August 2, 2025 • 20 mins
Welcome to Season 2 of Culture Secrets! We’re kicking things off with a conversation that goes beyond strategy and into the soul of leadership.
In this episode, Chellie Phillips sits down with Amy Lynn Durham—founder of Create Magic At Work and a trailblazer in workplace emotional and spiritual intelligence. Together, they explore how EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and SQ (Spiritual Intelligence) are essential tools for leaders who want to create cultures of connection, meaning, and purpose.
You’ll discover:
- How self-awareness and self-talk shape your leadership impact
- The difference between managing people and leading with presence
- Simple ways to cultivate EQ and SQ in your leadership journey
- Why tapping into intuition and empathy matters more than ever in today’s workplace
Whether you lead a team of 2 or 200, this episode will inspire you to lead from the inside out.
🔗 Learn more about Amy’s work at createmagicatwork.net
🎧 Hit play—and let’s build a more connected, conscious workplace together.
Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chellie (00:00):
if workplace culture is your jam you're in the right
place check out this episode ofculture secrets the podcast
dedicated to creating workplaceswhere both employees and the
companies thrive so Welcome backto Culture Secrets, now in its
(00:22):
electrifying second season.
I'm your host, ShelleyPhillips, and in today's
episode, we're diving deep intothe magical world of workplace
transformation with none otherthan Amy Lynn Durham, the
mastermind behind creative magicat work.
She's known affectionately asthe corporate mystic.
Amy is redefining the fabric ofcorporate culture through the
(00:42):
integration of spiritualintelligence and executive
coaching.
With a remarkable track recordof fostering human-centered
workplaces, her innovativeapproach not only enhances
productivity and profitability,but also significantly reduces
stress, all while buildingcourage, confidence, and
connectivity among team members.
Can anyone say culture buildingthere?
(01:02):
As we explore Amy's journeyfrom a successful corporate
executive to a visionary leader,we'll uncover the secrets
behind her unique ability toblend serious inner work with
fun, humor, and deep insight.
Prepare to be inspired as Amyshares how to create a workplace
that's not only about earning apaycheck, but about connecting
Thanks, Shelley.
I'm happy to be here.
(01:34):
And to have this conversation,it's going to be a good one.
Yeah, I'm just so excited for mylisteners to get to meet you
and hear about what you'redoing.
And with that in mind, can youkind of talk about the journey
that you've been on and how youtransitioned from a corporate
executive until becoming thiscorporate mystic?
And what is corporate magic atwork all about?
Amy (01:55):
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Well...
The way that you just describedthat journey sounded very clean
and linear.
And we all know it's not,right?
There's been lots of twists andturns and setbacks and all the
things that we experience inlife, living the human
(02:17):
experience.
And I'm no different.
I used to work in the telecomindustry for many, many years.
I worked for private andpublicly traded companies.
And that's where I reallyearned my skills as a corporate
leader.
What happened towards the endthere was I...
(02:38):
Really felt like my creativitywas being stifled in my role.
I wanted to break out and tapinto something that was a little
more inspiring.
And then I also had at the sametime, this epiphany of...
human connection in theworkplace.
And I know there's a lot ofposts and articles out right now
(03:01):
about human-centeredworkplaces, which how could they
be anything other because we'reall humans doing the work?
Well, I guess until AI has comeabout, right?
And all these bots startentering the world.
But really what that is to meis having a...
a culture and cultivating aculture as a leader that we
(03:23):
recognize the humanity withineach other.
And the only way that you cando that is by doing some sort of
connecting activities with eachother and not just talking
about the numbers.
We would have gruelingquarterly business reviews where
we reviewed up late, reviewingpayroll, scheduling hours,
(03:45):
sales, quotas, all the things.
However, We can't just go overjust that in a meeting.
We have to do something thatconnects all of us together.
And that's where I reallystarted skill building in these
areas and doing these activitieswith my team that I ended up
putting in my book, Create Magicat Work.
So that was really the momentfor me where I was like, this is
(04:07):
the win-win.
This is where, wow, they canwalk away feeling really good.
