Episode 1501: Interview with Steven Falk About His Journey to Find His Calling in the Battle of the Brains

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1, 501 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Steven Falk: I'm Steven Falk. I challenge you to invest in yourself. Invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize how you can change your brain is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.

[00:00:27] The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:39] Like, try going to church and not get offended. You know, like, same thing, like, I'm not going to church, that's a bunch of hypocrites. Well, that's your back brain, and you have an unresolved memory that is now the landing pad for that stimulus. Now, the flip side is, If you're willing to do just a bit of work with team, you can actually harvest

[00:00:59] Scott Maderer: [00:01:00] those memories.

[00:01:01] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, your family, Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:34] In today's podcast episode, I interview Stephen Falk. I asked Stephen about his journey to discovering the battle of the brains. Stephen also shares how his unique insight came out of his own challenges. And I also asked Stephen to share how the work he does with loggers in a really dangerous field really applies to all of us.

[00:01:54] I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living. Assemble the puzzle of your [00:02:00] calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over at inspiredlivingbook. com It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it as well as purchase a copy there.

[00:02:16] I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Today's guest is Stephen R. Falk. He's the CEO and founder of Switchback Systems, a safety leadership consulting firm with a global reach. With over 35 years of experience, which began as a marriage and family therapy. Stephen has transformed his expertise into helping organizations reduce workplace fatalities and revitalize team dynamics.

[00:02:44] He's a sought after speaker and author of The Switched On CEO, offering practical strategies to enhance leadership, resilience, and communication. Stephen is here to share insights that will empower you to lead more effectively and create a [00:03:00] safer, more dynamic work environment. Welcome to the show, Steven.

[00:03:05] Steven Falk: Thank you so much, Scott.

[00:03:06] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I look forward to having our conversation today. We talked a little bit in the intro. I shared some of the things you do, but I talked to you earlier in the pre show, and we've had a couple of conversations and I always tell people, I think intros and those sorts of things are funny because they never tell the whole story of our journey.

[00:03:26] And what really brought us to that point, it tends to be a lot messier than we make it out to be in the intros. Would you mind talking a little bit more about your journey and what's made you focus on looking at how the brain works and then doing the kind of unique work that you do around leadership and communication and resilience and these other principles?

[00:03:47] Steven Falk: Sure. I probably I should start by saying I'm my number one first client. And so that's always the caveat. That's interesting. So I didn't come from a position of going, I've got it all nailed down. So I've got this figured [00:04:00] out. So I think my journey, I listened to podcasts just recently where a really famous guy and he started with.

[00:04:05] Oh man, I grew up in this crazy broken home and I went, Oh, what an interesting way to start. So I'll start there. So when I was two, I had meningitis, which really affects the brain. Fully paralyzed. A couple of kids died in our community. My parents are driving me to the hospital and they're Christian.

[00:04:21] And so they're praying to God and saying, Why are you taking Steve? But you can have him like he's yours. Like they have this full surrender, bawling their eyes out. I'm not, I can't even sit in a seat because I'm paralyzed flat. Get to the hospital. It's a Catholic hospital. So these nuns are hovering around this dying child.

[00:04:38] The family doctor shows up. He grabs my, puts his hands on my head to try to move my neck. I scream bloody murder. I'm Instantly, miraculously healed in a hospital and that wasn't the genre of my family's faith story. They didn't like, we were good people that grew big gardens and worked hard and had our head down and just did our work.

[00:04:59] But [00:05:00] that, that a miraculous event wasn't something that was like, oh, that's normal for us. So I think when my parents were driving me home, they're going, What is, and what's up with this kid? So I think they've always had a curiosity around me. And of course, I didn't fail. I didn't I didn't manage to disappoint.

[00:05:15] I became a classic, gifted, and talented underachiever. So gifted in all these wonderful ways that don't really turn into great report cards, but turn into having really great friendships and lots of shenanigans. But I had a battle essentially with God right from the start was like, what do I do with this veil that was torn in my life because I could sense it in my spirit.

[00:05:39] I was, I honestly didn't feel like my siblings. I didn't feel like I was the same as I'm sure there are lots of people that tracked this journey but I didn't know them. And so I would be driving along in the school bus and be like, There's bad stuff that happens down that driveway and my friends would be like, what are you talking about?

[00:05:58] I said, yes, it's not [00:06:00] good. When we go trick or treating. We're definitely not going down that driveway and then when you know, like a couple months later, there's a some bad thing and the cops are there and the local paper talks about what takes place So I tried to battle that out of my life.

[00:06:14] So I had a battle of the brains early on Question is am I gifted? Do I have dyslexia? Do I have spiritual awareness or do I have a mental illness? Those are the battle of the brains. What stabilized everything for me was when I got married. I got married young, which is such a great move for me, because I needed what's called team.

[00:06:35] I was not able to navigate life on my own, honestly. I could get a C plus in English, but there's no way I could get an A. And so even like university is I'm not 100 percent sure I could do that. I peddled my bike across the United States as a 16 year old. So that was pretty cool, actually applying for university.

[00:06:51] That's Oh, that's above my pay grade. So when I got married, she was the total package. Karen's her name. She's from the prairies. And so we got married. All of a sudden I find myself [00:07:00] in college. I finished college and the college people saying what are you gonna do next? I said, I don't know. And back then, master's degrees weren't even that popular.

[00:07:07] It's like an odd thing to do. I think you should go get a master's. The only school that had taken me was a seminary in California because of my degree. And then I looked at that, That the program we're working on, holy moly, have all the core, all the programs involved, like Hebrew and Greek.

[00:07:23] I'm going to die. There's not a chance I'm going to make it through that. So they had this one program called marriage and family and child therapy, a master's in that, that was licensed in California. Hey, there's no language requirement. I'm in. That was the first time I thought I'd be like someone that helped people up until then it's like I had no clue so it was one of those that hero's journey where you just stumble into opportunities.

[00:07:45] They took bets at that seminary. That's how long I was going to last. So I was not your typical student. I wore like longer clothes. To my first week, a week or two of school, because I'm from Canada, the north, like the west [00:08:00] coast of Canada, right out, right in the center of like big logging, big trees, big logging operations.

[00:08:05] And so I'd spend a bit of time logging. So imagine this is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm walking to school with a wool logger sweater and Longer jeans and oh, it's just what a clown. Like they must've looked at me and said, what is wrong with this guy? He's so closed off, but at the same time, so likable.

