https://www.listennotes.com/e/559f173f94e74a07a1f948d55b3d65a9

You know, it's challenging as business leaders to realize that we need to allow ourselves that same grace in that leadership position that we do in our own individual life.

This is your Badass Journey podcast. I am Karene Walsh, serial entrepreneur, growth strategist, executive leadership coach, and bestselling author. Each week, I will bring you a guest or a thought that will help you align what you love with what you do in order to build that badass life and business you dream of. Welcome, everybody, to today's episode on your Badass Journey podcast. I have Frank Blaney on the show today. He's a leadership development and self-care specialist. He holds an M.A. in negotiation, conflict resolution, and peace building. Now, who doesn't need a peace builder in their life? What I love about our conversation today is that Frank really shares the tools and tips that he has seen in action on how to make sure you're building deeper connection with each other, taking care of yourself to the highest level you can, and also moving into more of a leadership role as you get through your own self-development and your own own growth, what it means to actually show up as a leader in today's society. So I hope you enjoy today's conversation. I know you're going to have some great takeaways if you want to connect with Frank. He's at info@D-O-W-N-L-O-A-D-Q-I.com and again, it's Frank Blaney. So that's B-L-A-N-E-Y is how you spell his last name. But make sure you connect and let us know you're listening and can't wait to see what your takeaways are. Now let's jump into today's conversation. Welcome, Frank. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it, Karine.

Well, you know, I appreciate meeting you, knowing you now for at least, I think, through Colette, we met each other officially almost two years ago now, which is crazy how much has happened in the last two years. But what I love about your focus is how you, you have a performance based business, but you are also very much integrative in how you help your clients achieve what you consider peak performance. And before we get into explaining the work that you do today, I would love for you to share a bit about your journey of how you, how did you even decide to go into performance management, like become a, a leadership executive guide, like what's the background there that got you to where you are today?

Well, a lot of my best things that have happened in my life have not come about as a result of my master planning, to be honest with you. You know, life circumstances present themselves and then we often will make an almost intuitive decision at times as to which path to take. And I actually became a young father, a father at a very young age, was not planning on getting married, not planning on having kids, and all of a sudden had economic responsibility. So my first real foray into the world of real adult work was with a large corporate finance company that a friend got me into. And it was a top bank that operated out of New York. So I sat at a desk for four years straight doing what they told me to do. and I really didn't like the work. It really was not well suited for me. And I learned a lot about how not to do things as a manager and as a leader within business. And then from that, I decided I needed to complete my education. So having four young children that I was responsible for and also working at that time, I kind of drifted into, of all things, construction. So I was doing a very physical labor hustling to get some classes done here and there. I mean, literally, I'm not proud of this, but it took me 12 years to finish my bachelor's degree. And, you know, it was just, you know, sign up for class. Oh, my work schedule isn't going to fly with that. I've got to. I've got to bail out of that one. Okay, pick it up again. So once I got my bachelor's degree done, I really had the opportunity to think through what do I want to do? And that's when I kind of got drawn initially into the nonprofit world. I always suggest this to young people who are looking for career tracks is to volunteer for something that they're passionate about. And I was passionate about preventing violence. I was exposed at an early age to domestic violence in my home growing up. I had a lot of community violence. I grew up in a very low income neighborhood in Los Angeles that had a lot of gang problems. I got my ass kicked in my games far too regularly as a youth. And so violence was really a big part of my life. And I wanted to do what I could with my education and with my skills to prevent that. So I actually ended up volunteering for one of the first women's domestic violence and rape crisis prevention centers in the entire country, based in Los Angeles. It's now called Peace Over Violence. and I started off because I had a background in self-defense and martial arts by this time that I'd studied. I started off helping to train teachers, female teachers, to train people who would come through the rape crisis centers throughout the state of California. So anyway, I got into that field, really just thrived, and being in that field, I was exposed to a lot, you know, not just in my individual field service stuff, but because what I love about nonprofits is that they run on a real streamline budget. So you, you, you've got all sorts of different hats on, right? When you're, when you're working in a nonprofit. So I transitioned from doing Community education, women's self-defense training to Grant writing. Program management and so that kind of took me to my master's degree, which my master's degree is in negotiation, conflict resolution and peace building. And so I was learning this stuff in school and applying it immediately in my community and it was a great, great little, you know, terrarium of learning that I had.

Yeah, sounds beautiful. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was really neat. But basically the trajectory that got me where I am is, Just as I stepped into each new arena and each new opportunity to serve, I got more and more responsibility placed on me. So even though I never really wanted to be a manager, I was placed in a management position. And one of the first executive management positions I had was director of youth leadership development. And that was something I really felt excited about. And so that kind of is how I got into my own little trajectory.

As it is at that time. How old were your kids? By the time you got into that youth leadership role, do you remember, like, around?

Yeah, yeah. They were still relatively young. I think my oldest was about maybe 13. Yeah. And my youngest was about eight. So, yeah, they were still, you know, burning both candles.

