August 2, 2025 • 26 mins
On this episode of I Am Refocused Radio, we sit down with Stephen Karbaron—a visionary speaker, business strategist, and conscious leader on a mission to flip the script on how we define success.
Stephen doesn’t just talk about impact—he lives it. From advocating for purpose-first leadership to helping companies thrive without compromising integrity, he shares why speaking from alignment—not approval—is the true game-changer. We dive deep into emotional intelligence, the power of presence, and what it means to build businesses that honor people and planet over profits.
Whether you're a leader, entrepreneur, or just someone searching for clarity in a noisy world, this conversation will challenge you to lead from within and reimagine what legacy truly means.
🌍 Learn more about Stephen: https://karbaron.com
🎧 Hosted by Shemaiah Reed – https://www.iamrefocusedradio.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/i-am-refocused-radio--2671113/support.
Stephen doesn’t just talk about impact—he lives it. From advocating for purpose-first leadership to helping companies thrive without compromising integrity, he shares why speaking from alignment—not approval—is the true game-changer. We dive deep into emotional intelligence, the power of presence, and what it means to build businesses that honor people and planet over profits.
Whether you're a leader, entrepreneur, or just someone searching for clarity in a noisy world, this conversation will challenge you to lead from within and reimagine what legacy truly means.
🌍 Learn more about Stephen: https://karbaron.com
🎧 Hosted by Shemaiah Reed – https://www.iamrefocusedradio.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/i-am-refocused-radio--2671113/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to I Am Refocused Radio with your
host Shamaiah Reid. This show is designed to inspire you
to live your purpose and regain your focus. And now
here's your host, Shamaia Reid.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome till your Focus Radio. Once again we are here
today and today we have another amazing show line for y'all. Today,
our guests is Stephen Carber and he has been decades
scaling companies and building brands around the world. But over
time he filled the pull towards something deeper. That's when
he shifted gears, moving from profit driven business to purpose
(00:38):
driven transformation. Now as a certified conscious capitalism consults and
goal mapping coach, Stephen he works with leaders to align
vision with values. His work is about more than strategy,
is about people, purpose and creating impact. At last, it's spoken.
Excuse me, He's spoken across globe advice amazing businesses around
(01:03):
the world. And he also lives by five symbol words joy, collaboration, integrity,
love and peace. Today we're going to unpack it off.
So without further ado, I want to say to Steven
Carberry think great time, are you doing that?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Good evening? All, good afternoon, good, good morning, wherever you
are watching or listening to this forecast is something to mutual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
When you think about how you started with your core
belief speak from alignment now approval, what does that really
mean and kind of break that down for the audience.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And the shift for me came after an event that
I attended. I think we have a time I suppose
where we look and say, Okay, that was the moment,
that was the moment that everything changed. But but of
course it's not. It's not just one moment. There's always
a build up. There's always other things going on in
one's life and around one that are affecting our decision
(02:06):
making and shifting us towards that precipice. Obviously, when we
get to the edge of it, we have to make
a decision. Do we jump or do we stay where
we are, turn around, go back to what was before.
So at some point it came to me I was developing.
I was doing personal development. I've been working on my
personal developments actually since the early nineteen eighties. I attended
(02:30):
my first personal development event, and this has always sort
of been something that's been part of my growth, part
of my development, both outside and in And then I
attended a few tony Anthony Robbins events, and this sort
of shifted me a little bit more towards where I
wanted to go, and it brought me in contact with
(02:51):
certain people who then gave me further direction towards a
more peaceful wear of lidy because that was what I
felt was my purpose. I came to a decision that
my purpose was to bring more peace into my life
and the world, and therefore I started bumping into people,
being introduced to people. I think when we put things
(03:12):
out into the world, we attract the law of attraction.
The right people came into my path and I started
on my new journey, which took in things like meditation,
more spiritualism in a broad sense, because I always look
at a lot of spiritualism as being confined, but I
look at spiritualism as being something that opens should open
(03:33):
us up and not say this way is right or
that way it is right, but everything is right. That's
true spiritualism to me. So yeah, a lot of these
discoveries through my journey and different countries that I lived
and worked in, different people that I came across and
understood from different realities going on. So really understanding that
(03:53):
the number of different realities going on, and understanding that
they could all be true and live alongside each other
that and then work together to make the whole troup.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
When you think about alignment versus seeking approval, how do
you see those two things different? In explain that for
the audience in terms of when they're in the public
platform versus the border, well.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
The following purpose. Actually it is seeking personal approval, so
I think. And of course when we reach that level
of personal approval where we where we fall in love
with ourselves and fall in love with our lives and
what we do, and that's still a work in progress,
that still has to be like everything right, every relationship
(04:41):
we have, whether it's with ourselves or with other people,
it changes every day, it moves and advances. Therefore we
have the advance loop with it. But I really think
that when we live on purpose, that we don't we
actually don't hear the negative thoughts. We don't actually seek
approval because there's no need for approval. We know we're
(05:01):
on purpose, we know we're doing what we want to do.