[00:08:25] I always think there's these people in our lives, and I'm hoping your listeners are going to pick up on this too, that there are, it's usually people in our lives that turn our lives around. We don't wake up by ourselves, or crack open the Bible, and sometimes it happens, right? But often it's people.

[00:08:42] And so for me, it was a guy called Dr. Al Dueck. He was the department head. He was a Stanford PhD. His head looked like an egg, and he was so smart. But he had a wound, the wound was his dad had died in a dr in a boating accident, [00:09:00] and he had a chip on his shoulder, and he hadn't quite really surrendered to the establishment.

[00:09:06] So he was one of these brilliant, wait a second, gifted and talented, but a little bit not 100 percent bought it. He took one look at me, he was at a department head said, I've seen this brain before so three weeks and he calls me into his office. He goes, I don't know how you got through our vetting process, you have a new baby and you've moved here from Canada.

[00:09:29] So what are we going to do? He says, you can't put a sentence together. Like a written sentence, like, how are we going to sort this out? And I'm going, why are you asking me? He said this, which was profound for me. I haven't, I don't think I've ever told a podcast this story before. He got up out of his desk and it's California, it's hot.

[00:09:46] So he had these big wooden Venetian blinds. He opens the blinds and says, Steve come to the window. Take a look, like our campus isn't huge, but we had a student that came that asked to come to our school, but he he's in a wheelchair and this is in the back in the days when it [00:10:00] wasn't required by government law to have access.

[00:10:03] So he gave us a two, I think a two year lead, like head start. And we literally ramped the campus for him and it cost us lots and lots of money. So he sat back down, I sat back down in the chair across from him. Of course, he's got not quite like yours, but his backdrop was giant, like library with books. So me, I'm like, Oh, books.

[00:10:27] I can barely, I don't even know if I can sign a book out, right? Let alone read it. So he goes, here's the deal, Steve. What do you think about if we ramp the campus for you? Cause he was intrigued with my brain and he wasn't tripping over my scholastic dysfunction. And that is very rare that we find people in our lives that can ferret out the gold and see past all the distraction.

[00:10:55] I sometimes call it this, it's overcompensation out of [00:11:00] an acute sense of lack. Another way to say it is, you overcompensate. Hey everybody, look over here, nothing's going on. And what you're doing is you're hiding a drinking problem, or a spelling problem, or this problem, or some So you're creating this big overcompensate in longer close to, to graduate school.

[00:11:19] It's the overcompensation of cute and lack. He had the discernment to recognize that entire dynamic and go, hold on, what's going on? My, because he had a kid that was in grade 12 that was failing English, his one and only son. And so here's his kid that he's hoping he has all his hopes and dreams are, tied up in, he has two kids, his son, and his son is like really struggling in English, which is the foundation for university.

[00:11:49] And so I think in his subconscious conscious moral compass, he's I can't kick this guy to the curb because I'm not willing to kick my kids to the curb. So we made a [00:12:00] deal. He said, if you work like three times as hard as anyone else at the school, I'll support you and we'll, let's go for it. And I did, I ended up being the valedictorian one of three for the whole place.

[00:12:11] And I had to, I remember it was like, he was like, Homer Martin, I think his name was like, he was rated like third top evangelical Old Testament professor in the world, like he, I don't know, I'm sure how they rank these people, but anyways, he's written all these books and I had to take one of his courses, it was hard, but he came to me at grad with tears in his eyes.

[00:12:32] said, Steve, I just need to confess something to you. Said, I bet in the staff lounge that you weren't going to laugh more than three weeks. And here you are, and basically said, you're proof that people can change. So that pillar was probably along with that spiritual intriguing thing that happened in my life.

[00:12:55] And people like unusual people like Al Duwek that saw the gold in [00:13:00] amongst all the dirt. That was, became the foundation for a 22 year career as a marriage and family therapist. I didn't care who you were or how you got dragged into my office or who forced you to come. I was intrigued. I was so intrigued.

[00:13:15] So for even like 12 years, I was like our local One of two local therapists for child protection. So kids get removed, thrown into foster care, parents maybe even charges laid against them. And my job was to take that whole entire soup of dysfunction, like all of the uncles and aunts and everyone, and start working with them and try to make sense.

[00:13:37] So it's, oh, just for your audience, I don't think I've shared this with anyone else either, but this is the way I would try to work it out. So sometimes it'd even be people that, they were in the sex trade cause that was how they made their living. But here comes this woman, right?

[00:13:50] She's again, overcompensation out of an acute sense of lack. Gold hidden in a lot of dirt. So she would [00:14:00] come in and she'd be just flamboyant and flirty and really Oh, cool. I get a male therapist. I'm like, this is my worst nightmare. I don't have proper security. You know what I mean? I'm in my office in town.

[00:14:12] Like how this isn't good. Like he said, she said, so this is a technique I did. And your Christians that have your listeners that have a faith base, they're going to love this. I think I would sit across from her and through my human perspective, I would see, let's say cleavage. So then I'd pretend that I'd look down at my notes.

[00:14:31] I'd pretend to look at my notes, but I'd actually close my eyes and say, What do you see, Jesus? Then I'd open my eyes, and if nothing happened, I'd look back down again. And I'd say, What do you see? And I'm telling you, this is, this is something that you develop maybe over years and through pain and suffering and through a wound, but, and maybe even gifting this one that particularly what I'm talking about right there.

[00:14:59] I closed my eyes, I [00:15:00] opened them. I saw leathery skin on her face. So the cleavage was gone. Like her, her selling feature from a worldly sin point of view was gone. And I saw this leathery skin. I saw a wound. I saw this deep regret, I saw a longing for normalcy,

[00:15:22] Scott Maderer: and

[00:15:22] Steven Falk: when I looked at her like that, she went, What's happening?

[00:15:26] I said in a typical therapist, they always deflect it back, which is really cheesy, I think, but it's what do you think is happening? Isn't that such a cop out? But anyways, so she goes, I don't know. I said is it good or bad? She goes, I think it's good. And so she ended up being like a, through the government, ended up being like a client for a year and a half and ended up turning her whole life around.

[00:15:48] That's like a micro example of like the journey of the, I don't know the wounded healer or the, whatever you want to call it. But over time, here it is, people can change. And my wife [00:16:00] tested brains as part of, a supplement to what I was doing in the office. And she was attached to something called Structure of Intellect, SOI.

