Lessons from Israel, Japan, and the Dojo

In this episode of Halfway Human, we sit down with a guest whose life seems to span multiple worlds. From recent adventures cycling through Israel and exploring the culture of Japan to decades of dedication in the martial arts, he brings a unique perspective shaped by travel, discipline, and lifelong learning.

As a high-ranking karate instructor, and leader, he shares how the principles of martial arts continue to influence the way he approaches leadership in today's fast-changing world. We talk about resilience, adaptability, cultural lessons from abroad, and why some of the oldest leadership principles may be more relevant now than ever.

Get ready for a conversation that crosses continents, connects traditions with modern challenges, and explores what it means to lead with purpose in an increasingly complex world.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Back to another episode of Halfway Human. I am here with the lovely, amazing. He's waiting. Sinsei. Swart. Is that how you say it? Swart. Swart? See, I've already I do this every time I I screw everybody's name up. Winslow Swart. The Sensei. Um you just got back. We're gonna start with what I call the sexy stuff because it's kind of topical. Um, you just got back from Israel. So I guess I I I don't go a lot into politics here, but it's gonna be hard, I guess, in this case to stay away from it. But what is it like over there right now? Because you had a hard time getting back, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Yeah, I mean, you know, the the airports flights were canceled, you know. So there was a there was a there was a lockdown for a for a bit there. Um so yeah, so that was interesting. Um what it's like right now is you know, you're living with in in a country that like has the number eight like happiness quotient of any country in the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

And you think, what the heck? You're getting bombed, the people, you know, there's terrorism, there's uh anti-Semitism, there, you know, there's there's challenges to you know the economy because of uh global um impacts, and it's still the eighth happiest place in the world to live. Really? It's like, yeah, it's like what the heck? What's up with that? But you feel that the vibe, it's like there.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Do you feel so for from I've never been and and and obviously it's probably not a great time to go right now, but what is it? Do you feel a like obviously I think I saw some posts that you were hearing some air raids and stuff like that? Do you feel stressed though?

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Like, I mean, on a daily basis or like well, the five weeks of actual you know war, right? When when we were actually at it, yeah. Yeah, there were you know thousands of rockets coming at us from Hezbollah in the north. Yeah, okay, you know, from Lebanon, some a little bit here and there from Syria. Um, uh tons of very sophisticated uh ballistic missiles from Iran and from Yemen, and also still from Gaza, and and from Iraq. So we had seven fronts where you have people that are targeting civilian civilian populations, not you know, these are not strategic, you know, tactical targets. This is let's mess up, kill as many Jewish Israelis as we can, and then they wind up killing Arab Israelis, oops, by the mistake because you know, either their aim sucks or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Um but I think the you know the it it does grate on you when you're hearing, you know, you're getting the the alerts on your phone. Yeah. It says you got you know 15 minutes, you know, within the next 10 or five minutes or whatever, you should be close to cover.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Then the next one is there's the air raid sirens around across the town cities, and then your phone's blowing up saying, okay, I hate that metaphor on this one. Uh but but it's saying you have 90 seconds. 90 seconds to get in either a Mamad, a safe room, or a Miklat, a an actual bomb shelter.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So where is that next to you though? 90 you said 90 minutes? 90 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

90 seconds. We have 90 seconds to get cover.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

So, but is that in your house? Like, I mean, or is there somewhere in an area around?

SPEAKER_02 3:25

In in in the neighborhood, there's two bomb shelters, and and with with the little kids and the grandkids, 90 seconds is not enough.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

No. Especially in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yeah, so usually people have little little kids are gonna go to those on the 15-minute warning or the 10-minute warning, uh-huh. Which sometimes they say, no, okay, it went somewhere else, you know, the this rocket went to the south, or they intercepted that one, and then okay, you know, you know, but 80 to 100 of those sirens were real, and you heard you heard the rockets being launched, the the uh the iron dome rockets being launched from right near you. You heard the impacts above your head.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Really?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah. You saw rocket debris near you, like you know, you saw and even my kids went to uh they went out to eat in Tel Aviv uh, you know, towards the after all this stuff kind of blew blew over, and the restaurant went they went to had been bombed. It just wasn't there anymore. They're like, oh well, we gotta, you know, put some look, Google something else. So there's a a realness to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Um how many actually land? Like how many actually missiles because they do have the iron dome.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Oh, okay. So I I don't have an axe an actual census on the exact number of rockets that did not get intercepted. We kind of say, like if we're selling the side the iron dome to somebody like the Emirates, we say, look, they're about 78% effective. For some reason, we have like a well in the 90s 90% um interception rate in Israel, but then also depends on the kind of rockets or missiles. You know, Hezbollah, they're lower flying, you don't the drone type things. Yeah, the drone type, we don't get to, we don't see those. There's um also when they send a whole mess of them at once.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

And then when they do intercept, there's the cluster bomb. So then you get tons of like, now I don't know if we're talking about this too much, but no, it's um this is good. But but you know, when you're living that, you know, your life does continue to go on. You have your business meetings, you you you go to synagogue, you you still talk to God the way you would ever any other time, um, or maybe even more intensely, um you know, that there's there's there's a lot of vitality in in in the moment even.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah. Uh and and you know, but you're just always, you know, people, you know, I was I think one of the Zach Briggs interviewed me from you know one of the news stations here. And he says, uh, he says, uh, you know, how do you feel being over there? And I said, so much better being here with my kids and grandkids than not being here. That's true. So when I when I was in Texas, you know, I I was just crapping my parents worried about my kids. Yeah, right. When I'm there, I'm like, okay, guys, let's go hustle, you know, get up, turn the TV off, boom, you know, we need to be in there. It's siren.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

And then after like, I don't know, we usually stay for about at least 10 to 15 minutes when I forgot what the exact time frame is. And everybody wants to leave before.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah. And I go look at it.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