And as I said, you know, someone else's approval is
their truth, not necessarily my truth. So I get this
quite a lot with evaluations. I work with toastmasters, and
we all evaluations, and we have several evaluations will come
in and it's quite interesting to see that you do
(05:23):
the same speech and different people give you different answers,
and sometimes completely the opposite. So one person will say
that was amazing and another person will say I didn't
quite get that bit. And it's the same part. So
when we realize that it's very, very subjective, then we
don't need to rely on other people's approval.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I like that part about not relying on it, because
when you think about how leaders and organizations when they
speak of approval versus lead with purpose, how much does
dad carry away to the audience and how they receive.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, absolutely know. And we see this, as you say,
all the time a lot in leadership of countries, of
groups or whatever, where people are actually thinking about the
next vote and not thinking about the last vote. So
if we think about the last vote, we make promises,
and we should stick to those promises, and if we do,
people will vote for us again, rather than making new
(06:22):
promises and forgetting about the ones that we already made
and not coming through on those. And I think that's
unfortunately the way of the world at the moment is
that people are always looking in advance and not forgetting
what they've promised to do.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Once again, listen times focused with watching those aligned time
to our guests today, I go to this website of
Carberan dot com I under Steve and Carberry himself. When
you think about a moment where in your own career
where you choose alignment, what really starts happening? Because I
(06:59):
was as my accident growth, our accident results, well word
failious you to get to that next level because it's art.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I think it's an interesting one. As I say,
there is no breakface, so that it's something that I
learned and I grew with me as I grew in
my leadership role. So throughout my career, when I look
back and even actually when I seek to people who've
worked with me and worked in my teams and things
(07:33):
and get feedback from them about the past, I realized
that I was doing a lot of this more purposeful
living and looking after people and encouraging and motivating people
from long before I really thought about that's something I
should be doing and that's the best way to approach leadership,
so I was already leading in that way. I'm not
being bigheaded about it. It's just, you know, it's something
(07:57):
probably that we all do, and then we just have
to measure it and increase it and say, hang on
a minute, Yeah, these are the things I'm doing right,
These are working for me and my people, and therefore
this is something I need to amplify and work on.
And maybe we do it before we realize we're doing it.
And that's why. Actually three sixty evaluations and things like this.
(08:18):
Something that I brought into my working career as a
leader was asking people to judge me and give me
feedback so I could improve for them, not for myself,
but for them. Obviously, when we improve for other people,
we improve for ourselves as well. That's a great point.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You worked across countries, like I said in the nential earlier,
also experienced different cultures in different industries. Have you noticed
any common threads that you've seen how leadership involves for
a while, Yes, I mean, yes.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
There are common threads across cultures. I mean I think
that leadership we see various levels of order, various types
of leadership. As we know, the tatorial leader, the bureaucratic leader,
leaders who use tools to control people rather than support
people and serve. And this happens all around the world.
(09:15):
I think that every country that I've been in, we
see leaders who are like that, because that seems to
be the way that we're taught that leaders have to
be rather than a more conscious way of living and
more conscious wave leading, which is something that I've tapped
into and learned through conscious capitalism, that there is another
way to lead, and this is through service leadership and
(09:38):
understanding that actually leadership is not about me and how
powerful I am. It's about my team and my people
and how powerful I can make them.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's have you knowniced a are not noticed? But what
has been a misconception, if you will, of conscious capitalism
and how do you break down down for people.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So constra capitalism? As I say, this was something that
I just started along this part of mine when I
was fitting into meditation groups and things and posted Tony
Robbins events. And it was also at a time a
big change in my life. I was just leaving Russia.
I'd lived in Russia for eleven years, lived and work there.
I was shifting and moving on to another set phase
(10:26):
of my life. So a lot of things came into
change at that time, and conscativism came along. And it's something,
as I said, that really resonated with me. It was
when I looked at it, I said, hang on a minute,
this is this isn't teaching me lots of new things.