[00:16:07] The, one of the best diagnostic tools I've ever, we've actually, the best that we've come across. So I just fully bought in. So in my forties, what would have taken me four days to rewire my brain took about four years. Because from a neuroplasticity point of view, your Your brain is just more nimble when you're 9 years old.

[00:16:29] When you're 40, it's less nimble. So what I had is, I had a visual closure problem. I didn't even know that I was dyslexic. So the visual closure problem was that my eyes refused to focus on a linear process of going from one side of the page to the other. One eye would lay out a patch of rubber.

[00:16:48] For those of you that are car enthusiasts, you know what I'm talking about. The rest of you don't know. No cars, it's really hard to get it, but lay a patch of rubber. Really? Lay a patch of rubber, just zoom across at a million miles an hour, build one, do a giant loop over the top. [00:17:00] Her like her trainer, I was just riding along with one of her higher whatever, advanced training in Oregon.

[00:17:07] And I was just being her guinea pig for the week of training. She goes, she says, Steve, can you read? I go, what are you talking about? I have a master's degree. Of course I can read. She goes, come on, I'm a professional. I've got it. I've got a government contract, but at the same time it's oh, what do you see that I know that no one else knows?

[00:17:24] She goes, what's up with your eyes man? They just don't track at all. And I went, okay, that, thanks for the diagnosis. What can I do? So within SOI, there's like such clear instructions, how to teach your brain how to track, and I went through that process and there was tears and frustration. But here's the crazy thing, I'm a ghost writer now for some of my clients.

[00:17:47] And this is even before ai. Like my wife, I'll come downstairs after writing an article for somebody else. He goes, what were you doing up there in the office? I go, oh, writing, writing for fun. I'm getting paid for it. [00:18:00] And she goes, I didn't even know who you are anymore. , how it possible this guy that couldn't put a sentence together is now ghostwriting for executives because, you, they be a company becomes your client.

[00:18:12] And then you really develop a relationship with the executive team and then one of the executives said, we have this culture problem, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, do a monthly newsletter, but it's just not working. And I've got to put out like six paragraphs. I go let's write it together because I here's the pillar.

[00:18:28] People can change. Pillar number one, that's neuroplasticity. Pillar number two that I based my entire career on and based my life is that the power of success is in team. Very rarely will that executive sit down in front of their computer and say, okay, time to smash it. And they'll write this great five paragraphs to draw people into team within their organization.

[00:18:48] They typically need to find someone like me or someone else or like you, Scott, and say, help me. I don't know how to, I don't know how to create warmth. I'm too technical a person. I don't know how to [00:19:00] draw people into my story. I've never shown my weak side or the underbelly of my life. Like, how do I create a hook?

[00:19:06] How do I make it? How do I make, draw people in? And so that those two pillars. People can change the power of success and team I developed back as a family therapist, but then of course there's always a transition of people's lives, but here it is the transition isn't it's not a surprise in most of our cases, it's a fulfillment of a calling or a vocation.

[00:19:28] So for me, when I was, I'm going to loop it back, because I got a feeling that time is rolling through here. When I was healed miraculously of meningitis, there was a calling that was placed on my life, non negotiable. I could have fought it, I could have ended up in prison, all kinds of things could have happened, but it was a non negotiable calling.

[00:19:48] And I think everyone has it, just for me, it's a I've, I unearthed it. And I've given it value, and therefore it has value. authority and power and influence in my life. [00:20:00] But here it is, it was this, it was a calling that said, there's more, there's a bigger audience, I want you to impact more. That was the thing that freaked me out at 7, and it freaked me out at 14, and made me ride my bike across the United States, and made me marry someone that's smart, and not quit graduate school and hustle my way through.

[00:20:21] So in 2005, that opening came. We have four kids now. They're married and we have 11 grandkids. So this, it's been a rich journey. It's really nice. But in 2005 it's it was transition time and I, again, I didn't create it. I just had a rotten kid on my hockey team that I was volunteering coaching with.

[00:20:42] And his dad had ended up being a powerful manager, like a district manager for a giant, the biggest longing company on Vancouver Island. He watched me turn his kid around. And then one day they were yelling at each other in their board [00:21:00] meetings and what are we going to do with this operation because no one has been able to crack the code yet.

[00:21:04] They're thinking of all these different like Stephen Covey and this and that, all these different books that they've read, like who, which organization can help us. And then maybe serendipitous, maybe God, for whatever reason, he was inspired in the moment to put up his hand and say, would you give my kids hockey coaching a shot?

[00:21:24] That was my bigger resume. That was the big launch. So he called his head, Steve, I'm taking a chance on you. Don't screw it up. But here's 80 employees, 20 staff, 50 grievances, couple fatalities a year. Fix us. It was about two hours away from my home. So my wife and I like this is going to pay the bills and wait a second.

[00:21:49] More importantly, this tracks with the calling. This is that new thing. So I messed around with that and they got their grievances down to [00:22:00] four in 12 months, like on a running, like monthly average, when you average it out without firing or hiring new people. And then 2009 they had a. Fall, like tree falling like a baller near fatality and they asked the same question again.

[00:22:15] What are we missing? Why aren't these people thinking about this in the heat of the moment? And again, they called me into their boardroom They said we've given it our best shot. Here's all the stats. Wow us And I consider these to be super spiritual, go to church moments. For me, this is when I'm really in church.

[00:22:39] I'm telling you, it's in front of people that swear like sailors and smell like pitch. And, but they, what they've done is that, I'm gonna say it in a weird way, they've. Ask the holy man to let them know what's going on. Yeah. And why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they? Cause they're accessing another, in some ways, they're actually another dimension that [00:23:00] they may not even be willing or able to go to.

[00:23:02] So that's when I drew out the model of the brain and said, okay, this is what's going on and here's his front brain operating system. Here's his back brain operating system. He's a good guy that works almost all the time in the front brain. However, he triggered. And he got a dump of a drip or a dump of adrenaline with along with cortisol and he started switchbacking up the up what I call like the mountains of the flight fight response and at the end of when the tree came down and near killed him, he was out of his mind.

[00:23:33] He was out of his rational mind

[00:23:34] Scott Maderer: and he was in his

[00:23:35] Steven Falk: irrational mind, but he hadn't figured out that had happened. He hadn't been trained. That tool wasn't in his toolbox for self regulation or situational self awareness. He didn't have those tools in his toolbox, so he just was doing what he had always done.

