Leading with Nature-Based Wisdom with Chris Kyle | 009

Hello. Today, I'm leading with purpose. I am honored to welcome my dear friend metamine, member and deep dive business partner in launch Academy. Chris Kyle. Chris is a pioneer in nature based leadership, and his journey from corporate leadership programs to soulful, Earth connected wisdom is nothing short of extraordinary. In his chapter, a journey into nature based leadership from our newest soulful leadership anthology, Chris shares how powerful experience is on salt, Spring Island, communing with fire, scarred pine tree shifted the entire approach to life, leadership and purpose. Chris is also the visionary behind the big tent Summit, bringing together leaders in men's movement to catalyze real change from the inside out. I'm excited to dive into this rich conversation about grounded, embodied leadership and how nature itself can be the greatest teacher. Hello, Chris, welcome.

Hey. Great to be here with you. Mark. Thank you for that intro. Appreciate it absolutely.

Well, I'm so happy that you're here and on this show, it is obviously leading with purpose. You're somebody who's been in the leadership world for a long time. Yes, and it didn't start out in this transformation industry. You started your leadership journey inside of a fortune 500 company and now lead these powerful programs that are rooted in nature based wisdom. What catalyzed your transition from traditional leadership models into this deeper, more soulful path?

Yeah, that's a great question. That's kind of my my journey early on in my life. I, you know, I, when I left college, I decided to go work in a big company. I wanted to be a business person in an organization, not that I said climbing the corporate ladder, but that was kind of the expectation you'd come in and you'd get new responsibilities and move up the up the chain, if you will. And so I joined a pharmaceutical company, a big pharma company in Southern California, Fortune 300 company at the time. And you know it was, I would say this mark as it's coming out, and I know so many people understand this too, is it's like I felt like there was a prescribed path for me coming out of college, like I really wasn't asking the deeper questions, what do I really want? What do I really want? What's important to me? What do I love? And it was more like, well, this is, I spent all this money on my education, you know, I've got this degree, and that the where, where it looked like, the money and the success was, was in in business, in corporate America, the corporate world, it's not just the America, but being in the corporate world. So I, you know, I did that. And I actually did that for for basically five years. And at the end of that five years, I was really clear, because I was really checking in with myself. Do I like this? Am I enjoying this? And I wasn't? I wasn't enjoying it was not my cup of tea. I could feel it. It's like who I am and who I grew up to become and what I wanted in my life became more clear after those five years, and that clarity was more toward entrepreneurship, right? So that now I'm moving from corporate leadership, and I had amazing trainings and leadership trainings in the corporate space. I'd led teams there, but then it was sort of like, I want to do my own thing, and I want to find something that I'm passionate about. And the very first thing I did is leaving a big pharmaceutical company, and my first wife, my wife at the time, we started an ecotourism company, an adventure travel company, taking people to all these awesome places around the world. And I was super passionate about travel and the power for travel to transform lives, right? So there was already starting to feel the purposefulness of the work. So not just the work to make money, not just the work to have the position and the success, but really the work that that infuses excitement and passion and purpose. And so ran that for six years. It was kind of a burnout being in as you know, growing a business and all that, and, and, but that gave me that taste of both sense of purpose in the work, but also doing my own thing as well our own thing. And so that was the transition then into a series of other sort of entrepreneurial engagements and all that. And really kind of then the arc, and I'll just pause here, the arc was then moving from those entrepreneurial spaces where there was a different kind of leadership there, right with the teams and leading myself and about growth and not about politics and pecking orders and, you know, trying to figure out how to navigate a structure. It's more like, All right, let's get this going. Let's do this. And then it really began to for me, the transition, and I'll pause here, is okay, I'm doing the entrepreneurial thing, but I'm still just managing a company. I'm managing spreadsheets and people and all that. And what I noticed was missing for me was me directly being connected to the transformation of other people, right, indirect. So creating a business around helping people to grow and transform that was the next shift. So I'll pause there, and then just that opens up that kind of next big chapter my life.

It's very. Interesting. You mentioned Steve Jobs before. One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs is that you can connect. You can only connect the dots looking backwards, and so hearing you share your story, I'm connecting the dots, and that's a lot of fun. And one of those big gaps is really your story about communing with the tree on Salt Spring Island, yeah, the moving story. How did that moment reshape your sense of purpose? And how has that moment continued to guide your work in men's leadership and beyond that?

Well, that leads perfectly into my next question, which is really about the framework. You've developed, a really beautiful framework for nature based leadership that's built on those four core capacities. How can leaders begin to cultivate these qualities in their daily lives, and even if they're not out in the wilderness? How does this apply to all types of leadership?