I say, I know just it's not 12 minutes yet. Yeah. Even though I'm the worst offender, I'm out 11 and a half minutes, I'm out. You know, I'm back.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Well, I mean, so is it m majority at night that that that these raids go off? Like, because I would I would think that's disruptive to the sleep and all that.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

They they can be at two and three in the morning, they can be during coffee, they can be at lunch, they can be anytime. Really? Okay, all day long, 24 hours. You don't know when you're going to be woken up. You get so used to being just having to be roused when you finally could finally sleep again, you know. Yeah. And then the thing is the the the adrenal the adrenaline rush that that happens, your body is hyper-vigilant for at least a 90 minutes afterwards. Yeah. You know, so returning to normal just because of the the the that that that missile barrage is over and the site, it's it's not over, right? It still stays with you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah. What I imagine too, when it went, and we'll we'll get past this, but it's interesting to me. I imagine when your body finally settles down, it's like being a race car driver, they get hyped up, and then there's like a you know, they stop the race for a little bit and they say they just fall asleep because they're just that they their adrenaline has spiked so much, and now they have a moment to relax, and you're just coming back to normal, is different, even it is, and even after after the so-called after the ceasefire, you know, there's still you know, stuff happening in the north.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Hezbollah is still, you know, yeah, on an on an on a mission to kill us. And um so so it and then you don't know exactly, you know, when it's all gonna start up again. So you kind of have this sort of edginess of okay, yeah. You know, even some people say, uh, you know, hey, are you gonna take your kids to this thing? Oh, we better do it now in case the war starts again. Yeah, you know, is if you're gonna do something fun, better do it now, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Is Hezbollah so Hezbollah is is kind of funded by Iran?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

They have been funded by the you know, the IRGC um the or and and by Qatar and and others um over the years. I know their purse spring strings are tightened, but they have so much buried infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

They've been preparing for this for years, like decades.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Yeah, like if you listen to MPR and I and I and I'm a huge public radio fan, yeah, but all you hear is, oh, Israel attacked a village in in Lebanon and so many people died. Yeah, and they end right there. They don't say, Oh, and they uncovered, you know, 300 Kalishnikovs and yeah, and and and 60 rocket launchers and and 10 surface to air. And what was this? Oh, yeah, it was someone's apartment. Yeah, you know, someone that works for the UN. Yeah, it's like what? You know, it's like it was you know, it's like it's really weird what's going on there. And and that's but you know, we have to stop it.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

When you when you got left, uh obviously you got I I I was texting you back and forth to do the show, and then and then um where is it? I guess we'll leave it at this and move on. Where is it now? Has it it's died down, I'm assuming, some because of the ceasefire, air quotes. Um so is it calmer there now? I mean, you got out, which is good.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

It it's like you know, life returns to to normal in Israel the second you know something's over. Yeah, the minute not just that you know, it we didn't wait till the ceasefire to get back to work, to get back to business, get back to life.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

We just had to always calibrate, recalibrate. Like you couldn't go to the beach during during that.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Um, and and you did if you did all your most most of your meet meetings, you were deliberately knowing is there a shelter close by to that meeting. Yeah, you know, uh, how far am I gonna be from a mikalat from you know, or a mamad? So you keep so that's on your mind.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Um that's pretty standard though, in general, though, over there?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

No, no, no, okay. No, in general.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

So the war is is is spiked us a lot.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah. I did one thing kind of crazy because you know, I'm a I'm a cyclist and I have a good buddy over there, is also a mountain biker. And we just said, screw it, we're going, we're going to the mountains. We're we we just really did a seriously cool ride. The most dangerous thing that happened on that ride, because there weren't any sirens. I had a close encounter with a striped hyena in the wild.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

That's in the isn't that crazy? That's what you yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

I mean, you know, what you know, Israel's connected to Africa, essentially, right? But you don't expect that.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

You know, you'll see the ibises or whatever when you're in the in the in the um, you know, the valley over there by um the Dead Sea. Yeah, you know, in In Getty and all these kind of cool places where the waterfalls are. But you don't expect to see a uh a hyena crossing you as just like here, like it's as if it's a squirrel. Yeah, yeah. Or you know, squirrels are aren't that treacherous, but usually um I've been attacked by a few. I know they're so weird sometimes. But they that but this was so weird. I had to look it up later to to yeah to check my my own. Did I did I make this up?

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

And no, they're they're indigenous and really, yeah, and it's not just a feral escape artist from a zoo. Like it would be here, yeah. Yeah, they're they're pack animals. No, they're actually kind of solitary and they're mostly carrion.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

So unless they think you're dead, they probably won't attack you and eat you, you know, kind of thing. But but I was like, wow, that was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So, so where did you were you born here in San Antonio? No. Were you born in San Antonio?

SPEAKER_02 11:28

I was born in Concord, New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

New Hampshire. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Um I'm I I'm supposed to be a Yankee, but I was raised on the West Coast.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Okay. How long did you live there?

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Um, you know, what I there was a moment where I just the weather was too severe, the economy wasn't booming, and I picked up the family and moved to California. I was four years old.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

And I was making these executive no, right, but I could see you doing that at four, actually. My parents are new Americans. So I, you know, I'm first generation. My parents had just come here from Europe after the Holocaust, after World War II. Um, Europe hadn't really covered economically yet.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Um, you know, and so so were they speaking English at that point?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Like, I mean, I'm assuming Dutch Dutch people speak English. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

You know, I mean You're almost taught that at a low.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah. You know, England's right acquaxed the pond and a big bended trading partner since we were blowing up their ships back in the 1500s.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah. So you so you you moved to California at like four, you said?

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

What what part of California?