[00:23:54] And

[00:23:54] Scott Maderer: it

[00:23:54] Steven Falk: nearly killed him. When that happened, that company literally pinned me against a [00:24:00] wall. Physically, it said. This is your calling and all other contacts and relationships closed on your private practice. All the other goofy things that you're doing, because I was doing a lot of goofy things.

[00:24:13] Probably because I was in search mode. Searching for what is next, God? What's the next thing? And they said, we're it. We're a billion dollar company. You are our one and only human factor safety culture consultant. Transform us. What a, I didn't have a company name. I didn't have a business card.

[00:24:38] Scott Maderer: So let's dive into a couple of things there.

[00:24:40] I want to follow up on when you talk about, so you're talking about a very specific kind of area right now where, they're working in the logging industry, it's high danger, all of these sorts of things, but I also want people to realize that this. Front brain, back brain I've heard it referred to a different language by different people, but this idea of, we have [00:25:00] this primitive operating system, primitive here not being not complicated or not, meaningful or not having an impact, but just meaning it operates in a way that, that our rational brain Separate from our rational brain, that happens to us in all sorts of scenarios.

[00:25:16] It could happen to us asking a girl out for a date. It could happen to us, walking down the street at night. It could happen to us in our living room. Talk a little bit about how that kind of concept of front brain, back brain applies, not just to somebody who's chopping down a tree and in life or quote, because I think in that situation, we see it as life or death.

[00:25:36] Yeah. But it happens to us even when we're not in a literal life or death, as well as when we are in a literal life and death sometimes.

[00:25:43] Steven Falk: Yeah, I think that, I think it was a, for me, cause I developed the concept with that organization,

[00:25:50] Scott Maderer: like

[00:25:50] Steven Falk: together, they stood up an innovation team and I, they gave me their best brains and the people that are really dedicated.

[00:25:56] And together we worked on. Developing [00:26:00] concepts together. So I think the loggers are just more honest. They really are like you, you really can't turn PowerPoint onto that crowd and say, okay, let's get started. They'll call BS on you in two seconds. And so what it is, they, there, it's an, on the West Coast it's an unfiltered culture that gives instant feedback.

[00:26:23] I think the rest of us a hundred percent have the fight, fight response, the freeze the two operating systems, but we're so disguised up. If I loop it back to me going to graduate school in California, wearing like logger clothes. That's, I was dripping so much adrenaline, I couldn't even get into the library to sign out a book on Carl Jung.

[00:26:47] A, I didn't know how to spell his last name. I honestly couldn't figure it out, and I would have a panic attack on the way in. That panic attack is back brain operating [00:27:00] system. That's an adrenaline, mixed with anxiety and cortisol driving me up to the top of the mountains. And it affects you physiologically.

[00:27:07] So there I am, I'm not being a logger chopping down a tree. I'm a graduate student trying to sign out of a book. And your example of going on a date. Just getting an email from, let's say, an authority figure, or someone that you're trying to impress, or someone you're trying to make a connection with.

[00:27:22] You get the email and some people catastrophically, like their back brain takes over at that moment. Oh yeah. It's bad news. And they go, come on. Here

[00:27:30] Scott Maderer: you go, folks. Here's this one. Imagine you open your inbox and there's an email from your box boss that says we need to talk and that's all it says.

[00:27:38] Steven Falk: The boss had taken, let's say our switchback training.

[00:27:41] He would have put it in an emoji into something, but it said a little happy face with like a colon and a smile. Just so that he could set the tone as to where this conversation is going. But that's a perfect example, Scott. So you open your inbox and you get that on the subject line from your box.

[00:27:58] Boom. You get a drop of a [00:28:00] dump of adrenaline. Your whole world's falling apart. You might as well get divorced and climb into a cave and run away from your family. You're going to be homeless

[00:28:07] Scott Maderer: under a bridge.

[00:28:09] Steven Falk: That's right. It's and wait, which operating system and that, that is the ridiculous backbrain exaggerating line.

[00:28:16] operating system. So that happens day to day, but here it is. We, that happens in meetings, at work, at home, in church, anywhere, right? And so typically we wear a mask. and we just sit and we take it. The advantage of those loggers as my, as the ones that helped me develop this amazing tool, was they don't have a mask.

[00:28:41] They laugh and cry and yell and scream. And so the more corporate we get, the more urban we get, the more disconnected we get from ourselves, the harder it is for us even to know that it's operational.

[00:28:55] I think men typically have a harder time [00:29:00] recognizing these two operating systems or admitting the percentage game going.

[00:29:05] What percentage of my brain is still front brain logical? What percent of my brain is getting catastrophic about this? And what's, and what are the messages that each of those thought processes are giving me, and what are the beliefs and the limiting beliefs? And is it based in trauma? What's the historical evidence that I have based my backbrain, development on.

[00:29:25] If I could just shift for just a second, I think lots of people have been able to describe this phenomena. I think the unique proposition that has really given like fan the flame for our, our for our movement is that we help people move memories. that drains the back brain of its neurological landing pad.

[00:29:50] Try going to church and not get offended. Same thing I'm not going to church, that's a bunch of hypocrites. That's your back brain, and you have an unresolved memory that is now [00:30:00] the landing pad for that stimulus. Now, the flip side is, if you're willing to do just a bit of work with team, you can actually harvest those memories from Mexico, from church, and from the mall.

[00:30:14] One of my favorite places to go is outside of Walmart on Christmas Eve. And so all these men that are absolutely tortured, especially because I'm from an industrial town. So all these trucks with tidy tanks, like gas, little, like diesel tanks in the back and toolboxes like industrial vehicles parked outside of Walmart.

[00:30:31] What are those dudes doing on Christmas Eve? Buying presents for their rotten kids that, So why do they wait until Christmas Eve? And what's the chances of them having a fist fight in the parking lot? You can get front row seats to a real tragic sort of situation.

[00:30:47] That's an odd, that's an odd thing to say because it sounds like I'm making fun of them, but I'm not. Those are the people that I love, right? And so when we even do training in the world, we'd say, hold on let's plan out your Christmas better than it's been before. [00:31:00]

[00:31:00] Scott Maderer: So what

[00:31:00] Steven Falk: do you need to do from a, from just a project management point of view to keep yourself anchored to the front brain during the Christmas season?

[00:31:09] How about buy presents ahead of time? How about go on Amazon and have them delivered? How about preparing ahead of time? How much you're going to drink when you go to the family gathering? How about setting up, a safety hatch, a way to get in and out of difficult situations. How about mending a fence before you show up at the Christmas gathering, like whatever it is, right?

