64: Julian Guderley - Legacy Coach & Podcast Host on Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs

0:00 If, as Charlemagne said, to know another language is to possess a second soul, what does that mean for someone who speaks 5 languages and has visited 60 plus countries? Haven't done the math, but that's a whole lot of soul. What is the mission of the Green Planet Blue Planet podcast? How does it make us better appreciate the symbiotic and synergistic relationship we as humans have with animals, plants and innumerable other members of the global ecosystem? And how can CE O's, Co O's, and founders at 7 figure businesses immerse themselves in retreats in places like Tulum, Mexico to fully grasp the concepts of synthesis and community, to refine their compass and home in on their true north?

0:42 Stay tuned as we touch on these and many other topics on this week's episode of Untether Your Life. Welcome to Untether Your Life, a show that empowers you to own your own health and break free of templates for managing physical and mental Wellness, and looks at key issues impacting the South Asian diaspora. I am your host, Nikhil Torsakar, and I'm passionate about the power of conversation to catalyze change. We're living in unprecedented times in which the standard cookie cutter approaches to problem solving leadership just won't cut it. The mission of this podcast is to rip up those templates and speak with innovators and entrepreneurs who understand the importance of breath work, communing with nature's and quote bringing our superpowers online. Julian Guterlei exemplifies this type of change maker, which is why I was so excited to speak with him on this week's episode of the podcast.

1:38 Julian is a legacy coach for founders. His mission is to help clients unlock their full potential to become more effective leaders who create positive impact with heart. Julian's consulting and coaching is differentiated by a cross disciplinary and cross cultural methodology that emphasizes well-being and true wealth. Julian elevates the values of determination and resilience and has a passion for social innovation and connection. He is originally from Germany and despite excelling in roles at Nike and BMW, he sought the road less traveled which led him to start and operate his own studio space in Canada and journey into the startup world in Silicon Valley and Vancouver Island. He also began the Green Planet Blue Planet Podcast, a global top 3% podcast.

2:23 While traveling the world since 2017, Julian has consulted and coached dozens of founders, CE O's and startups to make pivots towards the legacy projects and lives they had been dreaming of. But we're slightly out of reach. Over the past 20 years he has lived on 3 continents, traveled to 60 plus countries, and learned to speak 5 languages fluently. And with that, let's get untethered. So yeah, quite a story. Julian and I feel like that's only scratching the surface, so if there's anything else you want to add to your CV there, go for it. My CV, that's so kind. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, there's been so many highlights and so many, so many amazing people that came into my life over the last 20 years. You know him. As you said, I did grow up in Germany, left for the first time when I was 15, which is where I experienced just such a quantum jump of of learning and stepping into lived experience. And I learned Spanish and Portuguese. In that exchange year, lived in Paraguay in South America. And you know, this is 20 years ago now and I still nourish pretty much every day, every week from that experience. You know, you know, honestly, it allowed me to see people through my heart more so than through my intellect. Few years later, it's about 15 years ago now. I started to travel to India for the first time. We went to go to a university there in Bangalore, probably university, and then we went to tour through all of the larger international companies, you know, like Bosch and Kingfisher and.

3:42 Dell and etc. And we were basically the German expats that were offered jobs in those places. And it was kind of a funny month in India because it was really beautiful. I learned so much. But what stuck with me personally the most was yoga and the three or four sessions of yoga that were organized for us. And I just realized there's something here. That is 100% me. And so over the last 15 years, I've learned and trained with many teachers that just were the right people at the time for me to to go deep, always curious to know because, you know, India is something. Obviously my parents are from India and I've spent a lot of time there and it's, you know, I always would roll my eyes because it's like going back to see family. You know, I'd rather go to go to the beach in Jamaica or go to some sightseeing in European cities.

4:26 So I'd always roll my eyes about India. But what's interesting, when I talked to a lot of people from the Western world, when they talk about it, it's, you know, they, they have a beginner's mindset which is so beneficial. So I'd love to hear more about your overall impressions of India. You know, the interesting thing is there's this juxtaposition because as you alluded to, there's so many corporations kind of spreading their presence out there. But there's a traditions that spawn centuries. Yeah, I mean, you said it's so well there, there, you know, especially Bangalore and Karnataka as a state. It's very much taken over by international companies And like globalization, we see this basically anywhere in the world, especially in what was I think called BRIC countries, right, like Brazil, Russia, India, China that like it's become more and more so Westernized.

5:11 And I was there the first time, 2009, so there's a long time ago. What was more fascinating for me, though, as you as you said, like as the the German kid inside of me that I grew up as, it was the traditions, it was the like. The mystical it was the the complexity and the craziness of India, right? It's louder than anywhere else in the world. It's more chaotic than anywhere else in the world. But it seems to work. It seems to be like synergistically perfect, right? I mean, there's there's a bit of, I remember that quite distinctly. A bit of a. Classist kind of energy going on at times. But we still experience this in big parts of the world and we're all just growing and reconciling those old wounds, right. And coming into like I would call them like flat hierarchies or like direct relating definitely with thick in India. But I I also just love people.

