Podcast 929: The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit 2022 with Alex Raymond

Introducing The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit
Being an entrepreneur can be stressful, lonely, and all-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The goal of this conference is to give entrepreneurs the tools they need to thrive as they build the businesses of their dreams.
The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit (https://consciousentrepreneur.us) is a 2-day, in-person gathering of ambitious entrepreneurs (just like the Inside Personal Growth community) taking place in Denver on May 17 and 18.

The event is bringing together over a dozen amazing speakers (Srikumar Rao, Kaley Klemp, Jerry Colonna, Rob Dube, and more) to share their wisdom and help entrepreneurs become more inspired, purposeful, and resilient leaders. Think of the Conscious Entrepreneur Summit as two days of content geared toward helping you get to the next level of person and professional success.

I think this aligns really well with your mission, and I know that many members would benefit from being a part of this event.
For The Inside Personal Growth Community: 
Use this code for $150 off – INSIDEPERSONALGROWTH – or direct link to www.eventbrite.com/e/197047503387/?discount=INSIDEPERSONALGROWTH

 

You may also refer to the transcripts below for the full transcription (not edited) of the interview.

Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside Personal Growth, this is Greg Voisen and the host of Inside Personal Growth. And joining me from Boulder Colorado is Alex Raymond. Alex, Good day to you. How are you?

Alex Raymond
Hey, hello, Greg. I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. And congrats on over 930 episodes of the show man Oh, man.

Greg Voisen
It is something you have to stay persistent at, let me tell you, and we've got some great besides you, we've got some great people coming up. We're going to be doing one with a Marshall Goldsmith. In next week, and I want everybody to take a look at that one, it's going to be called your earned life is the name of his new book. So that's great. But Alex is Alex piqued my interest. And I don't normally do this. But I saw this conscious entrepreneurs summit in Denver, May 7, and eighth. And for all my listeners in the Denver and surrounding areas. This to me with what I saw was going to be the speakers. The format of the meeting, it's a live session, it's not something you do on the computer, you actually get to go meet people upfront, shake hands. I thought I wanted to promote this for him and get the word out. And but I think it's good that you know a little bit about Alex first, because why would he want to do this? Why does he want to invest his time and conscious entrepreneur Summit. So Alex, you know, you've traveled around a bit, you own a software company called CAPTA. Tell us a little bit about you, and what inspired you to want to take the time away from your other business to promote this conscious, conscious entrepreneurs Summit, which by the way, for my listeners, it's May 17, and 18th. And we're going to put a link, you're also going to get off $150 to this summit, we're going to put a special link called where you can sign up through Eventbrite. The normal rate is 774, something like that? Well, what's the rate Alex?

Alex Raymond
Normal, the normal rate is 748 for the two day pass, and your audience will get it for just under 600 bucks.

Greg Voisen
Okay. So figure it 599, or whatever that turns out to be. So it's a great deal for two days, and especially with the speakers, he's got lined up, and we're gonna get into that in a minute. But Alex, tell us, you know, what inspired you to want to do this? Have you done this before? Is it something that you know, you just do every year? Fill us in?

Alex Raymond
Sure. Yeah, no, thanks. Great. So as you mentioned, I live in Boulder, Colorado, I've been a software entrepreneur for about 10 years. The company that I run today is called Kappa, that's ka PTA, kappa.com. And it's software for post sales account managers. And let me tell you that, you know, this is easy to say, but it's hard to internalize for a lot of people, being an entrepreneur can be very difficult. It can be lonely, it can be tough, it can be stressful. And what I have found along my journey, is I've made literally all of the mistakes, every mistake in the entrepreneur book, getting way too stressed out about stuff, spending time comparing myself to others, thinking that everything is hyper personalized in me thinking that I am the Business getting burned out, you know, just feeling like I'm running on fumes. And I've you know, I've experienced all this along with the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur as you're trying to build a business. And some of the things that happened to me along my journey. Were, for example, being part of the very prestigious, very well known TechStars accelerator. And so this is a really well known program for startup company. And it's a really big deal to be involved in this community. And we were fortunate enough to be selected to participate in TechStars is back in 2014. Greg, and it was an amazing experience. Highly recommended, absolutely great. But I tell you what, at some point about halfway through the TechStars program, I get home one evening, and my wife says to me, this is supposed to be the highlight of your career, you're supposed to be at the absolute peak, and I have never seen you more miserable in your life. I'm laughing. I've never been more miserable in your life. And so my wife is mirroring to me, all the things I'm doing wrong. And I'm so grateful that she gave me a swift kick. And said, get out there reorient, reframe what you're thinking, and go out there and be the person be the resilient leader, the inspiring leader you can be and so

