In this episode, I talk with Mark Silver, M.Div. (he/him) about his new book Heart-Centered Business, which is released as a hardback on October 3, 2023. Audiobook and e-book formats are coming soon. You can learn more about the book at Heart Centered Business Book dot com
Sections:
References:
If Books Could Kill episode The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as they don’t seem to have a main webpage. Episode blurb: Have you ever wanted to escape the grind and follow your dreams? This week we're discussing "The 4-Hour Workweek," which reveals that all you need is a plan, a willingness to take risks and a modestly sized fraud operation built on Third World labor.
Heart of Business Book, link above And some samples of the Heart of Business content and vibe, to see if this book would be right for you! [Don’t] Buy Now! Don’t get taken in by the scammers You can learn get a sample of the vibe by visiting Heart of Business for their free articles, TikTok Facebook for oldsters like me Medium
This is Under the Umbra: Using Empathy and Collaboration to Navigate a World of Shadows. In each episode, Electra and the co-hosts explore ways to think about and plan for difficult relationships with people and systems in a way that stays grounded in values and centers community. I invite you to try out focusing on Empathy and Collaboration as a realistic and compassionate model for interpersonal interactions. If you find yourself Under the Umbra, let’s find our way back to the light. Find the show's home at Under The Umbra . Info Support the show via Patreon.com This show is brought to you by Bridge to Becoming, LLC. Music is by SoulProdMusic and used with permission. Under the Umbra Podcast logo is by Lo Carter. Subtitle was crafted by Vera Alcorn.
Read More for the Intro - Introduction Chat - Outro scripts. I will return with the interview transcript once I have resources for a transcriptionist!
Music is Moon by SoulProdMusic on Pixabay, used with permission
This is Under the Umbra: Using Empathy and Collaboration to Navigate a World of Shadows.
In each episode, Electra (that’s me) and the co-hosts explore ways to think about and plan for difficult relationships with people and systems in a way that stays grounded in values and centers community.
In this episode, we’re discussing Heart-Centered Business, the book that’s coming out October 3, 2023! My guest is Mark Silver (he/him), the author, and a founder and spokesperson of the business coaching company Heart of Business.
You can learn more at HeartCenteredBusinessBook.com after this interview, and there are more links for no-cost materials to check out their vibe in the shownotes.
I invite you to try out focusing on Empathy and Collaboration as a realistic and compassionate model for interpersonal interactions. If you find yourself Under the Umbra, let’s find our way back to the light.
Music is Connection by SoulProdMusic on Pixabay, used with permission
Thanks to all my Patrons: Ian, Cali, Stacie, Roz, Kat and Hans, and Brian and Lena!
Extra thanks to KC and Ellery in the More, Responsive Tier!
Content Warnings: swearing as per usual, but probably less than usual in this episode. Talking about toxic business culture but not in very specific detail. Also, Zoom-recording sound quality which might be slightly more difficult to listen to than other episodes.
2014-ish marketing book made as requested for NUNM CCM: The 3 Journeys of Marketing: How to fill your practice with the people who need you, without compromising your heart or your integrity. (Excerpt of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business course)
2016 & 2017, finishing school and starting a business amidst 2016 election and around protests: April 2016 NoDAPL at Oceti Sakowin and 2017 Women’s Marches, my friend Sarah told me about the Heart of Money workshop
Though I couldn’t complete it, the contents I did complete inspired to learn deeply about money and values, and I followed HoB and also friend Marketing for Hippies
2022 revised Heart of Money and Power course.
And then I saw a new book is coming out!
In Heart-Centered Business: Healing from toxic business culture so your small business can thrive, Sufi spiritual business teacher Mark Silver, M.Div. speaks to those who hate the toxic way business has developed, and want an approach to business that is as nourishing as it is powerful.
The effects of global business have brought devastation and injustice that no one wants. Instead, we yearn for beauty and real vibrancy in the world around us, and healthy heart-centered business must be part of the healing.
This book is a guide to doing business, your business, in a truly spirit-centered way. We need to, and can, realize the truth that every act of business can be an act of love.
Since 1999, Mark Silver, M.Div., has worked with heart-centered entrepreneurs to help them realize that every act of business can be an act of love. Mark is one of the pioneers in integrating real spirituality with the nitty-gritty of small business, he founded Heart of Business, Inc in 2001. A designated Master Teacher within his Sufi lineage, he has received his Masters of Divinity.
As a coach, teacher and spiritual healer, he has facilitated thousands of individual sessions with entrepreneurs and has led hundreds of classes, seminars, groups and retreats. His weekly writings and teachings are followed by thousands of people around the globe.
A fourth generation entrepreneur, prior to Heart of Business Mark ran a distribution business, turned around a struggling non-profit magazine, and worked as a paramedic in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was a punk in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene in the mid-1980s, which was my introduction to activism and challenging authority. A little too young, I missed seeing Minor Threat, but saw Fugazi, among many others.
I came out as bisexual in 1988, and have been in queer community of all kinds since then. I’ve been connected to folks in the trans community since the 1990s. I was the managing editor for Anything That Moves, a non profit magazine about bisexuality.
I’m also in a committed marriage with my wife Holly Glaser, since 1999. We’ve been in committed relationship since 1994. We have twin teenage sons.
Holly was my first teacher and mentor in spirituality and in teaching groups. She has been a major part of Heart of Business since the beginner, and was the first, and most significant editor for the book.
We never intended to fall into typical gender roles. Her journey with chronic illness meant that I had to take the more central role in Heart of Business, especially while our kids were young.
I started as a volunteer EMT in Maryland at the end of high school, and worked part time as an EMT through college. After graduating with a degree in English literature, I decided to go to paramedic school rather than graduate school.