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Started in No Cal.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah, I grew up in that.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Then um, then we went I wound up in SoCal for a while, a few years, and then and then ended up in low in Local. Yeah. Local. Yeah, so San Diego. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah. That's interesting. I haven't heard local. Um, so then San or California, and then you came to Texas? Yeah. I what age what age did you get here?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Twenty six.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

You were 26?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Yeah. I'm I I had I had spent the pre some of the previous year in Japan, came back to California. Um, I f I started to find the culture to be rather abrasive compared to Japan. Oh, God, yes. You know, um, you know, the the others-oriented, you know, you know, versus self-center self-centered society was just like it was a lot.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

And my I had met Pamela, who who um I'd fallen in love with, and she's from San Antonio, and then came over. Where'd you meet? Where'd you meet her? In in Ajolla, in in San Diego.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Why was she there?

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Working in but she was from here. Yeah, but she was from here.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

And you know, Kate came to Texas, and I think, wow, these San Antonio, these people are like the Japanese. Well, because they when they ask how are you, they they're listening for the answer.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You don't get that, you know, in LA or something. No.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Um, so there are others oriented, they're polite.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

You know, um, may they don't bow like the Japanese, but but they there's a respect. In their heart, they bow, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

And so I went, I really, you know, like, yes, California has great topography, and you know, sure the weather is beautiful. The so-called beautiful people, but yeah, here they're beautiful people really. That's where that's where you really find them.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Sure. Um so how was childhood for you?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

My childhood was was all right, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

I mean how many kids did you grow up with? I had I had two siblings. Two siblings, okay and and and so did your parents stay in California or and then are they back in Israel or no?

SPEAKER_02 14:26

No, no, well, the Netherlands. So my parents are from the Netherlands.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Oh, oh, see, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yeah, no, we we've been in exile for 2,000 years, so our connection to Israel has been sort of, you know, we've been Spanish and we've been, you know, other other nationalities while we were living in those guest cultures for hundreds of years, you know. Uh like in my Dutch family, we're where part of my ancestors are sp Spanish Sephardic Jews. There, so they're Spanish Jews that left after the Inquisition and came to Holland. That little thing, the Inquisition. We have these little things happening. Little things. Every so often there's a little thing. Every so often someone decides, hey, you know what would be fun? Let's wipe out the Jews. You know what it would be fun.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

It seems like that's cyclical though. Like it's just like every so often. We're like, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

And they always have like a really good reason. Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah. Yeah. So growing up, you you came here uh from you you have a similar story than I do then, because I came from California to Texas. It it did it at 26, was there a culture shock, especially San Antonio from California? Was there like a I mean, I know you said you like it and that the culture here, but was it like, okay, this is I gotta get used to this?

SPEAKER_02 15:39

So the first part, I had more culture shock shock coming back from Japan to California. Yes. And but going to Texas, what was it? I mean, in the 80s, you know, everything always felt like South South Central Texas was 10 years behind any trend.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

You know, everything from fashion to music to whatever. It always, even though it wasn't that bad.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

But um, you know, that things didn't move at the hyper rate they do now in terms of you know, online, whate whatever people we're all doing culturally.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So, you know, that that gave you kind of a sense of superiority, like, oh, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, yeah. In California.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But but you get over that really quick because, you know, I can we cuss on the steel? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People in California can be wonderful, but they can be real assholes. Yeah, you know, and and you know, everything from how people drive to just you know their the world view. Um and I, you know, I hate to generalize about any one place because then as soon as you do that, you know, you're you're you're falling short of truth. Sure, sure. Of truth. Um but uh what did I have to get used to? What a really good example of this place now is one of the first things I did when I got back from Israel is I went to H E B.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

You know, I had I had to. Yeah. You know, while the the you know the markets uh in Israel are are fantastic. The foods are better. Yeah, they're international, everything's basically farm to table. Yes. Um, you know, there's so much diversity. Yeah, there's you know, you hear every single language spoken. Yeah. And um, but you know, they don't have H E B. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

So so let's fast forward into like your profess because I the I just went to Japan recently, and so I I I get what you're saying. It's it's such a different you get back here and things you start seeing where we fall short in some areas. And I'm not saying like even technology, I'm saying like how they everything's so precise. Like you, you know, you get back in the airport here, and it's like it's not precise. Like you go, you go to a restaurant, even a diner in Japan, it's precise, quick. They take their their their their and I'm doing a segue here, I know it sounds like I'm not, but it's it's uh how did you that culture started influence you in your professional career? Um, because that's kind of how I met you, is through some leader uh leadership development uh stuff. Um how did that affect and and where did you go with that, I guess?

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Yeah, I think you know the the idea in in in the Japanese culture, there's something called Shikata. There's there's a way to do things, there's an order to things. Yeah. Um and you know, there's there's an imp the importance of mastering whatever that is. If you're working in a diner, you're taking it seriously. Yeah, you're not thinking about something else, you're focused on that customer and their experience. And I think that the idea of you know, it you know, having started in the dojo so early in my life, I you know, I I was it was kind of baked into me that you know system and structure. But the one of the concepts is Shuhadi and in in the Japanese kind of heart set of of the martial arts, which is you master something, you internalize it, then you transcend it.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, then you innovate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

But but you unless you've had your 10,000 or or or you know 500,000 hours doing it, you you don't get you don't get to innovate yet.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. So so where did you when you came here at 26, what was your I know you started a dojo um which we'll get into that in a second, but because uh you know you never taught me. I've been asking you to teach me karate, but I guess you said I'm too small or whatever. But I'm kidding, that's a joke.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

But no, actually, I just I just afraid you'll let me say I'll teach you how to kick someone's ass and then you'll go kick somebody's ass. I was like, wait a second, that's not what it's worth.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

James, that's not you don't attack. Yeah, you just see me on the news every night. Yeah, um, so so what did you do at 26 when you came over? What was what was your uh well, what were you doing, I guess, to get here and and start your career, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

So, you know, the first phone call I got from someone, I got cold called by a guy who ran uh a very successful karate studio. Yeah, he was in the karate business.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