5:53 I mean there's so many people and probably maybe you could get into trouble. I don't know. I usually stay out of you know in shady spots no matter where I am in the world. I just found people so helpful. I found people at large being so kind and helpful and I I remember that being like look back with the. Chuckle now, it was great. And then after a few weeks, I was like, I think I kind of get why for some people this is too chaotic of a place because it also brings out that side, right? Everything's happening all at once, at everywhere. And so yeah, it's it's a it's a beautiful place. We we got to travel quite a bit, but only in the South back then. And yeah, as I said, like the, the traditional part, the mysticism, the culture, Hinduism, yogis, all of that stayed with me very deeply in the kind of my tissue. And I did want to circle back Julian about you had touched on this and I've heard you on some podcast talk about how your trip to Paraguay when you were young was a very pivotal moment and it really shaped the essence of who you are. There's this beautiful quote that I was loved because I'm a big fan of languages as well.

6:52 To have another language is to possess a second soul. I think it's attributed to Charlemagne. And from what I gather you're you're very passionate about languages as well. So I wanted to understand more about sort of how that has shaped your overall experience, you know, as a coach, as a podcast host and just you know your your love of languages and cultures, if you can touch on that a little bit. Yeah, you're you're striking on such a beautiful topic here and and I'm glad that that you, you share that passion with me. You know, I don't know if it's a second soul, but it's definitely an altered perspective of our personality of or of our internal characters, right. And so. Yeah, per language. You learn to speak influency and you meet people in another part of your personality comes online for sure, you know at large.

7:35 Maybe they're all part of the same being that that I am, but. I noticed it that in different parts of the world, in different interactions, in different languages, different elements or characteristics, kind of, you know, come out to play and come out to play more. And it has influenced everything in my life, especially the coaching, right. I said you said it in the beginning, it's a kind of cross disciplinary and cross cultural approach. But when we take the perspective of simply another language, maybe French or Spanish or German or, you know, whatever language it is, we suddenly start to see that not everything is exactly as it is. In this cultural context. But there's also beyond any given cultural context. When we talk to founders or CEOs in our work, we often realize that they just like maybe in the world we take American globalized English culture or, you know, British globalized English culture as the. The main pathway that at work that happens very often that people get stuck in a pathway and they don't have the capacity to lift their head, pivot and simply learn another language or simply learn another way to say the same thing. And so I believe language is deeply tied to culture obviously and culture is deeply tied to language. And I do believe that contextually speaking, languages is one of the things where our diversity really comes to show. And.

8:51 If we streamline everything into machine like processes that are all happening only in English, I think we're losing a lot of the beauty that's in the human diversity and and so I noticed this every day with the people I work with and. For me, it first showed up in that year in Paraguay, but actually more so when I came back home to Germany. So when I was 16, you know, again, this is like 1920 years ago now. I returned after a year of an exchange program in Paraguay to Germany, went back to finish high school and you know, was living with my family again for another two years and no one had an understanding truly of what I just experienced for one full year. And you know, this is not completely comparable to work culture, but in school no one cared, even all the.

9:34 Teachers. All they cared for is that I finished this math test or I finished that. I don't know German essay or whatever. Head down, finish, check the boxes. Right. Exactly. But then I realized there's like a lack of depth or a lack of understanding for different contexts or circumstances. Now, fair enough, when I'm in the math class to write the math test, my job is to do the math test. But life doesn't actually happen quite that linearly. Life does happen in the nuance. Life does happen in the interpersonal space, and so in the interpersonal space, I believe anyone who's bilingual or. You know, a polyglotin speaks more than three languages or three and more has an advantage to be able to read different nuances of what's happening, body language, maybe even etymology and the origin of words if like go deeper with it or simply a bigger audience. But I think somewhere there is where the beauty of language starts and where it still applies for me every day in my work.

10:24 I do think you you bring up an excellent point, Julian. It's just that I think in Tahitian culture there is actually not a word core unhappiness. It's like the closest analogue is a slight feel, a slight fluish sensation, you know, And so you think about the way things are expressed and the way things are are discussed and the fact that there's no conceptualization of something that seems so ubiquitous, you know in in our culture in in the US, you know that that sort of gives you a perspective about how certain cultures, how they prioritize certain states of mind at things like that. Now, I I did want to touch on one thing that you know, as I had mentioned earlier, we had talked about one of the connections was podcasting.

