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From founding Joie de Vivre Hotels to helping transform Airbnb and creating the Modern Elder Academy, Chip Conley shows us we can all have many chapters in a life, some wild, some hard, some surprising. Chip redefines success, leadership and what it means to grow older. In this deeply personal conversation with my longtime friend, we explore how near-death experiences, career reinvention and his ongoing journey with cancer have transformed his relationship with wisdom, spirituality and what truly matters. Chip shares the extraordinary message he received during his near-death experience, what mentoring Airbnb's young founders taught him about multigenerational leadership, and why he believes midlife is a chrysalis, not a crisis. What We Cover: 00:00 Cold Open: Wisdom, Leadership and the Soul 01:04 Introduction: Chip Conley's Extraordinary Life 02:53 Finding Spirituality Outside Religion 06:41 What Faith Leaders Have in Common 09:03 Soulful vs. Spiritual: What's the Difference? 11:25 When the Soul Takes the Lead 13:55 How to Build a Relationship With Your Soul 16:18 Dying Nine Times—and the Message He Received 20:45 Reinventing Himself as Airbnb's Modern Elder 24:00 Why Younger Founders Need Experienced Mentors 25:52 Can Business Leaders Stay Connected to Their Soul? 29:35 Why Wisdom Matters More in the Age of AI 31:35 From Transactional to Transformational Leadership 34:00 Fatherhood, Identity and Leading by Example 39:23 Why Midlife Is a Chrysalis, Not a Crisis 42:14 How to Navigate Midlife's Spiritual Questions 44:50 What Cancer Has Taught Chip About Living 48:25 Faith, Acceptance and Letting Go of Efficiency 49:20 Slowing Down and the Meaning of Holy Urgency 50:05 Closing Reflections and Where to Find Chip 50:53 Subscribe, Review and Share About Chip Conley: Chip Conley is on a midlife mission. After disrupting the hospitality industry twice, first as the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second-largest operator of boutique hotels in the U.S., and then as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, leading a worldwide revolution in travel, Conley co-founded MEA (Modern Elder Academy) in January 2018 in Baja California, Mexico. Inspired by his experience of intergenerational mentoring as a ‘modern elder’ at Airbnb, where his guidance was instrumental to the company’s extraordinary transformation from fast-growing start-up to the world’s most valuable hospitality brand, MEA is the world's first ‘midlife wisdom school’ and opened a campus in 2024 on a 2,600-acre regenerative horse ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dedicated to reframing the concept of aging, MEA supports students to navigate midlife with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. TIME magazine honored MEA as one of the 100 Greatest Places to Visit in 2024. A New York Times bestselling author, Conley has authored eight books, given three TED talks, has a daily Wisdom Well blog, and a weekly podcast The Midlife Chrysalis which has included a wide variety of guests from Maria Shriver to Arthur Brooks to Elizabeth Gilbert to Rich Roll. Connect With Chip Conley: https://chipconley.com/ linkedin.com/in/chipconleysf/ https://www.facebook.com/chipconleyauthor https://www.instagram.com/chipconley/ Books: Learning to Love Midlife https://link.amazon/B0ejy9XXW The Midlife Manifesto https://link.amazon/B0fKfmxRu Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder https://link.amazon/B08slEBCq Workshops: www.meawisdom.com About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs 1. What happened when Chip Conley died nine times? Chip describes experiencing repeated episodes of clinical flatlining after an allergic reaction to an antibiotic while he was on a book tour. He recalls a vivid experience of flying through a room with 40 birds that told him to slow down. He says the experience contributed to his decision to sell his hotel company and take a two-year sabbatical. 2. What did Chip Conley do at Airbnb? Chip joined Airbnb at 52 after running Joie de Vivre Hotels for 24 years. He helped the company's young founders understand hospitality, leadership, company culture and long-term planning. He also describes learning digital intelligence from his younger colleagues. 3. What is a modern elder, according to Chip Conley? Chip describes a modern elder as someone who is as curious as they are wise. At Airbnb, he saw himself as both mentor and intern, combining his experience with a willingness to learn unfamiliar technology and working methods. His story challenges the assumption that expertise means having nothing left to learn. 4. Why is multigenerational leadership important? Chip argues that younger and older leaders can contribute different forms of intelligence and experience. He describes younger leaders as often fast and focused, while older leaders may be better at connecting patterns and anticipating long-term consequences. Combining these perspectives can help leadership teams make more considered decisions. 5. Why does Chip Conley believe wisdom matters in the age of AI? Chip argues that knowledge is becoming more widely available, particularly through AI, and is therefore less of a competitive advantage. He distinguishes knowledge from wisdom, which he associates with experience, reflection and lessons learned. He encourages business leaders to think about how they develop and share wisdom, rather than focusing only on information. 6. What is the difference between soulful and spiritual? Chip describes being soulful as developing a relationship with the soul within oneself. He associates spirituality with recognizing one's connection to something larger, including the mystery of existence. He sees the two ideas as related but not identical. 7. How can someone develop a relationship with their soul? Chip recommends practices that help people observe their thoughts rather than identify completely with them. He mentions meditation, mindfulness, silence, time in nature, journaling and writing. For him, these practices create space for greater self-awareness and a deeper connection with what he calls the soul. 8. Why does Chip Conley call midlife a chrysalis instead of a crisis? Chip believes midlife can be a transformative life stage rather than simply a period of decline. He created the Modern Elder Academy to help people understand their experiences, develop wisdom and navigate life transitions. He also discusses research suggesting that well-being can improve after the challenges of midlife. 9. What is transformational leadership? Chip contrasts transformational leadership with a transactional approach focused on immediate exchanges and results. He argues that effective leadership can help people recognize and develop capabilities they did not previously believe they possessed. His discussion connects leadership with personal growth, culture and human potential. 10. What has cancer taught Chip Conley about life? Chip says his experience with prostate cancer has made him more aware of the preciousness of time and the importance of the present moment. He discusses taking his body for granted, reconsidering his priorities and becoming less attached to efficiency. He is candid that the experience remains physically and emotionally challenging. 11. What does Chip Conley mean by “holy urgency”? Chip uses “holy urgency” to describe his sense that there is meaningful work to do in the world and that he should not delay. He connects this with the lesson to slow down that he took from his near-death experience. The concept reflects the tension between living attentively and acting on what matters.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

Brent J. Freeman has co-founded more than 20 companies and helped generate over $1 billion in revenue for brands and growth partners. Yet his greatest discovery wasn't about building wealth. It was about learning how to build joy.  What if joy was the missing piece in how we all experience money, success and meaning?  In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Brent joins Ariane de Bonvoisin to explore an extraordinary idea: joy isn't simply a feeling we wait for. It's a skill we can develop, practice that compounds over time. Drawing on his personal journey and his new book, The Alchemy of Joy, Brent shares how our habits, subconscious beliefs, relationships and daily choices shape the quality of our lives. Together, Ariane and Brent explore: Why financial success doesn't always bring fulfillment, and how joy and wealth can coexistHow small moments of joy compound over timeThe relationship between joy, neuroscience, dopamine and our daily habitsHow to identify and change the childhood narratives that influence adult relationships and achievementWhy self-love is foundational to a meaningful lifeHow to find joy during periods of grief, heartbreak and uncertaintyWhat Brent means by a “return on joy” (ROJ)How to pursue ambition and financial success without sacrificing what matters mostPractical ways to build more joy into work, marriage, parenting and everyday lifeBrent also shares his deeply personal journey from outward success and profound unhappiness to developing the practices that became The Alchemy of Joy. Can we pursue wealth, achievement and purpose while making joy a priority rather than a future reward? It's time for a different conversation. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #BrentFreeman #TheAlchemyOfJoy Chapters: 00:00 Preview: Joy, Success & the Meaning of Wealth 01:14 Introduction: Can Success and Joy Coexist? 