Greg Voisen
You know, it is you know, it's, I relate so much because I was a serial entrepreneur still am. And by the way, I'm gonna send you a copy of my book hack. Bridging the gap a journey from intuition to innovation beyond you know, when you say it's a, it's a lonely journey, and there's all these pressures. And then the flip side of the coin is that everything we do is self induced. We're responsible 100% for ourselves how we live our lives. But it's really hard for an entrepreneur because of the comparison, you just mentioned that they're comparing themselves Why should be like this person, or I should have made that much money or I should already be here or should have would could. The reality is that's not the way it works in this summit is for all of you, who are out there questioning that question in it, because one of his first gateways not the first guest on the program. But one of the guests is Dr. Rao. And I know him personally from having worked with him, but also having had him on the show a couple of times. And I mentioned a minute ago book with Marshall Goldsmith, I actually met him through Marshall Goldsmith. And so speak with us about because, you know, one of his big things is, is happiness in the workplace, you know, so spoke with us about that.

Alex Raymond
So I mean, I love sweet Kumar, Rao, I love his work, it's, it's been life changing for me. And it's one of the things that I, I kind of just, I resonated with me so strongly. And, you know, his view of the world is he says, I'm a translator, he says, I'm a translator from all sorts of other wisdoms and traditions into the modern business environment. And so he says, things like, start with the choice of being happy. When you do that, when you make the conscious choice to be happy, good things happen all around, you change your mindset, you change your life, as opposed to thinking, well, I'll be happy when some something happened, I'll be happy. And when I raise money, I'll be happy when I sell my business, I'll be happy when I find a partner, or whatever it is, you're putting this if then thinking into your brain. And so what I love about Dr. Rao is he says, start with the state that you want to be in happy, grateful, you know, feeling great about yourself. And then that will change how you view the world that will change how you experience the world. Well,

Greg Voisen
you spoke, you know, you look, one of the Eastern traditions, and I've studied Eastern philosophy, and I can see you probably do a little bit yourself is, you know, our attachment, you know, one of the four noble truths is that attachment, you know, as Buddha said, there's suffering and then there's the end of suffering, well, the suffering is caused by you. So the only end of suffering can be caused by you. So he is absolutely right. He is. He is right on about that. And the other one of the other people that I know is going to be speaking is Kaylee Klemp. And Kaylee and her husband, Nate, who I know better than Kaylee actually wrote a book called the ADHD marriage together. We recently did an interview and for all those listening to the show, you can just type in ADHD marriage into my podcast, and you'll see that, but she's also a phenomenal coach, and she's an entrepreneurial coach, speak with us. What about what you've learned from Kaylee. And what she's going to be speaking about, because Dr. Rao is, is kind of in the later in the program, and I think you're ending more ending with him on the second day, because he's, he's really going to give the audience's the opportunity to rejigger their whole mindset and look at their subconscious. How do you program that subconscious? I can speak from honesty. I've actually do hypnotherapy and I have someone that does that on me, and it really makes a big difference, but speaks about Kayleigh.

Alex Raymond
So I found out about Kaylee Clem through the book, The 15 commitments of conscious leadership, which a mentor of mine, Sue Heilbroner gave me years ago. And I have gifted that book to many, many fellow entrepreneurs as well. The 15 commitments of conscious leadership is just such a great framework. And so Kaley is a co author of that book. And at the event at the conscious entrepreneur Summit, she's going to be sharing what she calls four secrets of conscious entrepreneurs, about being curious about being responsible. And this is stuff that just is going to be so powerful for entrepreneurs in their daily lives. And in fact, Greg, the number one commitment, the first commitment of the 15 commitments of conscious leadership is something you just mentioned, which is I take 100% responsibility for my life. So just like you were saying, it starts and ends with you. Recognizing that is one thing talking about it is another thing, living it is completely different. So I'm super excited for Kaley because she's gonna go into this really deep, she has a wealth of knowledge. She's worked with EO groups, YPO groups, she has all these private clients who come to her for executive coaching. So she has really seen a lot and is going to bring all that experience to the event.