11:09 And so your podcast is called Green Planet, Blue Planet. And I'd love for you if you could talk more about the podcast, just about the origin of it, because you've been doing it for what's is it four years now or? Five years, yeah. Might be 5-5 years going on. Six years, Yeah. Yeah. So if you could talk a little bit more about that. I mean, first of all, I love podcasts. I love audiobooks. I love. I love anything that I can listen to while I'm walking or driving or traveling. I don't do that every single day. But walking, driving or traveling are like. They happen. They haven't weekly. They happen monthly. And so I'm, I'm always equipped with good shows or good books. And so at some .6 years ago when that was kind of, you know, becoming a thing, I realized I am fundamentally not excited about the the narrative about where the world is going in our mainstream media. And so I wanted to create something that allows me to have conversations with coaches and authors and artists and Indigenous people.

12:07 People that are doing impact work for the ocean, doing this for regenerative agriculture, you name it. I was looking for positive or conversations about a healthy planet, basically a healthy planet and a healthy planet that we're making. So because of what? What? What we're doing, the impact we make, the investments we make, the things we choose. And so I started the show called Green Planet, Blue Planet, If you're listening and you don't know of it yet, search it in your podcast app and hey, subscribe. There's over 330 episodes out there now. We publish about once a week at this point. Yeah, it's actually been ranked in like the top 3% of global podcasts because it's. I've just niched in into what we call regeneration now and really just have a lot of conversations. This morning I recorded a call with a new friend. She is from Malawi in Africa.

12:51 And is designer and creator of several regenerative agroforestry projects there. And so you know, very niche, but for me to talk to someone in Malawi and knowing that in that part of Africa there are regenerative foresting projects happening that allow local farmers to. You know, live a happier, healthier and, you know, more prosperous life. But it also creates a soil, health and healthy waterways. That's the kind of news I wish I was getting rather than the news of like, you know, another storm. I mean, that's from destruction, yeah. Death and destruction and you know doomsday about whether earth is going cuz everything is polluted but also. We're sponsored by Cocacola, so why don't you buy another bottle of your corn syrup?

13:33 Right. And so it's it's, it's that frustration, original nickel that's got me started. It's like, man, the world is, is being polluted with information and news. Let me create something that is simply an expression of my values just as much as an expression of my curiosity. And that's why I call it Green Planet, Blue Planet. Because I do believe that this world inherently is a healthy planet that can continue to, you know, how is us humans for? Millennia to come if we want to be in symbiosis with it. And so it's a podcast and all things regeneration. Totally born out of that, out of that curiosity, what's interesting again going back to the importance of words because you and I talked previously.

14:13 One of you know, in addition of the podcast, I also run a stem cell therapy company and it specializes in regenerative medicine. So it's interesting when, you know, when I had originally talked to Katya and she told me about you, she said you do a podcast about and she heard and she said the word regenerate. And I immediately was like, oh, is this about stem cells? But it sounds like it's a little bit different. So I was wondering if you could explain a little bit more to people who might not be as well versed in the concept of regeneration. Regeneration I believe is easily described as first of all a biological phenomena, like if you cut your finger, your cells grow back. And the wound is closed technically, literally regenerating cells at that point. Regeneration is really also describing the cycle of life in ecology.

15:00 And I think that's the part that's really important here. And really important to observe is that we as humans are part of a cycle of life, a part of an ecological cycle of life. We are not just on the top of the food chain and here to dominate and squander everything else. Like you know, we can to a degree and we have to a large degree, but at the end of the day that will will lead to more destruction. Because we're just going to pollute ourselves, our waterways, our our soil and each other. And so, um, since we are in 2023 and lots of that has already happened, I think it's time to understand the bigger picture of nature. And many people do, actually. And many people have talked about this all along, but it's about understanding. That we're in a synergistic and symbiotic relationship with all of nature around us. And so yeah, we can take certain resources and form and modulate other things out of it.

15:48 But if we do this to a degree where we destroy the biosphere and where we do this to the degree where we pollute the biosphere, we ultimately will only destroy ourselves. And so I don't think the Earth needs saving, and I don't even think humanity needs saving. But I do believe that the future positive future can only happen where we live in in alignment with this. Degenerative cycle and it's basically an ethos of the pathway forward. I would almost say it's a movement that's happening in our species at this point simply because we need to, we need to and we are becoming more aware of our impact on the natural world on each other. I'll give you an example really, really, really tactile. Also kind of gross.

16:29 I live on Vancouver Island since over a decade and until two or three years ago all of the sewage was dumped into the ocean here. Now this is an island with about 300,000 inhabitants. Probably when all this was built in the 1960s it was a third or less of this and so maybe maybe maybe back in the 60s it was like we got sewage that's just putting the ocean. Ocean is big enough now. Today they they've changed it. We've built this like massive kind of new sewage treatment plant here and in Vancouver it was a big deal. That's why I'm. Telling you just get back home and then like thinking of it. Yeah. But it's it's that way of thinking of like oh let's just put it back into nature because it will just deal with it. That has completely become obsolete and completely become a dumb way to think.

