See show notes for this episode: S 02 | Ep 31 The 4 Step Mental Algorithm for High Achievers
Alex: All right. Sweet. Rock and roll. All right, part two with Mr. Scott Britton.
How are we gonna accomplish the impossible? The. The big hairy, audacious goals, of entrepreneurs and people who want to make impact in the real world and enjoy the process and enjoy the journey and bring awareness to that journey that normally has been a separate path. So, Scott, we could cover it all in 30 minutes. It was too meager for a first session of recording. So, I wanted to get your take, once people realize that they want to pursue the combination of those two goals, that. That's kind of the. Where the. The beginning of the beginning, so to speak. And there is a lot of ups and downs in that journey and habits that. And practices that people want to experiment to find the ones that they. That work for them. You've listed at the end of every chapter in your wonderful book, Conscious Accomplishment. You listen to a practice and a summary of kind of how to apply some of those ideas in real life. True entrepreneur bringing. Bringing things into reality. So let's go over some of these. Right. Was set maybe setting the context on where you would want to start. and and you know, make it as real as possible so an audience member could get rolling right after.
Scott Britton: Totally. I mean, I think the main thing, the core essential practice I call using your response to life. And the idea is that anytime we're having a very reactive, reaction to something, it's a, ah, cue to go inward and explore what is causing that reaction in our consciousness. And so for me, I created this note on my phone and. And I just started writing down every single time I noticed I was triggered. Like ideally we would live in a world where, okay, something, something disturbs you and you could just stop what you're doing and just go into that. And I often do do that. But a lot of times you can't. Right. You're in the middle of a meeting, you're driving, you're on the phone with somebody. And so what I would. I, When I realized that these were all opportunities to kind of go into my consciousness and to first become aware of what was creating these experiences and then also replace that with something that. That's more aligned to my true nature. yeah, I didn't want to waste them. And so I started to write them down. And then I started to basically have a morning practice where, I call it. There's. There's m. I call it repatterning. There's like a zillion different practices that model this general kind of sequence, which is identify, face, accept, replace. And so, you know, you identify or bring into your awareness and body that experience. You face whatever information comes up as you do that, you accept that it's there, and then you replace it with something more empowering. And so I'll give you a concrete example of something that happened to me today. I had, somebody that I work with, I, had them doing a task, and they basically spent the entirety of last week doing it in a very roundabout, inefficient way. And you know, I just was really frustrated by the results relative to a full week work of effort. and, and I noticed myself getting triggered and I actually did have the op. I did actually did have the opportunity to to kind of stop what I was doing. And basically, so I'm bringing that situation in. And what, what, what I, When I went into the experience, what I felt was anger. Yeah, like a lot of anger. And I basically, you know, when I kind of inquired like, you know, what is this anger coming from? It was, it was because there was a part of me, my consciousness, that felt like it was getting taken advantage of.
Alex: Oh.
Scott Britton: And so I was, I.
Alex: Because you were paying someone, right. Good money for something that you like, it was a big investment for you.
Scott Britton: Right, right.
Alex: You felt like they weren't taking that as, seriously or what was.
Scott Britton: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I don't like, it's, it's less about like the, it's not a logical, like these exercises. They're not like a, intellectual thing.
Alex: Right. So there's no ROI calculation going through
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Alex: your model.
Scott Britton: Yeah, it's, it's not, it's not like intuitive. Right, right, right. It's intuitive. Exactly. It's like, it's like, okay, can I accept that I'm angry? And then I'm, I'm asking like, as I, as I accept that there's things coming into, coming into my awareness. And so this can feel like, having a thought. But what, what's really happening is, is that there's energy and information that's now being shot. The spotlight of awareness is now allowing you to see. And for me, what was coming into my awareness was this idea of why are you taking advantage of me?
Scott Britton: Right. And, and that was the source of the anger is because. And, and so in that moment, the task at hand isn't to be like, well, I'm actually only paying this person X amount of dollars a month. And like, overall that's still a Win. Because my hourly rate, like, I'm not doing the intellectual. It's just like. It's like the core contents are this fear and anger and frustration of being taken advantage of that probably, actually I know for a fact, originated from something that happened to me when I was in first grade. and it was, it was specifically like that pattern of being taken advantage of even goes even deeper to
Alex: hating,
Scott Britton: stupidity, hating incompetence.
Alex: Right. Inefficiency, maybe. For some.
Scott Britton: Yeah. Because it's like there was something that happened to me where I was in a situation where I, you know, there was incompetence from myself and others. And. And then I felt like I was getting taken advantage of and then I got yelled at. And then it created this whole thing. Right. That I've just been carrying around since first grade.
Alex: So basically you're carrying around that somebody's going to judge you and yell at you for not having your together. And, and you're. I think one of the things in the book that you write about that you. When you under. Understand what's bothering you externally, typically that's something that's internal.
Scott Britton: Right.
Alex: So this is this internal.
Scott Britton: Right.
Alex: Story that this unlocks. Okay.
