July 29, 2025 • 31 mins
The captivating exchange between Jaclyn Strominger and Scott Lapin presents a profound exploration of the intricate relationship between movement and trust in leadership. Scott, an accomplished movement coach and former professional ballroom dancer, articulates the essence of his work, which revolves around instilling a sense of trust and connection among team members through conscious movement workshops. He elucidates that the act of moving together serves as a conduit for deeper relationships, transcending traditional barriers that often inhibit authentic communication in corporate settings. The conversation underscores the pivotal role that trust plays in fostering an effective workplace environment, as Scott emphasizes that genuine connections are foundational to successful leadership.
The dialogue delves into the contemporary challenges faced by leaders, particularly in navigating the complexities of interpersonal interactions in a professional sphere increasingly defined by caution and apprehension regarding physical touch. Scott's insights shed light on the natural human desire for connection and the importance of cultivating an environment where such interactions are not only encouraged but celebrated. Through engaging anecdotes from his workshops, he illustrates the immediate impact that movement can have on individuals, enabling them to shed mental constraints and embrace a more collaborative spirit. The episode also highlights the significance of vulnerability in leadership, as Scott advocates for leaders to model authentic behaviors that invite trust and openness within their teams.
As the episode concludes, the implications of Scott's teachings resonate profoundly, serving as a clarion call for leaders to integrate movement and connection into their organizational practices. Jaclyn and Scott's conversation inspires listeners to reflect on their own leadership styles and consider the transformative potential of fostering trust through conscious movement. By embracing these principles, organizations can cultivate a more cohesive and resilient workplace culture, ultimately enhancing team dynamics and driving success. The episode offers a wealth of insights for leaders seeking to navigate the complexities of modern organizational life while prioritizing authentic connection and collaboration.
Takeaways:
- The essence of trust is paramount in fostering meaningful connections within any workplace environment.
- Conscious movement enables individuals to reconnect with their innate wisdom, enhancing personal and professional interactions.
- Engaging in guided movement exercises promotes a sense of synergy and trust among team members, breaking through mental barriers.
- Leadership necessitates the cultivation of deep connections among team members to enhance overall productivity and collaboration.
- Physical presence and engagement in movement activities can significantly improve interpersonal dynamics within corporate settings.
- The practice of conscious connection through movement can lead to more effective teamwork and collaborative success.
Links referenced in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
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Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight - Welcome
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(00:58):
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Strominger. And on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders
and their game changinginsights. And as you know, if we
can influence and change andhave great leaders, we can change
the world. And today I have anamazing guest. I cannot wait for
(01:23):
you to meet him. And I'm justgonna say, Scott, is it lapin? I
should have said this. Should have.
It's Lapin. Yes.
Okay, great. So I said itright gay for me. Pat myself on the
back there. Okay, so I wantyou guys to understand what Scott
is doing. First of all, as youknow, in business, people do business
with people they know like andtrust. And trust is such a huge key
(01:44):
component to the workplace.And so if I can have you leave with
anything from this podcast,understanding how important trust
is. So just to give youbackground on where Scott comes from,
he is a movement coach. He isa veteran professional ballroom dancer.
He created the Moving Edgeworkshop. His passion is conscious
(02:11):
movement and helping peoplereconnect to their inherent wisdom
present in their bodies. Andmovement is revealing and understanding
how we move and how you movewill understand how you present yourself
in the world. And so Scott, Iwant to welcome you to the podcast.
As we were talking before, weas human beings are meant to connect
(02:34):
and touch and so much of thathas gone away in our world.
This is true. Yes. As yousaid, you know, we're born moving
right with the need to, withthe need to connect. And we're social
creatures and what the, the,the corporate world has been over
(02:58):
the last number of years,number of years just tightening their
grip on how you can actuallyinteract. What's, what's appropriate,
appropriate touch and thewhiplash of like, oh my God, you
touched me wrong. I'm suingyou for a million dollars. You know,
that type of thing, it's,it's, it's kind of gone over overboard.
(03:19):
And I love, I, I, the messageI, I bring is this is simple, is
simple and clear. Through theworkshops there, it's all about finding
posture. I work with posture,I work with breath. I work with awareness
of your own body grounding.And we just kind of wake up our bodies
(03:40):
and then we start to connectwith each other. We start to simply
find a conscious connection.And this conscious connection I talk
about is just like handstogether creating this conscious
connection like this. And theworkshop is guided so, you know,
it's not people are in anylevel, of, any level of group can
(04:05):
come together age wise, genderWise, mixed, mixed between levels
in the corporations if youwant to do that. But this connection
brings us to an awareness oflike we have a, of a, an awareness
of connecting. Not grabbing,but just being connected. And then
from there I take peoplethrough guided exercises and movements
(04:28):
and balances and challenges inchallenges in trust, trust with each
other. So people have yourback maybe, or people are, are or
they, they, they're helpingcreate this synergy and it's fun.
What, what's really, what'sreally cool is that movement and
(04:52):
connection breaks throughmental blocks because it bypasses
overthinking and it bringsteams into a present moment where
real connection happens. Imean there's actual science behind
this which the body and thisbody connection that receives information
faster than the brain canprocess. It's, it's amazing. The
(05:13):
body is amazing and it'strusting our bodies. Embodied, you
know, embodied is a greatthing. Embodied leadership, let's
put it, I mean when you'renot, when you're networking, you
walk into a room and you'reembodied in yourself and you walk
into a room and you present anaura, you present an energy. And
(05:34):
this is what I bring awarenessof. There's takeaway, you know, takeaway
information. When groups workwith me for, you know, just, just
like my first workshop ismaybe about three hours long to,
to get a bunch of stufftogether, you know, lots of fun,
lots of laughing, lots ofawareness. But if they work with
me even more, they begin to,you know, start to really practice
(06:00):
because you know, practicemakes permanent by the way, not perfect.