17:11 Given on the awareness we have through the Internet through real time tracking, you know through how many people we are on the planet. Now that if we are 8 billion and we put we live and pollute like N Americans, we will destroy the planet. I by number means believe we're too many people on the planet. I think we could have. A bunch more on here too but we need to live in alignment with the cycle of biology and and so that is regeneration. That's beautifully stated because I think that we do have to remember that we're we're all part of an ecosystem and that's that goes for not just as human beings but also culturally. And that's one of the things I love about your focus is it's it's not just one specific culture.

17:52 You know you're truly a global citizen. I think you said you have done retreats on three different continents and you know travel to 60 plus countries. And I think that when you have that end to end view, I think you're going to make a lot more, you know your deeper contributions to society. But you're also going to you know enrich yourself as well in terms of you know, in terms of your perspective. You take that longer view versus what's delivered on your iPhone at the current moment. Now the other concept that I came across Julian, that I wanted to learn more about is synthesis. That's something that it sounds like that's has informed your your coaching and a lot of the other work you do. If you could talk to me a little bit more about that. I mean, synthesis is basically the combination of forming ideas and knowledge into action, right?

18:37 So it's it's about kind of understanding like what's the bottom line in my process here? That could be the way I apply myself as a founder or CEO to my work. It could be the way. I make music as an artist. It could be the way I teach or guide my children if I'm a father or a mother. It's about understanding that when I combine ideas and action steps into habits, or even new habits that are more effective, I'm synthesizing from my potential and my capacity into actually living and embodying it, right? And so I'll give you an example. If you're a CEO or or a CEO or a founder, and very often you might be busy or carrying responsibility, you're carrying the weight or the process of other people on your shoulder.

19:18 But if you're actually the CEO of a company, you're 80% of time should be spent. On revenue driving activities for your company, because that's how you're going to be the best CEO for that company. It doesn't mean there's another things to do. It doesn't mean there isn't some kind of people management to do, but usually for that role, for that context, it's about synthesizing all of the possible ideas right, Combining them and forming actions and habits to. Increase personal success and increase alignment with the context you're in. Or just like if you're a parent who make the same metaphor of 80% of your time should be spent probably just an unconditionally loving and supporting your children. Doesn't mean they don't need boundaries and they don't need need Nos and they don't need some discipline sometimes, but probably not 80% of the time.

20:04 And and so it's about this, it's about really understanding how we take these different requirements on us and how we synthesize them into what works for us authentically. And in alignment with what gets us to the world, we want to see in the world we want to create, right? So if you're CEO, you want to create a profitable business that makes a positive impact that will take you to focus on that. And if you're a father or mother, you want to see a thriving child that turns into a kind and conscious human being, right? So you gotta model that and live that and lead like. That I think, yeah, leading by example is is so important. I'm a father myself, you know, with. We three kids. And one of the things that I feel fortunate about is that we're living in more of a collaborative parenting model right now.

20:47 Because I think I don't know how it was in Germany, but you know, growing up, I think there was a lot more of a. Command and control, type of structure, you know, and now I think of the silver lining in this technology thing is we're able to communicate with our children in in different ways. Simple things like Snapchat where you're sending funny bit Ogs back and forth or you know, you're able to share funny memes and things like that. I think that we can learn a lot from our kids and we don't have to. Sort of think we have all the answers. So I think it's it's good that we're evolving into more of a a collaborative mindset for sure. Yeah, well said. The other thing that Julie and I, I did want to touch on, you had talked to somebody about your notion of the term community where it's like I think you'd said like communication and unity, so. I'd like to hear more about your perspectives on community and then also if you could discuss a little bit more of these retreats that you host.

21:41 I think you had hosted one recently in February, right. In. Yeah, yeah, we were in Mexico in October and then again in January, beginning of February of 2023. Yeah. Community communication in Unity or communication into Unity. I believe that the human being doesn't exist in isolation, meaning they can never only be one of us and they're never also is only just one of us. And So what I'm trying to say here is that implicitly by being a human, we are actually we're individuals, that's true. But we're also communities, we're groups of people, we're groups of interests, we're family groups, we're groups at work, we're groups for basically anything we do. We're groups in countries.

22:22 And so first of all, I'd love to just, you know, I kind of put that into the context of can you simply visualize the different communities you're part of, right. Right now? I I live in a neighborhood where I don't know all my neighbors, but that doesn't mean I'm not in the same community as them, right? We go to similar grocery stores. We would rely on similar processes to work for, let's say those groceries being delivered or the streets staying clean or what, whatever it may be. So community is always part of how we actually live. What I believe takes us to the next level with this notion though, when we deliberately pick and choose these communities not just by circumstance. If I was born here, so I was raised here as I live in this place. But when we actually realize, huh. So there is something about community that allows me to create more and we will use the word impact again. Impact in the world will create more, follow through in the world will create more happiness or prosperity or more integrity into the world.