Scott Britton: Right. It's like you just. It's like there's a. One of the exercises is anytime you judge somebody, anytime you notice you're judging something, you. You're actually judging yourself. So it's like I judge incompetence because I judge when I feel incompetent.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: I judge, stupidity because I judge myself when I feel stupid. And so like. And really what this is about is, is like there is probably a deep sense of shame, that I felt in that experience back then that that still. That just was never fully processed. And so, you know what, what's so incredible about this stuff is like, you can have some random thing like a freelancer doing a crappy job that leads you through a golden thread back to like, some unprocessed energy that has been in your system for 30 years that is. Can now be brought to completion.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: And you can be free of that. And, and so like, you know, that's. That's the practice. And so like, what, what, what, this demonstrate. What I'm hoping this, like, example demonstrates is like, there's a time and a place to do like, all kinds of these. There's like a zillion meditations and practices you can do that are like consciousness supportive. Right. Like, you know, for example, this morning I did a meditation that had to do with Mantras.
Alex: Okay, okay.
Scott Britton: That. It's like this thing I'm studying, and that's like very specific, like contemplative consciousness work. But the practice, like, if that's all you do, you're just missing out on all these opportunities that during the day. Exactly. Like the whole life, like all of your life, you just have so much stuff that you could just be using.
Alex: And that's just to build on that, you know, to connect it to the. To. To those members of our audience that are, kind of trying to connect the dot between the professional and the personal growth. The thing that keeps striking me over and over again is that that same, you know, I could probably put myself in the same category where I was triggered by something that was not done to my quote, unquote, excellent standard, you know, delivered in shame or whatever, in. In judgment, you know, from years past, at work. But then this. Where it gets really silly is where I go, oh, apply something similar to m. My kids. Right. Or like, and I. Then we, like, that is they're on a different journey. Where's my patience? Right? Like, and I could maybe stop myself, but there was, like. Could hear the frustration. Same frustration boiling up. and. And so the. The beauty, I think, of this work is that it. It is really
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Alex: all encompassing. You start focusing at it at your work, and it helps you. In your home life, you start focusing. Maybe you have relationship challenge, was your partner. You start focusing it out there. It helps you there. You. Maybe you're like being a, you know, a CEO of your kids who are, like, too young to appreciate that. That's. That was kind of where I kind of realized how silly some of my patterns are. And so you could, you could learn it, but then it really translates across, you know, a full milieu of human relationships that we're. We're building. And I find that part, you know, incredibly powerful. What's. What's been your kind of interconnection of these. These patterns?
Scott Britton: 100, 100%. I mean, one. One pattern cascades through everything. And like, these different aspects of our life are almost like interfaces to see that.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: And, And. And. And that's my belief is like, kind of what we're here to do, you know, is like is. Is. Is to have these, developments and awareness to understand, Understand. Understand ourselves and. And grow and. And recognize more of our true nature. And so for me, I see it all the time where it's like the same thing is showing up across multiple parts of my life. And until I face it's going to keep showing up. And so when I talk, because I think something that happens with a lot of people is they're like, I don't have time to do this. You know, it's like I, I, I have like, I, have company to run. I have, I have a company to run. I have kids, I have to work out. I have all for me, the way that I relate to it because I've, I've just seen the movie play on repeat in my life until I take care of internally. Yeah, that's just my opinion of like how reality seems to function based on what I'm seeing. And so I almost think it's like the intelligent thing to do is to take the time to do this work in any part of your life because, because otherwise you're just going to be on the same loop.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: And I remember there was a, like, I do a handful of coaching clients at a time to help them with this type of stuff. And one great example was this, this, this kid that I was working with, young guy, probably like mid, late 20s. he was afraid to share music. Like it was this weird thing. I'm like, you know, he was like, afraid, afraid to share music. And like he was really self conscious about that. And we went into that and what we, what we discovered was like, he was afraid of being judged. And I'm like, well, okay, that's fascinating. So you're afraid of being judged. And we like felt that. And he's like, well actually I'm afraid of being judged at my job. I'm afraid of being judged by my girlfriend, I'm afraid of being judged. My parents afraid of being judged, you know, by my friends. And we started listening like all these specific examples and it was like him, him using this one small little thing of being, feeling afraid to share music, like, was like a huge unlock to him seeing all the ways he's being afraid. The same exact pattern of being afraid to be judged is showing up in all aspects of his life. And, and, and so for, to me that's another point where it's like, it can seem like a trivial thing to like bring something as small as feeling a hesitancy around sharing music into this practice. Like really, like, what am I going to learn? It's not that big of a deal, but actually it's like a thread. These small things can be threads into like huge complexes that are quietly running the show and impacting us now.
Alex: There's no point in judging your choice of Credence Cleo Water revival, circa circus. But so, so, so one thing, and let's build on this. so judge is generally like the stereotype that we all, like, have some judging authority that typically judges ourselves. You, you kind of pointed to that exercise that you bring up, the, the judging mirror. So when people start, for example, with this, you know, approach is like, here's where I'm judging others. It's triggering me. let's dig deeper underneath. And then they uncover, wow, like, I've been judging myself this whole time. That must feel uncomfortable for. For many people, it's enlightening, but it's sort of all of a sudden realize that you've been running on fear and not being enough and being judged, you know, from. By your ancestors or your ancestors ancestors, as it, you know, turns out.