So it's so important, youknow, I think I, and I think what
you're doing is so reallyimportant when it comes to, even
to leadership and helpingpeople get that deeper connection.
So as a leader, you know, it'salmost like one of those great things
(06:21):
that you could do to bringyour team together. Not just by going
out and like, you know, doing,going to F1 racing or whatever because
this is actually making peopletruly connect. And a simple, it's
amazing what a simple touchcould do. I mean I'm a huge hugger
now. I go to, you know, I'm,I'm a co founder of a networking
(06:45):
company and so when peoplecome in to our networking group,
or as we call them hubs, forthe first time I shake their hand
if I know I'm giving you ahug. And now granted, you will probably
not not do that every time youwalk into. See a colleague at your
office. But it's so true thatwe have, we have forgotten to give
(07:07):
like the high fives or even,you know, the, you know, are giving
somebody that hug that theyneed, like if they're having a bad
day. It's, you know, we'veread into so many things.
It's. It's so natural. I mean,well, it's natural. Some people,
(07:29):
of course, it's not normal for them.
Right.
But it's natural to, if, ifsomeone is having a bad day that
we somehow we empathize and wewant to, you know, give them a sense
of betterment. You know, it's.And there's the, so there's the touch
(07:49):
on the shoulder. There's the,you know, there's the, the pat on
the hand. There's whatever,you know, And I mean, I just laugh
because if I went into thecorporate world right now, I mean,
they, they probably, like, I'dbe called. I'd have pink slips all
over the place because I wouldbe inappropriate. It would. That
(08:10):
would just be it. And so that,by the way, that's been one of my
challenges here is, like, isspeaking to that. I, I speaking.
Getting myself into thecorporate world with the correct
languaging vernacular. Doesn'tscare them.
Yeah.
Because, I mean, I was workingwith Glamazon, you know, Glamazon.
(08:35):
I don't know. Glamazon.
Glamazon is the LGBTQ factionof Amazon.
Okay.
Yeah. It's been around for notquite a number of years, and I was
get ready to, like, you know,really talking to the people who
wanted me, but they went totheir higher ups and they were sharing
what it was, and they had toback off because they, The. The higher
(09:02):
ups were, like, afraid of the touch.
Right?
That's it. The touch. Excuseme. I'm gonna close my blind here.
The sun just changed anglehere. Can you see this? Lovely Florida.
Right? You did, you just got.You did get a little bit brighter
there.
Wait a minute.
Oh.
Hang on just a second here. Ithink this might do it. That did
(09:24):
it.
Yeah, there you go. So, youknow, it's interesting. So when you're
thinking about, you know, sobuilding trust.
Yeah.
As a dancer. Right. I mean,that's huge. Right. So in order.
In. In order to know. I mean,it's, it is all about, you know,
(09:44):
the placement of your hand onsomebody's back or whatever, like
where you're going to do. Andso, so how do, how does that, you
know, when you've had aworkshop and people are. They've
gone through it, what do yousee as the difference, like, from
before and after?
(10:06):
I mean, That's a greatquestion. And there's a number, there's
a couple things that come tomy mind. Well, first I'll share.
First I'll share thissituation and then I'll share another
situation. First situation isin this, this is cool. My work, my
(10:28):
workshops. Immediately thefirst thing I tell people is, okay,
this is a situation where youhave a choice. If you're uncomfortable
with this exercise, you havethe opportunity to not involve yourself
or to not participate.However, you will be an active observer
(10:50):
of the, of the exercise. Sothat's happened before. And let's
say I've got four people andI've got them together, I got them
hooking or connecting andwe're doing these balancing exercises,
we're doing these body weightexercises where people, they can't
do this on their own. It's asynergy. So they're creating this.
(11:11):
But maybe Joe over here is alittle tense and he's tightening
and he's holding. And I said,joe, can you feel that? And everybody.
And people around the groupare, are going like, yeah, it feels
a little things feels a littleodd. So I come and I said, joe, how
about this? How about yourelax, relax your a little bit here?
How about you just relax, putyour feet in the floor, take a nice
(11:32):
breath and just drop yourshoulders. And he relaxes into the
group. Now there's people,couple people watching. And immediately
I saw, I, I asked the group,group, how does that feel now? Oh,
it feels so different. Thepeople, the people next to him and
(11:53):
the people across from him canfeel the difference in that connection.
And I say, people watching,what did you see? And they go, we
saw the whole thing happen. Soit's the result of this. The results
of exercises like this areimmediate. They're visceral, they're,
(12:14):
they're, they're my mind,body, they're visceral. And when,
when you have that experiencewith a group of people, when you're
in trust situations and aslittle or as large as they are and
you have those visceralexperiences, they don't, they don't
disappear. You have them,right? And so, you know, it's up
(12:35):
to you to then, you know, growthat. Now that's, so that's a little
bit before and after anotherone is just, just that. I got some
great testimonials lately fromthe International Coaching Federation.
I, I was working with a groupof about 12 executive coaches from
(12:57):
around the world and they,half of them had never met each other.
