Ep 55 - Tragic Magic: A Discussion with Former Silicon Valley Executive Regan Caruthers

Episode 55 – Tragic Magic: A Discussion with Former Silicon Valley Executive Regan Caruthers

Welcome back to the Career Coaching Xs and Os podcast—the show where we uncover the strategies, stories, and secrets behind meaningful career success. Today, we have an inspiring conversation with Regan Caruthers, a former Silicon Valley executive in the educational software industry. Regan’s meteoric rise to corporate leadership was impressive, yet behind her professional achievements lay a journey marked by personal struggles and profound transformation.

After navigating the challenges of corporate ascension and a turbulent first marriage, Regan made the courageous decision to confront her inner brokenness and embrace the path of healing and self-discovery. Her life took a dramatic turn as she began to practice the wisdom she had carried with her all along, creating a powerful ripple effect of change.

In this episode, we delve into Regan’s remarkable journey and explore the lessons from her memoir, Tragic Magic: A Memoir. Her story is a compelling reminder to reflect on what we’re truly pursuing in life and whether it aligns with our deepest values and happiness.

Get ready to be inspired and introspective—this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

If you enjoy this podcast, we’d love your support! Subscribe, leave us a comment on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or your favorite platform. To become a Loyal Listener on Spreaker.com, visit us at [insert link here]. Thank you for helping us continue to share impactful stories like Regan’s!"

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Guest Links:

Website - https://regancaruthers.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/regan.caruthers
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/regancaruthers/
Email - [e-mail]
Tragic Magic - https://www.amazon.com/Tragic-Magic-Memoir-Regan-Caruthers/dp/1890586862/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2KLIIIOY0V0RA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.E00z-CSCV6jkuWl8RhS-ddNlkxKMEYXIWmmhJLp52kLGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.3AoXqwtURERYC37LnBBz1_1ozYKwrGx5YituEyqqvYA&dib_tag=se&keywords=tragic+magic+regan+carruthers&qid=1737486562&sprefix=tragic+m%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Career Coaching x's and o's, and I am
your host, Mark Anthony Peterson, Founder and thought leader at
Sierra Consulting, a small business strategy and technology consulting firm.
A small part of our practice is executive coaching. These
episodes are the summation of some of those sessions on

(00:26):
the podcast. We spend a lot of time talking about
making it to that corner office, we don't spend enough
time asking you the question are you happy with that pursuit?
In today's episode, we interview Reagan Corr Others. She was
a Silicon Valley executive on the fast track to the top,

(00:51):
and then she realized something. She wasn't happy. She wasn't
being true to herself. So in this episode we're going
to talk about her career, her life path, and where
she is now. And I hope it gives you a
moment of reflection to ask yourself, am I happy? Life

(01:19):
is fleeting and fast and you want to make sure
you make the most of every day. So I hope
you enjoyed this episode and get as much out of
it as I did. Here's the interview with Reggan Carruthers.
Welcome to Career coaching x's and o's. Guys, we have

(01:41):
a compelling episode, a heart touching episode today, and I
am just honored to be able to interview Reggan Carruthers.
She has a story to tell. And if you're somewhere
listening to this podcast, you might want to pull over
and pay attention. If you're driving, if you're at your desk,

(02:03):
you might want to put the pin down unless you're
ready to take notes, because we are going to cover
everything about your career and whether or not you're pursuing
that right path and all the things that really matter
in life, because mister Carruthers has lived it, so this

(02:24):
is going to be a fun, fun episode for those
of you like me who believe that the random walk
we have in life is not always so random when
you see the right signs. Mister Carruthers. Welcome to the podcast.
How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, thanks for having me. I'm really glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Tell us who is Reagan Carruthers.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh my golly, I'm not sure I can answer that succinctly.
You know, I guess fundamentally I'm a seeker and you
know that got baked in early in my life. Having
a contemplative practice and understanding that you know, the point