I worked as a paramedic in the San Francisco Bay Area for eight years. I was an ACLS, PALS and PHTLS instructor, a Field Training Officer, and a preceptor for trainee paramedics.
I’m a hobby-level woodworker, and love making things that are both beautiful and useful… which is in line with the work I do in business.
I started studied Sufism starting in 2000, and took shahada in 2003. I still consider myself very strongly connected to my Jewish roots, and have had a healing journey within myself between Judaism and Islam.
Similarly, I love to cook, bake, can food, and garden. I bake most of the bread for our family, and recently canned a year’s worth of pickles from our cucumber plants.
Our family lives on 15 acres in central Pennsylvania, that we are slowly turning into a permaculture food forest, with the intention of being part of food security within this watershed.
I strive to be grounded in and in integrity with my values and intentions while recording and interviewing. My values and intentions for this show are
Empathy, Collaboration, Compassion
Community, Mutuality, Pro-social,
Curiosity, Complexity & Nuance, Humanity, Neurodivergence
Education, Accommodation, Useful Tools,
Harm Reduction, Reducing destructive conflict and enabling generative conflict
I honor the dignity and humanity of the people that I talk to and about.
May the ideas and experiences imparted here help others to increase their ability to maintain relationships, maintain boundaries, and reduce harm to themselves and others.
Bismillah ar-rahman ir-rahim
In the name of the Oneness, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, Most Kind:
I ask in the name of the One, to help us to know that our hearts are always cared for, that our every step is guided, and that we need do nothing alone.
Help to open the way, and to reveal the path, and to make the signs unmistakable.
Help us to be the earth for one another, to lift each other up, and to care for one other, and allow us to be be nourished abundantly.
That all who need these gifts in this conversation find their way to it without blocks or veils or hesitations.
Aamiin, Aamiin, Aamiin
Electra - So Mote It Be
When folks are empathy-challenged and non-collaborative because of neurology, development or situation, they create environments where they replicate disordered behavior (cast an Umbra) of Power Over, Zero Sum & Either-Or thinking, High Conflict and High Stakes interactions, and do anything to Get Mine because of a scarcity mentality. People who are under that umbra feel vigilant anxiety, ruminative insomnia, compulsion towards barages of rhetorical convincing, and have a lot of intrusive thoughts to “Get Them To Understand” or envision suitable punishment or protection.
When we’re Under the Umbra, either shading or shaded, it is difficult to be empathetic to nuance in others, or to be collaborative as opposed to striving towards a static agreement or contract.This state we can find in families, in businesses, in politics and religion, and in entire societal paradigms, probably matches your book’s model and discussion of Toxic Business Culture.
You say that you want us to heal from toxic business culture. Why is business culture so toxic, and how can we heal from it, and create a thriving business?
Many small business owners seem to brag incessantly about their business. That feels like empathy challenged behavior of being self-focused, or non-collaborative behavior trying to one-up or put-down other people. When we want to leave an Umbra, we find ourselves wanting to disavow that sort of behavior. How can we stand strongly in what we do without feeling like we’re begging and bragging?
Other folks in the business world are hustling from an empathy-challenged and non-collaborative way, and trying to both make a living and also reassure themselves that their behavior is Just Fine, Right?! Everybody Does This!!! as they scam, manipulate, trick, trap and etc. etc. etc. How can you spot ECNC scammers and avoid spending way too much on business coaching?
What are the most common manipulative sales techniques, and can you give us clarity about what is “ethical pricing” in business development?
Similarly, In Heart Centered Business you talk about trusting yourself in your own business. When leaving the toxic culture of bragging and manipulation, tricks and traps, it’s hard to find solid ground. What do you mean in your book by trusting yourself, and what does it mean to listen deeply to everything?
Where can someone pick up a copy of Heart Centered Business?
Repeat of the sections of the conversation with time markers:
Music is Spaceship by SoulProdMusic on Pixabay, used with permission
This has been Under the Umbra, Using Empathy and Collaboration to Navigate a World of Shadows.
We discussed the upcoming book Heart-Centered Business: Healing from toxic business culture so your small business can thrive.
You can find links to where to pre-order or buy a copy at https://HeartCenteredBusinessBook.com/
The e-book and audiobook versions are coming up!
Thanks again to Mark Silver, author of Heart-Centered Business, and one of the founders and the spokesperson for Heart of Business, for helping to reform the world with more empathy and collaboration, grounded in values and centering community.
You can find Mark on social media with links in the show notes [here! This website you’re on! You made it]!
You can find show notes with links and outline (and eventually transcripts) at UnderTheUmbra.info
If you like what you’ve heard and want more of this vibe to be in the world, there are lots of things you can do!
You can share episodes you like with friends, family, coworkers and random strangers, and talk about what you like about it and how you’re putting it to use.
You can also support the show by becoming a Patron via patreon.com/UnderTheUmbraPodcast (link in show-notes). [There, you’ll get bonus content like current event hot takes and media critiques (e.g. examples of empathy-challenged non-collaborative behavior out in public view), Q and As and Office Hours, and guided meditations for when you find yourself in the cold, dark umbra. - omitted for time]
Thank you to my Patrons! You make this possible.
You can also support the show and learn more about these topics by getting the physical paper, ebook or audiobook version of the resources I refer to INCLUDING TODAY’S FEATURED BOOK Heart-Centered Business, through Bookshop or Libro.fm links, where a tiny bit of the money goes to us but most of it goes to the authors LIKE MARK SILVER and the local bookstore of your choosing!
This podcast was created, recorded, edited and produced by me, Electra, and brought to you by Bridge to Becoming LLC. Music is by SoulProdMusic on Pixabay and used with permission. Show art is by Lo Carter, 2023. The subtitle was crafted by Vera Alcorn!