And so I was the firstactivity on their three day event
down here in Fort Lauderdale.And I would, 9 o' clock in the morning,
boom to 12 right before theywent to lunch. We had so much fun
with each other. And I, at theend of the workshop, the president
(13:23):
of the coaching of thatdivision of the coaching federation
who had okayed this for me todo this, he had, was not really,
wasn't 100% sold. But my, mychampion, my, my dear friend, she
said, you got to have thisguy. So he said, you know, Scott,
I wasn't really, really sureabout this at first, but I have to
(13:47):
tell you, this was great. I,this was absolutely amazing. I love
what you. I'll give you atestimonial whenever. I'll refer
you to whatever I said, well,will you write me a testimonial?
He wrote me the besttestimonial that I have ever received.
I mean, awesome, awesome. Hebasically said Scott's workshop kick
(14:10):
started our resort, ourretreat. It was a retreat at a resort.
We said. He said our meetingswere immediately more effective than
I could have imagined, than Icould have wished for. He said they
just were so great. We gotbetter guidance, better focus and
(14:31):
more done because people werejust so much more comfortable with
each other.
Right. How that ends uphappening, right. Like you go to
a conference and like thefirst day, people are like a little
skittish and then by the endyou're like, you know, there's that
deeper connection. So it'sreally nice to have that in the beginning.
Right. I mean it's, and it'sreally great for teams. And I really
(14:52):
see, you know, you know, I'vebeen to. When I was in the corporate
world, I had, I did a wholeday actually was a couple of days
of learning to be basicallyhelping people be a brain. Helping
people brainstorm, right?
Oh yeah, yeah.
(15:12):
And you know, it was a, it wasreally great about. It was, it was,
it was a fun exercise and wegot to know each other better in
that timeframe. Right. Butthat's one thing I am loving about
what you're doing because,because, you know, in the corporate
world we need to know ourpeople and our teams better so that
(15:32):
we can thrive better together.
Yeah. Yeah. And did I, Iforgot to mention that this, this
president that would, had,would wrote me that he participated
in the workshop.
Well, good. That was really good.
Yeah. And he was, and he wasreally uptight and he relaxed and
so everybody got us. They. AndI, I applauded him. I said, you know,
(15:56):
man, good, good on you forcoming in here and, and and being
vulnerable like this andletting people see you, you'll kind
of struggle through some ofthese exercises. I mean, you know,
there's. It's. Yeah. Anyway,it was very cool.
So, I mean, as I was saying,you know, ballroom dancing, obviously
you have to. You're touchingpeople and, And. And whatnot. So
(16:18):
when you thought aboutcreating this workshop, like, where.
What was the genesis behindit? Like, you know, how did you think,
oh, I want to go from here tobring this into the corporate world
or to help other people.
Wow. The genesis. It's. It'skind of a. It's kind of a long. A
(16:44):
kind of a story that goes over years.
I need a glass of wine. Just kidding.
Actually, a couple cocktails,actually. Yeah, you're. Listen, you
have the same. You and me, we.We need. I need to come out to, To.
To. Okay, I'm. Here's the.Here's the genesis. And in the transition,
(17:05):
okay, this. The simple answeris that it was for me to condense
all this information that Istart. Had been gathering. And, and
to that point, it was only,you know, 20, 25 years in the business
right above there. That was.That was kind of why. Why I kind
(17:28):
of sat down and startedputting pen to paper. But my, My.
My whole start in this journeywas when I was 8 years old and I
was an avid reader, and I wasin the. The library of a new school.
We had just moved to Chicago,and I was in the library of a new
(17:51):
school. I joined the libraryclub, and I had this book in my hand
that I'd never had a book likethis before. It was a pretty robin's
egg blue. I can see it now.And it had a picture of a classical
pas de deux ballet couple onit with the word ballet. I'd never
seen a picture like that. AndI'd never seen that word. But in
(18:12):
my. Holding that in my hands,every cell in my body vibrated. And
I knew I was going to do that.So I went to my parents. I know I
still get chills myself. Iwent to my parents and I said, hey,
somehow, years ago, yearsafter that, I said, mom, did I bring
(18:33):
a book home to show you? Shesaid, no, but you let us know. But
anyway, being the cool parentsthat they were, we lived in Hyde
Park, University of Chicago.There's a ballet school literally
three blocks away. A real dealballet school. Not the jazz tap,
you know, hip hop. And so Istudied ballet for two years, only
little boy in class. And thenmy parents joined the ymca and I
(18:57):
started doing gymnastics, andwe Started swimming, and then we
started doing music and musiclessons. And so I had this. And then
I had this physical movementand coordination and musical. Musical
training. I graduated highschool, started. I was studying voice,
(19:21):
went to college, graduatedwith a vocal degree and understood
music. I really understoodmusic. But during that time, guess
what? I guess when I was goingto go to school at the end of the
70s, I was out disco dancingall the time. So I was out dancing,
and so I was just naturaldancer and. Huh. Yeah.
(19:47):
Hustle.