They can walk away feeling justlike me.
This person is experiencinglife and everything that comes
with it.
And I'll reach out to thatother person that I just
connected with and partner withthem on the project even more
because I got to know thembetter versus just...
(04:30):
spitting out some numbers in ameeting.
And that was the game changer.
Aside from that, in my personallife, I experienced a spiritual
awakening.
I've gone through quite afew...
dark moments that turned intoaha moments.
You know, there was a point inmy life where I almost died.
I mean, that's probably a wholepodcast in itself, right?
(04:50):
Um, so all of those thingswere, were in my life experience
to get me to where I am today.
I left the corporate world,started create magic at work,
um, went to the UC Berkeleyexecutive coaching Institute,
got my certification there and,um, have been waving the
spiritual intelligence flag eversince in the workplace.
(05:13):
It's a faith neutral skill setthat I'm an SQ21 certified coach
for leaders in the workplace.
Yeah, that's one of the bigtools I use with Create Magic at
Work.
Chellie (05:22):
So you bring that up and I know you do emphasize the
importance of spiritualintelligence alongside emotional
intelligence.
I know people have heard a lotabout emotional intelligence
lately, maybe not aboutspiritual intelligence.
Can you give me a little bitabout what is that?
And then how do you integrateboth of those concepts into your
leadership at work and inbuilding workplace cultures?
Amy (05:45):
Yeah, spiritual intelligence is going beyond EQ.
It's going beyond emotionalintelligence.
And emotional intelligence hasreally become popular to discuss
and talk about in theworkplace.
And I've often heard itreferenced with people that
might not even have done maybethe work to understand what it
truly means.
(06:06):
But from my lens, emotionalintelligence is that point where
you have some self-awareness ofyour emotions.
You have an emotionalmanagement strategy that you can
tap into in the workplace andyou're pretty well off at being
able to build connections withothers.
Spiritual intelligence is whenwe can go beyond EQ.
(06:27):
It's when we start thinkingabout, why am I here?
And what's my purpose in life?
I'm craving a deeper sense ofmeaning and I want to leave a
legacy for the greater good.
in my daily decisions and in mylife journey.
(06:48):
And how do I do that?
And the 21 skills of SQ helpyou tap into that.
It's a framework that I use.
That's just nice because whenyou talk about spirituality,
it's something that people,there's all sorts of layers to
it, right?
So the 21 skills is a niceframework because it's faith
neutral and leaders can reallyhold on to something tangible
(07:11):
and tactical that they can skillbuild in.
Chellie (07:14):
A lot of times you don't hear about spirituality in
the workplace.
It's like a taboo topic.
We don't talk about that atwork because everybody has their
own belief systems andeverything else.
And so I find it reallyinteresting about the way that
you're integrating it into whatyou're doing.
I
Amy (07:30):
think that came from...
hr you know the hr where it'slike we can't discuss religion
people afraid of having lawsuitsand different things like that
but i think what what whathappened was the pendulum swung
way too far to the other side towhere people weren't able to be
their full selves in theworkplace and if you're not
(07:52):
bringing your your fullauthentic self to the workplace
or if you're not able to thenwe're cutting off a big part of
innovation and creativity thatpeople can bring to the
organization for productivityand profitability.
And a big part of that isspirituality.
And that's the next wave comingto the workplace.
(08:13):
You can be agnostic, you can beatheist, as long as you believe
there's a place within you thatcomes from wisdom and
compassion and love.
and you can access that, thenyou can skill build in spiritual
intelligence.
Chellie (08:32):
That ties in so well with Like some of the things
that we talk about here on theCulture Secrets podcast, because
my value formula, the you andit is the uniqueness of the
people that you have in theorganization.
And it's about recognizing thatwe all bring something with us
when we show up at work everyday.
And that's our past experience.
It's our life experience.
It's our previous jobs.
(08:52):
It's our families.
It's our friends.
It's our culture.
It's our heritage.
It's everything.
It all wraps up into who weare.
It goes back to that beinghuman centered, like we were
talking about is that you can'treally build a culture and you
can't really have a workplacewhen you leave the human part of
it out.