(03:11):
of living is not what we I think, have been
enculturated to believe. So you know, we're told very early on,
either tacitly or explicitly, that quote unquote success is material

(03:32):
in nature. You know, it's about your wealth and the
kind of stuff you've got, you know, and I know
in my heart that that isn't true. Yeah, we all
need to take care of ourselves, right, but we don't
really need as much as we think. And ultimately, I

(03:55):
think the reason we're here is to learn how how
to love. And I don't mean in a human way
though that's nice, you know, to love as the master
teachers have taught since the dawn of time. And you know,
if all of our education and our questions, you know,

(04:18):
I have a young son who's in his early twenties,
so you know, it's all the same old, same old,
like what are you doing and you know, what kind
of job and career? Instead of like how's your heart?
You know, like are you feeling fulfilled? You know, that
doesn't tend to be the line of questioning that we
give our young people. So I don't know, I mean

(04:41):
the essence to your answer is I'm a seeker and
I am someone committed to spiritual practice as a way
of learning how to love better.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Wow. That's a powerful answer. But I bet if we
had asked that question and, say, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago,
you'd have a very different answer, given the career you
were pursuing, right, Silicon Yeah executive to tell us you
began your journey, as you say, in a very spiritual

(05:16):
way in your upbringing, but fell to the trap that
you just talked about of chasing assets and wealth. So
walk us through that, the Silicon Valley Lifestyle corporate executive.
Talk us through the mindset and the journey that you
went through as that part of your life. Yeah. Sure.

(05:39):
So you know.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
In my late twenties, right, so you know, typical path,
go to college, succeed there, do all the extra stuff
so it looks good on a resume. I had really
closed myself down to the things that I had taught,
you know, been taught and experienced when I was young.

(06:04):
Shut that down at the age of nine, and I
think unconsciously I believed that the way forward, right, the
way to feel safe, was corporate ascension. I really believed
I think unconsciously that material success would lead to safety

(06:24):
as someone that had experienced a great deal of trauma,
you know, so I just took a conventional path. I
thought that that was what you did, and that I
would not only derive safety, but social acceptance as well.
You know. So, you know, I began in a sales

(06:47):
role right out of college for Premise Haul, a global
you know, publisher, and my role was to sell textbooks
to college professors. People don't even realize there's a sales
process for that, but anyway, that's what I did, and
I quickly rose, you know, up the ranks, and by

(07:07):
the time I was twenty four, maybe twenty five, I
was managing twelve million dollars in revenue and you know,
had a big, high profile position, access to company leadership
and all that. I mean, I really thought I was something.
And then I ended up having a dramatic spiritual awakening

(07:29):
at twenty seven that brought me to be you know,
staff at the Heart Math Institute. And I felt like
at that time that my purpose was clear. I knew
what I was doing. Well, you know, life has a
way of mixing it up, and due to economic circumstances
in two thousand, I found myself needing to return to work,

(07:53):
and I put that, you know, like in quotes, like
corporate work. So I did. I mean, the only thing
I had done was publishing, sales and management in that
So that's where I first returned, having a pretty high
profile position at McGraw hill Publisher I think everybody's probably
heard of. That then led to working for the leadership

(08:17):
of the State of California again in academic technology, in
really trying to do some transformation of the academic experience
using academic technology. And my position was to work with
corporations and manage those relationships and build solutions. That was great,

(08:38):
and then the State of California was having some pretty
significant economic issues and we were being furloughed, you know,
as state employees, and I was going through a divorce,
so that wasn't you know, feeling very secure, and I
was like, okay, I got to go back to private sector.
And that's when my life really in startups and kind

(08:59):
of in the Valley took hold. And so it was
all driven initially by economic you know, circumstance, and I
was still you know, committed sort of to my spiritual practice,
you know, It was certainly in my awareness, and I
did what I could, and I used my intuition and
meditation to help me manage, you know, some of the stress.