Yeah, do the Hustle. Do theHustle. So. So I got. I. I got out
of college and here I am. It'slike 1980 and, you know, what am
I going to do with my life?And so I. I do what all people do,
that graduate from liberal.Liberal arts colleges. I got a job
as a waiter. So I. So one ofmy. And I was. I was going out dancing
(20:12):
every night. And one of my galpals, who I hung out with all the
time, she said, scott, I waslooking in the newspaper today and
I saw an article. The ArthurMarie Ballroom Dance Studio is starting
a training class for new danceteachers. I think you would be a
great dance instructor. AndI'm like, I'm like, who the hell
(20:33):
is Arthur Murray and what thehell is ballroom dance? I mean, I
knew who Fred and Ginger wereballroom dance was. So I went, I
called up, made anappointment, and for like two days
later, I went out to the clubthat night, and I. I was telling
a friend, hey, this is whatI'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to this
ball, you know, Arthur Murraything. He goes, oh, I know the manager
(20:57):
of that studio. He's heretonight at the club. You want me
to introduce you? So I gotintroduced, and that was April 11,
44 years ago. I've neverturned around, I've never looked
back. I mean, my whole lifehas been teaching. And it was, it
was maybe about two years intothis, this world, this industry of
(21:20):
dance that I connected to mypurpose in life, which was being
a teacher. And I. So, yeah, sothat it was like, well, this aligns,
collect. I mean, I'm supposedto teach movement. I've got music,
I've got these skills thatI'm. That's it. So 20 years, you
(21:46):
know, later, I'm down here andI start to go like, well, what is,
what are all these essences ofconnection that I've been learning,
you know, because withballroom dance, it's. It's a, it's
a. It's a poetry in motion,but it's More like a duet. It's a
duet of movement. And people.People understand. Say they'll understand
(22:13):
a duet as a piece of music ora piece of singers. Singers are singing
a duet and they understand howdifficult that could be because people
will say, oh, I'm not a goodsinger, and blah, blah, blah. Or
they're. They're a good singerand they understand it. It's easier
for them to understand the.The skills that are needed and the
(22:35):
difficulty that are needed forsingers to actually sound well together.
Yeah.
But because everybody movesand everybody connects, people think
that just because they'removing and I'm doing this part here,
the guy's going, well, I ledthat. Why didn't you follow that?
Well, because maybe your leadwasn't so cool. Maybe your lead wasn't
(22:58):
so clear, you know, so they.But people get like this. I. I took
10 lessons. I know how to chacha. You know, a guy thing. So, you
know, so it's that. It's very,very interesting that, that because
of our physical. What we.Because we do move and we do think
we know something, that wethink it's. Dancing is an easy thing
(23:25):
to do. It's not. It's not.
No. And. And I think what'sreally. What's really key is, like,
it. It's the same thing, youknow, when. And I love that you're
bringing this to companiesbecause I think it's really important
for leaders to understand thatthe way people mesh together, you
and. And the way a team workstogether, you can have some really
(23:45):
great cohesive relationshipsor you could not have them. And when
they're not. When they don't.When the team doesn't really gel
together, it doesn't work welltogether. It's the same thing. And
you've. You probably see itwith dancing and I'm probably. And
I. I don't watch Dancing withthe Stars ever. I just. Not my. I
love dancing, but I'd ratherwatch. Okay. So I'm. I am a child
(24:09):
who used to watch Solid Gold.
Oh, yeah.
Like, all the time. Like, youknow, probably one of my days, I
wanted to be a Solid Golddancer. But. But the point though
is, is that when you see twopeople dancing and as you just said,
as, like whether it's a duetor it's. But they're telling a story
with movement, with their.With dancing, and you look at them
(24:32):
and, and you. And you can telltwo people who are truly connected.
Well, because their movementis beautiful. It's seamless. It's
there. They're Floating. Andthen you have the. The pairs or the
teams or whatever, andthey're. There's something not gelling
and it's not as fluid, andit's a. Ooh. That dance seems more
(24:58):
manipulated versus a flow.
Right. Right. Yeah, man. More manufactured.
Yes.
Yeah. And that's it. This is.This is where. Where the differentiation
is. Those people aren't it.It. It's not easy. The people you
are watching make it lookeasy. They make it look easy because
(25:21):
of the years of study thatthey've done and the years of development.
Because those two people haveto bring what they bring to the table.
Yeah.
To create the synergy. Andit's the synergy that we're looking
to. To create in teams. Verymuch so. Very much so. The. I'm kind
(25:48):
of going back and forth intothe ballroom. Everybody does. Everybody
would love to have thebenefits of being a really good dancer.
I mean, a really good dancer,a skilled dancer. I mean, and I'm,
you know, no one is born.We're born with some ability, maybe
some more than others, but noone is born with skill. No one is
(26:10):
born with skill. And so, Imean, in everything, I mean, skill
and networking, maybe I havethe ability to, like, connect with
people, but I still needskills and like, what the heck to
say and how to follow up and.And other things. So.
Right.
So the idea is that. Thatwithin this workshop, it's about
(26:32):
bringing. Giving people somepractical. Practical skills in. You
know, in. In maybe the firstworkshop, I love to. I love to work,
like, you know, know, getting.Getting. Working with people every
couple months or somethinglike that. Haven't. Haven't really
had any opportunity to do thatyet. But I can see that rolling this
(26:56):
out over periods of time canreally lock in to help people massage
these skills and practice themand follow up with. How is this working
for you? Yeah.
And so, listeners, I want youto really take note to this as a
leader. The key thing, and Iwant the takeaway is building trust
(27:16):
among your team and alsohelping to create a fluid pattern
that people can work welltogether with. And sometimes in creating
that fluidity, you may have tochange your partner, meaning maybe
the person, there's somebodyon your team or that you're working
with that either is not foryour team or maybe doesn't fit. Maybe
(27:37):
it's a cultural or valuesissue. But to create that fluidity
in the team where people areworking well together is it is creating
that trust and helping themconnect at a deeper level so that
they know each other. Scott, Icould talk to you about this forever
and a day because I love whatyou are doing. But I want our listeners
(27:59):
to know how can they reach outand connect with you and learn more
about Moving Edge workshopsand bringing you to their company?