There's new things I'm learning, but it's also reinforcing a
(10:47):
lot of things that I already knew, and reinforcing what
I've already been doing to an extent and giving me better,
more direct and understanding way of why it works. So
with constra capitalism, those who don't know a lot about
constra capitalism, there's four tenants to conscious capitalism. There's higher
purposes the leading one, so everyone needs to have a
(11:10):
higher purpose and why, a reason why they're doing their
business and it shouldn't just be about money. The second
one is conscious leadership, when we become more conscious as leaders,
and I think we have to be conscious as leaders
to employ the other elements of conscious capitalism. In so
it takes conscious leaders to do that. When we become
more aware, when we become more caring and more loving
(11:32):
about business and the people who work for us, to
people we serve all these people around us. And then
we start to see shifts and changes with conscious culture,
which is all about what happens within the company, what
happens and how does that resonate out. How do people
see the people in the company. Do they see them
happy at work? I don't know if you've had this,
(11:53):
but you know I work. I walk into companies around
the world. I phone up people, and you can tell
whether it's a well run company or not just by
the way people answer you or look at you when
you walk in the door. You know, are they happy
that they love their job or are they just wishing
you waiting for five o'clock and knock at the opportunity
to drop ends and get out of there. And you
(12:14):
can tell the difference between people. So when we do
that and producers and culture, that resonates out beyond the
shop floor, as it were. And then lastly, you have
a stakeholder orientation. So this is being aware of who
does our business touch, who are we affecting not just
our workers, not just our clients, but also our service providers,
(12:36):
the people who our communities, the people who work around us,
who service us without us knowing. So all of the
different elements that touch our business. Are we thinking about
them and we're taking them into some sort of thought
when we make decisions. Of course, we can't make every
decision about any one of those stakeholders, but we can
take them all into account when we make big decisions
(12:57):
and important decisions around them. We can certainly shift towards
understanding their needs rather than just the business needs.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Like that, because understanding is an audience self. It takes listening,
it takes some humble pie, but it also gives you
a leverage because without those things, good luck. I don't
know how far you get in life without those things.
(13:30):
But my next question is I said earlier that you
have these words, I'm going to remind our audience, love, integrity, piece,
those values they really help in strategy mode. So when
you look at leaders and organizations and how they're able
(13:50):
to sustain thriving, because it's one thing to have a
nice week, but it's a different story when you can
sustain even when the storm can. How do you see
the results when they start to embed those traits in
their decision making.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Actually, in my experience, having those tools with you, having
using when they are your core values, when they're real
and this is the important thing. So a lot of
people might put in and say, oh, yeah, this is
my core value and this is but it's not really
their core value. If it's not authentically them, then when
the storm arises, they can't live by it because it's
(14:31):
not them, so they then fall into a different way
of acting. These values were really mine. And a great
evidence this was we all remember two thousand and eight,
there was a big financial crisis. I was working. I've
been working three years in Russia. I just had my
two year contract renewed for a further year and we
(14:53):
hit crisis and I was in the purchase department. So
therefore all responsibility of all product and everything for an
airwork company in Russia, the biggest retail work company, and
a lot of decisions had to be changed. We had
to put in strings. Finances were poor. Everyone was very worried.
And I could have just stopped, and I could have
(15:15):
just taken the view that, okay, we're going to cut salaries,
We're going to be very hard on this and follow
what was coming from above. Or I could have taken
the view that I did that. No, I stood went
into the boardroom meeting, I said this We've got to
consider our staff. This is a difficult time. How can
we shift from just turning around to them and saying, Okay,
(15:35):
you're not going to get play rises this year, and
you're not going to get a bonus this year, and
you're not going to get this because the finite the
international financial crisis, or can we find a way? And
what I did is suggested that a way that we
could give them bonuses that were work related and would
give them the opportunity to earn the money that they
were expecting. But it was very much work related. And
(15:59):
what happened was my superiors agreed to it, we went
forward with it, and of course our department not only
met the expectations, but we passed the expectations. And therefore
all my staff ended up getting more money than they
were expecting, and we produce more money for the company
than they were expecting in a very very downturn market.
(16:20):
And this was all because I believe this was because
I gave them support and I gave them care and love,
and I wasn't prepared to just turn around and say
everything's going wrong in the world. Therefore all my values
go out the window, and I'm going to just be
this brick wall for you right now, I can't work.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That way, so being to listen time we focused radio
and watching this online and listen to different platforms. I'm
talking about yesterday Stephen Carbering, yes website, carbean dot com.
I want to focus on zooming on the word produce
because that's a very interesting word, because what I mean
(16:59):
by that is when you're working, the quality of that
work matters, and the intention of why you do it matters.
So when you just share that story about getting through
that little store and ended up having results that were increased,
(17:22):
that started with the intent of how you were producing.
So my next question would be for someone who's listening
to this and they feel like they're misaligned and their
leadership at the work, what it's the starting point for
them to make that change.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Again, I'll go back to what I said. I think
the starting point's already happened. So for me, everyone's goal
all of this within them. So it's not a case
of starting. It's the finding point, if you like. It's
where do we start to find and shift from the
beliefs that are not letting us go down that direction
(18:06):
to the beliefs that allow us to go down in
more conscious direction. So I suppose the starting point is awareness.
When we become more self aware, when we become aware
of what we're doing, what's inside us, aware of the
fact that we've got good and bad inside us, just
like everything in the world. To look good and bad,
we've got to you know, we have good thoughts and
bad thoughts. We attract good things and bad things. But
(18:29):
the awareness that actually, if we focus on what we
really wanted, we start to be more positive in our
way of thinking. This will attract more of the good things.