[00:31:33] And so this, the practicalities of this, backbrain, frontbrain neuroscience model is, it's like you said before, it's applicable everywhere.

[00:31:44] Scott Maderer: And I think too, obviously the first step. Is becoming aware of it because like you mentioned a lot of folks, even if they're aware of it, they don't necessarily have the language around what's going on to be able to [00:32:00] even articulate or understand it.

[00:32:02] I, one of the things I talk to people about is when you. When your brain begins to do what I call the P's, which is, it all of a sudden makes something out to be permanent, pervasive, and personal, that's the, I, it's not, I failed. It's, I'm a failure. It's, that's the personal, it's not, I just failed at this one thing.

[00:32:21] It's, I always fail. That's permanent. And it's not even just I failed at one thing. I fail at everything that's pervasive. The that to me is a signal that you're dropping into that primitive brain mindset of I'm not able to operate in a rational way because honestly, rationally, Those three things cannot be true about everything.

[00:32:43] If you're alive,

[00:32:44] Steven Falk: say them again, because I'm trying to write them down. I'm sure you're listening.

[00:32:48] Scott Maderer: It's the three P's are permanent, pervasive and personal. Permanent is, it's not just, I failed once. I always fail. Yes. Pervasive is I didn't just fail at [00:33:00] one thing, I fail at everything.

[00:33:02] Yeah. Impersonal is I didn't fail, I'm a failure. You make it about you. It becomes an identity statement as opposed to That's it right there. A statement of something external.

[00:33:13] Steven Falk: Yeah. I love that. I love that. Yeah. That's the same pathway that we're talking about. And it's the battle of the brains.

[00:33:22] And so the back brain owns those three P's. The front brain has, and team has the ability to deconstruct those. But if you lay in bed and just try to sort that out under the cover, good luck.

[00:33:37] Scott Maderer: Yeah. And it's hard to do that without a context and a culture and other people too, because yeah, it's in, in our own brain, It makes perfect sense.

[00:33:48] And again, to be fair, I think that, that primitive brain, that back brain system, it's there for a reason. It's trying to protect us. It's not bad. It's not evil,

[00:33:59] Steven Falk: no it's, [00:34:00] it preserves really good neurological development for the first like 15 to 20 years of your life. So when bad things happen when you're a kid, memories get stored in the back brain in order to preserve the development of the front brain.

[00:34:14] However, we carry that over into our adult life and often the threat is 20 years old. And yet we're still carrying that belief

[00:34:22] Scott Maderer: and may not have been nearly as big of a threat as we perceived because we were 14 at the time or 12 at the time.

[00:34:30] Steven Falk: It might have been a perceived threat versus a real threat even.

[00:34:33] Scott Maderer: Yeah.

[00:34:33] Steven Falk: Yeah. And so all of a sudden you see these people that are hamstring during their careers or let's say, like in your world where they're trying to advance their, their, let's say their coaching program or something and they still can't do a cold call. Break it down. Cold calls are the perfect case study.

[00:34:49] To sort out what's happening in the battle of the brains between the front brain operating system in the back and with your three P's and, ideas around your identity and your beliefs. [00:35:00] The cool thing is, we can change. We can literally harvest and move these memories. And I think that is such a foundational liberation for people, for myself, along with everyone else, right?

[00:35:13] Scott Maderer: So when you talk about harvesting and moving the memories, talk a little bit more about what that is. What that looks like for someone or what, what's I know it's not something that you can do easily without a context but talk a little bit about what that means.

[00:35:26] Cause that sounds magic. You know what I mean? It sounds like you're waving a magic wand and move that. And I know that's not what you're talking about.

[00:35:34] Steven Falk: But sometimes it's literally if you have a 200 amp service in your brain, like that's like for a regular house, you just got some circuits that are turned off and turned on.

[00:35:44] So sometimes you literally can just buy by your human agency can turn off a circuit and you can turn on a circuit So some people can literally that's a get rid of rage or out of control anger with a flick of a switch for other people It's a very big journey I'll give you [00:36:00] one example. This is almost the origin story for understanding this.

[00:36:03] Of course, here we go. A logging manager. Big bravo. And he goes, here's my problem. I'm a likable guy, but I whenever I see a safety infraction, I completely lose my mind. I say the most inappropriate things. He doesn't, he didn't talk like that, but I'm just, Paraphrasing, right? He flies off the handle.

[00:36:19] Yeah, he flies off the handle. He said, and I'd go like, how, as I'm trying to create context what kind of help are you looking for? Into instantaneous, or do you think it's going to take six months to sort this out? Because get it done right now, Steve. Then something happened to your right eye while you're telling the story.

[00:36:36] He goes, what are you talking about? That's called like a micro expression, right? I said it did this thing and I asked myself what that it was. I consulted with God, but as well in my own thoughts, but I asked myself, what is that? And I got the word or the, I just got 12 years old, but I said, let's, if you want to cut to the chase, what happened when you're 12, because your, I went 12 while you're telling the story, which is weird.

[00:36:59] Cause you're [00:37:00] 52 years old or whatever he was. It goes, Ooh, you're good. It goes. When I was 12, I was out in a small boat with my brother. He's 14. The wind whipped up. We decided to swim to shore because the boat was going down. I made it. He drowned. He was the hero of the family. I was the culprit. I blamed myself.

[00:37:15] It was my fault he died. My family, my parents were alcoholics. They blamed me. My sister blamed me. I still blame me. Okay, so roll this forward. Where is that memory stored? Front or back? Of course, back brain. Has it been resolved, sorted out, moved? No. What happens when he sees a safety infraction out in the bush?

[00:37:35] He turns into a 12 year old and he says 12 year old kind of things. A 12 year old trying

[00:37:43] Scott Maderer: to protect his brother from Yeah,

[00:37:45] Steven Falk: yeah, and trying to not get beat up by his mom and dad. And not, yeah, have this blame

[00:37:50] Scott Maderer: come on to him.

[00:37:51] Steven Falk: Yeah, so he turns into that guy and then he's super ashamed. from that and feels guilty and goes and hides in a cave up some, parks his truck [00:38:00] in some side spot and acts like a 12 year old again, then vows he's never going to do it.

[00:38:04] Three weeks later, he does it again. So this is the way he moved it. I said, it's just exposure therapy for him, which says, we need to expose this memory. Yeah. Out of the back brain, vault, and into front brain processing. That's all you need to do. So when's the last time you told the story of the event?

