are building companies designed to thrive in the Future of Work.

Every organization is tasked with issues that seem insurmountable. Often, the process to accomplishing a huge goal can be so overwhelming that we never get started. Behavior change can help make seemingly impossible goals feel smaller and more attainable.

What we want to accomplish is not going to happen in a single day. Instead, break the large goal down into the smallest steps possible, steps so small that they are almost ridiculously easy. When you succeed at accomplishing that tiny step, you will be encouraged to continue.

This is how we build new habits and behavior changes that eventually create monumental differences in our organizations and lives.

Responsive Organizations with President of Pepsi, Simon Lowden

My guest today is the President of Pepsi Global Foods, Simon Lowden. Simon has been the driving force over the last 10 years at turning Pepsi into a forward-thinking and self-iterating company. He is incredibly thoughtful when it comes to marketing and Responsive organizations, and in today’s conversation, we dive deep into some of the philosophies that he has implemented over the span of his career. He offers tactical advice on how to work well with teams and build a future focused organization. I hope you enjoy!

Podcast Notes:
3:00 How Simon found Responsive
5:00 Building a team
7:45 Why Pepsico brought Simon on
10:45 How Simon stays current in marketing
12:45 Balancing the internal politics of the organization
with staying fresh with consumer attention
15:45 Marketing platforms on the rise
18:15 Plastics Project
21:15 Three local rules of the Plastics Project
25:30 Simon mentions: If by Rudyard Kipling
26:00 Simon’s thoughts to the Responsive community
28:00 Steps towards being plastic-free
31:30 Begin with trust

How to Create an Amazing Brand with Michael Roderick

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Michael Roderick to discuss brand strategy and his work around creating “referrable brands.” This conversation covers a wide range of topics related to brand strategy, including his AIM model which stands for Accessibility, Influence, and Memory. We apply this framework to a variety of business examples, including my own efforts at Zander Media. I hope you enjoy!

Podcast Notes:

3:30 Michael’s background
Robin refers to:
Made To Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
6:30 How Michael and Robin know each other
Responsive Conference
Responsive Org Manifesto
10:30 Teaching and learning
15:30 Transitioning from teaching to starting a business
Michael mentions:
Linchpin by Seth Godin
18:15 Michael’s talk at Disrupt HR
20:45 Referrable brands: Accessibility, Influence, and Memory
24:00 Michael’s podcast
26:30 Applying AIM to Zander Media
30:15 Influence
34:00 Memory
40:00 Lin Manuel Miranda, Geico, and Apple
46:15 Find more about Michael:
Small Pond Enterprises
LinkedIn
47:45 Find more about Robin:
Zander Media
Responsive Conference
Robin Zander Show Podcast
Newsletter – Personal
Newsletter – Responsive

Perfectionism | Financial Freedom Workshop

Perfectionism can limit your creative fuels. The fear of failure can be crippling, and the pressure to execute consistently can paralyze you from trying at all. To help combat this, try making a list of 10 ways you can do any specific thing unsuccessfully.

The idea is to find ways to do something incorrectly, on purpose, in order to get your ideas flowing and remove your self-judgment. You are intentionally making a list of rough drafts, instead of stressing about any of those thoughts being perfect. We only become good at things after failing at them repetitively.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

What’s Your Purpose? | Financial Freedom Workshop

We all have a myriad of beliefs, and it is useful first to recognize your beliefs. But it is also possible to amplify them, and use your beliefs as fuel to create more of what you want.

In this exercise, we looked for the earliest memories of a specific belief, and then turned the belief into a statement of purpose. This process took an abstract memory and created an action that feels tangible and possible.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

How to Ask Better Questions with Daniel Stillman and Robin Zander

In this episode, my friend, Daniel Stillman, interviews me for his podcast, The Conversation Factory. We discuss how to ask better questions, the value of loving, non- judgmental questions, and my story.

I hope you enjoy today’s podcast as Daniel flips the script and interviews me on the art of asking questions.

Line Notes

1:15 How Robin describes himself

5:15 Responsive Org

Mentions:

Responsive.org

DonorsChoose.org

10:00 How do you define learning?

14:30 Asking loving questions

17:45 Practice versus performance intervals

22:30 Physical and emotional pain

Mentions:

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini

24:30 Asking loving questions

29:00 Robin’s interest in asking questions

32:30 Anat Baniel

37:00 The Option Institute

40:45 Categories of questions

Mentions:

Larissa Conte at Responsive Conference

45:15 Robin’s Cafe

47:00 Find Robin:

We are in Control of our Own Reality | Financial Freedom Workshop

We are each in control of our own reality. If you feel that making money by selling your art or your work is impossible, go find other people whose work you admire that are successful. If someone else has done it, you can do it too. Find roll models that have something in common with you to help you believe in your own abilities.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

How To Tell Your Story – Robin Zander at HR Transform

This is a talk that I gave at the HR Transform conference in Las Vegas to the Heads of HR of some of the fastest growing tech companies you have definitely heard of. The context for my talk was storytelling. I pulled on my experience at Robin’s Cafe and Responsive Conference to help others tell their story.

In today’s world, it’s not enough to just have a great company culture – you have to share that story with the world.

The aspects that make your organization unique create incredibly compelling narrative. It has never been easier to get your ideas out – to your company, your customers, and the broader world.

Find the reason you do the work you do, and share that out with the world.

What Brings You Joy? | Financial Freedom Workshop

If you want to save more money, adopting principles of behavior change will be important. What areas of your daily life can you cut back on spending?