23:18 And so in order to do that I really believe we want to be surrounded by the right people. There's the saying you are the person that you spend. You're like a synthesis of the. Five people. Yeah. You spend it. Yeah. Jim Roan, It's a great quote. I don't think that that's entirely true. But there's a truth to the quote, which is the people around us influence us. And even if you think you're a total hermit and loner, believe me, you do live in community because humans don't exist completely alone. And so communication and to unity. Now I'm going to make a really big jump here. Community also includes all of the natural world. It actually includes all of the living beings on the planet, trees, plants, animals on the very big kind of level. And the meta picture here, it's about understanding what spaces are we creating for our community in the city we live in and the town we live in, in the natural world we live in, in the government and the country we live in. Are those really the processes we want to live in? Is there things always change?

24:14 So could it change for the better? How would that look? And so I I think in 2023, you know, especially after the COVID moment and especially now with with just ever increasing global kind of requirements for from banking to traveling, I think it's very important that people stand up and say what is the community I live in, what is the community that I want to live in and how does that look and how am I, you know, a responsible Co creator in that community. And that goes for your neighborhood just as much As for like your immediate family. When it comes to retreats, I believe retreats and events or you know like gatherings of of any kind actually that you can even book a ticket to for a weekend or seven days. I think it's a very powerful way of practicing being in community.

24:59 You mentioned Katya, I'm shout out to my awesome Co creator. We host retreats several times a year, mostly in Mexico and those are leadership immersions. Those are transformational events where people go through different kind of initiation rights that I want to tell about all the practices. But mostly this is really focused on personal development and confronting internal blockages and in a group experiencing yourself overcome that or surpass that or find a new association with an all the motion so so that we're not defined by an emotion of the past, but we're really able to live into the vision of the future we hold. The way I would connect it to community Nikhil is that when we are witnessed by others, our superpowers come online. Now also our blind spots are visible and seen by others.

25:42 And sometimes it takes us seeing the world through someone else's eyes, owning the blind spot, transforming, and then moving forward and realizing, well, I was only able to do that because of the support I had from this group, because of the way that the space was held, because of the way I was acknowledged and listened to. And so I think, bottom line, this is what community really is, is is needed for is to see and hold responsible, but also to see and to uplift, to empower. I don't know what the quote is. No man is an island or something like that. But I think that that's so true is just that COVID really taught us a lesson. In that there were so many things that we took for granted. A lot of these social connections, a lot of the, you know, your your friends that you would go to happy hour with. It's just something that was you know poop in the in the blink of an eye.

26:30 We were completely separated. And so I think as humans we had to adapt and find new ways of connecting and communicating and and you know, I love that word cocreating. I don't know what the stats are, but it would be interesting to see, you know, how many people started a podcast during that time because they were. You know, they were home. They were on lockdown. It's like, well, let me find a way to make a contribution and also stay connected with my hello man. So yeah, I I I definitely think that's that's an important thing. Now I'm seeing more of a movement towards, you know, when people talk about retreats or these a lot of these spiritual movements, I I'm always fascinated to connect with people who are doing this. But in a I I don't want to say.

27:14 I guess I want to be careful with my words, but maybe. I guess the best way to say it would be like a consciously capitalist fixed approach, meaning that you know you are talking about yoga, breath work, meditation, but it is with the mindset of helping corporate leaders improve their performance. So I wanted to understand a little bit more about how that ties into maybe your coaching, because it sounds like you do work with a lot of people who are, for lack of better word, movers and shakers in corporate setting. So if you could. I'd love to hear more about maybe the profile of clients that you work with in your coaching and maybe some, if you can point to some results that you've delivered for some of these individuals. So I work specifically with founders, with CEOs and people that are investors or at the very minimum cofounders of either an initiative or company.

28:04 I've really horned in under that niche because that's the people I can best support in bringing not just the superpowers online, but to overcome kind of, you know, what's holding them back, but also to hone in on what you called earlier legacy coaching. So the idea behind legacy coaching is it's not so much of A legacy of what do I leave behind as the big personality I, but more So what do I leave behind or what am I building in my lifetime that is connected to A7 generational perspective, A perspective that is, you know, simply Simply put, like a healthy planet that we're building for us here right now in our prosperity as well As for the longevity of our species in our environment. And So what I help people with specifically is to overcome, you know, scatterbrain or kind of like procrastination as well as like burnout, either impedent burnout or burnout they pass through.