Absolutely. Here right on thescreen here is the Moving Edge workshop
dot com. Wait over here. Yeah,wait, wait. The movingedge workshop
dot com. That's my email orno, excuse me, that's the website,
(28:23):
but I'm at movingedge Workshop Gmail.
Okay. Moving Edge WorkshopGmail is your email address and you're
on LinkedIn.
I am on LinkedIn and so you.
Can find Scott on LinkedIn.Please, listeners, go to connect
with Scott, go check out hisworkshops. And I truly believe that
(28:44):
if you can bring him in andcreate a deeper connection with the
people on your team, you're.You're going to see your company
soar because you're going tohave deeper relationships. So I truly
appreciate it. If you havegotten some great tips out of this,
which I'm sure you have,please do me a favor, listeners,
hit subscribe and please sharethe episode with your friends and
(29:08):
colleagues. And of course,please give us a review on your favorite
podcast platform. Thank you,Scott, for being an amazing guest
and thank you for listening.
You're wonderful. Thank you.
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Strominger. And on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders
and their game changinginsights. And as you know, if we
can influence and change andhave great leaders, we can change
the world. And today I have anamazing guest. I cannot wait for
(01:23):
you to meet him. And I'm justgonna say, Scott, is it lapin? I
should have said this. Should have.
It's Lapin. Yes.
Okay, great. So I said itright gay for me. Pat myself on the
back there. Okay, so I wantyou guys to understand what Scott
is doing. First of all, as youknow, in business, people do business
with people they know like andtrust. And trust is such a huge key
(01:44):
component to the workplace.And so if I can have you leave with
anything from this podcast,understanding how important trust
is. So just to give youbackground on where Scott comes from,
he is a movement coach. He isa veteran professional ballroom dancer.
He created the Moving Edgeworkshop. His passion is conscious
(02:11):
movement and helping peoplereconnect to their inherent wisdom
present in their bodies. Andmovement is revealing and understanding
how we move and how you movewill understand how you present yourself
in the world. And so Scott, Iwant to welcome you to the podcast.
As we were talking before, weas human beings are meant to connect
(02:34):
and touch and so much of thathas gone away in our world.
This is true. Yes. As yousaid, you know, we're born moving
right with the need to, withthe need to connect. And we're social
creatures and what the, the,the corporate world has been over
(02:58):
the last number of years,number of years just tightening their
grip on how you can actuallyinteract. What's, what's appropriate,
appropriate touch and thewhiplash of like, oh my God, you
touched me wrong. I'm suingyou for a million dollars. You know,
that type of thing, it's,it's, it's kind of gone over overboard.
(03:19):
And I love, I, I, the messageI, I bring is this is simple, is
simple and clear. Through theworkshops there, it's all about finding
posture. I work with posture,I work with breath. I work with awareness
of your own body grounding.And we just kind of wake up our bodies
(03:40):
and then we start to connectwith each other. We start to simply
find a conscious connection.And this conscious connection I talk
about is just like handstogether creating this conscious
connection like this. And theworkshop is guided so, you know,
it's not people are in anylevel, of, any level of group can
(04:05):
come together age wise, genderWise, mixed, mixed between levels
in the corporations if youwant to do that. But this connection
brings us to an awareness oflike we have a, of a, an awareness
of connecting. Not grabbing,but just being connected. And then
from there I take peoplethrough guided exercises and movements
(04:28):
and balances and challenges inchallenges in trust, trust with each
other. So people have yourback maybe, or people are, are or
they, they, they're helpingcreate this synergy and it's fun.
What, what's really, what'sreally cool is that movement and
(04:52):
connection breaks throughmental blocks because it bypasses
overthinking and it bringsteams into a present moment where
real connection happens. Imean there's actual science behind
this which the body and thisbody connection that receives information
faster than the brain canprocess. It's, it's amazing. The
(05:13):
body is amazing and it'strusting our bodies. Embodied, you
know, embodied is a greatthing. Embodied leadership, let's
put it, I mean when you'renot, when you're networking, you
walk into a room and you'reembodied in yourself and you walk
into a room and you present anaura, you present an energy. And
(05:34):
this is what I bring awarenessof. There's takeaway, you know, takeaway
information. When groups workwith me for, you know, just, just
like my first workshop ismaybe about three hours long to,
to get a bunch of stufftogether, you know, lots of fun,
lots of laughing, lots ofawareness. But if they work with
me even more, they begin to,you know, start to really practice
(06:00):
because you know, practicemakes permanent by the way, not perfect.
So it's so important, youknow, I think I, and I think what
you're doing is so reallyimportant when it comes to, even
to leadership and helpingpeople get that deeper connection.
So as a leader, you know, it'salmost like one of those great things
(06:21):
that you could do to bringyour team together. Not just by going
out and like, you know, doing,going to F1 racing or whatever because
this is actually making peopletruly connect. And a simple, it's
amazing what a simple touchcould do. I mean I'm a huge hugger
now. I go to, you know, I'm,I'm a co founder of a networking
(06:45):
company and so when peoplecome in to our networking group,
or as we call them hubs, forthe first time I shake their hand
if I know I'm giving you ahug. And now granted, you will probably
not not do that every time youwalk into. See a colleague at your
office. But it's so true thatwe have, we have forgotten to give
(07:07):
like the high fives or even,you know, the, you know, are giving
somebody that hug that theyneed, like if they're having a bad
day. It's, you know, we'veread into so many things.