04:18 Why High Achievers Can Feel Empty 06:58 How Small Moments of Joy Compound 11:04 Finding Joy in Everyday Moments 12:17 How Everyday Pleasures Create New Habits 14:04 The Neuroscience of Joy and Dopamine 17:56 Making Conscious Choices in a Distracted World 18:16 Why Your Soul Needs Silence 19:46 When You Know Something Needs to Change 22:07 Spirit Walks: Learning to Ask Better Questions 26:11 Changing the Childhood Stories That Shape Your Life 30:31 The Most Common Subconscious Beliefs 31:16 A Remarkable Spiritual Experience With Brent’s Mother 35:27 Joy, Happiness, Love and Spirituality 41:55 How Brent’s Family Shaped His Relationship With Success 44:01 Money, Scarcity and the Meaning of Enough 47:03 When Success Leads to Hopelessness 49:32 The Turning Point That Changed Brent’s Life 52:37 Brent’s Joyful Operating System 56:42 Do We Need Achievement to Feel Joy? 59:08 How to Make Time for Joy 1:02:20 Practical Joy Habits for High Achievers 1:05:49 What If You Can’t Afford to Prioritize Joy? 1:08:19 Trust, Surrender and Life’s Uncertainty 1:11:40 The Paradox of Chasing Success 1:14:05 Why Spiritual Practices Don’t Always Create Joy 1:17:31 Self-Love, Marriage and Healthy Relationships 1:23:34 Navigating Conflict Without Losing Connection 1:27:09 The Difference Between Joy and Emotional Bypassing 1:30:02 Raising Children and Redefining Success 1:33:32 Finding Joy While Grieving 1:39:23 Does Brent Still Crave External Success? 1:41:27 What If You’ve Tried Everything and Nothing Works? 1:44:28 Closing Reflections and The Alchemy of Joy About Brent Freeman: Brent J. Freeman is an entrepreneur, author, and teacher who helps high-achievers feel alive again. Over the past 20 years, he has co-founded more than 20 companies and helped drive more than $1 billion in revenue for client brands and growth partners. After experiencing the emptiness and burnout that can come with pursuing external success, Brent created The Alchemy of Joy—a practical approach that brings together neuroscience, somatic practice, spirituality, and lived experience. His core belief is simple: joy is not a feeling. It’s a skill, and it compounds like wealth. Connect With Brent: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joywithbrent/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@joywithbrent LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentjfreeman/ TEDx Talk: 60 Second Secret to a Joyful Life https://youtu.be/dbQAIiQNQSk?si=VaO-aGPRCcfx7ZLs Book: The Alchemy of Joy: The Life-Changing Method to Beat Burnout, Retrain Your Brain & Build a Life You Love https://link.amazon/B04KQQYNj Want to rewire your brain for more joy? Enter your email to join Brent's weekly newsletter, Becoming the Alchemist & get a free guided meditation to start your Alchemy of Joy journey! https://brentfreeman.com/meditations About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs 1. Can money and success actually make you happy? Brent distinguishes financial security from lasting fulfillment. Money can provide important freedom and meet basic needs, but he argues that pursuing wealth without investing in relationships, presence and joy can become an unfulfilling cycle. 2. What does it mean to say joy is a skill? Brent describes joy as something strengthened through intentional daily practices rather than passively awaited. Examples include noticing ordinary pleasures, practicing presence, changing habits and investing in meaningful relationships. 3. How can small moments of joy compound over time? Brent compares small positive experiences with compounding wealth. By repeatedly noticing and prioritizing meaningful experiences, people can develop habits that support joy. 4. How does dopamine relate to joy? Brent calls his approach a “joy pharmacy” and connects practices to dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. These are his explanations and recommendations, not independently verified neuroscience findings within the interview. 5. How can childhood experiences influence adult relationships? Brent explains how losing his mother as a child contributed to a fear of abandonment. He connects that belief to patterns in adult romantic relationships and discusses identifying and reframing the narrative. 6. What is a core narrative, and can you change it? In Brent’s framework, a core narrative is a deeply held interpretation of earlier experiences that influences behavior and self-perception. He describes identifying beliefs such as “I’m not enough” and working with alternative narratives through repetition and emotional engagement. 7. How can entrepreneurs pursue success without burning out? Brent emphasizes boundaries and knowing what matters. He describes resisting book-launch pressures to be present for his wedding. 8. Can you find joy when struggling financially? Brent acknowledges financial insecurity and describes his own debt. He believes connection, meaning and presence remain worth cultivating, without suggesting joy replaces financial stability. 9. What is the difference between joy, happiness and love? Brent presents love as foundational to his spiritual worldview, joy as something practiced through daily living, and happiness as something people often wrongly defer to future achievements. 10. How do you practice joy during grief? Brent discusses grief as a process that can include anger, bargaining and acceptance. He stresses processing painful emotions and allowing joy to coexist with difficult experiences rather than denying pain.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What does inner strength look like when your external life and being tough isn't enough? Taylor Cavanaugh has gone from jail to the Navy SEALs, back to jail, suicidal despair and the French Foreign Legion. But in this conversation with Ariane de Bonvoisin, the extraordinary résumé is only the beginning. Taylor shares what happened when the external identities he had built his life around stopped working, and how discipline, accountability, spirituality and alignment helped him rebuild from the inside out. They explore why success can be subtractive, how to know when to quit versus keep going, what Hell Week can teach us about life's hardest seasons, why perfection can sabotage discipline, how Taylor works with his own negative self-talk, what inner peace actually feels like, and why real fulfillment begins when achievement stops being only about you. Taylor also opens up about his lowest point, his evolving relationship with spirituality, fatherhood, death, gratitude and the practices that help him create what he calls a beautiful life. What We Cover: 00:00 Preview: Taylor Cavanaugh on Inner Strength 01:01 Welcome to The Spirit Collective 01:33 Beyond Taylor Cavanaugh’s Extraordinary Story 03:33 September 11, War & the Stories We Tell Ourselves 05:42 Jail → Navy SEAL → Jail → French Foreign Legion 07:23 From Self-Sabotage to a Higher Purpose 08:37 What Does an Inner Guiding Voice Feel Like? 09:55 Religion, Spirituality & Taylor’s Beliefs 13:54 Why Taylor Calls Himself Spiritual, Not Religious 16:02 Spirituality Among Warriors 18:32 The Prayer Before the French Foreign Legion 20:36 Addiction, Identity & the Need to Escape 21:54 What Alignment Actually Feels Like 23:30 What If You Don’t Know What You Want? 26:44 Taylor’s Morning Practice 28:18 Can You Be Ambitious AND Content? 30:50 Taylor’s Lowest Point & the Decision That Changed His Life 32:33 Why Success Can Be Subtractive 34:37 What Should You Remove From Your Life? 37:50 When Is It Actually Right to Quit? 39:20 The Hell Week Rule for Not Giving Up 41:42 Why Taylor Gets Up Before 4 A.M. 43:07 Humility, Gratitude & Ego 46:13 When Success Stops Being Fulfilling 48:37 Finding Purpose After the French Foreign Legion 50:11 How Taylor Stopped Having “Bad Days” 52:16 Why Perfection Is the Wrong Goal 53:48 The Fear Taylor Still Struggles With 54:58 What If You’re Angry at Life? 56:52 How Taylor Coaches the Inner Life 58:22 Taylor’s Actual Self-Talk 1:00:53 Does Someone Need the Whip or the Reins? 1:03:54 What Hell Week Can Teach Us About Life 1:05:07 Does Taylor Fear Death? 1:06:14 What Happens When We Die? 1:08:13 Spirituality in Relationships 1:09:56 Raising a Curious, Open-Minded Child 1:11:25 Taylor’s Advice for Men, Women & Teenagers 1:12:43 Taylor’s Closing Message About Taylor Cavanaugh : Taylor Cavanaugh went from jail to Navy SEAL, back to jail, suicidal, to French Foreign Legionnaire. Learning to self-actualize his divine design via a correct system of life disciplines. Now he is on a mission to show others how to realign their lives to experience peace and clarity by training the mind deliberately as well as the body, showing others how to get their fire for life back. Connect With Taylor Cavanaugh : Website: https://www.taylorcavanaugh.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@tcavofficial? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tcavofficial? About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #itstimeforadifferentconversation FAQs 1. What does it mean to feel aligned in life? Taylor describes alignment as “inner peace and clarity.” In his framework, it happens when daily habits and actions increasingly match the outcomes and identity you actually want. 2. How do you know when to quit? Taylor suggests asking whether you are quitting because something is hard or because it is genuinely incorrect or unhealthy for the direction of your life. Fear and difficulty alone do not necessarily mean you should leave. 3. How do Navy SEALs mentally get through Hell Week? Taylor describes “meal-to-meal thinking”: rather than mentally carrying the entire challenge, focus on reaching the next meal and reassess from there. He applies the principle to enduring difficult periods without becoming overwhelmed by their total duration. 4. Can discipline work without perfection? Taylor argues that perfection is counterproductive. Missing a habit or making a mistake does not prove that change is impossible; it means you made a mistake and can return to the practice.  