28:53 That's kind of step one we start with people with usually is to to take energy levels back up again and within you know kind of 90 to 100 days kind of have a more balanced insight into how they're performing in their emotional intelligence, how they're performing in their intellectual kind of performance bracket and and also how they're performing in them. You know it's it's harder to quantify, but I call it spiritual insights, right. So it's a triangle, emotional intelligence, spiritual insights and intellectual performance that's kind of step one in our transformation. Usually what I do with people specifically and what brings results in the way they build companies and the way that you know, they go from an idea over 6 to 12 to 24 months into like a company that makes 6-7 figure revenue is is you know a form of project mapping kind of where my concept, my coaching meets consulting where in biweekly rhythms I hop on with clients to really just map out the continuous progress connected to the larger vision of what we've, what we've come up with together or what they've informed me with.

29:50 So that again, on the intellectual performance, it's more so like how do I leverage my own brain, my own power, my own drive, right? And the emotional intelligence for a founder, CEO or investor is usually about how do I share responsibility with the people in my team? How do I hire smartly? How do I have communication and conversations with those people that they feel empowered and motivated? And then on the spiritual inside, the easiest way to say that is like, how often do you shut off all of your devices and go out into nature? How often do you sit in stillness? How often do you breathe or meditate? Right. That's the easiest way to quantify that. But yeah, that's that's kind of like a small little insight into the kind of work I do and, you know, the kind of people I support. And then also the outcomes of you know, either building a company from scratch into six or seven figures or building a company that's already at that stage and you know, helping them support with the next fundraising round or you know, helping them through my at this point very vast network connect with the right people or the right clients.

30:47 Yeah. And I think that is so important is just that impressing on people that that stillness and you know just quieting the mind I think can be so important. In one of your podcasts, I think you had mentioned something about was a rich role. He was talking about like the 12 hour walk or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was listening to one of his interviews, made a second 12 hour walk. I'll pull it up right here on my screen. Yeah, 12 hour walk. That was one of his guests that was calling O'brady. I just thought it's it's a fun idea. It's like literally like plan for a 12 hour walk. Don't bring a cell phone. Don't bring a friend. Right. So it's you can do your house, your door, back to your door, but 12 hours be alone outside in nature. Don't make it about social time.

31:29 Don't bring yourself. No selfies. Yeah. And and it's just because I it. What's interesting is there was a study of it. They pulled men and women. And they gave them the choice of either doing an hour of meditation or I don't even think it might have been less than that, but like a certain amount of meditation or just being silent with their thoughts or getting zapped with a bolt of electricity. And I think 60% of men chose getting zapped with a bolt of electricity and 25% of women's. That's just, that's my point. You know, that's a sad commentary. It's just like people we are so intent on. Numbing ourselves and sort of insulating ourselves from a lot of the thoughts and the energy in our in our head that's ultimately does manifest in in a lot of not just mental physical problems too. Mental, physical, emotional.

32:20 I mean this is this is how disease, disease gets born right in the body. Look, the difference between a coach and a therapist is that the therapist usually walks you into your inner work on the inner world for the first time and that's why they stay with you and they usually just a sounding board. As a coach, a high performance coach, especially a legacy coach, my work is to make sure that you know the the hemispheres of your inner work are actually happening. But the real work is in carrying that forward into external results, right? Because we want to basically create a foundation of inner work that then leads into external results on the way we perform in business and families and in our communities. But it always starts with the inner work, because the inner work means we can sit with our thoughts, we can be at peace, even though maybe we didn't like what someone else did.

33:06 Or we we have that capacity to choose silence, even though it might be uncomfortable, right? There's the research body of Andrew Huberman and in his lab and what they're doing right now and quantifying breath and meditation and different states are like, I think recently what did I read that like there is now a proven scientific benefit of continuous out loud sighing that like just relaxes your vagus nerve and like brings you into a nervous system balance. It's like, yeah, it's, it's simple stuff like that that would make you look like a weirdo if you do it in the subway in New York. But or at work, you know, but actually as a human in your own space that you're cultivating, being in silence or toning or sighing, those are really powerful tools to do.

33:56 And that's a good segue because you did touch on humming and how that activates the parasympathetic response and it triggers the relaxation and that ties into another. Honestly, I don't think anyone who's a high, high performer, I don't think those exist anymore without meditation. Gotta have access to that inner. Area that you and I are both passionate about, which is breath work. I wanted to, if you could, talk a little bit more about your journey with breath work. You know, the big picture about breath work, I believe, is it's very simple. Breath is fundamentally what makes us human. Or you know what? What, What animals and humans share. But what makes us human in the sense that it connects our spirit with our physical body? For me, breath comes back to yoga. And yoga means union, right? Which is the union between spirit and body. And so breath is the act of connecting our spirit with the body.