It's. It's so natural. I mean,well, it's natural. Some people,
(07:29):
of course, it's not normal for them.
Right.
But it's natural to, if, ifsomeone is having a bad day that
we somehow we empathize and wewant to, you know, give them a sense
of betterment. You know, it's.And there's the, so there's the touch
(07:49):
on the shoulder. There's the,you know, there's the, the pat on
the hand. There's whatever,you know, And I mean, I just laugh
because if I went into thecorporate world right now, I mean,
they, they probably, like, I'dbe called. I'd have pink slips all
over the place because I wouldbe inappropriate. It would. That
(08:10):
would just be it. And so that,by the way, that's been one of my
challenges here is, like, isspeaking to that. I, I speaking.
Getting myself into thecorporate world with the correct
languaging vernacular. Doesn'tscare them.
Yeah.
Because, I mean, I was workingwith Glamazon, you know, Glamazon.
(08:35):
I don't know. Glamazon.
Glamazon is the LGBTQ factionof Amazon.
Okay.
Yeah. It's been around for notquite a number of years, and I was
get ready to, like, you know,really talking to the people who
wanted me, but they went totheir higher ups and they were sharing
what it was, and they had toback off because they, The. The higher
(09:02):
ups were, like, afraid of the touch.
Right?
That's it. The touch. Excuseme. I'm gonna close my blind here.
The sun just changed anglehere. Can you see this? Lovely Florida.
Right? You did, you just got.You did get a little bit brighter
there.
Wait a minute.
Oh.
Hang on just a second here. Ithink this might do it. That did
(09:24):
it.
Yeah, there you go. So, youknow, it's interesting. So when you're
thinking about, you know, sobuilding trust.
Yeah.
As a dancer. Right. I mean,that's huge. Right. So in order.
In. In order to know. I mean,it's, it is all about, you know,
(09:44):
the placement of your hand onsomebody's back or whatever, like
where you're going to do. Andso, so how do, how does that, you
know, when you've had aworkshop and people are. They've
gone through it, what do yousee as the difference, like, from
before and after?
(10:06):
I mean, That's a greatquestion. And there's a number, there's
a couple things that come tomy mind. Well, first I'll share.
First I'll share thissituation and then I'll share another
situation. First situation isin this, this is cool. My work, my
(10:28):
workshops. Immediately thefirst thing I tell people is, okay,
this is a situation where youhave a choice. If you're uncomfortable
with this exercise, you havethe opportunity to not involve yourself
or to not participate.However, you will be an active observer
(10:50):
of the, of the exercise. Sothat's happened before. And let's
say I've got four people andI've got them together, I got them
hooking or connecting andwe're doing these balancing exercises,
we're doing these body weightexercises where people, they can't
do this on their own. It's asynergy. So they're creating this.
(11:11):
But maybe Joe over here is alittle tense and he's tightening
and he's holding. And I said,joe, can you feel that? And everybody.
And people around the groupare, are going like, yeah, it feels
a little things feels a littleodd. So I come and I said, joe, how
about this? How about yourelax, relax your a little bit here?
How about you just relax, putyour feet in the floor, take a nice
(11:32):
breath and just drop yourshoulders. And he relaxes into the
group. Now there's people,couple people watching. And immediately
I saw, I, I asked the group,group, how does that feel now? Oh,
it feels so different. Thepeople, the people next to him and
(11:53):
the people across from him canfeel the difference in that connection.
And I say, people watching,what did you see? And they go, we
saw the whole thing happen. Soit's the result of this. The results
of exercises like this areimmediate. They're visceral, they're,
(12:14):
they're, they're my mind,body, they're visceral. And when,
when you have that experiencewith a group of people, when you're
in trust situations and aslittle or as large as they are and
you have those visceralexperiences, they don't, they don't
disappear. You have them,right? And so, you know, it's up
(12:35):
to you to then, you know, growthat. Now that's, so that's a little
bit before and after anotherone is just, just that. I got some
great testimonials lately fromthe International Coaching Federation.
I, I was working with a groupof about 12 executive coaches from
(12:57):
around the world and they,half of them had never met each other.
And so I was the firstactivity on their three day event
down here in Fort Lauderdale.And I would, 9 o' clock in the morning,
boom to 12 right before theywent to lunch. We had so much fun
with each other. And I, at theend of the workshop, the president
(13:23):
of the coaching of thatdivision of the coaching federation
who had okayed this for me todo this, he had, was not really,
wasn't 100% sold. But my, mychampion, my, my dear friend, she
said, you got to have thisguy. So he said, you know, Scott,
I wasn't really, really sureabout this at first, but I have to
(13:47):
tell you, this was great. I,this was absolutely amazing. I love
what you. I'll give you atestimonial whenever. I'll refer
you to whatever I said, well,will you write me a testimonial?
He wrote me the besttestimonial that I have ever received.
I mean, awesome, awesome. Hebasically said Scott's workshop kick
(14:10):
started our resort, ourretreat. It was a retreat at a resort.
We said. He said our meetingswere immediately more effective than
I could have imagined, than Icould have wished for. He said they
just were so great. We gotbetter guidance, better focus and
(14:31):
more done because people werejust so much more comfortable with
each other.
Right. How that ends uphappening, right. Like you go to
a conference and like thefirst day, people are like a little
skittish and then by the endyou're like, you know, there's that
deeper connection. So it'sreally nice to have that in the beginning.