(09:21):
But I was you know, I mean some of these startups,
like one was funded by Marc Andreesen, who you know,
developed the first Internet browser and has a huge VC firm.
And this startup was trying to, you know, invent a
digital textbook, you know, something that really made sense instead
of static pdf you know, where you could click on

(09:44):
I don't know, supply and demand in your microeconomics class
and get a video or some kind of simulation. It
had a beautiful vision, but they didn't really understand the
market they were trying to serve, and so they hired
me becau. I had all this domain knowledge and they
didn't listen, you know. I mean it was a typical

(10:05):
egoic led startup. You have to learn how to play
by their rules. And I literally watch this company burned
through eighty million dollars. Wow, that's a lot of money. Yeah, right,
eighty million dollars could do a lot of good in

(10:27):
the Bay Area where there's chronic homelessness, and San Francisco
is now like a zombie apocalypse due to fentanyl, you know.
So part of that was in my awareness, like gosh,
this seems so wasteful and they're not listening. So I
intuitively knew and empirically knew they weren't going to be successful.

(10:48):
And so and then I always wondered, like where's the board,
you know, like where's governance in any of this? How
is this? Like what are they saying behind closed doors
to their board, because they can't be representing this truthfully,
you know. So all of that was in the mix.

(11:09):
And I continued to work in the startup area for
a number of startups, running you know, sales VP of sales,
you know, business development, and so the stress is enormous
right when revenue is on your shoulders. And I found
myself working in these companies where I had the domain

(11:30):
knowledge about the market and how to approach it. They
hired me because of that, and then they're doing it
their way, you know. So that was frustrating. And I
was a single mother, and I found myself due to
again circumstances I talk about in the book, commuting to

(11:51):
San Francisco, living south of Santa Cruz, so almost to Monterey,
and doing that commute, which if anybody ever driven in
the Bay Area anytime a day, it takes forever, much
less in peak commute times. So the stress was, you know, overwhelming.

(12:11):
And I had all these tools, some of which I
applied and then some of which I didn't because I
don't know, I was too busy, or I don't know,
a glass of wine sounded more convenient, or you know,
whatever the mindset was at the time. And it became
kind of unsustainable within my own system. And I began

(12:35):
to be more deliberate about my spiritual practice, right like
bringing that back and through that devotion of practice and
really getting back into the things that I knew and
the things that mattered. Then you know, miraculously, and this

(12:55):
is kind of how it works. Life circumstances began to change,
you know. And at the time that I was a
single mom in an exac, I mean, I was making
three hundred and it was still a struggle because of
the cost of living where I was. You know, people
think of three hundred thousand dollars and you know, the
mid two thousands, you know, you're doing great, and you

(13:16):
got equity for this, and no, no, you know, it
just it that was not how I experienced it, and
for any of your listeners, you know, I mean, every
once in a while your equity becomes something, but more
often than not, it doesn't, you know. So I did

(13:39):
get you know, I had one successful exit with a
company that I was helping, and that was that was satisfying.
But you know, ultimately I got back to my devotional practice,
to meditation, to practicing the things that I knew, and
then my personal experiences began to change. And I attracted

(14:00):
a wonderful human being into my life who became my
second husband. And there was a moment earlier in our
relationship where the stress was just you know, and I
had this facade where, you know, like I put on
the mask that I can do it all right, and
I think we as women are programmed to believe that,

(14:25):
and it's not true. We can't do it all We
can't be good mothers and devoted wives and successful. It
just it doesn't work. And sorry, you know, I know
that might rub some women the wrong way, but I
think if they're honest about the truth of their experience,
they know it. So anyway, my husband, you know, he

(14:47):
wasn't my husband yet, just said this fateful evening as
I'm crying and like the stress is just oozing out
of me, and he said, why don't you let me
take care of you? And my commersers thoughts to that
was like hell no. You know, it was like this
resounding because I had become so uculturated to be like,
I can do it all by myself. I don't need help,