5. Why can success be subtractive? Taylor describes rebuilding himself partly by removing behaviors and distractions that were inconsistent with who he wanted to become. His argument is that greater clarity sometimes comes from removing internal and external clutter rather than continually adding more.  6. How can you figure out what you actually want? Taylor recommends deliberately setting aside quiet time to imagine what success would look and feel like physically, financially and personally instead of trying to answer major life questions while distracted. He emphasizes repeating the practice rather than expecting an instant answer. 7. How do you deal with negative self-talk? Taylor says positivity does not come naturally to him. His morning practice helps “subtract the negativity,” and he tries to coach himself pragmatically rather than using unrealistic positive affirmations. 8. Can ambitious people also be content? Taylor says his earlier ambition could feel chaotic and frantic, whereas he now deliberately structures his days to create calm, family time and presence while continuing to pursue goals.  9. What does gratitude have to do with ego? Taylor argues that genuine gratitude and egotism are difficult to sustain simultaneously. Awareness that achievements and circumstances can disappear helps him use ambition internally rather than as justification for treating others poorly.  10. How can you get through an extremely difficult period in life? Taylor's Hell Week analogy is to accept that a painful period is supposed to feel painful, focus on what remains controllable, and continue taking care of basic wellness practices until perspective returns.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What does someone who has spent 40 years publishing the world’s leading spiritual teachers know about success? Sounds True founder Tami Simon shares what she has learned about leadership, money, purpose and creating a values-driven business. The Spirit Collective Podcast host Ariane de Bonvoisin and Tami explore how to build genuine trust at work, why Tami asks leadership teams “What’s under the table?”, what colleagues taught her about her own blind spots, how to make difficult business decisions without abandoning your values, and why financial security can actually help us give more. Tami reflects on stepping away from the CEO identity she held for four decades and the deeper lesson she has taken from a lifetime spent in conversation with spiritual teachers: a growth in love and trust.  What We Cover: 00:00 Preview: Tami Simon on Spiritual Wisdom & Success 01:21 Tami Simon: Four Decades of Spiritual Wisdom 02:39 Leaving College for a 10-Day Vipassana Retreat 07:20 Belonging, the Body & Fully Incarnating 09:34 Stop Waiting for the Whole Roadmap 10:47 The “Bloodhound” Test for Knowing What You Want 12:35 What Brings You Outrageous Joy? 15:25 Who Are You Without Your Company? 19:36 Learning to Trust the In-Between 21:57 The Support You’re Already Receiving 25:08 Where Are We Spiritually Right Now? 28:24 How 40 Years of Spiritual Work Changed Tami 32:55 Why No Teacher Can Give You the Recipe 36:25 Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Body 38:25 Male vs. Female Spiritual Teachers 39:37 How Tami Knows When a Teacher Is the Real Thing 41:37 “When I Met My Wife…” 44:45 Can Spirituality and Business Coexist? 48:44 Work as an Enlightenment Engine 52:08 How to Get Your Team to Say the Unsayable 55:28 Values, Downsizing & Difficult Business Decisions 58:28 Is Wanting Money Unspiritual? 1:00:30 Tami’s Prayer for Flourishing 1:03:13 Is Earth a School? 1:06:41 Love, Trust & the Mystery of Life About Tami Simon She is the founder and publisher of Sounds True, a multimedia company she started at age 22 with a dream and a tape recorder. Over its 41-year history, Sounds True has produced over 6,000 titles and become North America's leading publisher of spoken-word spiritual teachings. Tami hosts the long-running podcast Insights at the Edge, which has surpassed 20 million downloads, and founded the Sounds True Foundation, dedicated to making spiritual education accessible to all. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, and British Columbia with her wife, Julie Kramer, and their two spoodles, Raspberry and Bula. Connect With Tami Insights at the Edge Podcast  https://www.soundstrue.com/a/resources/podcast/ Sounds True One - Sounds True's membership community https://join.soundstrue.com/free-month-trial-membership/ New Online Courses - including Wild World, Steady Mind with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche launching in early October https://www.soundstrue.com/collections/online-courses/ Resources S.N. Goenka, teacher 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat Pema Chödrön, Buddhist teacher & author Robert Thurman, Buddhist philosopher & writer The Tibetan Book of the Dead Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, David B Wolfe, Jagdish Sheth, Rajendra Sisodia Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values, Fred Kofman Inner MBA, Sounds True  Caroline Myss & Spiritual Home Base program with Sounds True   About Ariane de Bonvoisin She is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How do you know what your next step in life should be? Tami Simon believes most people already receive some guidance about their next step, even when they cannot see the whole path. Rather than waiting for certainty, she suggests noticing the people, ideas and possibilities you feel drawn toward and asking whether you have the courage to act on what you are already hearing. What is embodied awareness? For Tami Simon, embodied awareness means locating your center of experience somewhere beyond the narrating voice in your head. She describes “embodied immediacy” as tracking sensations arising inside the body while talking, reading, walking and making decisions, rather than reserving embodiment for practices such as yoga or qigong. How do you find purpose when you don't know what you want? Tami suggests beginning with desire rather than trying to construct a complete life plan. She asks what you genuinely want, what inspires you and what makes you feel more alive, comparing the process to a bloodhound getting close to the ground and following a scent.  How do you handle losing your identity after a career transition? After stepping down as CEO and selling part of Sounds True, Tami had to release an identity she describes as “Tami Simon equals Sounds True.” She experienced grief before becoming excited about the next phase, and says the transition ultimately gave her a greater sense of being without needing an identity to define that being. How can you deal with uncertainty during a major life transition? Tami describes major transitions as “in-between” spaces in which the old identity or life has ended before the next one is available. Her approach is to recognize the state rather than rush out of it, trust that she has navigated uncertainty before, and allow the next phase to emerge. Can spirituality and business work together? Tami does not see spirituality and business as opposing forces. At Sounds True, she describes a values-driven approach that considers the flourishing of customers, employees, vendors and even competitors, while still acknowledging that a sustainable business has to make money.  Can work help you grow spiritually? Tami describes work as a powerful environment for personal development because colleagues see how you behave under pressure and can identify patterns you cannot see yourself. Feedback from her own team taught her that qualities that made her effective could also make her difficult to work with, forcing her to become more self-aware, listen more and make room for other people's contributions.  Is wanting financial security incompatible with spirituality? Tami says financial security enables her to be more creative, take risks and give her gifts more fully. She describes giving and receiving as reciprocal rather than oppositional, and says that for people who bring “big hearts” to their work, receiving more can enable them to give more. How can leaders create more trust at work? Tami says leaders can set the depth of honesty by modeling it themselves. She describes sharing genuine personal difficulty during leadership-team check-ins and asking “what's under the table?” to surface subjects people may be afraid to discuss, even experimenting with a courageous-feedback award to encourage candor.  How can a company handle layoffs without destroying trust? Tami argues that downsizing does not automatically have to destroy relationships. She emphasizes sharing business realities before a crisis, giving employees advance warning when possible, offering generous severance and treating the sadness created by job loss as legitimate rather than something leadership should dismiss.  What has Tami Simon learned after decades of spiritual practice? Tami ultimately describes her own path as “a growth in love and trust.” Although decades of spiritual study exposed her to many perspectives, she says she is increasingly comfortable with mystery and with asking what feels true from the center of her own experience rather than needing a definitive explanation for life.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