[00:38:23] With context. Ages, maybe 30 years ago. Okay, can you tell your wife? Says yes. How about your kids? Can you tell your adult kids? Yes, I can tell them. If you are successful at that, would you mind telling, let's say, your supervisors, your woods foreman, and all the rest? Can you either one on one or in a team meeting, just tell them to, and then try to make it as, as diagnostic as possible.

[00:38:43] Go behind the veil and spin the Rubik's Cube and get understanding from it. It says, sure. It said, I bet you, if you're recorded, Like every and every time you retold that story from a diagnostic point of view from it and using that as an exposure therapy that you wouldn't even fill one [00:39:00] page like date and time and that memory would be permanently shifted from the backbrain to frontbrain and you would never have that reaction again.

[00:39:09] So he ended up doing it, using it as a, how they have safety talks. So he would, cause he was a great guy. He's a super great guy. So he'd go and then they shut down the machine and the three guys would stand there and, in the rain and say, okay, here's my safety talk. I'm going to tell you a story.

[00:39:23] When I was 12 years old and he goes, tell us a story. And he says, and this is what I think happened. And this is why I do that crazy thing. You know what? Once he had done that safety tour, that reaction was outside of his portfolio. It was gone. So that's that neuroplasticity people can change. So imagine that he's he could have tried to do breathing exercises or meditation or those are all helpful.

[00:39:48] However, they're not getting to the root. The root is you got to move where the memory is stored. If you move where the memory is stored, then there is not a neurological landing pad for the synapses. [00:40:00]

[00:40:00] Scott Maderer: The

[00:40:00] Steven Falk: brain's like an electrical system. It's looking for the easiest, shortest pathway to make sense of whatever's taking place.

[00:40:06] Scott Maderer: And it moves it to a place where he was able to more rationally think about it. And in your, and in this case of the example you're using too, he was able to socialize it, meaning he got it out into his brain. environment to where, it becomes so in other words, even he's not just aware of it.

[00:40:24] The people around him are aware of it too.

[00:40:27] Steven Falk: Yeah. We also often call that a double bind. Yeah. So double bind means that I'm trying to monitor my own behavior, but so is everyone else aware of the mountain that aware of what I'm trying to monitor. So if they're the power success successes and team pillar number two, if they actually.

[00:40:43] are supportive of this leader, they would also create a environment where they're trying to not trigger him as well.

[00:40:52] Scott Maderer: And they're more aware of what they're doing that is triggering. Yes. They're conscious of it. So it's a feedback loop. Yeah.

[00:40:58] Steven Falk: And the wild thing is that's [00:41:00] how you move the needle in safety culture in the workplace, like wildland fire.

[00:41:04] That's how you like, we've been in executive places where that's how the CFO changes his world because he had a stutter. And so the way he overcame the stutterers by using aggressive and adrenaline to, so he could speak properly. So he never solved the root problem. So every time he got, like the board of directors would ask him a poignant question, he would lose his mind and totally humiliate himself and his executive team.

[00:41:31] The minute he realized the roots the mechanism behind why he was doing it, It disappeared.

[00:41:37] Scott Maderer: . So when you think about this, it, 'cause you're talking about doing it in, in an environment or in a group. How does this apply to leaders? When they find themselves in those high pressure situations and those, those moments.

[00:41:56] What are some of the tools or the techniques that they [00:42:00] need to take away from this to begin to look at how they're affecting the whole culture of their environment, themselves what are some of the signs that you see, or the tools that you use, look for leaders to to begin to find, to become more aware and more able to handle this kind of battle of the brains.

[00:42:20] Steven Falk: That's a great question, Scott. The, I think I had a, such an easy pathway into this development because I was working in a very open culture, like the West Coast logging culture is so open when I've only just written one book, it's called the switched on CEO, how to think like a world class leader.

[00:42:36] And so I, on purpose wrote it to CEOs, because that's a whole nother kettle of fish. They wear so many disguises. And so there's layers and layers of protection for them to be able to become self or situationally aware. And they've actually in many ways, they've conquered the back brain without actually [00:43:00] dealing with it.

[00:43:02] They've shut it. They've, it's almost like someone coming back from active service with PTSD. And they just go, I'm not going there. I can't go there. If I go there, I'll probably lose my mind. I'm Or I'll end up back in addictions. So as often CEOs are there too, they've become so corporate in their world, but it totally impacts their relationships with their family, with their kids and it goes on and on.

[00:43:29] So it's a very lonely spot. The technique that we talked about, we talk about most is we say, and it's going to sound a little bit philosophical, but it's very practical. Is your brain needs to be able to see it first. So we say that you need to be able to see it and understand the dynamic.

[00:43:49] And once you can understand the dynamic, see it first. understand it, then you can either manage, change, heal, forgive, whatever it is, whatever the journey is that you need to [00:44:00] do, that's how you can go about it. And so the technique that we've used for that is our team, primarily myself, is we've drawn out every single one of these conversations we're having right now into very simple felt pen frameworks.

[00:44:17] This is what the brain looks like. This is what memories look like that are stored in the front. This is what memories look like that are stored in the back brain. This is what it looks like to move them. This is what's going on behind that. Here's the lawyers, a lawyer up with limiting beliefs. Here's where they live.

[00:44:29] Here's the target. This is this. And so we have about eight primary frameworks. And the reason we think that's a tool that's useful is that, like in this podcast, it's going to be an auto recording. We have developed all our. survival skills through auditory processing and through reading processing.

[00:44:49] Here's remember, I was a non reader. And so the way I solved my brain in graduate school is I had to take all my notes [00:45:00] apart, like before an exam and paste take them throughout the entire apartment. And then I would color code them and and really important ones are in the bathroom and other ones are here.

[00:45:11] Then I'd sit in an exam having a mild panic attack. And I go, come on, Steve, you've got this. What color was it? And I go, green. Where was green? It was in the hallway. Okay, so you, it started at the top of the ceiling. It went down to the bottom of the floor. What was that? That was the Protestant Reformation.

[00:45:31] Okay. Okay. Now what was going on with that?

[00:45:34] Scott Maderer: And

[00:45:34] Steven Falk: all of a sudden boom. It all released for me. But I had to start with. A visual, tactile, kinesthetic, and I would study by touching the papers, and I'd walk through my house, usually with a tear in my eye, because I was dramatic, and I was, because I was trying to survive, I was in survival mode with people that didn't have to do that, and I would just touch the walls and work my way through my [00:46:00] apartment for studying for just one simple exam.