34:39 And pranayama and yoga or breath, our breath work to me are they're not the same. That's that's really clear. But when I think of breath work, I see this as the umbrella term under which all of the different styles of breathing happen. So breath work isn't just holotropic breathing or rebirthing breathing. Breath work is also pranayama breath work is also specific breathing techniques. In Qigong, breath work is also Kriya yoga, Kundalini yoga. Breath work is also whim of breathing. And so breath work is an umbrella term for all of the amazing modulations and modalities of breathing. You don't need to learn any of them and still be an active nostril breather and get the benefits of that.

35:22 So like as long as you're breathing through in and out through your nose, you're already one step ahead of most people. It's a whole book written by that by James Nestor, who was on green Planet, Blue Planet called Breath. How it's found me was with that first yoga experience in India in 2009 in form of pranayama, and then in forms of like meditation, and then in forms of kundalini yoga, and then in forms of kriya yoga, and then in forms of, you know, shamanic medicines and and breath work and lots of that. And so about five years ago when I started, you know, moving from my work in corporations and my work as a consultant into opening my own coaching and consulting business, I also started teaching breath work because I realized I've been studying for about 10 years. It's time to start sharing this. I do think in general, like, you can learn from anyone. Like anyone can be your teacher, but also be careful who you choose to learn with.

36:10 Not everyone, you know, needs to be a shaman because they had a medicine once and that everyone needs to be a planned facilitator or it needs to be a breath facilitator because they, you know, they loved it once and some people, they might love it once and they are a good teacher at it. So it's really about tuning in to who you want to learn with and who you want to learn from. But for this Nikki, for your question, which I really, you know, really appreciate, I think it's important to understand that breath and breathing and breath work really is the umbrella term of all of the things that are within that from muscle breathing, through open mouth breathing, from soma breath to whim of breath to Andalini yoga. And I think you made a good point, Julian, is that a lot of times what people do is they overthink it. And I've been in.

36:51 Breath work sessions or, you know, group sessions where people really get hung up and they tend to beat themselves up like, oh, I'm not holding my my breath whole time is is not long enough and I'm a failure. And you know, then they give it up. And it's just like, I think really it's about listening to your body, listening to your rhythms. And then you can guide yourself into, you know the the cadence and the rhythm that works for you and and don't try to use this one-size-fits-all approach because as you said, there's so many different approaches to it. You know there's no one you know 1 dogma to to rule them all as they say. Well said, Yeah, absolutely there is not. And breath takes you into the present moment, and so if you're still thinking, then you're probably not quite breathing it. Right, exactly.

37:36 And I think it's the the heart, heart, mind connection to that. We are so in our heads all the time that I think what I find is just that when I do a breath work session, I usually in about 20-30 minutes. I just do feel that my decision making, my intuition, is just so much stronger that I'm seeing the big picture and I'm not getting so bogged down by the minutia, you know, that we tend to. Yet engulfed in in our daytoday, absolutely. There was one interesting concept, Julian, that you had talked about in one of your materials, which is the compass. Could you talk about that, the compass that talks about between like will being and function. I don't have a visual here that I can show because it's a podcast, but if you could talk about that a little bit. So this is one of the modules I love to use within coaching experiences with people and it has to do with how we can navigate the inner world so that our inner work leads to outer world success and productivity.

38:36 Or I don't love the word productivity, effectiveness. And so the compass. First of all, let's use the word compass. It's about having a true north. If you don't have a true north, where are you going? True north could be family, True north could be wanting to make a billion dollars. True north could be just wanting to feel happy. It's about having a true north. If you don't have a clear direction, it's really difficult for life to meet you as an active agent of life. You know, as someone who is interactive with life. The three vertices are will, function and being. Will is a little easier to understand because most people know the word willpower. Will is more than willpower though, because willpower is kind of synonymous with like powering through doing what it takes.

39:19 Will is a bit more refined than that. Will is understanding that you can get where you want to get to if you align with not just step of actions, but the right energy and the right focus on it. So, for example, many people know that that moment you know if you're so obsessed with something that you can't stop thinking about it and you try to apply all of your willpower to get to this place, or sign up this new client, or close that deal, or raise that seed round or whatever it is. If you apply all that willpower, it might or not might not work. But if you apply your true your full will, that is the mix of your willpower and actually your conscious ability to understand where you are in the process, then you know when to back off. So you're not trying to hard and you know when to lean in. So you're coming into full alignment function and being function is super simple to understand. It's the function you're having in a context. If I am the waiter in a restaurant, then I'm the waiter in a restaurant.

40:09 I'm not there to necessarily prove a point to my client or to sit down and eat in front of my client. No, I'm there to be the waiter in the restaurant. That's why it exists in this triangle of the compass. That might not be off direction to follow my compass N but for the moment that I'm the waiter, I understand that that's my job, that's my role. And I take that series and I show up with excellence and I take my relationships in that context series as well. And we could have made any other example, but it's about fully being in the function that you're in for the context that you're in. A lot of people love the idea of dreaming about the future and the vision of what this company is going to turn into or where we'll be one day. But then they don't show up with excellence in the function that they hold today.