Greg Voisen
Well, I'm for all entrepreneurs are listening, you know, I, I went back to school late and got a master's degree in spiritual psychology. One of the things we used to say two things, one, you don't have to believe everything you think. So first one. Second one is if there was a camera that was following you all day long. And then you played the video back at the end of the day, what you saw, would you like what you saw? And I think that perspective of just taking a glimpse into the one day view of Greg voicing, or of Alex Raymond or anybody who comes to the summit, you know, Dr. Rouse going to have you open that door up and examine some of those things that you're doing. I know he is because that's what he does really well. And you're going to want to change some of those habits and behaviors and we know that they're tough, because you're reprogramming yourself. Speak with us about you've got some breakout speakers, you've got some other speakers, tell us let's we have time to do one more, maybe profile. One more speaker, who would be the third one on your list that would just be like, knock your socks off.

Alex Raymond
I mean, I can talk about all my speakers because I love I love them all. They're there, too. In particular, I'd highlight Jerry Kelowna is based in Boulder. He's an executive coach. And he is someone who has just lived through all this stuff as an entrepreneur and his drive is to share that with the world. He runs a group called reboot here in Boulder. He's written a book called reboot, and he's going to do we're going to do kind of like a fireside chat he and I on leadership and the art of growing up. So what

Greg Voisen
His website is reboot IO, right?

Alex Raymond
reboot.io? That's correct. That's correct. The other person I would highlight simply here, Greg is Rob Dubay. Rob is so inspiring. He's the CEO of this amazing company called Image one. On top of that, he's a meditator, mindfulness teacher, he is just doing so much to raise the consciousness of the world. He wrote a book called do nothing. He's got an amazing podcast and outreach and he is going to be doing a talk on 10 disciplines for managing and maximizing your energy, which is a program that he actually put together with Gino Wickman, the founder of Eos entrepreneur offering Gino Geno's. Yeah, so that's going to be an amazing program too. So, here's the point on the conscious entrepreneur Summit, no matter where you are in your journey, if you're just starting out, if you're five years in, or if you're doing $100 million in revenue, we're going to give you tools to build resilience to overcome stress to overcome fear to get out of your own way. So this is not something that's targeted toward, you know, big companies, small companies, but anyone who's gone through that journey or is interested in the entrepreneurial journey, they'll all benefit from learning from these amazing folks.

Greg Voisen
Well, Dr. And I'm trying to think of his name, the book was the power of full engagement, they sold millions of copies, he's been on my show two or three times and incense become just a really good advocate for us. You know, that energy management partner, the part that he's going to speak about, is so important, because in entrepreneurship, if you don't manage your energy, most likely you're gonna burn out. And the reality about managing energy has to do with your ability to sustain long periods of, you know, innovation, design, sales, whatever, you have to deal with that to get your product to market or service to market or whatever it is. And I would say if there's any one thing, and I'm glad you got robbed doing this with you on a fireside chat is, seriously, everybody listen to this. I've had for startups, I've literally been to the brink of everything. You know, I was having anxiety attacks to the degree that I was really debilitated. I was staying inside. I didn't want to go anywhere because I was afraid. It can really physically affect your health. And so whether it's meditation, I did some biofeedback. I then joined Self Realization fellowship, I became a devotee, whatever you need to do, I just tell people look, if it's long walks in the park, if it's if it's going to the beach, if it's having something to get your mind off of it, you've got to do it. And I can tell you probably the most therapeutic session is going to be Alex and Rob at the fireside. Speaking about all the trials and tribulations they've put up with Rob just said his wife told him you are the big you need didn't say it this way, but it sounded like maybe it was way too Do you need to get it right, Alex? Or else?

Alex Raymond
Well, Oreos is great is real? Yeah. How many entrepreneurs do you know who are, you know, divorced or, you know, tough situations with their families and with their spouses or you know, they don't have great personal relationships. And so we know that this is, it's critical. You've got to have personal health, relationship, health, emotional health, and then you can have business health and success. And what I say what I truly believe is, every dollar you invest in yourself, every hour, you invest in yourself, pays out 10 or 100 times in the world. Everything I need to do it. Well,

Greg Voisen
Look, you've been successful. It looks like you spent many of your years outside of this country working, doing was it technology based startup stuff?

Alex Raymond
Primarily? Yes, I can. The tech field I lived in London for while I went to business school in France. I lived in Hong Kong. I was in Beijing. Yeah.

Greg Voisen
So take it from somebody who's really had his feet to the fire. Right, Alex? And the reason that tell me something, you say you've done this more than once? Is that correct? This isn't the first summit or is this the first summit?

Alex Raymond
This summit is the first time and it's based on everything I've been able to learn over the years. And I'm bringing everyone together. My view on this, Greg is I don't have all the answers. But I can create a space where people who do know lots of stuff can come together and share and that's the vision.

