034: Finding Your Own Authentic Truth with Lisa Kohn

06/09/20 • 38 min

Lisa Kohn is an accomplished leadership consultant, executive coach, author, and keynote speaker. She joins the show today to share her extraordinary story of being born and raised in a cult, and what skills she developed to heal, grow, and become an extremely accomplished leader. Lisa shares the details of her new memoir To the Moon and Back and connects the dots on how her upbringing now makes her a compassionate and understanding coach. We also talk about the crucial need for self-love and forgiveness to be the true badass we are meant to be.

What You Will Hear in This Episode:

How Lisa transitioned from an unusual childhood to become such a professional businesswoman with accomplishments such as having 20 years of experience partnering with Fortune 500 clients, teaching as an adjunct professor at NYU and Columbia, and a published author including her new book To the Moon and Back.
The powerful and intoxicating side of growing up in a cult and feeling as though you knew the truth, and you were there to spread it and help others through your message.
More about The Unification Church and the Moonie Cult, and some of the beliefs that Lisa grew up with.
Lisa’s time in college exposed her to new and different ideas, she speaks of the feelings of shame and the divide between what she felt and what she was taught.
How Lisa found her own truth and embraced her past, present, and future instead of running away from it or trying to numb it.
How her experience informs the work she is doing now with leaders at Fortune 500 companies.

Quotes:

“The best seats I’ve ever had at Madison Square Garden was at my mother’s wedding.”
“There is no drug as intoxicating as knowing you have the truth.”
“I have crazy thoughts in my brain, but they are not me. It’s what I was taught.”
“I’m not damaged, I have damage. There is a very big difference.”
“How is that workin’ for ya?” - Dr. Phil

Mentioned:

Lisa Kohn

To The Moon and Back

Chatsworth Consulting

What You Will Hear in This Episode:

How Lisa transitioned from an unusual childhood to become such a professional businesswoman with accomplishments such as having 20 years of experience partnering with Fortune 500 clients, teaching as an adjunct professor at NYU and Columbia, and a published author including her new book To the Moon and Back.
The powerful and intoxicating side of growing up in a cult and feeling as though you knew the truth, and you were there to spread it and help others through your message.
More about The Unification Church and the Moonie Cult, and some of the beliefs that Lisa grew up with.
Lisa’s time in college exposed her to new and different ideas, she speaks of the feelings of shame and the divide between what she felt and what she was taught.
How Lisa found her own truth and embraced her past, present, and future instead of running away from it or trying to numb it.
How her experience informs the work she is doing now with leaders at Fortune 500 companies.

Quotes:

“The best seats I’ve ever had at Madison Square Garden was at my mother’s wedding.”
“There is no drug as intoxicating as knowing you have the truth.”
“I have crazy thoughts in my brain, but they are not me. It’s what I was taught.”
“I’m not damaged, I have damage. There is a very big difference.”
“How is that workin’ for ya?” - Dr. Phil

Mentioned:

Lisa Kohn

To The Moon and Back

Chatsworth Consulting

Previous Episode

033: Getting Relationships Right with Melanie Joy

So much of what we get back in life has to do with the relationship we have with both ourselves and those around us. Melanie Joy, psychologist, author, speaker, and educator, has made it her life’s mission to understand how we can transform our relationships to get back more understanding and compassion on an individual and societal level. She joins the show this week to share the critical life experience that set her on the path for studying the complex nature of relationships and why we put up barriers instead of having an open heart. Melanie also talks about her new book, Getting Relationships Right, a one-stop guide to building emotional literacy and keeping our relational immune system healthy.

What You Will Hear in This Episode:

Melanie’s beloved dog fundamentally changed her view on love and relationships, and it was further cemented with her experience getting extremely ill from a hamburger. This awakened her curiosity on the social norms that dictate why we feel okay eating some meat and disgusted by the thought of other animals.
Through Melanie’s books and writing, she shares her profound desire to understand why humans act against natural values of compassion and fairness and turn away from our fellow humans.
The more we can observe ways that we act against natural drives and disconnect, the more we can act to consciously change our behavioral patterns.
Throughout our life, we bring our systems and conditioning into our relationships without even realizing it, and this often creates friction and conflicts.
Great leaders will make it a point to understand that in a position of power, we tend to empathize less towards others below us and feel entitlement towards double standards.
The messages we hear about ourselves socially end up becoming internalized. When we become aware of the social systems in which we are influenced, we take back a lot of our power and can make more rational choices for ourselves and compassion for others.
Trust, safety, and connection are the foundational elements of keeping our relational immune system healthy.
We do give too much energy to the negative and defeating voices in our head, and this affects our well being as well as our relationships.

Quotes:

“What we really want is a meaningful connection, yet we act in ways that cause disconnection.”
“The problem is, when we don’t recognize the way power influences us psychologically, we can end up abusing it or causing problems with it in our relationships.”
“When you become aware of your thoughts, you can get a lot of important information about yourself.”
“It’s so important for us to take the temperature of our internal experience on a regular basis.”

Mentioned:

Melanie Joy

Getting Relationships Right

Powerarchy

Next Episode

035: Living Your Truth One Jump at a Time with Danielle Brazell

Danielle Brazell is the General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, reporting directly to the Mayor and leading a full-time staff of 85 and part-time staff of 200. Danielle talks about how she overcame obstacles in her upbringing to recenter herself towards a life full of meaning and passion. She shares how she became involved in the arts and made a career for herself helping others share their love of arts and culture. Danielle and I then talk about how arts have been affected in the pandemic, and ways they are reinventing the wheel to adjust to the current situation.

What You Will Hear in This Episode:

Danielle had a multitude of health problems at birth, and the fight to be alive gave her a strong will and a solid sense of morality and integrity.
A good friend got Danielle to sign up for school again after she had dropped out, and her teacher made a big impact on her life by providing a safe and respectful environment where she could dream big and express herself.
Danielle had a wake-up call in her mid 30’s and decided she needed to consciously strategize and reimagine what was possible for her, using the tools and knowledge and passion for the arts to make a real difference.
It is so comfortable to stay in our comfort zone, but growing is really what pushes us forward.
Not only did Danielle take a plunge in her career, but she bungee jumped and yes, it is as scary (but thrilling) as it seems!
Danielle and her amazing team are providing relief for artists and creating virtual events to make sure art is as available and as supported as possible during the pandemic. While there have been some substantial budget cuts, she feels confident that they will recover and reimagine their own future.

Quotes:

“I’m driven by a strong sense of belief and meaning.”
“It is so comfortable to stay where we are, but it becomes uncomfortable to stay where we are.”
“Public health includes mental health, and we need cultural arts to get through this.”

Mentioned:

City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Arts for LA

Highways Performance Space