And he he had me come by, talk to me, and hired me to run his run his school run his I wouldn't call it a dojo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

His karate studio form. Why why why is there a difference, real quick? Because, you know, is this gonna get is this gonna get political with the dojo? We're gonna have the dojos after we used to call them belts RS, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:30

There's you know, they'd sell you a black belt program and and and test you because that's also a cash cow and then and then keep like priming the token economics. Yeah, and yeah, or or or just someone who, you know, yeah, can't can't fight their weight out out of a paper bag or whatever it is. So, you know, I and I, you know, was trained in such core deep disciplines that you know mastery was first and all that other stuff came second. Yeah, you know, and also character, not just technique.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

But I took the job because I thought it was really weird that somebody's not your sensei gonna have you work for them in their gratitude school. So I think uh as odd as that was, I took the job.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

So you know, that's 12 hours a day running classes and selling programs. You know, that's what I was basically doing.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

So did you kind of learn on the job or did you already have some skill set before that?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Oh no, I had I had 20 years of martial arts before that.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Okay. Okay. So you weren't just like Yeah, no, I was I You were so you saw, you were like, this is uh not really what it should be.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yeah, you know it's funny. In 1980, I started the UCSD karate and kung fu club. Um and to this day, one of my students from them still runs it.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Really?

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah. How many years is that? Forty six? Yeah, I don't know. Like that. I'm too old, though you know. My my one of my guys still runs it to this day. That's that's insane, right? Yeah. Yeah. So no, when I came over here, the guy called me because he he I had a bit of a reputation. Uh huh. Yeah. That's a good one? No. Let's get right to say a horrible one. No, he I know you now. Like I'm just kidding. No, he knew of me from the martial arts world.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

And so brought me and hired me, which which I I thought it was nice, but that lasted like not even six months because I felt like I was I I didn't feel like his cause was noble.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

So m uh so me and a couple of my Japanese colleagues established Kinseito here in the US for Japan together.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Is Kaseido Kinseido?

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Is that a that's the system that I'm an eighth dan shihan in okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Is it a type of karate?

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Well, karate is a very generic term.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

It's a boodle, a sogo buddle. It's a composite martial art.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

I just thought of food when you said that.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Yeah, basically. Um yeah, so it's a it's a it's a it's a Japanese martial arts system, right? And we established it here. So that was my day job for probably uh about 10 years. It was about 10 years later that I really started getting pulled into the kind of human performance space. Yeah, right. Doing more the organizational development leadership team stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

So is that so you started am I wrong in saying you started kind of consulting leaders using kind of the background of what you were doing in karate?

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Yeah, I had I had students that were ex senior executives in in companies here.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Even the Spurs, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah, that was another that was the inner game stuff. That was where, yeah, that that was kind of a a layer of all this.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

But some of my ex clients who in the dojo who are executives said, I would love for you to do what you've done for me for my team at work. Yeah. Yeah. And that's like, well, definitely gonna have to configure it differently, right? Sure. You know, the dojo to the boardroom, a little bit of a leap. I started be I became a a a I guess a a vigorous student of of the uh the the world of organizational learning.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

Okay, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:57

So the Peter Sengeys and all the different, you know, all the stuff that all the toolkits that were being, you know, were good.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

And integrated that with what I was with the with the essence of what I was teaching, the distinctions and mastery that we learn in the dojo, but bringing that into a leadership development curriculum.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

And and for some odd reason I I got really successful at that really fast.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah. You know, I I'd imagine that I know we we look we look at Toyota here in town, but uh because they have some of the same principles too. But I imagine a lot of that translates really easily into leadership.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah, and you know, the Toyota, the Kai Zen theory of practice, you know, has has an energetic piece.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

They don't usually teach that part, so I do. So when you get to the five S's and the three M's, I like to pull back a layer behind the bamboo curtain and say, okay, this is where this concept lives in in the in samurai culture or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

And now obviously in operational manufacturing, you know, that it it looks like this now. But but the the the essence of it certainly, there's some overlap. What I what I was finding interesting was you know, I was beating out the McKinseys for for um consulting contracts with you know Citibank when they were working to build a Baldridge, Malcolm Baldridge award. And sure they they preferred my vibe because I was going in there very uh sincerely, very authentically, you know, about about the work of of of really helping them invest in in their people. Um where you know the McKenzie's, you know, they that part was good, but a lot of it was upselling, cross-selling, and after work and all that kind of stuff. You know, they had this whole machine.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yeah. Um, but well, yours is more authentic to a degree to me.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Yeah, I I I agree with that, man. You're like, yeah, great.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Well, I I think some people too, and we may have to back up just here, because I I've I've gone through your, you know, leadership program uh uh, you know, when when you were running one one of them here. Um and I think a lot of people think, oh, ooh well, people are just doing karate in the middle of the the the leadership program or the consulting. But that's not what it is. So explain to people that don't really get, I mean, you don't have to go the whole thing, but but but like how how is that work?

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yeah, so there there are some experiential uh learning there's some experiential learning exercises that reveal how how we operate in any context.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

So in a in a in a in a business context, you know, when it comes to you know uh decision making or a team concept when it comes to employee engagement or you know, any sort of you know results that we want to drive, you know, on you know, you know, our KPI kind of stuff. Yeah, there are mechanics that through certain physical activities, you can learn those those I those those ideas on a way where you they're really integrated, where they're not just language, it's not just language-based learning. Yeah, right. So it's not just incremental learning, it is transformative because of the immersion of the learner as as an entire system, right? And so you you walk away with with um you know just a a deeper, not only understanding, but uh but a sharper sword to be able to implement you know a what would become a best practice, right? And it was interesting is after consulting for a certain number of years, I was I was a bit of I had the imposter syndrome because I didn't have my degrees in the field.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

You know, I was a classic college dropout from California. Yeah, you know, I'd go to philosophy class because I was interested, yeah, but you know, I might not complete, you know, some of some of my other courses. I'd rather be surfing.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

So I had kind of a really scattered resume, but I went back to school and got my bachelor's in organizational psychology. Then I got my master's in organizational leadership and and administration. As soon as I I I I completed grad school, I got hired to teach in the grad school because I was a pracademic. I was doing the work that they were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

So it was kind of nice. But then when I go after all having all these new toolkits, being kind of the newly minted, you know, organizational development practitioner. When I look back at the stuff that that I developed, and if I had some people, some mentors helping me with this. So, you know, I don't want to take all the credit, but and I mention them in my book. Um some of the stuff I developed before I knew any better is is some still some of the best stuff I can bring. Really? To to leaders and teams. So that's kind of cool. You go back, it's like, you know, this all this stuff is good, but that stuff is really good. You know?