And actually what we do, as I said earlier, when
I started thinking about world peace, I attracted people who
took completely change my trajectory of where I was going
in my life. So when we do things, when we
(18:50):
really start thinking and focus on something and it becomes
part of us, we become aware of it, we will
see that. That's when the shifts will start. And obviously,
like everything, then it's a case to rite away, to
take on, take on board, see what's going on. Focus
on it will give it more energy because we are
just energy. Push for that direction and watch the results
(19:12):
become more positive. And I'm sure that's what will happen.
It's been my experience throughout my life, not just watching myself,
but watching other people as well. Those who take positive
action getting positive results, and unfortunately, those who have negative
reactions to negative actions and negative thoughts tend to get
negative more negative results.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
In the world that we live in, where it's really
cut throat out there, to say the least, what will
your message be? Two CEOs if you have one liner
to give them today and say, hey, you're in leadership.
You know it's our responsibility to plus where we leave
(19:54):
in when we started this company of Business's there one
lining that you will give them to marine or.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Okay, so my one line is might with this my
one line and you just asks me. Always choose collaboration
over conflict. Work together, work as communities. See how we
can build something, increase supply for everybody. Don't always look
at how can you chip away at your competitors, look
(20:25):
at how can you support them to support all of you.
I like that answer. I really like the answer because.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That's that's a grand answer. It's kind of expanding that
because with all the differences, we have different perspectives, different cultures,
people raise different people understand things and learn.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
From things differently.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
When we start to really be serious about that lifestyle
where we want to collaborate with people, what kind of
sacrifices would that require? Because in my thinking, in order
to help some people sometimes we have to be most
selfish and more willing to sacrifice something, whether it's time, resources.
(21:17):
What's your take on this?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I think my take is that we're sacrificing all the time.
You know, as you said, we have time, we have resources,
we have whatever, and we tend to spend them all
the time. So focusing on okay, well, what's going to
be the bigger picture? Not short term but long term?
And I think you know this is where a lot
of companies and CEOs you know that there. I've been
there as well. You know, you look at this year's
(21:44):
profit and loss figures, you look at what is the
next quarters forecast? What you know, we work very very
short term in business most times. So for me, I
would look at the biggest picture, look at the Biggert strategy.
And just one very quick example, as I said, I
used to work in the iwear business unqualified optician. When
I was in the UK. I became very famous in
(22:04):
the sunglass area. I did a lot of work designing
for companies and working with companies. And I remember sitting
one time with several of the leaders of the biggest
sunglass fashion companies, fashion sunglass companies and the biggest brands,
and they were all sort of, you know, we're all
looking at it. And I brought them together because I said, listen,
you all advertising and saying that Ray bands better than Porsche,
(22:26):
des Iron doulghing the banners better than Calving pant boom
boom boom, and actually they're much the same. And you know,
it said, and what you're doing is sitting here and competing,
spending all your money competing against each other, really not
growing your business at all. Why don't you pull to
resources and start marketing sunglasses as the number one fashion
(22:47):
accessory because your real competitors are the handbags and the
shoe shops and the other things that are taking money
the accessories money from Let's face it, men and women
go to the shops, got a couple of hundred dollars
in their pockets. They've only got enough to buy one accessory.
Make it the sunglass. It's the one that everyone sees.
Let's focus on how can we make this more important
(23:10):
than a new pair of shoes or a new handbag.
And they saw that, and they all did a fund
and we all saw the market grow. And we saw
certainly in the UK during that time, during the Indus
during the nineties, you know, sunglasses became very, very fashionable.
I'm not saying it was all down to that marketing process,
but it certainly helped. It certainly stopped them being competing
(23:32):
and putting everyone in their own industry down. I mean,
you know, this is what I always say. You have
Cola and Pepticola. They fight against each other. Actually they're
owned by the same companies. Most of their shares are
owned by the same companies. And actually that you know,
it's actually just trying to market the soft drinks industry
and say which is the better soft drenk. So what
(23:52):
they're doing is getting into one of the fizzy pops.
That's why they always compete directly and speak about each other,
because that way you choose which is the best. Really
going to choose between those two.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
And repping this up, when you think about how some
of the biggest brands in the world leave an impact
on people, that is heavy thing to be responsible of
and for so in closing, when we think about alignment
and aligning with our values to create that pusive space environment,
(24:29):
if you will, what do you hope that the next
generation of CEOs will pay more attention to? Because we
live in a society is about how much you get,
how much can you have? But we don't really we
don't brag about the impact and the legacy.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And I think you've just mentioned it there, So the
impact and the legacy. I would like to think that
CEOs will think longer term, will look beyond this year's
or next month's proferit loss sheets, budgets and accounts, beyond
how you know, the short term view, What's what's going
to happen now with this group of people, and look
(25:14):
long term, what's the legacy that we're leaving, what's the
impact we're having, How sustainable are we What's what's the
good and benefit we're bringing? Now that benefit could be
the product or it could be what we're doing. So
you know, I love for example, I'm going to give
them a big bread because I love them so much.