(15:08):
you know, And I had enough self awareness, as I
said it, to know that it was my traumatized self, right,
the little girl who learned very early on that I
couldn't count on the adults right, and that I did
need to do it all myself. Right. That part of
me isn't wrong, but that part of me was exhausted. Yeah,

(15:33):
So after about three months, I agreed, and that changed,
you know. That decision changed the trajectory again of my life,
where I could return to my practice, return to the
wisdom traditions of my youth, returned to all that I
knew and choose right from this place of privilege that

(15:57):
I am in right of service. You know, so as
a yoga teacher, now I don't charge my community. They
come to my you know, beautiful studio here on my
ten acre estate and I share what I know, and
I don't charge them. I'm not necessarily saying that that's

(16:19):
you know, the path you know that you should walk,
but just for me, like it's this deep acknowledgment of
how important it is to be truly useful, not useful
in the ways that I had been programmed to be,
or not usefulness as a trauma response, right, but truly useful.

(16:45):
And so to share you know, what I know with
other people, encourage them to have a contemplative practice, regardless
of their you know, religious orientation or whatever. Like, sit
in the quiet and it's uncomfortable, right, and bear witness
to that monkey mind of yours, right and all the

(17:07):
things that it's running, and get acquainted with that because
it tends to run the same things. It doesn't tend
to be a lot of diversity of pattern of thought, right,
We tend to go over the same ground and get
acquainted with that, and then learn how to access the
energy of love.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Before we talk about your transition a little more, I
want you to help us look at some of the
sign posts of when you're about to hit that wall.
You talked about the stress, you talked about the physical
representation of what that was doing to you. Give us
some more of those sign posts. How did you know

(17:53):
that you were about to hit.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
A wall because of how I felt in my own body? Right,
So there's a visceral felt sense of it. So you know,
some might say it's intuition. You just know, you know,
you just know I can't go on like this. Maybe
that's one of those thought patterns that you have, you know,

(18:17):
where you're often saying that to yourself. Some physical symptoms, right,
you're not sleeping very well. You either have a loss
of appetite or maybe more of a ravenous appetite because
you're seeking comfort. Right, So I would encourage your listeners frankly,

(18:40):
to be honest with themselves. It begins there, you know,
and you know, notice how much are you drinking right
to get through the night? How are you treating other people? Right?
The loved ones in your own home? Are you short
tempered with them? How do you feel your showing up

(19:03):
at work?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Like?

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Do you feel you're doing a good job right? Like?
Are you treating your people truly? As you know people?
Are you aware that they might also be struggling trying
to manage it? All? Right? So it starts I think
with self awareness and then some radical honesty.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yet that radical honesty is critical.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I know.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
One of the things that I coach individuals on is first,
let go of everybody else's dream, because, like you said earlier,
we're taught to go chase a dream that nine times
out of ten is not our own right. It's the
way to fit into quote unquote society, but it's not
your dream. Let go of that. And then, as you say,

(19:54):
be honest with yourself with what truly wakes you up
in the morning. It allows you to be empathetic to
seek that love. And when you do the right people,
the right career, the right everything starts to show up
in your life. And I think that's what you know,

(20:14):
I found so interesting about what you have published and
what you're doing at your yoga center and with your
with your inner life coaching. Tell us a little bit
more about what you teach to the individuals who come
to your center.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah. Sure, so let me give you a little history
on that. When I left the whole startup world and
accepted this man's you know, grand gesture of care, that
was beautiful and I didn't not do anything. So I
helped start an executive recruiting firm, and I was doing

(20:57):
some you know, executive coaching remotely, and that's what sparked
later this inn life coaching that I now do because
you know, other executives would hire me as their coach,
or maybe I would coach like I remember one client,
he was the president of a startup, and I coached
him and his direct reports. And what I found in