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

So so it's kind of nice to to to have that.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Where where do you see this is gonna be an interesting answer from you? Um where do you see um leadership uh where have we started to do things right in San Antonio? I don't know why I laughed at that. And what what are we doing wrong here?

SPEAKER_02 29:05

You know, it you know, we're talking uh, you know, across a city that has so many different nodes and and different verticals and different you know ecosystems within and across, right? And there's brilliant things happening here and brilliant things happening there. I think that one thing we could be doing better is is and I know Janie Gonzalez mentioned this in an article that she wrote when she got back from from a um Latin Tech trip to Israel a few months back, was that um there's there's too much playing to win individually as individual organizations or or or s or segments, yeah, and not enough shared I you know kind of a ethos of you know let's let's let's win to as a region. Okay. Yeah. You know, across this industry, across this region, let's let's play a global game where where you know we're we're all have have you know we're all stakeholders in this, right? Yeah, yeah. And and how do we get make sure that we just have you know, when we say, okay, right people on the right seats of the bus, they don't have to just be your friends. It you know, the the clickishness is something we need to get over. Yeah, right. Um I mean I I it's kind of tough to go out and see the same group of besties always doing the same stuff together. Yeah, you know. Uh George Hernandez, when he was uh CEO and chair over at University Hospital, his mantra was hire weird.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah, yeah, right. I need to we would have done well in that. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

We would have been the top candidates.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

People need to hire weird, they need to include weird for for the diversity of thought and and and and the different approaches that that are not just not just intergenerationally, but but across any sort of, you know, so well I think too, i we we've created a lot of people don't, at least I didn't realize how much San Antonio has created. And a lot of it gets taken. Like you know what I'm saying? We we've created a lot here. And and then it's kind of sad to see it. I don't know if it's even the right words improved on. Like California is a perfect example taking some of the stuff that we've built and then and then running with it and making it bigger. Oh, you mean like the internet? Yes. Yes. I didn't want to say I don't want to say, like Al Gore. Yeah. But yes, I mean that's that's very true. Data points right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Yeah, well, Al Gore, you know, authorized the funding to commercialize the the ARPANET. Yeah. And um you know, we some some of our guys here were were writing that code.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

And and Ben Barker, for example, was one of them, right? Yeah. And you know, pe people in, you know, and and we just lost our our our dear friend um uh who who sent the first uh phone picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, we there's a lot of like people don't we're not we're loud at tell we're lousy at telling our own story. Yeah, you got the Lorenzo Gomez's that are like you know, trying to help us do a better job. Sure. At being better storytellers about Mercedes, and maybe the James Chandlers and guys like that too, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:09

And if Beto would do the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

You know we could go.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

We could go all that.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

You know, no, you know what's funny about Beto is is he he's not afraid to stretch and reach for things that that the world might have told him were not in his reach once upon a time, right? Yeah. So I I like his entrepreneurial verve verve is you know, it's like that Gandhi quote that you know, if if if I'm afraid of something, you know, the closer I get to it, the more familiar, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

You know, this kind of just so so back up just a little bit, um, because I didn't I I I it just hit me. So why Japan? Why did you go to Japan at a young age? Like why did you go there? Well and how did you get I mean, how did you afford and do all that?

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah, so so to two parts of that story. One was I'd been studying martial arts for about 20 years, right? From some really good people and some just okay people, but I I felt like most of the people I learned from that they had stopped learning when they had gotten off the boat or the plane or whatever it was. Yeah, like you know, whatever they were when they were when they left Asia, whatever level they were, that's where they still were. So you could there was there's I felt like there was a ceiling in how much I could learn from people who it it was apparent to me they had stopped learning. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, so I sold all my worldly possessions.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Really?

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yeah, I had a Volkswagen thing, you know, one of those little little crappy little VW Jeep things. Yeah, and I don't know what else. I you know, I think I I don't know if I still had my convertible. And you left you leaving college at this point, or oh I I was it was so easy for me to leave college.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

But that was the time frame.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

I was always leaving college. I was dropping in, I was dropping in and dropping out of college for for a while. Yeah, you know, I'm like that old guy in class, you know. It's like you know, it's like I don't know what that feels like. Yeah, no, no, I was still early 20s, but but uh but I wanted to go to the source and be able to answer my students' questions and not have made-up answers. Right. And I'd been studying one one thing that really got me, I was reading Aiji Yoshikawa's book, Samurai, which is about the life of uh Miyamoto Musashi. And it's written a little bit like a novella.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

And they've done you know soaps of it and they've done uh cinematic series of it where Tashira Mufuni plays, you know, Musashi, which is brilliant. And I just said, I'm just gonna walk those footsteps. Yeah. Even though you know they're high rises instead of you know little tiny pagodas in some of the places, but but they're still the pagodas. And sure. So I I just followed those footsteps and I found a really good teacher in Kyoto, Japan, uh Akira Takashi. I still have the the samurai sword he gave me, by the way. Oh really? Yeah, it was a family sword, um a walk like a long wakazaki.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Did you ever bring that baby out and just swing it around?