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Alex: And that that's been what's getting all this great accomplishments and recognition and awards, right? So what, what happens for people when they are having this aha moment?
Scott Britton: I mean, dude, I'm gonna cut you straight. Like, it's not easy. You know, this can be like, deeply destabilizing. and, and what I see with a lot of high achievers is once they have this awareness, there's almost like this, like, period where it's like, I need to like, just focus on this, right? And I know that. And I know that can be like a really, like, seem like a bad thing. Like, I'm. And I'm thinking of one of my friends who's like a prolific achiever, who's like, wow, like, everybody I know has gone in therapy is like, less happy or like, you know, meditation makes you, like, have mental issues. And like, the reality is, is that you can continue to suffer in ignorance, right? You can continue to just go through life and have. Be under control and not. Not know about any of this stuff. Or you can take the bull by the horns and face it, right? And it's gonna be uncomfortable. But, like, do you want to be free or do you want to suffer in ignorance? Like, do you want to be aware of what's controlling your life or do you want to just, like, be programmed?
Alex: And so it's a basically Matrix moment. It's a Matrix moment.
Scott Britton: It's a Matrix moment.
Alex: you're Princeton man. So Plato's allegory of the cave moment or whatever. You want to go back as your reference, but you kind of realizing that you've been kind of playing a game that you didn't design that's been designed for you. And it's got it, it's got to be uncomfortable.
Scott Britton: I don't, I don't know.
Alex: Entertainment. It's real life.
Scott Britton: Yeah. And I don't know anybody who's had that moment and is like, oh, oh, it's not a big deal.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: Like it's, it's, it's, it's a, the, like there's a quote that I love that's like the old paradigm often has to break down for a new one to be constructed, right. So like that old paradigm of you and reality and the way you think things are, like, that's a, that's a demolition job. You know, when you start to get into this stuff and it's not fun, but on the other side, right, like there is all this goodness and it's kind of like, hey, it's not fun if you haven't worked out in two years to get back on the treadmill or to lift a weight. Like it sucks at first, but it's a little bit easier the next time. It's a little easier. And then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, I actually love working out.
Alex: Yeah.
Scott Britton: And that's kind of how this stuff is too.
Alex: Well, in the, in the biblical, Old Testament tradition, there is this kind of 40 year period where you're wandering around the desert, kind of having kind of seen the light, part of the light, have seen the power, but are not quite ready to enter the promised land. And that, that is a very interesting paradigm. But the issue is that a lot of people that we're talking about, right, they're running companies, divisions of big companies, they're movers and shakers. So one of the things that I really like that you describe this polarity between like, okay, I go a little bit in, into the learning and then I kind of go back into like real world execution with all the skills that I've learned from the past and I kind of come back into the kind of more spiritual learning. Was that data? Was the new data, you know, is that one of the ways in which you could balance the two, you know, guide us a little bit?
Scott Britton: Yeah, I, I have a, a thought around this where I don't think that like, I, I, I believe in a higher order intelligence that is like, or orchestrating reality. Like, I don't think this is just some random ass thing. And I don't, and I also don't think that like, we're just the only thing there is. And what I've seen time and time and again is that when Someone goes into that period of immense inner work that often comes with these realizations. They are generally in a circumstance that allows for it, that enables them. And so like for me, you know, there was a period straight up where I just like wasn't as productive as executive at my company like that. I just like was not as productive for at least a couple years. So year two, probably you needed to
Alex: focus on the, on this.
Scott Britton: Yeah. And so like I, and so I could do what was required of me, but I wasn't pushing the envelope much more. And I just happened to find myself in a position where I had co founders who understood
00:20:00
Scott Britton: that and we're okay with it. And, and another example is, is I had a entrepreneur I know where he he basically like right before he had his big moment, he like started this Chrome app that he could make money, he was making money from for like e commerce companies. And you know, it's a pretty like kind of like passive minimal work thing. And then he had this big awakening and he kind of just like couldn't really do much for like a year or two. But like he was provided for because he just happened to create this thing right before. And so I've just seen this pattern time and time again. Like when you're ready to receive the call, like, like, like the path has already been laid, like you, like you will be able to do it and life will work. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm not saying you're going to be just as productive during that time. I'm not saying that it's not going to be come with its challenges. But like you are taken care of. And, and I do think if people want a more practical answer that's a little bit less like just trust in that. Yeah. I think there is this oscillating motion that you could exercise right where it's like you, you're bringing, you're bringing in, you're doing the work, you're, you're learning and evolving. You're taking that back into the world. The world's giving you more feedback. You're going back, you're bringing that back inwards. Right. And you can kind of continuously titrate that. And over time you become a really, really a master of that of that motion of, of in and out, inward and outward. And you know, I just, I just think that to me is like much more interesting than what I see a lot of people do that have a curiosity around this stuff is like they go do like a 10 day meditation retreat once a year and then like the rest of their life is like, yeah, looks the same. Or like they do an ayahuasca retreat or whatever. It's like, yeah. Then they don't actually ever really change. Like there's really.