So I want to kind of keep onwith that.
I know you use tools likecoaching, workshops and
different things like that.
(09:12):
Can you give me an example ofmaybe how these tools have been
used to transform a workplace sofar?
Here's
Amy (09:19):
my philosophy today.
It might change if we talked,you know, a few months or a year
from now.
But today, it really startswith courageous and vulnerable
leaders wanting to step into theor feeling a call to step into
doing this work themselves, theinner work, the look in the
(09:39):
mirror.
How do I clean up my side ofthe street before I roll this
out to everyone else?
And that comes through aprivate coaching experience
that's really profound.
So there's an assessment youcan take, the SQ21 assessment
through me, and it'll kind ofgive you a rating between level
zero to level five on where yousit in the 21 skills of
(10:00):
spiritual intelligence.
And then we usually meet for 3months, 6 months or a year.
And we have that assessment asa foundation for growth in
anything that you're workingthrough in the workplace.
Of course, I bring my corporatebackground, my executive
coaching from UC Berkeley andall that to the table as well.
(10:20):
One of the more popular...
Topics that leaders like todive into in those private
sessions is skill 19, which ismaking wise and compassionate
decisions, whether they want toamplify that a little bit more
in how they're making wise andcompassionate decisions for
their organization, or maybe.
(10:42):
They need to exercise someself-compassion and really make
some wise and compassionatedecisions for themselves.
Maybe they're teetering on theedge of burnout and there's some
boundary setting that needs tohappen.
Maybe they're falling into thepitfall of being an empathic
leader versus a compassionateleader.
You know, the empathic leadertakes on everybody's stuff to
(11:05):
try to fix it.
The compassionate leaderobserves and creates systems
that will help alleviate stress.
That's one example of kind ofthe private experience.
The other is workshops, youknow, create magic at workshops.
I have so many activities inthe book that help people tap
into their higher self.
In SQ, the skill five is, areyou aware of your ego versus
(11:29):
your higher self?
And who's in the driver's seatthe majority of the time?
And how can we practice keepingour higher self in the driver's
seat of our life a higherpercentage of time?
And so all of the tools fromCreate Magic at Work help you do
that.
I have my journal prompt carddeck.
I have lots of differentmodalities and activities that
(11:52):
we'll do in workshops, some ofwhich involve setting some
things on fire that are superfun.
Just, you know, this is deepinner work.
It's profound.
It's transformative.
So I...
designed the Create Magic atWork tools to be fun and
whimsical and playful andchildlike, to bring that into
(12:15):
the space for people that feellike their soul has been crushed
in these spaces.
workplace systems.
Chellie (12:22):
I always like to bring in real world to this
conversation.
My book, Culture Secrets, oneof the things I love about it
was the fact that so many peoplewere willing to share their
journeys inside certainorganizations about what was
working for them, what didn'twork, plus all the fails and the
obstacles that they had to comeacross and then rebuild from.
(12:43):
Since you've been doing thisfor a while and without breaking
any confidences or anything,could you share maybe a
memorable experience or asuccess story where you've
helped guide a leader to uncovertheir gifts and how that
impacted their business or theirlife?
Amy (12:59):
Yeah.
Okay.
So there were two that justcame to mind.
I'll share one.
So one was with a privateclient in charge of a very large
group of people.
And they stepped into my worldin an interesting way.
They needed some help inmaintaining presence and maybe
(13:23):
helping have a greater area ofcompassion for women leadership.
I'm trying to maintainconfidence.
And so this individual took theSQ assessment and lo and
behold, they came back a zero onskill 19, making wise and
compassionate decisions.
(13:44):
And in the SQ world, we callthose precious zeros, love them.
I had one myself when I tookthe assessment.
So no judgment here, right?
And when we met in session, We,you know, it looked like this
person was kind of like theythought they were going to be in
(14:04):
trouble or something, you know,this hyper achieving world
we're in in the corporate space.
And what really came about thevery first question I asked this
client was, what are thethoughts you tell yourself
throughout the day?