(21:21):
that was really what their issues were had not a
lot to do with work. It had a lot to
do with the health of their nervous system. It had
a lot to do with what you were saying, you know,
like being on this path, and if they slowed down

(21:45):
long enough, most of them would know it's a false
path helping them with emotional you know, self regulation. And
you know, because when your physiology is completely maxed out
and stressed out, as an executive, everything feels urgent, right.
You don't have a sense of having really discretion or

(22:09):
ability to see what truly matters, like where the focus
truly should be, because it all seems urgently important because
your system is in that fight or flight mode, right,
So you're attacking quote unquote the business that way. So
that began to spark you know, my real curiosity and

(22:30):
desire to be helpful. And I knew because of my background,
I had a way of languaging all of this that
felt credible, you know, to other quote unquote successful people.
And so now my inner life coaching is really about
developing a spiritual practice, right, And so I provide my

(22:53):
clients with a variety of modalities like a buffet, if
you will, and help them kind of choose what feels
the most accessible or resonant, because if you don't do it,
it doesn't it doesn't help, right, So finding some ease
in the beginning, like oh, okay, I think I can
do this. I mean, it's amazing to me for some

(23:17):
of my clients when they first start, like sitting in
meditation for twenty minutes seems impossible, Like what you want
me to do?

Speaker 1 (23:25):
What?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
For how long? And then if you think about, you know,
all the sensory input in the in the day and
all the stress, it's like, man, you actually need a
hell of a lot more than twenty minutes. But anyway,
so we begin there and we begin to unpack, to
your point earlier, the unconscious belief system that's running, and

(23:50):
we begin to realize that because we all have trauma,
you know, different amplitudes of trauma, different circumstances, but there's
not a single human being on this plan it that
doesn't have it. And so those traumatized parts of us
have a point of view, right, they've developed a way
of coping. And sometimes those parts of us are in

(24:13):
conflict with each other, right, they're not aligned in what
they see. So my inner life coaching helps you kind
of unpack all of that and get to the root
of the belief system that formed because of it, right,
and then begin to bring some discernments, some consciousness to

(24:33):
what you actually believe, or maybe if you don't quite
know what that is, what would you like to believe?
What belief system if you held that sincerely and consciously
would be of service to you. So it's a real thoughtful,

(24:55):
loving journey inside to heal and to bring more acknowledgment
to the truth. And you know, take all the masks
off and just bring your authentic self self to me
and let's figure out a practice that you can stick to,

(25:19):
and then I can be your accountability partner in that right.
And you know, what you find in spiritual practice, the
more you do it, the richer it becomes, and you
never you know, we're never done healing. We're never done,
you know. So I don't want your listeners, you know,
because again we think of things like credentials and certificates

(25:42):
and degrees. Yeah, you don't get one in this domain.
There's always more to do. There's always more healing, there's
always more capacity that you can develop within yourself. And
the more you are radiating love right out into the world,

(26:04):
not only is your biochemistry improving, your nervous system is improving,
but you're impacting other people with that. Right. And then,
as you might have remembered in high school physics, there
is this phenomenon called resonance. Right, So every time your
heart beats, it generates electricity, right, it generates this electromagnetic wave.

(26:27):
So you're constantly broadcasting something energetically. So imagine you're broadcasting
more coherence, more love, more sincere care, more of a service,
orientation to the job that you hold, whatever. And then
you begin to change, right, the electricity of you what

(26:48):
you're vibrating as, and then through resonance, you attract that.
I mean, we all have employees or people in our
lives where it's just one drama after another. Right. We
know those people, right, and they tend to be the

(27:08):
ones overly negative, constantly complaining, right, having sort of unconscious
negative bias, therefore drawing more of that to them, you know.
So to me, a spiritual practice is probably the most
practical thing you can do.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Now you've really walked us through that trauma. And I'm
gonna tell you, when I read your tribute to your
mother on your website, it really touched me. It was
a powerful tribute to the trauma that you felt that

(27:53):
she also endured. And it touched on another topic that's
there to mean, mental health, if you don't mind. And
I said, it's a powerful tribute, and I know it's
emotionally charged, but can you talk to us a little
bit about that that tribute you have on your website?