Alex: I could, I could, I totally like feel like I could echo that. I did a Hoffman process which somebody recommended. You know, we just had a kid and it was like interesting transition time. I took some nuggets from it, and m. Some habits that, that worked. But on the whole I didn't come back with this sort of transformational experience and you know, commitment to practice that, you know, in a deliberate, persistent way. So I think it almost takes a mix of some kind of transformational experience and then a set of practices that allow you to build on that versus a one time event, which is great. It may unblock some stuff and may like open your eyes. Right. So like, nobody's dismissing it. It's just you need a combo.
Scott Britton: that's Right.
Alex: And you know, some people go do therapy, but they think the therapy solves everything. Whereas I think celeb maybe gives you some awareness, but it doesn't necessarily replace the patterns. Right. So a lot of like what you're talking about is the, okay, how do we, you know, in an applied way take our new awareness, you know, and institutionalize it? So it allows me to, to actually not repeat the same, the same thing over and over again. Right. Because I think that is also just. That's probably annoying to people. Right. Probably a lot of people give up. Right. Like, just because they, they've got this technology, they don't understand how to use it. Like, okay, shake things up and then rebuild a new set of beliefs and then like, you know, build. That was a set of practices. Right. That's probably a 1, 2, 3 punch of some sort that, you know, really successful, you know, progress requires. And I think our path tends to be a little bit more meandering if we're not as deliberate about this. Is that your.
Scott Britton: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, I think there's no way to. There. This is a meandering walk. That's my definition.
Alex: Meandering question is how long and how far.
Scott Britton: Right, right, right. And how much unnecessary suffering do you have to go through?
Alex: Yeah, yeah.
Scott Britton: And. And you know, I love that Bible, like callback where it's like. Yeah, like 40 years in the desert. Like, I've spent a lot of time in the abyss wondering where this is. All going. But one thing, ah, one thing I would say is like, you know, I think this path that we're talking about, people aren't meant to go on it alone. It's why we have all of these like traditions and lineages that teach this stuff. It's like you don't just like get the practice and then just like never. Historically at least, you don't just like
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Scott Britton: get the practice and then. All right, cool. Got it. See you never. It's like you're, you're, you're kind of doing and learning in community. You're doing and learning with a teacher. And so for me, by far and away the, the most helpful thing that I've had with this whole how to do this is, is, is meeting with a teacher consistently every other week basically for six, seven years at this point. And, and you know, there's like just
Alex: It's the same teacher. It's the same teacher.
Scott Britton: I. Yeah. And I've had, and I've had multiple teachers, but there is like one person that I would say has been core the whole time.
Alex: Okay.
Scott Britton: And, and, and so I would just suggest that. And you know, there's people that are listening to this that are like, yeah, but like, how do I find them and how can I afford it? Like, there's people online that teach some of this stuff for free. They will literally give you free meditation classes. Many spirit, spiritual teachers are donation based. Right. There's.
Alex: So let's name those names so people gonna have them. Like, I think we are fans both of Joe Hudson and Art of Accomplishment. You have your own community that you're building. So I think this would be a good time to, to.
Scott Britton: Yeah, I mean I think like, you know, there's this, there's the kind of like people that are specifically trying to help people integrate the consciousness work into work. And so like Joe Hudson, Art of Accomplishment is great. the conscious leadership group is great at that. you know, I'm trying to do my thing with my book and you know, just making this information available. but then there's like you're straight up like Zen Buddhism and like, there's a guy I know who's incredible. John Bright, Transcendental Meditation. So like there's all that works with tech executives. Like, there's all types of, like the, of the more traditional contemplative teachers that you could, you could seek out and you know, you could just like there's a zillion of them. You just have to like look for them. And, and, and, and then the algorithm,
Alex: once you start looking, the algorithms will help you for once. This is a good, this could be a good thing.
Scott Britton: Yeah. And I would say, you know, people are like, well, how do you find a teacher? And like, what I've seen is like, I didn't. I was never actually looking for the spiritual teacher that I met. I was just basically, I reached a point where I said, this is the most important thing.
Alex: Right.
Scott Britton: And I was really committed and I, and I truly, my life reflected that. Like, I was just all in, reading, doing things, pr. Like, I was all in. And I just happened to have a coworker introduce me to someone who ended up becoming my teacher under a completely unrelated guise. And so, so when the teacher is
Alex: ready, when the student is ready, the teacher appears type of.
Scott Britton: Yeah. And I think, and I think a lot of people, and it's like kind of like a hackneyed saying. People like, oh, okay. And a lot of people are like, oh, I'm ready, I'm ready. But like, for me, at least what I've seen, because I've seen a lot of people be like, oh, I'm not like, say they're ready. It's, it's really like the level of commitment. It's like, how bad do you want it? And I, and I think, and I think there's a, there's. There is a, like an intelligence that seems to operate where it's like, if this is really important to you and your life really reflects that and you made that demonstration, just watch who shows up in your life.