I'm really curious.
Like, how do you treatyourself?
And I got emotional and theylooked at me and they said, I'm
(14:26):
really hard on myself.
That negativity loop wasrunning, the self-criticism.
And it was like, of course,that's why you came back a level
zero on making wise andcompassionate decisions.
How can we possibly havecompassion for others if we
can't even give it to ourselves?
And so that's why I say it'sthat inside job with compassion.
(14:48):
No judgment.
So the first step there is not,oh, run out and try to have
more compassion for others.
It's like, no, we've got tochange this negative loop and
the self-criticism that'srunning.
You're beating yourself up allday.
We have to start there.
Because once that goes away oronce that's alleviated, you'll
(15:09):
automatically start giving it toothers as well.
That was a really powerfulmoment for me.
And this was a client that I...
that wouldn't typically stepinto my world, which was
beautiful.
And
Chellie (15:20):
I can so see that in, in, in, in one of the, in the
first book that I wrote thatwouldn't doubt delete it.
One of the things I talk aboutis deleting that negative
self-talk that we all gothrough, you know, and it's,
it's one of the hardest things,like you would never talk to
other people the way we talk toourselves sometimes.
And it's so powerful what wordsdo to us.
And when you hear them over andover, even when they're inside
(15:44):
your head, the impact that theycan have on, on on the outcomes
of what you're doing andeverything.
So as you look to the future,how do you see the role of
spiritual and emotionalintelligence evolving in the
workplace?
Oh yeah, it's where it's at.
Amy (16:00):
I mean, it's coming.
I mean, I say go beyond EQ.
I mean, this is where, this isthe game changer.
This is where we step intoquantum leadership.
This is where we have peopleleaders that are operating from
wisdom and compassion.
This is where we have wise andeffective change agents.
(16:20):
This is where we have lessego-induced drama and less
stress in the workplace.
Leaders that operate from aspiritually intelligent
perspective have all of that.
And so by default, people aregoing to choose to work for that
leader.
over the one that isn't.
And my hope is the systemnaturally transforms in that
(16:42):
way.
And then we're making businessdecisions, not only for profit
and the bottom line, but forimpact.
Impact on our well-being,impact on communities, impact on
the planet and humanity itself.
I love
Chellie (17:00):
that.
So if people want to learn moreabout EQ, SQ, Amy, the work
that's happening at Create Magicat Work, how can they connect
with you and how can they learnmore about you?
Amy (17:12):
Yeah, so createmagicatwork.net has
everything there.
There's a shop, you can findall those whimsical, fun,
creative tools.
The podcast Create Magic atWork is very popular with
leaders in the workplace tappinginto that calming and healing
inner peaceful type feeling, nomatter what space you're in in
(17:35):
your life.
And then yeah, if you want toconnect with me and learn what
you might score on the SQ21assessment for fun and learning
and as a part of your journey,that's on there as well.
So everything's oncreatemagicatwork.net.
Yeah.
Chellie (17:48):
All right.
Great.
I always love to ask if youcould share one culture building
bomb with a leader, what is onetakeaway?
If you're going to be a greatculture builder inside your
organization, what do they needto focus on?
Amy (18:03):
Oh my gosh.
I can't, I hate, I mean, I'mgoing to say it like skill
building in your SQ.
Yeah, really.
Like it starts there.
That's where this is.
This is what's coming.
This is here.
I really would encourage you toskill build in making wise and
compassionate decisions, theability to make wise and
(18:26):
compassionate decisions, evenwhen you're under great stress
and maintain inner peace whiledoing so.
If you can make wise andcompassionate decisions and
maintain inner peace, even undergreat stress, you've nailed it.
At least a high percentage oftime, right?
We're human.
We're going to have moments.
Absolutely.
Chellie (18:47):
Well, I appreciate it, Amy.
Thanks so much for joining ustoday.
And thank you for listening tothis episode of the Culture
Secret Podcast.
I hope you've jotted down a fewideas to try over the coming
weeks and help you grow a valueculture inside your
organization.
And if you enjoyed what youheard, please like, subscribe
and share this podcast.