It's never too late to follow your dream and make a difference. Loubna Freih is living proof: decades into a career on the human rights frontlines, she discovered endurance sport in her forties and became an Ironman World Champion in her age group. She's since led the first all-women team across the entire Alps, on bike, ski, and foot, in 54 days. But as she'll tell you, none of it was really about the medals. It's about listening to the small voice inside, telling you that something still has your name on it, and trusting that life hasn't given up on you as you get older. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Loubna to explore what it looks like to keep saying yes to yourself in your 40s, 50s, and beyond: through a divorce, through self-doubt, through a body and a life that don't always cooperate. They talk about luck, prayer, the belief that a higher force is helping you along the way, and why business leaders resist the same mental tools elite athletes rely on. What We Cover 00:00 – Intro 3:30 – Growing Up Scared: Self-Esteem, Grandmother, and a Single Mother's Strength 6:03 – Inside an Ironman: What Happens When Every Part of You Wants to Quit 8:40 – Faith, Power, and a Catholic-Muslim Upbringing 10:00 – The Inward Journey to Becoming Herself 12:08 – What She Unlearned to Become an Elite Athlete at 50+ 13:06 – Silencing the Voices That Call You Crazy 17:09 – Her Pre-Race Ritual: Meditation and "This Is My Day" 21:44 – Crossing the Alps: The Alpine Quest Story 23:22 – The Mountains Are Screaming: Witnessing Climate Change Up Close 26:03 – What Helps When Things Go Wrong and Don't Go as Planned 28:57 – Presence Over Mind: What Takes Over When Thinking Stops 31:18 – Why Doing It With an All-Women Team Changed Everything 33:57 – Her Complicated Relationship With Luck 37:01 – On Her Knees: Prayer, Divorce, and Motherhood 39:19 – Trusting Intuition 41:37 – What Replaces Striving 43:54 – The Transmission: What She Wants Everyone to Know 46:47 – Her Message to the Next Generation 48:45 – Why Business Leaders Resist What Elite Athletes Already Know 54:00 – Staying Present in the Face of Human Rights Atrocities 55:26 – Her Hardest Test: Choosing Between the UN and Her Children 1:00:45 – Why She Trains Harder Than She Races 1:03:19 – Her Real Source of Energy 1:06:04 – What's Next: Night Ski Mountaineering, a New Cycling Record, and Returning to the Alps About Loubna Freih: Loubna Freih is a human rights advocate, endurance athlete, and mental performance coach based in Verbier, Switzerland. She spent decades working on the frontlines of human rights, including as a director at Human Rights Watch, advocating for refugees, women, and children through some of the world's most complex conflicts. In 2003, while working at the UN during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, she navigated one of the defining tensions of her life: her passion for human rights work against the pull of being present for her own children. Loubna discovered endurance sport later in life, after having two children, and went on to become an Ironman World Champion in her age group, competing at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Most recently, she led the first-ever all-women team across the entire Alps by bike, ski, and trail running, covering 2,000 kilometers, 80,000 meters of elevation, and five countries in 54 days, a journey documented in the film Alpine Quest. She now coaches elite athletes, including sailing teams and alpine skiers, alongside “regular humans,” on the mental and spiritual tools behind high performance: presence, breathwork, meditation, and intuition. Connect With Loubna: Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/alpinequest_2026/ https://www.instagram.com/loubna_freih/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alpine-quest-2025/ Websites: https://loubnafreih.com/ www.alpinequest.org Documentary Film Alpine Quest on Amazon, produced by Alpine Media House, Loubna Freih & Annika Horn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjrM_1ddDcA Working on a book "Women Breaking Barriers past 50”.  (For the next ITW) About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How Do Elite Endurance Athletes Mentally Prepare for Extreme Races? Loubna Freih says her mental preparation is more consistent than her physical training in the weeks before a big race, particularly meditation. She relies on one or two words that shift depending on the season of her life, past examples include “I am enough” and “This is my day,” along with mental images of people or places that ground her. She says meditation gives her the space to make clear decisions and manage stress both before and during a race. What Does Spirituality Look Like in Professional Endurance Sports? For Loubna Freih, spirituality in sport isn't tied to a specific religion or external force. She describes her power as something she “latches onto within” rather than calling on a higher force outside herself, though she credits the memory of her grandmother and great-aunt, and her connection to nature, as sources of strength. She considers presence itself, being fully in the moment without thinking ahead or behind, to be one of the most spiritual states available to her. How Do You Become an Elite Athlete Later in Life? Loubna Freih didn't discover endurance sport until after having two children, and became an Ironman World Champion in her age group in her fifties. She says the shift required her to “unlearn” some of her formal education and instead trust her own instincts and curiosity, competing against much younger women in five-year age brackets. She's candid that self-doubt didn't disappear, she simply decided not to let outside voices calling her “crazy” stop her from trying. Why Should Business Leaders Learn From Elite Athletes? Loubna Freih, who now coaches both elite athletes and business leaders, says companies are quick to borrow tactics from the military but slow to adopt the mental tools elite athletes already use, including breathwork, visualization, and meditation. She suspects the resistance comes down to leaders not taking these tools seriously enough, or feeling they don't have time for them. Her coaching starts the same way with a CEO as it does with an athlete: asking why they're doing what they're doing, and checking whether their values actually align with it. How Do You Learn to Trust Your Intuition? Loubna Freih describes intuition as something acquired through years of formal learning that eventually has to be set aside to be useful in the moment, she rarely reviews notes anymore and instead trusts what she calls an acquired instinct. She says people lose touch with this instinct over time and need to consciously reconnect with it, referring to it at one point as reconnecting with “the little girl” inside who already knew how to trust herself. What Does Human Rights Work Teach About Resilience? Loubna Freih spent decades in human rights work, including time at the UN during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while raising young children. She says the same principle that carries her through an Ironman applies to facing atrocity: don't look away, stay present, and do what you can without expecting to be able to do everything. She describes the hardest test of her life as navigating the tension between her commitment to human rights work and her commitment to her children.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What does an Army Ranger turned AI CEO actually know about leading through fear? Jack Swift built and sold companies from first pitch to IPO, served as a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, and now writes about leadership in the age of AI. But Jack will tell you the hardest work he's ever done wasn't on a battlefield or in a boardroom, it was with himself. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Jack, a friend and fellow member of the Liminal Collective, to go past the resume into the decades-long, mostly private spiritual unfolding underneath it: a meditation practice, teachers he studied under quietly while running boardrooms, and the slow dismantling of his identity as "the fixer" or "the guy who always had the answer." They talk about what West Point and Army Ranger School taught him about leading under extreme pressure, the belief that once drove him to keep chasing the next mountain, learning self-love as an adult, and what spirituality actually looks like inside a real boardroom and what happens to the human in the age of AI. Jack is the author of Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human + Machine Era, and co-founder of Sangha.one, a peer-facilitated wisdom circle for leaders. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 2:45 – From West Point to the Battlefield 8:01 – Head, Heart, and Gut: Lessons from Ranger School 9:45 – The Art of Sensing 10:58 – The Hidden Driver Behind Two Decades of Success 15:56 – Redefining Help vs. Service 18:45 – The Hardest Lesson: Learning Self-Love 25:54 – Merging the CEO and the Mystic 29:23 – His Non-Negotiable Spiritual Practice 35:22 – Redefining Success and the "Messy Middle" 37:20 – How to Lead Without Fear 42:47 – Sovereign Soul Expression in the Age of AI 44:59 – Inside Level 7 Leadership and His AI Agent, L7 48:56 – Why So Many Leaders Feel Lost Right Now 49:59 – Is Spirituality the Next Leadership Frontier? 