Company called Ecosia. Ecosia are a search engine and they
(25:37):
their purpose is to reforce the world. So all of
their money, all of them, every thought that they do,
and you can look them up. I use them rather
than Google because I love their purpose and I like
the fact that when I do a search with them,
I know trees getting planted makes me feel good. And
I think, you know, if we can find industries and
CEOs who say, you know what my company is not
(26:00):
be about people feeling just good about the product I'm
setting them, they should feel good about working and buying
from my company, that would be an amazing set of
CEOs for the future. I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So once again, then let's I refocus ready and watching
us online. Go to our guests website. Stephen's website is
carbearing dot com. I always want to say to you,
appreciate your time beyond the show today man
You are listening to I Am Refocused Radio with your
host Shamaiah Reid. This show is designed to inspire you
to live your purpose and regain your focus. And now
here's your host, Shamaia Reid.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome till your Focus Radio. Once again we are here
today and today we have another amazing show line for y'all. Today,
our guests is Stephen Carber and he has been decades
scaling companies and building brands around the world. But over
time he filled the pull towards something deeper. That's when
he shifted gears, moving from profit driven business to purpose
(00:38):
driven transformation. Now as a certified conscious capitalism consults and
goal mapping coach, Stephen he works with leaders to align
vision with values. His work is about more than strategy,
is about people, purpose and creating impact. At last, it's spoken.
Excuse me, He's spoken across globe advice amazing businesses around
(01:03):
the world. And he also lives by five symbol words joy, collaboration, integrity,
love and peace. Today we're going to unpack it off.
So without further ado, I want to say to Steven
Carberry think great time, are you doing that?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Good evening? All, good afternoon, good, good morning, wherever you
are watching or listening to this forecast is something to mutual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
When you think about how you started with your core
belief speak from alignment now approval, what does that really
mean and kind of break that down for the audience.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And the shift for me came after an event that
I attended. I think we have a time I suppose
where we look and say, Okay, that was the moment,
that was the moment that everything changed. But but of
course it's not. It's not just one moment. There's always
a build up. There's always other things going on in
one's life and around one that are affecting our decision
(02:06):
making and shifting us towards that precipice. Obviously, when we
get to the edge of it, we have to make
a decision. Do we jump or do we stay where
we are, turn around, go back to what was before.
So at some point it came to me I was developing.
I was doing personal development. I've been working on my
personal developments actually since the early nineteen eighties. I attended
(02:30):
my first personal development event, and this has always sort
of been something that's been part of my growth, part
of my development, both outside and in And then I
attended a few tony Anthony Robbins events, and this sort
of shifted me a little bit more towards where I
wanted to go, and it brought me in contact with
(02:51):
certain people who then gave me further direction towards a
more peaceful wear of lidy because that was what I
felt was my purpose. I came to a decision that
my purpose was to bring more peace into my life
and the world, and therefore I started bumping into people,
being introduced to people. I think when we put things
(03:12):
out into the world, we attract the law of attraction.
The right people came into my path and I started
on my new journey, which took in things like meditation,
more spiritualism in a broad sense, because I always look
at a lot of spiritualism as being confined, but I
look at spiritualism as being something that opens should open
(03:33):
us up and not say this way is right or
that way it is right, but everything is right. That's
true spiritualism to me. So yeah, a lot of these
discoveries through my journey and different countries that I lived
and worked in, different people that I came across and
understood from different realities going on. So really understanding that
(03:53):
the number of different realities going on, and understanding that
they could all be true and live alongside each other
that and then work together to make the whole troup.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
When you think about alignment versus seeking approval, how do
you see those two things different? In explain that for
the audience in terms of when they're in the public
platform versus the border, well.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
The following purpose. Actually it is seeking personal approval, so
I think. And of course when we reach that level
of personal approval where we where we fall in love
with ourselves and fall in love with our lives and
what we do, and that's still a work in progress,
that still has to be like everything right, every relationship
(04:41):
we have, whether it's with ourselves or with other people,
it changes every day, it moves and advances. Therefore we
have the advance loop with it. But I really think
that when we live on purpose, that we don't we
actually don't hear the negative thoughts. We don't actually seek
approval because there's no need for approval. We know we're
(05:01):
on purpose, we know we're doing what we want to do.