Make sure you give Amy a shoutout and check out her podcast as
(19:09):
well.
Please drop us a rating becausethat's the way that more people
can hear these stories thatwe're telling and that we can
spread our messages and we canhelp build better cultures in
the world.
If you want more informationabout me and what Culture
Secrets is all about, visitwww.chelliefillips.com.
That's it for this episode.
(19:30):
And until next time, remember,building a value culture is your
competitive advantage and thebackbone of any successful
organization.
if workplace culture is your jam you're in the right
place check out this episode ofculture secrets the podcast
dedicated to creating workplaceswhere both employees and the
companies thrive so Welcome backto Culture Secrets, now in its
(00:22):
electrifying second season.
I'm your host, ShelleyPhillips, and in today's
episode, we're diving deep intothe magical world of workplace
transformation with none otherthan Amy Lynn Durham, the
mastermind behind creative magicat work.
She's known affectionately asthe corporate mystic.
Amy is redefining the fabric ofcorporate culture through the
(00:42):
integration of spiritualintelligence and executive
coaching.
With a remarkable track recordof fostering human-centered
workplaces, her innovativeapproach not only enhances
productivity and profitability,but also significantly reduces
stress, all while buildingcourage, confidence, and
connectivity among team members.
Can anyone say culture buildingthere?
(01:02):
As we explore Amy's journeyfrom a successful corporate
executive to a visionary leader,we'll uncover the secrets
behind her unique ability toblend serious inner work with
fun, humor, and deep insight.
Prepare to be inspired as Amyshares how to create a workplace
that's not only about earning apaycheck, but about connecting
Thanks, Shelley.
I'm happy to be here.
(01:34):
And to have this conversation,it's going to be a good one.
Yeah, I'm just so excited for mylisteners to get to meet you
and hear about what you'redoing.
And with that in mind, can youkind of talk about the journey
that you've been on and how youtransitioned from a corporate
executive until becoming thiscorporate mystic?
And what is corporate magic atwork all about?
Amy (01:55):
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Well...
The way that you just describedthat journey sounded very clean
and linear.
And we all know it's not,right?
There's been lots of twists andturns and setbacks and all the
things that we experience inlife, living the human
(02:17):
experience.
And I'm no different.
I used to work in the telecomindustry for many, many years.
I worked for private andpublicly traded companies.
And that's where I reallyearned my skills as a corporate
leader.
What happened towards the endthere was I...
(02:38):
Really felt like my creativitywas being stifled in my role.
I wanted to break out and tapinto something that was a little
more inspiring.
And then I also had at the sametime, this epiphany of...
human connection in theworkplace.
And I know there's a lot ofposts and articles out right now
(03:01):
about human-centeredworkplaces, which how could they
be anything other because we'reall humans doing the work?
Well, I guess until AI has comeabout, right?
And all these bots startentering the world.
But really what that is to meis having a...
a culture and cultivating aculture as a leader that we
(03:23):
recognize the humanity withineach other.
And the only way that you cando that is by doing some sort of
connecting activities with eachother and not just talking
about the numbers.
We would have gruelingquarterly business reviews where
we reviewed up late, reviewingpayroll, scheduling hours,
(03:45):
sales, quotas, all the things.
However, We can't just go overjust that in a meeting.
We have to do something thatconnects all of us together.
And that's where I reallystarted skill building in these
areas and doing these activitieswith my team that I ended up
putting in my book, Create Magicat Work.
So that was really the momentfor me where I was like, this is
(04:07):
the win-win.
This is where, wow, they canwalk away feeling really good.
They can walk away feeling justlike me.
This person is experiencinglife and everything that comes
with it.
And I'll reach out to thatother person that I just
connected with and partner withthem on the project even more
because I got to know thembetter versus just...
(04:30):
spitting out some numbers in ameeting.
And that was the game changer.
Aside from that, in my personallife, I experienced a spiritual
awakening.
I've gone through quite afew...
dark moments that turned intoaha moments.
You know, there was a point inmy life where I almost died.