54:39 – What Spirituality Looks Like in the Boardroom 56:50 – Why We Can't Outwork AI 58:28 – The Real Reason We Resist Change 1:01:10 – From Fixer to Witness 1:03:23 – On Fatherhood and Letting Kids Have Their Pain 1:03:54 – His Unfinished Prayer and a Fear He Still Carries 1:06:42 – How His Belief in God Has Evolved About Jack Swift: Jack Swift is an experienced CEO, founder, board member, advisor, and author whose work sits at the intersection of leadership, AI, and spiritual development. He is a co-founder of Sangha.one, a modern, peer-facilitated wisdom circle for leaders devoted to spiritual practice, inner growth, and bringing that growth into their work, families, and communities. Jack previously served as CEO of TIFIN, an AI-native fintech platform that grew to more than 300 employees and approached a $1 billion valuation in its first 36 months, and as CEO of Liminal Collective, a company focused on human potential and performance; earlier, he co-founded Pacific Current Group and subsequently took it public on the ASX and sold another company to Shopify. Today, he serves on the boards of Bow River Capital and Lockton Companies, is the author of Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human+Machine Era, and focuses on the question: What happens to the human in the age of AI? A West Point graduate and former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, Jack brings a rare combination of leadership under pressure, spiritual inquiry, and lived experience exploring how the inner path shapes the way we live, decide, and lead. Connect With Jack: Website LinkedIn Resources: Free access to the L7 AI Agent at L7leadership.com Free access to Field Sessions in person in Boulder, CO; email me at [email protected] Sangha, community co-founded by Jack Swift Patrick Connor, spiritual teacher Jeremy Utley on psychological safety Liminal Collective Book: Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human + Machine Era  About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How to Lead Without Fear Jack Swift, a former Army Ranger turned AI-era CEO, says operating from fear leads to reactive, defensive decisions that fall apart under pressure. Instead of avoiding fear, he asks it directly what lesson it's there to teach him, then acts from that place of clarity rather than urgency. He credits this practice, along with a habit of returning to breath, with letting him stay calm and think clearly even in genuinely high-stakes situations, from combat to failing companies. Spiritual Leadership in the Age of AI Jack Swift believes that as AI takes over execution, speed, and scale, self-awareness becomes the real differentiator between leaders who thrive and those who don't. In his book Level 7 Leadership, he argues that machines are suited for precision and data, while humans need to bring creativity, imagination, and adaptability, qualities strengthened, not replaced, by inner spiritual work. For Jack, daily meditation and time in nature aren't a break from leadership, they're the foundation of it. What Does Spirituality Look Like in the Boardroom? According to Jack Swift, spirituality in the boardroom starts with letting go of the need to be right. When leaders stop operating from judgment and fear of being wrong, the room shifts into genuine listening rather than competing to be correct, and better ideas emerge as a result. He calls this a kind of energetic entrainment: when one person shows up open and non-judgmental, others in the room tend to follow. How to Stop Operating From Fear as a CEO Jack Swift says the first step is recognizing that fear-based decisions almost always fall apart, whether you're facing a health scare, a shrinking runway, or a lost client. Rather than suppressing fear or pretending it isn't there, he asks it what it's trying to teach him, which he says almost always reveals something useful. He's candid that this doesn't mean fear disappears, plenty of things still bring it up for him, but he's learned not to let it drive his decisions. Military Leadership Lessons for Business Jack Swift, a West Point graduate and former Army Airborne Ranger, says the military taught him three lessons he still relies on: adaptability, resilience, and the ability to perform under real pressure. He learned to regulate his nervous system under extreme physical and mental stress long before he had language like "parasympathetic" for what he was doing, and to sense a situation before he could fully know it. He carries that same grounded, less reactive instinct into boardrooms today. Self-Awareness for Executives For Jack Swift, self-awareness isn't a soft skill, it's what allows an executive to actually use everything AI now offers. He says executives operating purely from intellect, without dropping into their heart and gut, often end up successful but hollow, chasing the next achievement without ever feeling fulfilled by it. His own daily practice starts with meditation and time in nature specifically to build that self-awareness before he steps into any decision. Conscious Leadership Podcast This episode of The Spirit Collective features Jack Swift, a CEO, author, and co-founder of the leadership community Sangha.one, in conversation with host Ariane de Bonvoisin about the hidden spiritual work behind decades of public business success. They talk about leading without fear, learning self-love as an adult, and what it actually looks like to bring consciousness into a boardroom instead of leaving it at the door.   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

Ever wondered about the human side of top-performing Unicorn CEO’s? What do these leaders think, believe, do, focus on, and how do they handle the really big challenges? Dr. Shiv Rao is a practicing cardiologist and the Founder and CEO of Abridge, a leading platform in AI in healthcare innovation. Valued at over $5 billion, Abridge sits at the intersection of AI and medicine, supporting millions of doctor-patient conversations each year across 300 of the largest health systems in the US. Shiv has been named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI and Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, two years running. But Shiv will tell you it was never really about any of that. In this episode, Ariane de Bonvoisin, who has coached Shiv and his leadership team for several years, goes past the headlines into the roots: the values his parents instilled, the subcultures that shaped him as a teenager, and the beliefs that quietly shape how he leads today. Shiv shares what it takes to build a generational company in medical AI, why purpose is his North Star, and what keeps him grounded under pressure. This is a conversation about service, sacrifice, humility, and what it really means to build something that matters for the future of healthcare. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 2:29 – Growing Up Between Pittsburgh and India, and the Values His Parents Instilled 5:35 – Service, Spirituality, and the Idea of "Being Human" 6:19 – Straight Edge Punk Rock, Skateboarding, Music, and Finding His Identity 11:23 – The Lecture That Changed His Path and Led Him Toward Medicine and Impact 13:38 – Why Contribution, Growth, and Purpose Have Always Driven Him 18:03 – Living by Values in Healthcare and the Principle of Leaving Things Better Than You Found Them 24:41 – Spirituality, Meditation, Karma, and the "Do Something" vs. "Be Somebody" Mindset 29:12 – How Personal Loss Deepened His Search for Meaning and Purpose 32:07 – Why Work, Music, Focus, and Flow Have Become His Forms of Meditation 35:28 – What Cardiology Taught Him About Presence, Humility, and the Human Side of Medicine 39:02 – What Medicine and AI Can Teach Each Other About Pressure, Resilience, and Innovation 41:28 – Surviving the Early Startup Years With Hope, Grit, and Resilience 43:18 – Building Abridge With Humility, Ambition, Service, and Purpose 1:03:50 – Raising Children in the Age of AI and Finding Balance Between Technology, Agency, and Family About Shiv Rao: Shiv Rao, MD, is the Founder and CEO of Abridge, the leading AI platform for healthcare. Abridge is projected to support more than 100 million patient-clinician encounters in 2026 across 300 of the largest and most complex health systems in the US. The company developed the first AI native clinical intelligence platform, built for clinicians and designed to help health systems coordinate the clinical, financial, and evidence-based decisions that shape every moment of care. A practicing cardiologist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Rao brings clinical rigor, enterprise-scale leadership, and AI product innovation to the transformation of healthcare delivery. Dr. Rao continues to practice cardiology. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and completed his medical education and training at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Abridge has been recognized by Forbes AI 50, Fortune AI 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, and TIME's Best Inventions of 2024 and 2025. Connect With Dr. Rao: Website: abridge.com LinkedIn: @shivdevrao YouTube: @Abridge-Studios X: @ShivdevRao People & Frameworks Referenced: Colonel John Boyd, military strategist Louis von Ahn, founder of Duolingo Andy Weissman, investor at Union Square Ventures William McDonough, architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon Noble, a peer community for physician executives About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin Substack: https://substack.com/@arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #AIinHealthcare #PurposeDrivenLeadership #Spirituality   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

She held her husband as he took his last breath. He was 39, and their children were young. Andy Whitfield — the man cast as Spartacus, the picture of health and power on screen — was gone eighteen months after his cancer diagnosis. His wife, Vashti Whitfield, then had to figure out how to keep going. Her greatest teacher was her greatest loss. She didn't just survive. She became one of the most alive humans Ariane has ever known. Vashti Whitfield is a world-renowned transformational coach, the creator of the award-winning documentary Be Here Now, the author of Spartacus and Me, and the host of the Radical Reframe Podcast. She works with some of the highest-performing leaders, creatives, and individuals on the planet — helping them turn grit into gold and pain into purpose. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane sits down with Vashti to explore the spiritual path underneath all of it — where God was during the hardest 18 months of her life, what grief and spirituality have to do with each other, and how she came to see being a widow not as a wound, but as an invitation. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 6:56 – Vashti's Wildly Unconventional Childhood 12:52 – Colliding Into Andy Backpacking in Indonesia, and the Motorway Moment 16:21 – Why She Believes in Synchronicity 19:43 – Moving to Australia, Shedding Their Layers, and Vedic Meditation 24:39 – What She Actually Calls God, and Why She Turns "Should" Into "Could" 27:34 – What It Felt Like to Be Present During Andy's Illness 30:17 – The Moment "Be Here Now" Stopped Being a Tattoo and Became the Only Thing Keeping Her Sane 33:16 – The Meaning of Life According to Vashti 40:53 – The Sailboat and the Speedboat 45:15 – What She Says to People Who Are Furious at Life, Furious at God 50:14 – Holding Someone as They Die 59:20 – How She Raised Two Children Through Grief 1:07:18 – The Four-Finger Exercise She Uses With Her Son Jesse 1:08:03 – Why the World Is at a Critical Spiritual Turning Point 1:12:31 – What's Coming Next: A Book and a Men's Program 1:12:54 – Andy's Message, Through Vashti, to Close the Episode: Don't Fear What You Don't Know About Vashti Whitfield: Raised across countries and cultures in a wildly unconventional childhood, Vashti Whitfield's life has been shaped by adventure, resilience, love, loss, and reinvention. She is a transformational facilitator and executive coach, the creator of the 8-Week Radical Reframe Program, and a founding voice at Wiser & Worth. Above all, she is a passionate mother to her two extraordinary cubs, a role that continues to shape both her life and work. Connect With Vashti: Website: vashti-whitfield.com Instagram: @vashtiwhitfield LinkedIn: vashtiwhitfield Watch the Film Be Here Now on Kanopy | beherenowfilm.com Read the Book Spartacus and Me: Life, Love and Everything In Between — Order here  https://amzn.to/4cJ0FRB Listen to the Podcast Radical Reframe with Vashti Whitfield on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Work With Vashti 8-Week Radical Reframe Program: vashti-whitfield.com Wiser & Worth: wiserandworth.com Recommended Book: Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way https://amzn.to/4xjf27x About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #VashtiWhitfield #GriefAndHealing   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

Andy Walshe has spent more than two decades coaching some of the world's highest performers, from Olympic athletes to Red Bull's global roster of extreme talent, to executives, entrepreneurs, and the team behind Felix Baumgartner's historic jump from the edge of space. But after decades studying elite performers, Andy believes the greatest differentiators aren't talent, fitness, or even mindset. They're purpose, character, self-compassion, and learning when to rest or slow down. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Andy to explore the spiritual side of high performance, why recovery fuels excellence, why self-compassion is a performance tool, and how down-regulating, relaxing, and becoming more human may be the ultimate competitive advantage. Whether you're leading a company, raising a family, competing at the highest level, or simply trying to navigate modern life with more intention, Andy offers a refreshing perspective on real success that is practical, simple, and profound. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 2:53 – Andy's Journey to Becoming One of the World's Leading High-Performance Coaches 12:27 – Why Purpose and Spirituality Matter to High Performance 15:41 – What Really Separates Elite Performers From Everyone Else 16:46 – The Character Traits Great Leaders Need Under Pressure 18:30 – Learning to Trust Your Intuition and Listen to Your Body's Signals 22:39 – The Bear Exercise and How Resilience Can Be Trained 27:58 – Self-Compassion and Why It May Be an Overlooked Key to High Performance 29:59 – How Andy Defines Spirituality Through Passion, Purpose, Belief, and a Deeper "Why" 32:43 – The Role of Mindfulness, Meditation, and Nature in Human Performance 37:54 – What Elite Athletes Can Teach Business Leaders and Executives 39:39 – The Quickest Way to Improve a Team's Performance 43:37 – What Felix Baumgartner's Historic Jump Taught Andy About Courage, Preparation, and Risk 50:04 – What Turning 60 Revealed About What Really Matters 54:20 – Raising Resilient, Curious Children in a Distracted World 58:12 – Why Learning to Relax May Be the Ultimate Performance Advantage 1:01:35 – Why Recovery Matters as Much as Training About Andy Walshe: Andy Walshe is now the founding partner and Chief Performance Officer of Liminal Collective. Widely recognized as one of the few global authorities on elite human performance, he has spent decades at the frontier of human achievement, including at Red Bull and the Olympics — spanning research, innovation, and applied practice across sport, arts, military, and business. Today, his work sits at the intersection of advanced technology, creativity, and experiential immersion, designing systems that continue to unlock potential for elite performance and make those capabilities accessible to the mainstream. Connect With Andy: Website: liminalcollective.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminal.collective/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-liminal-collective/ About Liminal Collective: A global network of people doing humanity's hardest work — bringing together elite performers across sport, military, arts, and business to unlock human potential at scale. People & Organizations Referenced: Felix Baumgartner — Red Bull athlete behind the historic stratosphere jumpCirque du Soleil — mentioned as a Liminal Collective program partnerBart the Bear — the grizzly used in Andy's famous Montana training exerciseJurgen — Liminal Collective team member who coined "there's no win or lose, it's win or learn"Tools & Practices Mentioned: Float tanks / sensory deprivation tanksSound podsCold plungeBreathworkThe "three-day effect" — Andy's term for the shift that happens after three days in nature without digital connectionAbout Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #AndyWalshe #PeakPerformance #ElitePerformance #HighPerformanceMindset   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What happens when a traumatic brain injury puts you on a path to try every healing modality and gives you a completely different way of seeing life? Lani Cooper, has started multiple successful businesses, exited 3 of them already, and is now the founder and CEO of MOBOT, the world's first patented foam roller water bottle. But behind her success is an extraordinary story of growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, addiction, a life-changing brain injury, and a healing journey that shaped not only her life but the business she built. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Lani to explore the many healing options available today. They talk about recovery from all types of trauma, nervous system regulation, heart-mind coherence, psychedelic therapy, entrepreneurship, embodied leadership, and the power of community. Together, they discuss what truly helps us heal, why integration matters more than quick fixes, and how our greatest challenges can become the foundation for resilience, purpose, and lasting transformation. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 3:39 – Lani's Journey from Jehovah's Witness to Making Her Own Choices 10:26 – Her Younger Years of Trauma and Addiction 19:32 – Recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury and Memory Loss 20:00 – Heart-Mind Coherence and Reconnecting with Your Intuition 22:28 – Psychedelic Therapy and What Creates Lasting Change 25:03 – Why Community Is Essential for Healing and Recovery 26:02 – Daily Rituals That Support Healing, Presence, and Well-Being 27:15 – Healing Versus Self-Optimization and Biohacking 27:57 – Active Meditation as a Better Type of Meditation 30:04 – Building MOBOT and Finding Purpose Through Entrepreneurship 37:58 – Ibogaine, MDMA, Psilocybin and Other Medicine 58:07 – Embodied Leadership and Leading from Authenticity About Lani Cooper: Lani Cooper is the Founder and CEO of MOBOT, the wellness company behind the world's first patented foam roller water bottle. After surviving a life-changing traumatic brain injury and navigating years of neurological recovery, she became passionate about understanding the intersection of healing, resilience, spirituality, and human performance. Today, Lani is an entrepreneur, speaker, and recovery strategist who shares practical tools for living with greater presence, resilience, and purpose. Through science, storytelling, humor, and lived experience, she helps people transform adversity into growth while reconnecting with themselves through simple, intentional daily practices. Connect With Lani Cooper: Website: https://www.mobot.com (Use code: Freedom for 20% off.) Instagram: @lanicooper_ Instagram: @mobotnation LinkedIn: Lani Cooper Links & Resources: PSYCHEDELIC EDUCATION + RESOURCES Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) https://maps.org/about-maps/ Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research – https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/psychedelics-research Microdosing Collective – https://www.microdosingcollective.org BOOKS Trauma + healing: • Trauma and Recovery – Judith Herman https://amzn.to/3TUiXZA • The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk https://amzn.to/4wVTY6U • Waking the Tiger – Peter Levine https://amzn.to/45YKuvy • Anchored – Deb Dana https://amzn.to/3Su7xvc • What Happened to You? – Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey https://amzn.to/4cx68e4 Spirituality + self: • The Untethered Soul – Michael A. Singer https://amzn.to/4whIA4d • The Surrender Experiment – Michael A. Singer https://amzn.to/4xU2ovN • Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl https://amzn.to/4qdo5nM • The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz https://amzn.to/4fZTw04 • Radical Acceptance – Tara Brach https://amzn.to/4wVz4ot • When Things Fall Apart – Pema Chödrön https://amzn.to/4zcqSl6 Love + relationships: • The Mastery of Love – Don Miguel Ruiz https://amzn.to/4xEmOZA • Attached – Amir Levine & Rachel Heller https://amzn.to/4bLBU6R • Esther Perel’s books, talks + podcast https://amzn.to/4hyrrj3 The most important thing I’d add is that I don’t think any one book, teacher, therapist, ceremony or medicine heals you. I believe we have all the answers inside ourselves and sometimes we just need a guiding hand to remember, listen and hear!  