Alex: Well, kind of. I'm not, I'm very. Not into serendipity, like historically, but it was sort of to build on your point. It's so funny that you bring this up. There's somebody shared, with me a tape between Tara Brock, who you may have know, is like a great kind of, Zen, Zen inspired spiritual teacher. And she's interviewing this guy named Steven Josephs, who is an executive coach who, who actually taught Tara back in the days about his meditation practice. So I, I literally, have a link to that interview on YouTube that, you know, was sent to me a few years ago. I don't remember listening to it, you know, seeing it. I kind of. It was amongst other things and I ignored it. But it was somebody who, like, was helping me also, like, you know, in this direction, and I ignored it. And then I rediscovered maybe like six months ago, Tara, like, somehow came across Tara Brock. Just kind of like, I liked the. Her voice and you know, I heard something by accident, her interviewing someone. And then I, and I look on her YouTube and just see, you know, who did she interview? Because I like the podcast conversational dialogue format. And it turns out this. So there's. I'm listening to this interview. I really love it. And that's
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Alex: that conversation between Steven Joseph and Tara Brack, from years ago. I didn't realize it, but when I was listening to that conversation, I just heard like, the voice, you know, a lot of these folks. And by the way, your voice is amazing and audible. and in this conversation, like there's a similar melodicity or some rhythm to the voice that just effectively soothes you. And you're kind of almost having like, hey, I, I like to sound like that, right? I like to be more like this. There's a sound of presence almost kind, of the. The when Sari, when I had Sarah met Ellie moment where like, I want to be a little bit more like that. Like, I want to have what he's having. And so I listened to that and then I kind of reached out to him. And later, like, you know, once we started working, I kind of go through my email and find that I, was introduced to, to his work three years ago. Right. And I just didn't miss it. So I think that kind of, to me is a great example that you, you may round and round and eventually you kind of end up on the journey. But, but there needs to be readiness. And I, and we still, I think to your, to kind of to build on your point. People still struggle with, like consistency. Right? So like, so, so the kind of almost. This is the opposite of discipline because you're going here, exploring. It's a little soft. You don't want to, you know, have a calendar where you kind of hit the check mark on your spiritual work and get into like, your ego involved in that. You're, you're hitting all your, you know, your, your, your accomplishments there. But there requires to be a discipline to pursue this. How do you balance that kind of this. The nature of the conscious that it does. It almost sets you like, hey, you know, chill out.
Scott Britton: Yeah, Well, I think, I think there in the beginning, there does need to be a little bit of that. Like, I think, I think, yeah, I think like, if you just like approach this whole desire to like, do the inner work is like very loosey goosey and it's like a totally new thing to your life, I think it's probably going to be pretty hard for it to stick. Got.
Alex: So you need to build a habit. It needs to become a habit.
Scott Britton: Yeah. And I, and I think it needs to become habit and there needs to be recognition of the benefit which comes from consistency. And so like, but as you, as that journey happens, there is a tendency, especially for a lot of overachievers and high performance people like myself, to basically like, turn this into a mountain to climb. Like, okay, I need to be perfect in my practices. I need to get to enlightenment faster than everyone. I need to like, yeah, do more retreats than anybody. Right. And, and so like, you just need to like, watch that, you know, and realize like, where that's coming from. And like, are you attached to your practices? Like, can you be okay not doing them?
Alex: Right.
Scott Britton: Because that, that's a pointing still.
Alex: Okay. Right, yeah.
Scott Britton: Right where it's like, by the way,
Alex: sorry, I have to leave for my silent retreat now, Scott.
Scott Britton: Yeah, all right, all right. See, Alex, you're gonna beat me up the enlightened mountain. Enlightenment mountain.
Alex: climbing. Climbing. Climbing.
Scott Britton: Yeah, dude. Yeah. So, like, you know, I think, I think it's like in, in an interesting way, your relationship to your, your growth and your practices is also another mirror. Yeah. You know, it's just another way your response to life is showing you more about yourself.
Alex: So one of the things that I am, looking for is role models that exhibit some of this, you know, the journey or actually are modeling the behaviors that I look up to. Right. Like with my new awareness. And it's, it's funny because a lot of people that come to this work, they kind of start from having all sorts of issues, then realize they have issues, and then they, they kind of started working, becoming experts in relationships or being more conscious because those issues were blocking them. and so they're not always consistent. Right. And then there's a lot of people that are, for lack of a better word, selling something. Right. Like, and it's sort of the transactional nature of this jars a little bit. Right. If misplaced with the. Was the kind of giving nature. And I'm curious, how do you kind of process this? Right? Like, how do you find the role models that are kind of really embodying whatever they are working on that are, that are kind of showing that they can be human, have steps down, but are still kind of not, not like they're not transactional about it or they're, they're authentically inspiring you on a consistent basis.
Scott Britton: Yeah, I mean, I think it's. I, I think it's Not a super straightforward thing, to be honest. I mean, look, Deepak Chopra just got revealed in the Epstein files saying that God is a construct. Like, he's one of the most revered modern spiritual teachers in our time, and here he is doing that. And who knew that that was a thing?
Alex: Okay?
Scott Britton: So, like, you know, for me, like, it's all about personal resonance.
Alex: Like, so on that note, right, like, Tanya Robbins is probably one of the more well known, kind of achiever gurus, but, like, also was a spiritual dimension and he had run into some issues at some point. so what is that? What does that tell us, right? Like that we're nobody's perfect, we shouldn't look for.