[00:46:03] That is the pathway in for CEOs and people that are leaders, because it is less guarded. They haven't used it. And so you can get in easier. There's less barricades to the process. So in aesthetic learning, when we're doing, let's say like a three day leadership retreat or one of our foundation trainings, we'll actually say, everyone grab a pen paper.

[00:46:28] Draw exactly what I'm drawing. Okay. Draw that line at the bottom. That's your front brain operating system. Okay. Draw it now. Here's a target right in the middle. If you've got red, can you draw it in red? Now put your hand on it and just keep your hand there. Let's talk. So now we're using the portal of kinesthetic learning, touch and visual without words.

[00:46:49] to get past all their corporate mumble jumbo to the root. And for me, I think that's, I was a bit of a weird old freak [00:47:00] with how my brain was. It was for me, it was a survival technique. For those people that we serve, like with the U. S. federal government and what, whatnot, those people that we serve, this becomes a secret passage to neuroplasticity for them.

[00:47:20] And it's partly, I can give my wife credit because it's partly the SOI program. So she had one story from her program where a contractor in Seattle couldn't read and write at all. So that's why, people that own their own businesses. They usually have a wound. There's something that makes them unemployable.

[00:47:37] And that's why, that was me. I couldn't be employed because I didn't know how to, I couldn't put together an email. So who's going to employ me in their clinic? So I had to run my own business. And so this, in this case, that guy in Seattle, he he ran a very successful contracting business, but he couldn't read and write.

[00:47:56] So he hooked up with SOI. They tested his brain. They figured out it was this thing [00:48:00] about visual closure. Oh, no, it wasn't visual. He wasn't able to capture images with his eyes. So he said that's fine. We'll do it kinesthetically. So they got letters, like actual wooden letters that, or plastic, you can feel.

[00:48:11] And he had this little bag back when you're not allowed to, when you could still have distracted driving. So he put his hand in a little bag and just pickup truck and just feel around there's three letters and you figure out oh that's an a that's a b that's a g Eventually worked his way to the whole alphabet one day.

[00:48:25] It just Turned on. So he went to his 200 amp service and he turned on this 30 amp, this 15 amp, this 30 amp, this 15 amp, and lit it up. For the first time in his life, he dreamt and he saw billboards and menus and words. So in that, like that story was very inspirational when my wife told me that story.

[00:48:47] That was like years ago and went, I think that's a way into many people's brains.

[00:48:52] Scott Maderer: So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, Stephen, but before I go there, is there anything else about the work you do around the [00:49:00] battle of the brains that you feel is really important to share?

[00:49:05] Steven Falk: Let me just reiterate again, I think foundationally those two pillars. You're going to have a hard time making change in your life.

[00:49:14] If you don't believe you can change as well, you have a hard time rebuilding and building relationships with people, whether they're your clients, whether they're family, if you don't believe they can change as well it's, you have a hard time reconciling with your. adult kids, if you don't think they can change and you don't think you can change.

[00:49:35] So that's like a foundational worldview that I would really recommend people seriously contemplate. People get really mad at us when we talk about this because, they built a fortress around their belief system. So that neuroplasticity, the other one is, you might be amazing, but almost nobody can do it on their own.[00:50:00]

[00:50:00] And it's not a pitch for coaches and therapists, but it is kinda, because if you find an amazing coach, they can unlock a lot of stuff in your life. And, but it could also just be books you read or podcasts you listen to, or and to my point I've because I had that Merax healing at two, I was always wanting to see that again.

[00:50:22] Because it wasn't very common in West Coast of Canada. It wasn't like, oh, this is our normal experience. And so when I heard about this happening fairly predictably in a part of the world, I literally talked to my family and said, I think I need to take a road trip. And they said, go. So I flew to Mozambique and I spent two weeks.

[00:50:42] In a place where it was like, the Gospels of Jesus where the blind were seeing and the deaf were hearing and the lame were walking. So that's the, again, how do you support your belief systems? You need real live data. [00:51:00] And that's going to mean team because your own data in your own brain supports your current stuckness like that you're those you're all lawyered up to be exactly where you are and never moved.

[00:51:12] And so for me, at the time we couldn't afford 5, 000 for me to take the trip, but we did it anyways. And it wasn't like I was a gold globetrotter. I was just a humble family therapist, barely paying our bills. And so that, that was transformational for me. So I actually met the person that had written the book and being at the conference and I tagged along and she told stories and I got to see it with my own hands.

[00:51:38] So I would say that would be the two big things far as from a summary of this, is that really challenge yourself. with the fact that do you believe that people can actually change? And number two, what are you willing to do in order to find team that will help you? And it could be Scott, [00:52:00] like he might be staring you right in the face, like he might be the guy and like literally it's one text or email and boom, you've now got team and Scott's not helping you.

[00:52:09] Like it's, it can be right staring you right in the face, or it might be a trip to Mozambique Or someone just hints at some podcast and you go on to it and it starts opening up your life. And of course there's, it's going to be a battle because it's the battle of the brain. The brain doesn't, part of the brain doesn't want to change, but I think at the end of the day, the back brain is juiced by, this is I'll start to summarize it here.

[00:52:34] The back brain is juiced with adrenaline, cortisol, a bunch of other hormones, a lots of those three Ps. The front brain is juiced by hope, by vision and by calling. And so I think when you tap into vision and hope and calling, it has the ability with a lot of, divine grace and hard [00:53:00] work, you can win the battle.

[00:53:01] Scott Maderer: So my brand is inspired stewardship, but I run things through that lens of stewardship. And yet that's one of those words that I've come to understand over the years. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people when they hear that word. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

[00:53:18] Steven Falk: I'll just tie into my story. When I was two years old, I had no human agency. And yet, I was given a gift. The gift was the gift of life. A bunch of kids died of meningitis in our little community.

[00:53:33] Scott Maderer: I was

[00:53:33] Steven Falk: given the gift of life. And then I was asked to steward a spiritual awareness that was not common in my conservative evangelical environment.

[00:53:44] But I didn't know how to stewardship because I didn't have team around me. And so for many years, all the way through growing up until probably about 23, and then again at 41 I wasn't sure that the gift wasn't, [00:54:00] I wasn't sure if it was an asset or a liability, but the stewardship, as I gained, human agency and had a hard look at myself.

