One Encounter, One Opportunity. Make service meaningful. Be Your customer's hero.

Next-Level Gratitude Practices That’ll Fill Your Service Tank | Ep. 97

High-octane approaches to living with appreciation so that we serve from a place of fullness and achieve true success.

What happens when you collect information openly, fearlessly – and with the beginner’s mind.

Mindful leadership coach and service champion Clifton Carmody tells us what happens when you shake off fear-based management styles that and tap into the possibility and profitability of conscious business principles in the service sector. We also reveal important strategies for service professionals that have been locked out of their sectors by COVID and are struggling to find work (hint: it has to do with the power and universality of service).

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. “Never let ‘em see you sweat.” I have very distinct memories of one of my mentors telling me this and urging me to laugh at myself more. Thanks to a terrifying combination of clumsiness and perfectionism, I was a young service professional that was prone to […]

The Celebration Mindset Pt. 1 – Taking Resilience to the Next Level

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. A true person of service lives and works in constant readiness for celebration. I can see this principal getting misinterpreted by my former bar and restaurant colleagues as something to the effect of bartenders doing shots with the clientele. But you’re onto something here: real success […]

The Power of Asking “What is this really costing me?”

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. No service professional likes being run around. We retrace the same task for people who asked for one thing but needed another, we get absorbed by the endless questions of anxious clientele that aren’t even willing to listen to the answers. We carry the water of […]

Heroic Acts of Service

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. Periods of great difficulty are always a great time to reflect on what service means to us and the ideas we may have accumulated about it that may need to be revisited. I’m thinking back to an inspiring discussion I recently had with restaurant-owner Albert Bitton […]

Good service requires the people serving to feel valued, engaged and, well, like dignified human beings. And to always have opportunities to practice service on each other. This is a very important discussion with service coach and author Neal Woodson. Service professionals looking to bring more mindfulness and inspiration to their work and leaders that want to elevate their team’s culture and effectiveness are sure to gain a lot from his wisdom.

Principles To Re-Inspire How We Approach Modern Service

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. Ichi-go Ichi-e is a Japanese parable translating to One Encounter, One Opportunity. It’s become the slogan of the practice of tea ceremony, which for many Asian cultures is the quintessential means of practicing mindfulness through action. It reveals how doing a simple daily ritual with […]

Customer Service Rockstars Make Friends with Repetitive Tasks

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. A new job or role might start out as a love affair. But so often after the first few months, it loses its lustre. We begin to feel deadened by the repetition of seemingly menial tasks. Why does repetition do this and can we change […]

What personal practices and mindsets prepare you to meet the challenges of service life, prevent burnout and brave all the other challenges ahead? Hospitality torchbearer, self-cultivation wizard and generally rad dude Dushan Zaric shares more of his wisdom, plus some impactful hits from the very special live service course he’s running.

What if fulfillment wasn’t some huge “ultimate aspiration”, but a natural emotional state that we can tap into at any time – all we need is the right tools. This “fulfilled mindset” can transform your relationship to your work and the effectiveness with which you do what you do.

How to find meaning in your work in a socioeconomic structure that doesn’t honor and respect your role. We look at how the service role has been tainted by society’s tendency to take advantage of the people serving them – whether it’s your clientele or your employers – and how to drop this baggage and reconnect to the growth potential that the role offers us.

How to take advantage of this time in isolation to re-pattern your thinking and next-level how you serve.

Part two of two of my epic discussion with service design visionary Joel Bailey who is who is working with large companies, institutions and public services and proving that you can bring humanity and consciousness back to service in a way that is sustainable and scalable. This is someone that understands the essence and power of service – as well as how much we’ve lost contact with it as a culture.

The first half of a sweeping two-part discussion about the radical ways designer Joel Bailey is shifting large-scale service providers from an outdated industrial age model of service-as-product into an organizational that is truly connected to the people they service – a mission made especially urgent by the COVID crisis.

I speak with Albert Bitton about his project that provides healthy meals to overworked medical professionals across about a dozen of New York’s crowded hospitals. Our conversation was a deeply inspiring look at how one service industry can provide something so important to another.

In this new podcast series I’m getting field reports from amazing minds in the world(s) of service about lockdown living and the challenges and opportunities it offers service-minded people. I talk to cocktail bar industry leader Dushan Zaric about self-awareness, growth and transformation, and the power and strength found in setting a positive example.

True Service: “Important Work” is a Matter of Conditioning

One problem is that so many people think that their life truly begins after their service job ends. Their service job is a state of purgatory where they’re waiting for their real professional lives in some more noble industry to truly materialize. In a previous post, I mentioned the many people I’ve met that have […]

When You Really Serve, Every Skill Implemented is Universal

The resulting experience of each meditation doesn’t matter nearly as much as your mindset around your experiences. Meditation is not a state you reach, but an attitude you maintain.