I mean, that's probably a wholepodcast in itself, right?
(04:50):
Um, so all of those thingswere, were in my life experience
to get me to where I am today.
I left the corporate world,started create magic at work,
um, went to the UC Berkeleyexecutive coaching Institute,
got my certification there and,um, have been waving the
spiritual intelligence flag eversince in the workplace.
(05:13):
It's a faith neutral skill setthat I'm an SQ21 certified coach
for leaders in the workplace.
Yeah, that's one of the bigtools I use with Create Magic at
Work.
Chellie (05:22):
So you bring that up and I know you do emphasize the
importance of spiritualintelligence alongside emotional
intelligence.
I know people have heard a lotabout emotional intelligence
lately, maybe not aboutspiritual intelligence.
Can you give me a little bitabout what is that?
And then how do you integrateboth of those concepts into your
leadership at work and inbuilding workplace cultures?
Amy (05:45):
Yeah, spiritual intelligence is going beyond EQ.
It's going beyond emotionalintelligence.
And emotional intelligence hasreally become popular to discuss
and talk about in theworkplace.
And I've often heard itreferenced with people that
might not even have done maybethe work to understand what it
truly means.
(06:06):
But from my lens, emotionalintelligence is that point where
you have some self-awareness ofyour emotions.
You have an emotionalmanagement strategy that you can
tap into in the workplace andyou're pretty well off at being
able to build connections withothers.
Spiritual intelligence is whenwe can go beyond EQ.
(06:27):
It's when we start thinkingabout, why am I here?
And what's my purpose in life?
I'm craving a deeper sense ofmeaning and I want to leave a
legacy for the greater good.
in my daily decisions and in mylife journey.
(06:48):
And how do I do that?
And the 21 skills of SQ helpyou tap into that.
It's a framework that I use.
That's just nice because whenyou talk about spirituality,
it's something that people,there's all sorts of layers to
it, right?
So the 21 skills is a niceframework because it's faith
neutral and leaders can reallyhold on to something tangible
(07:11):
and tactical that they can skillbuild in.
Chellie (07:14):
A lot of times you don't hear about spirituality in
the workplace.
It's like a taboo topic.
We don't talk about that atwork because everybody has their
own belief systems andeverything else.
And so I find it reallyinteresting about the way that
you're integrating it into whatyou're doing.
I
Amy (07:30):
think that came from...
hr you know the hr where it'slike we can't discuss religion
people afraid of having lawsuitsand different things like that
but i think what what whathappened was the pendulum swung
way too far to the other side towhere people weren't able to be
their full selves in theworkplace and if you're not
(07:52):
bringing your your fullauthentic self to the workplace
or if you're not able to thenwe're cutting off a big part of
innovation and creativity thatpeople can bring to the
organization for productivityand profitability.
And a big part of that isspirituality.
And that's the next wave comingto the workplace.
(08:13):
You can be agnostic, you can beatheist, as long as you believe
there's a place within you thatcomes from wisdom and
compassion and love.
and you can access that, thenyou can skill build in spiritual
intelligence.
Chellie (08:32):
That ties in so well with Like some of the things
that we talk about here on theCulture Secrets podcast, because
my value formula, the you andit is the uniqueness of the
people that you have in theorganization.
And it's about recognizing thatwe all bring something with us
when we show up at work everyday.
And that's our past experience.
It's our life experience.
It's our previous jobs.
(08:52):
It's our families.
It's our friends.
It's our culture.
It's our heritage.
It's everything.
It all wraps up into who weare.
It goes back to that beinghuman centered, like we were
talking about is that you can'treally build a culture and you
can't really have a workplacewhen you leave the human part of
it out.
So I want to kind of keep onwith that.
I know you use tools likecoaching, workshops and
different things like that.
(09:12):
Can you give me an example ofmaybe how these tools have been
used to transform a workplace sofar?
Here's
Amy (09:19):
my philosophy today.
It might change if we talked,you know, a few months or a year
from now.
But today, it really startswith courageous and vulnerable
leaders wanting to step into theor feeling a call to step into
doing this work themselves, theinner work, the look in the
(09:39):
mirror.