Yeah, you were leading them as well. That's why I was asking, because sometimes, you know, like, when you, you get the the hints of help as a service outward, right? Like it starts to integrate with who you are and then how you actually show up and the role you play at home or the role you play in your domestic life, right? And especially coming from what sounds like a very volatile upbringing, you know, and not feeling the level of certainty and safety in, you know, in maybe your own personal upbringing in your home life. But figuring out not only how are you going to help youth who go through that or go through trials and tribulations, I just immediately started to think about your own family and potentially the impact that that had on them going through that journey. And I just want to say the fact that it took 12 years to get your undergrad, it's almost like, who cares that it took that long? Because you need to celebrate any achievement that you have and the fact that you actually crossed that finish line to even get your master's. So I just want to celebrate you there because we can easily measure ourselves against someone else's process. But it sounds as if the way you were sharing that is that it actually lined up at the exact right time for you to then put yourself into that new arena to then figure out your next focus. So, yeah, really cool. Tell us a little bit about the discipline around that self-defense program that you brought in and the martial arts you've done. How has that played a role in your life and how you stand as a leader today?

That's a beautiful question. When I was a little kid, I used to watch TV and of course you'd see Bruce Lee and you'd see the Kung Fu series with, I can't remember the actor's name, the guy that played Cain, right? Yeah. And so that stuff made an impression on me, but my reality was getting my ass whooped all the time, right? And I was raised by a single parent mom who was very low income. She worked in a factory and we never owned a car. we were all my entire life growing up, we were all below poverty level, you know, according to the government thing. Right. And so, you know, we. I didn't have. My mother didn't have resources to send me for self-defense class. So I wasn't one of those guys that when I was five, I was doing this. You know, I didn't start. I didn't start doing it until I was 21. Nice. I had no intention of ever becoming a black belt. I just wanted to learn something that would help me not to have to experience. being beaten again. You know, it was very pragmatic, right? Yeah. But what I found was that this thing that I really loved doing, and I was not that good at athletics in school, but I just loved martial arts so much. And it was a very healing thing for me as a male. And that's something that I share with people that I work with is that a lot of men have been traumatized. Now, obviously, statistically speaking, the rates of sexual assault and violence against women is even higher. But a lot of men have also been traumatized and they have that machismo thing where they don't want to admit it, you know, that type of stuff. And there's something therapeutic about males going through these motions of martial arts practice together, which helps them to recalibrate the violence they may have experienced, either as a child or in their youth. and that's exactly what happened with me. It was a very healing thing for me. And I just stayed in it and eventually got a black belt after six years of hard training, got a second degree black belt and a teaching certificate. And then, you know, that was when I parlayed that into my volunteer service doing that. But in regards to how it's helped me as a human being and as a person doing business, it's really just understanding that we progress in increments, very small increments, you know, daily, daily, daily input. And you don't see the fruit right away. And I think our culture really struggles with that. When you go back in history, right? You've got these agrarian cultures where it was almost instinctual because they would plant a seed, it would take a long time for that seed to bear fruit. and then, you know, that was what they were. They were used to operating according to the Earth Cycles. Right? Yeah. We live in these little boxes, and we're tied up to these computers, and everything's going fast, fast, fast. We don't know about patience. We don't know about slowing down. And I got all that discipline through my martial arts training, and that's. A lot of what I share with my clients comes from that background. So it's a. It's a very rich, beautiful thing. I'm hoping that I'll. be able to do that until I lie down the grave, which I hope that's going to be a long time.

Yeah, you have plenty of time before that. I think it's beautiful how you equated the energy cycles of the past where we didn't have this much technology and/or mass production of our food cycles, the access to water, the things that a lot of us in our time today take advantage of. We don't even appreciate that that was at once it took an effort or discipline to actually have access to it, to that gifting. I love that alignment to how the practice of martial arts, because the way I see it, as you were talking, I was thinking about all the shows that I've loved to watch recently, like on HBO Max, there's the whole Warrior series. I don't know if you saw that, but it was based on a Bruce Lee story he wrote himself, and then they created this, the series out of it. And the martial arts in that, it makes me want to get up and figure out how to do all those moves. It's so amazing to see real craft in that, because it's not always about aggression. It's about protection. It's about flow. It's about passing the energy forward. All the things that as leaders we have to think about, too, where it's, you know, in this moment, what is the best stance for me to have? What's the best next move? What's the, you know, the way I can keep things flowing? Or is this a time to pause? Like, I could totally see the relatability from having a black belt and, and then the, the framework of that moving into how, as a leader, you need to show up in it. But it does take that daily practice. And, and then the other visual I had, as you were telling the story, I was like, what was it like for you to have like your first, I would say move, like complex move that you had to do as a black belt where and I think about like aerial spins or like the certain types of kicks or like what I don't know. You have to explain to me because I am not the master you are, but it just I can only imagine how much discipline it took and practice it took to get to that epic move. Let's just say, and then the ability to repeat it again and again and again, right, to figure out that mastery. Was there a moment like that that you had that helped show you your growth or like helped show you that, oh, okay, I'm now actually at that next level?