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Oh? Sure, And I'm at complete peace about it. My
mother was a remarkable woman, born in nineteen thirty three,
lived with a single who was a teacher, small industrial
town in central New York, living in this dilapidated home

(28:33):
with you know, the uncles and the grant. You know,
it was like a rat infested, you know, traumatic mess.
And for whatever reason, at the age of sixteen, my
mother was asked by the Red Cross to represent the
United States to post war Europe. So this is nineteen
forty nine. How that happened, I have no idea. So

(28:57):
that opened up her whole world. Right, She's seen Paris completely,
you know, decimated by the war. She's visiting you know,
other European countries giving speeches about the hope of the
post war era. Anyway, like, how did that happen? And
then later, you know, she goes to the Sorbonne and

(29:20):
after her you know, incredible academic career at Northwestern and
she's sponsored again by the Danish government. So I'm painting
that picture so that you understand, you know, how exceptional
right she was, and what she was able to draw
to her in terms of experience. You know, after she
was done doing her postgraduate work at the Sorbonne, which

(29:42):
is like the Harvard of France. It's in the fifties.
You know, what's a beautiful woman that's so bright, that
speaks nine languages. There's not a lot of options. So
she decides that she's going to become a flight attendant
for pan Am. And this is at the height of
you know, all of that and they're like celebrity and
she dates a king and flies all the dignitary flights

(30:04):
for President Eisenhower. And then in nineteen sixty one, Yeah,
she's she's just I don't know, having an incredibly hard
time managing her energy, is what I would say. And
my father tricks her into going to a mental hospital
and she comes in a you know, bill last suit,

(30:24):
thinking she was, I don't know, going to give a
talk or something, and she becomes a patient and she
tells the story and I share it in my book,
and I don't know if it's in the tribute where
you know, surrounded by psychiatrists, she knows that they can't
agree on a diagnosis, and she's clairvoyant, so she just
pulls it out of the air and says, I'm a
manic depressive. So she diagnosed herself in nineteen sixty one

(30:48):
before it was really in the clinical vernacular, and she
bought in to that diagnosis, and she started taking lithium,
and you know, when she was you know institutionalized, you know,
like the shock therapy. God knows what else she experienced,
and it was, you know, a decline from then on,

(31:12):
and she made you know, really just traumatic choices from
this disregulated place, and she was drawn to things like
she introduced me to her guru when I was seven
years old. She had all the right books you know
about meditation, but she couldn't stick with anything. And I

(31:34):
just watched all the unhealed stuff as she continued to age,
just ravage her. And when I was, you know, a baby,
she she, I mean, she loved me so much, and
yet there were we really have getting out of bed,

(31:55):
and she would tell a story of finding me at
three o'clock in the afternoon making my own sandwich on
the kitchen floor with mayonnaise and bread. And I'm like
fifteen months old, So somehow I managed to get out
of the crib, get to the kitchen, open the kitchen door.
I mean, I have trouble opening a mayonnaise jar now
at fifty eight, I don't know how I did it

(32:16):
fifteen months. So anyway, I really believe, as Indigenous Shamans believe,
that a lot of mental health crisis is your inability
to manage the access that you have. And here was
this woman that did exceptional things, things that are unheard of, right,

(32:39):
and she was so brilliant and so intuitive and so impactful,
and for whatever reason, you know, there's also a downside
to that, right, I mean I lived it when I
was a little girl. I had more coming at me
than I could make sense of, and I shut it
all down. Well, Mom was just an open vessel, and

(33:00):
so she could really feel the highs, the highest of
the highs, and the lowest of the lows, and so
every day you didn't know who you were going to get.
So I learned from her, and this is what I
mentioned in the tribute, the vital nature of self regulation, right,
learning how to turn it on and off or up

(33:20):
or down, The importance of discipline in a spiritual practice. Right.
And as the Shamans you know, say, they believe most
mental health emergencies are healers who can't integrate the call.
And I truly believe that was what happened to my mother.