How do I clean up my side ofthe street before I roll this
out to everyone else?
And that comes through aprivate coaching experience
that's really profound.
So there's an assessment youcan take, the SQ21 assessment
through me, and it'll kind ofgive you a rating between level
zero to level five on where yousit in the 21 skills of
(10:00):
spiritual intelligence.
And then we usually meet for 3months, 6 months or a year.
And we have that assessment asa foundation for growth in
anything that you're workingthrough in the workplace.
Of course, I bring my corporatebackground, my executive
coaching from UC Berkeley andall that to the table as well.
(10:20):
One of the more popular...
Topics that leaders like todive into in those private
sessions is skill 19, which ismaking wise and compassionate
decisions, whether they want toamplify that a little bit more
in how they're making wise andcompassionate decisions for
their organization, or maybe.
(10:42):
They need to exercise someself-compassion and really make
some wise and compassionatedecisions for themselves.
Maybe they're teetering on theedge of burnout and there's some
boundary setting that needs tohappen.
Maybe they're falling into thepitfall of being an empathic
leader versus a compassionateleader.
You know, the empathic leadertakes on everybody's stuff to
(11:05):
try to fix it.
The compassionate leaderobserves and creates systems
that will help alleviate stress.
That's one example of kind ofthe private experience.
The other is workshops, youknow, create magic at workshops.
I have so many activities inthe book that help people tap
into their higher self.
In SQ, the skill five is, areyou aware of your ego versus
(11:29):
your higher self?
And who's in the driver's seatthe majority of the time?
And how can we practice keepingour higher self in the driver's
seat of our life a higherpercentage of time?
And so all of the tools fromCreate Magic at Work help you do
that.
I have my journal prompt carddeck.
I have lots of differentmodalities and activities that
(11:52):
we'll do in workshops, some ofwhich involve setting some
things on fire that are superfun.
Just, you know, this is deepinner work.
It's profound.
It's transformative.
So I...
designed the Create Magic atWork tools to be fun and
whimsical and playful andchildlike, to bring that into
(12:15):
the space for people that feellike their soul has been crushed
in these spaces.
workplace systems.
Chellie (12:22):
I always like to bring in real world to this
conversation.
My book, Culture Secrets, oneof the things I love about it
was the fact that so many peoplewere willing to share their
journeys inside certainorganizations about what was
working for them, what didn'twork, plus all the fails and the
obstacles that they had to comeacross and then rebuild from.
(12:43):
Since you've been doing thisfor a while and without breaking
any confidences or anything,could you share maybe a
memorable experience or asuccess story where you've
helped guide a leader to uncovertheir gifts and how that
impacted their business or theirlife?
Amy (12:59):
Yeah.
Okay.
So there were two that justcame to mind.
I'll share one.
So one was with a privateclient in charge of a very large
group of people.
And they stepped into my worldin an interesting way.
They needed some help inmaintaining presence and maybe
(13:23):
helping have a greater area ofcompassion for women leadership.
I'm trying to maintainconfidence.
And so this individual took theSQ assessment and lo and
behold, they came back a zero onskill 19, making wise and
compassionate decisions.
(13:44):
And in the SQ world, we callthose precious zeros, love them.
I had one myself when I tookthe assessment.
So no judgment here, right?
And when we met in session, We,you know, it looked like this
person was kind of like theythought they were going to be in
(14:04):
trouble or something, you know,this hyper achieving world
we're in in the corporate space.
And what really came about thevery first question I asked this
client was, what are thethoughts you tell yourself
throughout the day?
I'm really curious.
Like, how do you treatyourself?
And I got emotional and theylooked at me and they said, I'm
(14:26):
really hard on myself.
That negativity loop wasrunning, the self-criticism.
And it was like, of course,that's why you came back a level
zero on making wise andcompassionate decisions.
How can we possibly havecompassion for others if we
can't even give it to ourselves?
And so that's why I say it'sthat inside job with compassion.
(14:48):
No judgment.
So the first step there is not,oh, run out and try to have
more compassion for others.