And as I said, you know, someone else's approval is
their truth, not necessarily my truth. So I get this
quite a lot with evaluations. I work with toastmasters, and
we all evaluations, and we have several evaluations will come
in and it's quite interesting to see that you do
(05:23):
the same speech and different people give you different answers,
and sometimes completely the opposite. So one person will say
that was amazing and another person will say I didn't
quite get that bit. And it's the same part. So
when we realize that it's very, very subjective, then we
don't need to rely on other people's approval.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I like that part about not relying on it, because
when you think about how leaders and organizations when they
speak of approval versus lead with purpose, how much does
dad carry away to the audience and how they receive.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, absolutely know. And we see this, as you say,
all the time a lot in leadership of countries, of
groups or whatever, where people are actually thinking about the
next vote and not thinking about the last vote. So
if we think about the last vote, we make promises,
and we should stick to those promises, and if we do,
people will vote for us again, rather than making new
(06:22):
promises and forgetting about the ones that we already made
and not coming through on those. And I think that's
unfortunately the way of the world at the moment is
that people are always looking in advance and not forgetting
what they've promised to do.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Once again, listen times focused with watching those aligned time
to our guests today, I go to this website of
Carberan dot com I under Steve and Carberry himself. When
you think about a moment where in your own career
where you choose alignment, what really starts happening? Because I
(06:59):
was as my accident growth, our accident results, well word
failious you to get to that next level because it's art.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I think it's an interesting one. As I say,
there is no breakface, so that it's something that I
learned and I grew with me as I grew in
my leadership role. So throughout my career, when I look
back and even actually when I seek to people who've
worked with me and worked in my teams and things
(07:33):
and get feedback from them about the past, I realized
that I was doing a lot of this more purposeful
living and looking after people and encouraging and motivating people
from long before I really thought about that's something I
should be doing and that's the best way to approach leadership,
so I was already leading in that way. I'm not
being bigheaded about it. It's just, you know, it's something
(07:57):
probably that we all do, and then we just have
to measure it and increase it and say, hang on
a minute, Yeah, these are the things I'm doing right,
These are working for me and my people, and therefore
this is something I need to amplify and work on.
And maybe we do it before we realize we're doing it.
And that's why. Actually three sixty evaluations and things like this.
(08:18):
Something that I brought into my working career as a
leader was asking people to judge me and give me
feedback so I could improve for them, not for myself,
but for them. Obviously, when we improve for other people,
we improve for ourselves as well. That's a great point.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You worked across countries, like I said in the nential earlier,
also experienced different cultures in different industries. Have you noticed
any common threads that you've seen how leadership involves for
a while, Yes, I mean, yes.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
There are common threads across cultures. I mean I think
that leadership we see various levels of order, various types
of leadership. As we know, the tatorial leader, the bureaucratic leader,
leaders who use tools to control people rather than support
people and serve. And this happens all around the world.
(09:15):
I think that every country that I've been in, we
see leaders who are like that, because that seems to
be the way that we're taught that leaders have to
be rather than a more conscious way of living and
more conscious wave leading, which is something that I've tapped
into and learned through conscious capitalism, that there is another
way to lead, and this is through service leadership and
(09:38):
understanding that actually leadership is not about me and how
powerful I am. It's about my team and my people
and how powerful I can make them.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's have you knowniced a are not noticed? But what
has been a misconception, if you will, of conscious capitalism
and how do you break down down for people.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So constra capitalism? As I say, this was something that
I just started along this part of mine when I
was fitting into meditation groups and things and posted Tony
Robbins events. And it was also at a time a
big change in my life. I was just leaving Russia.
I'd lived in Russia for eleven years, lived and work there.
I was shifting and moving on to another set phase
(10:26):
of my life. So a lot of things came into
change at that time, and conscativism came along. And it's something,
as I said, that really resonated with me. It was
when I looked at it, I said, hang on a minute,
this is this isn't teaching me lots of new things.
There's new things I'm learning, but it's also reinforcing a
(10:47):
lot of things that I already knew, and reinforcing what
I've already been doing to an extent and giving me better,
more direct and understanding way of why it works. So
with constra capitalism, those who don't know a lot about
constra capitalism, there's four tenants to conscious capitalism. There's higher
purposes the leading one, so everyone needs to have a
(11:10):
higher purpose and why, a reason why they're doing their
business and it shouldn't just be about money. The second
one is conscious leadership, when we become more conscious as leaders,
and I think we have to be conscious as leaders
to employ the other elements of conscious capitalism. In so
it takes conscious leaders to do that. When we become
more aware, when we become more caring and more loving
(11:32):
about business and the people who work for us, to
people we serve all these people around us. And then
we start to see shifts and changes with conscious culture,
which is all about what happens within the company, what
happens and how does that resonate out. How do people
see the people in the company. Do they see them
happy at work? I don't know if you've had this,
(11:53):
but you know I work. I walk into companies around
the world. I phone up people, and you can tell
whether it's a well run company or not just by
the way people answer you or look at you when
you walk in the door. You know, are they happy
that they love their job or are they just wishing
you waiting for five o'clock and knock at the opportunity
to drop ends and get out of there. And you
(12:14):
can tell the difference between people. So when we do
that and producers and culture, that resonates out beyond the
shop floor, as it were. And then lastly, you have
a stakeholder orientation. So this is being aware of who
does our business touch, who are we affecting not just
our workers, not just our clients, but also our service providers,
(12:36):
the people who our communities, the people who work around us,
who service us without us knowing. So all of the
different elements that touch our business. Are we thinking about
them and we're taking them into some sort of thought
when we make decisions. Of course, we can't make every
decision about any one of those stakeholders, but we can
take them all into account when we make big decisions
(12:57):
and important decisions around them. We can certainly shift towards
understanding their needs rather than just the business needs.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Like that, because understanding is an audience self. It takes listening,
it takes some humble pie, but it also gives you
a leverage because without those things, good luck. I don't
know how far you get in life without those things.