Yeah, actually there's a specific term in the Japanese martial arts, which is where I focus most of my attention. I've studied after I completed my second degree black belt in Japanese Jujitsu. I did another six years in Aikido, which is another Japanese martial art. And that obviously is very much about flow and all that. And so the term that's used in Japanese to describe where you kind of hit that, maybe not Mastery, but that flow, it's called motion. M-U-S-H. Yeah, motion. M-U-S-H-I-N is the English translation of it. And basically what that means is that you have done those daily practices so often and so keenly, they are literally just downloaded into your nervous system so that you don't have to think about what you do. And, you know, when one incident happened to me, I'd actually been on a really long business trip and I'd come back and I'd signed up months ago for this jiu-jitsu tournament, right? and I'm not a very competitive person, to be honest with you, but I just signed up for it as I thought it would help me push myself a little. I'm competitive with myself. Let's put it that way.

Yeah.

And so, of course, I got sick on the airplane. I had almost, almost feverish. I just felt wiped out. I didn't know, you know, and I just showed up and all I wanted to do was to make sure I could maybe drive myself home at the end. I didn't care about winning or any of that stuff, right? And so the tournament format was such that I had multiple opponents that I had to deal with and I had three minutes where I had to be in there and deal with whatever they were coming. They could bring sticks and knives, all this crazy stuff. So I just go in there and I was so exhausted. All I did was I bowed and then, you know, the referee goes, Hajime, which means start, right? And everything was a blur. Just an absolute, I have no memory recollection. I just remember people clapping at the end and I sit down and all of a sudden I won first place in that particular division that I was competing in. This was out of a pool of about 30 guys.

Wow.

And I'm like, okay, so I guess that was probably the point where I figured, okay, all these nights that I've been showing up and doing this activity and, you know, it just, it was there. And I think the, the key thing, the takeaway on this is that it's the same thing when we get into whatever it is that calling our profession. It's that daily practice of what we're doing is going to come forth at the right time, in the right degree, in the right amount, in the right way. You won't have to think about it. You know, you just won't have to think about it that much. Not that you don't be strategic and logical, of course, there's all that going on. But when you're, whether it's a sales pitch, right? or whether you're in a strategy meeting with colleagues, whatever it is, you've ingrained it so deeply within yourself. It's just there. It's part of you. That's where we want to get, right?

Yeah, I know. That's beautiful. And I think it brings a level of certainty in self when you allow for what you have learned to show up in its natural stance. You know, I think a lot of the times, just like how you were saying in our our energy, the energy around us is so demanding and it can force sometimes feel like you have to force a decision or force an action versus the discipline of seeing it for what it is and then giving it a moment to decide what is the best for the situation right now. Like, for me, one of my practices is in order for me to feel as though I'm staying in consistent action or flow. I had to give myself permission to fumble or I had to just allow, I also say, like, I can change my mind at any time. Like, that's the other thing. Like, it was like, it's the right decision for right now, but maybe some learnings after that decision could determine, oh, you know what? We need to pivot in this direction or we have to, I changed my mind. Let's go back to this, whatever it could be. And I think that When you're, when you're doing it physically in a physical practice that doesn't require for you, you're deciding for yourself in that moment, that one to one, unless, unless in this group fight, like there were six against one, I don't know how badass you are in the fighting arena, but I'm assuming it was one to one most of these fights, that you're, that, that you had to get through. Is that it? It's for your own self. preservation as you're thinking about that, that opponent in leadership, though, we have to think about not only ourselves and the whole. And so as you started to create these peak performance business programs and like, and, and you started to also become a trainer in, which I would love for you to share with our listeners, too, how that has benefited not only your own personal self care and practice. to continue in your discipline, but how has that helped also your clients as you work with them on their peak performance?

But when we're in a business leadership position, our quote unquote mistakes can have really powerful ramifications for people that are looking to us for leadership. And when I say leadership, I mean that in a very concrete way. If their employees, they could lose their jobs if you make a poor decision, you know, if we make a poor decision and things go south, you know, so that's a lot of responsibility that we carry on our shoulders, you know? And that is, I think, one of the biggest pressure cookers that leaders have is, is being leaders. And I think the more that we can try and understand that we really need to be one unit when we're doing something, what I mean by that, as our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our focus and attention, our goals, they need to be unified. And when we are operating in a thing, and I call this centered power, when we're operating in a place of integrity with who we are as individuals and our skills, like you so eloquently mentioned, acknowledging your gifts, and not operating from a fear base where oh, they're going to judge me if I do this or this might happen when that happens. I think one of the things that is challenging for business leaders that we need to remember is that in our personal lives, think about how many things that we've had occur which seemed initially as to be mistakes or whatever, right? So a relationship goes bad or you make a poor financial decision or maybe you pick the wrong major, whatever it is, In hindsight, you realize that there was some sort of hidden lesson, a hidden message, a hidden discovery that you were able to make just through that so-called mistake. I personally don't even use the word mistake anymore. I say learning curve. Everything's a learning curve, right? And it's challenging as business leaders to realize that we need to allow ourselves that same grace in that leadership position that we do in our own individual life because everything is really a gamble. There's no guarantees. If this past pandemic of COVID-19 is taught anyone, any lesson, it's, you know, there's no givens, you know, the only certainty is uncertainty, right? And so that flexibility, that confidence and that, again, it goes back to that word integrity with self. And I don't mean being MORALLY right, I mean, I'm talking about being true to what your genuine nature is. And I think a lot of the stress that we create for ourselves, a lot of the angst that we go through as individuals is because on some level we know maybe we shouldn't be in that particular job path that we're on. Maybe we shouldn't be in that partnership, whether it's a romantic partnership or a business partnership. Maybe we should, you know, whatever the maybe is.