All of the above can open doors, give you tools, help you see things differently and create an encounter with yourself… but then you have to integrate, adopt it and live it.  That’s probably been one of my biggest lessons. My spiritual practice used to be something I DID. Now it’s much more about how I LIVE and love 🤍Stay curious, ask lots of questions, take your time and find people you really trust. ~ Lani Cooper About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #LaniCooper #SomaticHealing #nervoussystemregulation   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What if happiness isn't a goal, isn’t difficult and is available to all of us ? After surviving 36 major life traumas, a clinical near-death experience, and years of complex PTSD, Gary King didn't just survive. He built a formula. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, host Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with her dear friend, speaker, author, entrepreneur, and creator of The Happiness Formula and The Happiness Experiment, for one of the most honest and practical conversations about happiness, healing, trauma, forgiveness, self-worth, and purpose you will ever hear. Gary's philosophy is simple, radical, and life-changing: happiness is not in the future after something has happened. It is a decision. What We Cover: 00:00:00 Introduction and highlights 00:00:57 Welcome — Gary King joins The Spirit Collective 00:01:26 Gary's story — 36 traumas, the loss of his son, and a life rebuilt through happiness 00:03:26 How a near-death experience changed everything — and what happens when you clinically die 00:04:23 The three foundations of true spirituality: forgiveness, honesty, and self-worth 00:05:11 The Happiness Formula — and why it is simpler than anyone thinks 00:06:09 What Gary discovered on the other side — the clinical near-death experience in full 00:11:42 Why 90% of people never find their true purpose — and what purpose actually means 00:13:45 Unconditional self-love is a choice, not a process 00:15:34 Why we suppress our emotions — and what we lose when we do 00:18:01 Why Gary's definition of success is happiness, not money 00:18:59 Losing his son — and how his spirituality carried him through the unthinkable 00:21:48 The grief and loss cycle — and why most people don't know it exists 00:26:44 Character, integrity, and the conscience as a bank account 00:27:34 There are no coincidences — how synchronicity shapes our lives 00:33:49 What every child should be taught — Gary's hope for the future of education 00:34:39 The Happiness Experiment — how a single sign has changed lives around the world 00:42:59 Childhood trauma and the waterline — what sinks a person is always below the surface 00:44:28 The why that created your life — not the what 00:47:39 Don't ever push crying back — why tears are a gift, not a weakness 00:48:11 The message Gary wants every person to remember About Gary King: Gary King is a speaker, author, entrepreneur, and U.S. Navy veteran who has dedicated more than 35 years to understanding what creates lasting happiness and how anyone can reclaim it. After surviving 36 major life traumas, including losing his only son, complex PTSD, and a profound near-death experience, he didn't just rebuild his life — he built a formula. Having read over 2,300 nonfiction books and presented to millions of people worldwide, Gary is the creator of The Happiness Formula and The Happiness Experiment, an award-winning movement that has inspired people around the world with one simple but radical truth: happiness is a choice. Books: The Happiness Formula: The Ultimate Life Makeover https://amzn.to/3SVcgWV The Happiness Experiment: The Experiment That Can Change The World https://amzn.to/4w6VeU6 Rethinking Success by Douglas Holiday https://amzn.to/44CHYdV Happiness Signs: Get your Happiness signs and learn more about The Happiness Experiment https://thehappinessexperiment.com/ Connect With Gary King: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-King/100089043998832/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHappinessExperimentLive About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #GaryKing #TheHappinessExperiment #neardeathexperience #ptsd #trauma #forgiveness #selfworth #happiness #purpose #spiritualpodcast #consciousculture   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What does it mean to find freedom inside a prison cell? Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, author, lawyer, Yale Law School graduate, MacArthur Fellow, and Founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, an organization bringing books to people in prison while advancing prison and criminal justice reform. After spending nine years in prison—including fourteen months in solitary confinement—he transformed his life through introspection, books, poetry, and found his purpose. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, host Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Dwayne for a rare and deeply moving conversation about second chances, books as liberation, the hand of God in an unlikely life, wonder as a spiritual practice, and why tomorrow will always be better. It's a powerful conversation about freedom, beauty, and what it means to chase awe in the darkest of places. What We Cover: Growing up without a formal faith—and finding wonder and awe as his own version of spiritualityThe night everything changed—the carjacking at sixteen that sent him to prison as an adultFourteen months in solitary confinement and the inner dialogue that kept him goingThe book slid under his cell door that changed the course of his lifeHow a secret prison library—books travelling in pillowcases along sheets strung between cells—became a lifelineWhy he chose to become a writer in a holding cell the day he was sentencedHow books in prison became a kind of freedom—and a way to immerse himself in a thousand other stories besides his ownThe hand of God—the chance conversation at Harvard Law School that ultimately led him to Yale Law SchoolFreedom Reads—the mission to bring books into prisons by placing a library in every cell block in AmericaFrom prison to Yale Law School, the MacArthur Fellowship, and a life rebuilt through literatureSynchronicity, karma, past lives, and soulmates—Dwayne's deeply personal relationship with life's biggest questionsWhat beauty looks like inside a prison—and why looking for it is an active daily practiceWhy vulnerability means being willing to talk even when you don't have the answer"Don't fall asleep in your enemy's dream"—and why tomorrow will be betterWhat he would pour into the world right now if he could—and why he believes people should weep a little moreAbout Reginald Dwayne Betts: Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, author, lawyer, and Founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, an organization transforming access to literature in prisons while advancing criminal justice reform across America. At sixteen, he was sentenced to nine years in adult prison—including fourteen months in solitary confinement—where a book of poetry slid under his cell door and changed the course of his life. He went on to earn a J.D. from Yale Law School, receive both a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and become a nationally recognized poet and advocate for prison reform, criminal justice reform, and the transformative power of literature. He is the author of the memoir A Question of Freedom and the poetry collections Felon, Doggerel, and others. His latest collection, Doggerel, was published in 2025. His documentary March Forth, chronicling his life and the work of Freedom Reads, premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. Connect With Reginald Dwayne Betts: Instagram: @dwaynebetts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginald-dwayne-betts-esq-494a20102/ Freedom Reads Instagram: @freedombeginswithabook Freedom Reads LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/freedomreads Freedom Reads Website: www.freedomreads.org Film — March Forth: https://tribecafilm.com/films/march-forth-2026 Book — Doggerel: https://amzn.to/4vxsva2 Book — Felon:  https://amzn.to/4hbzEcs Book — A Question of Freedom: https://amzn.to/3R95axo About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #ReginaldDwayneBetts #FreedomReads #PrisonReform #SpiritualPodcast   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