(13:30):
But my next question is I said earlier that you
have these words, I'm going to remind our audience, love, integrity, piece,
those values they really help in strategy mode. So when
you look at leaders and organizations and how they're able
(13:50):
to sustain thriving, because it's one thing to have a
nice week, but it's a different story when you can
sustain even when the storm can. How do you see
the results when they start to embed those traits in
their decision making.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Actually, in my experience, having those tools with you, having
using when they are your core values, when they're real
and this is the important thing. So a lot of
people might put in and say, oh, yeah, this is
my core value and this is but it's not really
their core value. If it's not authentically them, then when
the storm arises, they can't live by it because it's
(14:31):
not them, so they then fall into a different way
of acting. These values were really mine. And a great
evidence this was we all remember two thousand and eight,
there was a big financial crisis. I was working. I've
been working three years in Russia. I just had my
two year contract renewed for a further year and we
(14:53):
hit crisis and I was in the purchase department. So
therefore all responsibility of all product and everything for an
airwork company in Russia, the biggest retail work company, and
a lot of decisions had to be changed. We had
to put in strings. Finances were poor. Everyone was very worried.
And I could have just stopped, and I could have
(15:15):
just taken the view that, okay, we're going to cut salaries,
We're going to be very hard on this and follow
what was coming from above. Or I could have taken
the view that I did that. No, I stood went
into the boardroom meeting, I said this We've got to
consider our staff. This is a difficult time. How can
we shift from just turning around to them and saying, Okay,
(15:35):
you're not going to get play rises this year, and
you're not going to get a bonus this year, and
you're not going to get this because the finite the
international financial crisis, or can we find a way? And
what I did is suggested that a way that we
could give them bonuses that were work related and would
give them the opportunity to earn the money that they
were expecting. But it was very much work related. And
(15:59):
what happened was my superiors agreed to it, we went
forward with it, and of course our department not only
met the expectations, but we passed the expectations. And therefore
all my staff ended up getting more money than they
were expecting, and we produce more money for the company
than they were expecting in a very very downturn market.
(16:20):
And this was all because I believe this was because
I gave them support and I gave them care and love,
and I wasn't prepared to just turn around and say
everything's going wrong in the world. Therefore all my values
go out the window, and I'm going to just be
this brick wall for you right now, I can't work.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That way, so being to listen time we focused radio
and watching this online and listen to different platforms. I'm
talking about yesterday Stephen Carbering, yes website, carbean dot com.
I want to focus on zooming on the word produce
because that's a very interesting word, because what I mean
(16:59):
by that is when you're working, the quality of that
work matters, and the intention of why you do it matters.
So when you just share that story about getting through
that little store and ended up having results that were increased,
(17:22):
that started with the intent of how you were producing.
So my next question would be for someone who's listening
to this and they feel like they're misaligned and their
leadership at the work, what it's the starting point for
them to make that change.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Again, I'll go back to what I said. I think
the starting point's already happened. So for me, everyone's goal
all of this within them. So it's not a case
of starting. It's the finding point, if you like. It's
where do we start to find and shift from the
beliefs that are not letting us go down that direction
(18:06):
to the beliefs that allow us to go down in
more conscious direction. So I suppose the starting point is awareness.
When we become more self aware, when we become aware
of what we're doing, what's inside us, aware of the
fact that we've got good and bad inside us, just
like everything in the world. To look good and bad,
we've got to you know, we have good thoughts and
bad thoughts. We attract good things and bad things. But
(18:29):
the awareness that actually, if we focus on what we
really wanted, we start to be more positive in our
way of thinking. This will attract more of the good things.
And actually what we do, as I said earlier, when
I started thinking about world peace, I attracted people who
took completely change my trajectory of where I was going
in my life. So when we do things, when we
(18:50):
really start thinking and focus on something and it becomes
part of us, we become aware of it, we will
see that. That's when the shifts will start. And obviously,
like everything, then it's a case to rite away, to
take on, take on board, see what's going on. Focus
on it will give it more energy because we are
just energy. Push for that direction and watch the results
(19:12):
become more positive. And I'm sure that's what will happen.
It's been my experience throughout my life, not just watching myself,
but watching other people as well. Those who take positive
action getting positive results, and unfortunately, those who have negative
reactions to negative actions and negative thoughts tend to get
negative more negative results.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
In the world that we live in, where it's really
cut throat out there, to say the least, what will
your message be? Two CEOs if you have one liner
to give them today and say, hey, you're in leadership.