Yeah.

We really need to bite the bullet and just go, this is my life. I got a real brief moment here and I just need to be true with, with who I am and what I am. And, and that's when the magic happens, when you can step into a place of courage and be who you really are.

You know, it's so true. I, as you were talking, the, the way I started to visualize, and I have never had this visualization before, so I definitely want to share it, but it I almost imagine if we could imagine that our lives are a really wide path. Like if you think about a path on a trail to go through, you know, a hiking trail, mountain, whatever, but it's super wide. Because a lot of times we get tunnel vision around the target of what we're trying to hear. But imagine trying to get to, but imagine if it was super wide and you were allowed to zigzag to get from point A to point B, C, D all the way up to Z and plus, right? Like that's our life. But I think if we could be more expansive in our thinking to say, I have to step forward regardless, whatever step forward I take because I need to move on my path either. And you, a lot of people do regression work where they're stepping backwards to figure it out on how to step forward. But the forward motion of it, which is definitely my energy too, where it's really about the lessons learned, what do I want to take with me, And I think it was because similar to you coming up in challenging methods, trying to discover who I was amongst all of it, then introducing myself to different disciplines out there and just being open to knowing that something has got to be better than what this was, you know, like, and so it's that forward motion, that step motion of like, what else? What else can I learn? What else can I figure out? But because I exercised it at a young age, the trial and error of it all, the taking the big zig or zag, you know, along my path, I still was moving forward. And I think that that's a really great thing to be able to walk away from listening today for the listeners here is that it doesn't have to feel absolute. All the time. It just sometimes requires that small step and that and having the integrity to say, yes, that step worked for me and I learned this, or it wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I still learned this, you know, and you can zigzag along the path, right?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I was like, you know, as a child growing up, one of my biggest heroes, you know, and I guess, you know, growing up without a father, you, try and look for these father figures.

Of course, yeah.

There weren't many good mentors in my own personal circle. So I adopted, you know, celebrity ones or people that I kind of, you know, saw in the media. And, you know, Dr. King was, was just a massive influence on my whole trajectory into the non-violence work, obviously, but just as a human being and encouraged that and what he stood in. And I can't remember, this is kind of a paraphrase, but you know, somebody asked him something about, oh, what's the next steps on this, this, and this? And, you know, and he was a very strategic person. I had the opportunity to train with one of his generals, this guy named Lawson. And he was actually one of the people that would train all the civil disobedience, you know, protest people and all that. And I did a, a training in Kinyan non-violence they called it. And, you know, so he was very strategic, but he also Just, he made this phrase, he said, I don't necessarily know all the hows of how I'm gonna get there. I just have an end goal and I just take the next step. Yeah. The next step, the next step. And that is kind of, you know, and so it is an example of that. In my early 20s, before I had even completed my education, I was trying to think very pragmatically. I gotta figure out a way to feed my family. I don't have an advanced degree. I need to get something going here. and I put four years of my life into attempting to become a firefighter. And there's like for every position, at least at that time, for a firefighter, there's 2,000 applicants. And so for four years, I trained physically, a lot of my undergraduate courses in fire science, right? I just thought, let's do it, you know, let's try. And I told myself whether I achieved this or not, I just want to have a clear conscience that I gave it 100%. And so at the end of that four years, I got close a few times. I got some interviews, not quite, never quite got there. But the skills that I had learned on organizing my time, you know, the physical fitness elements of training, because those, those tests are very difficult that, you know, helped me in so many different ways. There was just a whole slew of skill sets that I, yeah, sure. Yeah. And and I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm glad that never happened because I like what I do now. But, you know, we get so caught up like you were sharing, you get so caught up in, oh, you know, it's got to be so perfectly planned and it's got to work out this way or that way. And life's not like that. Life, life is, you know, I, I, life is like Jitsu, which I trained in, you know, you think somebody's going to come at you with one thing, they come at you with something and you just got to roll with it right there and just work it out in the midst of it and. You know, the more I think that's what's really missing now with a lot of traditional, what would you call it, like paradigms of business leadership is, you know, we still have this domineering type of mentality when it comes to leadership, right? It's very proactive and I talk and people listen and I make decisions and people follow versus a more synergistic kind of give and take. Yeah. you know, it's a collaboration. When you get right down to it, you know, we talk about these heroes, Ellen Musk or whoever, Jeff Bezos, whether you like him or not, these people are what people call successful people. They didn't get there by themselves, you know, they never do. It's about having a synergy with a team that you're with and really going with the energy in the room and not to get too, you know, woo woo. But it really is emotionally, it matters a lot. That emotional intelligence is a key missing thing. And I think honestly, that's why, in my opinion, women make some of the best business leaders because they're more structured societally to have that sort of emotional intelligence and are given a little bit more push and depending on how you define it, indoctrination sometimes to be more emotionally intelligent to navigate around the domineering men. But the reality is that skill set is what's needed more in leadership. Is that ability to- yeah. From everyone.