Right. I mean it's, and it'sreally great for teams. And I really
(14:52):
see, you know, you know, I'vebeen to. When I was in the corporate
world, I had, I did a wholeday actually was a couple of days
of learning to be basicallyhelping people be a brain. Helping
people brainstorm, right?
Oh yeah, yeah.
(15:12):
And you know, it was a, it wasreally great about. It was, it was,
it was a fun exercise and wegot to know each other better in
that timeframe. Right. Butthat's one thing I am loving about
what you're doing because,because, you know, in the corporate
world we need to know ourpeople and our teams better so that
(15:32):
we can thrive better together.
Yeah. Yeah. And did I, Iforgot to mention that this, this
president that would, had,would wrote me that he participated
in the workshop.
Well, good. That was really good.
Yeah. And he was, and he wasreally uptight and he relaxed and
so everybody got us. They. AndI, I applauded him. I said, you know,
(15:56):
man, good, good on you forcoming in here and, and and being
vulnerable like this andletting people see you, you'll kind
of struggle through some ofthese exercises. I mean, you know,
there's. It's. Yeah. Anyway,it was very cool.
So, I mean, as I was saying,you know, ballroom dancing, obviously
you have to. You're touchingpeople and, And. And whatnot. So
(16:18):
when you thought aboutcreating this workshop, like, where.
What was the genesis behindit? Like, you know, how did you think,
oh, I want to go from here tobring this into the corporate world
or to help other people.
Wow. The genesis. It's. It'skind of a. It's kind of a long. A
(16:44):
kind of a story that goes over years.
I need a glass of wine. Just kidding.
Actually, a couple cocktails,actually. Yeah, you're. Listen, you
have the same. You and me, we.We need. I need to come out to, To.
To. Okay, I'm. Here's the.Here's the genesis. And in the transition,
(17:05):
okay, this. The simple answeris that it was for me to condense
all this information that Istart. Had been gathering. And, and
to that point, it was only,you know, 20, 25 years in the business
right above there. That was.That was kind of why. Why I kind
(17:28):
of sat down and startedputting pen to paper. But my, My.
My whole start in this journeywas when I was 8 years old and I
was an avid reader, and I wasin the. The library of a new school.
We had just moved to Chicago,and I was in the library of a new
(17:51):
school. I joined the libraryclub, and I had this book in my hand
that I'd never had a book likethis before. It was a pretty robin's
egg blue. I can see it now.And it had a picture of a classical
pas de deux ballet couple onit with the word ballet. I'd never
seen a picture like that. AndI'd never seen that word. But in
(18:12):
my. Holding that in my hands,every cell in my body vibrated. And
I knew I was going to do that.So I went to my parents. I know I
still get chills myself. Iwent to my parents and I said, hey,
somehow, years ago, yearsafter that, I said, mom, did I bring
(18:33):
a book home to show you? Shesaid, no, but you let us know. But
anyway, being the cool parentsthat they were, we lived in Hyde
Park, University of Chicago.There's a ballet school literally
three blocks away. A real dealballet school. Not the jazz tap,
you know, hip hop. And so Istudied ballet for two years, only
little boy in class. And thenmy parents joined the ymca and I
(18:57):
started doing gymnastics, andwe Started swimming, and then we
started doing music and musiclessons. And so I had this. And then
I had this physical movementand coordination and musical. Musical
training. I graduated highschool, started. I was studying voice,
(19:21):
went to college, graduatedwith a vocal degree and understood
music. I really understoodmusic. But during that time, guess
what? I guess when I was goingto go to school at the end of the
70s, I was out disco dancingall the time. So I was out dancing,
and so I was just naturaldancer and. Huh. Yeah.
(19:47):
Hustle.
Yeah, do the Hustle. Do theHustle. So. So I got. I. I got out
of college and here I am. It'slike 1980 and, you know, what am
I going to do with my life?And so I. I do what all people do,
that graduate from liberal.Liberal arts colleges. I got a job
as a waiter. So I. So one ofmy. And I was. I was going out dancing
(20:12):
every night. And one of my galpals, who I hung out with all the
time, she said, scott, I waslooking in the newspaper today and
I saw an article. The ArthurMarie Ballroom Dance Studio is starting
a training class for new danceteachers. I think you would be a
great dance instructor. AndI'm like, I'm like, who the hell
(20:33):
is Arthur Murray and what thehell is ballroom dance? I mean, I
knew who Fred and Ginger wereballroom dance was. So I went, I
called up, made anappointment, and for like two days
later, I went out to the clubthat night, and I. I was telling
a friend, hey, this is whatI'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to this
ball, you know, Arthur Murraything. He goes, oh, I know the manager
(20:57):
of that studio. He's heretonight at the club. You want me
to introduce you? So I gotintroduced, and that was April 11,
44 years ago. I've neverturned around, I've never looked
back. I mean, my whole lifehas been teaching. And it was, it
was maybe about two years intothis, this world, this industry of
(21:20):
dance that I connected to mypurpose in life, which was being
a teacher. And I. So, yeah, sothat it was like, well, this aligns,
collect. I mean, I'm supposedto teach movement. I've got music,
I've got these skills thatI'm. That's it. So 20 years, you
(21:46):
know, later, I'm down here andI start to go like, well, what is,
what are all these essences ofconnection that I've been learning,
you know, because withballroom dance, it's. It's a, it's
a. It's a poetry in motion,but it's More like a duet. It's a
duet of movement. And people.People understand. Say they'll understand
(22:13):
a duet as a piece of music ora piece of singers. Singers are singing
a duet and they understand howdifficult that could be because people
will say, oh, I'm not a goodsinger, and blah, blah, blah. Or
they're. They're a good singerand they understand it. It's easier
for them to understand the.The skills that are needed and the
(22:35):
difficulty that are needed forsingers to actually sound well together.