SPEAKER_02 34:54

I try not to do any of my sushi work with it, even though you could cut a whole bluefin tuna with it easily. Um but so I went over there to sort of fulfill my dream. And you know, I had studying in school, I was doing some comparative literature east-west, anyways, because it was part of my my interest group. So I had uh, you know, between the philosophy and the literature stuff that I had been studying, I wanted to like kind of really smell those incense and smell that tatami in those you know shrines and temples. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So immerse.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

How long were you there?

SPEAKER_02 35:26

Uh that was like a three-month trip.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Oh, so you were only there for three months. At that time, yeah. Yeah. Have you been back since?

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Well, that's the thing is revolving. Revolving. I've been going back and forth to Japan since then so repeatedly that it became like a second home.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

And and you know, my comfort with the language and and do you speak a lot of the language or enough to a nihungal difference thing. I'm not gonna try. Okay, yeah, you're gonna make me look stupid.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

I'm comfortable in the language. Yeah, yeah. And I and I take my and you know, the discipline of Kenseido and Kendo, we teach 100% in Japanese. So our students learn the language as it applies to the art.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Um, but but I think going there was sort of like you know, getting a a better foundation and building some relationships that have become lifelong now.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Uh you know, and I reached a level that no gaijin has ever reached in in this discipline. Um, you know, being an eighth of dawn is just you know was unheard of. No, I didn't think that was possible at the time. And and yeah, so it's kind of you know, between Mexico, the Netherlands, Japan, and Israel, I feel like I have a couple of second homes.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we we need to go to Japan together. I think it would be fun.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

I don't know. I wouldn't do well in any prison. For tipping over those little tiny cars, you know, it's like it's it's so irresistible. Those little vans where you just tip them over so bad.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

And I'm telling you, the nightlife there, it's bizarre how like different the day is from the night. They they work hard, but my goodness, do they party hard too? It's Dr.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Yes, yeah. You can hear the pin drop and at night, there's ambulances everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

They're belligerent as hell. Yeah. And forgiven, and it's all forgiven the next day.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I don't know how they go to work after some of that, too, because you see these guys in business suits, you know, on the side of the road. Sleeping, yeah. Yeah, there's a train.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

There's there's a name for, I forgot what it's called, but there's a name for when people fall asleep at the at the uh the train? Is a kaya. No, at the bar. Or at the bar, yeah. And nobody will wake them up, even when they're closing. You know, that's what happened to them. And they and they might and they might have that, you know, walk of shame back home in the morning. They might just go to the office, depending on how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

I think, yeah, I think some of them do because maybe that's why they're wearing their business attire or they're just ready to go right back to work.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

And my my wife hates it when I say this because she makes fun of me, but you know, they are lacking an enzyme to break down the alcohol that they consume. So it hits them quicker. Yeah, that sake thing is is is for real.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I I enjoyed uh learning. I was only there for a couple weeks, but it was it was so interesting to see. Uh and then also coming back here just really realizing where we've missed the mark in some areas.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

But like at 7-Eleven, for example. Oh, the 7-Elevens are amazing. It's like what what's yeah, and you know what freaked me out at first when I used to, you know, go to Japan to like you know, a convenience store. Um, you know, if you go into a Valero stop and go, sorry guys over here for saying this, but you know, if you if you touch it, you gotta buy it. Yeah, you know, kind of a thing, right? Yeah, and it's like, you know, are you gonna are you gonna want to wander around or you're getting, you know, can I help you? You know, so you get like what you go into into Japan to a to a convenience store. Hi, it's a big you know, it's like and you have no idea what they're saying, but you know they're being nice. But it's but it's you think you're in the Ritz Carlton, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

You know, you're getting bow, you know, even the guy stuck in the show stop and bow and and greet you, and it's like well it's like a mini HEB too, which would people don't I mean, like their food in there is is top-notch. It's not like a 7-Eleven hair where you get an icy.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah, I don't know what the deal is with the food.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

No knock against 7-Eleven.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Yeah, I don't know what the deal is. How do you make an egg salad sandwich delicious that's been on the shelf for whoever how long? Yeah, you know, yeah. That's just mirac miraculous.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

So where where are so you moved into consulting? Um where are you now? Like what is what is driving you now? Obviously, getting back um from Israel, but but what are you what is your passion now?

SPEAKER_02 39:41

So so I really enjoy working in this kind of bi-regional kind of space, right? So Israeli companies connecting to Texas, you know, selling San Antonio and Texas to Israel, you know, with sort of a you know, the bridge. Yeah, I mean, we're doing good in terms of the um you know the the tech transfer between the two regions, but we could be doing so much more.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Really?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Yeah, people get got to get past their xenophobia and understand the opportunity is is huge for us to collaborate with Israel. And also, the the you know, San Antonio is uniquely positioned between Mercosur, you know, the the the South, just beyond Latam. I mean, like the whole South American region is is ripe for us to really do a lot of partnerships with. Yeah, just like with Israel partnering with what we call MENA, which is Mideast North Africa, and building really great partnerships in the region. Um, I think we can do so much more. So my work in organizational development gets a little bit into that uh economic development.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