From everyone.

From everyone.

From everyone. Matter. I do think that there is an opportunity, an amazing opportunity for that kind of integrative learning in what a synergistic leadership stance could look like, regardless of your sexual orientation, let's just say. 'Cause I know for me, definitely. My EQ was way high. And I did as a female in a male dominated industry and technology, you know, that I started in back in the day, also being in a, a society where they definitely would recognize men's achievements over the women. And, and feminist movement was just coming up where, you know, we, the language around training women and showing women that it is possible to do it all, I do think has been a great support into who I have become, you know, as a female leader in this world and helping other leaders also show up. I think, though, that men who have had a dominant masculine stance, because that's what they were trained to become, they were conformed to become that. and maybe potentially their EQ and their emotional side was squashed because it did not belong in those constructs. That's the traditional paradigm you were just talking about. That's the piece that I love seeing when I meet with other men and women who have spent the time to actually understand both dichotomies and figuring out like, what is the synergy to stand in it all? And the word reciprocity comes in a lot, in my opinion, because that's that give and that take, right, of energy and feminine side on our bodies, our left side, the masculine side is our right side. You know, as women, we tend to overwork our right side if we're having to be in a masculine environment for so long. And this year, especially post being in the tail end of, I hope, this pandemic where we're back out into the world expressing who we're meant to be, physically with each other, as opposed to just virtually like this, where a lot of women I've talked to, even myself, have been going through like health, almost like a rebirth. It feels like it's happening because we had to sit in this recognition in this past year of, you know what, that masculine energy of that push, push, push doesn't work anymore. And we need to figure out how we can like raise up the feminine energies and what is also fed into the EQ measurements out there too, where it is about this synergy. It's about that alignment of who am I truly? What is the best way for me to show up in this moment and stop with the veil or the being who we're not anymore? Just like, you know, if you've been in the toxic male environments and that was not who you were, you, you know, you were beat up on a lot as a kid, but you were, you were not meant to be a fighter, you know, but you found a discipline where you could protect yourself and also show others how to protect themselves, which is a very integrative stance on, on that masculine feminine energy. So I do think it's a topic we need to face more and, like, have more discussions on because It is, it's the only way I think we're going to create the new environment that this awakening of this last year has created for anyone who wants to be a conscious leader today has to understand not only for themselves to feel healthy in their role, but also to cultivate it in their organization.

Absolutely. Yeah, that domineering paradigm has never worked for males. and women who during a certain timeframe, I would say even now, like you're saying, in a lot of industries of women in order to make themselves heard and make themselves have the impact that they want to have within their careers, sometimes need to exercise what would be called traditionally masculine type of energies, right?

Completely, yeah.

And regardless of the gender of the person exercising that, it's not healthy in the long term if it's in balance, you know? And I think that's one of the, the beautiful things about, you know, Qigong that I've learned over the, over the 20 years that I've been doing Qigong, 21 years, actually, is that this balance, like, I don't, it sounds like a side track, but I'm gonna dive in. No, no, no.

I want to explain it. It sounds perfect. Like, I really want to explain the benefits of it, too. So please share with our listener what is Qigong and continue.

Sure. Well, in Qigong, which another term for that is Chinese yoga, one of the things that you do is everything you do on the right side, you balance out on the left side, the yin and the yang, right? So we know conceptually in our conversation that we should do this, but when you add your body into that equation and you reinforce the learning of the emotional intelligence training or the training and development that may come into play in a workplace or even just in your own personal life, someone who's maybe learning how to meditate or whatever it is. When you add the kinetic dimension to that, it's another avenue of learning that can enhance our totality as a human being so that these energies of masculine and feminine, and I don't really like those terms, to be honest with you, but.

Yeah, I know. I don't either. But I. Yeah, like, give me. If you have new terms to use, I would love them because I don't like them either. I feel like. I'm also too constraining.

Yeah, I don't, I have a lot of critique of the old terms. I, you know, when I, when I did a lot of training with, with young men and women around these issues, I would refer to it as gender indoctrination, what people get, you know?