Yeah.
But because everybody movesand everybody connects, people think
that just because they'removing and I'm doing this part here,
the guy's going, well, I ledthat. Why didn't you follow that?
Well, because maybe your leadwasn't so cool. Maybe your lead wasn't
(22:58):
so clear, you know, so they.But people get like this. I. I took
10 lessons. I know how to chacha. You know, a guy thing. So, you
know, so it's that. It's very,very interesting that, that because
of our physical. What we.Because we do move and we do think
we know something, that wethink it's. Dancing is an easy thing
(23:25):
to do. It's not. It's not.
No. And. And I think what'sreally. What's really key is, like,
it. It's the same thing, youknow, when. And I love that you're
bringing this to companiesbecause I think it's really important
for leaders to understand thatthe way people mesh together, you
and. And the way a team workstogether, you can have some really
(23:45):
great cohesive relationshipsor you could not have them. And when
they're not. When they don't.When the team doesn't really gel
together, it doesn't work welltogether. It's the same thing. And
you've. You probably see itwith dancing and I'm probably. And
I. I don't watch Dancing withthe Stars ever. I just. Not my. I
love dancing, but I'd ratherwatch. Okay. So I'm. I am a child
(24:09):
who used to watch Solid Gold.
Oh, yeah.
Like, all the time. Like, youknow, probably one of my days, I
wanted to be a Solid Golddancer. But. But the point though
is, is that when you see twopeople dancing and as you just said,
as, like whether it's a duetor it's. But they're telling a story
with movement, with their.With dancing, and you look at them
(24:32):
and, and you. And you can telltwo people who are truly connected.
Well, because their movementis beautiful. It's seamless. It's
there. They're Floating. Andthen you have the. The pairs or the
teams or whatever, andthey're. There's something not gelling
and it's not as fluid, andit's a. Ooh. That dance seems more
(24:58):
manipulated versus a flow.
Right. Right. Yeah, man. More manufactured.
Yes.
Yeah. And that's it. This is.This is where. Where the differentiation
is. Those people aren't it.It. It's not easy. The people you
are watching make it lookeasy. They make it look easy because
(25:21):
of the years of study thatthey've done and the years of development.
Because those two people haveto bring what they bring to the table.
Yeah.
To create the synergy. Andit's the synergy that we're looking
to. To create in teams. Verymuch so. Very much so. The. I'm kind
(25:48):
of going back and forth intothe ballroom. Everybody does. Everybody
would love to have thebenefits of being a really good dancer.
I mean, a really good dancer,a skilled dancer. I mean, and I'm,
you know, no one is born.We're born with some ability, maybe
some more than others, but noone is born with skill. No one is
(26:10):
born with skill. And so, Imean, in everything, I mean, skill
and networking, maybe I havethe ability to, like, connect with
people, but I still needskills and like, what the heck to
say and how to follow up and.And other things. So.
Right.
So the idea is that. Thatwithin this workshop, it's about
(26:32):
bringing. Giving people somepractical. Practical skills in. You
know, in. In maybe the firstworkshop, I love to. I love to work,
like, you know, know, getting.Getting. Working with people every
couple months or somethinglike that. Haven't. Haven't really
had any opportunity to do thatyet. But I can see that rolling this
(26:56):
out over periods of time canreally lock in to help people massage
these skills and practice themand follow up with. How is this working
for you? Yeah.
And so, listeners, I want youto really take note to this as a
leader. The key thing, and Iwant the takeaway is building trust
(27:16):
among your team and alsohelping to create a fluid pattern
that people can work welltogether with. And sometimes in creating
that fluidity, you may have tochange your partner, meaning maybe
the person, there's somebodyon your team or that you're working
with that either is not foryour team or maybe doesn't fit. Maybe
(27:37):
it's a cultural or valuesissue. But to create that fluidity
in the team where people areworking well together is it is creating
that trust and helping themconnect at a deeper level so that
they know each other. Scott, Icould talk to you about this forever
and a day because I love whatyou are doing. But I want our listeners
(27:59):
to know how can they reach outand connect with you and learn more
about Moving Edge workshopsand bringing you to their company?
Absolutely. Here right on thescreen here is the Moving Edge workshop
dot com. Wait over here. Yeah,wait, wait. The movingedge workshop
dot com. That's my email orno, excuse me, that's the website,
(28:23):
but I'm at movingedge Workshop Gmail.
Okay. Moving Edge WorkshopGmail is your email address and you're
on LinkedIn.
I am on LinkedIn and so you.
Can find Scott on LinkedIn.Please, listeners, go to connect
with Scott, go check out hisworkshops. And I truly believe that
(28:44):
if you can bring him in andcreate a deeper connection with the
people on your team, you're.You're going to see your company
soar because you're going tohave deeper relationships. So I truly
appreciate it. If you havegotten some great tips out of this,
which I'm sure you have,please do me a favor, listeners,
hit subscribe and please sharethe episode with your friends and
(29:08):
colleagues. And of course,please give us a review on your favorite
podcast platform. Thank you,Scott, for being an amazing guest
and thank you for listening.
You're wonderful. Thank you.
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