Scott Britton: What I, what I actually think it tells you is that you are your own guru through that, ultimately there's going to be people and guides along the way that can help you. But at the end of the day, like, you are, you are the teacher and you are the one responsible for your growth and life is going to show you your path. And, you know, specifically when it comes to finding those guides and teachers, like, there is a felt sense of truth when you encounter someone. Like when you listen to someone, when you are, if you're lucky enough to be in their presence. Like, you know, it's not really an intellectual thing. It's just like an, understanding internally is like, does this feel true? And the other thing I would say is that I like to look at the students of that person.
Alex: Right?
Scott Britton: you know, and, and to say, like, okay, well, where does this lead? And like, there's a lot of traditions I look at and I see people and I'm like, I don't want that. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to end up, like, I'm not impressed by the outcome of the, of what I'm seeing here. So, those to me are the real two things that I pay attention to when deciding to trust someone or follow a teacher. Realize it. Recognizing that no one is perfect. And also that, yeah, you know, the answers are mostly inside your. Or inside yourself. And you're. These people are just going to help you get the. Get to that.
Alex: Yeah. And I think one of the things that I found very interesting is in a lot of, practices I've seen this pattern where that you kind of. You meet your guide, so you have in. In your head, you have your guide, however it's constructed. And then you almost start getting intuitive where you consult your guide on where you could be going. So it's sort of Developing that inner, inner awareness, and connection to your, to your guide that's looking out for your better self, which means also for your community and your loved ones, is where kind of the wisdom could be in. But then obviously whatever we're consuming is probably influencing that guide to some degree as well. Right. Like, so, like what, what is the perception of that, of that guide? Right. It's sort of, it is somehow you know, not created completely on its own. Right. There's, there's inputs that go in from all sorts of places in there. So, ah, have you. For. On your journey. So you had the coach that you were working with on a regular basis, you were reading a lot. Anything else that kind of you would share that like, help.
Scott Britton: I mean the practices, the practices, you know, for me the reading, the intellectual understanding of this stuff is helpful to a point.
Alex: Right?
Scott Britton: Yeah, but like you're not going to read your way to greater understanding of your consciousness, to be honest. it's much more about the inner journeys and the direct experience. And so, yeah, for me it's just like treating the practice as the, like treating these practices as like the most important thing I do every day, doing them consistently, meeting with the teacher regularly. I do think there's a lot of benefit to going doing some type of intensives stuff like a retreat. You know, I've done a number of retreats where like a week long you're doing nothing but just thinking about this stuff and working on that. And I'd also say being in community of other seekers, okay. You know, it's like the journey is a lot more enriched when you're just not living it by yourself in your head and you can be around other people and have conversations like this.
Alex: Yeah, right.
Scott Britton: That make you feel like, okay, I'm not alone. Okay. There are other perspectives. Okay. Like this is like this person's going through something similar. Like I think we were always meant to do this stuff in community and we just don't really have as much of that in our modern society as
00:40:00
Scott Britton: probably we once did when consciousness and spirituality were really at the center of, of culture and they're not in Western culture right now.
Alex: Well, on that note, so I sort of agree with you. And also I think there is, you know, we're two men, right, that are talking about it. I think the male stereotype does not want to, does not talks about concrete things, getting shit done, going out there and you know, bringing the, bringing the, the bacon or whatever, whatever the life version of that is. protecting. But it doesn't, necessarily in a stereotypical like entrepreneur, for example, achiever mindset, does not go deep into like, let's go talk about relationships maybe like in your undergrad philosophy class. And then, you know, unless you have some spiritual traditions, like, and even those sometimes are more regimented, it doesn't happen. So is there anything in particular that you found that's harder, for example, that here to do by gender? harder for people that are sort of on this overachiever track and then trying to, to relearn the habits?
Scott Britton: Yeah, I think. Well, Well, I think, you know, the hard thing for everybody is like, in my opinion, especially for a high achiever, is like the reassignment of value.
Alex: Right.
Scott Britton: And benchmarking, where it's like, you know, you could spend your first two, three hours of a day just working through something that came up that could be like, just really difficult. And like in achiever land, it's like, well, I, I got three, the past three hours I've done nothing but just be with this feeling, what a waste of time. Like, well, why? I wasn't able to get anything done. And, and like, oh, okay, I'm, I've done all this inner work, but I'm making less money this year. Right. And so like, there's a tendency to measure your progress based on the previous dimension, which was purely looking at external outside of external. Right. And so like, I think that's a challenge that everyone has to face and, and of like broadening how we assign value to ourselves and to what we're doing and how we measure the progress there and then I think, yeah, like a lot of this stuff we're talking about is about, at least for men. And I can only speak from being a man because I've never been a woman that I know of in this lifetime is that a lot of this stuff is like going into the more feminine aspects of ourselves, feeling, uncertainty, fluidity. Like. And I actually think that's part of what we're being called to do is to have a more balanced integration of all aspects versus being kind of so dominant on, on one polarity. And so, that's uncomfortable for a lot of guys. And it goes against the archetypes that we've been shown and conditioned. And I do think, I do think that the recognition is that it's not a either or, it's a both end. Right?
Alex: Like, right.