Yeah, that's so true.

Yeah. And it was interesting for me growing up in a single mother's home, because, you know, I would have people or the society, I should say, would tell me, oh, this is how women should act and this is how men should act. Well, I didn't, I wasn't raised by a woman or a man. I was raised by a human being. And so when the bill collectors would call and my mother had to get into that more direct energy to protect herself and her kids, you know, there was no difference between what I saw and a strong male or even physically defending her kids sometimes. And then, you know, but still just that nurturing and that tenderness that both males and females have. in varying degrees. So, you know, I'm, I'm a, I consider myself a very tender and nurturing person with my kids. I hug my kids. I've always been just that guy, you know? So I, I long for a day where we can actually outgrow these, these old modes. And I think what's going to happen, in particular in the business world and in particular after this pandemic, exactly what you're saying, these old domineering ways off balance, because sometimes you do have to assert, but these domineering ways, if people, male or female, do not find a way to balance their entire person and operate energetically with teams that they work with, they are going to go the way of the dinosaur. It simply is not sustainable. It's not sustainable in a health paradigm, that's for sure. But it's also not sustainable economically because people are tired. Like you see a shift in advertising going on now. You know, that old hammer, the advertising stuff we used to get as kids growing up, that's, I mean, you know, the younger generation, they could give a rats, you know what about that? Now they don't, that's like, get out of here with that. So everything is shifting, you know, and to tie back to the Qigong, Qigong is basically slowing down. doing deep diaphragmatic breathing and allowing our bodies to heal. And the movements, there's 10,000 different Qigong forms. And my own personal journey into that was I hit a point right around 2000 where I had a very severe health crisis. I was having heart problems. I was put on medication for it. I had a lot of personal stressors in life. I was put on medication for depression. I had clinical depression. and, you know, even though I was active with martial arts, even though I was eating okay, you know, my, my stress levels were so high, even that wasn't doing it. So, you know, I, I had a choice of continuing on prescription medications, which I had a friend at the time who was a PhD biological researcher in the pharmaceutical field, and he was very direct. He's like, dude, they don't have longitudinal studies on this stuff, so. you're kind of playing a gambling if you stick on that path. And he, of all people, recommended I find some holistic way to deal with this. So I didn't want to do yoga because that would mean lying down in jiu-jitsu you want to be relaxed as you move. So I thought, okay, and I found out about Qigong, Chinese yoga, and just threw a few different exercises together from some pretty crappy book that I found, you know, in a bookstore. And I'm like, okay, well, this is my symptom. Oh, okay. You know, I'm just, okay, whatever. Came up with some made up my own goofy seven minute routine. And within about a week, the symptoms just dropped. And I'm like, okay, that's really weird, right? And then that, that pulled me into understanding why this happened. You know, at that time, I was a very analytical. guy, like very, you know, you know, that, that. And then over the years, doing this Mind Body Paradigm, it's balanced out the two sides of my brain. The left brain, right brain, the left brain, the right brain. It's really brought me into more touch with my intuition, but it hasn't weakened my rational and logical mind. And I think that's kind of the storehouse that I've been trying to unpack as a self-care modality. for individuals who are in high stress situations. But like you're saying, even more so integrating that into cultures of workforces and in workplaces, that's really where my heart is at right now.

Yeah, I love that. I'm definitely, I know you have something we can download in regards to understanding Qigong better. Or do you have a, tell everybody what that is so that they can grab it if they want to learn more and like figure out some, at least the start of some of this integration. 'Cause I think it's super important.

Yeah, well my website is downloadqi.com and that's downloadqi.com and if you go there, there's a little sign up button and you'll get an introduction. I also have some connections for YouTube videos that I do, things along those lines. So, topically, I generally will stay focused on the business aspects of you know, integrating these into your practices. But also, you know, my, my wife has an autoimmune disorder. Many of my friends have an autoimmune disorder. And so that's something else that I also teach about because unfortunately, Western medicine and those types of mechanistic paradigms are not very helpful when it comes to diagnosing or treating these stress related disorders. And 80% of all visits to the doctor are stress related, and all they can do is give you some pills and hopefully the best. And that's not really a solution. You know, we need to do something that's a little bit more, you know, empowering. You know, I consider sleep, I consider eating decent quality food and doing Qigong or some form of exercise is creating our own medicine. And that's really where we want to get people to be at. You know, there's obviously a lot of controversy going on right now. should you get the vaccination or not get the vaccination? Will it help you? Will it not help you? You know, my thing is do whatever's best for you, but boost your own immune system no matter what. You know what I mean? That's really what we got to do.