So you bring some of what we're doing to them? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Okay, yes, I I do. I I kind of have been a little bit of a what we call that shad kan in Hebrew, a little bit of a matchmaker. Okay. And and interested in doing more. So when I'm with those organizations, sometimes, you know, you know, putting the pre-sales engineer hat on and helping, you know, okay, you know, how do we need to like, you know, how do we make this deck not suck, right? So we can have, you know, yeah, I hope that pro is pronounced right too on both ends. Um it's not really bad.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Pause as they say, as the kids say.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, but no, I think that there's there's a lot more that can happen. So when I engage with a company, there's you know, there's the classic, you know, strategic thinking, strategic planning, leadership development team building, all that kind of nice stuff. But you know, the why there, you know, building great organizations that you know everybody wants to work for and everybody wants to do business with, which is hard to do. It is culture, right? It is focusing on employee engagement. Right. Yeah, some meetings I'm having this week is you know, helping traditional organizations build more innovative cultures.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Yeah. Because I think that's where it starts.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Yeah, well, that's and that's what's intrinsically motivates people is guess honey, guess what I did at work today? Yeah, you won't believe this badass stuff we're doing versus oh yeah, I think we're getting another paycheck this month. Exactly. Um, so so I I I love being part of that. Yeah, but I also find because of the kind of breadth of and depth of some of the work I've done is really kind of helping helping organizations partner um you know internationally.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah. So do you think that where do you see small businesses mess up? Is it the culture? Because uh I'm in small business. Um where do you see this because it I think starting with small businesses as they grow to put what you're in in practice is is so important. Where do you see the small businesses really mess up early on?

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Well well, they have to look at themselves as entrepreneurships, right? Everybody that's that's on the team has to wear more than one hat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

And they have to feel comfortable, you know, challenging themselves and learning how to take on different roles and responsibilities. One of the challenges for small business is the is the principals, the founders, uh, you know, having the the quality of team member that they can develop to make themselves dispensable. Yeah. So they can actually go on vacation and and and things won't break.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Or customers won't be lost.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

You know, so I think it's hard to, it's hard when you're small to clone yourself because sometimes these these companies were built around the Riz of that foundation. Sure. You know, sure. Um, but I think that being able to sort of um share your fire with your teammates so that they also that their Riz also can stand up.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Without without also creating your own competition. So you can't worry about that. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

That's tough.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

You know, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

That's tough. It does happen all the time.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

But I go back to the one thing, you know, that and I I one time I c I wrote this thing down on LinkedIn and I got I don't know how many tens of thousands of views and hundreds of shares. And then and now it's on people's website. They've out out stole it. Yeah. Without without but you know, without giving people still things? Oh, yeah. That's copy left. Yeah. It's it's I just gave you a side. Yeah. No, this is before the A.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Nobody steals steals from you.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah. So the but the quote goes like this you know, you know, CEO, CFO talking to each other, and one says, uh, what happens if we invest in our people and and they leave the company? Yeah, which happens all the time. And the idea is, well, what happens if we don't and they stay?

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Yeah. Yes. Yes. I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

So so so I think there's that magnanimity, that the gregariousness of I'm going to help you be the best version of yourself while you're here as long as you're here.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Okay. And I'm not and not going to worry about what happens later. But you know, even the Gallup, you know, measurement for employee engagement, the number one thing that makes a person love or hate their job is their direct supervisor.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

That dynamic. Absolutely. So if if if you have your people's back, they're going to have yours as long as they can afford to.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Yeah. Well, and and I can think of jobs that I have left when I was younger. I'm still young. I'm like 38. He almost spit his coffee out.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Yeah. I was born in the 80s. Yeah, I don't lie about my age. I just don't broadcast it because of ages of it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

But in fact, my birthday is coming up pretty soon, and I don't see a gift here, Winslow. I mean, come on now. See, it's okay. You just got back from it. That's because we gotta still go out because we're gonna go get coffee there. We're gonna do our next show in Israel. That's what we're gonna do. But so now I've gone off on a rabbit hole. So where do you where do you see um yourself going from here? Uh the future of you.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Well, I think having my San Antonio and Jerusalem office, you know, both up and running, and I'm spending, you know, half of my time here, half of my time there, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

You told me that you want to be spend more time there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

Yeah, we got some kids and grandkids and also other kind of a lot of other reasons.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Um, but then this is this is also home.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

And you know, I have built decades of business friendships here that I are are important to me. Sure. Um, and want to continue to sort of nurture this our next generation of leaders in whatever, you know, whatever capacity. Yeah. I think that the way we work, you know, we we don't want to have one year of experience 20 times. Yeah, right. Yeah. We want to have 20 years or 40 years of experience, whatever that is, sure. Which means we have to reinvent ourselves. Like I, you know, last year I was doing AI fluency kind of workshops, right? Um, it's it's funny, it's fun doing that being my age. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's like, wait, wait, you guys are supposed to be stupid about this stuff. No, actually, we all need to be leaning into this.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Absolutely. Run toward it in a way as a way as a opposed to from it.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

Yeah. So that whole, you know, that whole being able to accompanies to take that the human clarity and integrate that with the machine speed, uh, the potential of you know what these neural networks can do for us.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

But be the ones that we're teaching the machines.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Not just talking to them. Yeah. Um, this kind of work I see, you know, there's there's going to always be a place for helping people become going beyond just being prompt engineers, right? There's there's a lot of good work there. Uh so but to me, it's like uh if I if I'm helping people in organizations, you know, kick ass, take names, and leave a dent in the universe, then I'm happy. Yeah. You know, and and and how that changes is is is just uh it's a natural evolution.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Do you think because uh and I we could I mean I could talk to you for hours and and people would probably get really bored because I haven't caught up with you in a while. Um, but do you think AI I think I think you're right. I think people's skills are still gonna be, at least for the the the immediate future, is gonna be very needed. And and it's it's what's gonna save us at the end of the day, is is still having this type of interaction. I know a lot of people do podcasts and they do all, you know, on the phone or or on Zoom or whatever. And I still am very I like to read your body language, I like to see how you're reacting and and maybe move off a topic if if so this kind of stuff is gonna still need to happen. Um how do you see that? How do you train that though? Like how because some people aren't people people.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

Yeah, just like just like what AI can do is it can take certain workloads off our desk so we can focus on the things we really should be doing. Sure. Right? Being creative and more creative, yeah. And and and the redundant tasks or or things that are voluminous, we can we can delegate to AI.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Um, I I one of the challenges I had being in Israel a little longer than than I had originally planned was clients, my clients want me in the room at least half the time.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