Scott Britton: You can be a warrior or a prolific creator and also be extremely loving and also be highly emotional. And vulnerable. Like you can, you can do it all right. And I think that's the new archetype that I want to see more of and that I think a lot of us frankly are just like looking for like who else. Who out there is doing it? And it's, you know, and it's.
Alex: It's a little lonely. I, I think there's like you. You need to start looking to discover examples. But I, I don't like. To your point, it's not a. Once you start. Once you start opening up a little bit of like what. What is, what is possible, you sort of start seeing maybe even like movies differently, some works of art differently, some books differently. But there is a lot of things that are broadly entertaining and have the sort of archetypical role models that then you kind of look at it like you could watch the same TV series or read the same book and like, oh my go God, I could have missed. Missed what are. You know, that is of an immoral and other things. Like in the hope of like in the spirit of entertainment. I almost kind of misunderstood the meaning or it just appealed to that macho go getter part of me. But it kind of feels hollow once I have a deeper perspective. And so
00:45:00
Alex: I am almost finding that I either need to reread some classics in a different way or there. The. When I'm reading it, I could also. It gives me more empathy of where maybe I was in my kind of fallible journey earlier or other people in my lives where they are on the journey because that kind of. That stereotype or the. The archetype of an enlightened leader. Right. The Marcus Aurelius, for lack of a better word, brought today. It's pretty rare. Right. That's why people still read the. Those that classic. Right. It's sort of like stoicism brought back and then there's like a big gaping hole the size of, you know, the size of an ocean in the pop culture that what we're getting.
Scott Britton: Well, I think that's part of our charter, right. Is to try to become those type of leaders.
Alex: Yeah. So go ahead. Sorry.
Scott Britton: No, I was just thinking. I just think that's like what a lot of the journey a lot of us are on.
Alex: So on that journey. So you brought up community and having peers and having do something that. Where you. You create a venue for bringing people together. So you've started your own business that brings, you know, conscious employees. Was employers effectively. Tell us a little bit about that. And then like maybe the community that you're, you've built. and how does that, like, what have you learned from that experience?
Scott Britton: Yeah, so, so Conscious Talent is the name of this new company I started, which is effectively a recruiting firm for, companies and leaders that care about this stuff. So, you know, when what I observed is that when a founder goes on this journey and they realize how fundamental this stuff is and it becomes core to their life, they just want to be around other executives on their team that get it. Because it's hard to build a company if you're not all on the same page, a certain way. And it becomes like your own little thing that you do in your own world while everybody else, you know, it's not, it's hard to integrate the consciousness into the company building in the way it's run. And so we, yeah, basically partner with companies and we help them find people that are also on this path, that are great, that are very good at what they do. And you know, that's what we do. And then I think, I think there's also, we have a talent network where leaders, who are interested in finding their next opportunity and they want to just know about companies that are hiring. Like we have, ah, a form on our website where basically you can fill it out and just kind of gets you on our radar. And when we have aligned opportunities, we can let you know about it. So that, that's that business. And I think what I've learned is like, this is still really niche. You know, it's like this is, this is still like something that is not the biggest priority for a lot of leaders. And I think the biggest priority for a lot of leaders is like, how do we like make our company AI first. Right. Things like that. And they're not like, well, how do I build a conscious team? and, and it just doesn't seem like a hair on fire problem in the same way that probably doing the inner work doesn't seem like a hair on fire problem for most entrepreneurs. Right. It's like more of like a slow burn that you just don't know how important it is until you do.
Alex: Yeah. It's almost like you're, you're, you had a life hell, you have a crisis and then, and then all of a sudden or you're about to die. Unfortunately, you know, that's sadly like for a lot of us it's kind of the, yeah. The moment we're like, oh, wait, all that stuff has been meaningless. Right. And that's kind of. That there's A lot of literature on that. I love Tolstoy's, Death of Ivan Ilyich in particular, which ironically was taught at Stanford even as an example. But it was not a mainstream thing. That just feels like it's. It, you know, everybody's moving towards. But on the other side, like I've seen McKinsey is starting to do like books on, on, you know, more, More centered leadership. And so they're using slightly different words. Maybe not the word conscious as much. Right. But I, I think fundamentally there is a movement. It's. It's put in the little mumbo jumbo that's like businessy. But some of the exercises are similar. Right. And so I'm wondering, if you've seen. So there's not a major dominance, but do you see the level, for example
00:50:00
Alex: of fud, Fear, uncertainty and doubt generated by AI on a daily basis that's basically kept some founders in the fear mode for the last two and a half years or three. Three years eventually probably leads, people to say, screw it. Like, I'm just gonna focus on the fundamentals. I'm gonna. Like, this thing is changing so fast that if I react all the time, it's not going to be sustainable, as fun as it is. And I just need to. Recenter. Do you see like some. Something happening, going?
Scott Britton: Yeah, there's definitely. I mean, this is definitely where the world's going, in my opinion. In, So this is where we're going. And you know, you just see more and more founders and leaders getting on this path and that, that. That's ultimately the leading indicator is like people, People making this part of their individual journey. That's the first step for this, to start to bring this into company building and the way that they build a business. so.
Alex: So it starts with an individual leader.
Scott Britton: Yeah, exactly.