Break the conditioning you may have that the service role is lowly and unimportant and see the power you have to make a positive impact.

Serve Others, But Be Your Only Source of Self-Worth

The resulting experience of each meditation doesn’t matter nearly as much as your mindset around your experiences. Meditation is not a state you reach, but an attitude you maintain.

I discuss how times like this are powerful opportunities to explore what really matters in our lives. And to understand the essence of how it is we wish to serve in this life. It doesn’t matter what it is you’re doing, it matters how you’re doing it and the person you’re practicing as while doing it.

What if we could live a life where every moment is meaningful and every action, big or small, sweet or sour, is in service of something infinitely crucial? All it takes is a simple shift of mindset into a Yogic one.

Learn gratitude practices to start your day and also apply to challenging situations. They will transform how you experience life.

Service (and all activities in life) is not so much about what you’re doing, but the intention behind it. And that intention can be positive without feeling artificial, strained or anything but authentic. Learn an internal practice that you can apply to the simplest activities that will totally transform your quality of life and relationships.

Equal opportunity and quality of life are such bigger issues in the restaurant industry than you think they are. I speak with hospitality leader and social servant John Debary about his organization RWCF and his mission to help restaurants nationwide shift into caring organizations with the capacity to improve the lives of their workers.

Originally published here on Ram Dass’ Be Here Now Network. Service Can Give or It Can Take…It’s Your Choice. When we think of service, we often consider it to be a type of job you can have. Years and years in the trenches of the restaurant and bar industry resulted in me seeing only this […]

Break conditioning you have around “being obligated” to do anything and watch your life improve. Own your decisions and experience more empowerment, gratitude, and opportunity.

Self-worth is not a function of how much you think you deserve. Shed this old conditioning, hack feelings of non-acceptance and take your service game to the next level. Final part in a series to help you develop strength, grit and self-sufficiency by reconciling with the tough realities of service life.

Understand what power truly is and how service is the perfect place to cultivate it. However, really tapping into its transformative power requires more humility than we are usually willing.

Make a habit of the “internal yes” in order to learn how to thrive in situations we can’t control, predict or get the results we want. After all, self-discovery happens when we don’t get our own way.

Never feel deficient when someone reacts negatively to something you said or did by implementing a simple understanding of personal responsibility. Be caring and considerate from a free and empowered, not one where you feel shackled and obligated.

My reflections on my fascinating discussion with Kelsey Mathes in the most recent interview episode “Ego-Driven Fear, Self-Transformation, Empowered Work…and Other Barroom Chat – Interview w/ Kelsey Mathes.”

Big doses of wisdom and inspiration from Kelsey’s journey from hospitality professional to meditation teacher and transformational coach. Learn to live with care and purpose…without the drama.

The untold power of gratitude – how to make every moment an opportunity for something that feeds you with inspiration, growth, self-understanding and tools for being even more of service.

A short episode reflecting on my fascinating discussion with Wu De – key points applied to the challenges and opportunities of service life.

The Zen Way of Tea: reconnect with your natural intuitive wisdom, master yourself while remaining fluid, free and accepting – and learn how to truly serve.

Learn to create your own opportunities and relationships that serve your growth and success better than anything someone you’re hoping to “network with” can offer you. Be your own source of self-worth and break dependency on others for validation.

Bartender turned life coach discusses the importance of not defining your worth by self-sacrifice and grind – find a path that truly inspires you.

How I learned that service isn’t just for work. Everything in life can be defined on those terms. And must be questioned: Is it a worthy input of energy? Am I doing it skillfully such that I am really serving the best parts of myself and others?

Ask me about how to be confident and you will get more than you bargained for.

Yoga & meditation are not just meant to be an isolated, but a practice you bring into everything – including, especially, any kind of work. I discuss an ancient practice that allows you to meet any challenge with enthusiasm, inspiration and wisdom.

Industry-leader Dushan Zaric discusses the responsibility we have to serve with care and presence; powerful insights forged from a life of passion, deep self-exploration and hardship.

Founder & CEO of JoJo tea discusses tea as a spiritual practice and a spiritual livelihood…as well as a wide range of other principles that can facilitate a life of integrity and inspiration – from acting, to breathing, to remaining humble.

Founder/Host of The Meaning Movement discusses work as a journey towards finding meaning…and the balance we need to find between generating a livelihood and living our mission.

The conclusion of our wonderful discussion about life, the spiritual journey and all the silliness and hardship we need to embrace along the way.

Funny, insightful and super real discussion with Cory Hardaker, a meditation and martial arts teacher and host of the Mindfulness of Doom podcast

I discuss my present situation and share stories and cases that reveal how you’re always growing and evolving…even (sometimes especially) when you’re “going backwards” .

We discuss mindful journaling and other conscious reflection techniques, slowing down and having hobbies…real ones.

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