You know, they need that vibe, they need that energy. Yeah, they they you can feel it. Yeah, they want me to be reading the room so that I can give them what they want, the best feedback possible. And so, well, uh you know, we'll always be able to do a lot remotely, and I like the freedom of that. Yeah, you know, I I was called the my field office is is my bike.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Yes, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

I'll I'll have I'll have a I'll have a device with me, I'll be working, but I'm also gonna be riding.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Yeah, you will see Winslow on his bike at some point riding around.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

But but I don't show up for a keynote in in uh in my you know French lycra. You know, even though I I did one time that'd be cool. I geeked him. I did I did talk to uh an ABLDB cohort one time, and I I was in the kit, you know, but try not to make a happy of it, a habit of it. Because you know, my eyes are up here, you know, so I just yeah. Just gonna be funny. So he's gonna be editing the show. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Um where uh what I'll I'll end on this. There's there's two things. I'll let you kind of go into what you're doing too here in a second. But I I've tried to end, and I you've already kind of answered this question. So uh I uh but what what is your purpose?

SPEAKER_02 50:08

You know what that also kind of evolves, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Sure. Uh but what is it now? What do you see it as now, right now? This is the question that stomps everybody, too.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

Yeah, no, yeah. So you know, what what is my north star kind of thing? All that kind of business.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

Uh yeah, I didn't want to make it cheesy. Yeah. You just made it cheesy.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

Yeah, okay, yeah. I get trite and cliche. I made it trite and cliche.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Thanks for just shitting on my question. And Mike Flores says, wait a minute. That was a good thing. I thought it was a good question. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Mike Flores would be like, wait, that's mine. That's my thing. You can't take it. Um, so I there's an interesting kind of thing where, you know, my in terms of my own internal dialogue about it is to allow the Sheehan senseiness, the, the, yeah, the that part of my being to not not have not have to compartmentalize that from anything else that I do.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Right. So how I show up for my clients and and and and whatever kind of you know work I'm invested in, to to show up with um with that sort of that peace that I bring, that that unique piece, and and even if it's not asked for or expected, yeah, allow that to flow. Yeah. You know, uh, you know, allow that my authentic self to be present in the in all the work that I do and um and and not be distracted by you know the standard set of expectations.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

That's great. So yeah, I will say this, and I'm not just saying that you're gonna get uncomfortable with this problem. You uh uh you know you left a mark on me, and we don't talk as much as we used to, but you know, that's that's what happens in life. But I I I will say, and I'm not just saying this from my perspective, he's gonna hate this, but you have left a mark on a lot of people in this city for sure. Uh and left a mark on me and and how um, you know, I I think about business and how you know what is right and wrong, and and and I think that uh you need to realize that you've left a very I think that's some of your purpose has already been lived out. Like, I mean, there's so many people I talk to uh and and we don't I think this is something we don't do great as a city. We we don't really give you gotten kudos, obviously, but it's it's said behind you. Uh so I will say that that you have left a mark uh on a lot of people. And um I hope that you continue to do what you're doing because it's vitally important for for what we're doing here.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

Yeah, and thank you so much for that. You know, there's a there's a a Hebrew kind of passage where they ask the question, you know, who is who is the the noble, uh, honorable one? Yeah, and it's the person who gives honor, yeah, right, who honors others.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

And you know, they they use the word cavot.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

And and and what I what I was thinking about was do I have enough gratitude for my mentors? Yeah. And do I ex do I express it enough?

SPEAKER_01 53:14

I think it's I think we don't do a good job of that.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

Yeah, and and then how do I celebrate those that invested in me and taught me what I've learned so that I can flourish and help others?

SPEAKER_00 53:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

And some of those, you know, mentors, as I've mentioned in other conversations I've had with folks, are we used to be my mentees. Yeah. You know, yeah. Uh that's awesome. Yeah, when the yeah, when the student leaves the temple, you know, that's like another thing, which is really kind of cool. Um, but but I you know, but then I also notice, you know, the concepts in the world, there's there's folks who just do not share their credit with anyone, and I think that only hurts them.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Because the treasures and riches of the richness of those encounters should be more the part of their story arc.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

You know, and I don't care if it's me or whoever it is, but just you know, it's like treasuring and honoring and valuing that also teaches your mentees that you know, we it it's it's just I think a good vibe to have overall.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

Thank you, by the way, for for all your cool words.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Where where what where can we find you and what what I know you have a book as well. Um, where can we find all this stuff?

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Okay, so my my webs website, Winslow-consulting.com. Okay. It's a basic basic hyphen. That's not an underscore. Winslow consulting with hyphen um dot com is my regular website. They always need to be updated, right? Every time you look at my what the hell is I saying? What is this called?

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Cook at AI to do that.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I I used Merlin the other day to turn my Instagram into a website and it it took thirty less than 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

And then I just had to go to edit and get rid of some of the crap that but it's pictures of me. Yeah, exactly. All those. Yeah, with your hat. Oh, I there's one, there's one, you're not wearing a hat.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Oh, yeah, yeah. Occasionally I'm out in the wild without it.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Okay. So um, but anyways, yeah. So I that that website, and then on social media, it's my name like on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

And how do you spell Schwart Schwar Schwartz? Swart.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

S-W-A-R-T.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Okay, well, we just need to make sure because I can barely say it in less than it's Dutch.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

It doesn't have all the extra consonants like German.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. And I think I think um I'd like I know I try to keep these things not to to to over an hour. Uh, so uh uh we could talk all day, and I really had fun doing this. So I appreciate you especially coming out on a a Sunday to to uh record this. And um thanks so much for doing this.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Well, it's it's a great excuse to get to see you again. And uh and I look I look forward to to how good or bad this comes out. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

Who knows? Yeah. All right, everybody. Thanks so much.