Alex: Or an individual manager at least. Right. And then it expands. It's not gonna be like society. Society is like still very materialistically set and you. That is just maybe outside of educational system. There's not a lot of room to bring in the. This with a lot of the work that you're doing. It just happens more with life, life teaching people lessons. Is that kind of a. Yeah, I
Scott Britton: don't, I don't think that like McKenzie writing an article on spiritual intelligence is going to be like, what moves the domino? I think. I think there's just culturally more people realizing that there's more to the story than what they've been told. And that just is like a slow
Alex: snowball so on that journey of that snowball, you built a community of founders. Tell us more about that.
Scott Britton: I did, I built a community called Founder Satsang. It's not advertised anywhere. I don't really talk about it. Basically, it's what I wanted when I got on this journey and didn't have, which is.
Alex: Right.
Scott Britton: I want to be around people that are walking both these paths at the same time. And so, you know, we've done, four retreats, in person retreats. A lot of the community gathers in different regions, like the Bay Area or New York or Austin in person. And then there's a lot of digital activity as well. And I think the ethos is a sincere group of people that are trying to. To collectively understand together. Like, how do I do both at the same time? How do I continue to deepen my experience on the consciousness journey and also create more beauty in the world? And, you know, I think having that type of container where people understand what it's like to be a founder and try to do both, which is quite unique, has created a lot of value for a lot of people.
Alex: And do you feel like this is the path? So there is going to be something similar for, you know, healthcare practitioners and something similar for. For. For other fields. Like maybe artists already need to connect to their views.
Scott Britton: I. I don't know. You know, I don't know. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know if, like, if I'm a nurse, right. Or like, I'm a. A M. Dj if I feel like such a strong identification with, like, I want to go do this with other nurses. Right. I definitely do think there's something about being an entrepreneur that's like, because you feel lonelier. I want to be around people that get me and like, what I'm doing is, like, pretty distinct.
Alex: Right.
Scott Britton: and so, I'm not sure if that's the path forward. I mean, it hasn't been the path in the, in the past. I think in the past it's been more organized around a particular teacher or teaching, and then that's how people congregate. It's like we're all going to go, you know, learn Zen, or we're going to go learn, you know, Tibetan Buddhism or whatever, and then that's the organizing principle.
Alex: Well, Scott, my, my view is that I, I am a huge endorser of what you've been working on, because I've definitely felt, that there is a, There's a gap and you're, you've started filling that out was, was your book. And which I, you know, hope everybody finds on you know, paper copy, Kindle or Audible is great read by Scott himself. there is this community where if you do open it up, you know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs
00:55:00
Alex: that are listening to this that are feeling the call may be interested in joining forces. your, you know, your conscious, you know, you know, search executive search, talent search firm. and, and I, I, I think the, the, the, the underlying feeling for me was when I saw your book and saw the title and saw where you were going was this. I was like where were you a few months ago, Scott? Right. Like, because it's sort of. And we felt like when we chatted we were like comparing notes and people that kind of influenced us on the journey. I would say you're further along but it's still like you could start comparing notes and feeling that is, it is not a, there needs to be more of a collaboration and co creation, if possible around this in the founder and startup community and the broader world. So I salute your work. Thank you for sharing and feeling the calling and inspiring folks like myself, in our own journeys.
Scott Britton: Thank you Alex. It's a real honor for me to be on your show and I love everything you're doing and I'm just excited that we're, we're friends now. We're connected now and you know, the journey is just beginning in our own friendship.
Alex: Yeah. And thank you. And so one, one thing, some, some of the audience here are related to AI customers. And one of the easiest way to think about why Scott is here, if you're relate to a customer and not a founder, is that basically we're creating conscious conversations between an author and the audience at relate to A.I. we're giving a choice of where to take the conversations. It's a real dialogue. It's not a monologue where I'm just throwing up whatever I have thought, however brilliant it is. It's, you know, it creates room for different learners, different interactions, different media preferences and different journeys that you end up taking to get to your answer. It's not a prescriptive, follow my religion, you know, of content. Right. And, and so oftentimes the more important the idea, the, the less consciously it's presented or it's only presented from the view of the creator and not as a conversation. And I think Scott, what you're doing is, you know, instigating all sorts of brilliant conversations right. Between individuals, teams, companies, their missions. And so if you're, if you want to be inspired by, you know, how to create a conscious product around your ideas, you know, the way we're getting inspired at relate to AI is by thought leaders and operators like Scott. Right. That are basically translating wisdom experience into ideas, that move you towards behavioral change, that move you to enlightenment. And imagine, imagine if your customers, your audience are getting enlightened versus just, you know, dropped a bunch of information on their heads in the age of information overload. So, so that's one of the reasons why it's worth checking this out and because that's the sort of spirit of consciousness is certainly how we want to build relate to AI as a vehicle for getting important ideas and conversations across. So check out Scott's book. Scott, where can last prop? Where can people find you Connect.
Scott Britton: So my website, ScottBritton Me has links to everything. LinkedIn is probably the place that I'm most active on social media. I'm also an X if people are on there substack and yeah, just Google around. I'm on the Internet.
Alex: Amazing. Thank you Scott for joining us.
Scott Britton: Thanks Alex.