40:50 And then being is maybe the most abstract, but it's really about the way we be, not the way we do. It's about the way it feels to be around you. It's the way it feels for you to be you the. Energy you give those three probably, yeah, yeah, exactly. And when those three come into, you come into awareness about them, you start to be able to navigate any context with a bit more of nuanced grace or a bit more of depth of ability to respond to life responsibility is really just our our ability to respond. And so that's how I think like kind of introductory, introductory level to the compass and what we mean with that and the vertices of will will being in function. But really it's about using this, leveraging this over and over as the compass in your internal context to then carry it into the output.

41:40 So one question I have for you, Julian, is that be the title of this podcast is Untether Your Life. Now this is something that applies across multiple contexts, you know, whether it's ways of managing your health, whether it's your career or your relationships, just really breaking free of those templates that we all grew up with. My question to you, Julian, is how would you tell listeners what can they do to untether their life? Yeah, I love the name of the show, by the way. I'm glad we're looping back to it. It really depends on, you know, again, your compass N it really depends on where you want to go. And everyone, you know, the end, we all go to the same place, but everyone kind of goes to a different place. The way I've done it, I wouldn't recommend that to most people because you need to have a similar disposition to me that that works for you.

42:30 You know, I I call I I jumped in the cold water and learned how to swim a few times and just like used courage and momentum and opportunity and ran with it and that did work out and it is working out for other people. That would have been a disaster, right? Because if you don't have a safety net, then jumping to learn how to swim in cold water isn't the best way. So it really depends on your compass. I think to untether again, we want to understand that the external world is a reflection of your internal world and untethering. Step one is always to make space, to have more buffer, more room, more space with your internal universe, your inner verse, right? So meditation helps, Going for nature walks helps, putting your phone away helps.

43:14 Untethering, for me also means relationships. Sometimes where we want to go will simply mean that certain people will be with us and other people won't be with us. That could be romantic relationship, that could be family, etcetera, etcetera. So yeah, I think there's various steps to untethering and the first two would be, you know, relationships and that inner verse, I mean, we could, we could hop on again and dive much deeper. But yeah, I really appreciate that picture of untethering. Because at the end of the day, I mean, it's something that seems so safe that there's this point where it goes from safe to stifling, You know, that's a very fine line and I think. Too many people because they don't take, take advantage of a lot of these pretty easy tools like meditation, breath work and things like that. They they miss that fine line and they stay and that they stay in that hamster wheel, that treadmill where they just keep sort of chasing their tail and thinking things are going to go different.

44:11 As Einstein said, you know the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results, so. Now Julian if people are interested in learning more about you or want to work with you where is the best way for them to to connect with you or or find out more about the the many amazing things you're working on. Yeah and thank thanks so much for that question and I'm sure you're gonna link out some of it. You know all the social media is LinkedIn is the place. It's it's Julian or Julian Gouderlai. My my website for the podcast is green planet-blueplanet.com. We have another page called alter method dot Co for Ultra method which is a coaching business. There's a few places, but LinkedIn is a good place to start.

44:54 Instagram is a good place to start. YouTube is a good place to start and I love for people to reach out. You know, I answer most of my own messages sometimes it's my team, but I definitely love the dialogue, love getting to know people and also really love people that are clear on wanting or looking for support. I do maybe want to end on this one. Any high performer in a public place, if that's it's like in a public kind of more like celebrity space, if that's an actor, if that's a an athlete, if that's a even a politician. They all have coaches and help and support, and I've hired so many coaches. I've even hired a therapist before because it's not that I was so stuck that that was the only way out. It was that I was clear that this is going to be so supportive to me, that I'm going to become the person that I'm on the direction to becoming more effectively. And so anyone who's on the fence or anyone who's already hired a coach before keep going because that's what professional people do.

45:51 They hire support. They know that some things that do themselves, other things they want that like top tier support with them. And so yeah, I really like big shout out for everyone who's who's in the business of supporting others because it's a super needed niche in the world. Well, thanks so much, Julian. This was a great discussion and I really look forward to. Seeing what 2023 brings for you. Awesome. Nikhil, thank you so much for having me that I love it. I love the show and keep it up. Great work. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you enjoyed that episode. For more of these types of conversations, please visit us at untetheryourlife.co. You can also find us on Instagram and Untether your life, as well as on Apple, Spotify, and other platforms by searching for Untether Your Life. And if you did, enjoy this episode. Please leave us a review or share it with someone who might also benefit.

46:46 Thanks, and until the next time we meet, stay untethered.