(33:44):
And so I was determined given that I was clair
warrant like she, I had a you know, quote unquote
magical presence like she. I could really make things happen
like she, and I knew man, if I didn't learn
how to be disciplined, I might have a similar trajectory
as she. And what I'll also say that I mentioned

(34:07):
in that tribute because it's the truth. She could embody
and radiate the most magnificent love I have ever known.
You know, she could meet you and within a few
seconds to know your essence and have the courage to
speak it, which you know at the time in sixty one, right,

(34:27):
my father's like fundraising for Adleigh Stevenson, you know, who's
running for president. There's federal judges over for dinner. And
my mom was a truth teller. You know, she had
no filter, so quote unquote that's a mental illness, right. Anyway,
she loved me so devotedly, and she taught me so

(34:50):
much and while some of it was horrendously horrible and traumatic,
wouldn't want any of it to be different.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
And you capture a lot of this in your book
Tragic Magic.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah I do.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
I tried so tell us a little bit about the book.
I think we've covered a lot of your life here
in the podcast. But what else can readers find in
your book Tragic Magic.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Well, ideally they find the courage and the inspiration to
again begin with that radical honesty and get inspired to
have a practice that helps you do the deep inner

(35:47):
work and healing because there's no listener on this podcast
that doesn't have work to do. So I wrote it
hoping that in my honesty, because it's a memoir in
sharing my story, not just what happened to me, but
some of the ways that I chose to cope, right,
which ultimately ends up, you know, with this amazing, uh

(36:12):
sort of happy ending as it were. But man, it
was messy. So I want to write about my mess
to help you acknowledge your mess. And then you know,
there are practices. It's not a how to book, it's
you know, more of a memoir, but there's a little

(36:33):
bit of the how how I began to really become
disciplined in my practice, how I began to really tend
and do that inner work, and you know what, I think,
I hope it also does. There are moments that I
describe and that's the magic part of you know, divine intervention,

(36:56):
things that you can't explain rationally. You know, ways that
God right, and I will say God, but you know,
some people say Universe. You know whatever, that force was
the voice in my heart right that guided my decisions.
I mean there's even a scene in the book, you know, again,

(37:18):
for your listeners where I've hit a wall at McGraw hill.
I know I need to do something different, and my
choice in trying to figure that out was to pull
over on the side of the road, meditate and pray
and ask for help. And I got an immediate answer.
And then I called that person that divine and guidance said,

(37:40):
you know, call this person and pitch him on a job.
Well I did, and I came out of meditation and
again honestly said to him, I just meditated seeking a
solution for my career problem. And the guidance I got
was to help you. And I told him exactly what
I could do. And he was the executive you know,

(38:01):
back in higher education when I worked public sector for
a while, and he said, yeah, Reagan, you're exactly right.
Write your job description and I'll post it. So anyway,
there's moments like that in the book where I've learned
how to listen, and these moments where in listening literally

(38:25):
saved my life. I mean, I'm not going to spoil
the whole thing. I don't want to. Yeah, but literally
there is towards the end we're listening to divine guidance
like literally saved my life, and how I learned through
going through this incredible thing of facing death, facing physical death.