And I was on a different end of the spectrum. I had this understanding of gender identity issues where it's another guy. I'm very clear in my being a man and my sexuality and everything. But as far as what it means to be masculine, when I was raised by my mom and two sisters, most of the masculine qualities were negative, being direct, meaning all of these things, and so I adapted a lot of feminine qualities because those were accepted by women to help build wonderful relationships with women. But even in my own relationships with with Renee, there were times where she's like, I need you to just man up.

That's great. And isn't it great to have a partner that can help you step into places that you've not fully developed. And I think at the end of the day mark, I mean, we it's such a fraught conversation about masculinity and femininity, and that's usually the way I like to bring it, not man woman. So there's this gender fluidity, and there's, you know, kind of an all gender conversation, but we can always talk about masculine and feminine dancing together. So where have I evacuated my sacred masculine because of my own wounding in my childhood, where I'm to maybe overly, you know, feminine, overly feminine, which is fine, and it's just these qualities of these two dance, the yin and the yang, masculine and feminine. How do I bring in a little bit more and clarity and energy and power that we might associate with masculine. But it doesn't mean that women can't have that masculine, right? It just how do we balance it? But for so many men, the lens first is masculinity, and then we start talking about how you integrate in the masculine and feminine. And a lot of that is just simply looking at being grounded, powerful, masculine man means a lot of qualities that we've denied too, like compassion and care and thoughtfulness and presence. It's not just all like charging out into the world. It can be also about self care and all these things that we're just balancing our masculine nature.

Well, that's, again, a beautiful segue from our partnership around launch Academy. What the baby that you've created with that? And then Renee, and I've been kind of helping with that so that you can lean more into this men's work. And you've got a big project that you're coming up with with two other friends of ours, George Shepard and Tim Wade the big tent Summit, yes, I'm curious to hear more about that. And specifically, what's your bigger vision for the future of this moment and a movement? Yeah. And how can nature based leadership be bridged between the deeper healing strength and connection for men today?

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. I think, you know. So the Big 10 Summit is the the event and the experience that I first came to when last year I really made that decision that I really want to put more of my work in the men's workspace front and center. And so one of the first ideas was I really want to create a gathering, a convening of leaders in the men's workspace. So these are the lead these are the these are the facilitators, the men's coaches, the workshop leaders, the authors, the podcasters, you know, filmmakers, all. I mean, there's all that are passionate about boys and men and helping them to learn, to grow, thrive and find their way in this crazy world. And so I knew that's like, remember the tree was telling me that if your people are leaders, so it's it's the same variation, it's just leaders in a specific space that I'm really passionate about. So the Big 10 Summit is an in person gathering in Colorado, end of this May, which is bringing together leaders from all over the world, from the UK, Australia, Canada. I live in Costa Rica, and so we're all gathering to talk about the future, to help shape the future of men's work, like, what does that look like, and what are the challenges in our work? And so a lot of it's about geeking out in our work and coaching, but also networking, collaborating. And I'm excited, Mark, because I got to tell you, it's. And this is a big tent, so men, all genders are welcome. So this is another part of my thing. This isn't just men with men. This is all genders supporting boys and men to grow and heal. So we have some amazing women there and a trans man that's coming, and it's just going to be amazing, and it's really going to be a place for this community to come together, to gel and learn more how to support each other in the community. So this event has never happened. I've been doing men's work for 30 years. Nobody has had the vision of truly a global gathering. Let's get all the people that want to be here, not just these five of us going off on a backpack trip, or 10 of us met in New York City to do something. I want it to be a space where anybody can come as long as they're focused and passionate about the men's workspace. So it's not, it's not a looky loo space. It's not like, hey, I want to check this out. And it's never happened, and it's already amazing. Who have signed up and registered. We're going to have, you know, a full house in this space, Casa sagrada in Colorado, and I'm really excited. It's the first one, but we're going to, and we're going to do it in it every year, and it's gonna be the spark, not only for me, it's, it's kind of like my coming out party, you know, my quinceanera, something like that. Because, because it is me having all these conversations and letting men know I've been doing this for 27 years, quietly in the background, and now I'm a convener and an organizer to bring us all together to talk and to share and to go deep and all that. And so for me, that's also other things that I want to do. I want to continue to do my Men's retreats. I still see doing some things co in a co Ed space, and then creating a high end mastermind for men and women who are in the men's workspace to really help them grow their business and their messaging and all that. So that one's practical, but it's also still supporting each other and going deep. And where do we each need to transform to grow what we're doing in the world? So that's that's a vision that's coming later this year, after the summit, and I'm super excited about that.