Yeah, that's how Jeff and I are too. It's like it's not just a one-time hit of a vaccine that's going to help you stay healthy. And, you know, it definitely Again, each person has their own choice. It's just really though the ongoing integrative care and really seeing yourself as like a whole system that requires healthy input and healthy output, you know, you know, having the people to talk to and work with in order to navigate through certain phases of whatever it is you're going through or learning new practices to see what I mean, just even recently for me, going through a lot of like health things started to show up and I was like, oh my God, is this what midlife feels like? Like I thought I was good with my practices. Like I'm a conscious person, but your body will sometimes show and tell you that no, it's, we're still off here. Like you need to focus and you need to come up with the right, the right tools and modalities for now. Like it is a progression through life too. So I love that you provide that and I know my listeners will go and download and grab the guide you have because it's just a start of something else you can plug in and see how it works for you. And then obviously if they want to reach out to you or have questions, what's the best way for them to connect with you, Frank?

It would also be through the website. You'll see my contact email there is info@downloadchi.com you know, that's the best way. And again, my, actually, right now, my website guy, who's absolutely great, Michael Gonzalez, who is a magician with, with Tech, he's doing a little quick tweak on my, on my website. It's, it's up, I believe.

But, yeah.

Anyway, it's, it's all the, all the, you know, directives to how to get more information or basically to download she.com. so that's the, the best way to get, get that stuff about it. I was just going to share, you know, one of the things that we've kind of been brainwashed to believe in this society is a mechanistic view of our bodies. And that is something I think that we kind of, again, as a culture, need to outgrow and come up with an integrative model like you're talking about. Because, you know, basically how I describe it to my students and my clients is that we're basically a walking battery. we're like about 60-70% water. We've got a little dash of minerals in there and we got an electric charge. And so doing Qigong or doing, you know, any kind of deep diaphragmatic breathing, mind-body practice, yoga, you know, some kind of martial arts, whatever it is, doing those things is basically training that electric system to operate at full capacity again. It's like having, you know, when you're driving in some rural areas and you're so phone won't get the reception. There's parts of our body that due to past trauma, it can be emotional trauma, it can be physical trauma. It's like the, the information, the nutrition, the healing, the oxygen is not able to get in there. And how I describe it to people I'm working with is that just, you know, a lot of people have gone in for acupuncture treatments, and I love acupuncture. I've done that. and I've studied some traditional Chinese medicine. And Qigong is actually the foundation for Chinese medicine. So when you go in for an acupuncture treatment, all they're doing is they're sticking needles into your body to help redirect the flow of this Qi, which is, in essence, bioelectric energy. And with Qigong, what we're doing is the needle is our mind, it's our concentration. So if a particular movement, I'm imagining my arm going here and then coming back, that means that that bioelectric energy is flowing up and that bioelectric energy is flowing back. And one of the beautiful experiences I had in Los Angeles when I was teaching regular weekly classes there pre-COVID was I did a presentation for an autoimmune disorder group called Scleroderma. And it's a really, really painful, difficult autoimmune disorder. And I did a presentation for some support groups and a bunch of them ended up signing up for my class. so they're like eight or nine of the folks are in my, in my group. And it was a nine week class I was doing. And by week four, at the end of class, some of them were, were crying because they were feeling, feeling in areas that they hadn't felt in a long time. And they're, like, coming to me like, I did something. I'm like, hey, it's just you moving, doing deep breathing, you know, nothing special about me. This is just your body doing what it's designed to do, you know, and that's really what I see being the potential for this, not only with people who are suffering some of the, you know, the end game results of our stressful environments, but I'm all about prevention. You know, that's my, that's my thing is if you can prevent something from happening, let's do that. So if we can start integrating some of these mind-body practices as part of our work culture and not something weird that is brought in from the outside or oh, great. I did a 10 hour shift. Now I got to go do an hour and a half yoga class. No, no, no, no, no. Let's cut that off at the past. Let's integrate it into our workplaces. And that way, everybody is going to be able to operate at peak performance. Everyone's going to remain as healthy as they can be, and it's just going.

To flow a lot better. That's. That's what I want to see happen. Yeah, I love it. I'm on that same Mission, too. It is. It is exactly what I've been visioning and also. starting to put into formulation of how we actually help companies do that. Because I feel like we need leadership in that space, Frank. Like you and I have seen the benefits of it. We need to constantly keep figuring out ways to bring it into organizations because if they haven't done it yet, then they don't know how. And so sometimes you got to bring that formula in and be like, okay, here's how, here's how to start, and here's how we're going to to support you that whole way. So I love that you're saying this because you're speaking my language, but also breathing life into the vision I have for this next business I plan to launch, which, of course, I'm going to include you on because I know you'll add so much to, to it as a, as an advisor, as well as a practitioner of Peak Performance. So this has been so great. But as a thank you for having you on my show, Frank, because I know so many people are walking away with great nuggets. from our conversation and things that they can put into practice now. I would love to just thank you by giving you some time to ask if there's a question, something you're going through or need support on that I can support you on today.