(38:50):
What I learned from that, and what I learned in
terms of the importance of my practice, because when you know,
when I was told sir and things again, I don't
want to disclose too much, and there was no you know,
rational or clinical explanation. I knew it was my spiritual
practice that had kept me alive. So anyway, it's just

(39:13):
an honest memoir, and I hope that it moves people,
and I hope it inspires them to be honest and
to begin to develop a spiritual practice.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Where can our audience get this book? How can they
connect with you and continue this journey? Because I can
just sense, like you said, the residents through our call
here of what you're doing to me personally. So I
know that there are others who will make that trick

(39:50):
to Missouri and come to your yoga center so that
they can experience it face to face. How can people
connect with you?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Sure? So Instagram is a great way. I can't even
believe it. A lot six months ago I started paying
attention to Instagram. I had like two hundred followers, mostly
were people that I had worked with right and now
I think I have eleven thousand, are very close to
eleven thousand, so something's resonating, So join me there. I
have videos that I post each week with you know,

(40:20):
meditations and prayers and just you know, inspiration. They can
buy my book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, either
as a paperback or an ebook if they're interested in
working with me. I don't. I'm pretty selective in that
in that I don't want to do interlife coaching all

(40:40):
day long. I have other, you know, things I like
to do, but I enjoy helping people. So they can
come on Reagancorruthers dot Com, my website, and they'll see
in the inter life coaching section the opportunity to schedule
a discovery call with me, which is complimentary, and they

(41:01):
describe their goals and I describe my process. They feel
into the residence and decide if they want to move
forward with me. So that's one thing they can do.
And if they're in the Saint Louis metropolitan area, I
live out in the country in Washington, Missouri, which is
about fifty minutes west, which you know, for people in

(41:23):
Saint Louis, they think that's a long and in the
Bay area right like after two o'clock. It took me
over an hour to drive twelve miles, right, So I'm
just like, come on, people, But anyway they can physically
come to my yoga center, either for inter life coaching
or for the classes that I offer here. I do

(41:44):
have special events. I have a yoga retreat in the
summer that I host here, and there's beautiful accommodations nearby
for those that want to do something like that. And
I bring in other practitioners. You know, as I mentioned,
I worked on you know, I was part of the
staff of the Heartmouth Institute. So I do train folks

(42:07):
in heart math and that has a lot of business
implications certainly. Yeah, so they can do all those things
if they want.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
We'll put all the links to what you just mentioned
in the show notes so individuals can have an easy
way to consume and connect with you. Reagan. This has
been fantastic and I know that this will be impactful
and helpful to a lot of people. And so I

(42:37):
am looking forward to the follow up from podcast listeners
about this episode because you brought a lot of truth
to the table. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
You're so welcome thank you for having me and come
and see me.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I will definitely just fly to Saint.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Louis from Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Exactly for people who know me, they know I love yoga.
I've been doing a lot different types, beakram, barking, you know, flow.
So I am a big, big yoga person and at
the base of everything in life and the people that
I talk to, I'm always a truth seeker, so I
know we will be best friends if I can make

(43:16):
it out there and get to your center.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
All right, well, thank you and be well, and to
all your listeners, be well, keep going.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
I enjoy that episode. If you enjoyed the episode, let
me tell you a couple of ways that you can
support the podcast. First, you can leave us a review
on Apple Podcast that would be very helpful, positive or negative.

(43:48):
We don't get any better unless we get feedback from you. Second,
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and listen to this episode, we get paid. They pay
us when you listen, so that helps us continue to

(44:11):
put out more episodes. And then finally, you can support
the show by buying my new book, Career Coaching x's
and o's how to master the game of career development.
You can find that on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Anywhere
you want to buy a book, you can find my

(44:36):
new book. So three ways to help the show. I
hope you enjoyed the episode. We will have all the
links that we mentioned in the episode for Ms Carrouther's
in the show notes. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and
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(44:59):
with your colleagues because the best people listening to this podcast,
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If you need more support for your career, please find

(45:23):
us on the web at Cerrow dot com, c E
Y E r O dot com and let us help
you develop a plan for your career. This has been
Career Coaching x's and o's and I am your host,
Mark Anthony Peterson, Founder and thought leader at Sero Consulting,