It’s important to be thoughtful on what you spend money on in conjunction with how you want to live. That being said, if something in an unnecessary expense but brings you immense joy, don’t cut it out. Whether that’s a $5 latte or traveling with family, don’t starve yourself of the things that make you happy. Look for other areas that could be cut instead to help coordinate what you want with your long term goals.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

The Story of Robin’s Cafe | Financial Freedom Workshop

This is the story of how I came to own Robin’s Cafe in the course of 3 weeks with no initial intention or experience in purchasing a coffeeshop. The mental and emotional growth I gained through that experience was instrumental.

From that experience, I also found that when we show up humbly and ask for help, people are extremely receptive. People who love you will want to see you succeed. I was able to raise $40,000 to open the cafe, ran it for 2.5 years, and sold it for $140,000. I left satisfied with many lessons learned and a new understanding of money.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

50 Ways to $50,000 | Financial Freedom Workshop

50 ways to 50k is a game you can play to come up with ways to make extra money each month.

The first step is to choose an amount of money that feels really achievable for you to make additionally to your normal income each month. The second step is to brainstorm 15 ways to make that amount of money for next month. The third step is to decipher whether each job you came up with will make money continuously or just one time.

When thinking through job options, look through your skillset and your range of experiences to pick out several different, practical ideas. It may not be a job you feel totally confident in or very excited for, or it may be a job you feel more than overly qualified for. Regardless, any of those jobs will help motivate you and get you moving towards what you want. Often times, we are so stuck in not knowing how to get where we want to go, that we remain completely frozen. This game helps you move towards more certainty and gives you the emotional security to know that you can provide for yourself. That list of jobs may not be how you want to do things permanently, but it teaches you that if you need to make money in a bind, you can.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

Find Your “Why” | Financial Freedom Workshop

One consideration about money that we don’t talk about enough is establishing a clear “why”. The reason you want something can be highly motivating, and the absence of a clear “why” can limit you from taking direct action.

Be specific with how much more money you want, why it is important to you, and what it is for. Defining that can be a driving force to achieving your financial goals.

This was recorded live at a Financial Freedom workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, and other workshops, are put on by Motion, which offers online and in-person events on money, mental health, and self-awareness.

Take a look at the next Financial Freedom workshop or join the Motion newsletter for more information.

An Interview with New York Times Best-Selling Author, Lindsay McGregor

I recently sat down to chat with Lindsay McGregor in New York City.

Lindsay is the co-author of The New York Time’s best selling book Primed to Perform and also spoke onstage at Responsive 2018.

She and her husband co-founded the company, Vega Factor, which works with fortune 500 companies, fast growing start-ups, and a wide variety of other organizations to improve performance. In this interview, we discuss her life, her work, and her personal journey to peak performance.

Building a Great Place to Work with Cindy Gordon, Head of People at Policygenius

I took a 36 hour trip to New York City recently, and among other meetings, I had the pleasure of 30 minutes on camera with Cindy Gordon, Head of People at Policygenius.

Cindy spoke at Responsive Conference 2018, and Policygenius has been heralded as one of Inc’s Great Places to Work. We discuss her work and the tactics Cindy applies to build a great company.

Learn more: https://www.policygenius.com/

Having Intentional Relationships (and Clear Boundaries)

Friendship isn’t something that most people do intentionally. Ordinarily, we “fall” into and out of relationships and friendships, without thinking through what we want or why we are there.

In this video, I tell the story of how I became friends with Michelle Love, my co-founder at Motion (www.wantmotion.com). Michelle brought a level of clarity and specificity to what our friendship would look like that could help with creating many types of different relationships.

To make any strong connection with someone, you should get to know them deeply and then invite towards something that is in your mutual interest. Being thoughtful about your needs and intentions sets up a strong foundation for your future time together.

How to Get Over Childhood Resentment With Your Parents

One day, after my first year of college, I came home and proposed to my parents that we have a real relationship. I had always been grateful to have them, but I had never really made the choice actively to have a relationship with them. I promised to always be loving, speak my truth, and not hide pieces of myself from them, and I invited my parents to do the same with me. It made a huge difference to show up like that for each other, not because we are obligated to as family, but because we were all choosing to do so. Who in your life do you want to have a better relationship with?

How To Relate To Anybody

My father’s ability to speak to different audiences in a language that was familiar to them has always stuck with me all of my life.

Individually, we all have the ability to chose how we relate to the people we are with. Prioritize connecting with others. Demonstrating that desire to meet people where they are goes such a long way.

Entrepreneurship, Business, and the Freedom to Work On Your Own Terms

Running your own business isn’t about throwing around stacks of $100 dollar bills. It is about taking ultimate responsibility, doing the work necessary, and making hard decisions.

When you run your own business or work for yourself there an essential element that we don’t talk enough about. Freedom. It gives you the freedom to set your own hours, to call the shots, and to be your own boss. It gives you the ability to live the life you want and provide for the people you love. But that also comes with the freedom to fail if you don’t do the necessary work. 

What is freedom for you, and how can you take steps to getting more free in your professional life?

What Is Resistance?

Steve Pressfield coined to term “Resistance” in his incredible book “The Way of Art”.

When it comes to any job, you have to do the work. If you are putting on events, you have to sell tickets. If you are writing a book, you have to sit down and write. Everything else, in many ways, is just busy work.

Whatever your end goal is, do what is actually needed to accomplish it. We often do everything but what we need to do – and that is resistance. It is a hesitancy to own your truth. Avoid resistance by doing whatever needs to get done, if you want to do the best work of your life.

What’s Your One Thing?

We are all so busy, distracted, and distract-able. We are surrounded by social media and news pulling us in a million different directions.

The solution to that is very simple: identify the one thing that you need to do right now to move forward whatever you are trying to accomplish, and do that one thing.

This is true in relationships, building a business, and even fitness. We get caught up in the little things and the judgment of not thinking we are doing enough, when all we really need to do is just one thing to move us towards the end goal. It really is that simple.