Siri Lindley achieved something that most of us would consider impossible: At 23, she didn’t know how to swim and a few years later became the world champion triathlete! Recently, she was given just a 5% chance of surviving acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Today, the two-time World Champion triathlete says the greatest victory of her life had nothing to do with sport—it came through faith, surrender, and discovering that life was happening for her, not to her. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Siri to explore the spiritual journey behind one of the most extraordinary stories in sport. What We Cover: The faith that has carried Siri through every great challenge in her lifeGrowing up lonely and scared — and how she created her own sense of divine companionshipHow her faith helped her become the world championWhy Siri once raced to prove she was good enough, lovable, and worthy — and the turning point where she began racing as a way of saying "thank you" to God for her gifts, which is when she started winning everythingWhy shifting her beliefs changed everything — and how you can do the sameThe mantra that kept her alive: "I am always guided, supported, protected, and loved"Her new definitions of success and failure and what business can learn from athletesThe spiritual gifts of animals and her life's work rescuing horsesHow to find the invisible hand that has always been holding yoursSigns, synchronicities, and messages from the other side (including Pacman!)Why you can't afford not to believe in something greater than yourselfThe truth she wants everyone to remember: you have everything you need inside of youAbout Siri Lindley: Siri Lindley is a two-time World Champion triathlete, motivational and keynote speaker, author, and business performance expert ranked among the top 10 speakers globally. She has coached champions to world titles and is recognized as having achieved the impossible. In late 2019, she was given less than a 5% chance of surviving acute myeloid leukemia (AML) — and walked out of the hospital cancer-free the following May. She is the founder of Believe Ranch and Rescue, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that rescues horses from abuse, neglect, and slaughter, which she runs with her wife, Bek. Book: Finding A Way: Taking The Impossible And Making It Possible Download the free ebook: www.sirilindley.com Purchase on Amazon (proceeds go to Believe Ranch and Rescue): https://amzn.to/4xgUDQK Film: Tri Me: The Siri Lindley Story — now streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google TV, and Fandango Watch Now On Amazon Prime https://amzn.to/4w6E1ua Believe Ranch and Rescue: www.believeranchandrescue.org Connect With Siri Lindley: Website: www.sirilindley.com Instagram: @sirilindley Facebook: Siri Lindley LinkedIn: Siri Lindley X: @SiriLindley TikTok: @sirilindley YouTube: @SiriLindley-TriMe About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #spiritcollectivepodcast #sirilindley #worldchampion #triathlete #faithjourney #leukemiasurvivor #believeinmiracles #horserescue #spiritualawakening #spiritualpodcast #consciousculture #mindsetshift   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What happens when you get everything you ever dreamed of—and it still isn't enough? In this episode of Spirit Collective, Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes and creator of The No Magic Pill Podcast sits down with host Ariane de Bonvoisin, for an honest conversation about success, depression, self-worth, purpose, spirituality, leadership, and mental health. While Blake built one of the world's most influential purpose-driven companies, this conversation goes far beyond entrepreneurship. Together, they explore why achievement or money alone can never bring lasting fulfillment, how healing begins when we stop searching for everything outside ourselves, and what it truly means to know that you are enough. What We Cover: Why building one of the world's most influential purpose-driven companies, selling it for $650million and helping give away more than 100 million pairs of shoes still left Blake feeling emptyThe arrival trap: what happens when you finally achieve everything you wanted and discover it isn't enoughSeven years of depression, hitting rock bottom, and the moment everything had to changeThe core wound that shaped Blake's life—never feeling enough—and how he began to healBlake's dark night of the soul that brought him to his lowest point and ultimately to his greatest awakeningWhy purpose and self-worth cannot be found through achievement aloneWhy the consciousness of a business can only rise to the height of the consciousness of its leaderWhat it means to build a purpose-driven business through conscious leadership and conscious capitalismHow spirituality has quietly guided every venture Blake has ever builtPlant medicine, the Hoffman Process, therapy, and the many different paths to healing—and why there is no single solutionSlowing down as a spiritual practice—and the story behind Blake's snail tattooThe meaning behind the ENOUGH bracelet and why it is intentionally sold in pairs: one to keep and one to give awayHow Blake is using the AI mental health app Sonia to support his emotional well-being and self-reflectionWhat two marriages and two divorces taught him that no retreat, therapy session, or self-help book couldWhy vulnerability is a superpower—especially for men and leadersIf you're interested in mental health, personal growth, conscious leadership, entrepreneurship, spirituality, purpose, healing, and living a more meaningful life, this conversation offers practical wisdom and deeply personal insights that will stay with you long after the episode ends. About Blake Mycoskie: Blake Mycoskie is best known as the founder of TOMS Shoes and the creator of the One for One movement, which gave over 100 million pairs of shoes to children in need and helped spark a new wave of social entrepreneurship. But behind the global success, he was quietly battling something deeper — the unshakable belief that he was never enough. After selling TOMS, that internal struggle became impossible to ignore. Despite having everything he once believed would bring fulfillment — family, success, community, and financial security — he found himself in a profound depression. That breaking point led to a life-altering realization: the wound wasn't external. It was rooted within. And the only way forward was to heal the original lie that he wasn't enough. From that awakening came his next chapter — ENOUGH, a cultural movement designed to challenge the deeply ingrained belief of not enough and reframe how we understand mental health at its core. He is also the host of No Magic Pill, a podcast for honest, unfiltered conversations about mental health, and co-founder of Morning Water and Moovlab, wellness brands rooted in intentional living and human performance. Blake is a loving father of two, an avid surfer, and a portrait photographer currently working on a 50th birthday project, photographing the people who have most shaped his life.  Links: ENOUGH Bracelet: www.weareenough.org Morning Water: https://blakemycoskie.com/morning-water Sonia AI Therapy App: https://www.soniahealth.com/ No Magic Pill Podcast: Available on all podcast platforms and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@NoMagicPillwithBlakeMycoskie Book: Awareness by Anthony de Mello — https://amzn.to/4vRxK5p Book: Everything is Spiritual by Rob Bell — https://amzn.to/4y4LNpW Website: www.blakemycoskie.com Connect With Blake Mycoskie: Instagram: @blakemycoskie LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakemycoskie/  Substack: Blake Mycoskie on Substack https://nomagicpills.substack.com/ About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #BlakeMycoskie #TOMSShoes #MentalHealth #SelfWorth #PurposeDrivenBusiness #ConsciousLeadership #PersonalGrowth #Spirituality #Healing #IAmEnough #Purpose   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

What if the secret to a meaningful life has nothing to do with religion, a guru, or a self-help book — and everything to do with simply paying attention? John Lloyd, the legendary British producer behind Mr. Bean, Blackadder, QI and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has spent decades exploring consciousness, synchronicity, Ignosticism and what he calls the miracle of simply being alive. He is also, in his own words, a professor of ignorance — and one of the wisest people you will ever hear speak. What We Cover: Growing up in the Church of England and losing faith the moment he was confirmedThe miracle of consciousness and the question his newborn son sparked in himThree years crying under his desk and the long road back through Marcus Aurelius and Sufi mysticsLife as a video game and why every so often you hear a voice saying "Welcome to level nine"Synchronicity, paying attention, and why your world gets bigger when you notice moreIgnosticism: the philosophical stance that theological debate is meaningless until the word "God" is coherently definedThe five commandments of his personal religion in waitingWhy it should not be the pursuit of happiness but the pursuit of meaningJudge not, and why you never have enough information to judge anyoneHow to raise children with curiosity, wonder, and respect instead of dogmaThe connection between comedy, consciousness, and the sacredAbout John Lloyd: John Lloyd is one of Britain's most celebrated producers, whose credits include Blackadder, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Spitting Image, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Mr. Bean, and QI — now in its 24th season. One of his most legendary contributions to British culture, The News Quiz on BBC Radio, is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027. He is a multiple BAFTA winner with one of the most celebrated bodies of work in British television history. John has spent decades quietly exploring the deeper questions of existence through books, walks, and what he calls "insight rushes."  Connect With John Lloyd: Website: www.qi.com  Instagram: @johnlloydqi  Also check out John's son Harry's band, Waiting for Smith — a musician on a mission to spread joy. Find him on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57oieIojgviKMyTtzG4kn2?si=CZzLd_VdTduxvz_AWQtfGQ About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect with The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com  YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin  Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin  LinkedIn: / arianed1  X: @clickariane  TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #johnlloyd #mrbean #blackadder #QI #ignostic #consciousness #mindfulness #agnostic #spiritualawakening #synchronicity #tvproducer #tvwriter #spiritcollectivepodcast #itstimeforadifferentconversation   Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.comSubscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisinApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4TkcpkFollow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisinLearn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com