That is fantastic. And you answered this already, but it was so quick. It was the question I was going to ask you. Said, here and Summit, we are used to this virtual world, right about like in real life. This is in Casa sagrada, which is in Loveland, Colorado. That's right. A little bit more about that. It. First of all, we're in person where you guys are men can hug and fist bump and yes,

Oh, I hit so that was important to me, Mark. So the vision of this started with, I am not going to I'm the king of virtual like I have done so many summits and I do workshop. I do everything online. For 15 years, it's been everything online, or going to the soulful leadership retreat, and that's, you know, or a few other retreats there, and it's great. So I knew this had to be shoulder to shoulder, knees to knees, coming together. So yes, it's going to be the group is meeting in person for three days, may 29 to June 1, in Loveland, Colorado, Casa sagrada, in person. And every year this will be a in person event. I we might actually, in the future, live stream it and play with that, just to see. But we kind of want to, you know, we feel like if, if we live stream it, people get a little lazy, like, Yeah, I'll just live stream it. So we may not, we may say you got to come be in the physical space, because I know that's where the magic happens, the real creativity happens, the partnering, all these things that can really help each other. It's just It happens in real time space. And I know you know that from doing the soulful leadership retreat for five years, six years.

So when I highlight you're in Costa Rica, so you speak more Spanish than most. Casa sagrada literally means the Sacred House. The sacred house, that's right, they're coming in together, and the Sacred House. It also brings up another thing around events that people might have come to events. Quite often, when people come to events, there's a little resistance, because, like, I want to, like, buy anything, yeah,

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's great. Another part of that, the part of the vision, is, this is really our industry conference for the men's workspace, like, really a peer Conference coming together. So unlike many other in person conferences or or summits, virtual summits, that kind of thing. This is, we're not selling anything here, you know, it's, there's no back end offer. We're probably going to create a community. We feel like that's natural. It's almost like our association community. And so we're certainly going to offer people at a very low price to step into, you know, the monthly zoom calls and special talks and things like that, to stitch together the connection between each summit each year, right? So that there's some the community feels like it's connected. But other than that, we don't. This isn't a, you know, for Tim George and I and others, we're wanting to have this be an open space for anybody to come into and not feel like anything in their mind is that's just going to be a pitch fest, or they're just going to just going to sell me something, or whatever. This is more like wisdom 2.0 conference, or the American Association of cardiologists, because we do hard work too. You know it's like that. You come together and it's a peer conference. There's it's not a selling experience. So just thank you for saying that, because anybody that is. Interested that's listening, that might be in the men's workspace. This is a place to come and be supported, and connect and learn and grow your own capacities, grow your business, connect with other good people, and it's not about you getting sold something.

Yeah, that's That's great. It's really a great question. Yeah, I the only lens that we're operating from is if you have a passion about men's work in some form, or even if you're just starting with men's coaching, or you've want to put on a retreat or whatever, but you know that feels like a part of your work or a part of your purpose, then you're welcome, you know what I mean. So we talk about, in the information about the big tent song, we talk about the old guard, their new guard, and the old guard coming together as well. So we want again Big Tent. We want the newbies in the room. I mean, I know Nick, Nick vareal. You know, Nick, and he's awesome, and he's just started his program back to wild, literally, the last five months, six months, and it was on my mind when I was asking the question, good, yeah, it's an example like that. Nick is coming, but he's also, even though he's new, he's excited about the field and he's passionate about so that's all we're saying. We don't necessarily want people that are, you know, I don't think, I'm not sure about this field. There's dinner, but I'll go check it out. We'd rather have people that are even if they're new and fresh, they're passionate about the space. And remember, it's not just men, it's boys. So it could be mentoring in schools and, you know, kind of young youth programs for boys, all that. So it's boys and men. Boys, young men, men. So there are lots of people out there that are focused on boys in schools like middle school and high school. Yes, come this is your place, too. And those folks, the newbies, the ones that are new to this whole space, I actually think this conference is best for you, because you're going to now get fired up with meeting a lot of cool men and women that are in this space, learning from them, absorbing what's being shared there, making connections and feeling more confident and more engaged and more supported as you go out and do your thing, you know. And in some ways, the folks that have been doing a long time have successful businesses, some of them six figure, but seven figure businesses, a lot of them want to give back, so they want to bring their wisdom there and share it with others. Make some good connections, but they're there to be a part of the movement, right, to be a part of helping to lift this up. So everybody will have their different intentions, but it is a community coming together to raise the tide. So, you know, a rising tide rises, raises all boats, and that's what we need to do in the men's work space. And this kind of experience has never happened, and that's what I'm super excited about, it.