It's like, no, we've got tochange this negative loop and
the self-criticism that'srunning.
You're beating yourself up allday.
We have to start there.
Because once that goes away oronce that's alleviated, you'll
(15:09):
automatically start giving it toothers as well.
That was a really powerfulmoment for me.
And this was a client that I...
that wouldn't typically stepinto my world, which was
beautiful.
And
Chellie (15:20):
I can so see that in, in, in, in one of the, in the
first book that I wrote thatwouldn't doubt delete it.
One of the things I talk aboutis deleting that negative
self-talk that we all gothrough, you know, and it's,
it's one of the hardest things,like you would never talk to
other people the way we talk toourselves sometimes.
And it's so powerful what wordsdo to us.
And when you hear them over andover, even when they're inside
(15:44):
your head, the impact that theycan have on, on on the outcomes
of what you're doing andeverything.
So as you look to the future,how do you see the role of
spiritual and emotionalintelligence evolving in the
workplace?
Oh yeah, it's where it's at.
Amy (16:00):
I mean, it's coming.
I mean, I say go beyond EQ.
I mean, this is where, this isthe game changer.
This is where we step intoquantum leadership.
This is where we have peopleleaders that are operating from
wisdom and compassion.
This is where we have wise andeffective change agents.
(16:20):
This is where we have lessego-induced drama and less
stress in the workplace.
Leaders that operate from aspiritually intelligent
perspective have all of that.
And so by default, people aregoing to choose to work for that
leader.
over the one that isn't.
And my hope is the systemnaturally transforms in that
(16:42):
way.
And then we're making businessdecisions, not only for profit
and the bottom line, but forimpact.
Impact on our well-being,impact on communities, impact on
the planet and humanity itself.
I love
Chellie (17:00):
that.
So if people want to learn moreabout EQ, SQ, Amy, the work
that's happening at Create Magicat Work, how can they connect
with you and how can they learnmore about you?
Amy (17:12):
Yeah, so createmagicatwork.net has
everything there.
There's a shop, you can findall those whimsical, fun,
creative tools.
The podcast Create Magic atWork is very popular with
leaders in the workplace tappinginto that calming and healing
inner peaceful type feeling, nomatter what space you're in in
(17:35):
your life.
And then yeah, if you want toconnect with me and learn what
you might score on the SQ21assessment for fun and learning
and as a part of your journey,that's on there as well.
So everything's oncreatemagicatwork.net.
Yeah.
Chellie (17:48):
All right.
Great.
I always love to ask if youcould share one culture building
bomb with a leader, what is onetakeaway?
If you're going to be a greatculture builder inside your
organization, what do they needto focus on?
Amy (18:03):
Oh my gosh.
I can't, I hate, I mean, I'mgoing to say it like skill
building in your SQ.
Yeah, really.
Like it starts there.
That's where this is.
This is what's coming.
This is here.
I really would encourage you toskill build in making wise and
compassionate decisions, theability to make wise and
(18:26):
compassionate decisions, evenwhen you're under great stress
and maintain inner peace whiledoing so.
If you can make wise andcompassionate decisions and
maintain inner peace, even undergreat stress, you've nailed it.
At least a high percentage oftime, right?
We're human.
We're going to have moments.
Absolutely.
Chellie (18:47):
Well, I appreciate it, Amy.
Thanks so much for joining ustoday.
And thank you for listening tothis episode of the Culture
Secret Podcast.
I hope you've jotted down a fewideas to try over the coming
weeks and help you grow a valueculture inside your
organization.
And if you enjoyed what youheard, please like, subscribe
and share this podcast.
Make sure you give Amy a shoutout and check out her podcast as
(19:09):
well.
Please drop us a rating becausethat's the way that more people
can hear these stories thatwe're telling and that we can
spread our messages and we canhelp build better cultures in
the world.
If you want more informationabout me and what Culture
Secrets is all about, visitwww.chelliefillips.com.
That's it for this episode.
(19:30):
And until next time, remember,building a value culture is your
competitive advantage and thebackbone of any successful
organization.
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