Greg Voisen
Well, I would strongly encourage my listeners. Without further ado, to go to conscious entrepreneur.us. We will put a code there'll be a $350 off code. For anybody that comes through my site to come to this. At the same time, we'll put a link up to kept up. We'll put a link up to Kaylee's take Kaley clamp, so that you can see on his website for the conscious entrepreneur Summit. You're going to see videos at the bottom YouTube videos. I encourage everybody to just take a look at some of those videos. One of them is a TED talk. I think that Kaylee did. There's others there. When you hear Dr. Rao in his Indian voice, you're going to be mesmerized because he really does. He doesn't speak like Alex ri. He speaks in a very, very calm tone. And he's the kind of guy that gets

Alex Raymond
You what? Yeah, absolutely. Mesmerizing.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, it's mesmerizing. So just for that alone, to get you guys dial man would be great. But importantly, about Dr. Rao at UCLA, and some of the other universities he's taught out. He taught a whole MBA course in this. And I'm trying to remember the name of it. Can you tell me what it is?

Alex Raymond
Yeah. So the course is called Creativity and personal mastery. That's Columbia, London Business School, UCLA.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, he had it all over because he gave me the syllabus of the whole course.

Alex Raymond
So that's a great read that syllabus.

Greg Voisen
Well, what's more important about the read is the books he recommends to read. As a result of going through that, I mean, if you just picked out two or three, the one that Kaley did, that Alex just mentioned, would be a great one. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna go, why when we're done, and order that off of Amazon, because I haven't read that one. Alex, is there anything else you want our listeners to know about the summit? Any of the other speakers before we wrap this up, and I let you get on with your day?

Alex Raymond
The one thing I'd say is this is not just based on my personal journey, I have been a mentor to dozens of other entrepreneurs along the way. And I know that a lot of people, you know, they feel that something's off or they feel afraid, or they have you know, risk of burnout and stuff like that. And often they don't know the first step to take or they don't feel like it's okay to talk about this stuff. So I don't want to what I want to make very clear is, it is okay to be an entrepreneur to be a successful entrepreneur, and at the same time, feel like hey, things are not right in here. And what we're doing with this conscious entrepreneur Summit is creating the space for us to understand what's happening, and get tools to build resilience and overcome whatever's in our way. So it's okay if you're feeling this, it's okay if you don't know, hey, how do I how do I where do I get started? How do I talk about this stuff? That's exactly what this community is all about. And thank you, Greg, for helping us to apify voice

Greg Voisen
While you're quite welcome, and I always appreciate doing it, because the suffering associated with it is self induced. The hardest part is to realize and be aware that it's self induced. And to get that awareness that the suffering as a result, the pain, the whatever you want to call it, confusion you go through, you think you should have all the answers and you don't requires a lot of and I know this sounds so simplistic for my listeners, because they've heard this from me, letting go. You know, because in the end in our finitude, I have a saying over on the wall from the Dalai Lama, you're only going to be known by how much he loved, how many people loved you, and how much you let go. And nobody on their deathbed, or not many entrepreneurs I've known who've gotten terminal cancer, and I've known many have sat there in the bed in the hospital, and said, I wished I'd been at the office one more day, or I'd closed one more deal or I'd, I hammered something out, or I've done something that wasn't what they were saying to themselves. What they were saying to themselves is that I wish I had a better understanding of this transition spiritually, from the physical body, the physical body that we're in, into the astral planes that you're going to go into, and understanding myself spiritually. And I say this journey is an entrepreneur journey, with a big dose of spiritualism, and I'm not advocating that he's putting on a spiritual conference. But I'll bet you many of you who go will have a spiritual awakening as a result of the speakers, and especially Dr. Rao. If there was one person who would be allowed to push the envelope at this conference, it's going to be Dr. Rao. So I would say you know, you might want to, you might want to go just to hear him but more importantly, Kaylee all the rest of them. Alex, I just want to acknowledge you for putting this on, for taking the time to do it. I know how grueling this could be, because I've been an event producer. And for all of you out there, we're gonna put the links but for right now, I don't have it up. But I'm gonna say it conscious entrepreneur dot U. S, to the two day Summit, it's May 17, and 18th in Denver, and the location I forgot, we're downtown somewhere. We're that

Alex Raymond
We’re in downtown Denver at a beautiful event space called asterisk. So really easy to get to. Yep.

Greg Voisen
Okay. And for all my listeners in the in and around the Denver surrounding area, I just remembered three or four more I need to refer to you. Please go to the website, click on this link that we're going to give you to get off your $150 code. And Alex, thanks again for spending a little time on the show. Namaste to you. And thank you for everything that you're doing.

Alex Raymond
Thank you, Greg. Great to be here.

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