Welcome to a series of interviews I’m calling “The Nitty Gritty Heart.” It has to do with the intersection of heart and spirituality and the world of business.
The inspiration for this series came a few years ago at a lunch I was having with a fairly well-known business teacher. He was known for teaching nuts and bolts strategy to his clients and customers, but admitted to me that he used a spiritual approach in his own business, but didn’t know how or if he should teach it.
My experience has been that many of the successful people around us do both: they bring in heart AND the details. But how?
The intention is to help people integrate their sense of spirit and the business world, and to do it in a way that honors the details and numbers that businesses need to function, and honoring the non-linearity and non-logical wisdom that sometimes comes through the Divine. And vice-versa. 🙂 It’s summed up in the three deceptively simple questions I’m asking:
- What’s your background in business?
- What’s your experience with heart and spirituality?
- How do you combine the two? When very detailed, nitty-gritty things need to get done in the business, and the numbers matter, or things fall apart, how do you use/trust heart and spirit in the process?
Intervew Number One: Pam Slim
Pam Slim is the award-winning author and blogger of Escape from Cubicle Nation. She’s worked in and with corporations, as well as with gang members, seeing surprising similarities in both.
She has a real grasp of what needs to happen in order to make business work, and her rallying cry is “Hating your job is not a business plan.”
Something else that is immediately evident when you meet her is Pam’s presence. She carries a clarity, strength, and vulnerability with her that is powerful. And it’s not surprising that she has real insights into spirituality and business.
The interview went about 30 minutes, and I think you’ll be fascinated the whole way through.
[audio:http://heartofbusiness.com/Audio/ngh-pamslim.mp3]
Option- or Right-click to download.
Make sure you follow her blog and read her book.
And let me know how you liked the interview-was it helpful? I think I’m going to do a bunch of them- I have several more already scheduled. How do you integrate your heart and your business?
7 Responses
This is so timely for me! Next week I am talking for the first time to a group of grey suited business people at a breakfast meeting about why they should become aware of their spiritual self and bring it into their business.
I dont know what I am going to say yet or how to do it but I know at a deep level, even though I haven’t found the words yet that the time to do this is now………….where is Havi with her Emergency Calming Techniques!
I’m so glad this was so helpful! And you may find this one helpful too, in talking to your grey-suited peeps:
What Moses Knew About Getting Ready to Teach.
Let us know how it turns out!
I loved the interview with Pam. I too, have an affinity to Native American traditions and I completely understood where Pam is coming from. The interview has provided me with more clarity for my CFS and my basic eight. Whoohoo!
Thank you sooo much for the interview and for being you!!!!
Cheers,
HELEN
I was interested…until I found out it was only a recording. A text option is a requirement–audio’s too slow and too unsearchable.
Sounds like you’re making a request for a transcription, becca. I’ll see what we can do. That of course takes time and money, but we’ll see what’s in store. Thanks for your request!
Mark,
This was a fabulous interview with Pam Slim. It was highly enlightening to understand how Pam views spirituality and business as an integrated whole.
I especially like the question put to her by a medicine man, “How do you want to use your own medicine (gifts, talents, skills) to heal the world”
This is a question we would all benefit from asking ourselves. Thank you so much for the work you do!
Kathleen
Ah… I loved talking to Pam about this- I got so much from it, too. Glad you liked it, and thanks for letting us know!