You know it's our responsibility to plus where we leave
(19:54):
in when we started this company of Business's there one
lining that you will give them to marine or.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Okay, so my one line is might with this my
one line and you just asks me. Always choose collaboration
over conflict. Work together, work as communities. See how we
can build something, increase supply for everybody. Don't always look
at how can you chip away at your competitors, look
(20:25):
at how can you support them to support all of you.
I like that answer. I really like the answer because.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That's that's a grand answer. It's kind of expanding that
because with all the differences, we have different perspectives, different cultures,
people raise different people understand things and learn.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
From things differently.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
When we start to really be serious about that lifestyle
where we want to collaborate with people, what kind of
sacrifices would that require? Because in my thinking, in order
to help some people sometimes we have to be most
selfish and more willing to sacrifice something, whether it's time, resources.
(21:17):
What's your take on this?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I think my take is that we're sacrificing all the time.
You know, as you said, we have time, we have resources,
we have whatever, and we tend to spend them all
the time. So focusing on okay, well, what's going to
be the bigger picture? Not short term but long term?
And I think you know this is where a lot
of companies and CEOs you know that there. I've been
there as well. You know, you look at this year's
(21:44):
profit and loss figures, you look at what is the
next quarters forecast? What you know, we work very very
short term in business most times. So for me, I
would look at the biggest picture, look at the Biggert strategy.
And just one very quick example, as I said, I
used to work in the iwear business unqualified optician. When
I was in the UK. I became very famous in
(22:04):
the sunglass area. I did a lot of work designing
for companies and working with companies. And I remember sitting
one time with several of the leaders of the biggest
sunglass fashion companies, fashion sunglass companies and the biggest brands,
and they were all sort of, you know, we're all
looking at it. And I brought them together because I said, listen,
you all advertising and saying that Ray bands better than Porsche,
(22:26):
des Iron doulghing the banners better than Calving pant boom
boom boom, and actually they're much the same. And you know,
it said, and what you're doing is sitting here and competing,
spending all your money competing against each other, really not
growing your business at all. Why don't you pull to
resources and start marketing sunglasses as the number one fashion
(22:47):
accessory because your real competitors are the handbags and the
shoe shops and the other things that are taking money
the accessories money from Let's face it, men and women
go to the shops, got a couple of hundred dollars
in their pockets. They've only got enough to buy one accessory.
Make it the sunglass. It's the one that everyone sees.
Let's focus on how can we make this more important
(23:10):
than a new pair of shoes or a new handbag.
And they saw that, and they all did a fund
and we all saw the market grow. And we saw
certainly in the UK during that time, during the Indus
during the nineties, you know, sunglasses became very, very fashionable.
I'm not saying it was all down to that marketing process,
but it certainly helped. It certainly stopped them being competing
(23:32):
and putting everyone in their own industry down. I mean,
you know, this is what I always say. You have
Cola and Pepticola. They fight against each other. Actually they're
owned by the same companies. Most of their shares are
owned by the same companies. And actually that you know,
it's actually just trying to market the soft drinks industry
and say which is the better soft drenk. So what
(23:52):
they're doing is getting into one of the fizzy pops.
That's why they always compete directly and speak about each other,
because that way you choose which is the best. Really
going to choose between those two.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
And repping this up, when you think about how some
of the biggest brands in the world leave an impact
on people, that is heavy thing to be responsible of
and for so in closing, when we think about alignment
and aligning with our values to create that pusive space environment,
(24:29):
if you will, what do you hope that the next
generation of CEOs will pay more attention to? Because we
live in a society is about how much you get,
how much can you have? But we don't really we
don't brag about the impact and the legacy.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And I think you've just mentioned it there, So the
impact and the legacy. I would like to think that
CEOs will think longer term, will look beyond this year's
or next month's proferit loss sheets, budgets and accounts, beyond
how you know, the short term view, What's what's going
to happen now with this group of people, and look
(25:14):
long term, what's the legacy that we're leaving, what's the
impact we're having, How sustainable are we What's what's the
good and benefit we're bringing? Now that benefit could be
the product or it could be what we're doing. So
you know, I love for example, I'm going to give
them a big bread because I love them so much.
Company called Ecosia. Ecosia are a search engine and they
(25:37):
their purpose is to reforce the world. So all of
their money, all of them, every thought that they do,
and you can look them up. I use them rather
than Google because I love their purpose and I like
the fact that when I do a search with them,
I know trees getting planted makes me feel good. And
I think, you know, if we can find industries and
CEOs who say, you know what my company is not
(26:00):
be about people feeling just good about the product I'm
setting them, they should feel good about working and buying
from my company, that would be an amazing set of
CEOs for the future. I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So once again, then let's I refocus ready and watching
us online. Go to our guests website. Stephen's website is
carbearing dot com. I always want to say to you,
appreciate your time beyond the show today man
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.