Yeah, I love it. I love being a part of your evolution in leadership. And at the time of this recording, you right now are getting ready for your big launch of launch Academy, and it's very integrated into that piece. So people that might be interested in launching their own program. We'll put the links below. They're ongoing things. The same thing with the Big 10 Summit. I'll put those links below, but I'm just curious, because for a lot of people that might be living in a city and they're like, nature based leadership, how do I connect for myself? I live in Lake Mary, Florida, you know, pretty suburban, pretty Yeah, not country, yeah, I grew up. But what I've become aware of is, like, all of the nature that is around me. I see the birds, I see the lizards, the Turtles like and I start to film it, just just becoming aware of it, and being open to the lessons. But somebody who might be living in New York City or San Francisco, where you were, or

Houston, or wherever, yeah, no, this is the beauty is, nature is everywhere around us. In fact, the sky and just looking up as a part of it feeling any kind of grassy area or trees. So this is in your backyard. This is in your neighborhood. And certainly, most cities have beautiful parks, big parks. You know, New York City has Central Park, which is freaking amazing, and it's just about your willingness to get an in connection, get out of the human only world, or the screens or whatever, and just connect with the elements so that can even be the wind wherever you are. It can be a feeling of the sun on your face or the sky or the ground around you or the trees around you, because the practice is to just opening up your senses to that wherever you are doesn't have to be deep nature. It's not the Sierra Nevada mountains can be anywhere, and then use those simple practices of like what I call a sit spot, is a practice to just open your senses, or doing a walking kind of open eyed meditation to ground you. These are just mindfulness practices, but really being in connection with nature that. To deepen the mindful practice. And you may be surprised, take your shoes off and your socks off in a park. It's okay everyone. You can do that and walk barefoot on grass or on sand or whatever, and notice what that feels like. And we all there's a lot of science out there. I won't even get into it mark, but there's so much science about how being barefoot on the land and how nature lowers cortisol levels, how kids can move out of their ADHD tendencies spending just a day in nature. So there's all this science already coming out about the power, and we've just disconnected ourselves from nature so much more than we ever have, from the car to the house to the office to the you know, to our screens to our rooms, and we just need to re engage it a park, your backyard, wherever, and just do it without your device. Do it alone. Do it with a friend. And that's where the magic is. And you might notice that out as you do that, things change your mood, changes how you act, changes how you notice your presence when you're with humans, if you spent time in nature. So that's, that's my invitation. Can happen anywhere, anytime.

I love it. I love the simplicity of it, especially when you brought up the sky, just being able to look up and then seeing the sky is always there, whether it's clouds or sunshine. See how Renee makes it a practice every day, usually right before lunch, to take a 10 minute walk the vitamin D. We know that the actual supplements of that, but just that, the endorphins, everything else that you just mentioned, all the benefits of something as simple as that.

Yes, exactly. It changes our chemistry, and that's how we've been wired. We've been hardwired for 150,000 years to be in communion with nature, and it's literally only been maybe the last 200 years that we've really start to cut that off and and get into our these boxes and places that can disconnect us from nature, and that's been happening more and more, and then that also disconnects us from this place of lovingly being in loving connection with nature. So we make different choices around our businesses and what we do and what we're doing polluting the world. So but it comes from a place of love and connection, not from a place of shame and a stick, because that's where so much of our world has been looking at humans as bad and you suck, and look what we're doing to the planet, and it's like, yes, we've made bad choices. How do we start making new choices from a place of connection, love and appreciation for the natural world and that intimacy so and that will naturally change things for for us. So spend more time in nature, wherever it is, backyard, Park, get out on an adventure for a weekend, and then, yeah, and then I'm, I have all these practices. So if somebody wants to learn more for about my, you know, leadership programs, or come to the Big 10 Summit, we're going to be talking about this, about nature and how that can inform and support men's work, certainly, but anybody really.

And so those who are hearing this before the big tent Summit, what is the URL for that?

Yeah, it's the bigtentsummit.com. Pretty easy. All one word, Big Tent summit tent, and that's t, e n t, like a tent. Some people kind of only hear 10, but it's big tent. Big Tent Summit.

Big Tent Summit. Again, all the links will be down below in the in the comments. We would also love to respond to anything that you have whenever you're hearing this. Appreciate you showing up for listening to this interview. Chris, I greatly appreciate who you're being, how you're showing up the world, our friendship, partnership. Any last words that you want to share before we say goodbye?

Oh, well, thank you. First, just appreciation for you mark, and deep gratitude for our relationship. And just gratitude for you, know, for the folks that are listening here is just, I'm sure, for those, the light workers in the world, those that are wanting to create positive change, not only in their own life, but with other people and whatever other communities are engaged in, is know that even when things look bleak, right, the world looks like it's just going to hell in a hand basket. It's like we each get to choose where this is the purpose in leadership. Where do I want to serve? Where do I feel called to help create the change that I want to see in the world, or the change that we want to make together and collaboratively. And go for that, go for that, because we need more change agents. We need more light workers. And that's what the call is. Even when things look darker or bleak or bad, how can we step into being these change agents of positive change

Beautiful. Thank you so much Chris

Thank you, Mark,

Talk to you soon