Well, yeah, actually, I'm sure this is something that a lot of the people that are doing their own businesses and have made that transition from working in the corporate world and are trying to do their own thing and be self-employed, you know, besides the Qigong business, I also have a boutique publishing company called Less is More Press and I work with authors and stuff there. And one of the things that is difficult with the book business in particular is exposure, you know, and of course everyone thinks now because it's such a dominant factor in marketing and social media or, you know, maybe, you know, Google Ads or, you know, Amazon is one big search engine. And so I've studied a lot about the SEO and I do, you know, blogging as often as I can, not as often as I should, and all that sort of stuff. But in regards to getting old school media exposure, you know, what I've done is, you know, back in when I was working in corporations and nonprofits, I would help craft press releases. Okay, so, okay, Shoot this off to this person. But I guess any tips that you would share for not necessarily operating within the domains of social media and navigating the SEO stuff, which everyone seems stuck there, what are some of the things either for newsprint media, you know, local news stations, even TV appearances, that type of thing? What kind of suggestions do you have for people that are wanting to maybe some of their marketing muscle into that area.

And share specifically that they're writers, that they're authors in that arena, or just any entrepreneur trying to- Any entrepreneur. Okay. So just because there's the whole book launch path, we can talk through, but then it's just really what I guess I take it to the level up of what is the platform that you are standing on, meaning is this outlet the best thing for the attraction you're trying to get? So in the case of trying to get media attention, for example, especially if you're a content creator and you have so much that you're able to share, it's really about understanding what media outlet is best aligned for your brand and your presence and the platform that you stand on. And then once you determine that, so for example, is it like Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes Magazine? Do you want to be on local news in your area? Those type of questions to ask is first to identify which media outlets matter to you and your brand the most. Then it's about doing your research to say, who are the actual writers and or interviewers that you want to get in front of? Because every single one is pining for new content. Like we think that media is such a far reach for us, but all it does actually take is some concentration on how do you actually get in front of the people you want to be know, know about you and talk about you. They all have a path of entry. Most of them have their emails that are public too that you can pitch to them on. Two of my good friends, Chris and Jen, Jen Gottlieb, they basically are here in the New York area, but they service all over the place. They have a unfair advantage media company and their tools and tips on how you get in front of media has really been a great lesson learned for me. to realize that there are humans behind it all. And you just have to figure out how to get in touch with those humans that you want to be sharing your content with and then really understand their method of how they determine the content that they are looking to produce in order for you to be that next person that they say, oh yeah, great, this sounds great. It's so aligned with what we love to talk about, what our audience loves to hear. and this is the date and time. Let's set up an interview. You know, so I think it's, I think it's more approachable than we think it can be. And I, and first you have to really determine what is the best alignment for you and your brand to step into that person's arena and introduce yourself. And so the way you leverage social platforms for that is to go follow those writers, go follow those Interviewers comment on their posts, like try to try to understand what are the conversations they're having so that when you actually send a pitch to them for you to get in front of them with, it is aligned with things they've already talked about. It becomes so much easier then to create a connection.

Right. So just like we target market for our clients, we want to target market for those media outlets that we're shooting for.

There's so many now too.

Yeah.

You know, just like you were in was Thrive Global and Authority Magazine, it's like, you know, these are all writers behind it looking for content. And so it's just a matter of you reaching out to know. So if you don't have a like a one pager that kind of explains who you are, the topics you like to talk about, if you've written books, like, you know, the highlight of the book and, and your bio, like just a quick one pager that goes along with your pitch. But that would be something to create to make it even easier for them to be like, oh yeah, this person would be great in front of an audience. They have it together. Let's just set something up. But you have to kind of tell them, don't ever email, and this is just more for my listeners, because I know, Frank, you're way more apt than thinking this, but to reach out to anyone and say, Hey, can I, do you have any openings for me to get in front of your audience? Or you have to make it so that it's aligned with how you're going to help them help their audience. Like that's the type of messaging. I realized you talked about XYZ. I love dialoguing on that topic. You know, here's something that I recently wrote or I was interviewed here and you can give them other like credentials, you know, for them if they want research. And I would love to share this and you explain your top three things with your audience. whenever you're willing, you know, or when you have the time or however we can connect, I'd be open to it, you know? Simple. Keep it simple.

Awesome.

But that's how I went.

Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, of course. Well, thank you for being on the show today. And listeners, as you know, we love hearing from you and your takeaways. So please make sure, as you're listening, to go ahead and hit that subscribe button, but also Let us know what other questions you have because Frank and I are always here to support you. And again, we'll see you in the next episode. Wasn't that such a great episode? I know you got amazing takeaways from that. What I would love for you to do for me, if you can help me extend my reach, is go ahead and subscribe to the show so you get the latest notifications and listen before anyone else. Also, if you could go ahead and post your review, your five-star review will help me get other people interested in this conversation and extend my reach of impact. Most of all, I would love for you to share this with your community. It means so much to me to have you as a listener, and I would love to connect with you. So if you have any questions, that you would like me to answer on this show, go ahead and email hello@carinewalsh.com and my team will make sure that I get your questions so we can get them answered on the show for you. Thank you so much for listening today and I'll see you on the next episode.