[00:54:10] And it helped that I got married and had four kids and I had to support my family. Like I couldn't just be reckless. I actually had to change. Then stewardship was what does it mean to steward? The calling in your life, the vocation, potentially that maybe like the calling of God in your life.

[00:54:29] What does it mean to step outside of your comfort zone of, let's say, being a family therapist to owning a consulting company that now works with the U. S. federal government, right? Like those, like often, like we've got a team in Missouri right now, like what are we doing with a team in Missouri? It makes no sense.

[00:54:44] However, it makes a total sense from stewardship because it's not us. We're partnering with, we're stewarding what, in this case, Almighty God has given us to do. He's given me assignment, I pass that assignment on to our team is bought into that [00:55:00] model, and there we are. We're stewarding it. Same thing with wealth and money.

[00:55:04] It's, for sure, you could, you can make a lot of money, but that is really not, it's not your money. You're stewarding it and people that have a wealth mindset, they realize that their job is just to steward this to the next generation to serve the world as to serve your own fantasies or pleasures.

[00:55:26] How's that?

[00:55:27] Scott Maderer: That'll work. So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine and with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future. maybe 150, maybe 250 years. But through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind.

[00:55:56] What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:55:58] Steven Falk: It's a really good question, [00:56:00] Scott.

[00:56:00] I think this is it. I want people to be able to understand themselves at a transformational level so that they can actually apply the human agency to make good decisions about their life here on earth, about eternity, about all the big questions. And I think without the, our influence, impact, they'll be thousands, not ten thousands of people that will just go through life wearing the disguise, blindly being led by their backbrain, like subconscious, unconscious guides, and will never have the opportunity to pause and exercise their human agency to ask the big questions.

[00:56:55] Who am I? What's the purpose of life? Where did I [00:57:00] come from? Where am I going? And I think if we can lay that foundation for people to essentially in the logger world to calm the hell down enough to think. I think we've done our job. I think I've done my job and I've served my calling.

[00:57:19] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you? What's on the roadmap as you continue on this journey? It's

[00:57:24] Steven Falk: a good question. We just want to grow as a company. I'm intrigued, like right now, timestamp we're like December, 2024, and I'm intrigued with hundreds of thousands of layoffs that are going to be happening in the federal government.

[00:57:40] And if I could have a magic wand, I would want to put our tool. In front of every single person that's being laid off and every single person that's now in a gutted department so they can make front brain rational decisions moving forward, because I think for a lot of them, it's going to be, they're going to get lost in [00:58:00] bitterness and self pity and revenge and just toxic sort of backbrain thinking.

[00:58:06] And so to that end would that's the big target. If you could say that to that end we have. Our company has a growth mindset. And so we just keep growing towards the doors that are open. So it looks like there's a, there's an opening in aerospace. We're heading that way. There's an opening within our company to help the veterinarian business world.

[00:58:27] We're heading that way. There's an opening to work with companies that are software based. So we're going that direction. So we're not just loggers and firefighters and foresters. So we, we have these pathways we're going. Into these niche marketplaces with the same message, just modified language.

[00:58:46] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So you can find out more about Stephen over on his website at switchbackos. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well. Stephen, anything else you'd like to [00:59:00] share with the listener?

[00:59:02] Steven Falk: I think your listeners, I'm going to throw back to you though, those three P's, if they didn't write them down, can you say them again one more time?

[00:59:11] Scott Maderer: Permanent, personal and pervasive are the three that, that and the listeners, if they're regular listeners, they've heard me saying before, because I use that a lot as a framework for recognizing when you're dipping into, what you're calling the back brain thinking.

[00:59:27] Steven Falk: Scott, to that point, what I'm actually showing right now is People can change, which means our conversation, even though I was doing the dominant talking you dropped a piece of gold for me. So I stopped, I paused, I wrote it down. I reviewed it now twice. So that's the people can change and the power successes in team.

[00:59:46] And so I have now joined team with you and I'm going to. I'm going to meditate. I'm going to contemplate this. I'm going to try to draw this, the three P's. I'm going to play with them probably for the next week or two. And I'll just see where they permeate into [01:00:00] my overall understanding. So I think that is the thing I'd like listeners to stop with and say, please be fascinated with the people that you connect with.

[01:00:10] You never know who are the going to be the agents, the catalyst for change in your life. However, it could be good old Scott.

[01:00:19] Scott Maderer: It could be the person that you're, is bagging your groceries at the grocery store. 100%, 100%. I tell people all the time, I used to fly a lot for corporate and some of the some of the best learning I had was the random people that you sit next to.

[01:00:33] sit next to in airplane, waiting rooms and standing in line with people in the security line. If you'll actually open yourself up and have a conversation with people, you, it's amazing what you can learn. And I'm an introvert. I don't like talking to other people, but I've learned that I've learned to be open to it because that's the way that I make connections.

[01:00:52] Steven Falk: So hold on, listen, isn't that scott, for your listeners, Scott just identifies himself as a label. I'm an introvert. However, [01:01:00] he's overrid that belief system with practice, knowing that, neuroplasticity you can change. And then you just go into, let's say an airport setting with a different mindset, rather than reading your big fat book, you actually start up a.

[01:01:15] An awkward conversation with the person sitting beside you in the waiting room, and it's not natural. It wasn't how you were bent necessarily, it's good for you.

[01:01:25] Scott Maderer: Yeah. And it's made tremendous impacts on my life being able to do that. Not just in terms of business, but just in terms of life you meet, you meet amazing people.

[01:01:35] If you actually open yourself up to the possibility of meeting amazing people.

[01:01:39] Steven Falk: Yeah. And then let's play this one out. And then here's this. guy that's apparently introverted that's in on purpose. Running a podcast, reading new people. Fascinating.

[01:01:51] Scott Maderer: I thought only extroverts read.

[01:01:52] Writing a book and does public speaking and all of those things that they tell you introverts can't do, but yeah, you can.

[01:01:59] Steven Falk: So let's [01:02:00] analyze Scott for a second. Is his world getting bigger or smaller? I would say it's growing that there's the big battle of life is that life is always atrophying us and making our world smaller through wounds and trauma and things that happen is it's always getting smaller.

[01:02:16] And the fight for life is to keep growing it. And so when you're on your speaking tours, when you're doing your podcast, when you're writing books that's you exercising human agency. to stewarding your gift, right? And exercising human nations to stay alive versus atrophy.

[01:02:36] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to [01:03:00] inspiredstewardship.

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